[Sca-cooks] Looking for info on mulberries and murrey

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 18, 2006, at 12:44 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> I got this question this evening from a Florilegium reader.  I can  
> remember mulberries being discussed here only a little bit and the  
> only "murrey" which I remember discussing there was the Arabian  
> condiment "murri" made from rotten/fermented barley.
>
> I'd be interested in seeing any comments anyone has on period use  
> of mulberries or this murrey. Please remember though to copy her on  
> any messages on this subject, as she is not on this list.
>
>
>>      I've got a quick question about something I came across in a  
>> book called "Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention" (by Lee Reich).   
>> In the section on mulberries, the author says that in medieval  
>> times, mulberries were used to make something called "murrey",  
>> which he described as a pudding or a sauce for meats.  When I  
>> tried to look for a recipe for murrey (on the Internet), all I  
>> could find was the description of murrey as a color in heraldry,  
>> not as a food at all.
>>      Can you shed some light on this for me please?  Thanks so much.
>>
>> In service,
>> Lady Corinna Lionwynde
>> (mka Sylvia Shults)
>> pompeii100 at yahoo.com

 From MS D, ff. 86r-96v, a.k.a. "Ancient Cookery", a.k.a. Book II of  
"Curye On Inglysche", 'Diuersa Servisa', c. 1381 CE:

"37	For to make murrey, tak mulbery & bray hem in a morter & wryng  
hem (th)orh a clo(th), & do hem in a pot ouer (th)e fyre; & do (th) 
ereto bred & wyte gresse, & let yt na3t boyle non ofter (th)an onys.  
& do (th)ereto a god perty of sugur, & 3if yt be no3t ynowe colowrd  
brey mulburus; & serue yt for(th)e."

[37. To make murrey, take mulberries and crush them in a mortar, and  
wring them through a cloth [puree/strain them], and put them in a pot  
over the fire. Add white bread [crumb portion, soaked as for  
thickener] and white grease [probably rendered lard], and let it come  
to a boil no more often than once. And add a good amount of sugar,  
and if it is not colored enough crush more mulberries, and serve it  
forth.]

There's a series of fairly similar, generic medieval English  
pottages, all based on crushed fruit (raspberries, strawberries,  
cherries, etc.), all, for the most part, named for the fruit in  
question. I see these as more like a thick fruit soup than the  
puddings people often interpret them as -- there's no instruction  
here to make the dish "standing" or "chargeaunt", so I'm not sure why  
so many people assume it's supposed to be so thick.

Specifically regarding murrey, there's more than one such recipe  
available, including an earlier one which appears to contain no  
mulberries, but which is thickened like the rest and colored with  
saunders to resemble a berry dish. Some versions of these pottages  
specify meat (either calling for it as an ingredient or mentioning in  
passing that the dish is to be poured over meat), and some don't, but  
it's conceivable that the ones that don't mention it could still be  
considered sauces.

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04