The first thing you are likely seeing here is a recipe. I try to translate one recipe from a historical source every day, and here is where I post them. When I have time to experiment, I also post reports on actually trying out the dishes or short articles on other historical questions I find interesting. But mostly, it is recipes. I hope you enjoy them.
Another set of short recipes from Philippine Welser before going into a very busy week. This is the conclusion of the chapter on Mus:
169 If you want to make an apple Mus
Take the apples, peel them, and add wine when you set them to cook. When you have steamed them enough, pass them through a colander and break 3 or 4 eggs into it. Add sugar, ginger, and saffron to it and put it into a pot. Let it boil well together again and stir it often.
170 If you want to make an apple Mus
Boil the apples well and pass them through a cloth. Grate semel bread crumbs into it and take 10 eggs to each mess (disch). Beat a little milk with the eggs and pour that into the mashed apples. Also add the grated semel breadcrumbs and saffron and sugar. Stir it well together. Put fat into a pot, let it get hot, and pour the apples into it. Set it over the coals and let it boil. Stir it so it becomes shaggy (krauß).
171 If you want to make an apple Mus in a bowl
Take apples and cut them into thin slices. Put them into a bowl and add sugar and cinnamon. Pour (bren) hot fat over them, pour on a little wine, and set it on a griddle. Wrap a wet cloth around the rim (refft) and put coals underneath, and let it boil until it is enough. Serve it warm.
172 If you want to make a pear Mus
Take good pears and boil them in wine. Add salt and pass them through a cloth. Add sugar and spices, put it into a pot, and let it boil. Stir it often and serve it warm.
There is very little about these recipes that is distinctive or exceptional. A Mus of steamed fruit bound with egg or with breadcrumbs is very much a standard dish that we find in many sources. The method of cooking the fruit in a sealed bowl is more interesting, but far from unique. But of course all of this is liable to produce tasty results. Apples and pears are delicious. Often, the simplest way of treating them can be the best.
If you aim to recreate them, it is important to note that though these recipes contain sugar, they are not necessarily sweet. We associate apples with dessert, but that was not the case then. In the fifteenth and sixteenth century, apples featured in sauces for meat, fillings for roasts and poultry, and fish and meat pastries. These Mus dishes can be sweet, but they can equally be savoury and spicy, with just a bit of sugar added for the sake of fashion.
Philippine Welser (1527-1580), a member of the prominent and extremely wealthy Welser banking family of Augsburg, was a famous beauty of her day. Scandalously, she secretly married Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg in 1557 and followed him first to Bohemia, then to Tyrol. A number of manuscripts are associated with her, most famously a collection of medicinal recipes and one of mainly culinary ones. The recipe collection, addressed as her Kochbuch in German, was most likely produced around 1550 when she was a young woman in Augsburg. It may have been made at the request of her mother and was written by an experienced scribe. Some later additions, though, are in Philippine Welser’s own hand, suggesting she used it.
The manuscript is currently held in the library of Ambras Castle near Innsbruck as PA 1473 and was edited by Gerold Hayer as Das Kochbuch der Philippine Welser (Innsbruck 1983).
Today, another recipe from the collection of Philippine Welser:
165 If you want to make a Bohemian pea Mus
Take shelled peas and good meat broth and put both into a pot. Close it well with a cloth so the steam stays in it and thus let it steam (dampfen) until they turn soft. Then grind them well in a grinding mill (reybstain) until they are neat and smooth. Then pass them through a colander or sieve. Take it and prepare it with good meat broth, but do not make it too thin because it becomes thinner as it boils. Boil it well, and then take fresh bacon and boil that. When it is boiled, cut it into small cubes, but do not cut it through (schneyt in nit nach) so it all stays together. Lay it in hot fat and turn it over rightaway, and take it out quickly. Then lay it in the middle of the bowl in which you serve the peas.
In this recipe, the peas are ground in a mill and then diluted with meat broth, which would have consisted a smooth and almost liquid dish. This is nonetheless not really very exciting. The interesting part of this recipe is the trimmings: a chequerboard piece of bacon. A solid piece most likely of pork belly, parboiled, cut in a chequerboard pattern, and quickly flash-fried to crisp the outside must have been visually arresting at the centre of a bowl of mashed peas. I don’t know whether it can be made tender enough to detach individual squares and eat them, but it would be a very interesting and fun effect.
