Cawdell Ferry

Cawdelle Ferry

The Cawdelle has appeared in many forms in several of the cookbooks of the 15th century. The name appears to be applied to most forms of thickened sauce or drink with alcoholic, non-alcoholic, egg and almonds variations. The cawdelle that I will be dealing with is the thickened egg and alcohol drink known as the cawdelle ferry.

In A Noble Boke Off Cookry Ffor A Prynce Houssolde (England, 1468), the recipe is as follows:
Cawdelle ferry To mak cawdelle ferry, tak clene yolks of eggewelle betene and in the betyng do away the scomethen put them in a pot with swet wyne and stirr hem [f24r] 33 well all to gedure and alay it with bred of payn maynestept in swete wyne and boile it and put sugure therto and colour it with saffron and salt it and at the firstboile set it from the fyere then dres it in lesks iij oriiij in a dyshe and cast on sugur and serue it.

In this form, the recipe makes the cawdelle into a form of pudding or custard that is thickened with both egg yolk and bread crumbs.

Now in the earlier text Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430) we see some slight differences.
To mak cawdelle ferry tak unblanched almonds wesshe them and grind them and temper them up with wyne and drawe it throughe a canvas into a pot and colour it with saffron and alay it up with amydon or flour of rise and se that it be thik sesson it with sugur and florishe it with maces and serue it.
Or
xlvij - Cawdelle Ferry. Take 3olkys of eyroun Raw, y-tryid fro the whyte; than take gode wyne, and warme it on the potte on a fayre Fyre, an caste ther-on 3olkys, and stere it wyl, but let it nowt boyle tylle it be thikke; and caste ther-to Sugre, Safroun, and Salt, Maces, Gelofres, an Galyngale y-grounde smal, and flowre of Canelle; and whan thow dressyst yn, caste blanke pouder ther-on.
This shows that the cawdelle has a Lenten and a standard variation. The variation would indicate that it was a popular drink for all seasons. The one that I have recreated is the egg and alcohol version that is reminiscent of eggnog.
xlvij - Cawdelle Ferry. Take 3olkys of eyroun Raw, y-tryid fro the whyte; than take gode wyne, and warme it on the potte on a fayre Fyre, an caste ther-on 3olkys, and stere it wyl, but let it nowt boyle tylle it be thikke; and caste ther-to Sugre, Safroun, and Salt, Maces, Gelofres, an Galyngale y-grounde smal, and flowre of Canelle; and whan thow dressyst yn, caste blanke pouder ther-on.

47. Cawdelle Ferry. Take yolks of eggs, separated from the whites; then take good wine and warm it in a pot on a slow fire, and add the yolks and stir it well, but do not let it boil, until it is thick; and add to it sugar, saffron, and salt, mace, carnation and galingale ground small, and ground cinnamon; and when you prepare it to serve, sprinkle white powder on top.

3 egg yolks
1 cup white dessert wine
3 tablespoons sugar
1/8 tspn. saffron
1/8 tspn. salt
¼ tspn. each mace, carnation, galingale and cinnamon
White powder for sprinkling


Beat the egg yolks until they become pale yellow. Place the wine in a pot over a slow heat, you do not want to bring it to a boil as that will evaporate the alcohol and once the egg yolks are added cause them to curdle. Once the wine begins to steam, add some of the wine to the egg yolks to warm them then add the egg and wine mix to the pot. Stir constantly while the mixture returns to a slow simmer. You want it to froth up a bit, add the sugar and spices while stirring and then remove from the heat. You can serve it warm or cold with a sprinkling of white powder on top.

Note- spice mixtures are often mentioned in cookbooks but the exact compositions are often not included in the recipe books. It can be concluded that these were often mixed to family specification or be specialties of local spice merchants. In the case of white powder, sugar in the 15th century was still classed as a spice and so would have been the base ingredient in any white powder mix making it similar to modern cinnamon sugar. A mixture of the so-called sweet spices- ginger, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon with sugar as the primary flavor agent is most likely.

Note- I have left out the carnation or gelofre as I do not currently have a source.