Shakespeare's Kitchen Quotes

“1.    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the endive, parsley, ½ cup of the mint, the greens, bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon of the caraway seeds, 1 tablespoon of the coriander seeds, the citrus peel, nutmeg, dates, ½ cup of the capers, the egg, brown sugar, verjuice, and marrow in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Season both sides of the lamb with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture into the center of the lamb and tie closed with kitchen string. Place in a baking pan and bake for 1¼ hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F for medium. Remove the lamb from the pan and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil in a small sauce pan, until reduced by half. 2.    Add the orange juice to the baking pan and stir well to loosen the pan drippings. Purée the pan drippings with the Renaissance Stock, the remaining 2 tablespoons of mint, the remaining 2 tablespoons of capers, and the granulated sugar until smooth. Stir in the orange zest and warm in a small saucepan. 3.    Place the leg of lamb in the center of a serving platter and spoon the sauce over the lamb. Sprinkle the remaining ½ tablespoon of caraway and coriander seeds over the lamb and around the platter. ORIGINAL RECIPE: A Legge of Lambe searst with Hearbes Strue it as before shewed, with sweet Hearbes and grated Bread, Bisket seeds, a few Coriander-seeds, Lemmon pills minst fine, Nutmeg sliced, sliced Dates, a little grosse pepper, Capers washt cleane: put all together with sixe or seven yolkes of new layd Egges, hard roasted and whole, & put them in your stuffe and worke them with Sugar, Rosewater and verjuyce, and the Marrow of a bone or two, Salt and pepper, put all together into the Skin: Carrawayes and Orangado are fittest garnish for your Dish. MURRELLS TWO BOOKES OF COOKERIE AND CARVING, BOOK 1, 1615”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Carbonado was a method of cutting and notching meat for more even cooking. The term was derived from carbone, the Italian for charcoal. One 1615 recipe for beef carbonado came with a warning: “indeed a dish used most for wantonness!” … He scotched him and notched him
like a carbonado. CORIOLANUS, 4.5 Prime Rib Roast with Orange-Glazed Onions SERVES 6 TO ROAST a Fillet of Beef,” as indicated in the original recipe, meant skewering and turning it on a spit before an open fire.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“THIS FRENCH-INFLUENCED dish calls for “lemon cut in square peeces like dice,” which makes a beautiful and flavorful addition to the sauce. Since I began researching and preparing dishes from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century cookbooks, I have come to appreciate the extra flavor available from lemons and oranges diced whole and added to stews and sauces or puréed into salad dressings. Citrus fruits were rare and costly back then so no part, not even the skin, was wasted.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Since the Middle Ages, pieces of toasted bread have been added to beer and wine to improve the beverages’ flavor. It is from that practice that we get the expression “to drink a toast.” In Shakespeare’s day there was also another saying, “not worth a toast,” meaning not worth a crust of bread.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Elizabethan cookbooks included not only carving instructions, but the proper terminology for each type of meat such as “breake that deer, leach that brawn, lift that swan, unbrace that Mallard, allay that Fesant, wing that partridge, disfigure that peacock, dismember hern, and unlace that coney.” Lamb”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Not only was the best time of day to eat outlined, but also what foods to eat at the different times of year. Elizabethan physicians advised eating according to the season, to balance the weather’s effect on digestion. In warm weather, “cool and moist” foods such as fruits and vegetables and light meats like chicken were recommended. In the winter, “hot and dry” spices such as ginger, mustard, and pepper and “hot” meats such as mutton and beef were encouraged.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“THE ELIZABETHANS ATE all sorts of fowl, including quail, crane, heron, buzzards, and pigeons. Partridge, like many of the other birds, was thought to “comforte the brayne and the stomachke, & … augment carnall lust.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Romans introduced the practice of gelding to England, changing chickens into tender, plump capons. In The Castle of Health, William Elyot wrote, “The capon is above all other fowles praised for as much as it is easily digested.” The carving term for a capon was to “sauce” it, a much prettier term than some of the others for cutting fowl, such as “disfigure that peacock,” “spoil that hen,” “dismember the heron,” “unbrace the mallard,” and “thigh that pigeon.” Chicken with Wine, Apples, and Dried Fruit”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Chefs strived to entertain guests with their culinary feats, creating such whimsical concoctions as the mythical creature the “cockatryce,” a combination of capon legs and the body of a suckling pig. Robert May, the author of The Accomplisht Cook, amused diners by baking deer-shaped baked dough filled with red wine so it appeared to “bleed” when pierced. He also built a table-size battlefield with dough battleships and tiny dough cannons ignited by real gunpowder and even provided the ladies with eggshells filled with scented water to be thrown on the floor to dispel the scent of the gunpowder. Ring, bells, aloud; burn, bonfires,
clear and bright,
To entertain great England’s lawful king. KING HENRY VI, PART II, 5.1”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain … THE TEMPEST, 4.1 Peacock, long a symbol of nobility and immortality, was one of the most esteemed feast foods in Shakespeare’s time. Served roasted and placed back in its feathers, it was then dusted with real gold. Metal rods were inserted into the bird’s body so that it remained upright and seemingly alive. The peacock would be made to appear to breathe fire by the cook’s trick of placing a bit of camphor-soaked cotton in its mouth and lighting it just before serving. Despite these elaborate preparations, peacock was not considered tasty. Wrote one 1599 author, “Peacocke, is very hard meate, of bad temperature, and as evil juyce.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Sweet Pea Purée with Capers SERVES 4 SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK: Faith, I can cut a caper.