Philippine Welser (1527-1580), a member of the prominent and extremely wealthy Welser banking family of Augsburg, was a famous beauty of her day. Scandalously, she secretly married Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg in 1557 and followed him first to Bohemia, then to Tyrol. A number of manuscripts are associated with her, most famously a collection of medicinal recipes and one of mainly culinary ones. The recipe collection, addressed as her Kochbuch in German, was most likely produced around 1550 when she was a young woman in Augsburg. It may have been made at the request of her mother and was written by an experienced scribe. Some later additions, though, are in Philippine Welser’s own hand, suggesting she used it.
The manuscript is currently held in the library of Ambras Castle near Innsbruck as PA 1473 and was edited by Gerold Hayer as Das Kochbuch der Philippine Welser (Innsbruck 1983).
I am glad to announce that the complete translation of the Benedictiones ad Mensas can now be downloaded from this blog. I think these Latin snippets from the eleventh century are quite enjoyable and may be useful in the living history community well beyond their value as culinary sources.
Tapisserie de Bayeux – Scène 43 : l’évêque Odon bénit le banquet.
The Benedictiones ad Mensas were produced by Ekkehart IV of St Gall, most likely initially written during his tenure as head of the Mainz cathedral school between 1022 and 1031, but expanded and revised until his death in St Gall in 1057. They are a collection of blessings to be spoken over food. Written in short rhyming couplets in Latin, they are unusual in their attention to the diversity of foods and preparations. This is not a serious work of theology or medicine, but an intellectual diversion, playful verse meant to show off a broad vocabulary and facility with Latin. That is what makes them very valuable – they give us a glimpse of the mental horizon of a senior cleric of the 11th century at the table.
I’ve been kept busy by life, but it’s all good. Today, there is time for a short recipe from the collection of Philippine Welser:
155 If you want to make sugar Mus
Take rice flour and milk and put that into a brass pan. Stir the flour and milk together. Take the meat of capons and also grind it into that, and sugar and rosewater. You can serve it cold or warm.
156 To make a sugar Mus
Prepare an egg milk (hard custard) and soak two slices of semel bread in creamy milk. When it has softened, pass it through a cloth together with the eggs and add half a pound of sugar. Make it with cream so it has its proper thickness and set it in the cellar. That is well done.
The first recipe is interesting not so much because of what it tells us as because of what it lascks. Again, we have a recipe for what is clearly blancmanger that is called something else. I wrote about this earlier when discussing the parallel recipes from the Buoch von guoter Spise that uses the term blamensir and the Mondseer Kochbuch, which calls it pulverisei. A similar issue showed up with a recipe of uncertain reading in the same sources. Again, here is a German language source, this one over 100 years later, that records a blancmanger but calls it something very different. The name had not dropped from use – Marx Rumpolt uses the Italian Manscho Blancko in 1581 – but here, it is clearly not familiar. What is more, the name of ‘sugar mus’ the dish is given is quite generic, and a folloowing recipe names a completely different preparation the same. I begin to get the feeling that neither names nor specific preparations were very soundly established in German kitchens. As with the infamous heidnische Kuchen, we are walking on shifting sands here.
Philippine Welser (1527-1580), a member of the prominent and extremely wealthy Welser banking family of Augsburg, was a famous beauty of her day. Scandalously, she secretly married Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg in 1557 and followed him first to Bohemia, then to Tyrol. A number of manuscripts are associated with her, most famously a collection of medicinal recipes and one of mainly culinary ones. The recipe collection, addressed as her Kochbuch in German, was most likely produced around 1550 when she was a young woman in Augsburg. It may have been made at the request of her mother and was written by an experienced scribe. Some later additions, though, are in Philippine Welser’s own hand, suggesting she used it.
The manuscript is currently held in the library of Ambras Castle near Innsbruck as PA 1473 and was edited by Gerold Hayer as Das Kochbuch der Philippine Welser (Innsbruck 1983).
