Subtleties&Stuffe Ymages in suger

Ymages in suger

One of the principal texts in the study of English medieval historical cookery is Curye on Inglische, edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler. It is a collection of manuscripts from the fourteenth century.

Part V of the volume is titled: Goud Kokery.[A collection of miscellaneous recipes from a number of sources.] The ymages in suger recipe is taken from Harl. MS 2378. It is dated circa 1395. It is one of the earliest English recipes for molded sugar images which might be suitable for subtleties. It is a follow on recipe from the earlier posted recipe of "#13 To make suger plate." Note the instructions for coloring the images.

  

The recipe again uses the olden characters of the thorn and the yogh. The thorn is roughly “th”; the yogh stood for a “g” originally and came to be a “y.” [ȝif is if and yȝe is eye.]

They are represented here as: þ and 3.

#15:  Ymages in suger  

To make ymages in suger.  

And if 3e will make any ymages or any oþer þing in suger þat is casten in moldys, sethe þem in þe same man ere þat þe plate is, and poure it into þe moldes in þe same manere þat þe plate is pouryde, but loketh 3oure mold be anoyntyd before wyth a litell oyle of almaundes.  

Whan þei are oute of þ moylde 3e mow gylde þem or colour þem as 3e will.

3if 3e will gilde þem or siluer þem, noynte þem wyth gleyre of an egge and gilde þem or siluer þem, and if 3e will make þem rede take a litell gum araby, and þan anoynt it all abowte and make it rede.  And 3if  3e will make it grene, take ynde wawdeas ii penywey3te, | ii penyweyte of saffron, þe water of þe gleyr of ii egges, and stampe all wele togeder and anoynte it wyth all. And if 3e will make it lightly grene, put more saffron þerto.  And in þis maner mow 3e caste alle manere froytes also, and colour it wyth þe same colour as diuerse as 3e will, and þer þat þe blossom of þat per of apel schull stand put þerto a clowe & þer þe stalke schall stand makes þat of kanell.

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The worked out recipe appears in Hieatt and Butler's Pleyn Delit [various editions] as recipe 142. They return to the basic sugar plate recipe, calling for the sugar syrup to be boiled to 300 degrees F. They then suggest using marzipan for the making of subtleties.

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The recipe is taken from Harl. 2378 which now may be viewed online through the British Library. The manuscript itself is a composite miscellany of various manuscripts of a medical and culinary nature with some alchemical texts tossed in. See

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_2378_f155r 

and scroll to 310.

The text accompanying the manuscript at the British Library

bl.uk > Digitised Manuscripts Home > Manuscript Display states the following regarding the dating:

"The text is dated to circa 1395 in C. B. Hieatt, T. Nutter and J. H. Holloway, Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth through Fifteenth Centuries, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 312 (Tempe, Arizona, 2006), p. xiv."

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The recipe in modern English may be found in Constance B. Hieatt’s The Culinary Recipes of Medieval England. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books, 2013.

The text appears in print in:

Curye on Inglische. English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including the Forme of Cury). Edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. [Early English Text Society, SS.8]

See also:

  

Henslow, G[eorge]. "Full Text of "Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century : Together with a List of Plants Recorded in Contemporary Writings, with Their Identifications"" "Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century : Together with a List of Plants Recorded in Contemporary Writings, with Their Identifications" Internet Archive, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. . Originally published: LONDON; CHAPMAN and HALL, Ld., 1899. See also: https://archive.org/details/medicalworksoffo00hens