Today’s Claire Chats is about “The Forme of Cury” manuscript and primary sources for medieval and Tudor cookery and food.
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The Forme of Cury and medieval recipes
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Tudor Cooking Videos
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Quince Marmalade Video
I was lucky enough to be given a bagful of quinces by some friends so I decided to look in my medieval and Tudor recipe books for some quince recipes and found this one. I hope you enjoy it and do let me know if you try it and what you think. It really is delicious and is disappearing fast in our household.
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Tudor Cooking with Claire – Hippocras
I’m always coming across mentions of hippocras when I’m reading primary source accounts of banquets, coronations and christenings. It was something that was served at the end of a banquet with wafers and “spice plates”. I love trying out things I read about so I looked in my books for a contemporary recipe and a modernised version. Here is the result:
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Tudor Cooking with Claire – Rice in Almond Milk
One of my favourite comfort foods is rice pudding so I decided to look through my medieval and Tudor recipe books for a 15th/16th century version. Unfortunately, what was known as a “pudding” back then was food cooked in animal intestines, i.e. sausage skins, like black pudding and sasages today. In Peter Brears’ book Cooking and Dining in Tudor and Stuart England, he gives a recipe for “Rice Puddings” which involves packing cooked rice mixed with milk, mace, suet, currants, nutmeg and cinnamon into sausage skins and boiling.
After doing some more digging, I then found that a rice in almond milk recipe was included in a manuscript from the 15th century and that various websites had modernised it for use today. The original recipe reads:
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Tudor Gingerbread
For this week’s Claire Chats I wanted to share with you a video I’ve just made for my “Tudor Cooking with Claire” series. I love ginger and so was interested to find various mentions of “ginger bread” in medieval and Tudor recipe books and to find that it really was ‘gingered bread’.
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Christmas Fun
The lead-up to Christmas can be a very exciting time but it can also drag, particularly when you've got rather excited children at home or work has finished for the holiday. I decided that it might help members to collate some links of Tudor themed pastimes to help keep you and/or your children occupied. So, here you are and please feel free to add ideas in the comments section.
Games
See my Claire Chats video on Indoor Tudor Games - click here or use these links for ideas, instructions and templates:
- Glückhaus, House of Fortune or Lucky Pig - See https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29660/gluckshaus for more information.
- Niddy Noddy card game - see http://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/noddy.html
- Piquet (Cent) card game - see http://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/piquet.html for instructions.
- Primiera/Prime/Primero - See http://web.archive.org/web/20050208060221/http://www.elizabethangeek.com/wiki/PrimeroRules and http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/game-recon-primero.html for rules.
- Fox and Geese board game - See https://www.printableboardgames.net/preview/Fox_and_Geese for a board template, or http://www.auntannie.com/GamesToMake/FoxGeese/ for a craft activity to make a roll-up game board.
- Nine Men's Morris - See http://www.historyisfun.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/AnnasAdventures_NineMensMorris.pdf for instructions and board template.
- More medieval and Tudor games can be found at http://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/ and http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/game-rules.html
Paper Dolls
To make paper dolls of Henry VIII's six wives, simply go to http://www.royalpaperdolls.com/HenryDollPage.htm, choose the wife you want and then print out the dolls to dress and doll clothes images.
Tudor Colouring Pages
Colouring in is meant to be relaxing, isn't it, but it's also something to keep the children busy while indoctrinating them at the same time. Find colouring pages to print out at:
- http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/tudor-colouring-pages
- http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/previews/10201-10225/sb10209-tudors-colouring-pages.html#.VnGNpuJRK8A
Recipes
Fancy adding some traditional Tudor and Elizabethan foods and drink to your own Christmas traditions? Here are some recipes to help you and you can also check out the December issue of Tudor Life magazine for more and, of course, my Claire Chats video on Lambswool/Wassail.
- Marchpane - Basic MarchpaneFaire Marchpane Being a Chessboarde
- Gingerbread - 15th century gingerbread.
- Mincemeat for mince pies - the recipe at http://www.godecookery.com/begrec/begrec86.htm contains meat, rather than just dried fruit.
- Frumenty - A recipe for the Tudor wheat porridge can be found at http://www.godecookery.com/mtrans/mtrans15.htm.
- Medieval Hypocras - Another popular Christmas drink which has developed into our modern mulled wine.
- Elizabethan sweetmeats - Marchpane, gingerbread and leach of almonds.
Videos
There are lots of videos on this website, from my weekly Claire Chats videos on lots of different Tudor topics, to expert talks and documentaries. Click on the links below to browse the categories:
Magazines and Quizzes
And don't forget to catch up on your reading with our archives of past issues of Tudor Life magazine - click here or have fun with the archives of weekly quizzes - click here.
Phew! That should keep you busy!
