⚜️ Medieval France · earliest version c. 1300, associated with Taillevent (Guillaume Tirel)
Sauce Cameline is a cinnamon-and-bread sauce from medieval French cookery, thickened with stale bread rather than cream or flour.
Sauce Cameline is one of the signature sauces of Le Viandier, a French recipe collection whose earliest version dates to around 1300 and is traditionally associated with the royal cook Guillaume Tirel, known as Taillevent. It's built from vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, and either cloves or grains of paradise, thickened with bread rather than butter or flour — a practical way to use bread that had gone stale rather than throwing it out. Historians believe the sauce takes its name from the color cinnamon gives it, resembling the tawny coat of a camel ("cameline"). It was served over roasted meat, and its combination of vinegar's sharpness with genuinely expensive imported spice reflects how medieval French high-table cooking prized bold, layered flavor over subtlety.
Primary source: Le Viandier
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