A snowbound reader was looking for a recipe that might cook up all the random ingredients she had in her fridge, and somehow stumbled across a site with recipes from medieval times adapted for modern cooks called Gode Cookery.
"The best thing, though," says Liz, "is that they include the original instructions, like 'Take and smyte fayres buttes of Pork...'"
(Thanks, Liz!)
Now you're talking!
One of my favorite cookbooks is the following:
A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean from the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Corsairs, with More than 500 Recipes
Fasciniating study of how different foods and spices were first used in the Mediterranean and how they were used as they spread to other regions over the course of history... And although I talked it up about meat yesterday, there's lots of fun to be had with an eggplant in this book.
Love it!
Gode Cookery has been around forever. :) and one of 2003's more honored cookbooks was "Shakespeare's Kitchen" by Francine Segan. Does have you making a broth with lamb in it (which doesn't appeal to me, because - eee! lambs!) and a dough, but comments that you can easily substitute for them. Recipes overall very fond of mace, the spice, as an ingredient.
I haven't tried any of the recipes, but they look delicious... most are simple enough that what they will taste like is pretty obvious.