[POTTAGES]
171. Here is how you make the pottage called menjoire.
Firstly,
the meat needed is young peacocks, pheasants or partridges, or if you
can find none of these, plovers, cranes, larks or other small birds.
Roast the meat on the spit and when it is nearly cooked, dismember them
(especially the large birds such as young peacocks, pheasants or
partridges), fry them in lard in an iron pan, and put them in the pot
in which you wish to make your pottage.
To
make the broth, take some white bread browned on the grill, soaked and
sprinkled with the broth of a shin of beef, and strained through
cheesecloth. You need cassia flowers, cinnamon, Mecca ginger, a bit of
cloves, long pepper, grains of paradise and some Hippocras (depending
on the quantity of pottage you wish to make). Steep the spices and
Hippocras together, throw them into the pot with the meat and broth,
and boil everything together. Add just a bit of vinegar, but do not let
it boil for very long. Add sugar to taste. According to the fashions,
put gilded wafers on the pottage when it is set out, or white or red
anise, or pomegranate powder [seeds?].
If
you wish to make it for a fish day, take whole unpeeled almonds, wash
very well, crush and grind in a mortar, and strain through cheesecloth.
If there is not enough liquid, take a bit of white bread, or bread
crumbs from two or three white bread loaves; have a bit of clear puree
[of peas] in which the peas have not burst too much, a bit of white or
red wine, and a bit of verjuice; steep the almonds and bread; and
strain everything through cheesecloth. You need the same spices
mentioned above. Fry all the fish (to wit, perch, pickerel, crayfish
tails and loach, the finest that you can find) in fresh or salted
butter, and then de-salt it. Set out your fish on plates and put the
broth on top. Add white or red anise, pomegranate [seeds], or some
peeled almonds browned a bit in a little fresh butter on the fire.
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