Liber Cure Cocorum
Liber Cure Cocorum is a cookery book in verse dating from around the year 1430 in the North West of the County of Lancashire in North-West England.
It was first printed from a transcript made by Richard Morris in 1862 from a text in the Sloane Manuscript Collection (No1986), found as an appendix to the "Boke of Curtasye". It is written in a Northern English dialect of the 15th century, probably not much earlier than the time of Henry VI. The author titles his work as "The Slyghtes of Cure", or, in more modern English, "The Art of Cookery".
The poem treats of a great variety of dishes under the titles of potages, broths, roasted meats, baked meats, sauces and 'petecure', including the earliest references to several dishes, including haggis and Humble Pie.
An example:
Lamprayes in browet.
Take lamprayes and scalde hom by kynde,
Sythyn, rost hom on gredyl, and grynde
Peper and safrone; welle hit with alle,
Do þo lampreyes and serve hit in sale.
or, in modern English:
Lampreys in broth.
Take lampreys and scald them by kind,
Then, roast them on griddle, and grind
Pepper and saffron; boil it withal,
Add the lampreys and serve it in hall.
