0:00:02 > 0:00:04Medieval England in the 1390s.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Richard II is on the throne.
0:00:09 > 0:00:15He reigns as a divine monarch and the Church dictates the daily ritual of life.
0:00:15 > 0:00:21But one corner of this dutiful world clamours with noise day in, day out.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24The kitchens of Richard's court.
0:00:24 > 0:00:25And I'm thrilled to tell you
0:00:25 > 0:00:29that the recipes cooked by the king's master chefs were recorded
0:00:29 > 0:00:35and compiled into England's oldest known cookbook, The Forme of Cury.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41I have to confess that I've never cooked from it...until now.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43There's a first time for everything.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46It's a forgotten chapter in our culinary history
0:00:46 > 0:00:50and I'm convinced that Richard's cookbook will reveal
0:00:50 > 0:00:54that many of the dishes we eat today can be traced back to his kitchen.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56I'll find out if others agree
0:00:56 > 0:01:01when I feed some medieval history buffs later.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04But first the tale of the king,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08the cook, his kitchen and his cookbook.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20Richard II, the story goes, was swaddled in the skin of goats at birth.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24What an intimate introduction to the fruits of his land.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30Crowned England's king in 1377 he was meant to follow
0:01:30 > 0:01:34his forbears and become a bloodthirsty Plantagenet monarch.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39History records however, he instead pursued the good life.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42I feel I can call him a gourmet king
0:01:42 > 0:01:45because of what he and his courtiers ate.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48One precious document from his reign has survived.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Here in the imposing British Library, his cookbook is kept secure
0:01:52 > 0:01:56and I'm now going to feast on Richard's regal cuisine
0:01:56 > 0:01:59with medieval archivist Claire Breay.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02You can see it's a little bit damaged.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04The very first words...
0:02:04 > 0:02:05"A Forme of Cury was compiled
0:02:05 > 0:02:10"by the chief master cooks of king Richard II."
0:02:10 > 0:02:15'Translated from the middle English, forme means 'method' and 'cury' means cooking.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17'A Method of cooking.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21'Such straightforward modern language in a ancient text.
0:02:21 > 0:02:22'I love it.'
0:02:22 > 0:02:25It's nearly six metres long altogether.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28- We'll be here some time then. - Yep.- So this is the index.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30It's a little bit faded as you can see.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33- It's been around a long time.- Yeah.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36- Quite a few stains. - Yeah. Stains of the kitchen.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39So how many recipes are there here?
0:02:39 > 0:02:42- There seem to be an awful lot. - I know there are.
0:02:42 > 0:02:43196 altogether.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45196 is typical, isn't it.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50They couldn't manage the extra four to make it 200.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52I've written cookbooks myself
0:02:52 > 0:02:56and I can tell you that 196 recipes is rather a lot.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59It's actually more like a compendium.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02- Here we've porpoise in broth. - Porpoise!
0:03:02 > 0:03:04How are we cooking the porpoise?
0:03:04 > 0:03:08So, it says "Make as you made numbles of flesh with onions".
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Not a lot about how to cook a porpoise.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16Well, I admit most of us wouldn't consider eating porpoise today,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20- but some of the dishes have very familiar names.- Blancmange.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Blancmange. Now that's proper blancmange
0:03:23 > 0:03:25- made with capons.- Capons. Yep.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27And there are dozens of recipes
0:03:27 > 0:03:30that would feature happily on a modern menu.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34- Salad.- Salad.- Yes, they did eat - salad. They did, yes!
0:03:34 > 0:03:38So..."Take parsley, sage, garlic."
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Who says that the English don't eat garlic?
0:03:41 > 0:03:46- What's that word?- Rosemary. - "Rosemary, purslane..."
0:03:46 > 0:03:50Not a lettuce leaf mentioned, but still no less a salad.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53- Mint, what do you think that word is?- Wash them clean.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Wash them clean. They were keen on washing things.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Everybody thinks they were dirty in the middle ages.
0:03:58 > 0:04:04The recipes sound modern on paper, but what will they taste like?
