This is a listing of culinary definitions for words found in historical recipes. There may be other, non-culinary, definitions that we have not listed here. If you cannot find the word you are searching for alphabetically, try searching for it with your browser's search function since the word may be found grouped together with an alternate spelling.
Note:  the letter "thorn" has been rendered here as [th], the letter "yogh" as [₃], and long "s" as  s or f, depending on who submitted the entry.

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If you cannot find what you are seeking on this site, here are some Other Glossaries to search:

• A Medieval Dutch Culinary Glossary, in Dutch, can be found here.
• A GLOSSARY OF COOKERY AND OTHER TERMS by Prospect Books.
• An Italian-English dictionary of 1611, "Queen Anna's New World of Words", by Iohn Florio.
• A Boke of Gode Cookery, Glossary of Medieval Cooking Terms.

Adarme (Spanish) = unit of weight, 1/16 ounce.

affaire (French) = To clean, to prepare (in context it could mean clean, skin, gut, scale, or any combination). (Viandier)
 

affiner (French) = To grind (in a mortar), to clean (a fish) (from context and OED. The literal meaning is 'refine'. Pichon et al. suggest 'peel', but this is surely wrong.). (Viandier)

agresto, agresta (It., Fr., Sp.) =  either verjuice, or the unripe grapes from which verjuice is produced. (Carroll-Mann) From Latin agrestis, meaning wild, pertaining to the fields.

aigrefin (French) = Haddock (fish) (Montagne). (Viandier)

ajada (Spanish),  ayada (Catalan) = sauce made of garlic pureed with oil, bread, and sometimes ground nuts. Compare to the Italian agliata sauce, described by Bartolomeo Scappi in Dell'Arte Cucinare (1570), made with walnuts, almonds, garlic,  and bread soaked in meat broth , all crushed in a mortar.

aji = a spice, mentioned in Robert Fuson's translation, "The Log of Christopher Columbus", (p.175) in the entry for 15 January 1493 concludes with: "There is a great deal of cotton here, very fine and long, as well as a lot of mastic, and gold and copper. There is also much aji, which is their pepper and is worth more than our pepper; no one eats without it because it is very healthy. Fifty caravels can be loaded each year with it on this Isla Espanola."  Fuson gives Aji as meaning chili pepper, not be confused with 'aje' (yucca or sweet potatoes) and 'ajo' (garlic).

Andrew Dalby in Dangerous Tastes. The Story of Spices (University of California Press, 2000) suggests that Columbus may never have seen actual allspice although he was assured that it was there... a bush bearing small round fruits that lent a spicy taste to food. Dalby also suggests that the aji found by Columbus is that perhaps of Capsicum chinese, the best known cultivated versions today are those of the Jamaican Scotch Bonnet. (Holloway)

Alablaster = Alabaster, a kind of marble used to make carved molds for sugar work.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To cast all manner of frutage hollow... put it into your Alablaster moulds...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To make Paste-royall white...and put into an Alablaster Morter with an ounce of Gum dragagant steeped in Rosewater...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To make  ... bruise them in an Alablaster or Marble Mortar...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To make paste of Goose-berries... beat it into perfect paste in an Alablaster Mortar...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To make Muskadine Comfits...and so beat them in an Alablaster Mortar till it come to perfect Paste...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) ...To cast all manner of frutage hollow in turned worke... put it into your Alablaster moulds, being made of three peeces...

alainne (French) = Steam (the literal meaning is 'breath'). (Viandier)

Alay, a-lye, Allay = to mix or combine.

albrotetus, abrotet, albroturs = a broth. See broth.

(Liber Cure Cocorum), #48.Harus in abrotet, (Contents) Harus in albrotetus
(A Noble Boke of Cookry ffor a Prynce Houssode), Haires in Albroturs

(Liber Cure Cocorum) #132 For seke menne. Ale bre [th]us make [th]ou schalle...

Alegar = Ale + egar/eger/aigre (as in egerdouce), or sour ale, vinegar made from sour ale or beer.

alemaundes, almonds
1 - used as a thickening agent (see also blood, bread, eggs and livers).(Viandier)
2 - used as "spines" for mock hedgehogs (yrchons)
3 - used as garnish

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almond milk = crushed or ground almonds, mixed with boiling water, wine, or broth, and allowed to stand until the liquid becomes milky in color.  The mixture is sweetened and used as a substitute for milk.

Alkanet = Alkanna tinctoria (Tausch.), or Anchusa tinctoria, Boraginaceae, also called Orchanet, Spanish Bugloss, Enchusa,  Bugloss of Languedoc, Alkanea, Orcanette or Orcanéte. The root of Alkanet yields a potentially toxic red dye that was used in medieval times as a red food coloring agent. It is grown in the South of France. (TTEM)

alose (French) = Shad (fish). (Viandier)

alouyau (French) = Olive (that is, veal roll, bird or paupiette) (Black, OED. Trésor suggests a derivation from aloel or alouette, meaning 'lark', which would match an alternate English word for the dish, namely 'bird'. The medieval English spelling was 'alow' for the dish (Black), later spelt 'olave' (Aresty). This was presumably corrupted over the years to 'olive'. I have chosen 'paupiette' since it appears in Montagne and Webster.). (Viandier)

aloxas, alosses, alojas (Catalan/ Spanish) = a Catalan/Spanish confection made from sugar, water, rosewater, and amidon (wheat starch), cooked until thick, and then poured into a box.  Recipes appear in the 14th century "Libre de totes Maneres de Confits" (with a marzipan underlayer) and in the "Manual de Mugeres". (Carroll-Mann)

alozees (French) = Shad-like (if ‘shad-like carp’ simply means 'carp'. It might instead be a mis-writing (the recipe for carpes directly follows that for aloze in the text). It might even be a new fish, belonging to the second paragraph of the recipe for 'shad'.) (Viandier)

aluminic casini = "rock alum of Cassino."  …aluminum potassium sulfate or aluminum sodium sulfate, commonly extracted from alumina ores and made into styptic pencils.  There are several mines in Italy that have been operating since at least the 16th Century. (Decker)  NOT EDIBLE -- found in soap recipes.

amang (N. Engl. dial.) = among

Amber = fossilized resin; a semi-precious gem with static electrical properties, formerly used in medicine.  Also sometimes refers to ambergris. (Sip)

amber of grece, ambergrease, ambregris, ambergris, Amber-greece, amber = from Middle French ambre gris - a waxy substance containing indigestible matter, produced in the intestines or stomach of the sperm whale. The whale regurgitates this substance. Dried ambergris is found floating in the tropics.   It is used in the manufacture of perfumes, and as a fixative. In  the 16th century it was used as a perfume and as a flavoring for confections and sweet dishes. Illustration

Mrs Sarah Longe her Receipt Booke - "...with a little Quantity of musk, and Ambergrease..."
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make a speciall sweet water to perfume clothes...the weight of foure pence of Amber-greece...   [INEDIBLE]
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make mosse-powder... half a dram of amber-greece... [INEDIBLE]
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make an especiall sweet Powder...Amber-greece ten graines...  [INEDIBLE]
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make an excellent Marmelade... put in of Muske and Amber dissolved in Rose-water, of each foure graines...
(The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt. Opened, 1669) - "Another Cake... When it is half-baked, Ice it over with fine Sugar and Rose-water, and the whites of Eggs, and Musk and Ambergreece."
(The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt. Opened, 1669) -"To Make A Plumb-Cake... Then to Ice it, take a pound and half of double refined Sugar beaten and searsed; The whites of three Eggs new-laid, and a little Orange-flower-water, with a little musk and Ambergreece, beaten and searsed..."
(The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt. Opened, 1669) -"Another Very Good Cake...  If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece."
(The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt. Opened, 1669) - "My Lord of Denbigh's Almond March-pane...You may beat dissolved Amber, or Essence of Cinnamon, with them."

Digby, 1669, # 121 - “Ambered-sugar is made by grinding very well, four grains of Ambergreece, and one of Musk, with a little fine Sugar; or grinding two or three Spanish Pastils very small.”

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Amydone, amidon , amidum= Starch from wheat or rye. Basically, wheat (or rye, rice) is soaked in water for several days; the water must be changed several times. Then the wheat is pounded and put into water again. This mash is filtered somehow and dried in the sun. The result seems to be starch that must be powdered again before it is put to use.
 

-- Simili modo e tritici semine tragum fit, in Campania dumtaxat et Aegypto, amylum vero ex omni tritico ac siligine, sed optimum e
trimestri. inventio eius Chio insulae debetur; et hodie laudatissimum inde. est appellatum ab eo quod sine mola fiat. proximum trimestri quod
e minime ponderoso tritico. madescit dulci aqua in ligneis vasis, ita ut integatur quinquies in die mutata; melius, si et noctu, ita ut misceatur
pariter. emollitum priusquam acescat, linteo aut sportis saccatum tegulae infunditur inlitae fermento, atque ita in sole densatur. post
Chium maxime laudatur Creticum, mox Aegyptium - probatur autem levore et levitate atque ut recens sit -, iam et Catoni dictum apud nos.
(Plinius)

-- Amydon. Pur fere amidon pur tut l'an, a tenyr taunt de tens come vos volez. Pernez forment net, entur la seint Johan, e si le metez en un vessel, e metez de bel ewe assez oue le forment neef jurs; e chescun jur serra le furment bien bien lavé, e le ewe changé; e pus braez le bien, e pus metez le ariere en bel ewe, e lessez le ester une nuyt; e pus colez hors le ewe; e pus metez le sus une lincele ver le solail, dekes a taunt ke il seit sec; e pus kaunt il est sec, pernez le e le metez en un net vessele; si le tenez taunt come vos volez, e coverez le bien, e trenchez le en peces &cetera. (Hieatt/Jones, eds., Two anglo-norman culinary collections, 1986, Ms. A Nr. 21)

-- Wiltu eine [!] Amelunck machen so nim den besten weissen vnd erlise in also schöene also du iemer kanst vnd tüo in denne in einen zuber vnd schútte frisch wasser dar vber alle tage vncz das er xiiij tage gewessert wirt so tüon denne daz wasser abe vnd stosse in in einem steine wol vnd tu:o in denne in ein wis Du:och vnd swinge in wol in dem frischen wasser so du aller vaste mahs vnd seige das wasser denne abe so du aller truckenste maht vnd slahe in denne vf ein wiß düoch vnd loß in dorren an der sunen so er iemer veste mag vnd hencke in denne an den luft in einen korp oder in einen sag. (Cod. guelf. 16.17. Aug. 4°, Blatt 111r/v; nach 1415, wohl noch erste Hälfte 15. Jh.)

--MS. Harley 5401:  22,3 --  To make Amydon.

-- For to make amydon. -- Nym whete at midsomer / & salt, & do it in a faire vessel / do water therto, that thy whete be yheled / let it stonde ix days & ix ny(g)t, & everyeday whess wel thy whete / & at ye ix days ende bray hit wel in a morter / & drie hit to(g)enst ye sonne / do it in a faire vessel / & kouere hit fort, thou wil it note. (Austin 1888, p. 112; Laud Ms. 553)

-- Wie man vmberdumb soll machen.
ccliiij. Nimb ein schöenen lautern Winter waitz/ vnd das er schöen erklaubt sey/ geüß ein frisch wasser daran/ vnnd seyhe
es alle tag ab/ geüß als offt ein frisch //wasser\\ wider daran/ müosts acht oder zehen tag thüon/ so lang biß sich der waitz kleübet/ so nimb dann den Waitzen/ vnd stoß jn/ vnnd geüß ein frisch wasser daran/ vnd truck jhn mit den henden/ vnnd nimb ein scho:ens leines Säecklein/ geüß den gerüerten Waitzen darein/ gibt ein weiß ding ausser. So du jn allen ein mal geru:ert hast/ das ist der erst schuß/ so stoß jhn stets zum andern mal/ den [N2a||46a] stoß besonder durch/ der ist nicht so gu:ot. So nun der
Vmmerdumb in ein Zinnbecken/ oder schaff gesetzt/ so seicht das wasser gantz ab/ vnd geüß ein anders daran/ biß es dick [ich] bedunckt es sey am boden gantz weiß/ Ob aber fäeßlin darinnen weren/ so rüer jhn durch einander/ von boden auff/ laß wider durchs Säeckel/ dann so geüß das wasser gantz darab/ das gleich wie ein taiglein der Vmmerdumb sey/ breyt den auff ein schöens weiß häerins tüoch/ auff ein bräetle/ geüß das taiglin zettelweiß darauff/ vnd setz jn an die Sonnen/ so er vbertrucknet/ ledigs von dem tüoch/ kers vmb/ vnnd setz an ein heisse Sonnen/ so wirt er scho:en weiß/ man mag jn in einer warmen stuben auch trücknen. (Staindl 1569)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Biskettello... put into it halfe a spoonfull of Amidum, that is, white Starch...

