Delicious Translations/Fun Friday Morning Activity

Tomorrow morning, after our spelling challenge, we will be making a variation of a recipe that made during Renaissance times. First, I will challenge my class to translate this:

191. Daryols. Take creme of cowe mylke, oþer of almaundes; do þerto ayren with sugur, safroun and salt. Medle it yfere. Do it in a coffyn of ii yinche depe; bake it wel and serue it forth.

- Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

Give up? The actual translation is this:

Take cream of cow milk, or of almonds; do there-to eggs with sugar, saffron and salt. Mix it fair. Do it in a pie shell of 2 inch deep; bake it well and serve it forth.

And the modernized version we will make is this:

Renaissance Custard Pie Recipe:


preheat oven to 425 degrees

1 unbaked, single layer pie crust
2 cups of 2% milk
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)

Beat the eggs with a wire whisk. Add the milk and vanilla and continue to beat. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the egg/milk mixture gradually, while continuing to beat until well blended. Pour into the pie crust. Place the pie on a cookie sheet on the middle rack of your oven. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 40 to 45 minutes more. The pie is done when the crust is golden brown and a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean.