12th-nite-fst-art - 8/25/98
The Ansteorran 12th Night Feast, AS 32 cooked by Gunthar.
NOTE: See also the files: headcooks-msg, feast-menus-msg, p-menus-msg, feast-ideas-msg, feasts-msg, 12th-nite-msg.
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Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 11:40:43 -0600
From: mfgunter at fnc.fujitsu.com (Michael F. Gunter)
Subject: SC - 12th Night Handout (long)
Here's the final menu I used at 12th Night as posted in my handout at the
door.
Bread with Honey
FIRST COURSE
- - Roast Pork with Assorted Sauces
ingredients: pork, salt, pepper, rosemary
- - Garlic Pepper Sauce
ingredients: bread, wine vinegar, wine, meat broth, garlic,
pepper, salt
source: _Pleyn Delit_
- - Stawberry Sauce
ingredients: almonds, meat broth, rice flour, strawberries,
salt, cinnamon
source: _Pleyn Delit_
- - Lombard Brewet in Bread Bowls
ingredients: chicken, almonds, bread, egg yolks, parsley,pepper,
butter, mace, ginger, nutmeg, vinegar, salt
source: _An Ordinance of Pottage_, Constance B. Hieatt
- - Tart of Parsnips and Skerrits
ingredients: carrots, parsnips, wine, butter, sugar, rosewater,
eggs, lemon juice, pie crust
source: _Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery_
- - Saffron Rice
ingredients: rice, saffron
source Taillevent (14th Century)
- - Apple Fritters
ingredients: pancake mix, apples, confectioner's sugar
source: _Pleyn Delit_
SECOND COURSE
- - Beef Collops
ingredients: beef, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, pepper,
cinnamon, beef broth, ginger, wine vinegar
source: _An Ordinance of Pottage_
- - Chicken in Orange or Lemon Sauce
ingredients: chicken, chicken stock, currants, dates, oranges,
bread, peppercorns, mace, sugar, rosewater, white wine
source: _A Taste of History: 10,000 Years of Food In Britain_
adapted from Thomas Dawson
- - Mushroom Pasties
ingredients: mushrooms, olive oil, cheddar cheese, eggs, salt,
pepper, mustard powder, wonton wrappers
source: _The Medieval Cookbook_, Maggie Black
- - Lentils
ingredients: lentils, onions, olive oil, garlic, pepper, ginger,
cumin, coriander, cloves, salt, bread crumbs, mint, parsley,
vinegar
source: _Arte de Cozina_, circa 1607
- - Peascods
ingredients: peapods, butter, salt
source: _Pleyn Delit_
- - Boiled Cream Custard Tart
ingredients: whipping cream, butter, cream cheese, eggs, sugar,
saffron, salt, ginger
source: _An Ordinance of Pottage_
PLATTERS
- - Sliced Apples and Pears
- - Dates
- - Cheese Toasts
ingredients: bread, butter, cheddar cheese, cream cheese
source: adapted from taditional Welsh, Sir Kenelem Digby's
_A Closet Opened_
- - Cuskeynoles
ingredients: apples, pears, dates, figs, raisins, almonds,
ginger, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, lemon juice, wonton wrappers
source: _Curye on Inglysche_
A FEW NOTES ABOUT ADAPTATIONS TO THE RECIPES:
- - Saffron Rice: In period, the rice would have been steeped in milk. Water
has been substituted for milk for economic reasons. As a result, this
recipe would probably have been a little bland to the medieval palate.
- - Apple Fritters: The original recipe calls for beer batter. A commercial
batter has been substituted instead for economic reasons. It is hoped
that this will at least give an example of a period sweet.
- - Parsnip and Carrot Tart: This recipe is taken from _Martha Washington's
Booke of Cookery_. This book is a collection of recipes handed down.
This particular recipe is believed to date to 1550-1625.
PLEASE NOTE: Since everyone seems to eat everything in the first course and all
of that wonderful food in the second course goes ignored, no seconds will be
offered until the second course has been served.
THANKS: The Cooks would like to thank everyone who has helped with the pre-feast
work:
Lady Alys Durivaux, especially for Logistical support
Lady Giuliana and HL Muireann for graciously allowing us the use of
thier home
Duke Lloyd and HL Thyra for being there and allowing us to do this
Corwin MacEoian and Lady Giuliana for all to thier hard work
TE Robin and Adelicia for jumping in and making a LOT of cuskynoles
And all of those wonderful people who just drop in and help during
the day.
We hope you enjoy!
This is pretty much verbatum from the handout. I have posted the recipes for
the Lombardy Brewet, Boiled Cream, and Chicken with Orange sauce. For the
Cuskynoles I used (I believe) Aiofe's posted recipe. I also cheated in using the
wontons and folding them over. I could have placed another wonton over the first
and had a period version using the "ravioli" type argument. The reason we used
the foldover method was so that it would be different from the mushroom pasties already used.
I will print the recipes for the sauces, collops, and pasties later.
The lentils were the recipe Duke Cariadoc posted as "A dish of Lentils".
The peascods were a big hit. I used fresh green beans and boiled them in salted
water. They were then tossed with some melted butter. They came out very light
and tender, amongst all of the rich heavy dishes they were a taste of Spring.
Although the thought of a lot of small dishes can be daunting, I found them
useful because you can recruit more help in the pre-feast phase. People will be
more willing to help cook a smaller amount of a dish. Also the fact that there
were many dishes helped me stretch the feast more when it became overrun.
Comments are always appreciated.
Gunthar
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 11:45:46 -0600
From: mfgunter at fnc.fujitsu.com (Michael F. Gunter)
Subject: SC - 12th Night Recipes - Lombardy Brewet
I promised a report of the dishes I used so here goes:
I used many of the dishes already familiar on this list but I will go over
some of the more popular ones and my experiences anyway.
One of the most popular dishes served, and the only one I really ran out of was
Lombardy Brewet.
This is from "An Ordinance of Pottage" and I didn't make any changes to the
redaction from the book.
3 cups boiled chicken 1-2 tsp butter
2 oz (1/2 cup) ground almonds 1/4 tsp ground mace
2 slices white bread 1/4 tsp ground ginger
4 cooked egg yolks 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped parsley 2 tsp vinegar
1/8 tsp pepper 1 tsp salt (to taste)
2 cups boiling water or chicken broth
Draw up the almond milk with 2 cups water or chicken broth. Let steep
for 15 minutes then strain.
When it is steeping, grind or blend together the egg yolks, bread, and parsley.
Blend some of the almond milk in, then add the mixture to the rest of the almond
milk with the pepper.
Pour this sauce over the chicken in a pot and simmer, stirring occasionally. When the sauce has thickened slightly, add the butter, then dissolve the
remaining spices in the vinegar, stir in and add salt to taste.
I served this in bread bowls at the feast.
It is wonderfully rich and very tasty with the hint of the aromatics. It's
actually pretty easy to do. The hardest part was making all of that blasted almond milk.
I used the broth from boiling the chicken for the almond milk. I ground the
almonds to a fine powder in my coffee grinder (yes, it is used only for almonds). Another thing I did was separate the yolks from the whites and boiled the egg yolks alone.
We used the raw whites as glazing for the tarts.
--------
The next tidbit is the Boiled Cream Tart. I got this from "An Ordinance of
Pottage" by Constance B. Hieatt.
2 cups whipping cream 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup clarified butter OR
8 oz curd or cottage cheese OR
4 oz cream cheese
6 egg yolks OR 3 whole eggs pinch of saffron
1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp sugar
Blend the cream with the butter or cheese, put this mixture in a large
saucepan and heat it over low heat, stirring.
Beat the egg yolks or eggs separately with the sugar, saffron, and salt. Gradually add the hot cream mixture, continuing to beat until smoothly blended.
Return the mixture to the pan & cook very gently, stirring and without letting it come to the boil until it is really thick.
Pour into a pie shell and allow to cool. Decorate with edible flowers or berries.
