37.

Pi Night spread

Pi Night spread

As Culinary Night is on March 14th this year we’re celebrating Pi day. In honor of that I’m making Daryoles. There’s some debate about this with some saying it’s a type of proto-quiche and others that it’s a proto-custard. I’m in the proto-custard camp myself.

Daryoles show up in English culinary books early,  1390s early. But by the 17th century they are synonymous with small custards, and by the 19th century they refer to a specialized mould for making custards.

In favour of the proto-quiche side there is cheese and meat in several of the dishes. But as you will see the major factor seems to be the sweetness.

There are a number of recipes available:

Fourme of Curye:

.Clxxxj. Daryols.

Take creme of cowe mylke other of
almaundes do ther to ayroun wyth
sugur. safroun & salt, medle hyt
y fere, do hyt in a coffyn of
two ynche depe. bake hit wel & cet.

Arundel 334 (via Ancient Cookery)

Daryals

Take creme of almondes, or of cow mylke, and egges, and bete hom well togedur; and make smal coffyns, and do hit therin; and do therto sugar and gode pouders, or take gode fat chese and egges, and make hom of divers colours, grene, red, or zelowe, and bake hom and serve hom forthe.

Liber cure Cocorum:

For darials.

Take creme of almonde mylke iwys,
And 3olkes of eyren, so have þou blys,
And make a batere þat is ful gode,
And rere a cofyne with mylde mode;
And sethe a mawdelarde56, þat fat is þenne,
And cut in peses, as I þe kenne;
Square as dises þou shalt hit make,
Kast hit in batere, and powder þou take
Of gynger, of kanel, þat gode is, þo
Enfors hit wele er þou more do,
And loke þy cofyne be hardened wele,
Powre in þy batere, so have þou cele,
With a disshe hit florysshe þou may,
With blanchyd almondes, as I þe say.

Harleian MS 279 (via “Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books”:

(iiij). Daryoles

Take wyne & Fressche broþe, Clowes, Maces, & Marow, & pouder of Gyngere, & Safroun, & let al boyle to-gederys, & put þer-to creme, (& 3if it be clowtys, draw it þorwe a straynoure,) & 3olkys of Eyroun, & melle hem to-gederys, & pore þe licoure þat þe Marow was soþyn yn þer-to; þan make fayre cofyns of fayre past, & put þe Marow þer-yn, & mynce datys, & strawberys in tyme of 3ere, & put þe cofyns in þe ovyn, & late hem harde a lytel; þan take hem owt, & put þe licoure þer-to, & late hem bake, & serue forth.

Again:

.xxvj. Darioles.—Take Wyne, an Freyssche broþe, & Clowes, & Maces, & Marwe, pouder Gyngere, Safroun, & lat al boyle to-gederys, & Creme, (ȝif it be clowty, draw it þorw a straynoure,) & ȝolkys of Eyroun, & melle hem to-gederys, & pore þe lycoure þat þe marwe was sothe in, þer-to; þen make fayre cofyns, & put þe Marwe þer-in, & mence Datis, & Strawberys in tyme of ȝere, & sette þe cofyns*. [Cofyns A., fyre Harl. ] in þe ovenne, & lat hem hard a lytelle, & take hem out, & put þe lycoure þer-to, & lat bake; & serue forth.

And again:

.xxxix. Daryoles.—Take Milke an Eyroun, & þe fatte of þe Freyssche broþe, Pepir, & Safroun, & Hony; dry þin cofyn, & caste þin comade þer-on, & serue forth.

One last one:

.xl. Daryoles.—Take croddys of þe deye, & wryng owt þe whey; & take ȝolkys of Eyroun nowt to fewe, ne noȝt to many, and strayne hem boþe to-gederys þorw a straynour, & þan hard þin cofynne, & ley þin marew þer-in; & pore þin comade þer-on, an bake hem, & serue hem forth.

Harleian MS. 4016 (also from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books):

Dariolles.

Take wyne and fressℏ brotℏ, Clowes, Maces, Mary, powder of Gynger, and Saffron̄, And lete al boyle togidre; And take Creme, (and if hit be cloutes, drawe hem thorgℏ a streynour,) And yolkes of egges, and medle hem togidre, and powre the licoure that þe mary was soden̄ in, thereto; And then̄ make faire cofyns of fyne paast, and putte the mary there-in, and myced dates And streberies, if hit be in time of yere, and sette þe Coffyns in þe oven̄, And lete bake a lituƚƚ while, And take hem oute, and putte the licour thereto, And lete hem bake ynouℏ

Wagstaff Miscellany:

[128.] Darrolete

Take fysch mynsyd & almond mylke made with wyne & mynsyd brede saundres hony reysons poudres & safron medyl al to gedyr so that hit be thikke do hit in cofyns & bake hit in maner of flathyns.

