| From Casteau's Kitchen
Being the varied and interesting recipes from Ouverture de Cuisine by Lancelot de Casteau, published at Liege in 1604. Casteau was the chief cook to three Bishops of Liege from at least 1557, when he prepared the triumphal entry feast described in his cookbook. His cookbook was published in 1604 when the author would probably have been at least 75 years old. His Excellency Jehan du Lac, Baron of Carolingia, East Kingdom of the SCA, is translating this book and has kindly provided me with the recipes I will be using in this series. He would like to thank Mistress Caitlin Davies, also of Carolingia, for providing him with a copy of her facsimile edition. What follows is Casteau's original recipe in its original spelling and grammar and a nearly literal English translation. Jehan has been very careful to retain the same punctuation between the versions, in order to avoid adding modern interpretation to Casteau's mode of expression. It is interesting to note that the syntax of the translation is very similar to English cookbooks of the period, run on sentences and all. I have provided a redaction and interpretation of the recipes with measurements. Please read the footnotes! They explain my rationale for doing things the way I did and list sources for some of the more obscure ingredients.
The Recipes:
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