Medieval Cherry Pottage

As cherries are currently in season, I decided to make cherry pottage  from the British Museum’s The Medieval Cookbook by Maggie Black.

“Any young hostess, married or not, would enjoy showing off this pretty dish.”

Ingredients (serves 6) – note I made a half batch

900g cherries

350ml red wine

175g white sugar

50g unsalted butter

225g soft white bread crumbs

Pinch of salt

Method

Remove the stems and stones from all the cherries.

Add in the roughly torn up white bread into a blender to create breadcrumbs. Set the breadcrumbs aside for later use.

Into the blender add all the cherries, half the wine and half the sugar.

Blend the ingredients together until a smooth puree is formed.

Melt the butter in a large pan or saucepan.

Add all the puree, the restr of the wine, the rest of the sugar and the salt into the pan. Gradually add in the breadcrumbs. Simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring often until the mixture thickens to a poridge-like consistency.

Pour the mixture into serving bowls, cover, and leave to cool down completely. Serve with a cherry (as shown), edible flowers or gilded cloves!

This was a very easy recipe to make and disregarding the pitting of the cherries, was quite quick to make. The taste of this dish really relies on the quality of the cherries, and as my Dad said “You can’t go wrong with cherries and wine!”. Whilst this pottage is a bit abnormal for the modern taste, it was still pleasant and flavourful – resembling a very fruity porridge.

Rating: 6/10