Focus on Form
The forme of cury
The Forme of Cury was the first known English-language cookbook. It is believed to have been written in 1390 by the master-cook of King Richard II. Written on a vellum scroll, the book contains around 200 recipes, both "intended to teach a cook to make everyday dishes (‘Common pottages and common meats for the household, as they should be made craftily and wholesomely’), as well as unusually spiced and spectacular dishes for banquets (‘curious potages and meetes and sotiltees for alle maner of States bothe hye and lowe’)” (British Library, 2015). The Forme of Cury, and many other early cookbooks, were not mass-produced, but rather they were meant for a small population of people--this particular cookbook was written for the wealthy (or for servants of the wealthy).
The recipes in The Forme of Cury are handwritten, and they only include recipe names and the steps of each recipe. There are no separate ingredient lists (ingredients are found within the recipe), no measurements of ingredients, and no other instructions, such as baking temperatures or images. As a result, these recipes were made through trial and error. To provide some sort of order and organization, and "as parchment and vellum were expensive, medieval scribes were very economical in the way they wrote. They used both colour along with concatenations, special symbols, superscripts and subscripts to write their texts" (Celtnet Recipes, 2015).
References
British Library. (2015). The Forme of Cury—blank mang. Retrieved from
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/med/blancmanghome/blankmang.html
Celtnet Recipes. (2015). The Forme of Cury. Retrieved from http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/the-forme-of-cury.php
Images from The University of Manchester Rylands Medieval Collection
Translations of recipes from Celtnet Recipes
References
British Library. (2015). The Forme of Cury—blank mang. Retrieved from
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/med/blancmanghome/blankmang.html
Celtnet Recipes. (2015). The Forme of Cury. Retrieved from http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/the-forme-of-cury.php
Images from The University of Manchester Rylands Medieval Collection
Translations of recipes from Celtnet Recipes