Where Are the Cryspes?

I went to the Brisol Renaissance Faire yesterday with friends and family. While I had a nice time overall, I was disappointed that I couldn't get a funnel cake as I'd been looking forward to having one all of last week. I looked and looked but could not find one for the life of me. Querying a few of the food vendors proved futile. So I took it to the info booth lady who replied that they didn't have any because it wasn't really period and was more of a Dutch thing anyway.

OK. So let me get this straight. Funnel cakes are Dutch and not period while Italian beef, Polish sausage, bratwurst, and pizza all make the cut in this recreation of England in 1574. I get it. Makes total sense.

The thing is, funnel cakes are period in addition to being English. If you read The Forme of Cury, you'll find a recipe for "cryspes", which is what funnel cakes were referred to back then. (One of the terms, anyway.)

Take flour of pandemayn and medle it with white grece ouer the fyrer in a chawfour and do the batour þerto queyntlich þurgh þy fyngours. or thurgh a skymour. and lat it a litul quayle a litell so þe þer be hool þerinne. And if þer wilt colour it wiþ alkenet yfoundyt. take hem up & cast þerinne sugur, and serue hem forth.

The Forme of Cury is subtitled "A ROLL OF ANCIENT ENGLISH COOKERY" was dates to c. 1390. It's not some obscure book only discovered last week; it is one of the basic texts that anyone learning about medieval cookery will encounter.

So my dear Bristol Ren Faire operators, get some funnel cakes going and serve them forth!