Historic recipes – RecipeReminiscing (2024)

A porridge eaten in Scandinavia ever since the viking era
found onmelk.no

Warm milk with honey will help you sleep at night says an old wife’s advise – try this recipe for an evening meal with ingredients popular in Scandinavia all the way back to the Viking era.

A recipe for a tart like they made them in medieaval times
found onbama.no

A rustic tart with a crispy edge and juicy fill of raspberries and sweet cherries. The tart is simple to make and can be shaped to taste, no mould required. Mix in some extra flavors like vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom or grated orange peel in the filling if you like.

A Viking porridge recipe found on ribevikingecenter.dk

If you want to cook this porridge the authentic way, cook the porridge and stewed apples in earthenware pots set right beside the fire. Do remember to stir quite often and turn the pot to prevent the porridge from burning. You can of course make the dish on your kitchen stove as well.

A British/Indian recipe found in “Robert Carrier’s
Kitchen Cook Book” published in 1980

In India, Kedgeree (among other English spellings) usually refers to any of a large variety of legume-and-rice dishes. These dishes are made with a spice mixture designed for each recipe and either dry-toasted or fried in oil before inclusion.

This dish moved to Victorian Britain and changed dramatically. In the West, kedgeree consists of cooked, flaked fish (traditionally smoked haddock), boiled rice, parsley, hard-boiled eggs, curry powder, butter or cream and occasionally sultanas.

I know I have posted at least two recipes for British kedgeree before, but there are great variations to the recipes for this dish and Robert Carrier’s is a very delicious one –Ted

A meatless pie recipe from the Tudor era
found at historyextra.com

In every issue of BBC History Magazine, picture editor Sam Nott brings you a recipe from the past. In this article, a vegetable pie from the Tudor era.

Sam writes: This 1596 recipe for a “pie of bald meats [greens] for fish days” was handy for times such as Lent or Fridays when the church forbade the eating of meat (another similar recipe is called simply Friday Pie). Medieval pastry was a disposable cooking vessel, but in the 1580s there were great advancements in pastry work. Pies became popular, with many pastry types, shapes and patterns filled with everything from lobster to strawberries. This pie’s sweet/savoury combo is typical of Tudor cookery. I enjoyed it, but was glad I’d reduced the sugar content.

A Medieval dessert/snacks recipe found on CookIt!

Pancakes were (and still are) served on Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day), which marks the last day before Lent. Christians began fasting on Ash Wednesday and certain foods were forbidden throughout Lent. Eggs and milk were used up before Lent began, which is why we make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

The finished pancakes are a little like small, crispy doughnuts, with a wonderfully frilly shape. The batter puffs up in the hot oil. You need to work quickly to keep them crisp and serve them as soon as the last ones are cooked. They are quite rich and so are particularly nice dipped in a slightly sharp fruit sauce.

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A recipe for ale rised bread found on CookIt!

Bread was part of the staple diet in Medieval times. And this is a simple risen bread which uses ale (the yeast in the ale) to make the bread rise. The ale is warmed to activate the yeast.

Many early breads and biscuits were baked on flat metal pans, much as earlier peoples had cooked on flat stones. The heat from the griddle cooks the food.

A medieval lunch/dinner recipe found at CookIt!

Frumenty was a staple food for thousands of years. The earliest versions were probably made by early farming communities with dried grains. Frumenty was still being commonly referred to in Victorian books, although it had fallen out of favour as a dish by then. There are many versions of frumenty including a winter dish often served at Christmas. This festival dish was made with milk, eggs, currants and saffron.

Before potatoes became a staple food, frumenty was served as the carbohydrate part of the meal. Roast and boiled meat, fish and game were all served with frumenty through the Middle Ages and into the Tudor and Stuart periods.

A Stuart era dessert/snack recipe found on CookIt!

In Stuart times, cooking methods were much as they had been for centuries. Most food was still cooked over open fires, outdoors as much as possible, otherwise the houses became filled with smoke and the danger from fire was much greater.

