Cookbooks with recipes for unicorn found at the British Library

lady serving unicorn

Roast unicorn anyone? It seems this may have been a popular dish in medieval England.

Long-lost medieval cookbooks have been located at the British Library. Inside are beautiful pictures showing the head of a unicorn being served on a platter, a full unicorn bring turned on a spit, and remains of a unicorn sticking out of a bucket.

There’s also recipes for serving the legendary beasts, as well as hedgehogs and blackbirds.

Librarians didn’t really stumble on this rare find – they were looking for it.
“We’ve been hunting for this book for years. The moment I first set my eyes on it was spine-tingling.” says Professor Brian Trump of the British Medieval Cookbook Project

Even though they were looking for it, finding it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Many doubted they never would.

It’s believed the cookbook was penned around 1328-1369 by Geoffrey Fule who was a chef for Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England. Fule had a reputation for mixing unique and exotic flavors which would explain the love of unicorn.

The unicorn recipe calls for rubbing the beast with garlic before roasting him (in case you’re thinking of cooking a unicorn anytime soon) and the recipe for blackbird is thought to be what inspired the nursery rhyme “Sing a song of six pence.”

Apparently these people didn’t realize unicorns are magical… or they did and ate them all for their magic so now we can’t have them anymore. Thanks medieval folks.  Source.