Notes:
The recipe also came with a microwave version but I couldn't get it to work
right. We did batches of 3 & 4 with no problems by being careful.
I found out using a mixture of half & half and whipping cream made the best
texture. I used Neufshatel cheese instead of cream cheese. Mainly because it was half the price of cream cheese.
The tarts came out a lovely color varying from cream colored to light yellow
depending on the amount of saffron used.
They were very tasty although a bit bland. We were going to decorate with
blueberries and raspberries but in the crush we forgot to do it. The berries
would have added a nice flavor and made it a much better dish.
------
Capon w/Orange or Lemon Sauce
From "A Taste of History: 10,000 Years of Food in Britan"
This recipe is adapted from Thomas Dawson: "The Good Housewife's Jewell" and
dates from the Tudor period.
1 Capon or chicken 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1 pint chicken stock 1 tsp mace
2 oz currants 3 T. sugar
4 dates 1 T. rosewater
about 8 oz oranges, mandarins, lemons 1/2 pint white wine
8 oz white bread, cut into large crustless cubes
Put the chicken in a pan, cover with water and boil until tender (45 minutes is
sufficient). Drain 1 pint stock from the bird and simmer for 5 minutes with the
currants, dates, and fruit (peeled & divided into segments). Then add the remaining ingredients (white wine being preferable when using lemons). Simmer for a further 5-10 minutes and pour over the bird arranged on a bed of bread cubes in a large dish.
NOTES:
I couldn't find currants, so I just used raisins.
We used nice navel oranges. Not period but simpler.
We poached boneless/skinless chicken thighs and used the poaching liquid for
the sauce. We made the sauce and then threw in the thighs to absorb the liquid
and warm on the feast day.
This was not served over the bread cubes since I already had so many "bread"
dishes planned. This was simply served plain as just the chicken pieces and a
couple slices of the orange.
Very nice dish.
---------
Stewed Collops of Meat (Stewyd Colops)
From "An Ordinance of Pottage"
6-12 fairly thick slices of beef (1/8 lb ea.) 1/8 tsp. ground pepper
4-5 peppercorns 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4-5 whole cloves 1 cup beef broth
4-5 allspice berries 1/4 tsp ginger
4 tsp wine vinegar
Arrange the slices in a casserole, preferably an oval one in which they can
be arranged in an overlapping pattern. Tie the whole spices in cheesecloth and
tuck them under the meat. Sprinkle with teh pepper & cinnamon and add the broth.
Simmer, or bake in a medium oven, for about an hour.
Before serving, stir in the ginger dissolved in the vinegar and remove the
whole spices.
There are some non-period/late period spices involved in this redaction.
Some experimentation could be done to make it more period.
Be sure to keep the broth at a simmer. If the broth isn't hot enough the
meat will become tough which is what happened in the warmers at the feast.
---------
Mushroom Pasties
"The Goodman of Paris" adapted in "The Medieval Cookbook" by Maggie Black.
1 lb mushrooms 1/2 tsp salt
2 T. olive oil 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
2 oz grated cheese (cheddar) 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
1 egg, beaten salt
tart shells & pastry to top
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Finely chop mushrooms. Put in a bowl and mix in oil, cheese, and seasonings.
Place in the tart shells and cover with the top crust. Seal with beaten egg.
Make a small cross cut in the center of the lid to let steam escape.
Bake for 15-18 minutes. Serve warm.
I first made these using a pie pastry and lining muffin cups. These were very
cute but making 400 of these in less than a week forced me to other measures.
I wound up putting a spoonful in the center of a round wonton and topping with
another wonton wrapper. Baked, these came out crunchy/chewy with the rich
mushroom/cheese filling. I really liked these and if you are making them for less than 400 fully recommend the muffin sized pies.
The mushrooms will become watery so you may want to press out some of the water
after they have been chopped. Don't wait too long to either freeze or cook the
mushrooms as they will turn bitter if left for too long.
The mushrooms freeze well.
Gunthar
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