The Forme of Cury Part 1

The Forme of Cury.

by Samuel Pegge.

PREFACE

TO THE

CURIOUS ANTIQUARIAN READER.

Without beginning _ab ovo_ on a subject so light (a matter of importance, however, to many a modern Catius or Amasinius), by investigating the origin of the Art of Cookery, and the nature of it as practised by the Antediluvians [1]; without dilating on the several particulars concerning it afterwards amongst the Patriarchs, as found in the Bible [2], I shall turn myself immediately, and without further preamble, to a few cursory observations respecting the Greeks, Romans, Britons, and those other nations, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, with whom the people of this nation are more closely connected.

The Greeks probably derived something of their skill from the East, (from the Lydians princ.i.p.ally, whose cooks are much celebrated, [3]) and something from Egypt. A few hints concerning Cookery may be collected from Homer, Aristophanes, Aristotle, &c. but afterwards they possessed many authors on the subject, as may be seen in Athenaeus [4]. And as Diaetetics were esteemed a branch of the study of medicine, as also they were afterwards [5], so many of those authors were Physicians; and _the Cook_ was undoubtedly a character of high reputation at Athens [6].

As to the Romans; they would of course borrow much of their culinary arts from the Greeks, though the Cook with them, we are told, was one of the lowest of their slaves [7]. In the latter times, however, they had many authors on the subject as well as the Greeks, and the pract.i.tioners were men of some Science [8], but, unhappily for us, their compositions are all lost except that which goes under the name of Apicius; concerning which work and its author, the prevailing opinion now seems to be, that it was written about the time of _Heliogabalus_ [9], by one _Caelius_, (whether _Aurelia.n.u.s_ is not so certain) and that _Apicius_ is only the t.i.tle of it [10]. However, the compilation, though not in any great repute, has been several times published by learned men.

The Aborigines of Britain, to come nearer home, could have no great expertness in Cookery, as they had no oil, and we hear nothing of their b.u.t.ter, they used only sheep and oxen, eating neither hares, though so greatly esteemed at Rome, nor hens, nor geese, from a notion of superst.i.tion. Nor did they eat fish. There was little corn in the interior part of the island, but they lived on milk and flesh [11]; though it is expressly a.s.serted by Strabo that they had no cheese [12]. The later Britons, however, well knew how to make the best use of the cow, since, as appears from the laws of _Hoel Dda_, A.D. 943, this animal was a creature so essential, so common and useful in Wales, as to be the standard in rating fines, &c. [13].

Hengist, leader of the Saxons, made grand entertainments for king Vortigern [14], but no particulars have come down to us; and certainly little exquisite can be expected from a people then so extremely barbarous as not to be able either to read or write.

'Barbari homines a septentrione, (they are the words of Dr. Lister) caseo et ferina subcruda vict.i.tantes, omnia condimenta adjectiva respuerunt' [15].

Some have fancied, that as the Danes imported the custom of hard and deep drinking, so they likewise introduced the practice of gormandizing, and that this word itself is derived from _Gormund_, the name of that Danish king whom aelfred the Great persuaded to be christened, and called aethelstane [16], Now 'tis certain that Hardic.n.u.t stands on record as an egregious glutton [17], but he is not particularly famous for being a _curious Viander_; 'tis true again, that the Danes in general indulged excessively in feasts and entertainments [18], but we have no reason to imagine any elegance of Cookery to have flourished amongst them. And though Guthrum, the Danish prince, is in some authors named _Gormundus_ [19]; yet this is not the right etymology of our English word _Gormandize_, since it is rather the French _Gourmand_, or the British _Gormod_ [20]. So that we have little to say as to the Danes.

I shall take the later English and the Normans together, on account of the intermixture of the two nations after the Conquest, since, as lord Lyttelton observes, the English accommodated them elves to the Norman manners, except in point of temperance in eating and drinking, and communicated to them their own habits of drunkenness and immoderate feasting [21]. Erasmus also remarks, that the English in his time were attached to _plentiful and splendid tables_; and the same is observed by Harrison [22]. As to the Normans, both William I.

and Rufus made grand entertainments [23]; the former was remarkable for an immense paunch, and withal was so exact, so nice and curious in his repasts [24], that when his prime favourite William Fitz- Osberne, who as steward of the household had the charge of the Cury, served him with the flesh of a crane scarcely half-roasted, he was so highly exasperated, that he lifted up his fist, and would have strucken him, had not Eudo, appointed _Dapiser_ immediately after, warded off the blow [25].

