Medieval Recipes: Meat of Cyprus (1430)

Jan 15 2020

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This recipe is extracted from the 1430 book Liber Cure Cocorum (or “The Art of Cookery”), written in a northern English dialect of the 15th century and probably originating from the County of Lancashire.

The recipe’s original name is “Meat of Cyprus“.

Ingredients

Chicken
Almond Milk
Amidon (Wheat Starch) or Rice
Saffron
Sugar
Almonds

Preparation

Take flesh of capons or hens you shall;
Parboil and dry it withal;
Hew them small, pound in mortar,
As small as bread, that was grated;
Take good almond milk anon
And mix it up with amidon
Or with flour of rice, you may;
Color it with saffron, I say [to] you;
Boil it after each part,
Thicken it with flesh pounded well;
Season it with sugar and then your dish
With almonds set you shall garnish.

How to Make your own Amidon (Wheat Starch)

Take wheat and steep it 9 days;
Thus change your water each day anon.
Bruise it quite small in a mortar,
Seethe it with milk and water withal.
Through a hair sieve look you strain it,
And let it stand and settle by;
Pour out the water, in cloth it lay,
Till it is dry you turn it aye.
This is a thickening as men say,
Thereof I shall speak more plainly.