0:04:04 > 0:04:06A library isn't a place for a cook.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09My place is here. The chefs domain.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Look at this kitchen. Look at the space.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Look at it, with its sky light up the top.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18A cathedral of food.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22A most beautiful room. Wonderful with the light coming in.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24The fire burning in the corner.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27And there, in his chair would sit the chef.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32Who could smell with his eyes, taste with his nose
0:04:32 > 0:04:37and hear the exact quantities of precious ingredients being added.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41He was in total command of those working under him.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47Like today, the king's master chef would have worked his way up
0:04:47 > 0:04:51through the kitchen, before getting to the prized top job.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58With a vast court to feed he led a kitchen of up to 300 staff,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02all of whom had clearly delineated roles.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05These kitchens really did swing.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Sauce makers.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Who prepared sauces for the vast array of dishes.
0:05:12 > 0:05:18Mincers... Who minced and ground spices all day long.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20Pluckers.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23All manner of birds featured on the king's menus.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Boners.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31Knife skills were essential as carcases were stripped bare.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33Choppers.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35A constant supply of wood was required.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Spit boys.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42Most of the food was cooked in fireplaces
0:05:42 > 0:05:45which were large enough to roast a whole ox.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47And roasters.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Teams worked in shifts in high temperatures
0:05:51 > 0:05:54often with virtually no clothes on.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00All this activity done day in day out,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03under the aegis of the master chef.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06Overseeing, ruling his kitchen.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07Very much as it is today.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10The only man in the kitchen who sat
0:06:10 > 0:06:15and he would tell people what to do, point to where the meat was burning.
0:06:15 > 0:06:16Overseeing everything in his domain.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20He was truly a chef.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24A chief of his brigade.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Richard's court was obsessed with documenting everything
0:06:28 > 0:06:33from household lists to costs of goods to the food he ate.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Thank God, I say, for medieval Westminster scribes.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40Through that door there would be the scribe in his little vestibule,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45taking notes of recipes writing them down listening to what the chef dictated,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47cos the chef probably couldn't write.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51I imagine they penned recipes throughout the year,
0:06:51 > 0:06:56as The Forme of Cury reads like an almanac of seasonal food.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58What was a necessity for the medieval kitchen
0:06:58 > 0:07:00is a la mode today, of course.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06The land was their supermarket.
0:07:08 > 0:07:1150 years before Richard's reign,
0:07:11 > 0:07:15the Black Death had wiped out half the human population.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19The disease, however, didn't affect the wild animals. They flourished.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21So, for Richard's court,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26food was plentiful and the kingdom was a hunters' paradise.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Although Richard wasn't a Plantagenet warrior king,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32he loved the blood of the hunt.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38He dictated that his noblemen and his servants should
0:07:39 > 0:07:40"Avail themselves at every opportunity
0:07:40 > 0:07:43"to practise with a bow and arrow."
0:07:49 > 0:07:53He himself often hunted with his greyhounds as only a king could.
0:07:53 > 0:07:59But one of the great sports of the time that Richard loved was falconry.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03Richard particularly prided himself as a sportsman who went out
0:08:03 > 0:08:06and caught food for the table, all sorts.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Everything from herons, to ducks, to hares,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11depending on the size of the animal.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16There were strict rules of etiquette as to which birds you could have
0:08:16 > 0:08:20Only a king could carry an eagle or a Gyrfalcon.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24Even for a king, buying one of these birds
0:08:24 > 0:08:27would have meant digging deep into the royal purse.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34In 1399 Richard paid 260 gold florins for a Gyrfalcon
0:08:34 > 0:08:39that's £34,000 in today's money.
0:08:39 > 0:08:40They were very rare,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44but prized for their long distance flying and hunting acumen.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48This was a bird for a king
0:08:48 > 0:08:51and it knows that it's being held by a common place cook.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55So it's trying to get away. No, you stay with me for a minute.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59A cat may look at a king and a cook may look at a Gyrfalcon.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Yeah!