SIR TOBY BELCH: And I can cut the mutton to ’t. TWELFTH NIGHT, 1.3 IN THIS QUOTE Shakespeare is making a pun on “caper,” which means both to leap and the pickled flower buds of the caper bush. As Shakespeare also notes, caper sauce was often eaten with mutton. The combination of mint, peas, and capers in this recipe creates a light side dish, perfect for the spring and summer when fresh mint is plentiful. It is an especially nice accompaniment to lamb or fish.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Orange-Scented Rice SERVES 4 … Rice,—what will this sister of mine do with rice?
But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on. THE WINTER’S TALE, 4.3 COSTLY PERFUME INGREDIENTS such as ambergris and musk, with little or no flavor of their own, were often called for in Elizabethan recipes to add fragrance. Here, cooking the rice in orange juice, orange zest, and crystallized ginger adds fragrance as well as a lovely flavor.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Oddly, recipes came with warnings that to eat reheated cabbage was fatal. “Twice cooked cabbage is death,” an ancient adage popular in the Renaissance, referred both to that belief and to the tedium of listening to a comment repeated over and over.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“White potatoes, although introduced into England during Shakespeare’s lifetime, were not commonly eaten until late in the eighteenth century. White potatoes originated from South America but were misnamed “Virginia potatoes” because they were thought to have come from the Virginia colony in America. Another vegetable from the New World, corn, was also misnamed and called granoturco, “grain of Turkey,” by Europeans. Jerusalem artichokes, truly one of the most misnamed of the New World foods, are not from Jerusalem and are not even in the artichoke family!”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Coffin,” as used in this recipe, meant a pie covered with a top crust. Coffin comes from the Middle French cofin for basket or holder. Pies and coffins were rectangular, square, or round and often had crusts thick enough to support the filling without an outer pan. Why, thou say’st true; it is a paltry cap,
A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie:
I love thee well, in that thou lik’est it not. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW,”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Crisp Fried Baby Artichokes SERVES 4 Green indeed is the colour of lovers … LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, 1.2 IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME artichokes were thought to be an aphrodisiac. Only the bottoms were eaten and the leaves, if used at all, were only for garnish.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“The Elizabethans used many more herbs than we do today, including those rarely seen in modern kitchens, such as hyssop, pennyroyal, tansy, and rue. According to a sixteenth-century nutrition guide, A Dyetary of Healthe, “There is no Herbe, nor weede, but God hae given vertue to them, to helpe man.” Puréed Carrots with Currants and Spices SERVES 6 Let me see; what am I to buy for our sheep-shearing feast?”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“The original recipe calls for “periwinkles,” the snail-like mollusk. Taking poetic and culinary license, I chose to reinterpret this ingredient as the flower.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“PEASE PORRIDGE in the pot, nine days old” fairly well summarizes the technique of stew preparation in Shakespeare’s day. A thick soup would have been left cooking for days at a time, with new vegetables, stock, and bits of leftover meat continually added. This Italian version contains rich duck meat, a delicious and unusual addition to pea soup.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Cauliflower Chowder SERVES 4 TO 6 VERJUICE, THE JUICE of unripe grapes now available in most gourmet grocers, adds a lovely touch to this velvety, mild chowder.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Oyster Stew SERVES 4 Why, then the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open. THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 2.2 THE ORIGINAL RECIPE calls for “slic’t nutmeg,” a sophisticated touch to add flavor to a dish. Nutmeg, one of the most common spices in Elizabethan recipes, became so popular that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ladies and gentlemen carried small personal silver nutmeg graters with them to dinner parties.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran!
