Original Recipe comes from “Forme of Cury” #166 (1390) (By the master cooks of King Richard 11) (English)

Drawe a thik almaude mylke wip water. Take dates and pyke hem clene with apples and peeres, & mynce hem with prunes damysyns; take out pe stones out of pe prunes, & kerue the prunes a two. Do perto raisouns coraunce, sugur, flour of canel, hoole macys and clowes, gode powdours & salt; colour hem vp with saundres. Meng pise with oile. Make a coffyn as pou didest bifore & do pis fars perin, & bake it wel, and serue it forth.

Redaction By Lady Oksana Goncharova:

Draw a thick almond milk with water. Take dates and make them clean with apples and pears, & mince them with prunes take the stones out of the prunes, & carve the prunes in two. Do thereto dried currants, sugar, ground cinnamon, whole maces and cloves, good powders & salt; color them up with sanders. mix this with oil. Make a pie crust as you did before & put this mixture into pie crust and bake it well, and serve it forth.

Recipe (Apple and pear pie with dried fruits) for 1 pie

• ½ cup dried dates
• ½ cup dried prunes
• 1 ½ cup fresh apples
• 1 ½ cup fresh pears
• ¼ cup dried currants or raisins
• ½ cup almond milk
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 ts cinnamon
• ¼ ts each of ground mace,cloves and ginger.
• ½ ts each of ground nutmeg and optional sanders
• ¼ ts salt
• 2 Tb butter

Peel, core and chop apples and pears. Mince pitted dates, cut pitted prunes in two. Combine; apples, pears, dates, prunes and currants. Add almond milk, sugar and spices, mix all together. Put all the ingredients in a pie shell dot the top with butter and put top crust over, crimp edges. Bake for 35-40 minutes in 375 degree oven.

I choose to use ground spices rather than the whole maces and whole cloves as the recipe calls for. The recipe also calls for sanders, (sandalwood is another name for it) this just adds a red color without added flavor; basically it is a medieval food coloring. The sanders can be omitted without compromising the recipe.

To make almond milk; Chop blanched almonds in a mini chopper or food processor. Take the ground almonds and put in blender and gradually add water, blending in between. I use the liquefy switch on the blender. For a thick almond milk I use a ratio of ¼ cup almonds to 1 cup of water. If you want to develop your arm muscles use a mortar and pestle instead of blender and chopper.

Bibliography: Hieatt, Constance B., and Sharon Butler, editors, Curye on Inglysch. Oxford University Press, 1985. page 135 #166, from “Forme of Cury”.