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Monday, November 01, 2021

Making Mincemeat Out of It: Medieval and Tudor Mincemeat Pies.


In this series:

I think it’s fair to say that anyone attempting to find medieval or Tudor recipes for mincemeat has failed. Looking for mincemeat (and other minced items) within recipes, on the other hand, yields a wide range of results.

A mincemeat recipe might be labeled a “petit pervuant” — a light paste — as in the most popular mincemeat recipe over the centuries, or an hayrblad[1]. That recipe is first found in The Forme of Cury from the 15th century.[2]

The Pety Peruaunt.

Take male[3] Marow[4]. hole parade[5], and kerue it rawe; powdour of Gyngur, yolkis of Ayrene[6], datis mynced, raisons of corance, salt a lytel, & loke ƥat ƥou make ƥy past with ᴣolkes[7] of Ayren, & ƥat no water come ƥerto; and fourme ƥy coffyn, and make up ƥy past.

 

The Petit Pervaunt

Take skinned meat. Present it whole, and carve it raw.; powder of ginger, yolks of egg, minced dates, raisons of currants, salt a little, & look that thou make thy paste with yolks of egg & that no water come thereto; and form thy coffin, and make up thy paste.

A “coffin” would be the dominant name, among the English, for a pie-crust for centuries to come.

The coffin was not essential, however. Mincemeat was often just a style of preparing a sweet side-dish. If the recipe includes meat, raisins and other minced sweet spices, it is at least a cousin of mincemeat. If the meat is to be skinned and diced or “cut small,” surely it is mincemeat proper. In a coffin, it is a proper mincemeat pie.

Modern commercial mincemeat in a jar generally includes no meat, of course. Presumably to avoid the danger from eating the mince uncooked. The rest of the modern recipe, on the other hand, is pretty much the same as it was in the 14th century.

In fact, the recipe for Leshes[8] fryed in Lenton, from the 14th century Book of Cury, of the kitchens of Richard II, is surprisingly modern. Minced dishes for Lent had to be meatless. Fish and eel were generally drafted into service over those 40 days. In this instance, flesh of every sort was left out of the Lenten dish while the sweet spices and sauce were kept.

Leſhes fryed in Lenton.

 

Drawe a thick almande mylke with water. Take dates, and pyke hem clene, with apples and peeres, and mynce hem with prunes damyſyns. Take out the ſtones out of the prunes, and kerve the prunes a two. Do thereto raiſons, ſugar, floer of canel, hoole macys and clowes gode powdors and ſalt. ... Color hem up with ſandres. Meng thiſe with oile. Make a coffyn as thou dideſt before, and do this fars thereinne; and bake it wel and ſerve it forth.


Cooked almond milk in Lent.

 

Draw a thick almond milk with water. Take dates, and pick them clean, with apples and pears, and mince them with Damascēne prunes, and carve the prunes in two. Add thereto raisons, sugar, flour of cinnamon, whole maces and cloves, gode [good?] powders and salt… Color them up with sandal wood. Mingle these with oil. Make a coffin as thou didst before, and put  this mixture therein; and bake it well and serve forth.

By Tudor times, pervaunts become “vaunts”. This 1591 recipe is actually a mincemeat omelet.

How to bake Vaunts.

Take the kidney of Veale and perboile it till it be tender, then take & chop it small with the yolkes of three or foure Egs, then season it with Dates small cut, small raisins, Ginger, Sugar, Sinamon, Saffron and a little Salte, and for the paste to laye it in, Take a dozen of Egs both the white and the yolkes, and beate them well togither, then take Butter and put it into a frying pan, and fry them as thin as a pancake, then lay your stuffe therin, and so frye them togither in a pan, then cast sugar and Ginger upon it, and so serve it forth.[9]

By then, other improvements had been made. The Tudors of the late 16th century just loved their chewets.

How to make Chuets.

