St. George encourages feasting

Caroline Yeldham has been cooking and researching medieval and Tudor food for 20 years and has teamed up with Morrison's supermarkets to produce a recipe booklet for St George¹s Day this Monday, 23 April. St George's Day was declared an English feast day in the 15th Century

The recipes, originally eaten by English royalty and aristocracy, are taken from early English cookery books such as Liber cure Cucorun (1430) and Forme of Cury (1399).

They include oyster soup, pea soup, sage sauce, roast chicken with sauce madame, sweet and sour lamb, leeks in almonds and cheriesye (pictured).

Yeldham says: "The nation spends thousands on preserving medieval artefacts and art, whilst great value is still placed on medieval literature, music and drawing. Food is a hugely important part of our culture and society and it would be wonderful if we could all play a part in ensuring that this critical part of our history survives."​

Medieval cooking is unique in style and flavour and markedly different from contemporary cuisine. Before the advent of refrigerators, it was heavily influenced by the Œnatural¹ food preservation processes such as smoking, salting, brining, conserving and fermenting. Although local produce was the basis of medieval cuisine, the period also saw the importing of spices and ingredients, such as sugar, for royal and aristocratic use.

Only a dozen known original medieval recipe texts remain, of which fewer than five are in hard copy print. Only two of the UK¹s 193 higher education institutions offer specific courses in English Medieval history and estimates suggest there are only a handful of people in England who are professionally preparing English medieval food. For the recipe booklet visit www.morrisons.co.uk​