Collection
The old kitchen
Roasts, pottages, and puddings from before the modern recipe — plain instructions from a much older table.
Before measured cups and timed ovens, a recipe was a set of directions for a cook who already knew the kitchen: which fire, which pot, which spoonful. The dishes here are from that world — pottages simmered for hours, a goose turned on a spit, a pudding boiled in a cloth.
They are exact enough to cook and old enough to surprise. Read them less as a menu than as a record of what a kitchen could do with a hearth, a pot, and time.
Roast Goose with Verjuice
A goose roasted over the fire and basted with verjuice, the sour juice of unripe grapes that cuts the bird's richness.
Roast Haunch of Venison
A haunch of venison larded with bacon and roasted, served with a sharp sauce of wine, vinegar, and black pepper.
Capon with Herbs
A capon stuffed with parsley, thyme, and breadcrumbs, barded with bacon and roasted until the skin crackles.
Pease Pottage
A thick, slow-simmered pottage of dried peas with bacon and herbs — the daily dish of rich and poor alike.
Frumenty
Cracked wheat simmered in milk or broth until soft, enriched with egg yolks and served with sugar and spice.
Beef Stewed in Ale
Beef simmered slowly in dark ale with onions and root vegetables until it falls apart, thickened with bread.
Mutton Pottage
Mutton simmered with barley and root vegetables into a hearty one-pot dinner.
Black Pudding
A dark sausage of blood, oats, and suet, boiled in a casing and fried until the skin crisps.