.
While writing an article about research rabbit holes, I was trying to make the point that one needs to moderate one’s depth into unrelated research. I was planning on saying that one doesn’t need to chase down every recipe when trying to reproduce a single recipe, but some brief research in to what kitchen utensils would be a good use of time. I wanted to use omelets as an example. I knew that omelets started showing up in cook books late into the medieval period and I asked Google what the oldest omelet recipe was, because I could not remember when they started showing up, or if they appeared in French, Italian, or Spanish cookbooks.. One of the returns was “Recipe #122: Orange Omelette for Harlots and Ruffian”.
What I ended up writing was:
If I am planning on reproducing a 15th Century Italian omelet, I might want to do some research on what size frying pans were available. This would help me figure out how thick or thin my omelet should be. Time spent looking at 15th century spatulas would also help me in my method. Time spent running down the rabbit hole of Italian harlots and ruffians can better be spent elsewhere.[1]
Breaking my own rule, I spent the next three days researching this recipe instead of writing my article. The first thing that I discovered was that the recipe was number 49 of the 75 recipes listed in the manuscript. I don’t know why it is listed as recipe # 122 on so many web pages. The recipe is as follows:
Orange Omelette for Harlots and Ruffians
from “Le ‘Registre de Cuisine’ de Jean de Bockenheim”, originally published in “Le Moyen Age à table” by Bruno Laurioux, Paris, Adam Biro, 1989.
Sic fac fritatem de pomeranciis: Recipe ova percussa, cum pomeranciis ad libitum tuum, et extrahe inde sucum, et mitte ad illa ova cum zucaro; post recipe oleum olive, bel segimine, et faac califieri in patella, et mitte illa ova intus. Et erit pro ruffianis et leccatricibus.
Translation:
How to make an orange omelette. Take eggs and break them, with oranges, as many as you like; squeeze their juice and add to it the eggs with sugar; then take olive oil or fat, and heat it in the pan and add the eggs. This was for ruffians and brazen harlots.
I will discuss the method and results later in this paper, but I was interested in not only what sounded like a desert omelet, but why it was good for “ruffians and brazen harlots”.
[2] I was pleasantly surprised by how the omelet (actually a frittata) turned out, and as a rabbit hole, I felt the need to turn this into its own project.
2) Technical documentation of the project for people who don’t like reading 100 pages before finding the ingredient list.
2 medium or large chicken eggs
3 tablespoons of 100% orange juice for medium eggs, 4 for large eggs.
1 teaspoon of organic, unbleached sugar
Small pinch of kosher or sea salt.
2 tablespoons of vegetable or extra virgin olive oil.
Method:
This method was geared towards two eggs in a small pan. I had mixed results in attempting to cook more than two eggs at a time: I either under-cooked the center of the omelet or over-cooked the entire omelet. For cooks with my level of omelet making, I recommend only making small (two egg) omelets and prepping multiple cups of dishes with the mixture so that after one is cooked, oil can be added back into the hot pan and another omelet can be cooked.
Add the oil to a small pan and bring up to medium-high heat.
Crack the two eggs into a cup and add the orange juice, sugar and salt. Whisk well. I used the Simply Orange brand of orange juice. The label states that nothing has been added to the juice, such as sugar or citric acid. The juice is sweet but not terribly sweet, thus the addition of one teaspoon of sugar. If you are using very sweet orange juice then you can omit the additional sugar. Please note, that the more sugar that is in the mix, the longer it will take for the eggs to set in the pan and they will be at risk of over cooking or burning.
[3] When the oil starts to shimmer, pour the egg mixture into the hot oil and cook until the bottom sets and starts to brown. Because the acid and sugar will prevent the eggs from fully setting, flipping the omelet without destroying the shape might not be possible. One can always flip the pan onto a plate and then slide the omelet back into the pan.
[4] Or, since this will be a thin omelet, flipping it to cook the top side might not be necessary.
Let the omelet cook until the bottom has set, and the entire mass can be moved as a single unit, before attempting to flip the mass. This is where you can break the omelet; break as in break into multiple pieces. If the omelet isn’t firm enough to flip, leave it alone and let it cook another minute or so. The goal is to cook the eggs completely without browning or burning them. If you cannot flip the omelet, you can put a plate over the pan and trap the heat inside to help set the top. But, remember, the eggs will continue to cook after you remove them from the heat, so it is not necessary to cook the eggs fully in the pan. If the eggs are still a tad runny on the top, it will set on the plate. We do want a fluffy, custard like texture in our omelet.
When the omelet has set, remove from the pan onto a waiting plate. The omelet can be served hot or room temperature. Warning: the omelet gets bitter when cold from the ‘fridge.
3) About the source material
This recipe comes from “The Registrum Coquine” of John of Bockenheim. Also known as Iohannes Buckehen, Ioh. Bockenheym, Iohannes de Bockenheim and Jean de Bockenheim depending on the source language (Italian, Latin, French, or English). I will use Bockenheim throughout this paper for consistency. Bockenheim worked in the court kitchen of Pope Martin V
[5] although not in the Pope’s personal kitchen. Relatively unknown outside of his cook book, Bockenheim’s recipes have survived in several manuscripts, which is unusual with medieval cook books. His recipes can be found in Paris Bibliotheque Nationale Latin 7054, and in a privately owned manuscript referred to as the Segal MS. While there are several English translations available, I will be working primarily with the translations by Redon et al and with Bach who wrote in his introduction that his translation was based on the work of Bruno Laurioux.
