Pear purée from the Königsberg MS

Another recipe with a close parallel in Cod Pal Germ 551:

[[18]] Wilthu ein grunefl von Huzellen machenn:

If you want to make a green (dish) of dried pears

Wash the pears nicely and pound them finely. Pass them through a sieve with wine, boil them well and add good honey and enough spices. If it is too thin, add ground breadcrumbs. If you put it into a pot, it will last for 4 to 6 weeks. It can be served cold or hot. Sprinkle it with sugar and cinnamon.

Interestingly, the recipe in the Königsberg MS, though it adds little to our understanding, has instructions for serving that Cod Pal Germ 551 lacks and addresses the dish as ein gruneß (the fl is surely the result of the original editor misreading letters), a green food. That suggests the Königsberg MS is not based on Cod Pal Germ 551, but rather both stem from the same source.

As to the food itself, it is a variation of the preserved fruit purées we find in a number recipe collections. These were prestigious foods, often sweetened and richly seasoned, that wealthy householders kept in storage to serve on their own or in sauces.

The Königsberg MS was preserved in the archive of the Teutonic Order in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad) in Baltic East Prussia, though its language suggests that it belongs to a Central or South German background. It is not associated with any name that I am aware of and is dated to the late 15th century purely on the scribal hand. The recipe types match South German sources of that time. It was published in Gollub (Hg.): Aus der Küche der deutschen Ordensritter. in: Prussia 31 (1935) pp. 118-124

This entry was posted in Uncategorised and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *