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DE HONESTA VOLUPATE ET VALETUDINE (OF HONEST VOLUPTUSNESS AND HEALTH) OR VIRTUOUS ENJOYMENT AND GOOD HEALTH) BY BARTHOLOMAEUS DE PLATINA Printed in roman Type in Venice 13 June 1475 THE title of Platina's work, as is true of many books of the period, appears in various forms. One variant, De obsoniis ac honesta voluptate, can be freely translated as: "On meat dishes and their virtuous enjoyment." Platina stresses that his recipes do not lead to the sin of gluttony. So you can enjoy your three-inch charcoal-broiled steaks and still feel virtuous.

This book is important not only as the first printed cookery text, but also as an excellent source of knowledge of daily life in the mid-fifteenth century, and particularly for insights into dietary customs of the time. Platina, I discovered, was not a cook. He is recorded first as a soldier and later as a distinguished scholar. In 1474 he presented the handwritten manuscript of his now famous Lives of the Popes to Pope Sixtus IV. The original is still in the Vatican Library. His reward was an appointment to the extremely important post of Librarian to the Vatican. How did this scholar come to write a cookbook? The clue may be found in the book itself, where he mentions his "good friend Martino" the chef of one of the Chamberlains to the Pope. They must have become acquainted at the Vati- can. A manuscript treatise on food and cookery written by Martino is in the Library of Congress. It is quite evident that Martino's manuscript formed the basis for Platina's book, for he says of his friend in Chapter VI, "which cook, by the immortals, could compare with my companion Martino of Como, by whom these things I write have for the most part been considered? You will call him another Carneades if you hear him discussing extemporaneously the things put forth here." Platina's book is rather casual in its approach to actual cooking, and the entries in the long table of contents may not guide the reader to any hint of a recipe. For instance, the chapter on edible birds deals with swans and storks, but only relates their living habits. It must be remembered, however, that in the fifteenth century the common people could neither read nor write. Books were commissioned by rich patrons who collected handwritten books with elaborate hand-painted illuminations. Any cookery manuscript would have been a carefully guarded secret, available only to professionals. I suppose the student apprentices who had to pay for their training were sworn to secrecy and learned not by reading but by working with their masters, who probably couldn't write out directions anyway. But Platina, a trained scholar and experienced writer, turned out a well-written book by the standards of his time, even though the recipes lack specific information.

What fascinates me is that so many of the same foods we use today were being used then in practically the same way. Platina refers to eggs, pastry, bread and grains, cheese, all the vegetables, practically all the fruits, including cherries, grapes and eggs, chicken, frogs, salted meat, squid, octopus and all our modern spices. And his chapters of advice concerning healthful habits seem amazingly timely today, when exercise and recreation are considered of vital importance for good health. All of Platina's recipes are frustrating, for no quantities are given and no definite cooking directions appear. You were just supposed to be a "born cook" in those days. Have a look at these old recipes, but, for goodness sakes, don't try them unless you are the gambling type. Use the modern versions--I can guarantee them, for we have eaten them one and all.
Source: Pepperidge Farm Cookbook, by Margaret Rudkin -----

* Exported from MasterCook *
CHAWETTY'S (15TH CENTURY MEAT PIE)
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Pies
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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1 1/2 lb Pork or veal, cubed
1 1/2 c Water
Pastry for 8" double pie
-crust
6 tb Chopped dates
6 tb Currants
2 ts Salt
5 Saffron threads
3/4 ts Ground ginger
3/4 ts Black pepper
1/2 ts Ground mace
1/4 ts Ground cloves
3/4 c Red wine
1 tb Wine vinegar
10 Egg yolks

From a manuscript in the British Library known as Harleian 479, dating from around 1420; recipe adapted from a version developed by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook.

In saucepan, simmer meat in water 20 minutes. Drain. Line 8" square baking dish with pastry. In bowl, combine meat, dates and currants. Place meat mixture into pastry-lined dish. In bowl, combine salt, saffron, ginger, pepper, mace, cloves, wine, vinegar and 9 egg yolks, reserving 1 yolk, and pour over. Cover with top crust, crimp well,make triangular cuts in center and fold tips back. Beat reserved yolk (save whites for another use) and brush on crust. Bake at 375'F. until crust is browned and meat is heated through, 25-30 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.