Ananas (Ger.) = pineapple

andouille, andoylle (French) = A spicy smoked sausage made of pork and garlic.  The word derives from the Old French "andoille" from the Medieval Latin "inductilia," to introduce into,  from the Latin "inducere," to introduce into a casing. (Decker)

Gargantua and Pantagruel - "he sat down at table; and because he was naturally phlegmatic, he began his meal with some dozens of gammons, dried neat's tongues, hard roes of mullet, called botargos, andouilles or sausages, and such other forerunners of wine."

(Liber Cure Cocorum) -#106 Of petecure... Rede cole hane parte of potage is...

appareillier (French)  = To prepare, to clean (from context). (Viandier)

Apricocks, aluaricoques, abricot, alvariquoques, albaricoque (Sp.) , albricoque (Fr.), albirquq, al-burquq (Arabic), praiko`kia (Gr.), praecoquus, praecox (Lat.)  = apricots, Prunus Armeniaca L. The name comes from the Latin, meaning 'early ripe'. (Fox-Davis)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To preserve Apricocks... Of Apricocks take a pound...

Aqua celestis (heavenly water) = a medicinal distilled alcoholic beverage.

Aqua composita (composed water) = a medicinal distilled alcoholic beverage.

Aqua mirabilis (miracle water) = a medicinal distilled alcoholic beverage.

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Aqua vitae, ew ardant, ardent spirits = the water of life.  Distilled or grain alcohol.  In this case it means ETHANOL (ethyl alcohol), not isopropanol (rubbing alcohol), denatured (poisoned) alcohol, or methanol (wood alcohol).  From the name aqua vitae comes the Scandinavian word akavit, or aquavit, a distilled liquor flavored with caraway seeds.  (Sip)

Forme of Cury (c. 1390) #189 Chastlet⁹ "...su^-e it forth w^t ew ardant."
Du fait de cuisine, by Master Chiquart, 1420 #5 ...heads of boars endored and armed and with banners and spitting fire... which should be soaked in fine ardent spirits and purified with a little camphor."

archal (French) = Brass wire (Huguet). (Viandier)

arconner (French) = To bard (from context, and probably from ‘arson’, meaning 'saddle-bow' or 'saddle' (OED). This is exactly parallel to 'bard', meaning 'horse armour' or 'pack saddle' (OED). Pichon et al. and Godefroy suggest "to attach to the spit with the aid of little skewers retaining the roast", but this is surely wrong.). (Viandier)

ardant spirits = alcohol. See aqua vitae.

Argoll = see Cream of Tartar.

Aromaticum Rosarum =This term appears in the "Booke of Sweetmeats" section of Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. (Recipe S 273, To make Aquecelestis).  Karen Hess says that it is "a powder containing red roses among its some 15 ingredients; it was highly popular and was sold in the apothecary shops.  Culpepper gives the prescription in _A Physical Directory_, 1651, and claims that it 'strengthens the Brain, Heart, and stomach.'"

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Aromaticum Lozonges... put in of the spices of Aromaticum Rosarum, 4. drammes...

arrouser (French) = To baste (the literal meaning is 'sprinkle').(Viandier)

Arrows = arrow shafts were used to form hollow tubes out of sugar paste.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To make Paste-royall in Spices... then you may turne it upon sticks made of peeces of Arrowes, and make them hollow like Cinamon sticks...

Ascension Day Root =  It would appear that this is a reference to Elecampane which used to be harvested on the Church holiday of the same name.

assate = to roast.

assation = roasting or baking.

assature = roasted meat.

Assay it = to try it, taste it.  An assay is also a unit of measurement equal to 4 drams plus 24 grains. (Sip)

As pottage should be = a description of consistency = thick, but runny, like oatmeal. (TTEM)

At the dresser = a way station between the kitchen and the dining hall where food was kept  warm and garnished prior to serving. (TTEM)

atout (French) = Including. (Viandier)

aubun  (French) = White (of egg). (Viandier)

auence, avens = An herb, Geum urbanum L., and related species, Rosaceae, also called Herb Bennet. Used for its green colour, and as a potherb.   If unobtainable, use a mixture of parsley (for colour) and cloves (for flavour) (Grieve, Sass 1975, OED). (Viandier)  The dried root of Avens has a clove-like flavor, and is used as a seasoning.  See also salmonde.

(Harl. 279, Potage Dyvers., c. 1430)  iij. Joutes.  Take Borage, Vyolet,... Auence, Longebeff wyth Orage and o[th]er, pyke hem clene...

aunes (French) = unit of length. The "aune" equates to the English ell.  It varied regionally in France, but was a length of roughly 45 inches.  Commonly used to measure cloth. (Decker)

Auroch is a general term which has been applied to both Bos primigenius (the ursus which is related to the Texas longhorn) and Bison bonasus (the wisent or European bison).  In English, it is most commonly associated with Bos primigenius, but using it for either the ursus or wisent is correct. (Decker)

Ave Maria = a prayer, used as a measurement of time, approx. 13 seconds.

awqiya (Arabic) = unit of measurement. 1 awqiya = 33.8 grams = 1.19 ounces.

azucar (Sp.) =
1) sugar.
2) a sweet mixture. (Carroll-Mann)

azumbre = Spanish - unit of liquid measurement, approx.  4 pints, 2 quarts, 1/2 gallon, or 1/8 of an arroba

azure = Probably the semiprecious stone lapis lazuli, ground up, and used for its blue colour (OED). Plouvier suggests azurite, but this is probably wrong. (Viandier)

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baien (French) = Burst (of swelling grain) (Pichon et al.). (Viandier)

bakbon, bakebon, bacbon, backbone = the spine

Baklava = The modern pastry of filo sheets, melted butter, ground nuts, honey, and flavoring has several antecedents in the medieval layered breads of the nomadic Turks, the yoka of the Turks of Central Asia, and in the Azerbaijanis' archaic pastry Baki pakhlavasi where eight layers of a thin noodle paste is interlayered with seven layers of ground nuts. It was left to the Ottoman era Topkapi Palace kitchens to combine their pastry skills with this archaic dish and come up with the paper thin dough now known as filo and this has led in turn to modern baklava.  (Holloway)  See also Perry's "The Taste for Layered Bread..."

bale =
1- (noun) the belly of a deer
2- (noun) a package of merchandise tied up in a rounded shape
3- (noun) a bonfire

bale, balu, bealu, baluw, etc. = in the expressions "to brew bale", "to bake bale",  "to work bale", the word "bale" is not a reference to a type of food or drink. The expression means to make mischief.

Balneo = a water bath or bain marie, used to heat liquids gently during distillation. (Sip)

banqueting conceit, conceits = a dainty tidbit served during the banquet, or dessert course.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To make Paste of Violets...and when it is dry, gild it. It is a fine banqueting conceit.
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) ...Heere begin Banqueting Conceits, as Marmelades, Quodiniacks, and such like...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) ...To make Biskettello...It is a very fine banqueting conceit.
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) ...To make a March-pane, to ice it... when it is iced, garnish it with conceits and stick long Comfits in it...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) ...To make all sorts of banqueting Conceits of March-pane stuffe...

Barbary Sugar = sugar grown in the Barbary States of Northwest Africa, principally Morocco.  Lord Burleigh, Secretary of State for Elizabeth I,
complained of the quality of Barbary sugar to the Grocer's Company. Indications are that it was a sugar of secondary quality, below Maderia
sugar but better than brown sugar.  Importation of Barbary and Egyptian sugar into England began after Henry VIII's break with the Catholic Church in 1534.  In 1551, under Edward VI, the Barbary Company was formed to trade with the Barbary Coast and the company was very active through Elizabeth's reign.  The company achieved a monopoly about 1585, but lost it when Ahmad al-Mansur opened diplomatic relations between Morocco and Spain near the end of the 16th Century. (Decker)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To preserve Cherries... then take of fine Barbary Sugar, and set it over the fire...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To preserve Damsons... and to every pound of Damsons, you must take a pound of Barbary Sugar, white and good...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To candie all manner of Flowers, Fruits and Spices, the cleere rocke-Candie. Take two pound of Barbary Sugar great grained...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) ...To make all kinds of birds and beasts to stand... Take Barbary-Sugar, clarifie it...

Barbe Robert , Sauce Robert, Sauce Barbe Robert, saulce Robert  = A kind of sauce. (Viandier)

 
1-- In the printed 15th c. Viandier, ed. Pichon/Vicaire p. 170:
"Pastés de poules a la saulce Robert. Prenés du vert jus et des moyeulx d'oeufz, et batés tout ensemble, et de pouldre fine; et, quant le pasté sera cuyt, mettés tout ensemble; et convient que toute la poulaille soit despeçée."

2-- In the 15th c. "Vivendier" (ed. Scully)
"Et premiers, pour faire une barbe Robert : prenez un poy de belle esve,
et le mettez boullir avoec du bure ; et puis y mettez du vin, de le moustarde et du vergus et des espices teles et si fortez que vous y arez vo goust, et laissiez tout bien boullir ensamble; puis prenez vostre poulet par pièces et le mettez dedens et laissiez boullir une onde seullement, puis si le rostez ; et gardez qu'il y ait brouet par raison; et qui soit un poy coulouré de saffren."

"Firstly, to make a Barbe Robert. Get a little clear water and set it to boil with some butter; then add in wine, mustard, verjuice and such spices and as strong as you like, and let everything boil together. Then get your pieces of chicken, put them in and let them boil only briefly; then roast them. Watch that there is a reasonable amount of broth. It should be coloured a little with saffron." (Tr. T. Scully)

3-- In the "Grand Cuisinier 1583" (quoted in Pichon/V. 109 Fn. 3)
Sauce Barbe Robert: "Prenés oygnons menus fris en sain de lard, ou beurre selon le iour, verjus, vinaigre et moustarde menu espice et sel, & faictes bouillir tout ensemble. Cette sauce sert à connils rostis, & poissons frit, tant de mer que d'autres, & oeufs frits".
(Basically the same version in a copy of the Grand Cuysinier, printed between 1566 and 1574, according to Vicaire's bibliography)

4-- and in the _Fleur de toute cuisine_ (1548), quoted in Scully, Viandier p. 226 (this text is related to the _Grand Cuisinier_ tradition)
"Prenez oignons menus fris en saing de lart ou beurre selen le jour, verjus, vinaigre et moustarde, menue espice et sel et faictes bouillir tout ensemble. Ceste saulce sert a connins rostis et poisson frit tant de mer que d'austres oeufs fris [sic]".

5-- Mentioned by Rabelais, 16th c., quoted in Littré's dictionary
"Robert ... fut inventeur de la saulse Robert, tant salubre et necessaire aux connils roustis, canards, porcs frais, oeufs pochés, merluz salés et mille autres telles viandes". (Rabelais IV 40; Littré 4, 1740).

6-- There are several places in La Varenne, in the Cuisinier and once in the Patissier.

According to Littré in his dictionary, it is a "Sauce piquante formée d'oignons hachés très-fin, cuits dans le beurre, et arrosés d'une cuillerée de vinaigre et autant de moutarde" (Littre 4, 1740a).

According to Scully in his Vivendier, it is "essentially a 'fortified' mustard sauce -- that is, a boiled mustard with additional spicing".
 

bard, barding = Originally cloth or armour for a horse; later armour for men-at-arms; possibly derived from an Arabic word for 'pack-saddle'.
Culinarily it means to dress for roasting with large slices of pork fat draped over the meat. (Viandier) Also, a bard is the strip of pork fat used for this purpose.  Nola uses this technique in two different poultry recipes (#34 & #49). Earliest English usage cited in OED is 1665.
Barding is distinguished from larding in that while larded meats are studded with slivers of lard inserted into little slots cut into the outer surface of the meat (and this is called studding when other things, such as cloves, are used, according to Le Menagier, which suggests the process is at least that old), barding is the process of coating a piece of meat entirely with fat, essentially wrapping the meat in sheets of fat sliced from a block of [usually] flead, flitch, suet, or whatever else your culture calls unrendered kidney/loin fat.Have you ever seen, in the glass cases at the expensive butcher shops, whole beef tenderloin roasts covered with white fat and tied up? (Sometimes this is done with bacon.) That is barding. It can also be done with pheasants and various other dryish poultry, certain cuts of veal, etc.
Barding has the advantage of being easily removed for service, and also does not cut into the meat, which can keep juices from escaping. Think in terms of the increased surface-area-to-mass ratio between a roast covered with little cuts versus one without them. On the other hand, barded cuts really don't brown much. It's just a different tool, with different capabilities, for a different job. (Troy)

barberries = Berberis vulgaris. "Alan Davidson refers to them as a "poorman's red currant." They were valued for use in the Middle Ages because they are a fairly acid red berry that would jell without the use of pectin. They were candied, pickled, conserved, eaten out of hand, and used in garnishes. Geoffrey Grigson noted that they were the fruit of a yellow barked shrub and as such were valued for treatment of "yellow diseases", i.e. jaundice. In the Caucasus, they were used in jams, jellies, and dried for use as seasonings. Facciola indicates that in Iranian cuisine, the dried berries were called zereshk and were used as a sour flavoring... "ZERESHK" berries are currently available on the internet from a number of Middle Eastern grocers. Indian cuisine dried some species and used them as "sour currants" in desserts... They are not common in the wild today in England because they were systematically eradicated as they were a host to a black rust fungus that attacks cereal crops. That's why Hilary Spurling chose to use imported cranberries for the barberry recipes in her edition of Fettiplace." (Holloway)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To preserve Barberries.  Take your Barberries very fair and well coloured...

Barm, berme = live yeast found on "working" ale and beer.

barley-bree = malt liquor. Literally the broth of barley.  See bree.

bastard lovage = An herb (Laserpitium latifolium). Also called hartwort or herb frankincense (Grieve, OED). (Viandier)

baste =  To brush or spoon pan dripping, fat, or other liquid over a roast, etc. to prevent drying out or burning, and to improve the flavor or coat the roast. See also baciner, dewte
 

(Harl. 279 , c. 1430)(Austin p. 39) ..."& euer as it dryit, baste it with bature, & sette forth in seruyce".

1594 Handmaide (Peachey p. 40) "To roste a Hare. First wash it in faire water, then perboyle it and lay in cold water againe, then larde it, and roste it in a broch. Then to make sauce for it, take red Vinigar, Salt, Pepper, Ginger Cloves, Mace, and put them together. Then minse Apples, and Onions, and frie them with a litle Sugar, and let them boyle wel together, then baste it upon yor hare, and so serve it foorth".

1594 Handmaide (Peachey p. 44) "... so lay it to the fyre, + baste it well with Butter and vinigar, + some Sinamon + Ginger in your butter,  wherewith you baste it, and so serve it in".

1615 Murrell C1a.6 "Bake it on a Dish in the ouen: baste it with sweet Butter, that it may not bake drye on the outside".

Liber Cure Cocorum - #50. Hennes in brewes... Grynde brede and peper and be not batte...

battledore, Battle door = from ME batildore, a flat wooden paddle.

Digby (1669) White metheglin of my Lady Hungerford - After it is well dissolved and laved with strong Arms or woodden Instruments, like Battle doors or Scoops...

bature, batur,  bater, baturys (plural)  = batter

(Ancient Cookery, 1381) #28, "XXVIII. For to make capons in casselys....mak a batur and droppe the body rostyng..."

Harleian MS. 279 , c. 1430)- Leche Vyaundez. xlv.  Brawune frye[₃]. "...take [th]e [₃]olkys of Eyroun, & sum of [th]e whyte [th]er-with; [th]an take mengyd Flowre, an draw [th]e Eyroun [th]orw a straynoure; [th]an take a gode quantyte of Sugre, Saferoun, & Salt, & caste [th]er-to, & take a fayre panne with Freyssche gres, & set ouer [th]e fyre; & whan [th]e grece is hote, take [th]e Brawn, an putte in bature, & turne it wyl [th]er-yn..."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. "liiij.  Fretoure.  Take whete floure, Ale [₃]est, Safroun, & Salt, & bete alle to-gederys as [th]ikke as [th]ou schuldyst make o[th]er bature in fleyssche tyme..."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. "lxiij.  Fretoure owt of lente.  Take Flowre, Milke, & Eyroun, & grynd Pepir & Safroun, & make [th]er-of a bature..."

 Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez "lj.  Cryspe[₃].  Take Whyte of Eyroun, Mylke, & Floure, & a lytel Berme, & bete it to-gederys, & draw it [th]orw a straynoure, so [th]at it be renneng, & not to styf, & caste Sugre [th]er-to, & Salt; [th]anne take a chafer ful of freysshe grece boyling, & put [th]in hond in [th]e Bature, & lat [th]in bature renne dowun by [th]in fyngerys in-to [th]e chafere..."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. xxvij.  Appraylere.  "... & [th]an haue a gode Bature of Spicerye, Safroun, Galyngale, Canel, & [th]er-of y-now, & flowre, & grynd smal in a morter, & temper it vp with raw Eyroun, & do [th]er-to Sugre of Alisaunder y-now; & euer as it dryit, baste it with bature, & sette forth in seruyce."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. lx.  Myle[₃] in Rapeye.  "...[th]an make a gode bature  of Almaunde mylke & Floure, & do [th]er-in, & frye hem wyl in Oyle, & ley hem yn a dyssche, & pore on [th]e Sew, & serue forth. "

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. xlviij.  Ryschewys in lente.  "...[th]an make [th]in bature with ale & Floure, & frye hem vppe brown in Oyle..."

Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers. xlvj.  Poumes.  "...[th]en take flowre an [₃]olkys of eyroun, an [th]e whyte, an draw hem [th]orwe a straynowre, an caste [th]er-to pouder Gyngere, an make [th]in bature grene with [th]e Ius of Percely, or Malwys, in tyme of [3]ere Whete, an caste on [th]e pommys as [th]ey turne a-boute...

 Harleian MS. 279 - Dyuerse Bake Metis. xxx.  Sew trappe.  "Take .ij. lytel er[th]en pannys, & sette on [th]e colys  tyl [th]ey ben hote; make a dyssche-fulle of [th]ikke bature of Floure & Watere..."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. lxiiij.  Towres.  "Take & make a gode [th]ikke bature of [₃]olkys of Eyroun..."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. liij.  Lesynges de chare.  "...& [th]an make fayre bature of Raw [₃]olkys of Eyroun, Sugre, & Salt, & close [th]e sydys of [th]e lesyng[₃] [th]er-with, & [th]an frye hem in fayre grece, & serue forth."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. xix.  Pome dorres.  "...[th]en take Almaunde mylke, & y-bontyd flour, do hem to-gederys; take Sugre, & putte in [th]in bature; [th]en dore hem with sum grene [th]ing, percely or [₃]olkys of Eyroun, to-geder, [th]at [th]ey ben grene; & be wyl war [th]at [th]ey ben nowt Browne; & sum men boyle hem in freysshe bro[th] or [th]ey ben spetid; & whan [th]ey ben so boylid, [th]en [th]ey must ben sette an kelid, & [th]an Spete hem, & dore hem with [₃]olkys of Eyroun y-mengyd with [th]e Ius of haselle leuys. "

(Harleian MS. 4016, c. 1450). #71 Chike endored. "Take a chike, and drawe him, and roste him, And lete the fete be on, and take awey the hede; then make batur of yolkes of eyron and floure, and caste there-to pouder of ginger, and peper, saffron and salt, and pouder hit faire til hit be rosted ynogh."

Harleian MS. 4016. #19 Capons Stwed. "...hele the potte with a close led, and stoppe hit abou[₃]te with dogh or bater, that no eier come oute..."

Harleian MS. 4016. #22 Frutours. "Take yolkes of egges, drawe hem thorgh a streynour, caste there-to faire floure, berme and ale; stere it togidre til hit be thik.  Take pared appelles, cut hem thyn like obleies, ley hem in [th]e batur..."

Harleian MS. 4016. #133 Lente ffrutours.  "Take goode floure, Ale yeest,  saffron, and salt, and bete al to-gidre as thik as o[th]er maner frutours of fflesh; and [th]en take Appels, and pare hem, and kut hem in maner of ffrutours, and wete hem in [th]e batur vp and downe..."

Harleian MS. 4016. #80 Payn purdeuz. "...And then wete [th]e brede well there in [th]e yolkes of eyren, and then ley hit on the batur in [th]e pan..."

Harleian MS. 4016. #79 Browne fryes.  "...And whan [th]e grece is hote, take downe and putte it in [th]e batur, and turne hit wel therein..."

Harleian MS. 4016. #117 Cryspes.  "Take white of eyren, Milke, and fyne floure, and bete hit togidre, and drawe hit thorgh a streynour, so that hit be rennyng, and noght to stiff; and caste there-to sugur and salt.  And then take a chaffur ful of fressh grece boyling; and [th]en put thi honde in the batur and lete the bater ren thorgh thi fingers into [th]e chaffur..."

Harleian MS. 4016. #136 [Trayne roste.]  "...And then take a quarte of wyne or Ale, and fyne floure,  And make batur thereof, and cast thereto pouder ginger, sugur, & saffron,  pouder of Clowes, salt; And make [th]e batur not fully rennyng, and no[th]er stonding, but in [th]e mene, that hit may cleue, and than rost the  treyne abought the fire in [th]e spete; And [th]en cast the batur on the treyne as he turneth abough[t] the fire, so longe til [th]e frute be hidde in the batur; as [th]ou castest [th]e batur there-on, hold a vessell vndere-nethe, for spilling of [th]e batur..."

Harleian MS. 4016. #74 ffelettes of Porke endored.  "Take ffelettes of porke, and roste hem faire, And endore hem with [th]e same batur as [th]ou doest a cheke as he turneth aboute the spitte, And serue him forth."

Harleian MS. 4016 . #76 Losinges de chare. "...And then make faire bater of rawe yolkes of eron, sugur and salt, and close [th]e sides of [th]e losinges therewith, and then fry hem in fressh grece ynow, And so serue hem forthe."

Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez. #xxiij.  Pome-Garnez.  "... [th]an make [th]in baturys, [th]e on grene, & [th]at o[th]er [₃]elow; [th]e grene of Percely. "

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bawde, baude, from barder (Fr.) = to cut in thin slices.

Harleian MS. 4016, #9 Mortreus de Chare - "...take it vppe, and bawde hit, and hewe it..."
Harleian MS. 4016. #34 Herbe-blade - "...take it oute, and baude hit..."
Harleian MS. 4016. #174 ffirmenty with porpeys. "...whan hit is ynowe, baude hit, and leche hit..."
Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers #lix Furmenty with purpaysse... bawde it & leche it in fayre pecys...

baye (French) = Berry (bay or juniper) (used in the treatment of wines) ('bay' alone may mean the berries of the bay tree (OED). Pichon et al. suggest the juniper berry. Crushed juniper berry is used to remove unpleasant flavours from game birds (Rombauer et al.). Scully (1988) suggests bay leaves, but this is surely wrong.). (Viandier)

Beccasse (Fr.) = "A Woodcock.  Becasse petite, A Snite or Snipe. Cot.[grave]" (Furnivall, II, p. 68.)

be dene, bydene, bedene, etc. =  Occurs repeatedly throughout ME poetry to fill the measure and to provide a rhyme. For the most part it means "anon" or "by and by", etc., and should be considered to have no value as an instruction in recipes.

bedja = ancient Egyptian conical bread pot made of clay.  More information and illustration here.

beet sugar = "The first person known to have extracted beet sugar is a Prussian chemist, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, in 1747.  The commercial process was first presented by Franz Karl Achard, also a German chemist in 1793.  He went on to set up the first commercial plant in 1802." (Decker)

Benzoin, Bengewine, Belzoin,  benjamin, Benione, etc.= Styrax Benzoin, a tree resin. Now available as powdered resin and a tincture. A perfume fixative. AKA gum benzoin, benjamin.

