Cloves for larding… what decadence
Item take a partridge and pluck it dry (druich) and place it in the coals and then take out its gullet and stick the breast with cloves. Fill it with mace (beshatten bloemen) and butter and then (place it) on the spit.
Item if you want to boil it, prepare it as before on the fire and then place it in a vessel with water and then let it boil until done, and then add wine and butter or otherwise good goosefat.
There isn’t much to say about this recipe – it sounds thoroughly luxurious and probably not bad, especially the roast version.
In the late 16th century, someone jotted down a set of cooking recipes in a copy of L. Frucks ‘Teutsch Formular vnnd Rhetoric’ of 1579. They were published in H. Müller: Kochrezepte aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. In: Rheinisch-westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 14 (1967) 83-86 and are available online thanks to Thomas Gloning‘s inestimable website. Judging by the dialect, the writer is from the greater Cologne area, likely near the border with the Netherlands. The recipes are fairly standard for their time, but interesting in details such as cooking and serving instructions.