[Sca-cooks] Period Hungarian Recipes

[David Friedman]

I just spent two days in Budapest and took the opportunity to ask about 
cookbooks. Here is the response I got:

"The first cookbook is a copy (made in 1622) of a hand-written book 
believed to be a XVI. century work from Transsylvania (which was part of 
the kingdom of Hungary). The table of contents is a long list of 
ingredients, like types of meat, fish (24 different kinds of fish!), 
snails, crayfish, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits, pastry etc. Overall, it 
contains 689 recipes plus 103 recipes for sick people from a physician 
as a separate part. "

...

"The title of the book is "Szakáts-tudomány" which means the "Lore of 
Cooks". The title might have been given later to the book as it was 
preserved as a handwritten copy and the author is not known. It is 
guessed from the content and from references to his masters that he 
served as a cook in the court of the Prince of Transsylvania, either or 
both of Kristóf (Chirstopher) Báthory (1576-1581) and his son Zsigmond 
(Sigismund) Báthory (1581-1602 with interruptions). So it was probably 
written in the later part of the XVI. century.
For Sigismund Báthory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund_B%C3%A1thory
Accoring to his references to other people's customs, he travelled 
around and worked in various courts (in Prague in the court the emperor 
Rudolf II. and in German and Polish lands).
The book is available as a digital copy of an 1893 edition on the net on 
this link:
http://digitalia.lib.pte.hu/?p=2184#toc"

...

"I have just noticed that the book on the below link also contains the 
first Hungarian recipes in German language from a XV. century book."

Anyone here read Hungarian?

-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/