Thanks to the 12th Century Workshops Facebook page, I learned that some 12th century recipes have been newly discovered in a manuscript originally written at the Durham Cathedral Priory in Durham, England. An article describing the find may be found
here. The manuscript itself is now housed at the Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University.
According to the article, the manuscript, which was written around 1140 CE, consists primarily of medical recipes. That makes these recipes about 150 years older than the recorded recipes previously considered the oldest recipes in the "western medieval culinary tradition" (whatever that means). The newly discovered recipes are for a variety of sauces to be eaten with mutton, chicken, duck, pork and beef.
The most interesting part, to me, is the list of herbs and spices featured in the sauces: parsley, sage, pepper, garlic, mustard and coriander. The author of the article thinks this assortment may give the sauces a "Middle Eastern" flavor, to a modern palate. That may depend on whether the recipes require fresh coriander or the dried "fruits" (also called "seeds"), which are used with cumin in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine.
Durham University is planning a workshop and related luncheon at the end of this month in which students, under the guidance of a food historian, will make sauces based on their understanding of the recipes. That's an event I would love to attend. Hopefully, the event will generate further news articles with more information about this find.
