Renaissance Tansie Recipes

Homemade Renaissance Tansies Strewn with Powdered Sugar
(Source: ©agneskantaruk/Depositphotos.com)

Renaissance Tansie recipes were quite common during the Renaissance Era and had been also popular during earlier medieval times. Tansies are an ancient custard-like pancake dish similar to fritters, incorporating rich cream and eggs and sometimes thickened with dry bread crumbs.

Apple slices were often added to the tansie batter along with lemon juice, but it could also contain other types of fruit, such as thin slices of lemon, or even edible flower blossoms. Spinach juice was traditionally used to color the tansie batter green.

Authentic Renaissance Tansie Recipes

The Historical Easter Treat

The Queen-like Cloſet or Rich Cabinet (1672)

Tansies are easy to make and taste quite delicious, especially since these later tansie recipes avoid the bitter taste of the tansy herb. Enjoy a unique, historical treat at Easter time.

To make an Apple Tanſie

Take a Quart of Cream, one Manchet grated, the yolks of ten Eggs, and four Whites, a little Salt, ſome Sugar, and a little Spice, then cut your Apples in round thin ſlices, and lay them into your Frying-Pan in order, your Batter being hot, when your Apples are fried, pour in your Batter, and fry it on the one ſide, then turn it on a Pie-Plate and ſlide it into the Pan again, and fry it, then put it on a Pie-Plate, and ſqueeze the Juice of a Limon over it, and ſtrew on fine Sugar, and ſerve it to the Table.

To make a green Tanſie to fry, or boil over a Pot

Take a quart of Cream, the yolks of one dozen of Eggs and half, their Whites well beat, mix them together, and put in one Nutmeg grated, then colour it well with the Juice of Spinage, and ſweeten it with Sugar; then fry it with Butter as you do the other, and ſerve it in the ſame manner; but you muſt lay thin ſlices of Limon upon this.

If you will not fry it, then butter a Diſh, and pour it therein, and ſet it upon a Pot of boiling water till it be enough; this is the better and eaſier way.

Thus you may make Tanſies of any other things, as Cowſlips, Rasberries, Violets, Marigolds, Gilliflowers, or any ſuch like, and colour them with their Juice; you may uſe green Wheat inſtead of Spinage.

Young Renaissance Girl Consulting the Renaissance Glossary

If you have difficulty reading the Early Modern English style of writing with its quaint ſ character or need to shed light on any outdated ingredient names and cooking methods, then view my handy Renaissance Glossary of Historic Cooking Terms.

About the Renaissance Tansie Recipes

The Medicinal Herb Tansy, Also Known as Golden Buttons
(Source: ©olesia/Depositphotos.com)

In medieval times, tansies were often garnished with bitter-tasting leaves from the herb "tansy," from which they were given their name.

Ruins of 14th Century Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire
(Source: ©Don Bell)

They were eaten at Easter in remembrance of the "bitter herbs" of Passover, and as a supposed side benefit, the tansy herb was thought to control flatulence and prevent intestinal worms after eating large quantities of salted fish during Lent.

Don at Mount Grace Priory, North Yorkshire, England
(Source: ©Don Bell)

Though tansies were traditionally eaten and enjoyed by people the year-round and on festive occasions, they were especially popular around Easter time. You won't find a more traditional Easter dish to serve your family.

The following recipe was published in 1902, and it offers a comparison to the much older Renaissance tansie recipes.

Old English Recipe for Tansy Pudding

This is still eaten in country towns, and is considered wholesome in the spring. Pour 3 tablespoonfuls of the expressed juice of bruised tansy leaves over enough breadcrumbs to absorb it, add 3 ounces of blanched and pounded almonds, 2 ounces of sugar, 2 ounces of butter, 1 teaspoonful of grated lemon peel, 3 beaten eggs, 1/2 pint of cream or milk. Boil, like a custard, and serve with lemon sauce, hot. —With a Saucepan Over the Sea, 1902

Renaissance Baking Supplies such as Gum Dragon and 23kt edible Gold Leaf are not easy to find locally, so here's some helpful suggestions for getting the historical ingredients you need to prepare your own Renaissance banquet or fair. Just click the button below.