Pig's head

Head of pork. After you have prepared well and nicely the head, to make it white, put in a large pot with the spout on top. Then add wine, vinegar, water to cover, sufficient salt and pepper, coarsely ground, and a dried twig of fennel, or a little crushed seeds, for the scent, and boil well, yet not until the flesh will fall down, for then it will have no taste at all, because often the flesh is too well boiled, but there is no taste!. And after it has boiled, either warm or cold serve on the table with mustard in little plates.

This is the translation of a seventeenth century Romanian cookbook, entitled “The Book where I write dishes of fish, crayfish, oysters, snails, vegetables, salads and other dishes for fast and non-fast days. In their serving order.” The manuscript, originally written in Slavonic script, was translated to the modern roman alphabet by Ioana Constantinescu and published in a book called O lume intr-o carte de bucate: Manuscris din epoca brancoveneasca by the Romanian Cultural Foundation Editions (ISBN 9735770903). The translation made for the second half of this book, while the first half was an introductory study by Matei Cazaccu. This study was also published in English under the title “The Story of Romanian Gastronomy” but alas, the recipes themselves were not included.

Cookbooks from the Early Modern period are rare in Eastern Europe. Elena Cartaleanu did a thorough revision of the English translation, and added quite a few useful notes regarding traditional Romanian cookery.