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Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks
This is a completely revised edition of the classic cookbook that makes genuine medieval meals available to modern cooks. Using the best recipes from the first edition as a base, Constance Hieatt and Brenda Hosington have added many new recipes from more countries to add depth and flavour to our understanding of medieval cookery. All recipes have been carefully adapted for use in modern kitchens, thoroughly tested, and represent a wide range of foods, from appetizers and soups, to desserts and spice wine. They come largely from English and French manuscripts, but some recipes are from sources in Arabia, Catalonia and Italy. The recipes will appeal to cordon-bleus and less experienced cooks, and feature dishes for both bold and timourous palates. The approach to cooking is entirely practical. The emphasis of the book is on making medieval cookery accessible by enabling today's cooks to produce authentic medieval dishes with as much fidelity as possible. All the ingredients are readily available; where some might prove difficult to find, suitable substitutes are suggested. While modern ingredients which did not exist in the Middle Ages have been excluded (corn starch, for example), modern time and energy saving appliances have not. Authenticity of composition, taste, and appearance are the book's main concern. Unlike any other published book of medieval recipes, Pleyn Delit is based on manuscript readings verified by the authors. When this was not possible, as in the case of the Arabic recipes, the best available scholarly editions were used. The introduction provides a clear explanation of the medieval menu and related matters to bring the latest medieval scholarship to the kitchen of any home. Pleyn Delit is a recipe book dedicated to pure delight - a delight in cooking and good food.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 1, 2020
While I will most likely not be attempting to make the majority of Constance B. Hieatt's, Brenda Hosington's and the late Constance Butler's featured Mediaeval recipes anytime soon, if ever (and this although some of the soups, stews and sweet dishes do in fact look very much personally appealing) I really downloaded the Kindle version of Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks more for its historical content, more for the cultural and archival information on how in the Middle Ages food was prepared, which ingredients were used etc. (and yes indeed, I also wanted to check and verify whether the authors with their reimagined modern Mediaeval recipes were generally using traditional, historically reasonable and acceptable ingredients or had the tendency towards anachronisms).
And most definitely and appreciatively, I have not been disappointed especially with regard to historical authenticity, as for the most part (for the vast majority of the presented recipes featured and shown in Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks) not only have the authors shown both the original, historic recipes, even often written in Middle English, but the accompanying modern versions of said recipes, although of course by necessity changed and altered a bit for today, for current times, generally as much as possible still use similar ingredients as the original receipts and certainly do NOT EVER and thankfully include ingredients that were not yet available during the Middle Ages. Combined with detailed, scholarly (and always appropriately cited and source acknowledged) introductions and historical, cultural notes, as well as a very much appreciated extensive bibliography, I for one do consider Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks a scholar's delight and indeed, and the only reason I am ranking it with four and not five stars, is that considering Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks is not only supposed to be a historic, fact-based documentation on Mediaeval food preparation practices and such, but also a recipe book for aspiring modern cooks who might want to try their hands at preparing food the Mediaeval way, there really should also be some accompanying photographs of at least some of the end products included (and I also do not really understand why this revised Kindle edition of Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks therefore does not contain any of the late Sharon Butler's original illustrations, as I for one do think that they would greatly and beautifully enhance the visual authenticity of the book).
And most definitely and appreciatively, I have not been disappointed especially with regard to historical authenticity, as for the most part (for the vast majority of the presented recipes featured and shown in Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks) not only have the authors shown both the original, historic recipes, even often written in Middle English, but the accompanying modern versions of said recipes, although of course by necessity changed and altered a bit for today, for current times, generally as much as possible still use similar ingredients as the original receipts and certainly do NOT EVER and thankfully include ingredients that were not yet available during the Middle Ages. Combined with detailed, scholarly (and always appropriately cited and source acknowledged) introductions and historical, cultural notes, as well as a very much appreciated extensive bibliography, I for one do consider Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks a scholar's delight and indeed, and the only reason I am ranking it with four and not five stars, is that considering Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks is not only supposed to be a historic, fact-based documentation on Mediaeval food preparation practices and such, but also a recipe book for aspiring modern cooks who might want to try their hands at preparing food the Mediaeval way, there really should also be some accompanying photographs of at least some of the end products included (and I also do not really understand why this revised Kindle edition of Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks therefore does not contain any of the late Sharon Butler's original illustrations, as I for one do think that they would greatly and beautifully enhance the visual authenticity of the book).
April 3, 2013
Pleyn Delit is the original reputable medieval recreation cookery book. It is an absolute improvement over most, in fact all, of its predecessors.
