A Recipe From the 14th Century Anonimo Veneziano

A Recipe from Libro di cucina (Anonimo Veneziano, 14th/15th c.)
* — This version based on: Ludovico Frati (ed.): Libro di cucina del secolo XIV. Livorno 1899.
* — Other edition in: E. Faccioli: Arte della cucina. Milano 1966, Vol. I, 59-105. (useful notes!)

Ambroyno
Se tu voy fare ambroyno, toy polastri e smenbrali, toy cipole bene trita e frigeli in lardo colato, e mitili specie dolce e forte, e
zenzevro, e cenamo, e garofali, e melegette, e taglia menuti con coltello, e mitili a frizere ogni cossa in sembre. E toy mandole
non monde, e maxenate, e toy agresta, e zafarano, insema. Quando sono cocti meti sopra li polastri. A tri polastri vole libre ij de mandole.

Ambroyno (Sweet Food)
To make ambroyno, take a chicken and chop into serving size pieces (thighs, drumsticks and four breast pieces, bone in), mince onions finely and fry in clean lard. Add to the pan sweet and strong spices, and the following spices cut up small: ginger, cloves and grains of paradise. Continue to fry the mixture. Grind (see note) whole un-peeled almonds, with verjuice and saffron. When the hen is cooked pour the almond mixture over and heat through. For three chickens you would use a pound of almonds.

* There is some question as to whether it is intended for you to pour ground almonds over the dish or almond milk. The word used in the original Italian version is maxenare. This could be translated as macerare, to macerate or macinare, to grind. In several other recipes following the instruction to maxenare the almonds the instruction to temper them with clear water and strain is then given, clearly indicating almond milk. In others no such instructions are given yet the recipe then asks you to add the milk to the dish, indicating that maxenare means to macerate the almonds and extract almond milk. Still other recipes use maxenare in relation to the grinding of spices or other items. Given this confusion it may be necessary to use a certain amount of discretion.

Translated 2003 to January 2005 CE by Helewyse de Birkestad, OL (MKA Louise Smithson) from the transcription of Ludovico Frati (ed.): Libro di cucina del secolo XIV. Livorno 1899 prepared and made available online by Thomas Gloning. Last updated March 28th 2005