Today’s post concludes the series on the Benedictiones ad Mensas. Here, various drinks are blessed and the author begins to lose focus. After this section, the text concludes with a number of verses that praise abstemiousness and draw on the theological significance of water, wine, and bread. These will be included with the full translation as it goes up, but do not teach us much about food.
Tapisserie de Bayeux – Scène 43 : l’évêque Odon bénit le banquet.
Blessing of drinks
Benedictio potum
222 May these cups of wine taste of the joy of the Lord
Lętitiam domini sapiant hęc pocula vini
223 May all our drink be a blessing of the Lord
Sit noster potus domini benedictio totus
224 May the holy right hand of God bless our cups
Sancta dei dextra benedicat pocula nostra
225 May blessing fill entirely the drink of this brother
Hunc fratrum potum repleat benedictio totum
226 May the triune one bless the gift of so many chalices
Tot calicum munus benedicat trinus et unus
227 Christ, pour out your dew over this liquid
Christe tuum rorem super hunc effunde liquorem
228 May the vintner bless the gift of this mild vine
Vinitor hęc mitis benedicat munera vitis
229 May grace bless this drink made from the vine
Vitibus enatum benedicat gratia potum
230 God Christ, bless this intoxicating drink made from the vine
Vitibus enatum benedic dee Christe temetum
231 Derive pleasure joyfully from the true vine
Lęti haurite de vera gaudia vite.
232 May God mix this Falernian with inner strength
Misceat interna deus hęc virtute phalerna
233 May blessing be on this wine by the gift of God
Munere divino sit huic benedictio vino
234 May the cross give this must a flavour of pleasing sweetness
Crux det in hoc mustum placida dulcedine gustum
235 May the must flavoured by the spirit taste good
Quam sapiant gusta condita pneumate musta
236 May new grace render this drink of the vine fortunate
Hunc vitis haustum faciat nova gratia faustum
237 May Bromius not know these cups and Bacchus avoid them
Nesciat hęc Bromius fugiat charchesia Bachus
238 May it please Christ to bless the light-coloured must
Complaceat Christo niveo benedicere musto
239 May the blessing make the recently pressed must pleasing
Musta recens hausta faciat benedictio fausta
240 Christ Jesus, make the must and the old wines good
Christe hiesu musta bona fac et vina vetusta
241 May both the old and new wines be good
Vina vetustatis bona sint simul et novitatis
242 May the drunkenness of the Holy Spirit make the minds be joyful while sober
Pneumatis ebrietas mentes det sobrie lętas
243 May the Creator strengthen this wine against all poison
Conditor hoc vinum confortet in omne venenum
244 May the intoxicating drink of the living vine render the heart joyful
Cor faciat lętum viva de vite temetum
245 May this pure drink be entirely perfused by the admixture of Christ
Christi mixtura sit perflua potio pura
246 May this spiced wine be watered with dew from above
Hoc pigmentatum supero sit rore rigatum
247 May the blessing render the sweet juniper wine agreeable
Dulce Savinatum faciat benedictio gratum
248 Christ, make the juice of the apples into a flavourful cider
Sucum pomorum siceram fac Christe saporum
249 May the drink made of mulberries be full of excellent flavour
Potio facta moris superi sit plena saporis
250 May this raisin wine cause nobody’s head to become weak
Neminis hoc Passum caput efficiat fore lassum
251 May the Holy Spirit breathe his dew into this mead
Pneuma suum rorem det in hunc spirando Medonem
252 May a thousand flavourful cups be healthy from good mead
Mille sapora bonis sint pocula sana Medonis
253 May the celestial right hand of God bless this honeyed wine
Dextra dei celsa velit hęc benedicere Mulsa
254 When the foe is repelled, may blessing be on this honeyed wine
Hoste propulso sit huic benedictio mulso
255 May the strong barley beer be blessed by the unconquered cross
Fortis ab invicta cruce Coelia sit benedicta
256 Through this did cursed Numantia suffer many deaths
Dira per hanc fortes subiit Numantia mortes
257 Grace be upon this excellently and recently brewed beer
Optime provisę vix gratia sit Cerevisę
258 May no admixture be done to the well-brewed beer
Non bene provisę confusio sit Cervisę
Item
259 May the unadulterated drink of water make the heart clear
Cor faciat clarum potus sincerus aquarum
260 May the hand of the Almighty cleanse this drink from the spring
Hunc haustum fontis mundet manus omnipotentis
261 May no living spring be harmful to the stomach, o Christ
Nulli fons vivus stomacho sit Christe nocivus
262 As for Timothy whom Paul gave wine for medicine
Timotheo vinum Paulus cui dat medicinam
