An Elizabethan Dinner.

Queen Elizabeth I made many ‘progresses’ around the country during her long reign. Progresses were massive undertakings. Virtually the whole court and the key administrators of the country, representing hundreds of people, decamped from the royal residences of London and moved for weeks or months to a provincial location. There were several reasons for these trips, but a significant benefit to the royal purse was economic. It was an honour to accommodate the Queen and her retinue, and naturally she was not charged for rent and meals by the aristocratic subjects and towns who provided this service. The costs were staggering, of course, and it is said that some were bankrupted in the process.

Some expenses were paid, however, and the records give an idea of what was served at dinner in the sixteenth century. The following account suggests that several gentlemen of the Exchequer sat down to a very fine meal indeed. Note that the spices cost more than the cooks wages for the day.

A Dinner for Mr. Chanceler, my Lorde Chefe Barron, the Barrons, and others the Officers of Thexchequer, upon the 11^th daye of Februarye [1573]

                                                                       

	s	d
Imprimis, for breade, ale, and beare	13	4
Item, for a surloyne and a doubble  rybbe of byeffe.	8	0
Item, for a loyne, a breaste, and a legge of veale	5	6
Item, for iii capons	7	0
Item, for a lambe	5	0
Item, for two teles	1	4
Item, for two woodcocks	2	0
Item, for iii plovs	2	0
Item, for five snipes	2	2
Item, for a dozen of larkes	1	6
Item, for butter	3	4
Item, for eggs	1	6
Item, for sauce	0	8
Item, for oringes	0	8
Item, for marybones	1	0
Item, for bacon	1	0
Item, for spice	6	0
Item, for frute	1	4
Item, for white wyne in kytchen	0	6
Item, for a pottle and a quarte of sacke	1	6
Item, for rose-water and swete water	0	6
Item, for fyer in the parlers and kytchen	6	0
Item, for cooke’s wages	4	0
Item, for occupyenge of plate, naperie, and other necessaryes	5	0
Item, for boote hier	0	8

I would love to know what was covered by the 8 pence-worth of sauce. Does it mean that the sauces were bought in from an outside sauce-maker? And I wonder what, exactly the sauce or sauces were.

To get some idea of sixteenth century sauces, I went to

A Book Of Cookrye, Very Necessary for all such as delight therin, gathered by A. W. And now newlye enlarged with the serving in of the Table, With the proper Sauces to each of them convenient.Printed by Edward Allde. 1591.

For the capons, perhaps this:-

To make sauce for a capon another way.

Take Claret Wine, Rosewater, sliced Orenges, Sinamon and ginger, and lay it upon Sops, and lay your Capon upon it.

The various joints of veal would probably have been baked in pies:-

For fine Pyes of Veale or Mutton.

Perboyle your meat and shredde it fine, and shred your Suet by it selfe.  When your Suet is fine shred put it to your Mutton or Veale and mince them togither, put therto halfe a dozen yolkes of Egges being hard sodden and fine minced, small Corance, dates fine minced, season it with cloves and mace, Sinamon and Ginger, a very little Pepper, a handfull of Carowaies, Sugar and Vergious, and some Salt, and so put it into your paste being Chewets or Trunk pyes.

All for Show: Saffron and Gilt.

I came across a spectacular example of over-catering recently. The tragic waste of kitchen skill happened in 1660, in association with the wedding of Louis XIV of France, and Maria-Theresa, the Spanish Infanta. This is how a magazine in 1789 described the event.

France was, at this time, at war with Spain; and both nations, tired of the contest, and the long enmity which had subsisted between them, were glad to terminate their disputes by a marriage between the young Lewis [Louis XIV] and the Infanta; and which took place in 1660. The description of the festivity on this occasion, in Spain, Germany, and France, is truly characteristic. Marshal de Grammont, the most gallant nobleman of the French court, rode post to Madrid, with his whole suite, sumpuously dressed, to manifest the impatience of his master. The Admiral of Castile gave him a most superb entertainment, "but more for the sight than the palate.” “Seven hundred dishes,” says the Marshal, “with the Admiralty arms on them, were served; but so saffroned and gilt, that they went away as they came, without any one being able to touch them, though the dinner lasted above four hours.”

