View source for Frumenty

{{short description|Porridge of boiled grain in medieval Europe}}
{{Infobox food
| name             = Frumenty
| image            = Entremets simples.jpg
| caption          = Diners eating frumenty, [[Bartholomeus Anglicus]]
| alternate_name   = Frumentee, furmity, fromity, fermenty
| country          = 
| region           = 
| creator          = 
| course           = 
| type             = [[Pudding]]
| served           = 
| main_ingredient  = [[Wheat]], [[milk]], [[Egg (food)|eggs]] or [[broth]]
| variations       = 
| calories         = 
| other            = 
}}

'''Frumenty''' (sometimes ''frumentee'', ''furmity'', ''fromity'', or ''fermenty'') was a popular dish in [[Western European]] [[medieval cuisine]]. It is a [[porridge]], a thick boiled grain dish—hence its name, which derives from the [[Latin Language|Latin]] word ''frumentum'', "grain". It was usually made with creed [[wheat]] boiled with either [[milk]] or [[broth]] and was a [[peasant]] staple. More luxurious recipes include [[Egg (food)|eggs]], [[almond]]s, [[Zante currant|currants]], [[sugar]], [[saffron]] and [[orange flower water]]. Frumenty was served with meat as a [[pottage]], traditionally with [[venison]] or even [[porpoise]] (considered a "fish" and therefore appropriate for [[Lent]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec24.htm| title = Recipe for Frumente yn lentyn}} 15th century</ref>). It was also frequently used as a [[subtlety]], a dish between courses at a banquet.

==In England==
===History===
[[Florence White (writer)|Florence White]], founder of the [[English Folk Cookery Association]], wrote in ''[[Good Things in England]]'' (1932) that frumenty is England's "oldest national dish".<ref>White, Florence (1932) ''Good things in England'', London: Jonathan Cape, reprinted London:Persephone, 1999</ref> For several centuries, frumenty was part of the traditional Celtic Christmas meal. According to an 1822 ''Time's Telescope'', in Yorkshire, on Christmas Eve:
{{quote|Supper is served, of which one dish, from the lordly mansion to the humblest shed, is, invariably, furmety; yule cake, one of which is always made for each individual in the family, and other more substantial viands are also added. [[Poor Robin]], in his Almanack for the year 1676, (speaking of the winter quarter,) says, "and lastly, who would but praise it, because of Christmas, when good cheer doth so abound, as if all the world were made of minced pies, plum-pudding, and furmety{{sic}}."<ref>{{cite book|title=Time's Telescope for 1822, Or, a Complete Guide to the Almanack|date=1822|page=299|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAt-8Dsb6oYC|access-date=24 May 2018}}</ref>}}

It was often eaten on [[Mothering Sunday]], the fourth Sunday of [[Lent]], in late spring. On that day many servants were allowed to visit their mothers and were often served frumenty to celebrate and give them a wholesome meal to prepare them for their return journey.  The use of eggs would have been a brief respite from the Lenten fast. In Lincolnshire, frumenty was associated with [[sheep-shearing]] in June. A diarist recalled of his youth in the 1820s that "almost every farmer in the village made a large quantity of frumenty on the morning they began to clip; and every child in the village was invited to partake of it".<ref>quoted in James Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey 1825-1875 (Oxford, 1976), p. 57.</ref>   A second batch, of better quality, was produced later and taken round in buckets to every house in the village.

Food historian [[Polly Russell]] describes one of the first English recipes for it in the 1390 manuscript ''[[The Forme of Cury]]'', and how this served as the inspiration for the 2013 Christmas menu at [[Dinner by Heston Blumenthal]], transforming Victorian [[workhouse]] food for paupers into modern luxurious dining.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Russell|first1=Polly|title=The history cook: frumenty|url=https://www.ft.com/content/f983f7e2-57ca-11e3-86d1-00144feabdc0 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/f983f7e2-57ca-11e3-86d1-00144feabdc0 |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=Financial Times|date=29 November 2013}}</ref>

===Literary references===
''Frumentee'' is served with [[venison]] at a banquet in the mid-14th century North Midlands poem ''[[Wynnere and Wastoure]]'': "Venyson with the frumentee, and fesanttes full riche / Baken mete therby one the burde sett", i.e. in modern English, "Venison with the frumenty and [[pheasant]]s full rich; baked meat by it on the table set".<ref>(334-5)</ref>  The dish also appears, likewise paired with venison, at the New Year feast in the Middle English poem known as ''The [[Alliterative Morte Arthure]]'' (c. 1400): "Flesh flourisht of fermison, with frumentee noble."<ref>''The Death of King Arthur: A New Verse Translation.'' Trans. Simon Armitage. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. Line 180.</ref>

