The Forme of Cury

Template:Infobox book The Forme of Cury (The Method of Cooking, Template:Lang from Old French Template:Lang, 'cookery')<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most famous in the form of a scroll with a headnote citing it as the work of "the chief Master Cooks of King Richard II".<ref name=CBH1>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name=CBH2>Template:Harvnb</ref> The name The Forme of Cury is generally used for the family of recipes rather than any single manuscript text. It is among the oldest extant English cookery books, and the earliest known to mention olive oil, gourds, and spices such as mace and cloves. The book also includes the earliest known recipe for macaroni and cheese.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The book has notable influences from the cuisine of several different countries. The book's relatively few vegetable and salad recipes indicate influence from the era's Spanish cuisine and Portuguese cuisine. The book's pasta recipes are clearly influenced from the era's Italian cuisine. <ref name=Bouchut/> A number of the book's recipes and the syrup cooking techniques are based on the era's Arabic cuisine. They were probably derived from Sicily, where the culture still had Arabic influences.<ref name=Bouchut/>

Context

The collection was named The Forme of Cury by Samuel Pegge, who published an edition of one of the manuscripts in 1780 for a trustee of the British Museum, Gustavus Brander.<ref name= CDW>Template:Cite book</ref> It is one of the best-known medieval guides to cooking. The Forme of Cury may have been written partly to compete with Le Viandier of Taillevent, a French cookery book created at about the same time. This supports the idea that banquets were a symbol of power and prestige for medieval lords and kings.<ref name= Bouchut>Template:Cite web</ref>

Approach

In the preamble, the authors explain that the recipes are meant to teach a cook how to make common dishes and unusual or extravagant banquet dishes.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> They also note that the recipes were written with the advice of the best experts in medicine and philosophy.<ref name=Bouchut/>

The Forme of Cury is the first known English cookery book to mention some ingredients such as cloves, olive oil, mace and gourds. Many recipes contain what were then rare and valuable spices, such as nutmeg, ginger, pepper, cinnamon and cardamom. In addition to imparting flavour, many of the spices called for were included specifically to impart rich colouring to the finished dishes for the purpose of, as Pegge says, "gratifying the sight".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> There is a particular emphasis on yellows, reds and greens, but gilding and silvering were also used in several of the recipes.<ref name=":0"/> Yellow was achieved with saffron or egg yolk, red with "sanders" (sandalwood) or alkanet, and green often with minced parsley. There are recipes for preparing many types of animal meat, including whale, crane, curlew, heron, seal and porpoise.<ref name=":1"/> There are about ten vegetable recipes, including one for a vinaigrette salad, which indicates influence from Portugal and Spain, as French cooks rarely used vegetables at that time. There are also several pasta dishes, evidence of Italian influence.<ref name=Bouchut/>

Some recipes in The Forme of Cury appear to have been influenced by the Liber de Coquina, which had contributions from Arabic cuisine. For example, the recipe for Template:Lang (see illustration) corresponds to the Arabic Template:Transliteration (a rich semolina pudding). The confectionery-like Template:Lang confirms the connection with Sicily (which had been Arab, Catalan and Norman), as it uses the Arab technique of cooking in soft ball syrup.<ref name=Bouchut/>

Sample recipes

Title page of Samuel Pegge's 1780 version, the first printed edition

Sawse madame

In modern English:

Makerouns

The Forme of Cury contains a cheese and pasta casserole known as makerouns, the earliest recipe for what is now known as macaroni and cheese.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was made with fresh, hand-cut pasta which was sandwiched between a mixture of melted butter and cheese. The recipe given (in Middle English) was:

In modern English:

Modern recreations

The Café at the Rylands, in Manchester's John Rylands Library where the manuscript is kept, cooked Tart in Ymber Day, Compast, Payn Puff, Frumenty and Gingerbrede, accompanied by Piment (spiced wine), for invited guests in 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Apicius – a collection of Roman cookery recipes
• Liber de Coquina – 14th-century cookbook of Italian and French origin
• Utilis Coquinario – another 14th-century Middle English cookbook
• Le Viandier – 14th-century French cookbook

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book (modern critical edition)
• Template:Cite journal

External links

• British Library, Add. MS 5016, a 15th-century copy of The Forme of Cury in scroll format.
• John Rylands Library, English MS 7; (index to the images)Template:Gutenberg, an 18th-century edition (page images)
• Text and links at the Foods of England project
• Pygg in sawse sawge (British Library)