[Sca-cooks] Sweet frumenty recipes...

[Sue Clemenger]

Funny how life works, sometimes....There I was, sitting at my kitchen table,
looking through my brand-new copies of _Take a Thousand Eggs_ (which I got
as a late Holiday present from a dear friend), looking for Lenten ideas, and
what do I find in the fish section of volume two but recipes for sweet
frumenty! <g>  Both examples, interestingly, occur in the context of being
served with porpoise.  The first comes from Harleian MS 4016, and the
second, from Harlein MS 279, and they are found on pages 400-401 in the
second volume of Cindy's books.
The first recipe has you make an almond milk with water, which you combine
with cleaned and partially-cooked wheat.  Later, you add sugar, saffron and
salt, and serve it with porpoise that has been prepared as one would salmon,
and boiled in fair water.
The second recipe is virtually identical, lacking only the salt.
It would be interesting, I think, to go through the various sources in which
frumenty and similar grain dishes appear, and see if the seasonings shift
with the type of meat that the grain is to accompany.  Without,
unfortunately, knowing anything extensive about humoral theory, I'd wonder
if the different seasonings had anything to do with balancing the meat,
since porpoise (which they considered a fish) would have had different
humoral qualities than venison, which is what I'd normally associate
frumenty with.  The other frumenties I've seen all seem to have had pepper
in them, and egg yolks (although the lack of egg in the porpoise recipes
could be attributed to their use in Lent).
I'm going to add the recipes to my Lenten options, although I think I'll
serve it with salmon instead! <g> Does anyone know what kind of wheat would
be most appropriate? A hard winter wheat? something softer?
--Maire, off to go get ready for work....