263 May this chalice be cold through your merit, unique and happy one
Frigidus iste calix mercede sit unice felix
264 May the sacred dew of the Spirit render these waves clean
Pneumatis has mundas faciat fore ros sacer Undas
As with foods, Ekkehart delivers specific blessings for a wide variety of beverages, but wine clearly gets top billing. That is not surprising, given it is both the preferred drink in the classical Roman tradition and important in Christian ritual. The author uses a great deal of poetic circumlocution to describe it as well as drawing on some classical Latin terminology. There is, for example, a reference to Falernian wine in #232. This wine from Campania was prized in the Roman Empire for its flavour and the fact that it aged well. The best kind could be kept for decades. It is highly unlikely that the monks of St Gall actually drank Falernian, but the word may well refer to a wine of similar qualities, or just a particularly good one. In #250, we find passum, which was a particularly sweet and flavourful wine made from grapes that were partly dried on the vine to concentrate their sugar and flavour. How similar to the Roman drink whatever Ekkehart called by this name was in unknown. It may already have been made using fruit affected by Botyris cinerea or ‘noble rot’, but we cannot be sure of this. It is tempting to think that Ekkerhart already savoured a Trockenbeerenauslese, though.
In #237, Ekkehart makes a reference to Greco-Roman gods. This is very likely no more than a classical allusion to noisy drunkenness, something monks were expected to avoid decorously; Bromius, the roaring or thundering one, is a byname of Dionysos, hence Bacchus, so it is the same deity. A classically educated person would know this. I cannot exclude the possibility that he actually thought of Bacchgus as a real entity the same way Satan is real to him, but I suspect rather not.
Beyond wine, we have several references to mustum. In classical Latin, this refers to freshly pressed juice as well as young wine still in fermentation. Since it is contrasted with old wine in #240, the latter is the likelier interpretation. Today, the German word Most often refers to apple or pear wines, but here it is clearly grape wine. We also learn that at least some of the mustum was light-coloured. Niveo in #238 literally means snow-coloured, so this is probably something like Federweißer.
As we go beyond grape wine, we find a variety of other beverages addressed briefly. There is savinatum, most likely a wine flavoured with juniper, and sicera. Originally a Biblical term referring to an unknown alcoholic beverage, sicera it is often used to refer to cider and perry, as is the case here, and eventually takes on that meaning exclusively. Mulberry wine (elsewhere refrred to as moratum) and mead (medo) are mentioned, as are cer(e)vise, beer, and mulsum, which is most likeky a honey-sweetened wine.
Towards the end, Ekkehart turns to praising water. This is what you would expect of a monk who was supposed to live abstemiously and eschew drunkenness (except – see #242 – the drunkenness of intense religious experience). I am not entirely convinced of his sincerity here, but what is more interesting is that he makes no reference to the classical habit of mixing wine with water. This was universal in the Greco-Roman world, but seems entirely unfamiliar to him.
The Benedictiones ad Mensas were produced by Ekkehart IV of St Gall, most likely initially written during his tenure as head of the Mainz cathedral school between 1022 and 1031, but expanded and revised until his death in St Gall in 1057. They are a collection of blessings to be spoken over food. Written in short rhyming couplets in Latin, they are unusual in their attention to the diversity of foods and preparations. This is not a serious work of theology or medicine, but an intellectual diversion, playful verse meant to show off a broad vocabulary and facility with Latin. That is what makes them very valuable – they give us a glimpse of the mental horizon of a senior cleric of the 11th century at the table.
Today, it’s another short recipe from the collection of Philippine Welser, but a very interesting one:
162 If you want to make a ragged Mus (hader muß)
Take an egg or 2 for 8 portions (barschonen). Prepare a fine dough like a (omission), roll it out make it into nicely thick sheets. Then sprinkle flour on it and coat it well. Fold it six or eight times, depending on how large it is, and cut off thin strips (lit. small feathers, federla). Fry the same crispy and when they are fried, put it into boiling milk at once. Stir it so it does not burn and add sugar. You can also scrape nutmeg into it.
This recipe straddles the boundary between two kinds of dishes we find elsewhere: the genre of milk pasta often called a ‘shaggy’ Mus, and that of fritters cookedin sauce. These dishes seem to have been quite popular, and it is easy to see why.
The name is imaginative and evocative; hader are rags, torn pieces of cloth, and the unevenly ragged, stringy appearance that this dish would have matches this very well. A similar dish found in several fifteenth-century sources was known as zottet mus, a shaggy dish. The version from the Innsbruck MS reads:
25 If you would make a shaggy Mus (zottet müez), make sheets of dough that are thin, and then cut them so they are as small as small rings. Fry them in fat so they are not very brown and then cook them in good milk. Serve it and add fat etc.
The version from the Dorotheenkloster MS, which I adapted for a redaction in my Landsknecht Cookbook, omits the frying:
Take good white flour and make a dough with egg white. Have boiling milk ready in a pan and pull the dough into little pieces, throwing them in as the milk boils. It is to be salted beforehand. Also add fat. See that it stays worm-shaped. Do not oversalt it. Serve it.
The shape seems to have been very variable, with the pasta being chopped in Balthasar Staindl and cut in the Oeconomia. What was aimed for was an uneven appearance, a kind of heap or tangle of the pasta in the milk. I assume that the aim was to cook the noodles fairly dry, mushy, but cohesive, with most of the liquid absorbed. That is how I like it best, at least.
All of these ‘shaggy’ dishes make excellent breakfast food by modern sensibilities, though there is no reason not to serve them as a side or dessert with a hearty winter meal. The tradition had a long life, and Milchnudeln survive as a childhood treat especially in the east of Germany. It is intuitive to us to serve them sweetened, but do try them plain, with salt. You will be surprised at how well that works.
Philippine Welser (1527-1580), a member of the prominent and extremely wealthy Welser banking family of Augsburg, was a famous beauty of her day. Scandalously, she secretly married Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg in 1557 and followed him first to Bohemia, then to Tyrol. A number of manuscripts are associated with her, most famously a collection of medicinal recipes and one of mainly culinary ones. The recipe collection, addressed as her Kochbuch in German, was most likely produced around 1550 when she was a young woman in Augsburg. It may have been made at the request of her mother and was written by an experienced scribe. Some later additions, though, are in Philippine Welser’s own hand, suggesting she used it.
The manuscript is currently held in the library of Ambras Castle near Innsbruck as PA 1473 and was edited by Gerold Hayer as Das Kochbuch der Philippine Welser (Innsbruck 1983).
It’s too hot to concentrate properly on blessings today, so just a short recipe from Philippine Welser: A basic white Mus served chilled.
154 If you want to make a Mus for one table
Take the whites of 12 eggs and beat them well (so they become) like water. Then beat in cream and boil it together for twice as long as hard-boiled eggs take. Also boil a little sugar with it, and when it has boiled, pass it through a sieve so it becomes nicely smooth. Put it into a bowl and set it in a cellar on the ground until you want to eat it.
This is quite similar to the cold mus we had a week ago – so similar one wonders why it merited a separate recipe, really. It is interesting for mainly two reasons. First, the step of passing the finished dish through a sieve to make it smooth. This makes sense, especially if the egg curdled during cooking as it easily will. I would not be surprised if this was a good deal more commonly done with egg-based Mus dishes than the recipes record. The second is that we are getting a hint at portion sizes. Twelve egg whites make a dish for ‘one table’, that is, the entire company dining. We do not know how large that group was, but all illustrations and descriptions suggest a ‘table’ was a practical size for keeping company, anything between six and ten people. This is a dainty dish, not something to gorge on.
Philippine Welser (1527-1580), a member of the prominent and extremely wealthy Welser banking family of Augsburg, was a famous beauty of her day. Scandalously, she secretly married Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg in 1557 and followed him first to Bohemia, then to Tyrol. A number of manuscripts are associated with her, most famously a collection of medicinal recipes and one of mainly culinary ones. The recipe collection, addressed as her Kochbuch in German, was most likely produced around 1550 when she was a young woman in Augsburg. It may have been made at the request of her mother and was written by an experienced scribe. Some later additions, though, are in Philippine Welser’s own hand, suggesting she used it.
