Pottage
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Type | Soup, stew, or porridge |
---|---|
Main ingredients | Vegetables, grains, meat or fish |
Pottage or potage (
Pottage ordinarily consisted of various ingredients easily available to peasants. It could be kept over the fire for a period of days, during which time some of it could be eaten, and more ingredients added. The result was a dish that was constantly changing. Pottage consistently remained a staple of poor people's diet throughout most of 9th to 17th-century Europe. When wealthier people ate pottage, they would add more expensive ingredients such as meats. The pottage that these people ate was much like modern-day soups.[3]
Preparation
Pottage was typically boiled for several hours until the entire mixture took on a homogeneous texture and flavour; this was intended to break down complex starches and to ensure the food was safe for consumption. It was often served, when possible, with bread.
Biblical references
In the
In the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition translation of the Bible, the prophet Elisha purifies a pot of poisoned pottage that was set before the sons of the prophets (2 Kings 4:38-41).
England
Pottage was a staple of the medieval English diet. During the Middle Ages it was usually made with wheat, barley, or oats. In Middle English, thick pottages (stondyng) made with cereals, kidneys, shredded meat, sometimes thickened with egg yolks and bread crumbs were called by various names like brewet, egerdouce, mortrew, mawmenee, blancmange and blance dessore. Thinner pottages were said to be ronnyng.[4] Frumenty was a pottage made with freshly-cleaned wheat grain that was boiled until it burst, allowed to cool, then boiled with broth and either cow milk or almond milk, and thickened with egg yolk and flavored with sugar and spices.[5]
The earliest known cookery manuscript in the English language,
France
Pottage has its origins in the medieval cuisine of
Colonial America
In the
Spanish cuisine
According to
Nigeria
In Nigeria the Yam Pottage is a known delicacy eaten with vegetables and fish or meat.[14]
Wales
This is similar to the Welsh cawl, which is a broth, soup or stew often cooked on and off for days at a time over the fire in a traditional inglenook.
See also
- Brown Windsor soup
- Casserole
- Cawl
- Frumenty
- Lancashire hotpot
- Lentil soup
- List of soups
- List of stews
- Medieval cuisine
- Pease pudding
- Potted meat
- Sop
- Food portal
Notes
- ^ The Oxford Companion to Food, p. 648
- ^ Goodman 2016, p. 142.
- ^ "The history of 'plumb porridge' at Christmas | Christmas". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
- ^ a b Stavely & Fitzgerald 2011, p. 114-115.
- ^ Smith 1873, p. 177.
- ^ "The Forme of cury - Pygg in sawse sawge". www.bl.uk. The British Library. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
- ^ Smith, H. (1900s). The Master Book of Soups Featuring 1001 Titles and Recipes. London: Spring Books. p. 170. Google Books and Internet Archive.
- ^ "Potage Dyvers - Contents". www.bl.uk. The British Library. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
- ^ Stavely & Fitzgerald 2011, p. 117.
- ^ Stavely & Fitzgerald 2011, p. 113.
- ^ Stavely & Fitzgerald 2011, p. 116.
- ^ Muse Magazine[full citation needed]
- ^ Pedralbes. Universidad de Barcelona.
- ^ Kperogi, Farooq (2014-01-26). "Q and A on the grammar of food, usage and Nigerian English". Daily Trust. Archived from the original on 2017-02-23. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
Informational notes
- ^ "potage" Trésor de la langue française informatisé; "potage". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on April 16, 2021.; "pottage". Lexico UK English Dictionary UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on April 15, 2021.
References
- Stavely, Keith W. F.; Fitzgerald, Kathleen (2011). Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-861-7.
- Smith, Edward (1873). Foods. D. Appleton.
- Goodman, Ruth (2016). How To Be A Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday Life. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780241973714.