Market Woman With Vegetable Stall

Flemish

Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575)

Salat¹

Salat. Take persel, sawge, grene garlec, chibolles, letys, leek, spinoches, borage, myntes, prymos, violettes, porrettes, fenel, and toun cressis, rew, rosemarye, purslarye; laue and waishe hem clene. Pike hem. Pluk hem small wiþ þyn honde, and myng hem wel with rawe oile; lay on vyneger and salt, and serue it forth.

²Salad. Take parsley, sage, green garlic, scallions, lettuce, leek, spinach, borage, mints, primroses, violets, "porrettes" (green onions, scallions, & young leeks), fennel, and garden cress, rue, rosemary, purslane; rinse and wash them clean. Peel them. (Remove stems, etc.) Tear them into small pieces with your hands, and mix them well with raw oil; lay on vinegar and salt, and serve.

How to Butter a Caulle-flowre²

How to butter a Colle-flowre. Take a ripe Colle-flowre and cut off the buddes, boyle them in milke with a little Mace while they be very tender, then poure them into a Cullender, and let the Milke runne cleane from them, then take a ladle full of Creame, being boyled with a little whole mace, putting to it a ladle-full of thicke butter, mingle them together with a little Sugar, dish up your flowres upon sippets, poure your butter and creame hot upon it strowing on a little slict Nutmeg and salt, and serve it hot to the table.

Cauliflower was steamed in milk & seasoned with mace; when done, it was removed from the milk & covered in a thin sauce made of butter, cream, & sugar and garnished with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Sprouts⁴

And when the heart of the cabbage, which is in the midst, is plucked off, you pull up the stump of the cabbage and replant it in fresh earth, and there will come forth from it big spreading leaves; and the cabbage takes a great deal of room and these cabbage hearts be called Roman cabbages and they be eaten in winter; and when the stumps be replanted, there grow out of them little cabbages which be called sprouts and which be eaten with raw herbs in vinegar; and if you have plenty, they are good with the outer leaves removed and then washed in warm water and cooked whole in a little water; and then when they are cooked add salt and oil and serve them very thick, without water, and put olive oil over them in Lent.

1 lb. brussels sprouts (see note)

water

4 Tbs. olive oil OR 2 Tbs. butter

pinch salt

Shell and wash the brussels sprouts. Place in a pan and bring water to just the top of sprouts. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, & simmer water until sprouts are tender. Drain well. Toss with olive oil or butter and salt. Serve.

Brussels sprouts were rarely known outside of Belgium or northern France until the 17th century. The original recipe here is for newly sprouted cabbage hearts, which are difficult to find in today's modern markets. Brussels sprouts are a close substitute, and flavored with olive oil taste surprisingly different than most of us are used to.

Cooked Peas³

Perry of pesoun. Take pesoun and seþ hem fast, and couere hem, til þei berst; þenne take hem vp and cole hem thurgh a cloth. Take oynouns and mynce hem, and seeþ hem in the same sewe, and oile þerwith; cast þerto sugar, salt and safroun, and seeþ hem wel þerafter, and serue hem forth.

2 lbs. frozen or fresh shelled peas²

2-3 small onions, minced

3 tbs. olive oil

salt & sugar to taste

pinch saffron

Bring to a boil the onions & peas; add the remaining ingredients and return to boil. Reduce heat slightly and cook until the vegetables are tender. Drain & serve. Dress with a little extra olive oil if desired.

The kind of peas available in the Middle Ages would have required additional cooking, hence the instructions in the original recipe to cook the peas until they burst, cool them, then cook again with the other ingredients.

Saffron too expensive? Use a drop or two of yellow food coloring instead.

^{1Seven Centuries of English Cooking, A Collection of Recipes by Maxime de la Falaise, Grove Press, New York}

²http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/howto01.htm

³ Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). London: For the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

⁴Power, Eileen. The Goodman of Paris (Le Ménagier de Paris). A Treatise on Moral and Domestic Economy by A Citizen of Paris (c. 1395). New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1928.