"A dry and brittle resinous substance, with a fragrant odour and slightly aromatic taste, obtained from the Styrax benzoin, a tree of Sumatra, Java, etc. It is used in the preparation of benzoic acid, in medicine, and extensively in perfumery. For scientific distinction it is now termed gum benzoin. Also called by popular corruption BENJAMIN." (OED)
 

"1558 WARDE Alexis' Secr. (1568) 3a, An unce of Bengewine.
1562 TURNER Herbal II. 30b, Belzoin or Benzoin is the rosin of a tree.
1601 HOLLAND Pliny I. 480 The herbe..(which beareth the gum Benjoine) grew there first.
1616 BULLOKAR, Benzwine, a sweet smelling gumme.
1616 SURFL. & MARKH. Countr. Farm 484 Your hard gums, such as is frankincense, benjouin..and waxe.
1653 WALTON Angler (Arb.) 42 There is an herb Benione, which..makes him (the Otter) to avoid that place.
1658 ROWLAND Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 1000 Asa dulcis, Wine and Honey, or Benzoin dissolved in warm water.
1671 GREW Anat. Plants I. 17 Benzoine, by Distillation [yieldeth] Oyl; by Vstion, white Flowers.
1834 J. GRIFFIN Chem. Recr. 117 Gum benzoin (or benjamin) is a prime constituent of fumigating pastiles.
1875 JEVONS Money vii. 28 Cubes of benzoin, gum or beeswax..are other peculiar forms of currency." (OED)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make an especiall sweet Powder... Benzoin and the Storax of each three drams... beat them all save the Benzoin and Storax and powder them by themselves...  [INEDIBLE]

beeregar, behegor, beereager, beareger, beeregre = vinegar made from beer. [beer + (Fr.) aigre = sour.]

bescuit (French) = Pike (fish) (Pichon et al., Tobler. Power and Flandrin et al. have 'salmon'.). (Viandier)

bete (French)= Chard (Pichon et al., Montagne, OED). (Viandier)

Betony =  an herb, Betonica officinalis L., Labiatae, also called Herb christopher, Wild Hop, or Wood Betony.  (TTEM)

Bezoar = "A bezoar stone is a hard mass of indigestible material such as hair or fibers found in the stomachs or intestines of animals.  Apparently they are fairly common in ruminants and humans.  Bezoar stones are believed to have magic properties and act as a antidote to poison.  Bezoar appears to derive from the Middle English "bezear" from the Old French "bezahar" possibly from the Arabic "bazahr" which derives from the Persian "padzahr" meaning "poison antidote."" (Decker)

bien pou (French) = Just a little (Huguet. Other dictionaries suggest 'very little' and similar meanings, but the recipes involved seem to call for the use of more than is suggested by 'very little'.).(Viandier)

Biskets =

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Prince-bisket bread... cast Biskets and Carrowaies on it...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make the vsuall Bisket sold at Comfit-makers...

Biskettello = small sweets made of sugar paste mixed with starch and musk, fashioned into the shape of tiny manchet loaves, baked on wafers in a cool oven and garnished with gold leaf.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Biskettello...

blanc mengier (French), blanke maunger, blancmange , blamang, blamanger, blaumanger, blancmanger, etc. = White dish (the literal meaning is 'white to eat'. (Viandier)  Modern blancmange is not the same dish.

bland = a drink made of hot whey or buttermilk mixed with water.

blank = A coin worth 5 deniers (OED. Pichon et al. suggest 10 or 12 deniers.) (Viandier)

Blattes de Bysance = "(also known as "onycha") are the opercules (shell-hinges) of a particular shellfish, Strombus lentigosus. These are used in some perfumery, particularly in incenses, as they have a powerful scent when ground and heated. Among other things, they are an ingredient in the famous Biblical incense of the High Priests.  From http://bible.ort.org/bible/htm/exodus/penta/ch30.htm

"30 : 34 onycha Shecheleth in Hebrew. The Targum translates this as tufra, the Talmud as tziporen (Kerithoth 6a), and the Septuagint as onyx, all denoting "fingernail." Some maintain that this is a spice actually prepared from human fingernails (cf. Arukh s.v. Tziporen), but most authorities see it as coming from an aquatic animal (Mossef HeArukh ibid.; Ramban). It is therefore usually identified as onycha (Hirsch; King James) or blatta byzantia (Abarbanel; Shiltey Gibborim 85), the fingernail-like operculum or closing flap of certain snails of the murex family, such as the Onyx marinus, Strombus lentiginosus, or Unguis Odaratus (Tifereth Yisrael, Chomer Bakodesh 2:67; Cf. Ben Sirah 24:15, Dioscorides, De Materia Medica 2:10). This emits a very pleasant smell when burned."  But...

[Much confusion has arisen over a mention of Blattes de Bysance in recipes in the "Baghdad Cookery Book".] "However, this is not what the recipe actually calls for. The original Arabic editor of the "Baghdad Cookery Book", Dr. Da'ud Celebi ... was unaware of the meaning of the phrase "atraf at-tib", and so emended it to "azfar at-tib", which translates as "blattes de Byzance". This was followed by Arberry when he made his English translation. However, the original phrase is correct; it is just that Celebi couldn't find it in his modern Arabic dictionaries. In medieval Arabs sources "atraf at-tib" (which translates as "parcelles de parfum" or "packages of perfume") is a frequently used spice mix. In the Kitab al-Wusla ila l-Habib of about 1260 A.D. it says "c'est un melange d'epices tres souvent employe dans la cuisine; ce melange comprend de la lavande, du betel, des feuilles de laurier, de la muscade, du maccis, du cardamome, des clous de girofle, des boutons de rose, des faines, du gingembre et du poivre, ce dernier devant etre pile a part." (Maxime Rodinson, "Recherches sur les documents Arabes relatifs a la cuisine", in Revue des Etudes Islamiques, vol. 17 [1949], p. 132.) So it is a complex spice mix, rather like the modern ras al-hanout of Morocco.

ATRAF AT-TIB ("PARTICLES OF PERFUME")
This is the spice mix most often called for in the Wusla; in the Kitab al-tabikh it appears in eight recipes, including meat stew, fish dishes, savory relishes, and sauces. [Arberry, "Baghdad Cookery-Book", pp. 36, 203, 205-207. Arberry's confusion about the name and composition of this seasoning, which he translates as "blattes de Bysance"..., is corrected in Rodinson, "Recherches", p. 132.]

" . . .definition of "atraf at-tib"; it is a spice mixture very often used in cooking; this mixture includes lavender, areca (betel) nut, bay leaves, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, cloves, rosebuds, beechnuts, ginger and pepper, this last being previously ground separately." [Rodinson, "Recherches", pp. 132, 152. My translation from the French.]

Considering the complexity and types of ingredients in this mixture, it seems to be an ancestor of the modern Moroccan mixture called ras el hanout ("top (or head) of the shop"), perhaps because it is the finest and best the spice merchant has to offer. Ras el hanout will include anywhere from ten spices upwards to perhaps more than a hundred ingredients." (Dendy)

bleak = A small freshwater fish (Alburnus lucidus); and a similar saltwater fish (OED). (Viandier)

Bleddur = a piece of bladder, used as a stopper or lid to seal the container. (Sip)

blend-corn, blencorn = wheat and rye grown together in one field. Blencorn bread = bread made of this mixed grain.

Blink = a verb which means ‘to alter the flavor by adding tannin.’ (Sip)

blood, blode =
1-- Used as a common thickening and food coloring (see also almonds, bread, eggs and livers). (Viandier) Dried hare's or kid's blood is used as a red food coloring in Liber Cure Cocorum (#1, #23)
2 --(verb) to bleed, or to drain the blood from.

(Harleian MS 279) Vyaunde Furnez, XXIIJ Lamprays bake ...lat hem blede in a vesselle...
(Harleian MS 4016) Heron rosted ...lete him blode as a crane...

Blow him, blaw hym = a method of skinning an animal by inserting a straw between the flesh and the skin,  and inflating the animal like a balloon; the air ruptures the interior membrane, thereby  loosening the skin and making it easier to remove. (TTEM)
The technique is also used to first lift the skin from the meat (but not to remove totally) and then to put some kind of farce (stuffing) between the skin and the meat.
 

Liber Cure Cocorum #62 "Capons in Cassolyce... Be hynde [th]o hede, blaw hym with penne..."

Here are some more recipes mentioning blowing up (for either purpose):

-- Viandier # 66 (_enfler_ Scully p. 121; Pichon/Vicaire p. 92f.) This recipe and the other three from the Vatican Viandier are online.
-- Viandier # 72 (Scully p. 135; Pichon/V. p. 94)
-- Viandier #213 (souffler; Scully p. 267; Pichon/V. p. 130)
-- Viandier #214 (souffler; Scully p. 268; Pichon/V. p. 130)
-- Rheinfrankisches Kochbuch, German 1445, 290v.2 ("... so lufft sie als ein hune ..."; probably 'blow the goose up like a chicken'; see the note in the edition.) -- In this German recipe from the RheinfrankischesKochbuch, one must "fulle die gans da mit" 'fill the goose with the farce' [I think: between the skin and the meat], later the recipe states: "vnd stoisz sie auch inwenig" 'and press the farce also inside the goose'. Thus, there seem to be two places to stuff: (1) between the skin and the meat, (2) inside.

-- Diversa Servicia # 28 "Nym a penne & opyn [th]e sckyn at [th]e heuyd & blowe hem tyl [th]e sckyn ryse from [th]e flesche ..."

(Harl. 4016, c. 1450). (Austin p. 81): "Chik farsed. -- Take a faire chek, and skald him, and breke the skyn (as sone as he is scalded) in the necke behinde, and blowe him, And cast him in faire water, and wass him; and [th]en kutte of [th]e hede and nek, and let [th]e ffete be on al hole, and draw him clene; and [th]en pike faire parcelly, and parboile hit; And [th]en take hard yolkes of eyron, and hewe hem and [th]e parcelly togidre, and fress grece, and caste there-to pouder of ginger, peper, a litel saffron and salt, And put al in-to [th]e Chike, and put hit on a Spitte; And thenne late him roste, and serue fort(h)."

--Liber de coquina, early 14th c., Latin -- "22. -- ["To stuff/fill a chicken, another way".] Aliter: si uis implere gallinam inter pelles et carnes, recipe gallinam uiuam et aperi corium suum iuxta collum, ita quod facias ibi unum foramen solum, quod uentus possit intrare. Postea, recipe fistulam paruam de paleis uel pluma factam; et per istam fistulam, gallinam per foramen predictum, ita quod tota gallina circum circa infra et carnes pellem usque ad coxas et alas, quantum poteris, uento impleatur. Deinde, interfice gallinam et cum aqua calida deplumetur. Et tunc remanebit inflata propter uentum.
Postea, recipe bonas carnes recentes porcinas pingues, petrosillum et bonas species trittas et herbas odoriferas; et omnia super tabulam cum cutello minutim incidas uel in mortario teras. Et postea, oua cruda in bona quantitate et caseum gratatum simul cum eisdem permisceas.
Postea, recipe gallinam, et digitum per foramen colli intromitas, ut subtiliter corium a carnibus diuidas; et per idem foramen, de predicto martoriolo siue comistione totam gallinam inter pellem et carnem impleas. Postea, predictum foramen cum acu et filio subtiliter suas. Etiam pone in ueru ad assandum."  (Th.)

In his note 3 on page 123 of his Viandier edition, Scully mentions several other recipes, some of which use this kind of inflating technique, e.g. two recipes in the Arabic _Wusla_ reported by Rodinson (Recherches p. 157; kind of boneless chicken).
 

BLUE(?), bleu (French), blau (German) = a cooking method involving poaching an unscaled fish in an acidic water, making the outer skin turn bluish.  (Seton)  The bluish culprit is actually the layer of slime coating the skin of the fish, which is part of why the fish has to be unscaled, extremely fresh, preferably alive, and handled at a minimum. (Troy)

"I will leave BLUE to the English native speakers, but German _blau_ and its several spelling variants are used several times in 16th century German cookbooks with respect to the preparation of fishes: Staindl 1569, Sabina Welser 1553, Mayr 1579, Wecker 1598, Rumpolt 1581, a 1581 codex.
A quick look into French texts yields at least results from La Varenne (Brochet au bleu; Carpe au bleu) and Lancelot de Casteau 1604 ("... tous les poissons qui doiuent estre bouillis bleus, se cuisent auec de l'eau & veriu, & sel ou vinaigre"; p. 22). " (Th.)

blue vitriol = a hydrous solution of copper sulfate.  NOT EDIBLE -- FOUND IN SOME SOAP RECIPES.

Boce (French) =

boe (French) = Mud (a thick black sauce) (Pichon et al.). (Viandier)

Boltell cloth = bolter cloth, used for straining or sifting. (Sip)

Boulter bag, bolter bag = a sifter made of bolter cloth. (Sip)

bonte, crees bunte = a linen sieve

--Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez, xxij.  For to make floure Rys... & [th]erow a crees bunte syfte hem, & for defaute of a bonte, take a Renge.

Borage = An herb, Borago officinalis L., Boraginaceae.  Borage has blue star-shaped flowers; it is used as a potherb, garnish, confection, and drink flavoring.  (TTEM)

botargos, botargas, Boutargue, Poutargue, poutargo (fr.), botarga (it.) = hard roes of mullet

Gargantua and Pantagruel - "he sat down at table; and because he was naturally phlegmatic, he began his meal with some dozens of gammons, dried neat's tongues, hard roes of mullet, called botargos, andouilles or sausages, and such other forerunners of wine."   1542 Rabelais, Gargantua, chap. 21 (éd. Pléiade 1942, p. 86) "Pissant doncq plein urinal, se asseoyt à table, et, parcequ'il estoit naturellement phlegmaticque, commençoit son repas par quelques douzeines de jambons, de langues de beuf fumées, de boutargues, d'andouilles, et telz autres avant-coureurs de vin".

