Almond Milk, medieval style

[Guest guest]

For the historically minded, this is kind of cool, a medieval recipe for almond milk, along with somehistory of its use at the time. Apparently it was in common use, due to lack of refrigeration, for those who did not own cows, andwas also popular on Church mandated meatless days. News to me. I also didn't realize it could be churnedinto butter. But I had been wondering how they madeit before the age of blenders - I was picturing some poorslave/servant shaking some canister back and forth for a reallylong time. Turns out, the recipe is more like coconut milk,though still without the benefit of the blender. From Le Viandier de Taillevent Scully, Terence, ed. Le Viandier de Taillevent. An Edition of all Extant Manuscripts. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1988.http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec31.htm

[Guest guest]

This is really coincidental.  I stumbled on this medieval recipe translation site last week while researching medieval food for something I'm writing.I'm not sure I'd want to try the recipes, but it's interesting reading, especially since they colored their almond conconctions red for some reason.

Here's one pork recipe made with almond milk that's colored with violets.