A Medieval Recipe: For to Make Flaumpeyns

 

For to make flaumpeyns

Here is an interesting recipe from The Forme of Cury, a 14^th century manuscript,  for what sounds like a pork pie. Like most of the recipes from this cookbook, there is quite a combination of ingredients, like pork and figs, but it sounds pretty good. Here is the original recipe. Remember when you’re reading the þ is a ‘th’ sound.

Take and clene pork and boile it tendre. Þenne hewe it small and bray it smal in a morter. Take fyges and boil hem tender in smale ale. And bray hem and tendre chese þerwith. Þenne waisthe hem in water and þene lyes hem alle togider with ayrenn, þenne take powdour of pepper or els powdour marchannt and ayrenn and a porcioun of safroun and salt.

Þenne take blank sugur, eyrenn and flour and make a past wit a roller, þene make þerof smale pelettes and fry hem broun in clene grece and set hem aside. Þenne make of þat oo þer deel of þat past long coffyns and do þat comade þerin and close hem faire with a counter and pynche hem smale about þanne kyt abouue foure o þer sex ways, þanne take euy of þat kuttying up and þenne colour it wit zolkes of arenn, and plant hem thick, into the flaumpeyns above þtat þou kuttest hem and set hem in an ovene and lat hem bake eselich and þanne sreue hem forth.

 

My translation:

Take and clean pork and boil until tender. Cut or grind into small pieces. Take figs and boil in small ale until tender. Add cheese and mix together. Mix in an egg, add pepper and a spice mix called  power marchant (which could contain cinnamon, ginger, cloves and or other popular spices), saffron and salt.

Make pastry with sugar, egg and flour. Roll it out and put part of it into small triangles. Fry the triangles in oil. With the rest of the pastry line a dish. Brush the triangles with egg yolk to color them. Add the pork mixture and then push the fried triangles into the meat mixture. Bake until done. This sounds a bit like a minced meat pie.