(1542 Rabelais) Gargantua, chap. 3 (éd. Pléiade 1942, p. 34 + n. 4) "Grandgousier estoit bon raillard en son temps, aymant à boyre net autant que homme qui pour lors fust au monde, et mangeoit voluntiers salé. A ceste fin, avoit ordinairement bonne munition de jambons de Magence et de Baionne, force langues de beuf fumées, abondance de andouilles en la saison et beuf sallé à la moustarde, renfort de boutargues (4), provision de saulcisses, (...)".

Note 4: "4. Sorte de caviar provençal, fait d'oeufs de poissons divers, mais pressés, séchés et durcis. On en trouve actuellement non seulement à Marseille, mais jusqu'à Alexandrie".

1542 Rabelais, Pant. IV chap. 18 (éd. Pléiade 1942, p. 613 + n. 9) "... et dix-huict douzaines de jambons, nombre de caviatz, dizaines de cervelatz, centaines de bourtargues (9) et deux mille beaulx angelotz pour les âmes des trespasséz".

Note 9.: "9. Poutargue, poutargo en provençal, oeufs de poisson séché, sorte de caviar méditerranéen encore fort répandu aujourd'hui".

1542 Rabelais, Pant. IV chap. 60 (éd. Pléiade 1942, p. 726 + n. 10)
 "D'entrée de table ilz luy offrent:
 Caviat,
 Boutargues (10),
 Purée de pois, (...)"
 Note 10: "10. Poutargue, sorte de caviar provençal, fait d'oeufs de poisson séchés et pressés, encore fort connu".

(1581) Busbeq, Epistolae (Omnia 1730, p. 55) "Noli hic expectare ut tibi narrem (...) de salsamentis, quæ Constantinopolim à Mæotide advehuntur, quæ Itali moronellas, botargas, & caviarum vocant".  'Please do not expect that I write about (...) the sausages, which are brought to Constantinople from Maeotis, and which the Italians call moronellas, botargas and caviar.

Dictionnaires:
 -- Littré, DLF I 399 "Sorte de mets qu'on prépare en Italie et dans le Midi de la France avec des oeufs de poisson salé, ..."  (TG)

bourblier (French) = Not translated. It might be a particular cut of the wild boar (Godefroy suggests 'shoulder', Power has 'umbles' and Scully (1986) has 'breast'). Scully (1988) very reasonably suggests that it might instead be the name of the sauce described in the recipe, or (less likely) of the entire dish.
(Viandier)

boussac (French) = Bisque (OED, Montagne. Modern 'bisques' are exclusively shellfish dishes.).(Viandier)

bousture (French) = Boiled dish. (Viandier)

boute (French) = Ropy (of wine) (Pichon et al., Montagne). (Viandier)

bouter (French) = To insert, to attach, to touch. (Viandier)

1) bowel, buel, bawelly, bowele, bowelez (pl.), boul, bouel (OF), from botellus, botulus (Latin for sausage or pudding) =
1- the intestine or gut
2- internal organs in general; entrails
3- the belly

2) bowel = a bowl

3) bowel, bowell, bouwelen, bowellyn, bocler (OF) = (verb) to disembowel

Box =
1-- Boxwood, Buxus species. A tree whose wood is very dense and is suitable for carving or turning on a lathe.  It is used for making wooden spits.  Gyngerbrede (Harl. MS. 279, Leche Vyaundez) uses the dark green leaves of boxwood as a garnish.

(Harl. MS. 279, Leche Vyaundez) - iiij. Gyngerbrede ... take when [th]ou lechyst hyt, and caste Box leves a-bouyn... (TTEM)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Paste of Pippins... you may box them, and keepe them all the yeere.
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make the vsuall Bisket sold at Comfit-makers...and so box it, and keepe it.
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Quodiniacks of Raspice, or English Coriants... then print it in your moulds, and box it, and so keepe them...

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Braggot, Bragawd = a Welsh drink brewed from ale, honey, herbs, and spices. (Sip)

brahon (French) = Dark meat (muscle) (OED under 'brawn'. This differs from the conjecture of Pichon et al. that it was a mis-writing for 'brown' meat. They were right for the wrong reason. Power has 'guts'.). (Viandier)

Brasill Sugar =

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Quodiniack of Plums... put them into a Posnet with a pound and a halfe of Brasill Sugar...

Brawn, brawne =
1-- flesh, especially boar’s or swine’s flesh.
2-- a dish of flesh in aspic.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make white leach of creame...slice it like brawne, and so serve it out...

bray, braye, brey = (possibly from brysse or broyse = to bruise, or Old French breier, to break) (verb) to grind or pound in a mortar with a pestle.

bread, brede, bræde,  =
1- (noun) Bread. A common thickening (see also almonds, blood, eggs and livers) and food coloring. At the time, prepared by toasting slices of white bread on the grill until they reached the desired colour (from light golden to black). Heating crumbs carefully in the oven gives a more uniform colour. (Viandier)
2- (noun) a board or tablet, a cover or lid made of wood.
3- (noun) roasted meat
4- (noun) sweetbreads
5- (noun) breadth, width.

break, breake, brecan, brakyn, brykyn, etc. =  (verb) to cut up a deer; to carve a bird

brede =
1- (verb) to roast, broil, or toast. Also brædan, bredan, bradde, bredde, bred, brad.
2- (verb) to spread out or extend. Bred (past part.)
3- (verb) to cover, to spread a table
4- (verb) to broaden
5- (verb) to braid or plait

bream = A freshwater fish (Abramis brama). (Viandier)

bree, bre =
1- a thick pottage
2- broth. See broth.

brest =
1- (noun) breast
2- from Old Norse brestr (to burst, to crack, want, loss), and OE berstan (to burst) = damage, injury, want, loss

brete (French) = Small dogfish (Pichon et al. OED under 'bret' suggests brill or turbot, but these already appear, and are flat fish.). (Viandier)

Brimstone = sulfur, which was burned in order to sterilize bottles or casks. (Sip)

BROCH (English), broche (French), spyt , spisse (Middle Low German), spiedo (Italian), spito, verum (Latin) =  a skewer or spit. In French "en la broche" means lit. 'in the spit'. En ast (Catalan) means "on the spit" or "spit-roasted" depending on how it's used. "En" (Spanish or Catalan) may also translate to English as "on" or "about", depending on the context. (McDonald) Looking at the Catalan De Nola and at the text of Sent Sovi, it seems that _en ast_ is used quite frequently, both in cases where something is already on (upon?) the spit (mig rostits en ast) and where one must put something upon the spit (e met la en ast). In German, the use of "in" in respect to spits is very strange, normally one says "am Spieß" or "an den Spieß". Similarly, as far as I can see (as a non-native speaker and writer of English), "on" or "upon" are commonly used in respect to spits in English. Perhaps I should have said that, as far as I can see, in Latin "ad spitonem" is more frequently used than "in spitone" etc. (Th.)

1594 The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchen. "To roste a Hare. First wash it in faire water, then perboyle it and lay in cold water againe, then larde it, and roste it in a broch..."

I had to comment on two recipes with "in einem spisse" (lit. 'in a spit') in the Rheinfränkisches Kochbuch, 15th c., german. Looking if this was an error or if I could keep it in the edition, I found that the construction with "in" is found in several other languages, too

-- in Middle Low German texts ("in en ider spyt 4 stucke", lit. 'in each spit four pieces')

-- in Italian recipes, _nello spiedo_ lit. 'in the spit', e.g. in Maestro Martino, in the Anonimo Meridionale, see Boström A31.3, A62.2

-- in French "en la broche" lit. 'in the spit' (e.g. in the Menagier)

-- and in Latin "in spitone" lit. 'in the spit', Cookbook of Jean de Bockenheim, ed. Laurioux # 19, 22, 50.

Thus, as  broch seems to go back to French  broche , the use of  in in respect to  broch in an English text might be another piece of French heritage. (T.G.)

brochette = (noun) a skewer

Broom  = any of a number of shrubs in the genera Cytisus, Genista and Spartium of Mediterranean origin.  Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) was the "planta genista" of the Middle Ages.  Used by Geoffry (IV) of Anjou as an identifying ornament on his helmet, it gave name to the Plantagenet dynasty of England.  Scotch broom and Spanish broom (Spartium junceum) have been used medicinally as diuretics, cathartics and emetics.  The active agent appears to be ulexine (cytisine), which in quantity will produce effects on the heart similar to digitalis. The U.S. FDA considers these herbs unsafe for consumption.  Various brooms have been imported into the U.S. as landscape foliage and have become noxious weeds in the wild.  The commonly found brooms in the U.S. are Scotch broom, Spanish broom, French broom (Genista monospessulana), Portuguese broom (Cytisus striatus) and bridal broom (Genista monosperma).  (Decker)

brose = a pottage, broth or porridge made with oatmeal and water or milk.

brosser (French) = To curdle (from context. It may mean 'thicken'. Pichon et al. say they could not understand the meaning of the word). (Viandier)

broth, bro[th], brothe, broath(e), browet, brewis, bree, bre = the liquid in which anything is boiled, esp. meat, sometimes flavored with vegetables and thickened. See also albrotet.

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bruler (French) = To grill (of bread, browned as a sauce thickener). (Viandier)

Brysse, broyse  = Bruise, pound, crush, or bray. To grind down in a mortar. (OED)

c1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 45 if thay [peas] ben harde..Brysse hom or strene hom.
1523 FITZHERB. Husb. ß59 Take that grasse, and broyse it a lyttell in a morter. ----

buffet , Beaufette =

1) a sideboard or side table for the display of china, plates, etc.

1718 Hickes & Nelson J. Kettlewell ii. 32. 135 "The Plate..was placed upon a Table or Buffett."

1720 Humourist 116 The Cat had got into the Beaufette among the Glasses.

But-head = as used by Digby’s Mr. Pierce (p. 100):  “Then cover your But-head with a sheet onely in Summer, but blankets in Winter...”.  The butt-head is the unsealed top of the butt, or cask.  The cask has been left unsealed so that the scum may be easily skimmed off. (Sip)

Butt = (See Cask.)

button = To dress for roasting with slivers of pork fat pricked into the meat.  See lard (verb). (Viandier)

(Scully) Chiquart, "Du Fait de Cuisine."  ..."12 cabas of candied raisins ..."

Calamus, calamus root = Sweet Flag root, the aromatic root of Acorus calamus. According to Th. Johnson (Gerard's Herball, 1633, p. 64), Galangal root was often sold as calamus in the shops. Calamus was used medicinally for bruises, to promote menstruation, to cure poison, etc. It was also used as perfume, and candied for a sweet.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make an especiall sweet Powder... Cyprus and Calamus of each halfe an ounce... [INEDIBLE]

cameline (French) = Not translated. The name may come from the ingredient canelle (Santich private communication, Scully), from its camel colour (Scully 1986), or from a herb (cameline) that may have formerly been an ingredient (OED, Sass 1975). (Viandier)

Campeachy  = the red heartwood of a tree, Haematoxylon campechianum, also known as Logwood. It was used as a food dye, as was brasil/brazilwood and saunders/red sandalwood; the color is extractable with water.  Campeachy is still used today with a mordant to dye musical instruments violet blue or black.

Camphire =

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make a blanch for any Ladies face. ...Camphire one dramme... [INEDIBLE]

Du fait de cuisine, by Master Chiquart, 1420 #5 ...heads of boars endored and armed and with banners and spitting fire... soaked in fine ardent spirits and purified with a little camphor."

canabenez, canabens, Canebyns = a particular preparation of fava beans; the medieval equivalent of the hulled, dried, split pea or bean, probably to prevent them from sprouting and/or rancidity of the germ portion, as well as molding. They're different from what we now call cannellini... Canebyns (sometimes called frizzled beans in sources translated from French texts, I believe) are favas that have been soaked until they swell up and begin to bust out of their hulls, after which they are dried again, rubbed free of the hulls, and chopped into smaller pieces with a sharp knife. These pieces are then slightly toasted in small amounts (recipes describing the process refer to holding metal spoonfuls of the chopped beans over a flame to toast them) -- (or am I mistaken, are they toasted and _then_ chopped?). Anyway, they appear to be designed to cook more quickly and have a longer shelf life than ordinary beans. (Troy)

Candlemas = Christian holiday, February 2nd.  40 days after giving birth to Jesus, Mary took him to the Temple in Jerusalem to present him to God. Celebrated with blessing candles and a candlelit procession. Candles are blessed and placed on altars. -"366 Days of Celebrations" (Seelye-King)

candy =

1- (noun) a sweet made mainly of flavored sugar. See also comfits.
2- (verb) to coat with sugar. See also frost, ice, glase,

Markham, The English Housewife #115 "To make a marrow bone pie... and candy all the cover with rose-water and sugar only; and so set it into the oven a little, and after serve it forth." "
Markham, The English Housewife #120-  "A herring pie... and so serve it up, the lid being candied over with sugar, and the sides of the dish trimmed with sugar."
A Booke of Sweetmeats, Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery -"To Make Machpane Cakes [sic] -"candy ye other side."

cantarides, cantharide, cataride, kantaride, cantharis (Latin) = "Spanish Fly", used medicinally and as an aphrodesiac. (Peters) "Consuming a small quantity increases the flow of urine; consuming a large quantity causes one to urinate blood.  When used as a suppository, it will bring on menstruation in women." (Carroll-Mann) More in French.