I am not sure how to interpret this. Were the dishes so beautiful no-one wanted to spoil them? Or did they look beautiful, but in an inedible sort of way? And how did the skilled kitchen craftspeople and artists who made these marvelous pieces feel about the waste of their efforts? And what happened to the dishes that were returned untouched? They would hardly have been recycled for the servants’ dinners, or given to the poor at the gate, would they? And what, then, did the guests at this superb entertainment eat?

So many questions, so few theories. While we jointly muse over the puzzles, please enjoy a nice saffron pudding.

Saffron Pudding.

Mix ¾ lb. of kidney suet, cut very small and free from skin, with 1 lb. of the finest flour, or ½ lb. each of flour and French roll crumbled; take 3 eggs and beat them up in a pint of cream, with a glass of cognac and a tablespoonful of real saffron boiled up until the flavour is extracted; season it also with a little pounded ginger. Put it into a floured cloth, tied tightly over it, but with room to let it swell, and boil it, without any intermission, for nearly 3 hours.

A few drops of the essential oil of saffron will give the necessary flavour.

Modern domestic cookery, by a lady (1851)

A tablespoon of real saffron – and a few drops of essential oil of saffron is still needed to give the necessary flavour? It sounds like the ‘real saffron’ was there only to give colour?

A lot of things are not making much sense to me today.

The Way to Peace and Plenty.

The author of an article in The Times of 24 July 1795 on ‘The Way to Peace and Plenty’ did not explain why he had felt the need to write the piece. There were certainly wheat shortages at the time due to a series of bad harvests, and the country generally was suffering from the economic effects of the French Revolutionary war, and trouble was brewing in the pesky American colonies. Or perhaps he had been moved by a particularly stirring sermon on the evils of spending and waste?

Anyhow, the Rules for the Rich and Rules for the Poor have some points that make sense still today – although animal-lovers might take offence at a couple of the ideas.

The Way to Peace and Plenty.

Rules for the Rich.

1. Abolish gravy soups, and second courses.

2. Buy no starch when wheat is dear.

3. Destroy all useless dogs.

4. Give no dog, or other animal, the smallest bit of bread or meat.

5. Save all your skim-milk carefully, and give it all to the poor, or sell it at a cheap rate.

6. Make broth, rice pudding, &c, for the poor, and teach them to make such things.

7. Go to church yourselves, and take care your servants go constantly.

8. Look into the management of your own families, and visit your poor neighbours.

9. Prefer those poor who keep steadily to their work, and go constantly to church, and give nothing to those who are idle, and riotous, or keep useless dogs.

10. Buy no weighing meat, or gravy beef: if the rich would buy only the prime pieces, the poor could get the others cheap.

Rules for the Poor.

1. Keep steady to your work, and never change masters, if you can help it,

2. Go to no gin-shop, or alehouse: but lay out all your earnings in food, and cloaths, for yourself, and your family: and try to lay up a little for rent, and rainy days.

3. Avoid bad company.

4. Keep no dogs: for they rob your children, and your neighbours.

5. Go constantly to church, and carry your wives, and children, with you, and God will bless you.

6. Be civil to your superiors, and they will be kind to you.

7. Learn to make broth, milk pottage, rice-pudding, &c. One pound of meat, in both, will go further than two pounds boiled or roasted.

8. Be quiet, and contented, and never steal, or swear, or you will never thrive.

The article actually included some recipes for the dishes mentioned.  I have chosen two for you.

Rice Pudding.

Half a pound of rice, two quarts of skim milk, and three ounces of brown sugar, well baked, make an excellent pudding. The expense is about sevenpence (if you buy the milk and pay for the baking) and it will make a good meal for a family of seven or eight.

Beer Caudle.

Warm a gallon of small beer, and put into it three quarters of a pint of oatmeal, and a little allspice and ginger, both pounded. Boil it half an hour and sweeten it to your taste.

Old Puddings.

It seems a long time since I had some fun with old food words - and, as you know, old food words are one of my favourite topics.  A short visit with the lovely Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English (1857) was not disappointing.

I went in search of puddings. Why puddings?, you may ask.  I say ‘Why not?’ And I did find some lovely puddings and pudding words, as I hope you will agree.

Whispering-Pudding. A pudding in which the plums are very close together.

Poke-Pudding. A long pudding.

