Take an old cock and pull him, and wash him, and skin him all but the legs, and fill him full of the stuffing made for the pome de oringe; and also take a pig and skin him from the middle downwards, and fill him full of the same stuffing, and sew them fast together, and seethe them; and when they have seethed a good while, take them up and put them on a spit, and roast them well, and endore them with yolks of eggs mixed with saffron; and when they are roasted, before placing them on the table, lay gold and silver foil on them. Flampoyntes have been already explained. Pears in syrup were merely boiled in wine, and seasoned with sugar and spices. In these bills of fare, our readers who believe in the prevalence of “old English roast beef,” will find that belief singularly dissipated, for our ancestors seem to have indulged in all sorts of elaborately made dishes, in which immense quantities of spices were employed. The number of receipts in these early cookery-books is wonderfully great, and it is evident that people sought variety almost above all other things. Among the Sloane manuscripts in the library of the British Museum, there is a very complete cookery-book (MS. No. 1201) belonging to the latter part of the fifteenth century, which gives seven bills of fare of seven dinners, each to differ entirely in the dishes composing it from the other, with the object, of course, of giving a different dinner every day during seven consecutive days. In the foregoing bills of fare, we have seen that on flesh-days no fish was introduced on the table, but fish is introduced along with flesh in the seven dinners just alluded to, which are, moreover, curious for the number of articles, chiefly birds, introduced in them, which we are not now accustomed to eat. The first of these bills of fare, which are all limited to two courses, runs as follows:-- _First Course, of Eleven Dishes._ Nowmbles (_umbles_) of an harte. Vyand ryalle. The syde of an hert rostede. Swanne with chauderoun. Fesaunt rostede. Bytore (_bittern_) rostede. Pyke, and grete gurnarde. Haggesse of Almayne. Blaunche custade. A sotelté, a blake bore enarmede with golde. _Second Course, of Eleven Dishes._ Gelé. Cream of almonds. Kynd kydde. Fillets of an herte endored. Squyrelle rost. Chykons (_chickens_) ylarded. Partriche and lark rost. Perche and porpoys rost. Frytours Lumbard. Payne puffe (_puff-bread_). A sotelté, a castelle of sylver with fanes (_vanes or flags_) of gold.