"1- A kind of beetle; esp., Cantharis vesicatoria; one of these beetles dried for medicinal use;
2-  pl. a medicine made from these beetles, cantharides.

•   a1400 Lanfranc (Ashm 1396)   62/1:  [₃]eue to him medicyn maad of cantarides [L de cantaridibus].
•  Take old grete cantarides [Add: kantarydes], & do awei [th]e heed & [th]e wyngis.
•   a1400 Lanfranc (Ashm 1396)   352/19: Take [th]e wombis of cantarides & grinde hem wi[th] leueyne.
• a1425 *Chauliac(1) (NY 12)   177b/a: Cantarides ar bestez, flies of grene colour, litel..with adustioun & vesiccacioun.
• c a1400 Lanfranc (Ashm 1396)   278/20: Saxifrage & cantarides [L cantarides] & o[th]ere strong medicyns..pili[th] [th]e reynes.
•  a1425 *Chauliac(1) (NY 12)   114a/a: It is entensioun of doctours [th]at [th]e place be cured with cantarides & arsenec.
•   c1440 Thrn.Med.Bk.(Thrn)   76/3: Do [th]er-on kantarydes or garleke or  scottleke." (Middle English  Dictionary - earliest use listed is 1398.)

• (A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make another sort of Marmelade... of Cantarides, adde a dramme... [MEDICINE]

capon, capoun = a gelded rooster.

carbonadoes = According to Markham " Charbonadoes, or carbonadoes, which is meat broiled upon the coals (and the invention thereof first brought out of France, as appears by the name) are of divers kinds according to men's pleasures: for there is no meat either boiled or roasted whatsoever, but may afterwards be broiled, if the master thereof be disposed... Now for the manner of carbonadoing, it is in this sort; you shall first take the meat you must carbonado, and scotch it both above and below, then sprinkle good store of salt upon it, and baste it all over with sweet butter melted, which done, take your broiling iron; I do not mean a gridiron (though it be much used for this purpose) because the smoke of the coals, occasioned by the dropping of the meat, will ascend about it and make it stink; but a plate iron made with hooks and pricks, on which you may hang the meat, and set it close before the fire, and so the plate heating the meat behind as the fire doth before, it will both the sooner and with more neatness be ready: then having turned it, and basted it till it be very brown, dredge it, and serve it up with vinegar
and butter. "

Cardamom, Cardamo, cardamomo,  cardomomo, gardamono =  An expensive spice, cardamom is the seeds  and seed pods of Elettaria cardamomum Maton, Zingiberaceae.  It is sold powdered, as whole seeds, or as seed pods.  (TTEM)

cardoon, herba col  = Cynara cardunculus L., a type of globe artichoke. One of its common names in Catalan is "Card de formatjar" which would be "Cheesemaking cardoon". It is instead of rennet in cheesemaking. (Carroll-Mann)

Artichokes (globe artichokes) are Cynara scolymus.  These are related to Mediterranean thistles whose heads are eaten. Jerusalem artichokes are Helianthus tuberosus.  They are a New World plant of the sunflower family unrelated to true artichokes.  The tubers are eaten.  (Decker)

caroenum (Lat.) =  Reduced wine.

carreletz (French) = Small plaice. See also pleiz. (Viandier)

Carret, Zanahoria (Spanish) = carrot.  "Red and purple carrots which are believed to originate in Afghanistan were brought into the Mediterranean basin from Central Asia by the Islamic
expansion.  Yellow carrots are first noticed in Asia Minor during the 10th Century.  Yellow carrots are a mutation of the red and purple carrots and lack the anthocyanins which produce the red and purple colors.  Red and yellow carrots are recorded in 12th Century Andalusia.  The Asiatic carrots probably entered Christian Europe between the 10th and 11th Centuries and had largely replaced white carrots in northwestern Europe by the 13th Century.  They are known to have been introduced into England by the Flemings in the 14th Century.  In the 16th Century, Flemish hybridizers while trying to produce larger, firmer, better tasting carrots bred yellow and red carrots together modifying the anthcyanins to produce an orange color.  Our modern carrots come from about five breeding lines of Flemish orange carrot.  These were formally described in the 17th Century." (Decker)

Diego Granado, Libro del arte de cozina, (Spanish, 1599) - "Zanahoria rellena. Las zanahorias han de ser gordas..."

carvey, carvy, carvie = caraway seeds.
Cask = a wooden barrel, used for storage.

cassia flowers = Cassia buds, presumably dried. If unobtainable, use cinnamon. I have found tinned “cassia flowers [buds] in brine” in a Chinese food store, but have not tried them. (Viandier)

Cast above = sprinkle with (for spices), or pour over (for gravy or sauces). (TTEM)

Cast thereto = add. (TTEM)

Cast thereto never a deal = do not add any. (TTEM)

Caudle, cawdel(l), cawdelle, cawdille, cadle, cawdale, caudelle, chaudeau (Fr.), caldellum, caldum (Lat.) =
1- "a warm drink for invalids, esp. a spiced and sugared gruel with wine or ale added" (Webster’s Dictionary).  A caudle was also a treat shared by friends and lovers enjoying a reresoper, or illicit late night meal (B.A. Henisch, p. 17); it might accompany the leftover roast or pasty from supper, or a plate of comfits.  From "caudle" come our words "coddle" and "mollycoddle."  (TTEM)

Note: a "caudle of hemp-seed" or a "hempen caudle" is a slang expression meaning hanging; it is not a reference to a recipe.

2-(verb) to give a caudle to someone

3-(verb) to mix

cauldron =   A large metal pot, usually with a lid for boiling or stewing. See also kettle.

cedas, cedaç (medieval Catalan) = see hair sieve.
Valencia MS 216 Libre de Sent Soví (ca.1400), and Catalunya MS 2112 De apereylar be de menyar (ca.1380), spells it cedas or cedaç. (McDonald)

cedaç de ceda (medieval Catalan) = a silk sieve.

Valencia MS 216, Libre de Sent Soví (ca.1400), #26 (Genestada) - "...E apres ages ffarina de ros ben picada he pasada per cedaç de ceda..." (McDonald)

cedazo,cerdazo (Spanish) = see hair sieve. (McDonald)

centner = See zentner.

cerf (French) = Red deer. See also chevrel. (Viandier)

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cervoison (French) = Deer hunting season (Pichon et al., Huguet. Scully (1988) suggests 'young stags'.) (Viandier)

c'est assavoir (French) = To wit (from context, and from “il est fait assavoir que”, meaning “be it known that”). (Viandier)
cetel (Old English) = see kettle

Chafing dish =

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To candy Borage-Flowers... you must set them in a Still, and so keepe them in a sheet of white paper, putting every day a chafingdish of coles into your Still...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To make Paste of Pippins... and dry the pulp upon a chafingdish of coles... putting every day a Chafingdish of coles into the Oven...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To make paste of Genua the true way... dry it in a pewter platter upon a chafingdish of Coles...and dry it in an Oven with a chafingdish of coles...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) ...To make all sorts of banqueting Conceits of March-pane stuffe... and dry it on a Chafingdish of coles...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Quodiniacks of Raspice, or English Coriants... boile it on a chafingdish of Coles...

Charger = (from OF chargeor) a serving platter.  (TTEM) When the recipe says something like "cut it round by a Charger", this means the charger is to be set on the pastry or paste, and you cut around the dish with a knife to make a circle in the paste. The charger is then removed and you have a circle of paste.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To make a March-pane, to ice it... and cut it round by a Charger...

Harleian MS. 279 - Dyuerse Bake Metis. xiij.  Vn Vyaunde furnez san[₃] nom de chare...
Harleian MS. 279 Dyuerse Bake Metis. xij.  Vn Vyaunde Furne[₃] san[₃] noum de chare.

(Harleian MS. 279, c. 1430). - Leche Vyaundez. xvj.  Chare de wardoun leche.
Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers. xxxiv.  Chardewardon....in [th]e maner of charde quynce...
Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers. xxxv.  Perys en Composte...an [₃]if [th]ow hast charde quynce, caste [th]er-to in [th]e boyling...
(Harleian MS. 4016, c. 1450).. 98 Chare de Wardone...as A man sethe[th] charge de quyns...
(Harleian MS. 4016, c. 1450) 99 Mawmene.  ... and take confeccions or charge de quyns, a goode quantite...

(Scully) Chiquart, "Du Fait de Cuisine." ..."2 charges white ginger, 2 charges Mecca ginger ..."

charlet , charlete, charlette, chair laitée (Fr.) =  a dish of flesh with milk

Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers. lviij.  Let lory. ...& [₃]if [th]ou wolt a-forse it in maner of charlet, do it in fastyng dayis...
Douce MS. 55. 12  Charlete.  Capitulum Clxxviij.
Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers. lvj.  Charlette.
Liber Cure Cocorum, #17 Charlet, and #18 For Charlet icoloured.

charpie (French) =
1-- Shreds (from charpir, meaning 'to shred'). (Viandier)
2-- A minced meat dish, literally 'shreds', otherwise untranslatable.(Viandier)

Chastlete, castelin =  a pastry castle consisting of a central keep and 4 towers. Each is filled with a different colored filling: pork stuffing (yellow with saffron) for the keep; and almond cream (white); custard (red with sanders); figs, raisins, apples, & pears (brown); and 'farce as for fritters' (green) for the towers. The whole is presented flaming with 'ew ardant', i.e. alcohol. [Note: Pegge's identification of ew ardant as hot water is incorrect.]

Forme of Cury p.85 (c. 1390) "Chastlete. Take and make a foyle of gode past with a roller of a foot brode, & lynger by cumpas. Make iiii Coffyns of [th]e self past uppon [th]e rollere [th]e gretnesse of [th]e smale of [th]yn Arme. of vi ynche depnesse. make [th]e gretust in [th]e myddell. fasten [th]e foile in [th]e mouth upwarde. & fasten [th]e o[th]e foure in euery syde..." [Note: spelling is approximate due to the shorthand used in the MS.]

_Ouverture de Cuisine_, in preparation, has the word 'castelin', which I also interpret as 'model castle', equivalent to the English
'chastletes'.

A note on the spelling chastellier:  I haven't got an entry for this word in the few French dictionaries that I have here at home.  Power [The Goodman of Paris] translates
it as the old English 'chastletes' and I agree with her.  The old French 'chastelet' means 'small castle' [Grandsaignes] which I and others interpret as 'model castle'.  The old French 'chasteler' is a verb meaning to fortify.  Neither is exactly correct for the spelling 'chastellier', which suggest more the meaning of 'castle builder', or less likely 'castle owner/occupier' [i.e. castellan], neither of which fits easily into a recipe context.  (Prescott)

chaudeau (French) = Caudle. (Viandier)
 

chaudumel (French) = Chowder (OED). (Viandier)
 

chaudun (French) = Intestine (Pichon et al., Montagne). (Viandier)

check, chekkid, cheke = (v.) to cut into a checkerboard pattern.  See also buche.

