Cereals cooked with milk are quite common in ancient and medieval cuisine. In the past, for example, we prepared a medieval foxtail-millet polenta paired with roast goose, a medieval blancmange, and an ancient Roman puls with venison. This habit is strictly connected with the directions provided by the physicians, as we will see about the recipe we are preparing today, selected from a 14th-century manuscript conventionally called Anonimo Fiorentino. It is a recipe very simple, prepared with just three ingredients: rice, almonds, and sugar. You can pair it with meat, for example roast beef with arugula sauce or quails with coconut, or eat this dish as a dessert.
Rice, milk (or almond milk: many authors consider the two ingredients equivalent), and sugar is considered a healthy combination of ingredients, suggested in many medical handbooks. These are the directions provided by the Tacuinum Sanitatis, an Arabic 13th-century manuscript very popular in Italy thanks to the Latin translation. Rice, writes the author, helps the burning stomach and cures dysentery. Cooking it with milk, sugar, and oil, one can remove the potential harm (specifically, rice may harm people with colic and constipation). The best ways to cook rice, Michele Savonarola (14th century) and Pietro Andrea Mattioli (16th century) agree, is with milk, almond milk, or fat broth. Almond milk with the addition of sugar is good for the stomach and provides good nourishment, writes Mattioli, whereas the recipe provided by Savonarola for cooking rice is identical to the one we are making today. The only difference is that Savonarola suggests using just a bit of sugar.
Below, you find a short note about sugar and almonds, the original text with our translation, and the video of the recipe with subtitles in English and Italian. Enjoy!
If you want to know more about historical cereal dishes, read our book Early Italian Recipes. Cereals, bread, pasta, and pies, where you will find historical information about cereals and their preparations from the Antiquity to the end of the Renaissance, with 114 recipes for pasta, bread, pizza, pies, and more, newly translated and explained.
If you are interested in late-medieval cuisine, we recommend Libro de la Cocina. Medieval Tuscan Recipes and Registrum Coquine. A medieval cookbook. To learn about the transition between ancient and medieval cooking, check out De Observatione Ciborum, written by the physician Anthimus to the king of the Franks Theuderic. If you are interested in recipes for vegetables from the Antiquity to the beginning of the Modern Era in Early Italian Recipes. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers available in English and Italian.
For information about ancient cuisine, read Ancient Roman Cooking. Ingredients, Recipes, Sources. Moreover, full translations of historical sources and articles on ancient and medieval cooking are available on Patreon.
To support our work, you can buy us a beer or purchase our merchandise.
Ingredients
100 gr rice
100 gr peeled almonds
25 gr white cane sugar
Method
To make the almond milk, grind the almonds in the mortar, then dilute with a glass of water and sift the liquids.
Boil the rice in abundant water. When it boils and foams well, discard the water and add the almond milk, cooking the rice at low heat. Stir frequently to prevent the rice from sticking and breaking, adding a bit almond milk each time it starts to dry up. Cook the rice for about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, grind the sugar. When the rice is almost cooked through, add a part of sugar and mix. Plate the rice adding sugar on top.
Note about the ingredients
The author suggests using a ratio of two parts rice, two almonds, and half sugar. Sugar is one of the most important ingredients starting from the Middle Ages, but it was known since the Antiquity. We find it mentioned in Pliny, Dioscorides, and Galen’s works. Galen, in his De Simplicium Medicamentorum Temperamentis ac Facultatibus, describes sugar as a sort of honey found in some kinds of reeds, in India and Arabia. Its faculties are similar to honey. Renaissance authors, for example Costanzo Felici, extensively describe the various kinds of sugar at disposal of the physicians and cooks, coming from various regions of the world. The best quality, anyway, is the white one without impurities, the kind of sugar Anonimo Fiorentino means for this plate, which has to be white and thick according to his description.
Almonds are another fundamental ingredient in medieval cooking. According to Michele Savonarola, the most used as food are the sweet ones, and they have extraordinary properties: not only they are good and nutritious, in particular with sugar, but they help the digestion and sleep, increase the brain and sperm, and clean the urinary tract. We find them frequently in the recipes, sometimes used to make almond milk.
Original text
Se vuoli fare riso nella miglore maniera che fare si puote per XII persone, togli due libre di riso e due libre di mandorle, e meça libra di çucchero. E togli il riso bene mondo e bene lavato, e togli le mandorle bene monde e bene lavate e bene macinate e bene colate con istamigna. Togli il riso, e metti a fuoco in acqua chiara, e quando è levato buono bollore e bene schiumato, colane di fuori l’acqua incontanente, e mettivi suso quantitade di latte di mandorle; e fallo cuocere in sulla brascia da la lunge, e mestalo spesso intorno che non si rompa. E quando s’asciuga, arrogivi suso del latte delle mandorle; e quando è presso che cotto, mettivi suso quantità di çucchero. Questa vivanda vuol esser biancha e molto spessa. E quando è cotta, poni çucchero sopra le scodelle. E se vuoli fare per più persone o per meno, togli le cose a questa ragione.
Translation
If you want to prepare the rice in the best way one can make, take two pounds [one libra weights more or less 330 grams] of rice, two of almonds, and half of sugar. Take rice well hulled and well washed, and almonds well peeled and well washed and well ground and well sifted. Cook the rice in clear water. When it boils and foams well, strain the water immediately and pour almond milk. Cook the rice keeping it distant from the charcoal, and stir frequently keeping attention that it does not break. Each time it dries up, add more almond milk. When it is almost cooked, add sugar. This plate has to be white and very thick. Once it is cooked, plate dusting with sugar. If you want to prepare it for more or fewer people, keep this ratio.
Buy me a coffee
Patreon
Ancient Roman Recipes Playlist
Ancient Greek Recipes Playlist
Medieval Recipes Playlist
YouTube Channel
Merchandise
Books
Early Italian Recipes. Cereals, bread, pasta, and pies
Libro de la Cocina by Anonimo Toscano. Medieval Tuscan Recipes
Early Italian Recipes. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers
De Observatione Ciborum by Anthimus. Early-medieval recipes at the court of the Franks.
Registrum Coquine by Johannes Bockenheim. A medieval cookbook
Ancient Roman Cooking. Ingredients, Sources, Recipes
Translations of Historical Sources
De Agri Cultura by Cato – first part (2nd century BCE)
De Re Coquinaria by Apicius (Ancient Rome)
Apicii Excerpta by Vinidarius (5th or 6th century)
De Observatione Ciborum by Anthimus (6th century)
Appendicula de Condituris Variis by Johannes Damascenus (8th or 9th century)
De Flore Dietarum (11th century)
Tractatus de Modo Preparandi et Condiendi Omnia Cibaria (13th or 14th century)
Liber de Coquina – first part (14th century)
Enseignemenz (14th century)
Opusculum de Saporibus by Mainus de Maineris (14th century)
Libro de la Cocina by Anonimo Toscano (14th century)
Anonimo Veneziano (14th century)
Registrum Coquine by Johannes von Bockenheim (15th century)
Libro de Arte Coquinaria by Maestro Martino – parts 1-4 (15th century)
Recipes
Tuscan Chicken Soup with Unripe Grapes
Early-medieval Kohlrabi Stew
Tuscan Fried Leek Rings
Pork Ribs
Tuscan Pancakes with Wild Flowers
Hop Shoots
Shrimp – Savore de Gambari
Orange Frittata – Fritata de Pomerantiis
Tuscan Soup with Hen and Florence Fennel
The diet of the Franks – Celery Root and Beef Stew
Tuscan Fish Cakes – Salciccie di Pescio
Tuscan Stew with Pork Belly and Rutabaga
Pork and Onion Soup
Tuscan Radish Soup
The Diet of the Franks – Endive and Pork Jowl
Tuscan Fried Meatballs
The Diet of the Franks – Chicken Stew
Castagnazzi
Renaissance Stuffed Cucumbers
Pork Roast with Cherry Sauce
Renaissance Fried Tomatoes
Herbolata
The Diet of the Franks – Beef Stew
Fried Chicken Soup
Beef Roast with Garlic Sauce
Bread Soup
Salted Meat and Peas
Baghdadi Rice Cream
Chicken with White-Pepper Sauce – Piperatum Album
Indian Chickpeas and Meat
The Diet of the Franks – Pork Stew
Chestnut and Mushrooms
Lentils with Oregano and Watermint
Egyptian Bread with Pistachios and Almonds
Veal with Fennel-Flower Sauce
Pork Roast with Green Sauce
Eggs Poached in Wine
Brodium Theutonicum
Crispellae – Pancakes with Saffron and Honey
Brodium Sarracenium – Chicken Stew
Fava Beans and Pork
Erbe Minute – Meatballs with Herbs
Lettuce and Pork Soup
Zanzarelli – Egg and Cheese Soup
Turnip and Beef Soup for Servants
Cheese Pasta – Vivanda Bona
Gratonata – Chicken Stew
Chickpea Soup with Poached Eggs
Apple Fritters
Hippocras and Claretum – Mulled Wine
Pastero – Pork Pie
10th-century Goat Roast – A Langobard at the Court of the Byzantine Emperor
Romania – A Recipe Between Arabic and Italian Tradition – Medieval Chicken with Pomegranates
Emperor’s Fritters
Medieval Pizza – The Origin of Pizza
Roast Chicken with Salsa Camellina
Sweet Rice
Afrutum or Spumeum – 6th-century Byzantine recipe
A Medieval Breakfast – Wine, Carbonata, and Millet Bread
Salviata – Eggs and Sage
Tria di Vermicelli
Cabbage Soup
Frittelle Ubaldine – Pancakes with Flowers and Herbs
Saffron Cheesecake
Drunken Pork – Early Medieval Pork Stew
Medieval Monk’s Stuffed-Egg Soup
Apple Pie
Onion Soup
Gnocchi
Lentils and Mustard Greens
Chicken soup – Brodo Granato
Turnip Soup
Beans and Bacon – Black-Eyed Peas
Prawn Pie – Pastello de Gambari
Foxtail Millet Polenta and Spit-Roasted Goose
Beef Stew
Blancmange
Leek Soup
Quail Stew with Coconut
Chicken Pie
Ravioli
Almond Cream
Red Mullet Soup
Spit Roast Beef with Arugula Seeds
Walnut Bread
Lasagna
Tripe
Fried Fish
Roast Lamb with Green Sauce
Clams
Sweet and Sour Sardines
Trouts with Green Sauce
Lamb Stew
Quails with Sumac
Chicken with Fennel Flowers
Sea Bream
Historical Italian Cooking 