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A while back, I had duck with red cherry-onion jam at a medieval restaurant. Allegedly, it was a historic recipe, originally prepared in 1445 for the wedding of one of René d’Anjou’s daughters.

As for background information that might help in the search, René d’Anjou had two daughters who survived to adulthood:

Yolande (2 November 1428 – 23 March 1483), married Frederick ΙΙ of Lorraine, count of Vaudemont, at Nancy in 1445;

Margaret (23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482), married King Henry VI of England, at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire, also in 1445.

In conclusion, the dish could have been served at either daughter’s wedding. From the prominence of the grooms one might infer that Margaret’s wedding would more likely be referred to as the wedding of Henry VI rather than “of one of René d’Anjou’s daughters”, making Yolande’s wedding the slightly more likely candidate. Maybe the place of the weddings (Nancy vs. Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire), along with culinary traditions, can provide some more hints.

Does anyone have an idea where I can find the recipe, or where to start looking?

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    Welcome to History:SE. I'm not the downvoter in this case, but it generally helps if you tell us where you've already searched. After all, from the tooltip, lack of evidence for prior research effort is an explicit reason for downvoting.
    – sempaiscuba
    Commented Oct 25, 2020 at 18:18
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    How about Le Ménagier de Paris? Late 14th century guidebook. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_M%C3%A9nagier_de_Paris
    – J Asia
    Commented Oct 25, 2020 at 23:19
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    Here's one with onions and raisins: medievalcuisine.com/Euriol/recipe-index/gesotten-zwibelsalat german, not french; 16th not 15th century. Many other ancient recipes on the same site.
    – AllInOne
    Commented Oct 26, 2020 at 13:46
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    @LаngLаngС theoretically a good point, I have edited the question. In practice, though, two daughters (the only ones to survive to adulthood) got married in that year, thus it is not quite as obvious as it may seem at first.
    – user149408
    Commented Jun 7, 2021 at 16:19
  • 4
    You could try searching through Townsends or tasting history with Max Miller on YouTube. Both food historians and very thorough.
    – Gabriel Stone
    Commented Jun 12 at 19:03

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