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Le Viandier de Taillevent
- Year
- ms
- Era
- Undated
- Origin
- France · Europe
- Language
- French
- Category
- Medieval European
Le Viandier de Taillevent, attributed to the royal cook Guillaume Tirel, is among the earliest surviving cookery texts in French, circulating in manuscript from the fourteenth century before appearing in print around 1486. Its recipes for spiced sauces, meat and fish preparations, and elaborate court dishes document the culinary practices of late medieval France and exerted lasting influence on subsequent European gastronomic writing.
Cooking from this book
Blanc-manger
Signature dishAmong the most emblematic preparations linked to Taillevent's medieval compendium is blanc-manger, a pale dish of pounded chicken or capon thickened with almonds and rice, sometimes gilded with a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds or fried almonds. Aristocratic, white, and gently spiced, it embodied the refined courtly cookery the Viandier was written to serve. Its repeated appearance across surviving manuscripts and early printed editions has made it a shorthand for the entire French medieval table.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
