I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

Lent always meant fasting, but what exactly "fasting" meant, varied over the years. For much of the middle ages, it meant no meat, no eggs, no dairy. Which left fish, often a great deal of fish, grains, fruits and vegetables. Since the rules said you had to avoid meat and dairy, not that you couldn't eat stuff that simulated meat and dairy or that tasted good, medieval cooks got creative.

Tailliz de Karesme, often translated out as something like "Tailliz for Lent," is a perfect example. It is a sweet dish, much like a bread pudding, and one that utilizes that great medieval Lenten liquid, almond milk. The recipe I'm starting with is from Le Viandier de Taillevant, a 14th century French recipe collection,¹ and it looks like this:

Tailliz de Karesme. Prenez amendez pellees et broyez tres bien en ung mortier, puis ayez eaue boullue et reffroidiee comme tiedde et deffaictes les amendes et coulez parmy l'estamine, et faictes boullir vostre lait sur ung petit de charbon; puis prenez des eschaudez cuitz de ung jour ou de deux et les tailliez en menuz morceaulx come groz dex; puis prenez figues, dates, et raysins de Daigne et trenchez lesdictes figues et dates commes les eschaudez et puis y gettez tout et le laissiez especir comme Frommentee; et mettre du succre boullir avec; et fault mettre boullir une onde ou deux ledit lait d'amendes; et pour luy donner coulleur convient avoir du saffren pour le coulourer comme Fromentee; et qu'il soit doulx salé.

then take biscuits a day or two old, and cut them into pieces like large dice; then take figs, dates and raisons of Digne, and cut the figs and dates like the biscuits and put them all together and let them thicken like Frumenty; and put some sugar to boil with it; and boil an ounce or two of almond milk; and to give it good colour have saffron to color it like Frumenty; and it is salted lightly.

Tailliz de Karesme/Tailliz for Lent

• 1 lb almond biscotti broken into pieces
• 1/2 lb figs, diced
• 2 oz. dates, diced
• 2 oz. raisin
• 1 1/2 cups or more of almond milk
• a pinch of saffron
• a pinch of salt (optional)
• a little sugar (optional)

Meanwhile, put a bit more almond milk into a pan with the saffron and simmer until it has a good color. You could also use a microwave for this step.

Add the saffron infused almond milk and stir again. The total time is perhaps twenty minutes, certainly not much more. Bear in mind that it will set up a little more as it cools. Transfer it to a loaf pan and let it cool. Devour.

Since the biscotti are already fairly sweet, I didn't feel the need to add anymore sugar. Likewise, I didn't feel like I needed to add salt since both the biscotti and the almond milk had salt in them. If you make your almond milk from scratch, you might need to add a pinch of salt.

1. The Viandier of Taillevent, edited by Terence Scully.
2. Le Ménagier de Paris, previously mentioned on this site, has a recipe for Frumenty, which uses 100 eggs per gallon of milk, or something like a dozen per pint.