Furnivall, (The Boke of Keruynge), p. 273 "... Custarde, cheke them inche square that your souerayne may ete therof..."

cheesecloth = In some cases a colander, grater, sieve or sifter would be a suitable substitute. See also estamine. (Viandier)

Cheeselip, cheeselep, cheslep, etc. =
1. rennet.
2. a dialectical name for a wood louse.  This should not be taken to mean that wood lice were used as rennet in cheesemaking. The name was probably given to them because they were found infesting cheeses stored on stone shelves.

cheeselep-bag = the dried stomach of a calf, used as rennet in cheesemaking.

cheese of Aragon is known today as Tronchon, and is a mild cheese made of sheep's milk. (Cuenca)

cheonix, choinix = Ancient Greek dry measure of approximately 1 U.S. dry quart or 1.1 liters.  1/8 modios.  Appears to be related to the modern Persian measure chenica (or chemica), being 1.19 dry quarts or 1.32 liters. (Decker)

Cherrie = cherry

Chevalier (Fr.) = "A daintie Water-fowle, as big as a Stock-doue, and of two kinds, the one red, the other blacke. Cot.[grave]" (Furnivall, II, p. 68.)

chevesneau (French) = Chub (fish) (Montagne, OED). (Viandier)

chevrel (French) = Roe deer. See also cerf. (Viandier)

chevron  = An angled pair of rafters (OED), from which it may be conjectured that it refers to similar angled supports for the wheels of the Swan Knight subtlety, presumably one on each side at the front and back. (Viandier)

chibol =

Chrystall =
1-- (noun) crystal
2-- (adj.) as clear as crystal

chocolate = The Spanish appear to have first encountered chocolate (as a beverage) in Mexico.  The name derives from the Nahautl "xocolatl" meaning "bitter water.  (Decker)

Chuño = ""freeze dried" potatoes prepared by Andean natives.  References to chuño appear in Jose de Acosta's "Historia natural y moral de las Indies" (1590) and in accountings of mine rations.  In general, the product was considered a native food only fit for the lower classes. It, and other potato products, are still produced in the Andes, but they are in the decline as they are labor intensive.
     For chuño, the potatoes are frozen at night, then warmed indirectly by the sun.  They are then trampled to slough the skin and to force out residual water.  For "white" chuño, the mashed potatoes are soaked in cold running water for one to three weeks, then sun dried for 5 to 10 days.  As they dry, a white crust forms (ergo the name "white" chuño).  "Black" chuño bypasses
the soaking.  The normal method of ingestion is in soups and stews where the liquid can rehydrate the chuño.
     Papa seca is made by boiling and peeling potatoes, which are then cut into chunks, sun dried and ground.  The resulting meal is cooked with meat and vegetables.
     One interesting side note is B. Cobo notes that chuño is a source of fine white flour for cakes and other delicacies in his "Historia del nuevo mundo" of 1653." (Decker)

Chymicall oyle of Cinamon =
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) To preserve Pippins whole... and one drop of the Chymicall oyle of Cinamon, and that will make them taste a more pleasant taste.

ciboule (French) = Scallion (OED). (Viandier)
 

Cinnamon, Synamoun.  = Cinnamomum Aelanicum, Lauraceae.  This true cinnamon comes mainly from Ceylon.  Most references are to canel, a less-expensive type of cinnamon (see above).

(Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers, c. ) Cliij.  Pompys.  ..caste also [th]er-to pouder Pepyr, & Macys, Clowes, Quybibys, pouder Canelle, Synamoun, & Salt...

cive, civey(e), ciuey, cyuey, ceue, cyueye = Ragout or stew (possibly derived from a word meaning 'onion' (Plouvier). (Viandier)
Among other modern usages, this is probably a derivative of civey, which was at one time named for, and characterized by, the possibility of thickening a sauce with finely chopped onion, cooked till very soft. Some medieval recipes for civeys (for example, hare in civey) also call for blood as an additional thickener; nowadays the dish, which is now sometimes called civet, is mostly characterized by thickening and enriching the broth with the reserved blood of the critter you're cooking. It will coagulate if boiled, and turn very dark, but if heated properly it will assume a velvety texture similar to a stirred custard, and acquire a deep russet shade almost like a mole-poblano-type sauce. (Troy)

Civet , Zabad or Zubad (Arabic), Zibet (Asian) =
1. The Civet Cat, Viverra civetta, native to central Africa.  An Asiatic species V. Zibetha is often called Zibet.  The Javanese species of civet cat is called Rasse.
2. A yellowish or brownish oily substance, having a strong musky smell, obtained from glands in the anal pouch of the Civet.  (OED) It is used to make perfume and was used in cookery.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make mosse-powder... a quarter of a dram of Civet...  [INEDIBLE]
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make a speciall sweet water to perfume clothes... as much Civet...  [INEDIBLE]
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make an especiall sweet Powder...then take of Musk and Civet, of each twenty graines...  [INEDIBLE]

Clammy = (adj.) usually means "sticky."  It may derive from the German "klam" meaning "stickiness" or from the Old English "clam" meaning
"mud" or "clay." (Decker)

Clarry, clarre = a beverage made of mixed wines with honey and spices

Clary =Salvia sclarea L., Labiatae, also called Clear Eyes.  Clary is a relative of sage, and was once much used as a seasoning in foods and beverages.  Culpeper notes (p. 88) "the seeds or leaves taken in wine, provoketh to venery... the juice of the herb in ale or beer, and drank, promotes the courses."  (TTEM)

close =
1-- (verb) to seal
2-- (adverb) closely covered to prevent spoilage

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To preserve Red-rose leaves... and so, when they be thorow cold, put them up, and keepe them very close.

Clove Gillyflowers = Dianthus caryophyllus L., and related species, Caryophyllaceae.  Clove gillyflowers have a clove-like flavor; they were used as a seasoning, and were also eaten as sops in wine.  Use only cultivated edible varieties, as some members of the Pink Family are poisonous.  (TTEM)  The names ‘clowys’  and ‘geloferys’ were used interchangeably to mean cloves or clove gillyflowers.

Cloves, Clowys (M.E.), clavos (Sp.), clou de girofre (O.F.), neglein or naegelen or gewuertz naegelen (Ger.), garofoli, garoffali, garof = The unopened flower buds of the clove plant, Eugenia aromatica, Myrtaceae.  The names ‘clowys’  and ‘geloferys’ were used interchangeably to mean either cloves or clove gillyflowers.  Cloves are used for flavoring, and medicinally as stomachics, to relieve colic and flatulence.  (TTEM)   "Syzygium aromaticum. [Note: same plant, different name.] The common name derives from the Latin "clavus" meaning "nail." ...Platina, interestingly enough, appears to use the Greek word "caryophyllon" rather than a Latin term." (Decker) More...

Cochineal = "Gum-lac or lac, kermes, and cochineal are all red dyes produced from the resinous excrecences of certain insects.  Twigs hosting the insect clusters, called stick-lac, are collected and crushed.  This matter is then boiled in water to separate the color from the detritus and resin.  (The resin becomes shell-lac, or shellac, and items coated with shellac are lacquer-ware.)  The colored water is then evaporated, leaving a powder that is used for cloth dye and food coloring... The word lac has also come to mean the color scarlet or crimson.

Kermes was in common use throughout the Middle East in the Middle Ages.  Kermes (Coccus ilicis) grows on an oak, Quercus coccifera.  The color is not as bright as that of cochineal, nor is the yield of dye as great.

Cochineal (Coccus cacti L.), is a New World species that grows on cactus.  It was first imported to Europe about 1545, and rapidly replaced kermes as a coloring agent.  Cochineal is still used for red and pink food coloring, as well as for cloth dye, and was used medicinally to treat whooping cough; it also has many manufacturing uses.

Gerard has this to say about Cochineal:
'Ficus Indica. Of the prickly Indian Fig tree.
...the fruit [is] like vnto the common Fig, narrow below, and bigger aboue, of a greene colour, and stuffed full of a red pulpe and iuice, staining the hands of them that touch it, as do the Mulberries, with a bloudy or sanguine colour... Vpon this plant in some parts of the West Indies grow certain excresences, which in continuance of time turn into Insects; and these out-growings are that high prized Cochenele wherewith they dye colours in graine...  We haue no certaine instruction from the Antients, of the temperature or faculty of this plant, or of the fruit thereof... more than that we haue heard reported of such as haue eaten liberally of the fruit hereof, that it changed their vrine to the colour of bloud; who at the first sight thereof stood in great doubt of their life, thinking it had been bloud, whereas it proued afterwards by experience to be nothing but the tincture or colour the vrine had taken from the iuice of the fruit... '" (CA #109)
 
 
 

cochu (French) = Quiche (a conjecture guided by Montagne and OED). (Viandier)

Cockentrice = a fanciful dish made by combining a pig and a capon. See detailed instructions and illustrations.

Cocks stones = "the testicles of the rooster. Culpeper, in Pharmacopoeia Londinensis, 1654, reports that they refresh and restore such bodies as have been wasted by long sickness...[and] help such as are weak in the sports of Venus." (Hess, p. 270)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make another sort of Marmelade...Cocks stones halfe an ounce, all steeped in honey twelve houres... [MEDICINE]
Hess, Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery - #70 To Make a Restoratiue Marmalet... cocks stones, halfe an ounce; all steeped in honey 12 hours... [MEDICINE]

Codling, quodling = a type of apple.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To preserve Saterion roots... boyle them upon a gentle fire as tender as a quodling...

Coffin  =
1- pastry crust in which food is baked
2- shaped implement of metal or other material in which food is baked (similar to a cake tin) (Robert)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Prince-bisket bread... then put it into your coffins of plate, or frames of wood...

cole flore, colieflore, cole flower = cauliflower.

"The Cole flower is a kinde of Coleworte, whose leaves are large, and like the Cabbage leaves, but somewhat smaller, and endented about the edges, in the middel wehereof, sometimes in the beginning of Autumne, and sometimes much sooner, there appeareth a hard head of whitish yellow tufts of floers, closely thrust together, but never open, nor spreading much with us, when then is fittest to be used, the greeen leaves being cut away close to the head; this hath a much pleasanter taste then eyther the Coleworte, or Cabbage of any kinde, and is therefore of the more regard and respect at good mens tables." (Parkinson, 1629.)

"Cole flore, or after some Colieflore, hath many large leaves sleightly indented about the edges, of a whiteish greene colour, narrower and sharper pointed than Cabbage; in the middlest of which riseth up a great white head of hard floures closely thrust together, with a root full of stringes, in other parts like to the coleworts."  (Gerard, Herball.)

collation (M.E,) =  a light meal taken between regular meals.

colewort, = "The Middle English "col" derives from the Old English "cal" which comes from the Latin "caulis" (meaning cabbage).  The Middle English "wort" derives from the Old English "wyrt" (meaning plant).  Thus "colewort" is "cabbage plant" in Middle English.  Middle English passes to Modern English about
1500.  Collard, cole, kale, borecole, and colewort are all variants of the ME "col."  In English, the use of "cabbage" to differentiate the head cabbages from the
leaf cabbages (coles) probably occurs early on.  Cabbage derives from the Middle English "cabouche" from the Old North French word for head, possibly
deriving from the Latin "caput."  Old North French is the dialect of Old French (8th to 16th Centuries) spoken in Normandy and Brittany."  (Decker)

colz (French)= Tails (of crayfish) (from cul meaning 'bottom'). (Viandier)
 

Comfits = Small candies made from sugar-coating small seeds, such as anise or caraway, or bits of cinnamon sticks, spiced breadcrumbs, etc.  Detailed directions for making comfits appear in Delights for Ladies, by Sir Hugh Plat, 1609, pp. 32-39.  (TTEM)  See also candy, conceits, banqueting conceits.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make a March-pane, to ice it...garnish it with conceits, and stick long Comfits in it...

comminee (French) = Cumin dish (Pichon et al.). (Viandier)  See cumin.
 

compettement (French) = Appropriately, sufficiently (Huguet). (Viandier)

compost , compote , compest, cumpost (OFr.) , (from Lat. compositum later compostum)

= compote. (Obs.)

a. A stew of various ingredients.

c. 1440 Liber Cocorum (1862) #39 For to make a compost ...

b. spec. A preparation of fruit or spice preserved in wine, sugar, vinegar, or the like.

c. 1430 Two Cookery-bks. (1888) 59 Le ij cours, Compost, Brode canelle, Potage.
c. 1430 Harl. 279, Potage Dyvers, xxxv. Perys en Composte.
c. 1450 Harl. 4016, #97 Peris in compost, take pere Wardones...pare hem, and seth hem... and cast hem to the Syryppe... And then pare clene rasinges of ginger...and caste hem to the peres in composte.
1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 268 Loke your composte be fayre and clene.
1601 Holland Pliny II. 159 White oliues... before they be put vp in their compost or pickle."  (O.E.D.)

(a) A mixture of stewed fruit and/or vegetables; a preserve; in compost, stewed or preserved; .
 

(a)  (a1399) Form Cury (Add 5016)   p.49: Compost. Take rote of persel, pasternak..rapes & caboches.
c1450 (Harl. 4016)   97:  Peris in compost. Take Wyne, canell, Sugur..dates..pere Wardones..cast hem to the Syryppe..with Gynger..ley hem in clarefied hony.
a1475 Russell Bk.Nurt.(Harl 4011)   79:  Aftur mete .blawnderelles, pepyns, careawey in comfyte, Compostes ar like to [th]ese.
c1475 Gregory's Chron.(Eg 1995)  141:  Datys in composte.

(b)  a1450 Harl.Cook.Bk.(1) (Harl 279) 59:  Le ij cours: Compost..Codlyng.
c. 1440 Liber Cure Cocorum (Sln 1986)   #39. For to make a compost. Take [th]o chekyns and hew hom...
?a1475 Noble Bk.Cook.(Holkham 674) 111:  To mak composte tak chekins and...saige, parsly, lekes...and boille it.
a1486(c1429) Menu Banquet Hen.VI in Archaeol.57 (Mrg M 775) 58:  Le iij Course: Compost..Venison rost, Egrettz." (Holloway)

conceits = see banqueting conceits

coney, conyng = a young rabbit.