A Noble Boke off Cookry:

To mak daryolites

To mak dariolites tak mynced fisshe and almond
mylk mad with wyne and mynced bred sanders saffron
raissins of corans hony and pouder and mele all to
gedur so that it be thik and put it in the coffyn and
bak it in the manner of flawnes and serue it.

MS Harley 5401:

47 Defoyles. Recipe creme of cow mylk or of almondes, & do perto egges with suger, saferon, & salt; & mell it togyder & do it in a coffyn of .ij. ynche depe & bake it.

But that’s it, the word, or any variation on it, disappears from cookery books after the 16th century begins. For a dish that exists in nearly every 15th century English cookery book to disappear like that is odd, likely the name changed completely. The word “custard” though not unknown earlier now replaces daryoles. The recipe is nearly the same too, where it previously was a dish of diced and baked meat, often with a custard like sauce, it now became what daryoles were.

A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye has this:

To make a Custarde.

A Custarde the coffyn must be fyrste
hardened in the oven, and then take a quart
of creame and fyve or syxe yolkes of egges,
and beate them well together, and put them
into the creame, and put in Suger and small
Raysyns and Dates sliced, and put into the
coffyn butter or els marrowe, but on the fyshe
dates put in butter.

To put this all in perspective lets look at a simple modern custard:

2 eggs
2 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
¼ tsp. salt
Dash ground cinnamon
Dash ground nutmeg

I’m not ignoring that of the eleven recipes scattered across the 15th century two of them have meat, four of them have wine, and three of them have broth. But six of them have none of those, and two that do are from the same cookery book. More importantly though nine of the dishes are sweetened (sugar, honey, sweet dates/berries, etc), so based on the conversion over time into a custard and that the earliest, and in reality all but two, of the versions are sweet I’m going to assume that it’s variation and that medieval taste was different from ours, having meat in a sweet dish wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

Because this isn’t an examination of sweet meat dishes but rather the more custardy versions here I’m going to be focusing on Fourme of Curye, Arundel 334, the similar version in Harleian MS 279, and MS Harley 5401.

Take creme of cowe mylke other of
almaundes do ther to ayroun wyth
sugur. safroun & salt, medle hyt
y fere, do hyt in a coffyn of
two ynche depe. bake hit wel & cet.

Take creme of almondes, or of cow mylke, and egges, and bete hom well togedur; and make smal coffyns, and do hit therin; and do therto sugar and gode pouders, or take gode fat chese and egges, and make hom of divers colours, grene, red, or zelowe, and bake hom and serve hom forthe.

Take Milke an Eyroun, & þe fatte of þe Freyssche broþe, Pepir, & Safroun, & Hony; dry þin cofyn, & caste þin comade þer-on, & serue forth.

Recipe creme of cow mylk or of almondes, & do perto egges with suger, saferon, & salt; & mell it togyder & do it in a coffyn of .ij. ynche depe & bake it

As you can see the ingredients lists are fairly similar:

  1. Cream
  2. Eggs
  3. Sugar
  4. safron
  5. salt
  6. coffin
  1. Cream
  2. eggs
  3. sugar
  4. spices
  5. coffin
  1. Milk
  2. eggs
  3. fat (skimmed from broth
  4. safron
  5. pepper
  6. honey
  7. cofin
  1. Cream
  2. eggs
  3. sugar
  4. saffron
  5. salt
  6. coffin

The only major variation is the one that calls for fat to be mixed with the milk instead of using cream (that one also calls for honey instead of sugar). All of them call for similar cooking process too:

Mix milk eggs & spices, pour it into a coffin, bake

With that said I’m going to lay out my recipe:

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • pinch saffron
  • pinch salt
  • coffins*

*For my coffins I’ll be using my Fourme of Curye coffin recipe made in a mini muffin pan to set the form, then placed on stoneware pan for filling and cooking.

  1. heat cream slightly but not to boiling, add pinch of saffron
  2. beat eggs, sugar, and salt
  3. pour cream into eggs, mix
  4. pour into coffins
  5. bake for 30-45 minutes at 300.

 


1 Comment

Almond Milk Custard Tart or Daryols – meddling medlars · April 14, 2017 at 10:44 am

[…] De Courcy suggested I try making his daryoles recipe when I mentioned having 3 dozen eggs to play with. I could do that, but since I don’t […]

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