Historical Bites

Historical Food for the Modern Palette

This sauce goes with the previous post, Losenges. It is a yummy dip that was served with the fried losenges. In case anyone missed the source info, here it is again:

The original recipe is in “Take a Thousand Eggs or More” volume 1 (1). It is contained within the Harleian Manuscript written in c.1450 and is housed in Oxford University. The  recipes are from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, edited by Thomas Austin, published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, first published in 1888 and reprinted in 1964 by Vivian Ridler.

Original Recipe (1 & 2)

“Prenade: Take wyn, and put hit in a potty, and clarified honey, sanders, powder of paper, canel, clowes, maces, saffron, pynes, minced dates, & reysons. And cast Þer to a litul vinegre, and settle hit ouer the fire, and lete hit boyle; and seth figges in wyn and grynde hem, and draw hem Þorgh a streynour, and cast Þereto, and let boile all togidre……”

This original recipe goes on to say how to make “faire kakes” to serve with this sauce. In this post I wanted to make the sauce to serve with the losenges.

Transcription

“Prenade: Take wine, and put it in a pot, and clarified honey, sandelwood, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mace, saffron, pinenuts, minced dates, & raisins. And cast thereto a little vinegar, and set it over the fire, and let it boil; and seeth figs in wine and grind them, and draw them through a strainer, and cast thereto, and let boil all together…”

My Redaction

• 2 cups Red Wine
• 4 tbsp. Honey
• 1/4 cup Pitted, Minced Dates
• 1/4 cup Pinenuts
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup Dried Figs
• 4 Cloves, ground
• 1/2 tsp Mace
• 1 tsp. Sandelwood, optional (It adds a beautiful purple color but an off flavor)
• Pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1-2 Threads Saffron
• 2 tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
• Fried Losenges

In a pot bring 1 cup of wine to a boil and pour over dried fig. Let stand 20 minutes until the figs soften and start to plump up.

Take dried dates and mince them. Heat remaining wine and add the honey, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mace, saffron, pinenuts, dates and raisins. Add the vinegar and bring to a boil.

Take figs with their liquid and mash with a fork until it resembles a loose homogenous paste. Add this to the spiced wine mixture and cook until the mixture is as thick as you would like. Keep in mind that it will thicken up a little more as it cools.

Bibliography

1. Renfrow, Cindy. Take a Thousand Eggs of More: a Collection of 15th Century Recipes. 1998.
2. Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth Century Cookery-Books — Harleian MS279 (1430) & Harleian MS4016 (1450). London, Oxford Universty Press, 1888. Rpt Vivian Ridler, Printer to the University, 1964. Original serie no.91
3. Napier, Mrs. ALexander, ed. A Noble Book off Cookry for a Prynce Houssolde or Eny Other Estately Houssolde. c. 1467. Reprinted verbatim from a rare MS in the Holkham Collection. Elliot Stock. London, 1882.