Oublies (Thin Wafer Biscuits)

Original

Le Ménagier de Paris (1393) references oublies in its dinner menus repeatedly at the end of meals served with hippocras: "Hippocras and wafers to finish." The Ménagier includes a shopping list specifying oublies alongside hippocras, Grenache wine, and other wafers called "supplications."

A 16th-century French source (paraphrased from Les Leftovers blog) distinguishes types: standard wafers (flour, eggs, cream, sugar); mestier (flour, water, white wine, sugar, thinner); and oublies (made with honey instead of sugar).

Greco & Rose's translation of the Ménagier (The Good Wife's Guide, Cornell, 2009) describes oublies as "slight, waffle-like pastries, decorated with religious symbols."

The Ménagier does not give a detailed oublie recipe with proportions. The 1615 English Hus-Wife by Gervase Markham gives the first detailed English wafer recipe (paraphrased): fine wheat flour mixed with cream, egg yolks, rosewater, sugar, and cinnamon until a little thicker than pancake batter, then baked between hot buttered wafer irons.

My Redaction

A tested medieval wafer recipe adapted from Markham (1615) is available at grouprecipes.com:

• Fine flour, cream, egg yolks, rosewater, sugar, cinnamon
• Beat to a batter slightly thicker than pancake batter
• Cook in a pizzelle iron or wafer iron, buttered
• Cool flat on a rack, or roll into tubes while hot

Source: Wafer recipe — grouprecipes.com/47995/medieval-wafers.html

For hospitality service: A modern pizzelle maker (~$25–40) is the practical substitute for period wafer irons. For a more authentically French oublie, use honey instead of sugar per the period distinction.

Equipment note: You need wafer/pizzelle irons. An electric pizzelle maker works well. Some SCA artisans have reproduction wafer irons, but a pizzelle maker produces a very similar result.