vermelon

Ingredients

vermelon, cinnabar, quicksilver, boar's fat

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The text describes a recipe for a remedy for the skin affliction 'saucefleume' which instructs the reader to 'grind together boar's fat and quicksilver as thou woldest grynde vermelon' (p. 51). It notes that vermillion or cinnabar was used in medieval book-making recipes to create red pigment (p. 52).

Evidence

"a remedy for the skin affliction saucefleume instructs the reader to grind together boar's fat and quicksilver 'as thou woldest grynde vermelon', meaning vermillion or cinnabar, which is used in medieval book-making recipes to create red pigment."

Remarks

The author analyzes similes as pedagogical tools, noting that medical writers used comparisons to familiar practical crafts, such as the grinding of red pigment (vermilion), to provide precision in medical preparation instructions (p. 51-52). This highlights the intertextual nature of medieval recipe collections.