0:09:02 > 0:09:05But not all meats were hunted.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07Geese were farmed.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10And there's one recipe in The Forme of Cury,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13that for Richard and his chefs would have been the main event
0:09:13 > 0:09:15of any feast.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18It's a dish I've chosen to cook because I think it'll also reveal
0:09:18 > 0:09:21just how contemporary the food really was.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Sauce Madame!
0:09:25 > 0:09:31"Take sage, persil, hyssop and savory, quinces and pears.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35"Garlic and grapes and fill the geese therewith and sew the hole
0:09:35 > 0:09:38"that no grease come out and roast them well."
0:09:40 > 0:09:42What's different about this dish
0:09:42 > 0:09:46is the amount of herbs and quite expensive spices that goes into it.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48Therefore it became a luxury dish
0:09:48 > 0:09:51and something that would grace the king's table.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56Here we have sage which was for the digestive system.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02Sage was also supposed to clean the blood and to give you wisdom.
0:10:02 > 0:10:03And hyssop -
0:10:03 > 0:10:06which was supposed to cleanse you.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09"My soul is whiter than the swan when washed with hyssop."
0:10:09 > 0:10:15And savoury- which was a herb that prevented flatulence.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17Very necessary in the medieval diet.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22So a bit of that and some parsley. Parsley cleans the breath.
0:10:22 > 0:10:23And cleans the blood.
0:10:25 > 0:10:26And some garlic.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32Garlic of course burnith away the fat the growith around the heart.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Cooking and medicine were very intertwined.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37It's a bit like today, isn't it.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39We have these things which you're told are good for you,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43but each generation thinks it has the answer to eternal life.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45And some chopped pears.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47These would have been cooking pears.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Warden pears probably.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Fruit with geese has always been a good idea.
0:10:52 > 0:10:53It's what we do today.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58I have a recipe where we stuff the goose with wild cherries.
0:10:58 > 0:10:59That's also delicious.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01And then the quince.
0:11:01 > 0:11:02Quinces grew in this country,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06but they were mostly imported from the continent.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09And that wonderful rich smell and taste
0:11:09 > 0:11:13was something that the middle ages loved.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16And lastly some grapes.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Richard was very keen on his exotic fruit.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24The smell of that with the fruit and the herbs is quite delicious.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30And now we put everything into the goose.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Just in handfuls as it goes.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Stuff it right down. There's a lot of room in a goose.
0:11:37 > 0:11:38There we are.
0:11:38 > 0:11:44And now we sew the goose up, so that nothing fallith from it.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46And of course the fat, which is in the goose,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49will lubricate the stuffing
0:11:49 > 0:11:52which is why we put no oil or anything like that in.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57If I were to choose, I'd cook this over the fire behind me
0:11:57 > 0:11:59and some poor little scullion would have to spend
0:11:59 > 0:12:03the next four hours chopping wood and feeding it into the flames.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07However, given that we're now in a modern age,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09and Richard would probably have approved,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12I'm going to transfer it to a modern oven.
0:12:14 > 0:12:15The Forme of Cury
0:12:15 > 0:12:18doesn't give details like cooking times or quantities.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23As today, the Chefs were expected to know what to do.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28But it does document the cooking techniques and the terminology
0:12:28 > 0:12:30hasn't changed in 700 years.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32Parboil.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35Strain.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Clarify.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Toast.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44Bake.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47And roast.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Next, the cooked goose is dressed with the Sauce Madame.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55A sauce fit for a king, as it's full of expensive spices.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58And the sauce is started by using the juicy stuffing.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03So, now I'm going to open the goose.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07And there, inside, you see is all our lovely stuffing.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Beautifully cooked.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12All moulded together. The herbs and the fruit and the grapes
0:13:12 > 0:13:14and the quinces and the pears.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18And I'm just adding it to the bread and the gelatine.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21And now I'm going to add my poudre douce,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24sweet powders or good powders.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Which is a combination of all sorts of different spices.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31And really it was a matter for each individual chef,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34but there were certain things that always went in.