The manuscript is currently held in the library of Ambras Castle near Innsbruck as PA 1473 and was edited by Gerold Hayer as Das Kochbuch der Philippine Welser (Innsbruck 1983).
Tapisserie de Bayeux – Scène 43 : l’évêque Odon bénit le banquet.
203 May the cross cause these radishes to have a sweet taste
Gustu radices faciat crux has fore dulces
204 May the Lord let this kind of seed give health
Seminis hanc speciem dominus det ferre salutem
205 May Christ make these cabbage seeds lighten the stomach
Hoc holeris semen stomacho fac Christe levamen
206 May this medicine be blessed under the holy cross
Sub cruce divina benedicta sit hęc medicina
207 May the highest giver expel all bitterness from this herb
Summus ab hac erba dator omnia pellat acerba
208 May the fruit of the gardens be blessed by the holy cross
Hortorum fructus sancta cruce sit benedictus
209 May God who creates all good things bless this cabbage
Hoc benedicat holus qui cuncta creat bona solus
210 May the cross render the cooked and the raw leeks free from fever
Coctos seu crudos Porros crux det febre nudos
211 May blessing fill the mushrooms boiled many times
Sępius elixos repleat benedictio fungos
212 May the blessing make all kinds of cabbage agreeable
Caules omnigenas faciat benedictio sanas
213 Mighty Christ, place your sign upon these melons
Christe potens pones super hos tua signa pepones
214 May the garlic give weakened stomachs their customary strength
Virtutem stomachis solitam dent allia lassis
215 But may it not give the kidneys thousands of stones
Sed non millenas renibus operentur arenas
216 May the pumpkin be blessed with the name of the highest Lord
Nomine sit domini benedicta Cucurbita summi
217 May the lettuce from the garden be blessed by the powerful cross
Lactucis horti benedictio sit cruce forti
218 May the cross place chopped bitter herbs in vinegar
Concisas erbas in acetum crux det acerbas
I am not quite sure how this section fits together conceptually, but I think it relates to the garden and may belong together with the previous one. To us, grouping herbs and vegetables is not unusual, but we tend to separate the culinary and the medicinal sphere. Ekkehart IV doesn’t, and it would be quite out of character for the era to do so.
Unfortunately, we do not get much useful information from these blessings. Even designations can be very broad. The radix of #203 and semen of #204 are simply ‘root’ and ‘seed’, and while it is at least probable the former refers to radishes, the latter could be any edible seed. Whether the cabbage seeds in #205 are intended as food or medicine is uncertain, but possibly the distinction is artificial anyway.
Leeks and cabbage are two vegetables that we are still familiar with, and both were common. Leeks, both cooked and raw (#210) are also referenced in other contexts and sometimes associated with milk, so cooking them in milk is both justifiable and attested in later sources. For the cabbage, we have no such guidance. They were very likely cooked, possibly with meat or other flavour-enhancing ingredients. Incidentally, we encounter two words for cabbage: holus (#209) and caules (#212). Possibly the first refers to loose-leaved types while the second, a plural, refers to cabbage heads, but that is speculative.
We do not know what kind of mushrooms were served or whether the species was considered important, though given the differences in flavour, I suspect there was more art to it than is acknowledged here. Boiling mushrooms repeatedly was a customary way of reducing the harmful qualities they were credited with, so that is not surprising.
The melons (pepones) of #213 and pumpkins (cucurbita) of #216 are also hard to identify. A pepo could be a melon, but also possibly a kind of gourd. The cucurbita is slightly clearer. While the word is used exclusively for New World pumpkins today, here it must refer to the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria). Wahlafrid Strabo write in his 9th century poem on horticulture that it is fried in fat. Perhaps a similar preparation was still enjoyed by Ekkehart.
