Weekend Cooking: Recipes from the Middle Ages

[snowynight]

Cherry pottage (vegetarian)

'Tak cheryes & do out the stones & grynde hem wel & draw hem thorw a streynour & do it in a pot. & do therto whit gres or swete botere & myed wastel bred, & cast therto good wyn & sugre, & salte it & stere it wel togedere, & dresse it in disches; and set theryn clowe gilofre, & strewe sugre aboue.'

– Mnesitheus, quoted in Oribasius, Medical Collections 4, 4, 1.


Modern English version of the recipe:

Serves 6

Ingredients

900g fresh ripe red cherries
350ml red wine
175g white sugar
50g unsalted butter
225g soft white breadcrumbs
Pinch of salt
Flower heads of small clove pinks or gilded whole cloves (according to season)
Coarse white sugar for sprinkling

Method

Wash the cherries and discard the stems and stones. Purée the fruit in a blender with 150ml of the wine and half the sugar. Add a little more wine if you need to. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the fruit purée, breadcrumbs, remaining wine, sugar and salt. Simmer, stirring steadily, until the purée is very thick. Pour into a serving bowl, cover and leave to cool. When quite cold, decorate the edge of the bowl with flowers or whole cloves, and sprinkle coarse sugar over the centre.

Source: How to cook a medieval feast: 11 recipes from the Middle Ages\

Edit: Link with photos of the process and the dish: Medieval Cherry Pottage

Comments

[lilacsigil]

This is very cool and I was surprised by how much of the original recipe I understood!

[snowynight]

Thank you! It is surprisingly more readable than I expect.

[cornerofmadness]

how fun

[snowynight]

Thank you!