Payne Ragon

Pine nut Candy

This recipe taken from Forme of Curye, ab. 1390 A.D. (Pages 36v & 37r). The images below are from the original manuscript as digitized by the John Rylands University Library and the 1780 printing edited by Samuel Pegge.

Original Recipe:

Payne Ragon

My Translation:

Pine nut Candy

Take honey sugar Cyprus & clarify it together & boil it with easy fire & keep it well from burning & when it has boiled a while take up a drop thereof with your finger & do it in a little water & look if it hangs together & take it from the fire & do thereto pine nuts a third part & powdered ginger & stir it together until it begins to thicken and cast it on a wet table slice it & serve it forth with fried meat on flesh day or on fish days.

My Interpretation:

Toss ginger and pine nuts together in bowl, set aside. Combine honey and sugar into large pot with a candy thermometer and place over medium low heat. Stir the honey and sugar mixture constantly until it reaches the hard crack stage on the candy thermometer. Remove from heat then pour honey and sugar mixture over pine nuts and stir to coat the pine nuts. Pour out onto parchment paper. When the mixture starts to set, score with knife into bite size pieces. Let completely cool, break into bite size chunks. Serves 32.

Notes on the Transcription & Translation:

The original text and transcription preserve the shorthand of writing that was common practice in the late 14^th century. I have taken the liberty of spelling each word fully in my transcription for clarity.

References:

Media Information. Digital image. Payne Ragon. The John Rylands University Library, Jan. 2009. Web. 18 Jun. 2012. <http://enriqueta.man.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/Man4MedievalVC~4~4~3868~100082:Payne-ragoun?sort=Reference_Number%2CImage_Sequence_Number%2CPage%2CImage_Title#>. This is a digitized image of page 36vof the Forme of Cury housed at The John Rylands University Library in Manchester, England. This codex, written on vellum, dates from the late 14^th century.

Pegge, Samuel, ed. Forme of Cury London: Society of Antiquaries, 1780. The Forme of Cury. Greg Lindahl. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/.

Pegge, Samuel. The Forme of Cury. London: J. Nichols, 1780. Google Books. 5 Mar. 2009. Web. 18 June 2012. <http://books.google.com/books?id=L1JAAAAAYAAJ>.

Pegge, Samuel, ed. The Forme of Cury The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forme of Cury, by Samuel Pegge. Project Gutenberg, May 2005. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8102/pg8102.html. This is the transcription of Forme of Cury of the Samuel Pegge edition originally published in 1780.