Take veel or motton and cut it into gobbets. Seepe it in gode broth, toss in herbe with gode wyne, quantite of onyons minced, powder-forte, and safroun, and layer it with eggs and verjuice. But let not seep after.
IT is hard to imagine that a simple recipe could have so much human blood in its making. But the clue is in the 'powder-forte' - a heady mix of ground cinnamon, ginger and cloves - and the implications of the medieval European passion for it can still be seen today.
It is there in the weeping in Dili, the fighting in Ambon, the monolithic sculpture-building in Macau . . . and the frenzy of New York.
Spices were popular even in Roman times, although observers like Pliny could not see the attraction.
'Pepper has nothing in it that can plead as a recommendation: its only desirable quality being a certain pungency, and yet it is for this we import it all the way from India,' he mused.
Yet for cloves, 15 centuries later, greater sacrifices would be made.