_Dapiser_, by which is usually understood _steward of the king's household_ [26], was a high officer amongst the Normans; and _Larderarius_ was another, clergymen then often occupying this post, and sometimes made bishops from it [27]. He was under the _Dapiser_, as was likewise the _Cocus Dominicae Coquinae_, concerning whom, his a.s.sistants and allowances, the _Liber Niger_ may be consulted [28].

It appears further from _Fleta_, that the chief cooks were often providers, as well as dressers, of victuals [29]. But _Magister Coquinae_, who was an esquire by office, seems to have had the care of pourveyance, A.D. 1340 [30], and to have nearly corresponded with our _clerk of the kitchen_, having authority over the cooks [31].

However, the _Magnus Coquus_, _Coquorum Praepositus_, _Coquus Regius_, and _Grans Queux_, were officers of considerable dignity in the palaces of princes; and the officers under them, according to Du Fresne, were in the French court A.D. 1385, much about the time that our Roll was made, 'Queus, Aideurs, Asteurs, Paiges, Souffleurs, Enfans, Saussiers de Commun, Saussiers devers le Roy, Sommiers, Poulliers, Huissiers' [32].

In regard to religious houses, the Cooks of the greater foundations were officers of consequence, though under the Cellarer [33], and if he were not a monk, he nevertheless was to enjoy the portion of a monk [34]. But it appears from Somner, that at Christ Church, Canterbury, the _Lardyrer_ was the first or chief cook [35]; and this officer, as we have seen, was often an ecclesiastic. However, the great Houses had Cooks of different ranks [36]; and manors and churches [37] were often given _ad cib.u.m_ and _ad victum monachorum_

[38]. A fishing at Lambeth was allotted to that purpose [39].

But whether the Cooks were Monks or not, the _Magistri Coquinae_, Kitcheners, of the monasteries, we may depend upon it, were always monks; and I think they were mostly ecclesiastics elsewhere: thus when Cardinal Otto, the Pope's legate, was at Oxford, A. 1238, and that memorable fray happened between his retinue and the students, the _Magister Coquorum_ was the Legate's brother, and was there killed [40]. The reason given in the author, why a person so nearly allied to the Great Man was a.s.signed to the office, is this, 'Ne procuraretur aliquid venenorum, quod nimis [i.e. valde] timebat legatus;' and it is certain that poisoning was but too much in vogue in these times, both amongst the Italians and the good people of this island [41]; so that this was a post of signal trust and confidence.

And indeed afterwards, a person was employed to _taste_, or _take the a.s.saie_, as it was called [42], both of the messes and the water in the ewer [43], at great tables; but it may be doubted whether a particular person was appointed to this service, or it was a branch of the _Sewer's_ and cup-bearer's duty, for I observe, the _Sewer_ is sometimes called _Praegustator_ [44], and the cup-bearer tastes the water elsewhere [45]. The religious houses, and their presidents, the abbots and priors, had their days of _Gala_, as likewise their halls for strangers, whom, when persons of rank, they often entertained with splendour and magnificence. And as for the secular clergy, archbishops and bishops, their feasts, of which we have some upon record [46], were so superb, that they might vie either with the regal entertainments, or the pontifical suppers of ancient Rome (which became even proverbial [47]), and certainly could not be dressed and set out without a large number of Cooks [48]. In short, the satirists of the times before, and about the time of, the Reformation, are continually inveighing against the high-living of the bishops and clergy; indeed luxury was then carried to such an extravagant pitch amongst them, that archbishop Cranmer, A. 1541, found it necessary to bring the secular clergy under some reasonable regulation in regard to the furnishing of their tables, not excepting even his own [49].

After this historical deduction of the _Ars coquinaria_, which I have endeavoured to make as short as possible, it is time to say something of the Roll which is here given to the public, and the methods which the Editor has pursued in bringing it to light.

This vellum Roll contains 196 _formulae_, or recipes, and belonged once to the earl of Oxford [50]. The late James West esquire bought it at the Earl's sale, when a part of his MSS were disposed of; and on the death of the gentleman last mentioned it came into the hands of my highly-esteemed friend, the present liberal and most communicative possessor. It is presumed to be one of the most ancient remains of the kind now in being, rising as high as the reign of king Richard II. [51]. However, it is far the largest and most copious collection of any we have; I speak as to those times. To establish its authenticity, and even to stamp an additional value upon it, it is the identical Roll which was presented to queen Elizabeth, in the 28th year of her reign, by lord Stafford's heir, as appears from the following address, or inscription, at the end of it, in his own hand writing:

