23 



The dishes in the " Forme of Ciiry" and the contemporaneous 

 manuscript are chiefly soups, potages, ragouts, hashes, and the 

 like hotch-potches : entire joints of meat being never served, and 

 animals, whether fish or fowl, seldom brought to table whole, Lut 

 hacked and hewed, and cut in pieces or gobbets. The mortar also 

 was in great request, some dishes being actually denominated from 

 it, as mortrews or niorterelys. From this you will see that the 

 cookery of the " Forme of Cury" is Roman in character. Close 

 investigation shows that the ^^brewet" is the "patina," the 

 "mortreto" the "minutal," the ^' payne fotulewe" the "salacacabia" 

 and the ^'farced greiuels' the '■^puls' of the Romans. I will give 

 one very simple recipe, that for a ^'viortrew" of a simple character: 

 "boiled hens, crummed bread, yolk of eggs, and saffron, all 

 pounded together in a mortar:" an Apician "minutal." 



We find also in the "Forme of Cury" other distinct Roman 

 traits : olive oil and lard (or white grease) are generally used in the 

 sauces, butter rarely. Sugar is just beginning to supersede ' cle:e 

 honey," that is honey refined with the white of eggs. Wines, both 

 red and white, are used as the bases of sauces, instead of meat 

 gravy. There is too the use of large numbers of pot herbs in one 

 dish : ten are used to season the gravy for a sheep's head, and 

 fourteen to make a salad dressing. 



I have already given you a Roman menu ; I will now give you 

 an Old English one, and then I will proceed to comment on some 

 of the dibhes. Like the cana of Rome, so the Old Englibh dinner 

 was divided into three courses. This is a 14th century menu.* 



first Course. 



Browet farsed, and charlet, for pottage. 



Baked mallard. Small birds. Almond milk served with them. 



Capon roasted with the syrup. 



Roasted Veal. Pig roasted "endored" and served with the yolk on 



his neck over gilt. Herons. 



A "leche." A tart of flesh. 



To take the pottages or stews first. The " Browet farsed" was 

 made thus. I will give you one recipe in full. 



* From Wright's Homes of other Days, p. 362. 



