/ck/ - Food & Cooking

HART ROWS – PIG STOMACH LEGLESS HEDGEHOGS
The Master-Cook of Richard II, The Forme of Cury, c. 1390
Pigs’ stomachs stuffed with pork, eggs and breadcrumbs, decorated with pastry spines to look like hedgehogs.
‘Make slivers of dough in the form of hedgehogs’ spines, and fry them lightly in fat or oil. Take the stomachs of six or seven pigs, one larger than the rest. Stuff the stomachs with a mixture of ground pork, eggs, powder fort (likely including pepper and cloves), saffron, salt, and currants. Sew the stomachs securely and parboil them. Stick them full of the bits of fried dough so that they look like hedgehogs without legs. Roast on a spit until done, colouring them with saffron in a thin batter. Serve it forth.’

HOW TO UNROLL A HEDGEHOG
Le Ménagier De Paris, 1393
‘Hedgehog should have its throat cut, be singed and gutted, then trussed like a pullet, then pressed in a towel until very dry; and then roast it and eat with cameline sauce, or in pastry with wild duck sauce. Note that if the hedgehog refuses to unroll, put it in hot water, and then it will straighten itself.’

HEDGEHOGS FOR LEPERS AND HEDGEHOG INTESTINE POWDER FOR URINARY RELIEF
Das Kochbuch des Meisters Eberhard, fifteenth century
This tells us of the health benefits of hedgehogs: ‘The meat of a hedgehog is good for lepers. Those who dry its intestines and grind them to a powder and eat a little of that are made to piss, even if they can not do so otherwise.’