Spit roasts were improved and became easier to use, otherwise trivets for frying and cooking pots for boiling were the main cooking methods.

This recipe is simple but nutritious, using eggs and apples, both of which were easily obtained in the countryside where most people still lived. The addition of raisins and ginger (both imported from abroad) were too expensive for most ordinary people, and used sparingly even by the better off.

A dinner recipe with origins in Hungary found in “Mat for Travle” (Food for Busy People) published by
Hjemmets Kokebokklubb in 1982

Goulash (Hungarian: gulyás [ˈɡujaːʃ]) is a soup or stew of meat and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices. Originating from the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, goulash is also a popular meal in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Southern Europe.

Its origin traces back to the 9th century to stews eaten by Hungarian shepherds. Back then, the cooked and flavored meat was dried with the help of the sun and packed into bags produced from sheep’s stomachs, needing only water to make it into a meal. It is one of the national dishes of Hungary and a symbol of the country.

A medieval Roman recipe found on CookIt!

This recipe illustrates the Roman love of dishes that could be dipped into sauces. A vast array dishes could be served in bowls and platters. Meat would be carved into small pieces, so that each guest only picks what he needs and dips the meat into the accompanying sauces served in little bowls.

The meat would be cooked over a raised brick hearth, on top of which was a charcoal fire. The meat was placed in a pan on a tripod placed over the fire or cooked directly on a grid. Also used were frying pans (pensa), deeper pans (patella and patina), mixing bowls (mortaria) with a spout for pouring.

The recipe given here is not meant to be cooked in a modern kitchen but on an open fire or on a charcoal grill. Roman cooks judged quantities by eye so measurements are not given. Apicius provides the ingredients for the sauce, this then accompanies pan- fried meat.

A 19th century refreshment recipe found on worldturn’udupsidedown

Stephanie Ann Farra who runs ‘World Turn’d Upside Down’ writes: This recipe was cooked for the Historical Food Fortnightly. A yearly challenge that encourages bloggers to cook a historical food every two weeks.

For this challenge I decided to take on a lemonade twist with pineappleade. Pineapples were exotic fruits in the 1800s, mostly grown in Jamaica. They were used for such dishes as ice cream, pudding, pineapple chips, fritters, drinks and marmalade. They were considered a “dessert” fruit and was often paired with sugar. Pineapples, being imports, were not as common as home grown fruits. The first large quantity producing pineapple plantation in Florida was started in 1860 by Captain Benjamin Baker, who was probably accustomed to the enjoyment of them at sea.

A pie recipe from the fifitenth century found on Let Hem Boyle

Original recipe

Take Cream a good cupful & put it in a strainer; then take yolks of Eggs & put thereto, & a little milk; then strain it through a strainer into a bowl; then take Sugar enough & put thereto, or else honey for default of Sugar, then color it with Saffron; then take thine coffins & put in the oven empty & and let them be hardened; then take a dish fastened on the Baker’s peel’s end; & pour thine mixture into the dish & from the dish into the coffins & when they do rise well, take them out & serve them forth.

Take a thousand eggs or more, I Volume,
Harleian MS. 279, c. 1420

A dessert recipe from the Tudor era found on CookIt!

Leach is a kind of milk jelly a little like a blancmange. There are milk versions but this one was a dish for Lent when the Tudors would not use milk. Almond milk was used during Lent instead. This is a high table dish for a gentry family and is served attractively. It is time consuming to make requiring setting time and a swift hand when turning out.The top half of the leach is coloured with red wine.

A historic sweatmeat recipe found on Cook It!

A medieval sweetmeat to be eaten at the end of a meal. Sugar was an expensive luxury so honey sweetened foods were popular. The range of imported spices used would still have made this an expensive dish. Galingale is an aromatic spice, a little like ginger, but worth using if you can get it.

This dish is not unlike modern honey dishes which you might know, such as baklava.