The dish, described as 'furmity' and served with fruit and a slug of [[rum]] added under the counter, plays a role in the plot of [[Thomas Hardy]]'s novel ''[[The Mayor of Casterbridge]]''. It is also mentioned in [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Through the Looking-Glass]]'' as a food that snap-dragon-flies live on. [[Snap-dragon (game)|Snap-dragon]] was a popular game at Christmas, and Carroll's mention of frumenty shows it was known to him as a holiday food.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} It also appears in a girl's recitation of holiday traditions, in ''[[My Lady Ludlow]]'', published 1858, by [[Elizabeth Gaskell]]: "furmenty on Mothering Sunday, Violet cakes in Passion Week" (Chapter 2).


===Recipes===
[[Steve Roud]], librarian and folklorist, compiled a compendium of ''The English Year'' including three recipes for frumenty.<ref>Roud, Steve (2006), ''The English Year'', {{ISBN|978-0-141-02106-5}}; p.536</ref> They show considerable variation with place and time.
{{quote|
# The typical method of preparation was to [[parboil]] whole grains of wheat in water, then strain off and boil in milk, sweeten the boiled product with sugar, and flavour with [[cinnamon]] and other spices.
# Take clean wheat and bray it [beat it into small pieces<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nares|first1=Robert|title=A Glossary: Or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to Customs, Proverbs, &c., which Have Been Thought to Require Illustration, in the Works of English Authors, Particularly Shakespeare, and His Contemporaries|date=1822|page=57|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BvdBAAAAYAAJ&q=bray+it+in+a+mortar&pg=PA57}}</ref>] in a [[Mortar and pestle|mortar]] well that the hulls go all off [this means that the [[Wheat#Hulled versus free-threshing species|hulls]] are broken off], and seethe [boil] it till it burst, and take it up [drain it by taking it out of the water] and let it cool; and take fair fresh broth and sweet milk of almonds, or sweet milk of [[Cattle|kine]] [cow's milk] and temper it all, and take yolks of eggs. Boil it a little and set it down and mess it forth ["mess" here in the sense of "plate and serve to table", the same root as naval [[mess]]] with fat venison and fresh mutton.<ref>{{cite web |title=Douce R 257 | website= Digital Bodleian | url=https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/3b5e82aa-8fa6-4479-bb48-e26b2c437d0e/surfaces/0e0ddde1-84fb-4ff9-b33f-c6ec74675897/ | ref={{sfnref | Digital Bodleian}}|publisher=Bodleian Library, University of Oxford}} Digitised 4 August 2016</ref>
# [[Somerset]]–[[Wiltshire]]: About forty years ago [from an unspecified date] country women in shawls and sun bonnets used to come to the market at [[Weston-super-Mare]] in little carts carrying little basins of new wheat boiled to a jelly, which was put into a large pot with milk, eggs, and [[Sultana (grape)|sultanas]], and was lightly cooked; the resulting mixture was poured into pie-dishes and served on mid-Lent Sunday and during the ensuing week. Frumenty is still prepared at [[Devizes]] for [[Mothering Sunday]].}}
A healthy dose of [[distilled beverage|spirit]] is often mentioned as accompanying the frumenty.

==Elsewhere==
A dish made with boiled cracked wheat and soured milk was made in [[Ancient Persia]], and is still used, often as the basis for a soup, in Greece and Cyprus (as ''[[Tarhana|trahanas]]''), and in Turkey (''[[tarhana]]''). ''[[Kutia]]'' is an Eastern European dish with a similar recipe.

==See also==
{{portal|Food}}
* {{annotated link|Wheatberry}}, whole wheat eaten as a food
* {{annotated link|List of porridges}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Black, William (2005) ''The Land that Thyme Forgot'' Bantam. {{ISBN|0-593-05362-1}}; p.&nbsp;346
*Adamson, Melitta Weiss (2004) ''Food in Medieval Times'' {{ISBN|0-313-32147-7}}

==External links==
*[http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/medrcp09.htm Middle Ages recipes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070529031749/http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/medrcp09.htm |date=2007-05-29 }}

{{Puddings}}

[[Category:Puddings]]
[[Category:Porridges]]
[[Category:Medieval cuisine]]
[[Category:English cuisine]]
[[Category:Christmas food]]
[[Category:Wheat dishes]]