Recipes for April Fools
by THL Dagonell

I searched thru my period cookbooks for a recipe I could include in the
upcoming issue of The Vigilance.  Then I remembered it was the April issue
coming up. :D  These are *real* period recipes.  I have *not* made them up.
I just don't think you'll see them at an SCA feast anytime soon. :D
-- Dagonell


From "A Fifteenth Century Cookery Book" (1420 A.D.)
XVII Garbage - Take fayre garbegys of chykenys, as ye hed, ye fete, ye
lyuerys, an ye gynwrys; wash hem clene, an caste hem in a fayre potte,
and case yer-to freysche brothe of Beef or allys of moton, an let it boyle;
an a-lye it wyth brede, an ley on Pepir an Safroun, Maces, Clowys, as a 
lytil verious an salt, an serve forth in the manner as a stewe.

Translation
14.) Garbage -- Take fair garbage of chickens, as the head, the feet,
the liver, and the gizzard; wash them clean, and cast them in a fair pot 
and cast thereto fresh broth of beef or else of mutton, and let it boil;
and mix it with bread [crumbs], and lay on pepper, and saffron, mace, cloves,
and a little verjuice [cooking sherry] and salt, and serve forth in the
manner of a stew.


From "The Goodman of Paris" pg.280
Frogs. To catch them have a line and a hook with a bait of meat or a red
rag, and having caught the frogs, cut them across the body near the thighs,
and take out the foulness from the hindparts, and take the two thighs, cut
off the feet, and skin the thighs all raw, then take cold water and wash
them; if the thighs remain for a night in cold water, they be so much the
better and tenderer.  And when they be thus steeped, let them be washed
in warm water, then put in a towel and dried; the aforesaid thighs, thus
washed and dried must be rolled in flour and then fried in oil, fat or
some other liquid, and let them be served in a bowl with spice powder
theron.


From "A Noble Boke of Cookery" pg. 62
Heron Rost -- A heron let hym bled in the mouthe as a crayne skald hym
and draw hum at the vent and cut away the bone of the nek and let the hed
be on stille with the skyne of the nek and folde the nek about the broche
and put the hed in at the gollet as a crayne and brek away the bone from 
the kne to the foot and let the skyn be hole and cut the wings at the joint 
next the body then put hum on a broche and bynde the leggs to the spit with 
the skynn of the leggs and rost hum and raise his leggs and his wings as a 
crayne and sauce him with vinegar, mustard, poudered guinger and salt and 
serve it.

"Let him bleed in the mouth as a crane" essentially means cut his throat.
A broche is a roasting spit.  For the rest of the recipe, simply read it
aloud, spelling is not yet standardized in this era.  This section of the 
Boke of Cookery contains similar recipes for swan, crane, heron, bittern, 
and egret.