Mayerne's Experiments in Cookery!

Editor's note -- Interesting enough for a mention in the Gazette 


RT @TheOldFoodie An amazing pasty - recipe from 1658 http://tinyurl.com/27ywdse

According to The Old Foodies' blog: 

Today in 1573 was the birthday of Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, the Swiss-born physician to four kings – Henry IV of France, and James I, Charles I, and Charles II of England. ... Mayerne is a subject of interest for this blog because he was also a gourmet - or perhaps a glutton, for he became so fat in his age that he could no longer call on his patients, they had to come to him.

Mayerne’s interest in chemical remedies and extended to an interest in cookery, and in 1658 he published a fascinating cookery book with the intriguing title of Archimagirus Anglo-Gallicus, or, Excellent & Approved Receipts and Experiments in Cookery.

The Old Foodie resurrected an earlier post to commemorate the obese gourmand's birth! 

This recipe for a Pasty Royal is long, [which is why the Gazette is not reprinting the whole thing] but it is a wonderful read: a pasty based on a whole leg of mutton, but which includes only ONE [sic] clove of garlic ...

The Pasty Royal.

Take a legg of Mutton, strip the skin off from it, take out the bones nd the sinnues, after which beat the flesh to mortifie it and then cause it to be well chopt, and as you chop it, you must season it with salt spices.

Now your meat being thus well chopped, you must make up your paste of Rye-crust, and give it at least two inches in thickness proportionably according to the bignesse of your pasty, and raise the paste therof high enough.

You must line the bottomand sides thereof with fat Bacon in slices, and in the bottome you must also place a good handful of Ox suet which is small minced and thereunto add your meat after it shall have been well minced; and in case Chestnuts be in season, you may add thereunto a reasonable proportion after they shal have been first half roasted.

When your meat shall be thus in your pastie you must add thereunto one handful of Beef suet well minced, and about half a pound of Beef marrow cut into small pieces about the bigness of a walnut; All which composition you must cover or overspred with some slices of fat Bacon.

Finally, you shall cover this Pasty with Rye-crust at least a fingers breadth thick, and you must make a hole in the said lidd. ... 

[click on above link for baking instructions for said mutton]

courtesy of Wikipedia

For further reading on other accomplishments of Sir Théodore Turquet de Mayerne

Click here! 

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