Most of its recipes are now established standards, leading me to complain "there are only 12 ember days in the year, we need not eat ember day tart every weekend!" Nevertheless, I treasure my copy as I recreated my first medieval recipe, Armored Turnips, from the recipe described on its pages.
For medievalists interested in trying a few recipes, it is fine. For serious historical cooks, it must be used with care, as the state of the field has progressed since the text was written. In particular, Hieatt sometimes combines several recipes in creating her redaction, not always the likeliest-- for instance, using dried fruit in her cameline recipe while most of the extant recipes do not. She also advocates using allspice in cookery, presumably because it was more available to her, but allspice is in fact the 'pimento' that Colombus brought back from the West Indies, but it wasn't used in cooking until much later. Pair it with Redon's Medieval Kitchen for a more balanced approach.
Most of its recipes are now established standards, leading me to complain "there are only 12 ember days in the year, we need not eat ember day tart every weekend!" Nevertheless, I treasure my copy as I recreated my first medieval recipe, Armored Turnips, from the recipe described on its pages.
For medievalists interested in trying a few recipes, it is fine. For serious historical cooks, it must be used with care, as the state of the field has progressed since the text was written. In particular, Hieatt sometimes combines several recipes in creating her redaction, not always the likeliest-- for instance, using dried fruit in her cameline recipe while most of the extant recipes do not. She also advocates using allspice in cookery, presumably because it was more available to her, but allspice is in fact the 'pimento' that Colombus brought back from the West Indies, but it wasn't used in cooking until much later. Pair it with Redon's Medieval Kitchen for a more balanced approach.
August 17, 2012
For those who enjoy histories about the medieval ages or historical fiction set in medieval times, this little cookbook is delightful. If one is interested in medieval re-enactment societies, then this is a handy-dandy resource for preparing medieval meals so that they translate to modern tastes. What I liked best about Pleyn Delit was the author's ability to not only describe medieval foodways but to also connect them to our foods and food preferences so that we come away with a greater appreciation for medieval cookery.
August 22, 2020
Well-researched book of medieval recipes with clear instructions. This is the 2nd edition wich has corrected errors in the first - the first used mostly printed versions from the 18th and 18th Centuries, while the second went back to the original texts as much as possible. While the majority of the dishes are of French and English origin, there are a fair number of recipes that originate in Italy, Catalonia (NE Spain) , and Arabia ("Saracen"). The book contains a good range of recipes - aristocratic and common, complex and simple, Lenten (and Ember Day) and "flesshe", with a section devoted to "illusion foods". One issue I have with this book is that it doesn't have page numbers, just numbered dishes. That wouldn't seem to be an issue except in some cases more than one recipe is listed under the same numeric heading.
September 12, 2008
"Pleynly Delitful". This is a quick introduction to Medieval recipes and the food is pretty decent. It's one I call on from time to time when planning a themed dinner.
July 23, 2010
Well composed book of medieval recipes, including sources from original medieval manuscripts, and edited recipes to use modern ingredients.
June 2, 2012
This is a good starting place for anyone interested in trying to make medieval recipes.
February 26, 2018
A standard for medieval reenactors.
September 22, 2022
I like the format - print the original recipe (complete with the wild 14th cent. spelling), a brief commentary, and then a modern version.
The downside is that the "modern" part is very 20th century. For instance, the book states that finding long pepper in the US is "impossible."Yet with Amazon you can have some in 2 days for not a lot of money. Therefore some of the adaptations and substitutions aren't really necessary. In particular, there is an over reliance of using a blender instead of a grinder or grater or chopping bowl, all of which would yield a much more authentic texture.
I haven't tried any of the recipes yet so cannot comment on taste, but plan to do so.
The downside is that the "modern" part is very 20th century. For instance, the book states that finding long pepper in the US is "impossible."Yet with Amazon you can have some in 2 days for not a lot of money. Therefore some of the adaptations and substitutions aren't really necessary. In particular, there is an over reliance of using a blender instead of a grinder or grater or chopping bowl, all of which would yield a much more authentic texture.
I haven't tried any of the recipes yet so cannot comment on taste, but plan to do so.
July 7, 2019
I tried a few of the recipes, there were many that were just too strange or not to my family's taste. Some called for ingredients that I couldn't get (like grouse, which I didn't think would be too difficult to find.) The book itself is clear and well-organized, with the archaic recipe shown beside a modern translation for ease of use, which was interesting. I enjoyed it and might try again when my kids are older. There were no breads, that's why only four stars.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews