September | 2022 | Lions and Lilies

By Catherine A Wilson

We all know that child, the ‘fussy eater’, who won’t try anything new and refuses to devour items that are green, orange or yellow! From the moment we start munching on solid edibles, we are programmed to enjoy the same diet our parents do. Of course, that can differ quite extensively between cultures, religions, and geographical locations. A mainstay diet for Australians is considered to be reasonably varied and consists of good quality, fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish.

When my family travel overseas, we always attempt to try a local dish, no matter how exotic or outrageous it may seem to the palate. Consequently, my children have devoured, snails, kangaroo, possum, crocodile, reindeer, snake, and eel, as well as a large serve of Fijian kava.

The medieval diet differed quite considerably to what we expect on our plates today. Food reflected status. The poor mostly survived on pottage – a cabbage and oat-based soup that occasionally contained additional, in season vegetables. Beer was a staple and was enjoyed throughout the day, including breakfast, negating the need to drink water, which was often tainted.

However, if you were rich, entitled, and noble, you could indulge your appetite by consuming just about anything that walked, swam, slithered, or crawled.

I wonder if I could convince my children to try one of the following delightful offerings.

PORPOISE POTTAGE

Considered to be a ‘royal’ fish, porpoise (or dolphin) was restricted to the upper class unless special permission was sought.

The ‘Forme of Cury’ is one of the oldest known English cookery manuscripts, written by King Richard II’s cooks around 1399. It contains 196 recipes, one of which is for porpoise furmenty: a type of sweet, spicy wheat porridge.

“Take clene whete and bete it small in a morter and fanne out clene the dust. Waisthe it and boile it tyl it be tendre. Take the mylk of Almonds & boile them. Take up the porpays out of the Furmente & leshe hem in a dishe with hot water.”

Translation: boil some wheat with almond milk and pop a porpoise in it. Yum!

ROAST HEDGEHOG

The medieval recipe for Roast Hedgehog is:

Obtain a hedgehog and cut its throat. Then, it needs to be gutted and either wrapped in pastry or roasted.

The prickly creature was recommended for medical conditions, from throat inflammation to leprosy.

Das Kockbuch des Meisters Eberhard, a 15th century cookbook, recommends hedgehog for lepers:

The meat of a hedgehog is good for lepers. Those who dry its intestines and grind them to a powder and eat a little of that are made to piss, even if they cannot do so otherwise.

I was particularly impressed with the following advice-

Note – if the hedgehog refuses to unroll, put it in hot water, and then it will straighten itself. Handy!

COCKENTRICE

Are you planning an extravagant party and want a dish to shock and amaze? Then why not attempt a cockentrice?

The Cockentrice was a fanciful and imaginative banquet dish which combined a pig and a chicken into one ‘new’ animal.

Basically, the chef partially cooked a pig and chicken, cut them both in half, then attached the front half of the pig to the rear half of the chicken. It was then stuffed, put on a spit, and roasted, gilded with egg yolks, saffron and occasionally gold leaf before being served. Cock a doodle oink!

GARBAGE (yes, that’s right!)

Now this has to be my favourite!!

Nothing went to waste, not chickens’ heads or feet, nor the enticing gizzards so the recipe is perfect for all those bits and pieces, the ‘garbage’ leftover at the end of the week.

Basically the recipe states;

Take good giblets (garbage): chickens’ heads, feet, livers, and gizzards, and wash them clean. Throw them into a nice pot, and add fresh beef broth, powdered pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mace, parsley, and sage chopped small. Then take bread, steep it in the same broth, draw mix through a strainer, add and let boil till done. Add powdered ginger, verjuice (sour grape or apple juice), salt, and a little saffron, and serve it forth.

Draw them through a strainer! I shudder at thought!

ROAST CAT (my final offaling! Lol, offering)

This one is not for all you animal lovers. Roast Cat with Garlic … my taste buds are watering. According to the recipe, you undertake the following –Take a cat that is fat and decapitate it. And after it is dead, (thank goodness) cut off the head and throw it away because it is not for eating, for they say that eating the brains will cause him who eats them to lose his senses and judgment. Then flay it very cleanly, and open it and clean it well, and then wrap it in a cloth of clean linen. And bury it beneath the ground where it must be for a day and a night; and then take it out of there and set it to roast on a spit. And roast it over the fire. And when beginning to roast it, grease it with good garlic and oil. And when you finish greasing it, whip it well with a green twig, and this must be done before it is well-roasted, greasing it and whipping it (as it was a very naughty cat!). And when it is roasted, cut it as if it were a rabbit or a kid and put it on a big plate; and take garlic and oil blended with good broth in such a manner that it is well-thinned. And cast it over the cat. And you may eat of it because it is very good food.

Very good food! I seriously doubt that!

So saying, I am absolutely sure that I will be sticking to my regular menu plan and will not be slicing, dicing or serving our household pets any time soon.

Bon appetite!