'Antiquum hoc monumentum oblatum et missum est majestati vestrae vicesimo septimo die mensis Julij, anno regni vestri faelicissimi vicesimo viij ab humilimo vestro subdito, vestraeq majestati fidelissimo E. Stafford, Haeres domus subversae Buckinghamiens.' [52]

The general observations I have to make upon it are these: many articles, it seems, were in vogue in the fourteenth century, which are now in a manner obsolete, as cranes, curlews, herons, seals [53], porpoises, &c. and, on the contrary, we feed on sundry fowls which are not named either in the Roll, or the Editor's MS. [54] as quails, rails, teal, woodc.o.c.ks, snipes, &c. which can scarcely be numbered among the _small birds_ mentioned 19. 62. 154. [55]. So as to fish, many species appear at our tables which are not found in the Roll, trouts, flounders, herrings, &c. [56]. It were easy and obvious to dilate here on the variations of taste at different periods of time, and the reader would probably not dislike it; but so many other particulars demand our attention, that I shall content myself with observing in general, that whereas a very able _Italian_ critic, _Latinus Latinius_, pa.s.sed a sinister and unfavourable censure on certain seemingly strange medlies, disgusting and preposterous messes, which we meet with in _Apicius_; Dr. _Lister_ very sensibly replies to his strictures on that head, 'That these messes are not immediately to be rejected, because they may be displeasing to some.

_Plutarch_ testifies, that the ancients disliked _pepper_ and the sour juice of lemons, insomuch that for a long time they only used these in their wardrobes for the sake of their agreeable scent, and yet they are the most wholesome of all fruits. The natives of the _West Indies_ were no less averse to _salt_; and who would believe that _hops_ should ever have a place in our common beverage [57], and that we should ever think of qualifying the sweetness of malt, through good housewifry, by mixing with it a substance so egregiously bitter? Most of the _American_ fruits are exceedingly odoriferous, and therefore are very disgusting at first to us _Europeans_: on the contrary, our fruits appear insipid to them, for want of odour. There are a thousand instances of things, would we recollect them all, which though disagreeable to taste are commonly a.s.sumed into our viands; indeed, _custom_ alone reconciles and adopts sauces which are even nauseous to the palate. _Latinus Latinius_ therefore very rashly and absurdly blames _Apicius_, on account of certain preparations which to him, forsooth, were disrelishing.' [58] In short it is a known maxim, that _de gustibus non est disputandum_;

And so Horace to the same purpose:

'Tres mihi convivae prope dissentire videntur, Poscentes vario multum diversa palato.

Quid dem? quid non dem? renuis tu quod jubet alter.

Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque duobus.'

Hor. II. Epist. ii.

And our Roll sufficiently verifies the old observation of Martial--_ingeniosa gula est_.

[Addenda: after _ingeniosa gula est_, add, 'The _Italians_ now eat many things which we think perfect carrion. _Ray_, Trav. p. 362. 406.

The _French_ eat frogs and snails. The _Tartars_ feast on horse-flesh, the _Chinese_ on dogs, and meer _Savages_ eat every thing.

_Goldsmith_, Hist. of the Earth, &c. II. p. 347, 348. 395. III. p.

297. IV. p. 112. 121, &c.']

Our Cooks again had great regard to the eye, as well as the taste, in their compositions; _flourishing_ and _strewing_ are not only common, but even leaves of trees gilded, or silvered, are used for ornamenting messes, see No. 175 [59]. As to colours, which perhaps would chiefly take place in suttleties, blood boiled and fried (which seems to be something singular) was used for dying black, 13. 141.

saffron for yellow, and sanders for red [60]. Alkenet is also used for colouring [61], and mulberries [62]; amydon makes white, 68; and turnesole [63] _pownas_ there, but what this colour is the Editor professes not to know, unless it be intended for another kind of yellow, and we should read _jownas_, for _jaulnas_, orange-tawney. It was for the purpose of gratifying the sight that _sotiltees_ were introduced at the more solemn feasts. Rabelais has comfits of an hundred colours.

Cury, as was remarked above, was ever reckoned a branch of the Art Medical; and here I add, that the verb _curare_ signifies equally to dress victuals [64], as to cure a distemper; that every body has heard of _Doctor Diet, kitchen physick_, &c. while a numerous band of medical authors have written _de cibis et alimentis_, and have always cla.s.sed diet among the _non-naturals_; so they call them, but with what propriety they best know. Hence Junius '[Greek: Diaita] Graecis est victus, ac speciatim certa victus ratio, qualis a _Medicis_ ad tuendam valetudinem praescribitur [65].' Our Cooks expressly tell us, in their proem, that their work was compiled 'by a.s.sent and avys.e.m.e.nt of maisters of phisik and of philosophie that dwellid in his [the King's] court' where _physik_ is used in the sense of medecine, _physicus_ being applied to persons prosessing the Art of Healing long before the 14th century [66], as implying _such_ knowledge and skill in all kinds of natural substances, const.i.tuting the _materia medica_, as was necessiary for them in practice. At the end of the Editor's MS. is written this rhyme,

Explicit coquina que est optima medicina [67].

