Mediaeval Cookery 
to be catered for besides the family; moreover, great 
quantities of the various dishes were often made at 
one time. 
A vast deal of incidental information is to he 
picked up from the study of this old book. For 
instance, we gather that the art of carving was 
unnecessary, therefore unknown, till quite the end 
of the twelfth century; consequently no knives were 
required or used at table, and we find the recipes 
are mostly for soups, broths, potages, hashes, hotch¬ 
potches, and ragouts. Neither animals, birds, nor 
fish were ever brought to table whole or in joints, 
but were cut up in the kitchen into pieces called 
“gobbets.” The pestle and mortar played so 
important a part in the preparation of food that 
many dishes were called “mortars” from it, and 
were eaten either with the fingers or with a spoon. 
Forks were not generally used at table until the 
reign of James L in England. They were, however, 
known in Europe long before this. The first fork 
mentioned in history belonged to a Byzantine lady, 
who, on coming to Venice as a bride in the middle 
of the eleventh century, brought with her a golden 
“prong,” as it is called in the pamphlet describing it. 
This fork, which probably had only two prongs, 
evidently caused a great sensation, for St. Peter 
Damian, afterwards Bishop of Ostia, mentioned it in 
a sermon, wherein he severely rebuked the lady for 
her luxury and extravagance in actually taking up 
her food with a golden prong, when God had given 
her fingers for that very purpose. We can almost 
see the righteous indignation of the holy man as we 
read this little extract from his sermon; even the 
chop-sticks of the Chinese would have seemed 
superfluous to him. 
About the middle of the twelfth century many 
joints and birds were served whole, and the art of 
carving began to be practised, and knives consequently 
were introduced; but even in the days of Richard 
IE joints were not common, and English people 
lived much more after the French fashion. It was 
not until Elizabethan times that England became 
celebrated for its roast beef. In the fourteenth 
century food came to table cut up in these gobbets; 
and that our ancestors acted on the principle that 
“fingers were made before knives and forks” is 
proved by the basin and ewer always used before 
dinner for washing the fingers, of which custom our 
finger glasses at dessert are evidently a relic, as was 
the “damask water” they contained in Mr. Pegge’s 
days. In mediaeval days the “ewerer” held a great 
and important office at Court. The custom of 
god-parents giving spoons to their god-children at 
their baptism probably obtained from spoons supple¬ 
menting the use of fingers, before the introduction of 
knives and forks. These spoons were generally gilt. 
We also gather incidentally that not only many 
spices, herbs, plants, etc., were used in the fourteenth 
century, now happily eschewed, hut also many 
birds and fish were eaten which we taboo; and on 
the other hand we, of course, eat many small birds, 
fruits, and vegetables which were unknown to our 
ancestors. In the fourteenth century, cranes, herons, 
curlews, sturgeons, seals, and porpoises were fre¬ 
quently sent to table, and several recipes for cooking 
them are given in the “Forme of Cury.” 
Speaking of cranes, a story is told of William the 
Conqueror, who on one occasion was so exasperated 
with the steward of his household, William of Fitz- 
Osborne, who was also his favourite courtier, because 
he set his royal master down to crane “scarcely half 
roasted,” that the king lifted his fist and would have 
struck him, only that another officer warded off the 
blow. Evidently crane required to be well roasted; 
it did not do to let it fly through the kitchen, as more 
modern epicures advise wild duck should do. 
Underdone crane was apparently as unpalatable to 
William I. as underdone lamb would be to us. 
Of spices, saffron, still much used in Cornwall 
and Devonshire in cakes, was then largely employed, 
not only for colouring and garnishing, or as Mr. 
Pegge rather happily calls it, “flourishing,” but also 
as an ingredient in many dishes. A spice called 
alkanet, supposed to be a species of bugloss, was 
ground and fried, much as our cooks fry curry powder 
and was also used to colour dishes as well as to 
flavour them. 
Cinnamon, then called canell, and mace, always 
called maces, cloves, pepper, ginger, and nutmeg 
were in common use; carraway is only once men¬ 
tioned. Besides these, cardamoms, called grains of 
paradise; cubebs, a warm spice from the East; 
galingale, the long-rooted cypress ground to powder, 
said to have given its name to our galantine, of which 
it was a chief ingredient, and powder-douce and 
powder-fort were the favourite spices. 
Powder-douce occurs in most recipes, and was 
probably galingale and other aromatic spices ground 
to powder; powder-fort was a mixture of warmer 
spices, like pepper and ginger. Sandalwood ground 
to a dust and called “sanders” was largely used for 
colouring. 
The salads of those days were rather astonishing, 
but the master cook of Richard II. understood one 
thing, namely, that the salad itself should be broken, 
not cut, for in tbe recipe he gives for one he directs 
the salad-maker to wash and clean the ingredients, 
pick and pluck them small with his hands, and mix 
them well with raw oil, vinegar, and salt. He does 
not mention mustard either here or anywhere else 
in his roll. The ingredients, of this salad are sage, 
garlic, chives, onions, leeks, borage, mint, fennel, 
rue, rosemary, parsley, an herb called porrect, and 
cress; but let not the reader suppose that these 
articles appear in the “Forme of Cury” as here 
transcribed. The master cook had as many and 
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