* Exported from MasterCook *
A GRETE PYE
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Main Dish
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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1 lb Shortcrust pastry
1 Egg white, beaten
Until liquid
1 lb Boned breasts of chicken
Pigeon or wild duck and/or
Saddle of hare or rabbit
(not stewing meat)
Salt and black pepper
1 lb Minced beef
2 tb Shredded suet
3 Hard-boiled egg
Yolks crumbled
1/4 ts Each ground
Cinnamon and mace
And a pinch of ground cloves
1 oz Stoned cooking dates chopped
1 oz Currants
2 oz Stoned prunes soaked
And drained
1/2 c Beef stock
1 tb Rice flour or cornflour

No Christmas feast in medieval times was complete without a 'grete pye'. In some recipes, it could contain many varied meats, but quite often only two or three different kinds were suggested; change the meats suggested here if you wish. Use just over half the pastry to line a 23-cm/9-inch pie plate. Brush the inside with some of the egg white. Skin the pieces of breast and other meat if necessary and parboil them gently in salted water for 10-15 minutes. Drain and leave to cool. Mix together in a bowl the minced beef, suet, salt and pepper to taste, the egg yolks and half the spice mixture. Add the rest of the spices to the dried fruit in another bowl. Slice the parboiled meat. Pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the beef stock to the rice flour or cornflour in a small saucepan and cream them together; then add the remaining stock and stir over gentle heat until slightly thickened. Keep aside. Cover the bottom of the pastry case with half the mince mixture. Arrange the sliced meat in a flat layer on top. Scatter the chopped spiced fruit over it and cover with the remaining mince. Pour the thickened stock over the lot. Roll out the remaining pastry into a round to make a lid for the pie. Brush the rim of the case with a little more egg white and cover with the

lid. Press the edges to seal, and make escape slits

for steam. Decorate with the pastry trimmings and

glaze with egg white. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce

the heat to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 and bake for 45-50

minutes longer. Serves 6 to 8. Grete pyes. Take faire

yonge beef, And suet of a fatte beste, or of Motton,

and hak all this on a borde small; and caste therto

pouder of peper and salt; and whan it is small hewen,

put hit in a bolle. And medle hem well; then make a

faire large Cofyn, and couche som of this stuffur in.

Then take Capons, Hennes, Mallardes, Connynges, and

parboile hem clene; take wodekokkes, teles, grete

briddes, and plom hem in a boiling pot; And then

couche al this fowle in the Coffyn, And put in euerych

of hem a quantite of pouder of peper and salt. Then

take mary, harde yolkes of egges, Dates cutte in ij

peces, reisons of coraunce, prunes, hole clowes, hole

maces, Canell and saffron. But first, whan thoug hast

cowched all thi foule, ley the remenaunt of thyne

other stuffur of beef a-bought hem, as thou thenkest

goode; and then strawe on hem this: dates, mary, and

reysons, &c. And then close thi Coffyn with a lydde

of the same paast, And putte hit in the oven, And late

hit bake ynough; but be ware, or thou close hit, that

there come no saffron nygh the brinkes there-of, for

then hit wol neuer close.

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* Exported from MasterCook *

CASSEROLE APICIUS WITH MEAT OR FISH

Recipe By :

Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00

Categories : Main dish

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

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-----FOR PANCAKES-----

3 Eggs

1/2 c Flour

1/3 c Milk

1/3 c Water

-----FOR CASSEROLE-----

2 1/2 c Cooked pork or chicken

Thinly slice

1 1/2 lb Cooked fish fillets

3 Raw eggs

2 tb Olive oil

1/2 ts Ground pepper

1/2 ts Celery seed (or lovage)

2 c Beef or chicken stock

1/4 c White wine

1/4 c Sweet raisin wine - muscatel

Flour

Coarsely ground pepper

Pine nuts or almonds

First make the pancakes:- beat 3 eggs and add flour, milk and water to make

a thin batter. Into a greased 8 inch frying pan, pour a little of the

batter and allow it to spread evenly. Cook each pancake over high heat and

flip over when it is lightly browned.

Prepare the coked meat or fish:- Mix with eggs, olicþ oil, celery seed,

stock, white wine and sweet wine. Heat the meats in this sauce, adding more

liquid if requird. Thicken the sauce with flour.

Next, take a greased casserole dish and cover the bottom with a layer of

meats or fish in their sauce. SPrinkle with coarsely ground pepper and with

nuts. On this, place a pancake. Fill the dish with layers of the sauced

meats, seasoned with pepper and nuts, each alternating with a pancake.

Pierce a hole in the final pancake to allow steam to escape and cooke

uncovered in a 375 F oven for 20- 25 minutes until the dish is uniformly

heated. Serve with a sprinkling of pepper.

Source - The Roman Cookery of Apicius

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