There is much relative to eatables in the _Schola Salernitana_; and we find it ordered, that a physcian should over-see the young prince's wet-nurse at every meal, to inspect her meat and drink [68].

But after all the avys.e.m.e.nt of physicians and philosophers, our processes do not appear by any means to be well calculated for the benefit of recipients, but rather inimical to them. Many of them are so highly seasoned, are such strange and heterogeneous compositions, meer olios and gallimawfreys, that they seem removed as far as possible from the intention of contributing to health; indeed the messes are so redundant and complex, that in regard to herbs, in No.

6, no less than ten are used, where we should now be content with two or three: and so the sallad, No. 76, consists of no less than 14 ingredients. The physicians appear only to have taken care that nothing directly noxious was suffered to enter the forms. However, in the Editor's MS. No. 11, there is a prescription for making a _colys_, I presume a _cullis_, or Invigorating broth; for which see Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. II. 124. vol. V. 148. vol. VI. 355. and the several plays mentioned in a note to the first mentioned pa.s.sage in the Edit.

1780 [69].

I observe further, in regard to this point, that the quant.i.ties of things are seldom specified [70], but are too much left to the taste and judgement of the cook, if he should happen to be rash and inconsiderate, or of a bad and undistinguishing taste, was capable of doing much harm to the guests, to invalids especially.

Though the cooks at Rome, as has been already noted, were amongst the lowest slaves, yet it was not so more anciently; Sarah and Rebecca cook, and so do Patroclus and Automedon in the ninth Iliad. It were to be wished indeed, that the Reader could be made acquainted with the names of our _master-cooks_, but it is not in the power of the Editor to gratify him in that; this, however, he may be a.s.sured of, that as the Art was of consequence in the reign of Richard, a prince renowned and celebrated in the Roll [71], for the splendor and elegance of his table, they must have been persons of no inconsiderable rank: the king's first and second cooks are now esquires by their office, and there is all the reason in the world to believe they were of equal dignity heretofore [72]. To say a word of king _Richard_: he is said in the proeme to have been 'acounted the best and ryallest vyaund [curioso in eating] of all esten kynges.'

This, however, must rest upon the testimony of our cooks, since it does not appear otherwise by the suffrage of history, that he was particularly remarkable for his niceness and delicacy in eating, like Heliogabalus, whose favourite dishes are said to have been the tongues of peac.o.c.ks and nightingales, and the brains of parrots and pheasants [73]; or like Sept. Geta, who, according to Jul.

Capitolinus [74], was so curious, so whimsical, as to order the dishes at his dinners to consist of things which all began with the same letters. Sardanapalus again as we have it in Athenaeus [75], gave a _praemium_ to any one that invented and served him with some novel cate; and Sergius Orata built a house at the entrance of the Lucrine lake, purposely for the pleasure and convenience of eating the oysters perfectly fresh. Richard II is certainly not represented in story as resembling any such epicures, or capriccioso's, as these [76]. It may, however, be fairly presumed, that good living was not wanting among the luxuries of that effeminate and dissipated reign.

[Addenda: after _ninth Iliad_, add, 'And Dr. _Shaw_ writes, p. 301, that even now in the East, the greatest prince is not ashamed to fetch a lamb from his herd and kill it, whilst the princess is impatient till she hath prepared her fire and her kettle to dress it.']

[Addenda: after _heretofore_ add, 'we have some good families in England of the name of _Cook_ or _c.o.ke_. I know not what they may think; but we may depend upon it, they all originally sprang from real and professional cooks; and they need not be ashamed of their extraction, any more than the _Butlers_, _Parkers_, _Spencers_, &c.']

