A Late-C14th Recipe for ‘Tart de Brymlent’

Take Fyges & Raysouns. & waisshe hem in Wyne. and grinde hem smale with apples & peres clene ypiked. take hem up and cast hem in a pot wiþ wyne and sugur. take salwar Salmoun ysode. oþer codlyng, oþer haddok, & bray hem smal. & do þerto white powdours & hool spices. & salt. and seeþ it. and whanne it is sode ynowz. take it up and do it in a vessel and lat it kele. make a Coffyn an ynche depe & do þe fars þerin. Plaunt it boue with prunes and damysyns. take þe stones out, and wiþ dates quarte reded and piked clene. and couere the coffyn, and bake it wel, and serue it forth.

The Fourme of Cury (via fulltextarchive.com) (c.1390)

The Fourme of Cury is one of the oldest extant cookery books in the English language – see my earlier post on ‘Comadore’ for more on the volume’s origin – and requires a bit of translation before the recipes within are usable by a modern audience. Now it just so happens that Dr Christopher Monk of Modern Medieval Cuisine fame is one of the UK’s leading experts on The Fourme of Cury and is in the midst of a new translation, which I suspect will be complete with a handy glossary and many explanatory notes to shed light on the meaning of some of the trickier terms and ingredients mentioned.

In the meantime though, we’re just going to have to make do with my paltry attempts to work out the basic gist, and perhaps Dr Monk – an always-welcome regular commenter here on Orchard Notes – will be so kind as to correct any errors or misapprehensions as IO stumble along. Here goes:

To make ‘Tart de Brymlent’, or a tart suitable for eating in the midst of Lent (?): take figs and raisins, and “waisshe” (wash or soak?) them in wine, then grind them to small pieces with apples and pears “clean ypiked” (freshly picked, or peeled?) then add them to a pot with more wine, and sugar. Then take salmon, or codling (a young cod?) or haddock, and bray (chop?) them into small pieces, and add “white powdours & hool spices” (some sort of white pepper spice blend, and whole spices as well? I’ll definitely have to defer to Dr. Monk on this one, I know he’s done some detailed work on medieval spice mixes) and salt, and then “seeþ” (seethe, boil) it together. Then when it is “sode ynowz” (um… cooked enough?), transfer the mix to another vessel (dish, bowl) and let it “kele” (cool). Next make up a “coffyn” (pastry case), and add the mixture of fruit and fish, before adding prunes and damsons with their stones removed, and quartered dates, and then cover the pie with a pastry lid, bake it well, and serve it forth.

In other words, this is a spicy fish and fruit pie. Which is an interesting idea, but probably not something I’d rush to sample on a restaurant menu. I could be entirely wrong, the combination of salmon in wine, with figs, raisins, apples, pears, prunes, damsons, and dates might be an amazing taste sensation. But I confess, I’m not convinced.

Incidentally, if “Brymlent” does translate to mid-Lent then the cook who attempts this pie is going to run into a timing problem. Their fruit ingredients would all have to be dried or preserved, because they’re not going to be able to source fresh figs, apples or pears in Lent, which typically falls around March to April. And I have no idea what the state of the fish stocks would be at that time of year. But I suspect the shopping list would be much easier to source in late summer or early Autumn.

How about you? Do you think you would enjoy eating this fishy, fruity pie in Lent, or any other time of the year? Or would it be a bit more palatable if you waited until Easter so you could swap the fish for a bit of bacon? Or how about leaving out the animal protein and just having the fruit in wine? Now there’s an idea. Do please let me know your thoughts, via the comments.

Major Update 08.08.25 – Now, sometimes, you cast a “summon expert” spell and get lucky; the expert you have in mind comes along and leaves a quick comment, which is always lovely and very much appreciated. And then sometimes you hit the jackpot… which is what’s happened this time around.

After spotting this post, my friend Dr Christopher Monk not only left a quick comment (see below), but actually wrote an entire blog post about this recipe. Dr M. not only clears up the confusion over the word ‘Brymlent’ (hint: it’s all about the minims), but also explains that the fishy filling was probably all about the texture rather than the flavour, especially when the dish is considered in the context of the preceding recipe in the manuscript. Brilliant!

So, stop what you’re doing and go read Christopher’s post, Tart of Brie in Lent, a fishy alternative?‘ right now. You’ll be much the wiser for it.