porridge after meat! TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, 1.2 ...................................... The English ate soup, or porridge as they called it, with the first course and considered it absurd to serve it following the meat course. However, for the rest of Europe, pottage accompanied the second or third course of roast meats. In general, pottage and broth were more popular in England than in the warmer Mediterranean countries.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“must have saffron to colour the warden pies; mace; dates?—
none, that’s out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger,
but that I may beg; four pound of prunes, and as many of
raisins o’ the sun. THE WINTER’S TALE, 4.3 DURING THE Middle Ages and into Elizabethan times, foods such as Shakespeare’s pear, or “warden” pie, were often colored yellow with saffron or sandalwood. Other dishes were colored green with parsley or spinach juice, white with ground almonds, rice, or milk, and black with prunes. In this recipe the baguettes are brushed with saffron-infused oil to give a hint of color and flavor.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Renaissance Rice Balls SERVES 10 (APPROXIMATELY 36 RICE BALLS) RICE BALLS like these, today known as “arancine,” or little oranges, are still made in many parts of Italy. During the Renaissance these savory balls would have been colored purple or yellow with dried edible flower petals or saffron. This dish can be easily re-created using food coloring to produce the different colored balls. Of course, they are delicious without the coloring!”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“A curious fact surfaces in reading these Elizabethan cookbooks. The English did not thicken their sauces with flour. According to some scholars, it was actually a French chef, François Pierre de la Varenne, who first used that method in his 1661 cookbook, Le Cuisinier François. The English chefs of the time clearly shunned La Varenne’s method of thickening, and it does not enter into English cookery books for at least fifty years.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Damson plums were a favorite Elizabethan fruit and “eaten before dyner, be good to provoke a mans appetyde.” They were also popular dried into prunes. It is unclear why, perhaps because they allegedly inflamed men’s appetites, but stewed prunes were a favorite dish at Elizabethan brothels and also were a synonym for prostitutes. Shakespeare mentions prunes in that context in King Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Measure for Measure.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Dried Plums with Wine and Ginger–Zest Crostini SERVES 8 TO 10 Sir, she came in great with child; and longing, saving
your honour’s reverence, for stewed prunes … MEASURE FOR MEASURE, 2.1 THIS SIXTEENTH-CENTURY recipe calls for the dried plums to be served in a tart as part of the first course. However, in another cookbook of the time, L’Opera, by Bartolomeo Scappi, published in Italy in 1570, a similar dried-plum mix is served on toast points as an appetizer, as suggested here. The striking contrast of the ginger and lemon zest against the dark purple plums makes this unusual appetizer both beautiful and delicious.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Spring Pea Tortellini SERVES 8 TO 10 (APPROXIMATELY 80 TORTELLINI) … and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her,
from whom I took two cods and, giving her them again, said
with weeping tears ‘Wear these for my sake.’ AS YOU LIKE IT, 2.4 PEASCODS, OR PEA PODS, usually gathered in springtime, were exchanged as a token of love. An old English proverb states, “Winter time for shoeing, peascod time for wooing.” According to Elizabethans, if you tugged a pea pod off the vine and it stayed intact, it meant someone was in love with you. If you don’t want to make the tortellini, you can get almost the same taste combination by tossing one pound of cooked spaghetti with the pea mixture and sprinkling on the delicious and unusual Parmesan-cinnamon topping.”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“ORIGINAL RECIPE: An other [Sallets for fish days] Salmon cut long waies with slices of onyons upon it layd and upon that to cast Violets, Oyle and Vineger. THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL, 1587 Spring Pea Tortellini SERVES 8 TO 10 (APPROXIMATELY 80 TORTELLINI) … and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her,
from whom I took two cods and, giving her them again, said
with weeping tears ‘Wear these for my sake.’ AS YOU LIKE IT, 2.4 PEASCODS, OR PEA PODS, usually gathered in springtime, were exchanged as a token of love. An old English proverb states, “Winter time for shoeing, peascod time for wooing.” According to Elizabethans, if you tugged a pea pod off the vine and it stayed intact, it meant someone was in love with you. If you don’t want to make the tortellini, you can get almost the same taste combination by tossing one pound of cooked spaghetti with the pea mixture and sprinkling on the delicious and unusual Parmesan-cinnamon topping. 2 large eggs”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook

“Place a mound of the onion in the center of each plate and top with a piece of salmon. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the salmon and arrange the violets on the salmon and around the plate. ORIGINAL”
― Francine Segan, Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook