Customer Reviews

Take a thousand eggs or more: A translation of medieval recipes from Harleian MS. 279, Harleian MS. 4016, and extracts of Ashmole MS. 1439, Laud MS. ... over 100 recipes adapted for modern cookery

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This is a favorite medival resource of mine. The recipes do come with documentation. There is a wide variety of recipes. The recipes are well written, and are easy to follow. There is a great deal of documentation with each recipe along with the recipe in its original form. This is a definate must purchase if you enjoy historical cooking.

Cindy Renfrow has done a wonderful job with this book. It is one of the best references a reenactment cook could have in his or her collection...it was one of the first in mine! It provides actual recipes and then a translation and a redaction. Cindy Renfrow's redactions are well thought out and reasonable. Not only that, lots of the recipes actually taste good and appeal to modern palates!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Medieval cooking and who wants to explore further the wonders of the medieval thought processes concerning food.

These books allowed me to win first prize at the Feast! I was so pleased to have won and I could not have done so without the help of Ms. Renfrow! Clear easy to follow instructions and wonderful results. I highly recommend these books to everyone.

These books are definitely geared to the historical cooking enthusiast. The volumes are well researched and though not all the recipes are redacted, the ones that have been are original to the author, each one cooked and tasted in real space and time.

Some folks believe Medieval palates were quite different from ours. Not so! Yes, they ate a few things we would not consider eating these days (likewise, we eat a few things now that they would not eat then--potatoes were believed to be poisonous), but ~in general~ they ate the same food stuffs with the same seasonings we use now. Some things like turnips have gone out of style, but even they are still available in grocery stores today.

What the reader may find of interest is the use of what we today consider "sweet" spices in non-sweet things such as meat; with the addition of some small fruits (like raisins) these dishes make for delightful eating and I highly recommend trying some (remember, though, where spices are concerned, a little goes a long way--do not over season!). For those of you who enjoy eating a slice of baked ham with cloves and pineapple, this harkens back to these types of foods.

Do note, however, that book two has no redacted recipes (although, the recipes are translated into modern words if not modern syntax); it is not for the cooking novice. But for those of us who enjoy a little experimentation in the kitchen, it is an exciting challenge to re-create something from the words of someone centuries dead.

If ~you're~ up for a little excitement, the author has graciously provided a section in the back of book two entitled "So Now What?" where she walks the reader through the process of "modernizing" a historical recipe.

Good luck and bon appetite!

A very interesting history lesson. There were some good recipies, but most were hard to follow. Book two gets to sit on the bookshelf, all it is are the old untranslated recipies that you get to work out for yourself. Another thing you have to remember, is that medieval people were more often then not on lent, which ment no meat. And their palates were quite different. Which means that most of these recipies would probably make you sick just smelling them.