First Course
Browet farsed, and charlet, for pottage.
Baked mallard. Teals. Small birds. Almond milk served with them.
Capon roasted with the syrup.
Roasted veal. Pig roasted “endored, and served with the yoke on his neck over gilt.” Herons.
A leche. A tart of flesh.
Second Course
Browet of Almayne and Viaunde rial, for pottage.
Mallard. Roasted rabbits. Pheasant. Venison.
Jelly. A leche. Urchynnes (hedgehogs).
Pome de orynge.
Third Course
Boar in egurdouce, and Mawmené, for pottage.
Cranes. Kid. Curlew. Partridge. (All roasted.)
A leche. A custarde.
A peacock endored and roasted and served with the skin.
Cockagris. Flaumpoyntes. Daryoles.
Pears in syrup.
First Course.—Brawn with mustard; cabbages in pottage; swan standard; cony, roasted; great custards.
Second Course.—Venison, in broth, with white mottrews; cony standard; partridges, with cocks, roasted; leche lombard; doucettes, with little parneux.
Third Course.—Pears in syrop; great birds with little ones together; fritters; payn puff, with a cold bake-meat.
[A few notes are necessary to elucidate the above menu:—Browet was a soup or broth made from boiled meat; Cockagris was a peculiar dish consisting of an old cock and a pig cooked together; Doucettes were sweet dishes; Flaumpoyntes were ornamented tarts; and to endore anything was to glaze it with yolk of egg.—Ed.]
It will be remarked that there is no mention here of plain beef or mutton. These did not belong to a feast. They are, however, mentioned in plainer bills of fare. The endeavour of the cook was to serve made dishes highly seasoned and spiced. Wright, for instance, explains some of the receipts by which it will be seen that our forefathers were luxurious in their food, if not gross. Everything also points to the fact that they were very large eaters. The open-air life led by the better class, the riding and exercise, the very scanty use of vegetables,—all these contributed to make them ready for the trencher.
At every course of a great banquet the cook sent up a “subtlety”—which was a composition in pastry, the last survival of which was the ornamental castle in sponge cake which used to occupy the middle of the table at a dinner party. These “subtleties” were sometimes elaborate and artistic groups with figures of animals—such as a boar, hart, or sheep. In John Russell’s Boke of Nurture are presented several “subteltis.” Thus at his “Dinner of Flesche” for the first course—
“And then a Sotelte.