[6] What makes this manuscript particularly interesting is the fact that its author, identified in the Paris MS as Iohannes Buckehen and in the Segal MS as Ioh. Bockenheym, is not, like many authors to whom other recipe collections are ascribed, otherwise unknown. He is recorded in documents from the papacy of Martin V (1417-1431) as cook of the court kitchen (i.e. not the personal kitchen) and, unlike his predecessors at the papal courts at Avignon, was a clergyman, as is evidenced by the collection of benefices he managed to accumulate through his career. He very likely served at the papal court in direct proximity to powerful patrons who could secure vacant positions for him. It is likely that the registrum coquine was produced at the end of his active service, in the early 1430s, and represents, in a way, the condensed advice of a master caterer looking back on a successful career.
Laurioux places Iohannes de Bockenheim in the tradition of Maestro Martino and Bartolomeo Scappi, a skilled practitioner whose brief instructions are meant to be read by similarly experienced masters. In light of the author’s obviously poor command of Latin – the text’s vocabulary is limited and its syntax and grammar extremely simple – the idea that de Bockenheim was an artisan who had acquired a bit of learning on the side seems plausible. However, looking at the actual content of the recipes, compared to the instructions given by Chiquart, Martino or Scappi, they appear remarkably formulaic. There are practically none of the glimpses of practical craft in application that make reading Chiquart such a pleasure. The frequent appearance of “sweet spices” (species dulces), “other spices” (alii species) or “fat” (pinguedine) and the general sketchiness of instructions do not suggest great familiarity with the ins and outs of the kitchen. Of course the author might simply not be chatty, but his main concern clearly seems to be not so much how to prepare the dishes as how to serve them, and who to serve them to. Though speculative, it is easy to see de Bockenheim as an executive chef, an expert in managing the hospitality of a court rather than a hands-on creator of culinary art.[7]
4) Research and justifications.:
What is this dish?
We must first define what this dish is. All English translations, that I have found, call this an omelet, but the Latin text calls it a fritatem, which is a frittata. So, which is it? Today, omelets and frittatas are different methods of preparing eggs. An omelet is cooked in a frying pan over a burner and a frittata is cooked in a pan or baking dish in an oven. Frittatas are an egg mixture with stuff mixed in with the eggs (meat, veggies, and the like) while an omelet used to mean scrambled eggs cooked in a pan until the begin to set and then the filling added on top of the eggs, which are then rolled or folded over the filling. I say used to because in commercial restaurants, the eggs and filling are mixed together before being poured into the pan (or a grill if you wish to anger the spirit of Julia Child). Except in France, where an omelet doesn’t have to have a filling. Or in Wisconsin, which mandates that omelets have to contain cheese.
In the early days of cookbook omelets, because it seems unlikely that no one before the 15th Century scrambled up some eggs and then fried them in a pan,
[8] the words omelet and frittata were interchangeable. It was the use of a charcoal brazier and a flat pan that made the dish popular, the pan contained the eggs to the suitable size.
[9] And by elevating the pan atop the brazier, the cook was better able to see what the eggs were doing and was able to react faster as the eggs set. This was a departure to caldron style cooking where all a cook had to do was stir and adjust the heat so that the bottom would not burn. And it was far more hands on than baking which was done in a sealed oven, away from prying eyes. Omelets opened the door to a realm of food that could be adjusted by the cook in real time. The invention of the omelet, in European kitchens, led to pan sauces and to dishes that required more delicate cooking methods.
But, back to omelet vs frittata. The earliest recipes for omelets do not mention folding, rolling, or stuffing. Universally, the recipes say to beat the eggs and fry in oil, butter, or fat and to cook the “filling” separately. Descriptions of these dishes show that the eggs were cooked like a naked frittata, which would then act as a plate for the filling. Think of early omelets as egg pizzas: the bottom cooked firm enough so that the entire mass could be slid from the pan onto a plate. The cook would then cover the eggs with the “filling”, now a topping, and the diner would be able to scoop through the filling, down to the egg layer, with each bite.
The etymology of the word ‘omelette’ (‘homelaicte in Rabelais) is also very obscure, although the dish itself goes back as far as the Romans. It is thought to derive ultimately from lamella, ‘a thin plate’, referring to the long, flat shape of the omelette, and to represent a gradual corruption of allumelle first to allumelette, the to alumette. Le cuisiner fracois of 1651 has aumelette. ... The Cuisine bourgeoise of 1784 uses the modern form of the word, omelette, carefully distinguishing between it and scrambled eggs, a new recipe of the time.[10]
Finding a medieval omelet recipe that provides instruction on what to do is difficult. Robert May’s “The Accomplisht Cook”, the first cook book to have an omelet recipe written in English
[11] leaves much to the imagination.
Section XXI. The exactest Ways for the Dressing of Eggs.
To make Omlets divers Ways.
The First Way.: Beeak six, eight, or ten eggs more or less, beat them together in a dish, and put salt to them; then put some butter a melting in a frying pan, and fry it more or less, according to your discretion, only on one side or bottom. You may sometimes make it green with juyce of spinage and sorrel beat with the eggs, or serve it with green sauce, a little vinegar and sugar boil’d together, and served up on a dish with the Omlet.[12]
Although, we do have hint, on page 446:
Eggs or Quelque shose.
Break forty eggs, and beat them together with some salt, fry them at four times, half, or but of one side; before you take them out of the pan, make a composition or compound of hard eggs, and sweet herbs minced, some boil’d currans, beaten cinamon, almond-paste, sugar, and juyce of orange, strow all over these omlets, roul them up like a wafer, and so of the rest, put them in a dish with some white-wine, sugar, and juyce of lemon; then warm and ice them in an oven, with beaten butter and fine sugar.
Put the filling on top of the omelet and roll it up like a wafer. This implies that the omelet is normally flat, and this is what most redaction methods point to. In modern terms, modern omelets
[13] can be divided into two groups: The French method and the Italian method.
[14] Ignoring the fillings, the major difference is the amount of fat used. The French method uses just enough fat, usually butter, to keep the eggs from sticking to the pan and at a low heat so that the omelet is made up of layers of eggs as the cook moves the eggs and curds constantly until they set. The Italian method calls for a heavy layer of fat, usually olive oil, that the eggs will fry in; almost poaching in the hot oil. The Italian method cooks faster in the higher heat, and requires less “fussing about” as the goal is not to create layers of egg, but to cook it throughout, possibly a holdover from when omelets and frittatas were one and the same.
Interesting enough, while most modern cookbooks say to cook a French omelet slowly, the late
[15] Julia Child had a method of cooking a French omelet in 14 seconds using what she called the roulée method.
[16] Unlike medieval recipes. her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, devotes eight entire pages to making one type of omelet.
[17] While Julia only recommends 1 tablespoon of butter for a 10” pan
[18], do we have any examples from period of how much fat to put in the pan? I did find one.
Egg Torte Called Salviate (Libre Del Coch, Mestre Robert, cook to ‘don Ferrando de Napols’ Catalan, 15th century) Take a few leaves of sage; and grind them very vigoursly and take a goodly quantity of eggs, and beat them and mix them with the sage, and then take a frying pan, and add lard so that once the lard is melted there is one finger’s depth or more in the pan; and if there is no lard, take common oil which should be sweet and very good, of the same amount, and when the lard or oil comes to a boil add to it the eggs and savory, and make an omelet which should be well cooked; and this omelet should be two fingers thick or more; and once it is well cooked or fried, place it on a good plate with much sugar beneath and on top; and this omelet should be eaten hot.[19]
As I would find out during the experimental phases, there is a limit to how much fat to put in the pan and end up with am edible omelet that doesn’t taste like oil.
It would appear that in the late 18th Century the French (of course it was the French) decided to change things up: frittatas would remain flat fried or baked egg pizzas, but omelets would be transformed into personal egg origami dishes, with an individual amount of filling placed in the eggs, which were then rolled or folded over the filling, and then served à la française.
[20] Frittatas, in France, would remain the food of the commoner, but omelets were transformed into haute cuisine, requiring specialized cooks to make the omelets to suit the diner’s tastes. We can conclude, therefore, that what we are looking to end up with is something more substantial than scrambled eggs, but less fussy to make. More like a flat disc of eggs rather than a folded or rolled tube.
Since this omelet has no filling, extra care will have to be taken to ensure that the eggs aren’t discolored (burned) during the cooking process. And since the sugar and the acid in the orange juice will keep the eggs from setting all of the way, cooking over too high of a heat, in the modern Italian fashion, would result in the eggs squeezing out the orange juice, leaving a dry, scrambled eggs sitting in orange flavored water.
[21] Too low of a heat and the eggs won’t set at all. Too thick of an omelet and the bottom will burn before the top sets. Too thin and it won’t have enough structure to survive the move from pan to plate.
So. I have good translations to work from, plenty of medieval sources for other omelets, and modern redactions to work from, many from re-enactors and historians, in addition to modern recipes. However, nothing I research is ever easy. I made about a dozen of these omelets before I found a redaction and method that produced a consistent dish. In the next few sections, I will lay out my tools and ingredients.
Stove
I will be using a modern, electric, stove top for my cooking, because that is what I have in my kitchen. I do not think that there will be much of a difference between cooking over fire and cooking via an electric coil since the eggs will not need to be touched by fire directly. However, like the 15th century charcoal brazier, my stove top allowed me to stand over the pan, which was held level, without having to squat next to a fire and find someway to keep the pan level and stable atop coals.
Pan
What type of pan to use? Obviously a frying pan, but what type? There are a variety of pan designs that can be used to make an omelet, but which one would be the closest to what we have access to? There are very few manuscript images, that I was able to find, that show a frying pan in action, and most of them are low resolution and/or cited no information about the image. The best I could find is to the right, which I found on a Russian website which gave the following description: “Master of Bedford. The Holy Family (detail), c. 1440–50.”
[22] The image below that is from a Swedish, historical blacksmith’s website. He wrote that the pan is from the medieval Vreta monastery and was the model used to make his own replicas.
[23] The page details his method of making similar frying pans.
I was only able to find one period reference to the variety of pan to use.
[24] (166) Recipe for omelet
Take meat [pound it and] boil it, and then pound it again and fry it in fat. Finely chop Macedonian parsley and put it, along with the meat, in a bowl. Break the eggs on them; add hot spices, cilantro, coriander, pounded bread, and Ceylon cinnamon. Fry it in a frying pan in olive oil and sesame oil. The frying pan used should be round, with high sides, and a long handle like that of a ladle. It should be set on a low charcoal fire, and a few ladlefuls of olive oil and sesame oil should be poured into it. Wait until it gets very hot, and then pour in the egg mixture. For each omelet, use 5 eggs, a bit of herbs and spices, and fried meat. Fill the frying pan with this, and cook it until it no longer looks wet. Add a bit of sesame oil and olive oil, and continue flipping it every now and then, until it is cooked.[25]
So, how big of a pan? Julia Child wrote the following:
EGGS AND HOW TO BEAT THEM
An omelette can contain up to 8 eggs, but the individual 2- to 3-egg omelette is usually the tenderest, and by far the best size to practice making. At under 30 seconds an omelette, a number of people can be served in a very short time. In fact, unless you are extremely expert and have a restaurant-size heat source, we do not recommend larger omelettes at all. But if you do want to attempt them, be sure to have the correct size of pan. The depth of the egg mass in the pan should not be over 1/4 inch, as the eggs must cook quickly. A pan with a 7-inch bottom is right for the 2- to 3-egg omelette; a 10- to n-inch pan is required for 8 eggs.[26]
Mrs. Beeton actually provides some good advice on omelet making. Surprisingly, since she is widely considered to be the source of why English cuisine is so bad: she recommended boiling carrots for 1.75 to 2.25 hours.
[27] On omelets, she wrote, “In making an omelet, be particularly careful that it is not too thin, and, to avoid this, do not make it in too large a frying-pan, as the mixture would then be greasy, burnt, or too much done...”
[28] I used modern non-stick frying pans for the ease of clean up. I could use a stainless steel pan, or cast iron, as I have both in my house, but while experimenting with this recipe I found that the remains of the sugar stuck to the pan and was difficult to clean off even though the pans were non-stick. Like the stove-top, I do not think that there will be much of a difference between using a medieval pan and using modern steel, cast iron, or layered steel and copper. The pan will not be contributing anything to the dish. I used the same pans that I use when I normally cook eggs for an omelet, breakfast burrito, or just for scrambled eggs. All three use different styles of non-stick coatings but all are 8 inches at the lip and 6 inches at the base; a good size for dishes of two of three eggs. Two of the pans are regular purpose and the third is an omelet pan made for professional kitchens.
[29] Sugar
I had decided, from the early stages of experimentation, to use the best sugar that would have been available to my medieval cooks. While I prefer to use piloncillo or muscovado unrefined sugar in other A&S projects, reasoning that the sugar used by most of the people who could afford sugar would have been on the unrefined side. However, since Bockenheim worked in the court kitchen of a pope, money would have been no object for the highest of high tables.
Period inventories and shopping lists mention sugar loaves as well as references to “sugre blanche”, “white sugar” or “candy sugar”. Which indicates that there was a difference between the varieties of sugar. Furthermore, many cookbooks use the word “sugar” in most recipes but calls for other varieties of sugar in some: “good white sugar” “lump white sugar”, “white sugar” “pounded white sugar”, “white manna of sugarcane” and “Sulaimani sugar”.
Balducci Pegolotti, an early 14th century Floretine trader, listed various types of sugar in his handbook; “five kinds of loaf sugar, in order of quality: mucchera, cafetino, bambillonia, musciatto and dommaschino. The color and cost of the loaves varied widely. A sugar loaf looks a little like a bomb.”
[30] The Arabic sources from medieval times describe raw sugar as red (sukkar ahmar) rather than brown. A cone-shaped loaf of sugar, also called an ubluj, typically had a white upper section and a red or dark lower point. Tricks...were clearly employed by the sugar merchants to hide the red part, and present the illusion of an entire white cone.[31]
---
Sugar itself was exported in solid conical loaves of various sizes, since a cone-shaped mould was in standard use wherever sugar was refined. We tend to think of sugar as a pure, white and unvarying substance, but the difficulty and expense of refining meant that until the mid 19th century there were many more grades of sugar than today, and that a batch or loaf of sugar was by no means always white - and if it looked white on the outside, it may have been brown within.[32]
The Liber cure Cocorum, a contemporary cook book from England, does list different types of sugar in several recipes. Take the recipe for frumenty:
Color it with saffron and salt it well,
And serve it forth, Sir, at the meal;
With sugar candy, you may sweeten it,
If it is served in [a] great lord’s house.
Take black sugar for meaner men;[33]
The cost of sugar varied by the quality, but since this recipe was intended to the table of Pope Martin V, money would have been no object, as I have stated before. The use of expensive spices, and sugar was considered a spice at this time, and using the finest form of the spice would have been a deliberate sign of luxury. I did not want to use modern ultra refined sugar for this project, nor did I want to use raw sugar, which I use in other A&S projects: the recipe calls for “sugar” which, as I have mentioned, includes a rainbow of refinement. I did not want to use raw sugar for several reasons:
1) Since this omelet would be intended for the upper crust of the Catholic Church, using the best sugar available would be in keeping with this as a dish of fine dining, rather than one intended for common people.
2) Since the presentation would have mattered, I wanted to avoid using darker sugar that might discolor the eggs,
3) The addition of molasses might weigh the omelet down and overpower the orange flavor.
I could have purchased crystal sugar, which is extremely refined sugar that is allowed to grow into large crystals. Rock candy is crystal sugar that is normally grown on sticks. It can also be purchased by the pound so that it can be ground into appropriate size grains needed for any baking project. Historical Italian Cooking’s video “Medieval Cheesecake - Saffron Cheesecake” does talk about crystal sugar and the baker does hand grind the sugar into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. I have done this on previous A&S projects and I can tell you that it takes a while to grind large sugar crystals into small sugar crystals.
I did not do this for my experimentation and I do not think that hand grinding crystal sugar would make any difference in this recipe other than to create extra work. I could have used a food processor, but I wanted to do this project complete by hand, and not use any modern connivance other then my stove. I do not think that anyone would be able to tell the difference between using hand ground crystal sugar and modern sugar out of a bag. That, and I do not have any servants to spend hours grinding large chunks of sugar into a fine powder while I spend my days hunting.
So I purchased a bag of organic, pure cane sugar that still has a little bit of color to it. I think that this sugar would be as good as the best sugar my medieval cooks would have had access to, without being 100% pure sucrose and bleached of all color. The sugar that I used tastes like sugar, identical to the pure sugar that comes in the little packets next to the coffee at work. Just like the crystal sugar that I used in the past. Using the organic sugar ensured that no bleaching agents were used to make the sugar completely white, as well as no anti-clumping agents added.
Oil
Not wanting to go down the rabbit hole of what kind of olive oil would be the best match for what was used when the cook book was written, I went with a neutral flavor canola oil. It has a high smoke point
[34] so I knew that it wouldn’t turn bitter when frying the egg mixture. Nor would the flavor of the oil overwhelm the flavor of the eggs and the orange juice.
Orange Juice
The history of oranges can be a paper in and of its own. Oranges were most likely first cultivated in what is now modern day India and spread outwards as more trees were planted; reaching China around 2200BCE. The Chinese loved these early oranges, even though they were extremely bitter. They enjoyed the flavor and aroma not only for cooking but for royal tributes. The oldest written mention of an orange is in the “Yu Kung” manuscript which listed an orange and pomelo,
[35] wrapped in silk, being given to the Emperor Tayun, who reigned from 2205 to 2197 BCE.
[36] Joseph Needham says something similar only he quotes “the Yu Kung chapter in the Shu Ching (Book of Historical Documents)” and dates it to the 8th or 9th Century BCE.
[37] Oranges reached the Mediterranean by the 2nd century CE and trees were planted across the Mediterranean as Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians spread the seeds as they colonized lands. And while the Chinese had developed sweet oranges, that is oranges that produced sugar as they grew, by the 3rd Century CE, sweet oranges didn’t appear in Europe until the late 15th Century. “The first written mention of the sweet orange in Europe is in the archives of the Italian city of Savona, recorded in 1471; the first written distinction between the sweet orange and the sour orange is in a manuscript by Bartolomeo Platina from 1475, written for Pope Sixtus IV. The manuscript is preserved in the Vatican Library.”
[38] Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sailed around the Horn of Africa and reached India and “discovered” a variety of sweet oranges that he described as “very good oranges, much better than those from Portugal”.
[39] While it is possible that Bockenheim would have known about sweet oranges in his life time, it is unlikely that they would have been used during the reign of Pope Martin V, who died in 1431. Many redactions call for mixing orange juice with lemon juice, or to use citron juice. I chose to use pure orange juice because this omelet also calls for the addition of sugar. Since I was going to be adding sugar to the omelet, there was no reason why I would have to find a sugar free orange, or orange-like, juice.
I used the Simply Orange brand of orange juice. The label states that nothing has been added to the juice, such as sugar or citric acid. The juice is sweet but not terribly sweet, thus the addition of only one teaspoon of sugar. In my experimentation, I discovered that the more sugar is present in the egg mixture, the longer it takes for the eggs to set. There comes a tipping point where the sugar content will turn this omelet into a custard. I did not use a freshly squeezed orange because I wanted not only consistency as I experimented with the ratios, but I didn’t want any additional food waste to deal with. Plus, I was doing this project in the winter and I didn’t like the look or smell of the oranges in my local supermarket, which would have been shipped from the southern hemisphere to get to me.
[40] Since the goal is to create an orange flavored omelet, I did consider zesting an orange and adding it to the eggs. But I decided not to for two reasons:
1) The recipe did not call for orange zest.
2) The end result of this recipe is a light and fluffy omelet/frittata. The addition of chewy orange zest would ruin the wanted texture of the omelet, much in the same way a tiny piece of egg shell is instantly detectable when you bite down on it in a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
When cooked properly, the omelet will have a good balance of orange flavor and sweetness without the need for orange zest or orange oil or other additional flavors.
Eggs
Unlike the sugar, chicken eggs were cheap in the 15th Century; they could often be found under a buk.
[41] That being said, I used chicken eggs. The recipe only calls for eggs, and medieval cooks would have had access to duck and goose eggs. I don’t think it makes much of a difference. I’ve had duck eggs before; I found them a bit richer and fattier than chicken eggs, but other than that, I don’t think anyone would be able to tell the difference. I don’t think they would have used quail eggs, due to their size. Chicken eggs are easier for me to get, so those are the eggs I used.
Interesting to note, the color of my omelet might be different from what Bockenheim might have prepared. The yokes my my eggs are dark yellow, bordering on orange. Bockenheim has another recipe where his eggs are not.
38 – Thus prepare various eggs. Take them and make them boil well, and grind the redness (the yolk) with parsley, marjoram, and good spices, and then fill the white with that mixture. And then take butter, heat it in a pan and put the eggs into it. After that, take raw eggs mixed with agresta, wine, parsley, and saffron, and pour it over them, and make it all boil together. And this will be good for monks and cloistered folk.[42]
There are a couple reasons for the difference in color. The first might be the diet fed to the birds. Doing some research it appears that orange or red yokes, in chicken eggs, are caused by a diet rich in flowers such as marigolds and/or certain insects. And the second might be because Bockenheim was using eggs from another type egg layer, duck or goose, for instance. Not wanting to raise my own chickens
[43] just to produce eggs with red yokes, I chose to use regular chicken eggs from the grocery store.
Salt
I used kosher salt because I did not want to use table salt which contains anti-clumping agents and iodine, which can change the taste of the salt. This should not be an issue with such the small amount used. I could have used sea salt, but the only plain sea salt I had in the house, plain as in not mixed in with spices in a pre-loaded grinder, was pink Himalayan salt. The impurities that make the pink salt pink might be visible in the omelet.
5) How I did it:
First Phase of Testing:
The redaction from The Thorngrove Table is as follows:
6 eggs
2 oranges
1 lemon
2 Tb sugar
2 Tb olive oil
salt
Juice the oranges and the lemon. Beat the eggs, add the juice, the sugar, and salt to taste , and cook the omelett in olive oil. Serve warm.
[44] A good place to start from, but six eggs was more than I wanted to invest in for a first trial. I scaled down the number of eggs to 2 and had already decided not to seek out sour oranges or their equivalent, since sugar was going to be added any ways, why not just use sweet orange juice? Reading about “desert” omelets, I discovered that as the amount of sugar increases, the longer it will take to properly cook the eggs; eventually the omelet will turn into a custard, which prefer to be cooked at a low heat for a longer period of time. The acid in the oranges will also slow down the setting of the eggs, so careful experimentation of heat and time will have to be used to produce not only an edible final product but one that will actually taste good.
“The sugar and the acidity of the juice prevent the eggs from completely setting, so this is more of a custardy cream that makes an unusual and very pleasant dessert.”
[45] I disagree with this statement, and others of similar nature. The recipe calls this a fritatem, not a custard. In addition, sweet omelets can be documented to the 5th Century CE, as I outlined earlier in this paper. The end result is not a custard, but an omelet. Furthermore, there are no desserts listed in Bockenheim’s cookbook, and sugar is used in a multitude of the recipes: soups, roasts, fish dishes. No, this is not a dessert. The interpretation and redaction of the original recipe would be completely dependent on the finished product rather than a strict interpretation of the given recipe, to wit:
Sic fac fritatem de pomeranciis: Recipe ova percussa, cum pomeranciis ad libitum tuum, et extrahe inde sucum, et mitte ad illa ova cum zucaro; post recipe oleum olive, bel segimine, et faac califieri in patella, et mitte illa ova intus. Et erit pro ruffianis et leccatricibus.
Or, to rely on Bach’s translation:
Thus make an omelet (fritatem) of bitter oranges. Take beaten eggs with oranges, as many as you wish, and draw out their juice, and put it to those eggs with sugar. After that take olive oil or fat, let it heat in a pan and put the eggs into it. And it will be for ruffians and unchaste women.[46]
One of my frustrations of period recipes is that they rarely provide any useful information for people who do not know how to make the thing. As I wrote in my award winning project “Mad Cheese Science: Or How I Created A Munster”
[47] There is a very famous French cook book, Le Répertoire De La Cuisine, first published in 1914, that contains hundreds of dishes but no instructions on how to cook any of them. The chef was expected to know how to cook everything and the book was more of a menu suggestion than an actual cookbook. One of the “recipes” reads as follows: “Marguerites - Poached and coated, half with white wine sauce, sprinkled with julienne of truffles and half shrimp sauce sprinkled with julienne of white of egg, decorated with daisies made with cooked turnips, the center or the flower made with yolk of egg.”[48] That’s it, one would already have to know how to cook the sole[49] and make the sauces.[50]
I fully believe that this cookbook wasn’t intended for normal people, but was instead written by a professional chef for other professional chefs who would already know how to make all of the dishes, but might have needed some inspiration for actual dishes. “Take beaten eggs with oranges, as many as you wish” would make complete sense for a chef who was already experienced in making omelets and working with oranges. Bockenheim clearly wasn’t thinking of the poor re-enactor living centuries after his death who might be screaming at his computer, “HOW MANY EGGS? HOW MUCH SUGAR? I DON’T WANT TO USE ANY ORANGES! WHAT DO I DO ABOUT THAT?”
But, I digress.
For the first attempt, I used:
2 medium chicken eggs
2 tablespoons of 100% orange juice.
1 teaspoon of organic, unbleached sugar
small pinch of salt.
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Method:
I added the oil to a small frying pan and brought it to medium-high heat.
While the oil was heating, I cracked two eggs into a cup and added the orange juice, sugar, and salt and whisked until they combined. I added the salt, even though it wasn’t mentioned, because eggs need salt, and they would enhance the flavor of the orange juice and sugar.
Once the oil was shimmering, I added the egg mixture and let the bottom set. Unfortunately, it did not set enough to allow me to flip it in one piece: My frittata was turning into a poorly made omelet. Once both sides had started to brown, I turned the heat off of the stove and let the thing set for another 30 seconds before moving to a plate.
Still hot, the whatever you wish to call it was nice. The oil let the eggs cook fluffy and airy, so it was really light on the tongue. There wasn’t much of an orange flavor and it was sweet. Not sweet enough to be called a dessert. Quite nice.
Second phase of testing.
Ingredients (attempt 2):
2 medium chicken eggs
5 tablespoons of 100% orange juice.
1 tablespoon of organic, unbleached sugar
small pinch of salt.
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Method:
I followed the same procedure as before, with less than satisfactory results.
The added juice and sugar kept the eggs from setting fully. There were eggy curds, but it just didn’t set like an omelet should. It also didn’t brown in the same way. The egg mixture set after 4 or 5 minutes of high heat, but it was more like basted scrambled eggs than a frittata or an omelet. They were good. Very sweet with an orange flavor, and the texture was still light and airy, but there was a bit of oily orange juice left on the plate when I was done eating
Third phase of testing.
Ingredients (attempt 3):
4 medium chicken eggs
5 tablespoons of 100% orange juice.
3 tablespoons of organic, unbleached sugar
small pinch of salt.
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Method:
I followed the same steps as the previous two attempts, I just used more egg and juice. Because of how light and fluffy the eggs turn out, it doesn’t feel like you’ve eaten a substantial meal. Since I was making this for my dinner, I chose to use 4 eggs. I also increased the amount of sugar thinking that since there would be more eggs, they would be able to bond to and trap the sugar without breaking. Unfortunately, this attempt did not work out well. I think that the oil was too hot, as the eggs started to brown as soon as they hit the oil.
The heat caused the eggs to squeeze some of the orange juice out as it set. There was a lot of liquid in the pan after I had moved the eggs to my plate. I turned off the heat to avoid burning the eggs, but with the liquid in the pan, and the acid and sugar in the mixture, kept the eggs from setting completely. It wasn’t firm enough to flip in the pan in one piece, nor was it firm enough to fold. What I ended up with was scrambled eggs instead of an omelet or frittata. The end result was still light and fluffy, and slightly sweet, but there was only a whisper of orange flavor. Still, a good dinner, but not one that was worthy of a pope.
Ninth phase of testing.
I made 9 of these omelets/fritattas over the course of a few weeks, testing out ratios and cooking temperatures. The ratios of the first attempt resulted in the best dish, slightly sweet with a hint of orange flavor, but with the eggs set light and fluffy. I also tested the dish when at room temperature (still tasty) and cold out of the ‘fridge (the cold turns it bitter, for some reason that a food scientist could explain). In addition, too much oil will make the omelet greasy and if the oil is too hot, the eggs will set hard and squeeze out the orange juice along with the water that is in the eggs, resulting in a dry omelet sitting in a puddle.
Ingredients (attempt 9):
2 medium chicken eggs
3 tablespoons of 100% orange juice.
1 teaspoon of organic, unbleached sugar
small pinch of salt.
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Method:
I had the best results when cooking two eggs in a small pan with enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan completely. Enough oil to pan fry but not enough to deep fry.
I put the oil in the pan and let it come up to medium-high heat; hot enough for the oil to just start to shimmer. The eggs were cracked into a cup and mixed with the salt, sugar and orange juice.
Once the oil was ready, I poured the egg mixture into the center of the pan, letting it spread to cover the entire pan. Unlike a modern omelet, I did not sweep the eggs to allow more of the liquid to flow onto the hot pan. The goal was not to create layers, but to cook the mixture evenly.
I let the omelet cook until the bottom set, and the entire mass moved as a single unit, before attempting to flip the mass. This is where you can break the omelet; break as in break into multiple pieces. If the omelet isn’t firm enough to flip, leave it alone and let it cook another minute or so. The goal is to cook the eggs completely without browning or burning them. If you cannot flip the omelet, you can put a plate over the pan and trap the heat inside to help set the top. But, remember, the eggs will continue to cook after you remove them from the heat, so it is not necessary to cook the eggs fully in the pan. If the eggs are still a tad runny on the top, it will set on the plate. We do want a fluffy, custard like texture in our omelet.
Some of the redactions of this recipe call for sugar to be sprinkled over the top of the omelet, which can be done if desired, but that is not what is mentioned in the original recipe. Bockenheim does have several recipes that we are told to put sugar on top of the dish, e.g.: “and sprinkle on top of it cinnamon and sugar enough.”
[51] I do not think that this is what was intended for two reasons. The first being that even the best crystal sugar, ground fine, might be crunchy and throw off the desired texture of our omelet. The second being that in the days before bleached sugar granules, even the best sugar would have some color to it. Color that might be very noticeable on top of the omelet. This is why white pepper is called for for white sauces and soups: diners might not appreciate flecks of things visible in their food. Since Bockenheim tells us to add the sugar to the eggs and orange juice, he must have intended that the sugar dissolve in the liquid and sweeten the entire omelet, not not just provide a layer of sugar on top of it.
Conclusion and final thoughts.
This was a fun project, not only in the making of what sounded like an unusual dish, but in the rabbit holes along the way. I had thought that this would have been an easy project to do as I routinely make omelets for weekend breakfasts. While I knew that omelets were mentioned in medieval cook books, the deep dive into what they called an omelet and when the modern omelet was created was fun to discover. Today, we think of omelets as breakfast dishes, something that is kind of decadent when ordered at an “all day breakfast” diner. But in the middle ages, omelets and frittatas were intended for dinner or supper: certainly for the main meal of the day as most of the medieval omelet recipes are more labor intensive than what the average person would wish to devote to the first meal of the day.
As I have written, the acid and the sugar did keep the eggs from setting as quickly as my usual omelet fair and this forced me to up my egg game to produce an edible omelet that would have, at one time, been placed in front of a pope. While there are desert omelets, I do not think that we can categorize this as one. While it is sweet, it is not sweet like a modern desert, nor would it be a sweet as the sugar based deserts available to 14th Century Italian elites. I feel that the sugar was added to offset the sourness of the oranges and not to make this a super sweet dish.
In my opinion, this omelet, with it’s light and airy texture, would have been used as what we would call an appetizer to get the digestive juices flowing, or an intermezzo or a pallet cleanser that could have been served between two heavier dishes or removes.
Okay... What’s with the ruffians and harlots?
There has been a number of writers commenting on why this dish is for ruffians and harlots, or for pimps and prostitutes, or unchaste women. A review of “Food, wine & song: music and feasting in Renaissance Europe”
[52] describes how the CD includes a 120 page booklet containing various recipes, including this one. Although the author of the booklet translates “ruffianis et leccatricibus” as “stagehands and actors”.
[53] Mariangela Rinaldi translates it as “A dish for ruffians, panderers, flatterers and harlots.
[54] Redon, et al provides the following explanation, “We cannot see why this omelette, which contains no meat and no seasoning other than sugar, should be particularly will suited to debauchees. Surely, it is flesh (further fired by spices) that enflames the flesh. This omelette can be safely tasted without running the risk of moral turpitude.
[55]Speaking of ecclesiastical cookbooks, a frittata figured prominently in the Registro di cucina by Johann of Bockenheim, the German-born cook to Pope Martin V. The work, published in 1431, is a collection of seventy-four recipes, each dedicated to a distinct social class or group of penitents who might find themselves dining at the pontifical court. For kings, princes, and the like, Bockenheim offered a chicken soup laced with precious saffron, cinnamon, and exquisitely expensive white sugar—a little something to titillate the noblest of palates. For the clergy, he recommended a simple bread and leek soup. Nourishing, yet not so heavy as to dull the senses, for a priest should finish a meal with both mind and spirit still nimble. And the frittata? It is a slightly sweet dish, made with orange juice, olive oil, and a dusting of sugar. Bockenheim served it when “ruffians, panderers, flatterers, and harlots” came to call, which provides new insight into the stream of guests who made their way to the papal table. Why he singled these hooligans out for a frittata supper, I can only guess. Perhaps he thought them a particularly unruly bunch, and hoped a soothing frittata might keep them in line.[56]
--
This, to my mind, is what makes his work particularly interesting. Along with recipes, many of which are quite standard, we get instructions on serving them and, perhaps most importantly, on who to serve them to. Of course we need not take these too literally. Not only mercenary captains would have enjoyed peppered partridges, and it is unlikely orange omelets were ever specifically for ruffians and women of easy virtue. But they reflect the perceptions of the time, from a man of considerable authority on the subject. Being an ecclesiastical courtier, de Bockenheim does not present any cuisine easily defined in national terms. Many of his recipes are identifiable by who they are destined for – Romans, Italians, Rhinelanders, Saxons, Slavs or Germans - others by parallels in surviving recipe collections of the period. Altogether, though, the impression is rather like that of a modern-day hotel restaurant, with dishes from a variety of sources collected to meet the tastes of every traveller you could reasonably expect to come in. His is certainly an upscale cuisine – the copious use of spices, especially saffron, and expensive ingredients such as almonds, raisins, lamb, lamprey, pheasant, capon and peacock makes that clear. It also seems somewhat blandly international.[57]
I think that there has been too much read into why this dish was for ruffians, or why liver and honey would be good for Germans,
[58] or why a cheese soup would be good for Frenchmen and Englishmen.
[59] Bockenheim was a cook for the Papal court and his cookbook was his recollection of the dishes that he made during his service. Those dishes were not intended to be specifically for Germans, Englishmen, Hessians, Saxons, monks, princes, courtiers or women. There is nothing that will mark these recipes out as inspired by the regional cuisine of what is listed in the recipe. Recipe 70 is good for peasants; I do not think the Pope sat down to dinner with peasants, let alone with ladies of negotiable affection. Surely, if these recipes were intended to bring some home grown comfort food for visiting nobles then why are all of these dishes distinctly Italian? Wouldn’t a ham be more of a comfort food for a German than a proto-risotto dish?
[60] When I think of medieval German dishes, rice isn’t one of the first things I think of. Recipe 44 is a chicken soup with meatballs for Englishmen;
[61] what is distinctly English about it? It sounds like a modern Italian wedding soup.
Personally, I think that the dedications are some sort of inside joke that we can’t figure out. As to why a meat pie would be good for Italians,
[62] your guess is as good as any. Perhaps it was something of a mnemonic device to aid the memory as to how the dish should be presented. If so, it might grant us some insight. Recipe 55 is a Lenten dish of boiled leeks with almond milk and saffron for canons and vicars of the Church. Was this because the colors of the dish look like what canons and vicars wore during Lent? A turnip dish is for peasants
[63] might be some sort of slight against peasants, such as the slur “turnip head”. However, this dish calls for saffron and sugar so I don’t see too many peasants preparing it for themselves.
Unfortunately, Bockenheim did not leave us with anything more than this one manuscript, so we do not know if he was fond of jokes or insults, or if the kitchen we worked in associated dishes with various groups of people. Or even if Pope Martin V and his court were so out of touch with what was going on outside of the Vatican walls that these dishes were used to remind His Holiness of the people of the world. The Pope most likely not have cared about how the dishes were made, but they could have been presented to him and his guests with a flourish, “Veal and hare that is good for Romans.” Such announcements might also have been a tribute to guests to the Papal court or for Cardinals and Bishops from various lands of Europe.
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[1] Reynolds, Sylvan Signal
[2] Some English translations translate “leccatricibus“ as “unchaste women”. Others use “prostitute”. One paper translates it as “actor”. More on this, later.
[3] Which technically also means over cooked.
[4] Just don’t be chicken about it.
[5] 1417-1431
[6] “Le Registre de cuisine” de Jean de Bockenheim, cuisinier du pape Martin V. In: Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome. Moyen-Age, Temps modernes T. 100, N°2. 1988. pp. 709-760
[7] Bach, p1
[8] Indeed, Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria has several recipes for omelets/frittatas (5th century)
[9] Image on this page is from a documentary on English cooking written and presented by the late Clarissa Dickson Wright of an omelet from Robert May’s The Accomplisht Cook The recipe demonstrated in the video was “The Sixteenth Way, according to the Turkish Mode. from page 433. Recipe starts around the 18 minute mark
[10] Toussaint-Samat, p359
[11] 1684.
[12] p430
[13] Modern as in pre-nonstick cookware and Waffle House.
[14] Multiple modern cookbooks.
[15] And great.
[16] Julia Child on PBS
[17] Child, p127-35
[18] 10 inch diameter at the lip, and 7 inch diameter at the base. Mrs. Child was very explicit.
[19] Baldassano, “Saluiat”
[20] An oeuf with the French egg references.
[21] This is what had happened on attempt #3
[22] Tabris
[23] Lindkvist
[24] Directly related to omelets.
[25] Nasrallah, p171
[26] Child, p127-8
[27] Beeton, p561-2
[28] Beeton, p733
[29] A present from a friend who bought a case of them from a restaurant auction.
[30] Richardson, p101-2
[31] Sato, p69
[32] Richardson, p101
[33] Renfrow’s translation, recipe 56,
[34] Around 400F
[35] The pomelo was the ancestor of the grapefruit.
[36] Toussaint-Samat, p662
[37] Needham 363-77
[38] The Origin of Oranges
[39] 1498, Langgut
[40] The oranges were pale orange in color with dry skins that did not smell of anything, which might have been due to a layer of wax applied to the oranges prior to shipping. Or might have been due to prolonged shipping.
[41] Egg puns crack me up.
[42] Bach, p8
[43] That would just put me in a fowl mood.
[44] Nevin
[45] Redon, p185
[46] Bach, p9
[47] Ice Dragon Penthalon, 2023
[48] Page 105
[49] The recipe is in the section on sole and other flat fish.
[50] Ronsen, p8-9
[51] Recipe 51. Bach, p10
