Medieval Cookery

Recipe by Daniel Myers

This recipe is a nice easy one. The first try at it tasted wonderful and got lots of requests for the recipe. I made some significant departures from the original source though. The marrow was left out because of availability, and I reduced the amount of butter to make it slightly healthier (which lead to adding milk to increase the amount of liquid).

Ingredients

1/2 pound bread
1/2 pound raisins
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp. rose water
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
4 eggs
dates (for garnish)

Method

Remove the crusts from the bread. Cut it into one-inch cubes. Mix sugar with raisins and combine with bread cubes, making sure the raisins are distributed evenly. Place bread mixture in a casserole dish. In a separate bowl, mix butter, milk, eggs, nutmeg and rosewater. Pour carefully over bread cubes. Garnish with sliced dates. Cover and bake in 325° oven for 45 minutes or until a knife put into the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with a coarse-grained sugar and bake uncovered for 15 more minutes. Serve hot.

To make an Italian Pudding. Take a Penny white Loafe, pare off the crust, and cut it in square pieces like vnto great Dyes, mince a pound of Beefe Suit small: take halfe a pound of Razins of the Sunne, stone them and mingle them together, and season them with Sugar, Rosewater, and Nutmegge, wet these things in foure Egges, and stirre them very tenderly for breaking the Bread: then put it into a Dish, and pricke three or foure pieces of Marrow, and some sliced Dates: put it into an Ouen hot enough for a Chewet: if your Ouen be too hot, it will burne: if too colde, it will be heauy: when it is bakte scrape on Sugar, and serue it hot at dinner, but not at Supper.

Published: 2003-05-12