0:13:34 > 0:13:35Salt, of course.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36Sugar.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40And a bit of mace. And some ground ginger.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45Then I mix all this together, put it in with my gelatine
0:13:45 > 0:13:49and my stuffing and everything else and mix it together.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53And I'm going to put it onto the fire
0:13:53 > 0:13:55and let it all cook together.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01And now we cut our goose into pieces.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05"Smite him into pieces", as it says in the book.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08See this lovely goose. Look at that.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Only the best for the king.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Just give this a little stir.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18And now for the Sauce Madame,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20which I'm going to put over the goose.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30And there we are.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34And now as the book says "..and serve it forth"
0:14:37 > 0:14:42Sauce Madame was elegant, expensive and sophisticated cuisine.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Like food, like monarch.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53As Richard grew up, he became known as the "dandy king".
0:14:53 > 0:14:56The king who brought us the pocket handkerchief.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00He insisted on bathing at least once a week.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07He was a flamboyant dresser and interestingly to me,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11he took to eating in his private chambers
0:15:11 > 0:15:14eager to be aloof from his court.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17It was all about appearances.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21Historians paint him as a petulant,
0:15:21 > 0:15:26narcissistic king seeking to create a mystique around his majesty.
0:15:28 > 0:15:34But he, like everyone else, had to bow to the power of the church.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36He left us a cookbook,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39but it was the church that dictated what he ate.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43To adhere to religious doctrine,
0:15:43 > 0:15:48Richard and his court needed to eat lots and lots of fish.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51In the middle ages, the church rigorously insisted that there
0:15:51 > 0:15:56was something like 242 days that were fasting and abstinence a year.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59That is, days when you couldn't eat meat.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02And so obviously, they ate a lot of fish.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06This led to medieval fish farming and Richard was famous
0:16:06 > 0:16:12for his well stocked fish ponds or, as they called them, stew ponds.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Nevertheless, having to eat fish so many days of the year
0:16:15 > 0:16:21led to some clever re-writing of creature classification.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25Of course, if you were rich and you really got bored with fish,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27you got all sorts of dispensations.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Beaver, for instance, because it lived in the water
0:16:30 > 0:16:31was considered fish.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36But fish it was for more than half the year,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38so the chefs had to be very creative.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43The recipes in Richard's cookbook detail a huge array of ingredients.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48Particularly mention the jewels of his courtly cuisine - exotic spices.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54And they're central to the next recipe I've chosen to cook.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58It's one I've tasted many times in the markets of Spain.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01So I'm thrilled to find it in The Forme Of Cury.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Today it's called Escabeche or Sweet and Sour Fish.
0:17:05 > 0:17:12"Egre dauce of fish. Take roaches, other tenches, other soles.
0:17:12 > 0:17:13"Smite him in pieces".
0:17:13 > 0:17:17First of all, I'm going to make a syrup.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19I'm going to take some vinegar.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22White wine vinegar,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25and in it, just like making a syrup today,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27I'm going to put some sugar.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Sugar was an extreme luxury in those days.
0:17:31 > 0:17:36Something so expensive that liberal use of it was most unexpected.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Then, of course, we have these really expensive spices.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42We have some Ethiopian pepper,
0:17:42 > 0:17:46known happily by the name of "grains of paradise".
0:17:46 > 0:17:48I've got some ground ginger.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Ginger, of course, came all the way from the Far East.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Imagine the amount of distance it had to travel
0:17:54 > 0:17:59by horseback, muleback, camelback, everything else, to get to England.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02A bit of ground cinnamon
0:18:02 > 0:18:06and some cloves, all the way from the Spice Islands.
0:18:06 > 0:18:07A long, long way to come.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Let's put a bit of bark cinnamon in as well,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12just to prove we know what we're doing.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21And now I'm going to add some chopped onions, finely minced,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23as they say in the cookery book.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27And some currants, just ordinary little currants.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31Some sultanas, which are much fuller and plumper and juicier -
0:18:31 > 0:18:33and more expensive.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36They would have come from the Isle of Cyprus, as the currants.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39All of that handled by the early Venetian trading company,
0:18:39 > 0:18:41along with the sugar.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47And now I'm going to cook the fish.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49So, some some pike.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52Nice, long fillet of pike.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54The soles of course are saltwater fish.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56There's a nice bit of roe in this one here.
0:18:56 > 0:19:01Part of the reason for using different fishes is they have different textures,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05they have different flavours and, in the case of the roach,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08they have an oiliness about them
0:19:08 > 0:19:10which is different from the other two,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12which are white fish and plain.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15And a different colour.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17Then simply fry in a pan.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21They used olive oil, by the way.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24And there we are. There's our fish pieces, all nicely cooked.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29I'm just going to tip the sweet and sour syrup, with its onions
0:19:29 > 0:19:32and currants, all over the fish.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37And there it is, ready to go out to the table.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Delicious!
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Fit for a king, with those exotic spices.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53Look at this!
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Isn't this wonderful?
0:19:55 > 0:20:00This great medieval hall, the most brilliant space.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02The king's table.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06The head table at the top.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10And then, stretching before us, the tables.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13And the servers would come from the kitchen,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15bearing the great dishes.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17And everything would be served.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21And the chefs made sure that everything
0:20:21 > 0:20:24was a pageant of a picture in the Royal Court.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Richard was not only a connoisseur of good food,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33he was also a stickler for etiquette and manners.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36Which included hands being thoroughly washed
0:20:36 > 0:20:39before a meal could begin.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43and in Richard's Court, the use of cutlery reigned.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Particularly the spoon.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49They were such prized possessions,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54the Royal household carried them everywhere they went.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58The court observed strict rules on table manners.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05You may be surprised that it was not a knees-up in a tavern,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07but more like fine dining.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Whilst the courtiers ate, the kitchen worked tirelessly,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15cooking and cleaning, as food was sent out all the time.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18One recipe I found in The Forme of Cury reads
0:21:18 > 0:21:21like a classic modern pudding.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25All of us will have eaten a version of it probably,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27but so did Richard II.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Here's his pears poached in red wine.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34"Pears in confit.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36"Take pears and pare him clean.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38"Take good red wine and mulberries,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41"and seep the pears therein".
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Here are some Warden pears,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48all beautifully peeled, which I've put it into a nice little dish.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50And here I have some mulberries.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55These are dried white mulberries, but they'll do for the flavour.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57And for the colouring, some blackberries.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02Into this dish, I'm going to pour some red wine.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05And put it onto the fire to cook.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Now, what I have to do is add various things to the wine,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12then reduce it down, and that will be the sauce for the pears.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16Honey was one of the great sweeteners of the Middle Ages.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18They kept a lot of hives because,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21not only was the honey used in cookery,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23but the wax was used in candles -
0:22:23 > 0:22:27church candles, candles to light the king's great hall,
0:22:27 > 0:22:29all that sort of thing.
0:22:29 > 0:22:30So bees were big business.
0:22:30 > 0:22:36And to this I'm also going to add powdered ginger.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Now, I'll sit here and do nothing.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40There are moments in the cook's life,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43even a medieval cook's life, when you just have to wait.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Patience is a great virtue for cooks.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51Not necessarily chefs, but for cooks.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Mm! Sweet and beautiful.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08There it goes. As it says, "Mess it forth,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10"Hot or cold".
0:23:13 > 0:23:17Richard ate better than almost any English king.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Food like this cost a fortune.
0:23:19 > 0:23:26One feast in 1383 is recorded as costing £57,000 for food
0:23:26 > 0:23:31and £10,000 for napery and for spices.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33A staggering amount.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36In order to maintain this standard of living,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39he taxed his subjects horrendously, to the hilt.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43And they didn't like it.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48What's more, he began to lose support in his court and Parliament.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51Richard ignored them and famously declaimed,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54"I will not dismiss one scullion from my kitchen
0:23:54 > 0:23:56"at Parliament's request."
