wyte crowes

Ingredients

ravens’ eggs, sticky honey, white wool

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

A miscellaneous trick recipe to create the appearance of 'wyte crowes' by coating ravens' eggs in sticky honey and filling the nest with white wool (p. 285).

Evidence

"Miscellaneous trick recipes in remedy collections also tell the reader how ‘to make wyte crowes’ by coating ravens’ eggs in sticky honey and filling the nest with white wool."

Remarks

In medieval culture, the white crow stood as a symbol of imaginable impossibility. The author notes that such trick recipes appear alongside serious medical recipes in collections like MS Ashmole 1438 and MS HM 1336 (p. 285). The recipe illustrates the 'formative powers of the imagination' discussed by philosophers like Richard of St. Victor (p. 284).