Editing English cuisine (section)

=== Middle Ages ===

{{further|Medieval cuisine}}

[[File:Forme of Cury-MS 7-18v.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Recipes from ''[[The Forme of Cury]]'' for "drepee", parboiled birds with [[almond]]s and fried [[onion]]s, and "mawmenee", a sweet stew of [[capon]] or [[pheasant]] with [[cinnamon]], [[ginger]], [[cloves]], [[date (fruit)|dates]] and [[pine nut]]s, coloured with [[sandalwood]], c. 1390]]

English cooking has developed over many centuries since at least the time of ''[[The Forme of Cury]]'', written in the [[Middle Ages]] around 1390 in the reign of [[Richard II of England|King Richard II]].{{sfn|Dickson Wright|2011|p=46}} The book offers imaginative and sophisticated recipes, with spicy [[sweet and sour]] sauces thickened with bread or quantities of [[almond]]s boiled, peeled, dried and ground, and often served in [[pastry]]. Foods such as [[gingerbread]] are described.{{sfn|Dickson Wright|2011|pp=52-53}} It was not at all, emphasises [[Clarissa Dickson Wright]] in her ''[[A History of English Food]]'', a matter of large lumps of [[roast]] meat at every meal as imagined in [[Hollywood films]].{{sfn|Dickson Wright|2011|pp=52-53}}

Instead, [[Medieval cuisine|medieval dishes]] often had the texture of a [[purée]], possibly containing small fragments of meat or fish: 48% of the recipes in the Beinecke manuscript are for dishes similar to stews or purées. Such dishes could be broadly of three types: somewhat acidic, with wine, vinegar, and spices in the sauce, thickened with bread; [[sweet and sour]], with sugar and vinegar; and sweet, using then-expensive [[sugar]]. An example of such a sweet purée dish for meat (it could also be made with fish) from the Beinecke manuscript is the rich, [[saffron]]-yellow "[[Mortis (food)|Mortruys]]", thickened with egg:{{sfn|Lehmann|2003|pp=23–28}}

{{blockquote|Take brawn of [[capon]]s & [[pork]]e, [[boiling#In cooking|sodyn]] & [[purée|groundyn]]; tempyr hit up with milk of [[almond]]es drawn with the broth. Set hit on the [[fire|fyre]]; put to [[sugar|sigure]] & [[saffron|safron]]. When hit boyleth, tak som of thy milk, boylying, fro the fyre & aley hit up with [[yolk]]es of [[egg|eyron]] that hit be ryght chargeaunt; styre hit wel for quelling. Put therto that othyr, & ster hem togedyr, & serve hem forth as mortruys; and strew on poudr of [[ginger|gynger]].{{sfn|Lehmann|2003|pp=23–28}}}}

Another manuscript, ''[[Utilis Coquinario]]'', mentions dishes such as "pyany", poultry garnished with [[peony|peonies]]; "hyppee", a [[rose hip|rose-hip]] broth;  and birds such as [[cormorant]]s and [[Eurasian woodcock|woodcocks]].{{sfn|Carroll|1996|p=47}}