The lettuce of #217 is interesting, but we learn nothing about how it was eaten. Hildegardis Bingensis (Physica xc) suggests adding garlic, dill, or vinegar to counteract its harmful effect. That is not implausible, at least, and it would mesh with #218. The herbs referred to here could be a relish or seasoning, but they could as well describe what we think of as a salad. Equally, of course, this could be a reference to the Passover meal. Clerics in the eleventh century were steeped in Old Testament symbolism and familiar with all the key passages considered foreshadowings of Jesus Christ.
The Benedictiones ad Mensas were produced by Ekkehart IV of St Gall, most likely initially written during his tenure as head of the Mainz cathedral school between 1022 and 1031, but expanded and revised until his death in St Gall in 1057. They are a collection of blessings to be spoken over food. Written in short rhyming couplets in Latin, they are unusual in their attention to the diversity of foods and preparations. This is not a serious work of theology or medicine, but an intellectual diversion, playful verse meant to show off a broad vocabulary and facility with Latin. That is what makes them very valuable – they give us a glimpse of the mental horizon of a senior cleric of the 11th century at the table.
A brief recipe today as I am back at work. From the recipe collection of Philippine Welser, an elaborate way of playing with your food:
166 If you want to make a sultz mus
Take 10 eggs and set aside the whites. Beat the yolks well and add sugar to them. Then place milk over the fire, let it boil, and pour in the yolks of the eggs so that they contract (zusammen far). Lay a piece of cloth on a colander and set it in there, and weigh it down a little so the water comes out of it. Then cut four-cornered pieces from this mass (dayg) and put them in a pewter bowl. Then take the egg whites that you retained, beat them well, and add sugar to them. Take cream and let it boil, and when it boils, pour in in the egg whites and let it boil together about as long as you boil a pair of eggs. Then pour it over the slices and let it cool.
The title of this recipe recalls the many recipes for a sul(c/t)z or galrei, dishes that consisted of meat or fish covered with either a rich, thick sauce or jellied broth. Here, the inspiration seems to be the older dish, cooked meat sealed under a layer of sauce. The colour play must have been interesting, golden yellow chunks of ‘meat’ under a creamy white sauce. I am less convinced of the flavour, but certainly it would have been rich and luxurious.
Philippine Welser (1527-1580), a member of the prominent and extremely wealthy Welser banking family of Augsburg, was a famous beauty of her day. Scandalously, she secretly married Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg in 1557 and followed him first to Bohemia, then to Tyrol. A number of manuscripts are associated with her, most famously a collection of medicinal recipes and one of mainly culinary ones. The recipe collection, addressed as her Kochbuch in German, was most likely produced around 1550 when she was a young woman in Augsburg. It may have been made at the request of her mother and was written by an experienced scribe. Some later additions, though, are in Philippine Welser’s own hand, suggesting she used it.
The manuscript is currently held in the library of Ambras Castle near Innsbruck as PA 1473 and was edited by Gerold Hayer as Das Kochbuch der Philippine Welser (Innsbruck 1983).
Tapisserie de Bayeux – Scène 43 : l’évêque Odon bénit le banquet.
176 May the gifts of God picked from trees be blessed
Arboribus lecta sint dona dei benedicta
177 Faithful Christ, may these fruit be gentle gifts to us
Hęc pie Christe dona sint nobis mitia poma
178 May light and pace make this fruit of the olive tree blessed
Hunc Oleę fructum faciat lux pax benedictum
179 May Peter of Rome grant that the citrons be mild
Da Petre de roma sint mitia Cedria poma
180 May the citrons give strength and bring health
Cedria virtutem dent poma ferantque salutem
181 May blessing and grace be upon these thick fig purees
Ficorum grossis benedictio gratia massis
182 May grace be with the thick dates
Assit Dactilicis palmarum gratia grossis
183 May no pest be permitted to approach the grapes
Appropiare Botris sit nulla licentia tetris
184 May the blessing render the pomegranate agreeable
Mala Granata faciat benedictio grata
185 May the blessing make the different kinds of apples sweet
Malorum species faciat benedictio dulces
186 May the creator himself grant this pear miraculous sweetness
Conditor ipse Pyra fore det dulcedine mira
187 May the anger of the bladder be soothed by the wild pears
Ad lapidosa pira vessicę torpeat ira
