Terms used in medieval times to refer to medieval recipes and medieval cookery varied from the general vocabulary we use today. Many words have been forgotten or lost but some remain. The word 'potage' is used in France today to mean the same as 'pottage' - just a single 't' less that's all. By contrast, in England, we have long since dropped the use of the word 'pottage'. The word 'seethe' was used in medieval England to mean to boil and although it is not used as a cookery term today, it is nevertheless still popular - but in the context of someone becoming angry!

MEDIEVAL MEDIEVAL FOOD GLOSSARY

blawmanger - a recipe of rice and minced chicken
bragot - ale made with honey and spices
caudle - a hot milk drink
cheat - a wholewheat bread with the bran removed
civet - a piquant stew
clapbread - a barley bread
cocket - white bread (cheaper than pandemain)
dais - a raised platform on which the high table stood at a banquet
down-hearth - stone on which a fire was built, usually in the centre of a peasant’s hut
horse bread -a type of bread made with beans, peas and other general grain
jelly-bag - muslin bag used for straining jelly
manchet - a wheat bread often served for lords of the manor
morat - mulberry juice mixed with honey
muscadine - a sweet wine
pandemain - a high quality bread made from wheat with the flour sifted 2 or 3 times
pottage - a type of soup or stew
sack - a type of fortified wine
sanap - overcloth used to cover the white cloth on a banquet table
seethe - to boil
sewer - a servant who would serve at table
spartle - wooden stick for stirring pottage whilst cooking
tourte - a bread containing husk as well as flour
trencher - circular bread used like a plate
wastel - a good quality bread