Medieval Recipes: Breney (Fruit Compote)

Oct 01 2020

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Breney was a fruit compote or salsa popular in the 14th and 15th centuries. It can be compared to today’s “fruit salsa and cinnamon chips”.

Ingredients

Compote:

1 cup of red wine
6 figs
1/2 cup minced dates
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cup chopped pine nuts
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp mace
1/4 tsp sandalwood
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp honey

Chips:

1/4 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
(Re-interpretation) 1 tbsp lard
(Re-interpretation) 2 eggs
(Re-interpretation) Oil and Anise

Preparation

“To mak breney put wyne in a pot and clarified hony saunders canella peper clowes maces pynes dates mynced raisin of corans put ther to vinegar and sett it on the fyer and let it boile then seethe fegges in wyne grind them and draw them through a sterner and cast the to and let them boukle to gedur then tak flour saffron sugur and faire water and mak ther of faire cakes and let them be thyne then cut them bigge lassengis wise and fry them in oile a standing fewe for sopers and straw ether on annes in comfets and serue it.” (A Noble Boke off Cookry, Robina Napier ed.)

Cook the figs in wine until it becomes a syrup. Grind the figs into a paste and put all other ingredients to cook. Add the figs, simmer and wait until the mix has thickened.

The original recipe suggests creating the accompanying chips with water, sugar, and flour. However, eggs, lard, and anise can be added. Roll the dough thin and cut into diamond shapes. Fry and sprinkle sugar or anise.

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