[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Boke of Gode Cookery website

[Linda M. Kalb]

>Headline:  A Boke of Gode Cookery
>Byline:  Jim Regan csmonitor.com
>Date: 10/12/2001
>(HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA)Feeling like spicing up your fall menus? How
>about some Pokerounce,
>Blaunderellys, or a nice Sugared Capon? "A Boke of Gode Cookery" shows
>you how to get Medieval in your kitchen.
>
>Launched in 1997, the Boke of Gode Cookery demonstrates through a
>collection of authentic period recipes that, in many ways, the Medieval
>diet was not that different from our own. (Though some dishes, such as
>Puddyng of Purpaysse --Porpoise Pudding-- seem to have lost a bit of
>their popularity.) The design of the site, while attractive, is
>low-tech, basic HTML --translating into quicker downloads and fewer
>incompatibility headaches-- and while visitors will encounter
>occasional broken image links, they don't take too much away from the
>appeal of the site.
>
>After a few words in favor of the Medieval diet, the Boke presents its
>extensive Table of Contents. The first section, "Recipes and Cookery,"
>includes the 'Boke of Gode Cookery Recipes,' and other collections
>'translated and adapted for the modern cook.' Translation in this case
>involves presenting the recipes both as originally published ("Serge
>hem florwe a Sefe in-to a potte") and in the modern vernacular ("pass
>it through a strainer into a pot"). Selections include everything from
>the basic Meat Pie and Gyngerbrede, to Apple Muse, (apples, almond
>milk, and honey) Funges (Mushrooms in broth and spices) and Makerouns
>(a dish of noodles and cheese, which in another time might have been
>called Krafte Dinnre). A trio of complete menus, such as 14th century
>instructions for "Servise on a Flesh Day," are also included.
>
>(In addition to translations and metric conversion tables, the Boke
>also offers helpful substitution suggestions for those hard-to-find
>ingredients. If, for example, you just can't find a nice fresh porpoise
>for your Porpoise Pudding, the Boke recommends a large salmon, trout,
>or any other whole fish. Of course, after reading the entire recipe,
>you may just decide to have a nice peanut butter sandwich instead.)
>
>Cooks more interested in the atmospheric than the authentic can peruse
>a selection of "Modern Recipes for Beginners," which includes such
>dishes as Honey Cakes and Beef Barley Soup. While not collected from
>Medieval sources, the Modern Recipes still have the 'flavour' (sorry
>about that) of the real thing.
>
>At the other extreme are the genuine dishes collected within
>"Incredible Foods, Solteties, and Entremets," where things get much
>more exotic, if not palatable. In addition to such cliche classics as
>Boar's Head, and less familiar but catchy alternatives like the "Trojan
>Hog," (whole pig stuffed with small birds and shellfish) Incredible
>Foods also offers helpful serving tips; how to make your dish appear to
>breathe fire, how to make a roasted chicken 'sing' at the table, and
>how to discourage Smell-feasts (moochers looking for a free meal) by
>using Harp strings to make your meat appear worm-infested.
>
>Closing out the Recipes section is a "Glossary of Medieval Cooking
>Terms," and if you'd like to backtrack to a specific fare, all the
>recipes are accessible through a keyword search engine that recognizes
>both old and new English terms.
>
>After the recipes, interested visitors can investigate food in its
>historical and cultural context, through a collection of "Articles on
>Cookery." Essays include a examination of food as a literary device in
>The Canterbury Tales, 'An Elizabethan Dinner Conversation,' ('The meat
>marreth; where have you tarried so long?') and 'Messe it Forth' - the
>preparation of a feast according to the Four Humour System (Melancholy,
>Choler, Phlegm, and Blood). "Images" offers 'A Feast For The Eyes' (a
>clipart collection of more than 270 period images) and 'Tacuinum
>Sanitatis,' with text and images collected from Medieval health
>handbooks. Other offerings include related "Resources" and some
>information about the Society for Creative Anachronism (the people who
>populate the Renaissance Faires).
>
>Speaking as someone who doesn't cook anything unless it comes from a
>Tinne, a Freezre, or an Easye Open Pouche, I don't expect to make any
>practical use of the information contained here, but even for a casual
>visitor, the Boke has a definite edutainment value. For the more
>adventurous --and skilled-- these pages represent a genuine opportunity
>to shake up the personal diet.
>
>A Boke of Gode Cookery can be found at
>http://www.godecookery.com/godeboke/godeboke.html.
>
>
>
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