Today’s recipe book review isn’t just a recipe book, it’s a book about managing an entire household! Le Menagier de Paris, written in 1393, is a guide to running a good household, being a good wife, and appropriate behavior. We did initially misread the title as Le Menagier a Troyes, which certainly piqued our curiosity; just what kind of wifely behavior were we talking about here?
We decided that the only thing to do was to read. And practice. Cooking of course. So, we picked a glorious threesome of our favorite dishes to sample: serving your eggs in various ways, some ‘glazing’ methods, and balls. Made of meat. Allegedly. The SCAllion’s writers’ room found each one utterly delectable; balls were juicy, the eggs came in a variety of ways, and those glazing methods. Every single one of them was exquisite.
Of greater interest to The SCAllion writers, however, is the guide to running a good household. As you can imagine, we at The SCAllion are always interested in such things – how better to find the time to write satire than by having a well-functioning household? We find a glorious hint here for how to turn white wine into red – this will surely help at feast, yes? No more having to take two bottles of wine with you! We also found a recipe for invisible ink, yes, invisible ink – ideal for the writers of The SCAllion, that we may leave no visible evidence while we’re editing!
There is also talk of “well roasted coots”, well, isn’t that what we’re here for? At least well-roasted old coots. Le Menagier also talks about killing crows with crossbows; we at The SCAllion wish to advise against this, at least if you’re not at Pennsic!
the SCAllion 