Hack-Pudding. A mess made of sheep’s heart, chopped with suet and sweet fruits. This is clearly a variation on the theme of haggis. The dictionary also includes:

Hackin. A pudding made in the maw of a sheep or hog, formerly a standard dish at Christmas.

Well-Pudding. A pudding made like pie-crust, and boiled with butter in the middle.

Hamkin. A pudding made upon the bones of a shoulder of mutton, after the flesh is taken off.

Livering. A pudding of liver, rolled up in the form of a sausage.

Ising. A sort of pudding, a sausage.

Sussex-Pudding. Boiled paste without butter.

There are two other pudding words that I must give you. The first is ‘Pudding-House’, which means ‘the belly.’ I know already that you like it.

The second is my personal favourite, perhaps because it comes from Yorkshire, the county of my birth. It is ‘Pudding-Dip,’ which refers to a pudding sauce. Lovely, isn’t it?  The gold standard of pudding dips is of course, custard. I give you two ‘German’ custards, complete with details for nervous custard cooks, from the marvelous Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845)

A German Custard Pudding-Sauce.

Boil very gently together half a pint of new milk or of milk and cream mixed, a very thin strip or two of fresh lemon-rind, a bit of cinnamon, half an inch of a vanilla bean, and an ounce and a half or two ounces of sugar, until the milk is strongly flavoured; then strain, and pour it, by slow degrees, to the well-beaten yolks of three eggs, smoothly mixed with a knife-end-full (about half a teaspoonful) of flour, a grain or two of salt, and a tablespoonful of cold milk; and stir these very quickly round as the milk is added. Put the sauce again into the stewpan, and whisk or stir it rapidly until it thickens, and looks creamy. It must not be placed upon the fire, but should be held over it, when this is done. The Germans mill their sauces to a froth; but they may be whisked with almost equally good effect, though a small mill for the purpose—formed like a chocolate mill— may be had at a very trifling cost.

A Delicious German Pudding-Sauce.

Dissolve in half a pint of sherry or of Madeira, from three to four ounces of fine sugar, but do not allow the wine to boil; stir it hot to the well-beaten yolks of six fresh eggs, and mill the sauce over a gentle fire until it is well thickened and highly frothed; pour it over a plum, or any other kind of sweet boiled pudding, of which it much improves the appearance. Half the quantity will be sufficient for one of moderate size. We recommend the addition of a dessertspoonful of strained lemon-juice to the wine.

For large pudding, sherry or Madeira, 1 pint; fine sugar, 3 to 4 oz.; yolks of eggs, 6; lemon-juice (if added), 1 dessertspoonful.

Obs.—As we have already said in the previous receipt, it is customary to froth sweet sauces in Germany with a small machine made like a chocolate-mill. Two silver forks fastened together at the handles may be used instead on an emergency, or the sauce may be whisked to the proper state, like the one which precedes it.

Great care must be taken not to allow these sauces to curdle. The safer plan is to put any preparation of the kind into a white jar, and to place it over the fire in a pan of boiling water, and then to stir or mill it until it is sufficiently thickened: the jar should not be half filled, and it should be large enough to allow the sauce to be worked easily. The water should not reach to within two or three inches of the brim. We give these minute details for inexperienced cooks.

Soybeans to Go.

Although I have finished my three-day series on George Washington Carver, there is one more basic food which he inspires me to write about today, although to date I have not been able to find any of his own recipes for it - the soybean.

Soybeans were grown increasingly widely in America in the second half of the nineteenth century, but they were grown as a fodder crop, and for their oil. Two men were instrumental in the beans being accepted as food. One was George Washington Carver, who began his work with them in the first decade of the twentieth century; the other was Henry Ford, the automobile entrepreneur.

Ford passionately believed that agriculture and industry should be closely aligned and should be mutually supportive. His interest in soybeans began when he was investigating crops which could provide the raw materials for industry, and one of his dreams was that automobiles could be grown from the soil. As is well known, he developed a prototype plastic car in 1941 that was made from the soybean. The car itself was never mass produced because it was not financially feasible, but it is said that every car that rolled out of the Ford factory in the 1940s contained a bushel of the beans in the enamel paint and a number of the smaller components.

Ford and Carver corresponded regularly on the subject of soybeans, and Ford soon became quite evangelical about them as food. He hosted a number of all-soy meals in the 1930s and 1940s, and his personal chef was instructed to incorporate soy products in as many dishes as possible.

