Sources

C.B. Hieatt, B. Hosington and S. Butler (eds.), Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks, 2nd edn (Toronto, 1996)

C. B. Hieatt and S. Butler (eds.), Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (London, 1985)

C.B. Hieatt and R. Jones, ‘Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections’, Speculum 61 (1986), 859-82

J. Santanach and R. Vogelzang, The Book of Sent Soví: Medieval Recipes from Catalonia (Woodbridge, 2008)

The nutritional analyses are computer-generated and based on approximate values and measurements. Thanks go to Rachel Wilcox, Public Health Commissioning Manager, NHS Wakefield, for providing this information.

Please note that these recipes, especially those high in saturates and fat, should be eaten as part of a balanced diet. Our aim is to encourage you to try new foods and enjoy cooking for fun. However, many historical recipes are no more or less healthier than modern ones and have to be eaten just as sensibly.

You Are What You Ateis a project that gets children and adults thinking about healthy eating in innovative ways. We use historical foods, archaeology and modern nutritional research to help you learn about the body and how it is dependent on what you ate. We can learn how to be healthier by looking at the lessons of the past. We are running cooking demonstrations, festival stalls, exhibitions, bone workshops and schools projects all over West Yorkshire until 2013. Look out for us!

The project is a partnership between the University of Leeds, Wakefield Council and the University of Bradford. It is funded by a Wellcome Trust Society Award. For more information or to be added to our mailing list, e-mail: , phone 0113 3431910 or visit our website:

Leeds Loves Food, Millennium Square,Leeds,26 May 2012

Pottage

2 onions

4 cloves of garlic

4 oz lentils or broad beans

Mixed vegetables, carrots, celery, etc.

Stock cubes, salt, pepper and mustard seed

Mixed fresh herbs, chives, parsley, thyme, sorrel

Water to boil

Fry a couple of onions until soft, add a few cloves of garlic and continue frying. When the garlic is soft, fry off the pepper and mustard seed. Then add green lentils, water and a couple of stock cubes. Bring to the boil. Chop up the vegetables and add to the pottage. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, then add the chopped herbs. Once tender, serve.

A 231g serving has 160 calories and contains 1.6g of fat (low), 0.1g of saturates (low), 9.3g of sugars (low) and 1.8g of salt (medium).

Espàrrecs

Par-boil asparagus spears, roll in flour (preferably wholemeal flour) and fry in olive oil.Sprinklewith wine vinegar, and add a pinch of salt and pepper.

A 111g serving has approximately 51 calories, fat 0.3g (low), saturates 0g (low), 1.6g of sugars (low), 0.5g of salt (medium).

Herb fritters

Mixed herbs – chives, parsley, sorrel, sage etc

Batter mixture – flour, milk, egg, pinch of salt

Oil for frying

Mix herbs with the batter mixture and fry in oil.

A 74g serving has 236 calories and contains 16.8g of fat (high), 2.4g of saturates (medium), 0.9g of sugars (low) and 0.6g of salt (medium).

Apple Fritters

Apple

Batter mixture – flour, milk, egg, pinch of salt

Oil for frying

Peel and cut apple into small pieces and dip in batter. Fry in oil. Serve sprinkled with sugar.

A 136g serving has 255 calories and contains 16.7g of fat (medium), 2.3g of saturates (medium), 7.5g of sugars (medium) and 0.3g of salt (low).

Leche Lardys

4 eggs

½ pint milk

4 slices bacon

Salt, saffron, parsley, savoury, sorrel

Steep the saffron in hot water. Grind the herbs finely and steep in hot water. Cover the bacon in cold water and bring to a boil, then drain and cut into small pieces. They can be fried for a few minutes. Beat the egg and milk together thoroughly and add the bacon. Separate into three portions and colour one part with the saffron and a second part with the herb juice. Cook each section slowing over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until the milk is thickly curdled. When very thick, pour into a cloth and put in a colander to let the whey run out, layering the colours. Put a heavy weight on top, then wring out the cloth and press firmly together. Lay on a board and slice. Serve cold or fry to serve.

A 134g serving has 141 calories and contains 9.5g of fat (medium), 3.7g of saturates (medium), 3.5g of sugars (low) and 0.9g of salt.

Green Sauce

2 good handfuls of herbs: mint, parsley, thyme, rosemary, rocket

100 ml white wine or cider vinegar

Handful of wholemeal breadcrumbs

Salt, ground white pepper, ginger

Finely chop the herbs and mix with the wine vinegar and breadcrumbs to make a thick sauce. Add seasonings to taste. Serve with poached, grilled or sautéed fish.

A 203g serving has 146 calories and contains 2.1g of fat (low), 0.3g of saturates (low), 2.3g of sugars (low) and 1.5g of salt (medium).

A Disshe Mete for Somere

Take garbage of capons, and of hennes and of chekyns and of dowes and hom clene, ande seethe hem, and cut hom small, and take persel and hew hit small, and dresse hit in platers, and poure vynger theron, and caste theron pouder of ginger and of canel, and serve hit forthe colde at nyght.

Clean the chicken livers (or other poultry livers) with a pinch of salt in a pot and cover with water, stock or wine, bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and chill. Mix with vinegar and parsley, and sprinkle with ginger, cinnamon. Serve on pieces of bread or toast.

A 229g serving has approximately 101 calories,2.7g of fat (low), 0.7g of saturates (low), 0.4g of sugars (low), 0.7g of salt (low).

Strawberye

Take strawberys & waysshe hem in tyme of zere in gode red wyne; then strayne thorwe a clothe, & do hem in a potte with gode almaunde mylke. Alay it with amyndoune other with flowre of rys, & make it chargeaunt, and lat it boyle; and do therin roysonys of coraunce, safroun, pepir, sugre grete plente, pouder gyngere, canel, galingale; poynte it with vynegre & a lytil whyte grece put thereto; coloure it with alkenade and droppe it abowte, plante it with the graynes of pomegarnad, and than serve it forth.

Draw up an almond milk with ground almonds and hot water. To do this, mix ground almonds with hot water to form a porridgy mixture. Allow to stand for a few minutes, then transfer the mixture to a fine clean cloth and squeeze the milk through the cloth. Hull and pick over the strawberries; half or quarter them depending on size. Pour the wine over the strawberries, mix gently and then pour off the wine. Mix the almond milk with rice flour, sugar, spices, currants and berries. Bring to a boil and stir until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and add butter and wine vinegar to serve.

A 92g serving has approximately 115 calories, 5.9g of fat (medium), 0.8g of saturates (low), 8.5g of sugars (medium), 0g of salt(low).