Confect = to candy

Confectio Alchermes = From Culpeper's Herbal:
"Confectio Alkermes
College : Take of the juice of Apples, Damask Rose-water, of each a pound and an half, in which infuse for twenty-four hours, raw Silk four ounces,
strain it strongly, and add Syrup of the berries of Cherms brought over to us, two pounds, Sugar one pound, boil it to the thickness of Honey; then
removing it from the fire whilst it is warm, add Ambergris cut small, half an ounce, which being well mingled, put in these things following in powder,
Cinnamon, Wood of Aloes, of each six drams, Pearls prepared, two drams, Leaf-Gold a dram, Musk a scruple, make it up according to art. "

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Aromaticum Lozonges... with a little Confectio Alchermes...

Harleian MS. 4016. 99 Mawmene.  ... and take confeccions or charge de quyns, a goode quantite...

convy  (French) = Banquet (Pichon et al., Godefroy) (Viandier)

Coperas =

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make a blanch for any Ladies face. ...Coperas halfe a dramme... [INEDIBLE]

coq  (French) =
1- Lit. 'cock'. Used in cooking to describe chickens in certain dishes (usually when prepared as whole birds). Dishes named 'coq' as in 'coq au vin' often involve slow boiling or braising. According to the Larousse Gastronomique, this is because cocks would be kept as breeders and therefore not be slaughtered until they were very old and tough. I doubt this last assertion as hens, too, were often kept for eggs and only killed once they stopped laying. (Bach)

2- Costmary (Pichon et al., Grieve)  (Viandier) ??

Coqz Heaumez = A Helmeted Cock, a very special dish from Le Viandier de Taillevent .  See detailed description and illustrations.
 

Corall = ground red coral, the skeletons of certain marine animals, thought to have had medicinal properties.  “Corall drunke in wine or water, preserueth from the spleene ...[and] prouoketh sleepe...” (Gerard, p. 1383.)  (Sip)

corance = currants

Cordial = originally a heart medicine or tonic, but now the word refers to any liqueur. (Sip)

corn = in medieval and renaissance times this referred to "grain".  What Americans call corn is a New World plant, referred to in the 15th and 16th centuries as maize or 'turky millet'.  See maize.

cornel, kernel, corneol, Cornel Plums = The edible fruits of a flowering dogwood, Cornus Mas, used to make wines and liqueurs.  "Corneille, a Cornill berrie; Cornillier, The long cherrie, wild cherrie, or Cornill tree. Cotgrave." (Furnivall, II, p. 85.)

Costmary = Chrysanthemum Balsamita L., Compositae, also called Mint Geranium and Alecost.  Costmary is very hard to find, and is usually propagated by root division rather than by seed.  In addition to being used medicinally, Costmary was used as a vegetable, and to flavor ale.  (TTEM)

couch, couche = to put
 

couleiz (French) = Mash (from context. Even the bones in these dishes are pounded up. OED under 'cullis'.) (Viandier)

Coulis,  cullises (English)=  from the French verb: "Couler", which has a few meanings, though in this case it means "to pour".  In classical French cooking, coulis are *uncooked* pureed and strained vegetables or fruits with no other ingredients.  (Steenhout)  Rich broths, thickened sometimes with eggs or almond milk; a really rich soup possibly intended for the sick or elderly. (Troy) See cullis.

couler (French) = To sieve (Pichon et al. OED under 'colander', and Sass (1975) "cole the broth thurgh a cloth".)  (Viandier)
 

cracklings = Slices of the fibrous residue left after rendering fat. (Viandier)

Cream of Tartar, cremor Tartari= Potassium Bitartrate, KHC4H4O6, a compound made of potassium and tartaric acid, a naturally occurring acid found in grapes.  Cream of tartar or pure tartaric acid may be added to wine, beer, etc., prior to fermentation to increase acidity.  “The dryed Lees of wine called Argoll or Tartar, is put to the vse of the Goldsmith, Dyer, and Apothecary, ...Of it the Apothecaries make cremor Tartari, a fine medicine to bee vsed, ...to purge humours by the stoole” (Parkinson, p. 566).

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make a blanch for any Ladies face. Take of white Tartar two drammes... oyle of Tartar foure ounces... [INEDIBLE]

crees bunte, bonte = a linen sieve

creme brulee = a rich custard made with eggs and cream, finished with a layer of sugar that has been caramelized to a solid state which is the "brulee"="burnt" part, but which shouldn't be burned, just cooked until it is the color of brown sugar and a solid thin crunchy sheet topping and contrasting with the creamy layer beneath. (Anahita) The earliest mention, as far as I know, is in Massialot's Le cuisiner roial et bourgeois, 1691. The dessert is known as "burnt cream" in English since the early 18th century, at least. (Rognvaldardottir)

crespe (French) = Crisp (this is the literal meaning, and accurately describes the dish. A translation as the modern 'crepe' or 'pancake' would be misleading. I apologize to all those for whom 'crisp' means what is called in North America the 'potato chip'.)  (Viandier)
 

cresson (French) = Watercress (Montagne says that watercress is the cress most commonly used in cooking). (Viandier)
 

Cretene, cretone, cretoyne, critone, cretonné (O.Fr.), craytoun, crytayne, crotoun, and creteyne = A kind of seasoned soup, pottage, or sauce containing milk. Chickens, rabbits, etc. were cooked in the sauce.

crisp, crespe (Fr.) = A pastry made by dropping batter into boiling fat (OED). (Viandier)

crocum = See saffron.

crop, croppe, crowpe, croupe, crap =
1-part of the digestive organs of birds, an enlarged portion of the gullet.

Furnivall, Babees Boke, I, 277 "...with the croupe in the ende bytwene the legges..."

cruddys (English)= soft curds.

crustade, crustard, Custane, custon =  open meat or poultry pies thickened with eggs (often) mixed with broth or milk. The name crustade became synonymous with custard, and the filling changed to include a sweetened egg and milk custard.
 

Liber Cure Cocorum, #98 For custanes.
Liber Cure Cocorum, #101 Crustate of flesshe.

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csombor , csombord, csumburd (Polish) = an herb, Summer Savory, Saturea hortensis .

Cubebs, Quybibes =  A spice, Piper Cubeba L., (Cubeba officinalis Raf.), Piperaceae.  Cubebs are sold as small dried black berries; the flavor is a cross between black pepper and allspice.  (TTEM)

Cullinder = a colander

A New Booke of Cookerie, by J.Murrell, 1615 - "Cambridge Pudding. Searce grated Bread through a Cullinder..."

Liber Cure Cocorum, #43 "For a kolys"

Liber Cure Cocorum, #10 Chekyns in cretene ... With canel and comyn, alle in fere...
Liber Cure Cocorum, #36 For to make a potage of welkes ... Poudur of peper, or goode comyne.
Liber Cure Cocorum, #50 Hennes in brewes ... An comyne also [th]ou schalle grynde...
Liber Cure Cocorum, #123 For comyne sewe ... [3]iff [th]ou wylle make a comyne sew...
Diuersa Servicia, #39 For to make comyn ...
A Noble Boke off Cookry, p. 27, To mak comyne ...put ther to pouder of comyne ...
Babees Boke (II, 42-3, Modus Cenandi, Cotton MS. Titus A xx., fol. 175 r^o) Siluestres volucres habea[n]t cum iure cuminum. (Let wild birds have cumin with their gravy.)

CURLEW = A shorebird. (Seton)

Currants, Raisins of Corinth, coriants, corance = Ribes species, Grossulariaceae.  Currants are most often sold dried.  (TTEM)

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make Quodiniacks of Raspice, or English Coriants.

cuskynoles, kuskenole  =

Curye on Inglsche, Diversa Cibaria - A mete [th]at is icleped cuskynoles. Make a past tempred wi[th] ayren, & so[th]en nim peoron & applen, figes & reysins, alemaundes & dates; bet am togedere & do gode poudre of gode speces wi[th]innen. & in leynten make [th]i past wi[th] milke of alemaundes. & rolle [th]i past on a bord, & so(th)en hew hit on moni perties, & vche an pertie beo of [th]e leyn[th]e of a paume & a half & of [th]reo vyngres of brede. & smeor [thi] paste al of one dole, & so[th]en do [th]i fassure wi[th]innen. Vchen kake is portiooum. & so(th)en veld togedere o[th]e [b]eolue manere ase [th]eos fugurre is imad*: & sot[th]e boille in veir water, & so[th]en rost on an greudil; & so[th]en adresse.

*Note: the drawing in Curye on Inglsche shows a sheet of dough marked into small rectangles, each with a dot in the center.

"Kuskenole. E une viaunde ke est apelé kuskenole. Festes un past des oefs e pus pernez figes e resins e peires e poumes e pus dates e alemandes; batez e metez bon pudre dedenz e de bons especes; e karemme festes vostre past de alemandes; e festes vostre past rouler sur une table e pus copez les en plusurs parties e de la longure de une paume e demy paume e de la leur de treis deis e pus oignez le past tut de une partie; pus metez la fassure dedenz chescune kake sa porcion e pus plier ensemble come sel signe est fet:** e pus boiller en bel ewe; e pus roster sur gerdil &cetera"... MS B.L. Add 32085 ff 119r-119v Ed Hieatt & Jones in _Speculum_ v 61 (1986) #4 pp859-882

[** Imagine a diamond divided into 9 smaller diamonds by drawing two lines across each way, OR a tic-tac-toe game with a box around it, standing on a corner. you've got it.]
 

Cyprus (cypress , ciprese, cypris, sypres, cipris, cipres, cypres, cipriss, ciprys, cyprys, syprees, syprese, cupresse,cipresse, cypresse, cipreis, cyparesse, syprys, cypers, etc.) =
1- the Cypress Tree (Cupressus sempervirens) and various related trees and bushes, used for their scented wood.

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make an especiall sweet Powder... Cyprus and Calamus of each halfe an ounce... [INEDIBLE]

dalle (French) = Steak (of fish) (Montagne under darne).(Viandier)

Damaske =
1-- a type of rose

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To candie Rose leaves... Take of the fairest Rose-leaves, red or damaske...
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make a speciall sweet water to perfume clothes... Take a quart of Damask-Rose-water...   [INEDIBLE]
(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) - To make mosse-powder... and infuse it in a quart of Damask rose-water...   [INEDIBLE]

Damsons =

(A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1636) -To preserve Damsons... and to every pound of Damsons...

dariole (French) = Pie crust (from context, and OED). (Viandier)  In the Harl. MS. 279 and 4016 this refers to a specific kind of custard pie.
 

Decoction =  A tea (usually made from a medicinal plant), but instead of pouring the hot water over the vegetable matter, you boil the vegetable matter in the water. (Jadwiga) "An infusion , like tea. Later recipes (primarily for German beer, I believe) seem to distinguish between decoction as a means of
temperature control by adding measured amounts of boiling liquid to measured amounts of other stuff, and infusion, which is a less sophisticated method of adding a semi-measured amount of boiling water to a measured amount of room-temp stuff to achieve a median "strike" temperature which you then insulate with blankets and such. But Digby seems to be making six gallons of herb tea and using that in his mead, so in this case, it looks like a pretty simple infusion." (Troy)  See Culpeper's [On Decoctions]

Digby (1669) White metheglin of my Lady Hungerford - This Proportion of Herbs is to make six Gallons of Decoction... take the clear Decoction (leaving the settlings)...

deffaire (French) = To sprinkle (something dry) (from context, where the meaning of 'moisten' does not fit). (Viandier)

deffaire de (French) = To steep in (seems the most accurate sense of this word for the manuscript. The literal meaning is 'undo'. Pichon et al. suggest 'thin down' or 'wet', and others such as Hieatt et al., Power, and Scully have made choices like 'moisten' and 'dilute'.). (Viandier)

defrutum (Lat.) = Reduced grape must, also called sappa.

deipno- (Greek) = dinner-
dele, del, deal, deel, delle, dell, dæl, etc. (English) =
1- (noun) a part, a portion. See also halvndele, thridendele

Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers. Cxij.  Sturmye.  "...Make a Siryppe; [th]e .ij. dele schalle ben wyne, & [th]e .ij. dele Sugre or hony; boyle it & stere it, & Skeme it clene; [th]er-on wete [th]in dyssches, & serue forth."
Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers lxxxiiij.  Vyaund de ciprys Ryalle.  Take [th]e to del [₃]olkys of eyron, [th]e [th]ridde dele Hony; take Clowes & kutte hem...

demourer (French) = To linger (OED). (Viandier)

denier  = At the time a coin of alloyed silver and copper weighing 10 to 14 Troy grains (OED). There were 12 deniers in a sol, and 20 sols in a livre. As a