A majority of medieval recipes can accommodate modern allergies by substitution (for example, by using gluten-free flour or almond milk instead of bovine milk). This site is about sharing recipes that are by and large allergen-friendly from the original material. That said, if a trivial alteration would omit an allergen feel free to add it, but please include a note in the recipe. Some examples:
- the recipe says “do þerto butter” (and you’d use only a couple of tablespoons), so you substitute with another oil (or none at all)
- a tart recipe says to “set it uppon the fyre wyth swete butter” or “fry in good grease”, but you use another type of oil
- a soup calls for thickening with breadcrumbs, but when you make it it’s plenty thick so you omit them entirely
The idea is that if you were to do a blind taste-test between the original and the modified, you wouldn’t notice a difference.
When sharing a recipe, please be mindful of the following:
- This site focuses on foods documented before 1600 CE.
- You must reference the original source material for all submissions. I want cooks to be able to find the original material if they desire. The original material doesn’t have to be available online, but if you cite a print-only book, please include some details so someone can find it easily (e.g.: publisher, page number).
- The only optional fields are the URL to an online source and the photo of your dish. I am going to attempt to link to the online text of the original source material where possible, so including this URL helps me out, but also ensures that I’m linking to the correct source.
