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A period dish

Frumenty

Cracked wheat simmered in milk or broth until soft, enriched with egg yolks and served with sugar and spice.

Serves 6

Frumenty was a thick wheat pottage, boiled for hours and then finished with milk, eggs, and spice. It was served alongside roast meat or as a sweet dish in its own right, and it survives in the ancestry of the modern Christmas pudding.

Ingredients

Dairy & Eggs

  • 3 cup milk
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp butter

Pantry / Durable

  • 3 tbsp sugar

Spices & Seasoning

  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Other

  • 1 cup cracked wheat

Method

  1. Rinse the cracked wheat, then soak it overnight in water.

  2. Simmer it in water or light broth until the grains are completely soft, adding more liquid as needed; this may take an hour or more.

  3. Stir in milk or cream and continue to cook gently until the mixture thickens.

  4. Beat the egg yolks with a little of the hot mixture, then stir them back into the pot off the heat so they do not curdle.

  5. Sweeten with sugar and season with cinnamon and nutmeg. Serve warm, with a little butter on top.

Adapted from The Forme of Cury.

Served at

The music of the spheres · Prague, Bohemia

Dinner at Trinity · Cambridge, England