Medieval Cooking: Cretonnée de pois nouveaulx: Recipe from Le Ménagier de Paris (14th c.)

 Valentine Garnett (m.k.a. Terry Mumma)

Cretonnée de pois nouveaulx (Cretonnée of New Peas)

based on the recipe “Cretonnée de pois nouveaulx ou fèves nouvelles”

from “Le Ménagier de Paris”, anonymous

c. 1393 France

This is my interpretation of the recipe Cretonnée de pois nouveaulx from the medieval French guide for a wife's proper maintaining of a household, "Le Ménagier de Paris."  This was prepared for the 9 September 2025 Cook's Guild meeting for the Shire of Abhainn Ciach Ghlais. Our theme was French Food. 

Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330-1500) defines Cretonnée as "Mets à base de légumes et de viandes et préparé avec du gras de lard" or "a dish of meats and legumes prepared with lard," which is fair, but doesn't cover the complexity of this particular version. Otherwise, I haven't found a reliable definition of the word Cretonnée. I have seen it associated with the word "Craytoun," which is typically defined as a dish of chopped offal, possibly a predecessor to the Canadian/New England specialty known as "Cretons." I have seen one mention, defining a Cretonnée as a sauce made from milk, but the work failed to cite any sources, and I wrote it off as speculative based on the recipe. 

Like many Medieval recipes, this one leaves much to the discretion of the cook. The recipe presents different options for how to create the sauce (as a custardy cream sauce, a bread-thickened white sauce, and/or a pea puree), what legume to use (peas or broad beans), as well as options for meat. I chose to prepare mine with new peas and to use boneless chicken thighs with crispy skin as the protein. I decided to prepare the milk/custard as a sauce rather than a soup, and to puree half of my peas and serve some of them whole. I also chose to use chicken, opting for boneless skin-on chicken thighs. Chicken thighs are tender and flavorful, and leaving the skin on presents an opportunity to hold onto seasoning and provide a golden brown, crispy skin. 

"Cretonnée de pois nouveaulx ou fèves nouvelles. Cuisiez-les jusques au purer, et les purez, puis prenez lait de vache bien frais, et dictes à celle qui le vous vendra qu’elle ne le vous baille point s’elle y a mis eaue, car moult souvent elles agrandissent leur lait, et s’il n’est bien frais ou qu’il y ait eaue, il tournera. Et icelluy lait boulez premièrement et avant que vous y mettez riens, car encores tourneroit-il: puis broiez premièrement gingembre pour donner appétit, et saffran pour jaunir: jàsoit-ce que qui le veult faire lyant de moieulx d’œufs filés dedans, iceulx moieulx d’œufs jaunissent assez et si font lioison, mais le lait se tourne plus tost de moyeulx d’œufs que de lioison de pain et du saffran pour coulourer. Et pour ce, qui veult lier de pain, il convient que ce soit pain non levé et blanc, et sera mis tremper en une escuelle avec du lait ou avec du boullon de la char, puis broyé et coulé par l’estamine; et quant vostre pain est coulé et vos espices non coulées, mettez tout boulir avec vos pois; et quant tout sera cuit, mettez adonc vostre lait et du saffren. Encores povez vous faire autre lioison, c’est assavoir des pois mesmes ou des fèves broyées, puis coulées; si prenez laquelle lioison que mieulx vous plaira. Car quant est de lioison de moieulx d’œufs, il les convient batre, couler par l’estamine, et filer dedens le lait, après ce qu’il a bien boulu et qu’il est trait arrière du feu avec les pois nouveaulx ou fèves nouvelles et les espices. Le plus seur est que l’en preigne un petit du lait, et destremper les œufs en l’escuelle, et puis encores autant, et encores, tant que les moieux soient bien destrempés à la cuillier. avec foison de lait, puis mettre ou pot qui est hors du feu, et le potage ne se tournera point. Et se le potage est espois, allayez-le de l’eaue de la char. Ce fait, il vous convient avoir poucins escartelés, veel, ou petite oé cuit, puis frit, et en chascune escuelle mis deux ou trois morceaulx et du potage pardessus"  (Pichon, 1846).

My Interpretation: 

Cretonnée of New Peas

(10 “small plate” portions)

new peas – golden saffron ginger cream – pea purée – crispy skin chicken thigh

Note: the seasoning in this recipe is an approximation. I tasted everything at several steps along the way and adjusted accordingly. I encourage you to do the same for the best results. 