Take Veale and perboyle it and chop it very fine, take beefe Suet and mince it fine, then take Prunes, Dates and Corance, wash them very clean and put them into your meat, then take Cloves, Mace, and pepper to season your meat withal and a little quantity of salt, vergious and Sugar, two ounces of biskets[10], and as many of Carowaies, this is the seasoning of your meat, then take fine flowre, yolkes of Egs, and butter, a little quantitye of rosewater and sugar, then make little coffins for your Chewets and let them bake a quarter of an houre, then wet them over with butter, then strewe on Sugar and wet the Sugar with a little Rosewater, and set them into the Oven again, then take and serve five in a dish.[11]

At that time, chewets were small snack pies. This then is a recipe for miniature mincemeat pies. Probably because they were  being sold to individual customers, in various settings, they were measured for one.

 

 


[1] hayrblad] herbelade, It. herbolata, Lat. herbolasta

[2] Furnivall, Frederick. Early English Meals and Manners (1868). 32. Citing Book of Nurture, Harl. MS. 4011, Fol. 171.

[3] male] O.F. maille – adj. skinned.

[4] marrow] this term has stumped all comers over the centuries and may be a mistranscription. The recipe is generally listed under the "Baked Meats" section in medieval cookbooks.

[5] parade] used here from Latin through O.F. parare – to furnish, present, prepare

[6] ayrene] early English dialect for “eggs”

[7] ᴣolkes] this chronologically earlier of two spellings of “yolks” suggests a transition from Northern to Midlands dialect.

[8] Leshes] The word has a wide range of meanings. Here it seems to refer to the almond milk.

[9] A book of cookrye Very necessary for all such as delight therin. Gathered by A.W. (1591). https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo2;idno=A14584.0001.001

[10] biskets] perhaps cookie crumbs.

[11] A book of cookrye 


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9 comments:

Kiriel du Papillon said...

Thanks for this post. Please allow me to "unstump" you as to what Marow is. Marow is marrow, which an extremely common ingredient in medieval and renaissance cookery, and particularly in pies, where it adds a luscious fatty mouthfeel to the mix. You would pull the marrow from the bones raw and chop it up.

Marrow or suet have made it all the way to the present in traditional mincemeat recipes.

Elise Fleming/Alys K. said...

“Pety Peruaunt” appears in “Forme of Cury” (“The pety peruaunt” #203) rather than “Liber Cure Cocorum”, at least according to the online transcription of the latter (https://tinyurl.com/kj8tz2m8).

Elise Fleming/Alys K. said...

“Lesh/leshes/leche”, etc., usually refers to something sliced. It’s often used in context with milk (“fried milk”). The recipe above, “Leshes fryed in Lenton”, #166 in “Forme of Cury”, has a comment in the glossary: “…despite the title, neither sliced nor fried…” “Sanders” is, as noted, a red powder from sandalwood, and can be found online if one looks carefully for “saunders”, but be sure it is food grade. Do not purchase the actual wood. It’s nearly impossible to grind finely enough to eat!

Eurgain said...

As someone who is cooking a Tudor feast in a few weeks I found your article of great interest. You said "I think it’s fair to say that anyone attempting to find medieval or Tudor recipes for mincemeat has failed."... this confused me greatly, as one of the must-haves on my menu is mince pies (as we call them in Australia, aka "mincemeat pies"). I already had a particular recipe in mind:
"To make minst Pyes.
Take your Veale and perboyle it a little, or mutton, then set it a cooling; and when it is colde, take three pound of suit [suet] to a leg of mutton, or fower [four] pound to a fillet of Velea, and then mince small by themselves, or together whether you will, then take to season them halfe and once [ounce] of Nutmegs, half an once of cloves and mace, halfe an once of Sinamon, a little Pepper, as much Salt as you think will season them, either to the mutton or to the Veale, take vii [8] yolkes of Egges when they be hard, half a pinte of rosewater full measure, halfe an pund of suger, then straine the Yolkes with the rosewater and the Suger and mingle it with your meate, if ye have any Orenges or Lemmans you must take two of them, and take the pilles [peels] very thin and mince them very smalle, and put them in a pound of currans, six dates, half a pound of prune laye Curran and Dates upon the top of your meate, you must taek tow or three Pomewaters or Wardens and mince with your meate, you may make them woorsse [?] if you will, if you will make good crust put in three or foure yolkes of egges a little rosewater, and a good deale of suger"
This is from The Good Hous-wives Tresasurie: Beeing A Very Necessarie Booke Instructing To The Dressing Of Meats. (Anon 1588)
I can assure you, this is no failure. It is a very tasty mincemeat pie.
To be honest, I was spoilt for choice with this particular style of pie.
Another favourite of mine is from Harleian Manuscript #4016:
"Pies of Parys.
Take and smyte faire buttes of porke and buttes of vele togidre, and put hit in a faire potte, And putte thereto faire brotℏ, And a quantite of Wyne, And lete aƚƚ boile togidre til hit be ynogℏ; And þen̄ take hit fro the fire, and lete kele a litel, and cast ther-to raw yolkes of eyren̛, and pouudre of gyngeuere, sugre and salt, and mynced dates, reysyns of corence: make then coffyns of feyre past, and do it ther-ynne, and keuere it & lete bake y-nogℏ.
And one I haven't tried yet:
"To make sweete pies of Veale
Take Veale and perboyle it verie tender, then chop it small, then take twise as much beef suet, and chop it small, then minse both them together, the put Corrans and minced Dates to them, then season your flesh after this manner. Take Pepper, salt, and Saffron, Cloves, Mace, Synamon, Ginger, and Sugar, and season your flesh with each of these a quantitie, and mingle them altogether." - From The Good Huswife’s Handmaide for the Kitchen (1588).
Here are just three of many. Please try cooking them - the ones I have made so far are delicious.
If what you were looking for was just a minced fruit recipe, that is also easily found. There's "FOR TO MAKE RAPY. Tak Fygys and reysyns and wyn and grynd hem togeder tak and draw hem thorw a cloth and do thereto powder of Alkenet other of rys and do thereto a god quantite of pepir and vyneger and boyle it togeder and messe yt and serve yt forth." from A Forme of Cury(1390) and many others like this with various spellings of "rapeye, rape, rapee) which can be found in Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books and A Forme of Cury.
So no, it's probably *not* fair to say that "anyone anyone attempting to find medieval or Tudor recipes for mincemeat has failed" -many of us have succeeded, the recipes just have other names.

Gilbert Wesley Purdy said...

While I recognized "marrow," Kiriel, I am not familiar with what kind of marow could be sliced. My point, Eurgain, was that recipes specifically called "mincemeat pie" are nowhere to be found. Of course, my whole point was that mincemeat pie by other names is everywhere in Medieval and Tudor cookbooks.

Might anybody be so kind as to let me know where you are seeing a link to this article? I see plenty of traffic but not where it is coming from.

Elise Fleming/Alys K. said...

I found a comment in the glossary section of "Curye on Inglysch" which contains the cookery book "Forme of Cury" which can explain what kind of marrow can be sliced. It is under the definition for "male marow" and says, “Hodgkin explained this passage as ‘take the marrow of an ox; when extracted from the marrow bone it comes out in solid form, there being a thin skin containing the marrow itself; this skin is to be removed, leaving the pared marrow whole; this is then to be cut up into small pieces…’ However, “male” appears to be an A-N [Anglo-Norman] spelling for “moele” ‘marrow’ in one MS we have seen…and the phrase may be simple redundant.” Surprising info found in glossaries!

Elise Fleming/Alys K. said...

You asked where some of the links to the blog are found. I may be the culprit in spreading the mincemeat blog since I frequently share your interesting and informative blogs with likeminded Facebook friends. I shared it with 7 groups: SCA Cooks (10 comments there); Kingdom of Northshield (no comments); SCA Kingdom of the Middle (no comments), Medieval & Renaissance Cooking and Recipes (one comment); Historic Cookery (17 comments); Society for Creative Anachronism - Unofficial (9 comments); Cleftlands Cooks (no comments).

Gilbert Wesley Purdy said...

Thanks for the info, on both counts, Elise. And for linking to the pieces.

Kiriel du Papillon said...

Lol... you have been found now! And by a bunch of madly enthusiastic medieval/renaissance cooks. Feel free to call on us anytime!

Inserting a blatant plug for my medieval foodblog: http://kirielskitchen.blogspot.com/