In honor of both men, here is a sample of recipes for soybeans, from those early times.

Coffee and Peanuts

Dry soybeans have also been used as a substitute for salted peanuts and for coffee. When prepared as a substitute for peanuts, the dry seed is first soaked in a 10 per cent salt solution for ten or twelve hours, and then roasted to a light brown color. Yellow and green seeded varieties are preferred as they make a better appearing and more palatable dish.

Soybean Production in Illinois, 1928

Soy bean butter.

Mix hydrogenated soy oil with salt, coloring matter and diacetyl to color and taste.

Recipes for Soy Bean Foods, from the Edison Institute, 1936

Soybean milk.

When finely ground soybeans are mixed with about 10 parts of water and heated near boiling point for 15 to 30 minutes, an emulsion is obtained which is remarkably similar in appearance and properties to cow’s milk. Upon standing for a while the particles of meal will settle out and the liquid can be poured off. The liquid remaining in the residue can be separated by pouring the mass into a cloth bag and shaking until the liquid has run out. If allowed to stand quietly the filtration is extremely slow.

Cornell bulletin for homemakers, 1945

Soybean Macaroons

1 cup cooked soybean mash

2 cups flaked breakfast cereal

1 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon almond flavouring

Add salt to the egg whites and beat until slightly stiff. Add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff. Mix the soybean mash with the flaked cereal, which has been crushed, and gradually fold this mixture into the egg whites. Add the flavouring. Drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper and bake in a very moderate oven (300-325 deg. F) for about 25-30 minutes, or until delicately brown and well set.

Soybeans for health, longevity, and economy, by Philip S. Chen, 1956

The Tomato, 115 Ways.

Today I want to give you the third and final (for the time being) story on George Washington Carver. We have glimpsed at his ideas on cow peas and sweet potato this week, and in a post some time ago I included a couple of recipes from one of his most famous works, a bulletin called How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption.

Now it is the turn of that most useful of fruits (botanically-speaking) or vegetables (culinarily-speaking) – the tomato. Carver's bulletin on this topic was originally published in 1918, and called How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table. The bulletin was re-issued in 1938, and the recipes I give you today are from this edition.

Carver starts off by outlining the advantages of the tomato:

But few people realize what an important vegetable the tomato is. While, it is true that chemical analysis does not place it very high in the nutritive scale, if viewed from this angle alone its real value will be greatly underestimated.

For the reasons which follow, every normal person should make the tomato a very prominent part of the weekly diet:

1.      It is a vegetable that is easily grown.

2.      It yields well and keeps for a long time.

3.      It usually brings a fair price, because nearly everyone likes tomatoes.

4.      It contains distinct medicinal virtues (which are recognized by many authoritative books on household remedies), as “vegetable calomel.”

5.      It is both a relish and an appetizer as well as a food.

6.      Our soils can be made to bring enormous yields of tomatoes, superior in look, taste, and general appearance.

7.      They can be prepared in so many delicious ways that one can eat them every day in the week and not get tired of them.

8.      The old vines contain splendid dye-stuffs, which could be utilized as a by-product for dying fabrics of various kinds.

9.      There are so many sizes, colors and varieties that, for garnishings, fancy soups, and especially fine decorative table effects, they are almost indispensable.

10.  With a little intelligent effort fresh tomatoes can be produced in this locality [Alabama] almost the year round.

Carver then explains in great detail how to cultivate the tomato, before moving on to the recipes. I have chosen a few of the rather more unusual ideas for you today.

NO. 16. TOMATOES AS OLIVES OR VERMONT OLIVES

Take a bushel of green and half-ripe tomatoes (the plum or fig tomatoes are preferable); wash clean; pack in big jar or tub; use 5 lbs. fine salt, 1/2 lb. whole mixed spices; weight down and cover with clear cold water. In two weeks they are fit to use, and will keep for months if kept under the pickle. They are used without further fixing.

NO. 23. TOMATO FRITTERS

Prepare enough nice, ripe tomatoes to make one quart when stewed; cook with them one small onion, a few cloves, and two tablespoons of sugar; cook thoroughly; strain through a sieve; season to taste with salt, and pepper. To one-fourth cupful of butter, bubbling hot, add one-half cupful of corn starch; to this add the tomatoes you have already prepared with onion, cloves, and sugar, stirring them in gradually: cook about three minutes or until blended; then add one egg slightly beaten. Put this in. a shallow buttered tin, and when cool cut into squares; roll in bread crumbs, egg, and then crumbs again, and fry in deep fat; drain before serving.

NO. 106. TOMATO FLUFF

Cook one cup of sugar, one cup of strained tomato juice, and the juice of half a lemon to a thick syrup; pour the mixture slowly over the stiffly-beaten white of 1 egg; serve at once or chill as desired.

Carver finishes by saying “In the preparation of this bulletin I have used freely the work of many of the very best culinary experts, rearranging in some instances to suit our particular conditions. From every source taken, I wish to give my sincere thanks.”

Things To Do With Sweet Potato.

This week I am focusing on the ideas, and particularly the recipe ideas, of George Washington Carver (c1864-1943), the African-American educator and scientist. Yesterday we looked at some innovative ways of using the cow-pea – until Carver’s time largely used as a fodder crop.

One of the foods that most interested Carver was the sweet potato. It was certainly used as human, as well as cattle, food in his time, but there is no doubt that he helped increase its popularity. He published several bulletins on its cultivation and use, the most important ones from our recipe-perspective being How to Make Sweet Potato Flour, Starch, and Sugar in 1918, and How the Farmer Can Save His Sweet Potatoes and Ways of Preparing Them for the Table, in 1922. There does not seem to be a complete collection of Carver’s works online, which is surprising, given his fame, but the third (1938) edition of the second of these bulletins included the information from the first.

Carver began his advice with the following notes:

As a food for human consumption, the sweet potato has been, and always will be, held in very high esteem and its popularity will increase in this direction as we learn more about its many possibilities.

There is an idea prevalent that anybody can cook sweet potatoes. This is a very great mistake, and the many, many dishes of ill-cooked potatoes that are placed before me as I travel over the South prompt me to believe that these recipes will be of value (many of which I have copied verbatim from Bulletin No. 129, U. S. Department of Agriculture). The above bulletin so aptly adds the following:

The delicate flavor of a sweet potato is lost if it is not cooked properly. Steaming develops and preserves the flavor better than boiling, and baking better than steaming. A sweet potato cooked quickly is not well cooked. Time is an essential element. Twenty minutes may serve to bake a sweet potato so that a hungry man can eat it, but if the flavor is an object, it should be kept in the oven for an hour.

The instructions for making sweet potato flour and sugar would fit well in our ‘Extreme Kitchen DIY’ series, so although I think it unlikely that anyone will make them today, I give them to you out of interest:

Sweet Potato Starch. Household Method

This is very easily made, all that is necessary is to grate the potato, the finer the better, put into a cheese cloth or thin muslin bag and dip up and down, in a vessel of water, squeezing occasionally, continue washing as long as the washings are very milky.

Allow it to settle five or six hours or until the water becomes clear, pour off; rewash the starch, which will be in the bottom of the vessel, stir up well, allow to settle again, pour off the water and let dry, keep the same as any ordinary starch.

Uses

Use exactly the same as cornstarch in cooking; I am confident you will find it superior to cornstarch; it makes a very fine quality of library paste, and has very powerful adhesive qualities.

In certain arts and trades it is almost indispensable.

Sweet Potato Sugar

By saving the water which the pulp was washed in first, in the starch making process and boiling down, the same as for any syrup, a very palatable, non-crystalline sugar will be the result; this sugar or syrup can be used in many ways.

For a more practical recipe, perfectly do-able today, here is a nice idea.

No. 30, Sweet Potato Savories

Boil and mash as many sweet potatoes as required; when cold, stir in sufficient flour to form into a paste; roll out and cut into small squares, soak a few bread crumbs in water for 5 or 10 minutes; squeeze dry; add a little chopped parsley, mixed herbs, and a small onion previously soaked in hot water; season with salt and a dash of pepper. Mix all together thoroughly, put a little on each square of paste, and fold over as in sausage rolls; fry in boiling fat until brown; drain and serve.

RaisedSweet Potato Bread (1886)

Ideas for Cow Peas, 1908.

For the next few days I want to pay homage to George Washington Carver. Carver was an African-American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown, but he is believed to have been born into a slave family in Missouri, in the early 1860’s.

Carver worked with the Tuskegee Agricultural Experiment Station, Alabama, and he pioneered the growing of alternative crops, particularly for the impoverished soil in the South. He published 44 bulletins on the cultivation and use of a range of these crops, and a number of them contained recipes. Today I want to give you a few ideas from Bulletin No. 13 How to Cook the Cow Pea, published in 1908.

Cow peas are also known as black-eyed peas. At the time Carver wrote his bulletin, they were grown as a fodder crop. He began his paper by saying:

The popularity of the cow pea is increasing from every point of view from year to year. Someone has wisely said that as a crop, cow peas are to the South what clover is in the North, and alfalfa to the West. And we trust that the time is not too far distant, when, as an article of human food, the pea itself will be to the South what the Boston, Navy and White soup beans are to the East and West. … As a food for man, it may be prepared in sufficient number of ways to suit the most fastidious palate.

He then gave thirty-two recipes for the legume. Here are my choices for the day:

Pea Coffee.

Brown some peas in the oven the same as for green coffee. To a given quantity (the strength desired determining this) add one third pure coffee, boil and clarify the same as for the other coffee. Some like it just as well to leave out the pure coffee altogether.

Chow Chow of Peas.

Take one quart of tender peas in the pod, one quart of shelled green peas, one quart of green tomatoes, chopped, one quart of chopped onions, one pint of chopped peppers (half green and half ripe) half a cup of white mustard seed, half cup of salt, four stalks of celery chopped fine. Add sugar and curry powder to taste. The peas should be put into cold water and brought to a boil, drop in a lump of soda the size of a pea, boil until one-third cooked, drain water off thoroughly, wash in cold water, drain and chop before adding the other ingredients. Cover with cold vinegar.

Roasted Peas.

Take peas when the pods have just begun to turn yellow, put in moderate oven until thoroughly roasted. Serve the same as for roasted peanuts.

The Cost of a Roast Pig.

I have been having some fun recently (and I hope you have too) with some of medieval London’s food regulations, and the punishments meted out to those who broke the rules. Before I leave the city and the fourteenth century, let us have a brief look at the cost of some foods at that time.

An Ordinance of the Cooks, ordered by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, during the reign of Richard II in 1378 set down the price for “divers flesh-meat and poultry, as well roasted as baked in pasties.

The best roast pig, for 8d. Best roast goose, 7d. Best roast capon, 6d. Best roast hen, 4d. Best roast pullet, 2 ½ d. Best roast rabbit, 4d. Best roast river mallard [ie wild mallard], 4 ½ d. Best roast dunghill mallard [i.e domesticated mallard], 3 ½ d Best roast teal, 2 ½ d. Best roast snyte [snite] 1 ½ d. Five roast larks, 1 ½ d. Best roast wodecok [woodcock], 2 ½ d. Best roast partridge, 3 ½ d Best roast plover, 2 ½ d. Best roast pheasant 13 d. Best roast curlew, 6 ½ d. Three roast thrushes, 2 d. Ten roast finches, 1 d. Best roast heron, 18 d. Best roast bittern, 20 d. Three roast pigeons, 2 ½ d. Ten eggs, one penny. For the paste, fire, and trouble upon a capon, 1 ½ d. The best capon baked in a pasty, 8d. The best hen baked in a pasty, 5d. The best lamb, roasted, 7d.

There are online tools for converting the cost of goods in historical times to modern equivalents, and they tell me that the roast pig, at 8 pence, translates to about US$19 (a bit under ₤ 12 in Britain.) Of course, this figure needs to be related to wages and buying power etc …. and I am working on finding this out.

As the recipe for the day I cannot give you fourteenth century instructions for roasting a pig or a woodcock or a heron, because they were not necessary at the time. The meat would have been put on a spit in front of the fire and turned until it was done – and “everyone” in the kitchen would have been able to estimate how long that would take. Without stating the obvious, there were no clocks or timers and no thermometers in the kitchen at that time!

From The Forme of Cury, circa 1390, compiled by the Master Cooks of King Richard II, so contemporary with this ordinance, I give you stewed pigeons.

Peiouns Ystewed.

Take peions and stop hem with garlec ypylled and with gode erbes ihewe. and do hem in an erthen pot. cast therto gode broth and whyte grece. Powdour fort. safroun verious & salt.