Ingredients:
4 (about 1.5 lbs)	bone-in, skin-on, chicken thighs (boneless skin-on if you can find them
½ TBSP	ground ginger
8-10 threads	saffron
2 TBSP	Salt*
½ TBSP	Pepper*
	*additional salt and pepper to taste
2 TBSP	tallow or ghee for frying chicken
8	egg yolks (beaten)
2 (10 oz) bags	Steamfresh Frozen Sweet Peas (or fresh peas, shelled)
½ gallon	whole milk
1 TBSP + 1 tsp	Gold Medal™ Wondra Quick-Mixing All Purpose Flour
a small bunch	fresh parsley
32 oz carton	prepared chicken stock (or 4 cups homemade)
4 TBSP	Butter (room temperature, softened)

Prepare the spice blend by pulsing the salt, pepper, ginger, and saffron in a spice grinder until fine. Set aside for seasoning the dish.

Debone the chicken thighs by locating the thigh bone, which runs down the center of the thigh. Using a boning knife, cut down the sides of the bone, freeing it from the flesh, taking care not to cut through the meat or skin.  Scrape around the bone as far as you can to reveal it as fully as possible. Slip the knife beneath the bone and loosen from the remaining flesh. The idea is to loosen the bone as much as possible so it isn’t ripped out of the chicken. At each end (knuckle) of the bone, turn the sharp side of the knife towards it and cut around to release it. Lift the loosened bone and cut away from any still-attached flesh. Check the chicken for any missed pieces of cartilage or excess fat that needs to be trimmed away. Leave the skin intact.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Thoroughly blot the deboned chicken thighs with paper towels to remove excess moisture and to ensure crisp skin. Season both sides of the chicken well with the ground spice blend.

In a cast-iron pan over high heat, melt tallow or ghee, and fry the chicken, ensuring the skin is evenly crisp and golden. Place the browned chicken, skin side up, into an oven-safe dish and bake uncovered until it reaches a minimum internal temperature of 165°F. Remove chicken thighs to a plate or cutting board and allow them to rest. 

Steam 1 bag of the peas in the microwave according to directions or boil them in chicken broth until soft enough to puree. Spoon the peas into a blender or food processor, saving the broth. Pick 10 nice-looking garnish-sized leaf clusters from the parsley and set aside. Chop about 2 TBSP worth of the remaining parsley and add this to the blender/processor. Season the pea mixture with salt and pepper to taste. Blend, adding a Tablespoon or two of the reserve broth until it creates a smooth puree

Scald the milk by pouring it into a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Once milk has reached 180°F, reduce the heat to low.

Beat egg yolks thoroughly in a heat-proof bowl.  To temper the yolks, and add some of the hot milk by the spoonful, whisking the entire time to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Once several spoonfuls of hot milk have been incorporated into the yolks, they are tempered and can be poured into the milk while whisking vigorously. Create a beurre manié by mashing the Wondra* into 2 TBSP of the soft butter. Add acorn-sized balls of this butter mixture into the sauce, whisking in between and checking consistency. Continue adding pieces of the beurre manié until the consistency is that of a cream sauce and coats the spoon. Add the spice blend, taste, and adjust as necessary. The sauce should have the flavor of saffron and ginger at the forefront. Hold over low heat, stirring occasionally to avoid scorching.

*Wondra is a baked “quick mixing” flour made by U.S.-based Gold Medal that blends evenly into sauces without creating lumps. I chose this as a substitute for the unleavened bread, which would have gone through a baking process.

Steam the remaining bags of peas according to directions (or steam on the stovetop in your preferred method), stir the remaining 2 TBSP soft butter into them, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble the dish, cut each chicken thigh into five strips, ensuring each piece has some crispy skin. Ladle the saffron cream into a bowl or shallow dish, using a large spoon. Decorate the top of the cream with a pool of pea puree, spoon steamed peas into the center of the soup, top with two chicken shards jutting out of the soup so that they may be seen and cut, and garnish with a small sprig of parsley.

Serve it forth!

Resources: 

Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française (ATILF). (2023)., Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (DMF). ATILF, CNRS, & Université de Lorraine. http://www.atilf.fr/dmf

Pichon, J. (Ed.). (1846). Le ménagier de Paris: Traité de morale et d'économie domestique composé vers 1393 par un bourgeois parisien (Vols. 1–2). La Société des Bibliophiles François.