0:24:00 > 0:24:04Disillusioned noblemen soon conspired against him.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09Richard retaliated brutally, either killing or exiling the rebels,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13but the clock was ticking for England's king.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15Before his tale ends, however,
0:24:15 > 0:24:20I'm eager to discover how Richard's cuisine tastes today.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23So, I've invited Kate Cahoun, food writer.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26Chris Woolgar, medieval archivist,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, food historian,
0:24:30 > 0:24:35and keeper of The Forme of Cury at the British Library Claire Breay to dine with me.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41First the king's signature dish.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Sauce Madame!
0:24:43 > 0:24:47Well, we have cooked our goose for you.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50This is goose with Sauce Madame.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52It does smell fantastic.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54It does smell good, doesn't it?
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Silence is always good when people are eating.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05Actually, it's not as rich as you normally expect goose to be.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07This must be partly to do with the stuffing,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09that it has drawn the richness out?
0:25:09 > 0:25:12- Absolutely.- And the pears actually taste, don't they?
0:25:12 > 0:25:15Often when cooked they go ropey, but these are sharp.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19- Warden pears.- All of those flavours altogether.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22It's flash cooking really. It all looks very beautiful.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24But not flashy, but it tastes flashy.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26So much for bland English food!
0:25:26 > 0:25:27Absolutely.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33Now for Richard's luxurious sweet and sour fish recipe.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Egre dauce of fish.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40One of the things which interests me, with this,
0:25:40 > 0:25:42is how much fish they ate.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45At least half the days in the year are fish days.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48There's a wonderful little piece in a 14th-century school book
0:25:48 > 0:25:50by a very young boy where,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53at the end of Lent, at the end of eating nothing but fish,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57he writes in his margin, "Thou will not believe how weary I am of fish.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01"How much I desire that flesh were come in again."
0:26:03 > 0:26:04This is very special fish.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07This is freshwater fish, which carries a premium.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11So to have pike is very special indeed.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14It was the equivalent of two days' wages.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20Finally, a 700-year-old friend, poached pears.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Pears in confit.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Isn't that beautiful?
0:26:25 > 0:26:27You've got that wonderful,
0:26:27 > 0:26:32lovely red outside with the pure pear inside. Fantastic.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Pears were a very common end to the meal
0:26:35 > 0:26:38in upper-class establishments in England.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41They eat them because they're believed to help digestion.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43Looking at these books and having it cooked
0:26:43 > 0:26:48and talking about it actually makes you realise how similar we are in so many ways.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51It's those points of connection in history that are so sparky
0:26:51 > 0:26:55and make you think, "I understand that period a little bit more."
0:26:55 > 0:26:57It brings you so much closer to the people themselves.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00You can imagine yourself in the kitchen.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Many medieval cooks were exactly like us.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04It makes it all come alive.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07What I take from this meal is
0:27:07 > 0:27:11the tastes, the flavours, the things I cannot get from the manuscript.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16It's the imagination that brings it together and turns into something really special.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21- This brings it to life in a whole new dimension.- You enjoyed it!
0:27:21 > 0:27:24I think enjoyment just redoubles everything.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28To eat something that I'd imagined in an esoteric way
0:27:28 > 0:27:32and find it is not only good, but absolutely fantastic.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34- It has been splendid, thank you. - Hooray!
0:27:38 > 0:27:42Richard's end was less glorious than his food.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Henry Bolingbroke, the cousin he exiled,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49returned in 1399 to claim the throne.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53And Richard was soon captured and incarcerated.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58Stripped of his Majesty, Richard died at the age of 33.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06A premature death perhaps, but his legacy is richer.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10England's oldest known cookbook.
0:28:10 > 0:28:16Richard II is dead. Ironically for such a hedonist, starved to death.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18A terrible thought.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20But his cookbook remains,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24for those of us that are left to savour and taste the abundance.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28The king is dead, long live the cook!
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:36 > 0:28:38E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk