broth; take the whites of leeks and slit them, cut them small and put them in with mixed onions and let it all boil; next take bread steeped in broth and 'draw it up' with blood and vinegar, and put it into a pot with pepper and cloves and let it boil; serve all together." Here, too, is the receipt for "drore," which must have made a most savoury soup: "Take almonds and blanch them and mix them with good meat broth and seethe this in a pot; then mince onions and fry them in fresh 'grease' and put them to the almonds; take small birds and parboil them, and throw them into the pottage with cinnamon and cloves and a little fair grease and boil the whole."
The fifteenth century was famous for its feasts, where the consumption of food was almost incredible. Here are but some items out of a much longer list of orders for a feast in 1466: 300 tuns of ale, 100 tuns of wine, 104 oxen, 6 wild bulls, 1,000 sheep, 304 calves, 304 swine, 400 swans, 2,000 geese, 1,000 capons, 2,000 pigs, 104 peacocks, 204 kids, 2,000 chickens, 4,000 pigeons, 200 pheasants, 500 partridges, 400 woodcocks, 4,000 cold and 1,500 hot venison patties, 4,000 dishes of jelly, 4,000 baked tarts, and 2,000 hot custards, &c.