188 May the bladder be well thanks to the wild pears
Ut lapidosorum bona sit vessica pirorum
189 May the pears mixed with apples not feel the anger of the stomach
Malis iuncta pira stomachi non sentiat ira
190 May the finely haired quinces be agreeable under the cross
Sub cruce sint sana tenera lanugine mala
191 Make the chestnuts soft, you who rules over all
Castaneas mollęs fac qui super omnia polles
192 May this peach be blessed with the holy cross
Persiceus fructus cruce sancta sit benedictus
193 May the one majesty bless these yellow plums
Maiestas una benedicat cerea Pruna
194 Bless, O Christ, our cherries with your right hand
Christe tua dextra benedic Cęrasia nostra
195 The earth of Iberia and Lucullus gave this (i.e. the cherry) to the Italians
Hiberię tellus dedit hęc Italisque Lucullus
196 Christ, render the Iberian tart cherries mellow through the cross
Christus Amarinas cruce mulceat Hiberianas
197 May the cross that comes over the hazelnuts make them healthy
Crux in Avellanas veniens det eas fore sanas
198 May the triune grace render sweet the walnuts7 that grew for its sake
Gratia trina Nuces sibi partas det fore dulces
199 May the walnut retain the manifold glory that was in its flowers
Quos dedit in flores nux plurima servet honores
200 May all the different kinds of nut be blessed
Sit genus omne nucum specie distans benedictum
201 May the warmth of the Holy Ghost cause to flourish what each tree gives
Pneumaticus fervor foveat quę quisque dat arbor
202 May the triune one bless the burden of all trees
Arboris omnis onus benedicat trinus et unus
This is an impressive list of fruit and certainly not what we would associate with medieval Germany, but horticulture was an important concern in monastic communities and had been for a long time. The famous 9th century “Plan of St Gall” includes a fruit orchard, and the poem de cultura hortorum by Walahfrid Strabo, written on nearby Reichenau in the 9th century, lists an even more impressive array of fruit and vegetables. St Gall is located in the warmest and most fertile part of the German-speaking world, so peaches and even figs and pomegranates are not entirely implausible.
However, the citrons mentioned in #179-180, the olives in #178, and the dates in #182 are clearly imported, as may the figs and pomegranates be. Dates as well as figs were dried for preservation while citrons, like pomegranates, could travel far before spoiling. Olives wold most likely have been dry-cured or brined. None of these can have been common fare.
There is little information about cooking, but it is likely that much if not most fruit would have been cooked. This is what other medical sources of the time recommend, and both #181 and #189 suggest. It is not quite clear what these massis in #181 are, but a fruit puree seems likely. Similarly, the mixture of apples and pears in #189 suggests some kind of prepared dish, maybe a sauce or compote. Similar preparations are attested in later recipe collections.
There is a good deal of classical allusion going on here, showing off the author’s education. the Roman general Lucullus is indeed credited with bringing cherries to Italy, and the association with Iberia is attested, though this Iberia is a region in the Caucasus, not the Iberian peninsula. Ekkehart is most likely drawing on Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae for this snippet. The words cerasia and amarina may refer to tart and sweet cherries, as do the later German terms Kirsche and Weichsel. However, they may equally be the author showing off his vocabulary.
Then there is another reference to bladder stones which seem to have been a real problem or possibly a cause of great fear. The ‘stony pear’ mentioned here is most likely the European wild pear (Pyrus pyraster).
The list of nuts, limited to walnuts and hazel, is short enough to suggest that the blessings indeed focus on the things that the author expected to see on the table. Neither almonds nor pistachios or pine nuts make an appearance, and all of these would have had to be imported from the Mediterranean.
The Benedictiones ad Mensas were produced by Ekkehart IV of St Gall, most likely initially written during his tenure as head of the Mainz cathedral school between 1022 and 1031, but expanded and revised until his death in St Gall in 1057. Theyare a collection of blessings to be spoken over food. Written in short rhyming couplets in Latin, they are unusual in their attention to the diversity of foods and preparations. This is not a serious work of theology or medicine, but an intellectual diversion, playful verse meant to show off a broad vocabulary and facility with Latin. That is what makes them very valuable – they give us a glimpse of the mental horizon of a senior cleric of the 11th century at the table.
