The Forme of Cury

The Forme of Cury (A Roll of
Ancient English Cookery
Compiled, about A.D. 1390)
(Latin and Middle English) [with
accents]

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Forme of Cury, by Samuel Pegge
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Title: The Forme of Cury

Author: Samuel Pegge
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8102] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 15, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: Middle English/Latin
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FORME OF CURY ***

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THE FORME OF CURY,
A ROLL OF ANCIENT ENGLISH COOKERY.
Compiled, about A.D. 1390, by the Master-Cooks of King RICHARD
II,
Presented afterwards to Queen ELIZABETH, by EDWARD Lord
STAFFORD,
And now in the Possession of GUSTAVUS BRANDER, Esq.
Illustrated with NOTES, And a copious INDEX, or GLOSSARY.
A MANUSCRIPT of the EDITOR, of the same Age and Subject, with
other congruous Matters, are subjoined.
"--ingeniosa gula est." MARTIAL.

TO GUSTAVUS BRANDER, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. and Cur. Brit. Mus.
SIR,
I return your very curious Roll of Cookery, and I trust with some
Interest, not full I confess nor legal, but the utmost which your Debtor,
from the scantiness of his ability, can at present afford. Indeed,
considering your respectable situation in life, and that diffusive sphere
of knowledge and science in which you are acting, it must be

exceedingly difficult for any one, how well furnished soever,
completely to answer your just, or even most moderate demands. I
intreat the favour of you, however, to accept for once this short
payment in lieu of better,
or at least as a public testimony of that profound regard wherewith I
am,
SIR,
Your affectionate friend, and most obliged servant, St. George's day,
1780.
S. PEGGE.

PREFACE
TO THE
CURIOUS ANTIQUARIAN READER.
Without beginning ab ovo on a subject so light (a matter of importance,
however, to many a modern Catius or Amasinius), by investigating the
origin of the Art of Cookery, and the nature of it as practised by the
Antediluvians [1]; without dilating on the several particulars
concerning it afterwards amongst the Patriarchs, as found in the Bible
[2], I shall turn myself immediately, and without further preamble, to a
few cursory observations respecting the Greeks, Romans, Britons, and
those other nations, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, with whom the
people of this nation are more closely connected.
The Greeks probably derived something of their skill from the East,
(from the Lydians principally, whose cooks are much celebrated, [3])
and something from Egypt. A few hints concerning Cookery may be
collected from Homer, Aristophanes, Aristotle, &c. but afterwards they
possessed many authors on the subject, as may be seen in Athenæus [4].
And as Diætetics were esteemed a branch of the study of medicine, as
also they were afterwards [5], so many of those authors were
Physicians; and the Cook was undoubtedly a character of high
reputation at Athens [6].
As to the Romans; they would of course borrow much of their culinary
arts from the Greeks, though the Cook with them, we are told, was one
of the lowest of their slaves [7]. In the latter times, however, they had
many authors on the subject as well as the Greeks, and the practitioners
were men of some Science [8], but, unhappily for us, their

compositions are all lost except that which goes under the name of
Apicius; concerning which work and its author, the prevailing opinion
now seems to be, that it was written about the time of Heliogabalus [9],
by one _Cælius_, (whether Aurelianus is not so certain) and that
Apicius is only the title of it [10]. However, the compilation, though not
in any great repute, has been several times published by learned men.
The Aborigines of Britain, to come nearer home, could have no great
expertness in Cookery, as they