Follow me through a 14th-century cook book

Sauge Yfarced, from Forme of Cury. Spicy pork meatballs coated in sage and a light crispy batter. Yummy! Image: © Christopher Monk 2019 (there are copyright restrictions on this image).

Hello and welcome to my new project: Monk's Modern Medieval Cuisine!

The project is multi-faceted. I'm filming a video series, in which I'll be recreating recipes from the 14th-century cookery book known as Forme of Cury ('the how-to, or method, of cooking');  writing a new edition and translation of this medieval book; and eventually writing a cookery book with fully tested recipes.

The video work is under way. We (I'll tell you more about my collaborator in another post) have filmed a pilot, but at present the focus is on testing and developing more recipes – easier said than done when the originals do not give you the quantities or times for cooking!

We hope to have the video series launched during the summer, via the Patreon platform, though these things always take longer than you think.

The edition and translation is progressing well. I have a working edition, based on the oldest and best version of the complete Forme of Cury, kept in the John Rylands Library, Manchester. And I've finished translating all 194 recipes, along with the recipe index and the preamble about Richard II's 'mayster cokes' – yes, this is a royal cookery book!

I'm just about to submit a formal book proposal to a publisher, who's shown interest, so wish me luck.

The last part of the project, the cookery book, is part of my longer term ambitions, so it may be a while before you see this come to fruition.

So thank you for showing your interest in my latest endeavours. I promise to keep folk up to date with what is going on.

All good wishes, foodies!

Christopher