Pea fritters from the Kuchenmaistrey

Because there isn’t anything you cannot deep-fry if you really want to.

3. xxviii. If you would make a fritter of peas, boil the peas nicely and shell them and pass them through (a cloth or sieve). Colour wine yellow and mix it in and nice egg yolks (also go) in it and a little flour. Stir it and let it cool, that way it sets thickly. Cut pieces of that (as though of?) a small white bread loaf (weck stucklein). Draw them through a yellow batter made with spices. Submerge the pieces in it, take them out with a spoon and fry them. These a served sprinkled with boiled wine and honey.

Peas were valued as an ingredient for all kinds of Lenten dishes. This fritter is interesting, but not unusual. A similar preparation is also found in Cod Pal Germ 551.

I will continue posting recipes from the Nuremberg Kuchenmaistrey produced around 1490, but my mode will change. Instead of translating one daily and posting it here, I will try to use what time there is to translate as much as I can and post only some of them here. Once the entire text is done, I will try to get it published either as a book, or online.

The Kuchenmaistrey (mastery of the kitchen) was the earliest printed cookbook in German (and only missed being the earliest printed cookbook in any language by a few years). The book gave rise to a vibrant culture of amended and expanded manuscript copies as well as reprints spanning almost a century. The recipes seem designed to appeal to a wealthy, literate and cosmopolitan clientele.

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