My next observation is, that the messes both in the roll and the Editor's MS, are chiefly soups, potages, ragouts, hashes, and the like hotche-potches; entire joints of meat being never _served_, and animals, whether fish or fowl, seldom brought to table whole, but hacked and hewed, and cut in pieces or gobbets [77]; the mortar also was in great request, some messes being actually denominated from it, as _mortrews_, or _morterelys_ as in the Editor's MS. Now in this state of things, the general mode of eating must either have been with the spoon or the fingers; and this perhaps may have been the reason that spoons became an usual present from gossips to their G.o.d-children at christenings [78]; and that the bason and ewer, for washing before and after dinner, was introduced, whence the _ewerer_ was a great officer [79], and the _ewery_ is retained at Court to this day [80]; we meet with _damaske water_ after dinner [81], I presume, perfumed; and the words _ewer_ &c. plainly come from the Saxon ee or French eau, _water_.

Thus, to return, in that little anecdote relative to the Conqueror and William Fitz-Osbern, mentioned above, not the crane, but _the flesh of the crane_ is said to have been under-roasted. Table, or case-knives, would be of little use at this time [82], and the art of carving so perfectly useless, as to be almost unknown. In about a century afterwards, however, as appears from archbishop Neville's entertainment, many articles were served whole, and lord Wylloughby was the carver [83]. So that carving began now to be practised, and the proper terms devised. Wynken de Worde printed a _Book of Kervinge_, A. 1508, wherein the said terms are registered [84]. 'The use of _forks_ at table, says Dr. Percy, did not prevail in England land till the reign of James I. as we learn from a remarkable pa.s.sage in _Coryat_ [85]'; the pa.s.sage is indeed curious, but too long to be here transcribed, where brevity is so much in view; wherefore I shall only add, that forks are not now used in some parts of Spain [86].

But then it may be said, what becomes of the old English hospitaliy in this case, the _roast-beef of Old England_, so much talked of? I answer, these bulky and magnificent dishes must have been the product of later reigns, perhaps of queen Elizabeth's time, since it is plain that in the days of Rich. II. our ancestors lived much after the French fashion. As to hospitality, the households of our n.o.bles were immense, officers, retainers, and servants, being entertained almost without number; but then, as appears from the Northumberland Book, and afterwards from the household establisliment of the prince of Wales, A. 1610, the individuals, or at least small parties, had their _quantum_, or ordinary, served out, where any good oeconomy was kept, apart to themselves [87]. Again, we find in our Roll, that great quant.i.ties of the respective viands of the hashes, were often made at once, as No. 17, _Take hennes or conynges_. 24, _Take hares_. 29, _Take pygges_. And 31, _Take gees_, &c. So that hospitality and plentiful housekeeping could just as well be maintained this way, as by the other of c.u.mbrous unwieldy messes, as much as a man could carry.

As the messes and sauces are so complex, and the ingredients consequently so various, it seems necessary that a word should be spoken concerning the princ.i.p.al of them, and such as are more frequently employed, before we pa.s.s to our method of proceeding in the publication.

b.u.t.ter is little used. 'Tis first mentioned No. 81, and occurs but rarely after [88]; 'tis found but once in the Editor's MS, where it is written _boter_. The usual subst.i.tutes for it are oil-olive and lard; the latter is frequently called _grees_, or _grece_, or _whitegrece_, as No. 18. 193. _Capons in Grease_ occur in Birch's Life of Henry prince of Wales, p. 459, 460. and see Lye in Jun. Etym.

v. _Greasie_. Bishop Patrick has a remarkable pa.s.sage concerning this article: 'Though we read of cheese in _Homer_, _Euripides_, _Theocritus_, and others, yet they never mention _b.u.t.ter_: nor hath Aristotle a word of it, though he hath sundry observations about cheese; for b.u.t.ter was not a thing then known among the _Greeks_; though we see by this and many other places, it was an ancient food among the eastern people [89].' The Greeks, I presume, used oil instead of it, and b.u.t.ter in some places of scripture is thought to mean only cream. [90]

Cheese. See the last article, and what is said of the old Britons above; as likewise our Glossary.

Ale is applied, No. 113, et alibi; and often in the Editor's MS. as 6, 7, &c. It is used instead of wine, No. 22, and sometimes along with bread in the Editor's MS. [91] Indeed it is a current opinion that brewing with hops was not introduced here till the reign of king Henry VIII. [92] _Bere_, however, is mentioned A. 1504. [93]

Wine is common, both red, and white, No. 21. 53. 37. This article they partly had of their own growth, [94] and partly by importation from France [95] and Greece [96]. They had also Rhenish [97], and probably several other sorts. The _vynegreke_ is among the sweet wines in a MS of Mr. Astle.

Rice. As this grain was but little, if at all, cultivated in England, it must have been brought from abroad. Whole or ground-rice enters into a large number of our compositions, and _resmolle_, No. 96, is a direct preparation of it.