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Carnival-Fst-art - 3/19/99

 

An Italian Carnival Feast held by the Barony of Delftwood, AEthelmearc. Also known as Syracuse NY.  The site was the East Syracuse American Legion Hall and the headcook was THL Caitlen Ruadh.

 

NOTE: See also the files: fd-Italy-msg, feasts-msg, headcooks-msg, feast-menus-msg, feast-serving-msg, feast-decor-msg, p-menus-msg, holidays-msg.

 

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                          Stefan at florilegium.org

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Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 06:47:08 PST

From: "Rebecca E Tants" <retants at hotmail.com>

Subject: SC - An Italian Carnival Feast

 

Well, my feet still ache, but last night I served sideboard and feast to

100 for the Feast of the Seven Deadly Sins, with a theme of Mardi

Gras/Carnival/Fat Tuesday.  Following is the menu/recipes (and I have it

in a much prettier microsoft word document if anyone wants that) but

wanted to make a couple of comments first.

 

While the chicken was completely cooked, it was on that near end of

completely cooked that freaks some people out.  The site that we hold

this event at only has 2 ovens and this menu contains a few too many

things that have to be in them, so a couple things that should have been

hot went out luke warm.  The overall feedback was all positive and I had

people begging to take home some of the extra Pear Pie from dessert.

Oh, and we added hard boiled eggs to the sideboard, which went like

crazy.

 

I cooked this whole thing for $5 a head, although we got 50 loaves of

bread for $12 which helped a lot!

 

I'm open to any questions, comments,  opinions, etc.

 

THL Caitlen Ruadh

 

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------

A Carnival Feast in the Italian Tradition

Recipes from "De honesta voluptate et valetudine" (On right pleasure and

good health) by Bartolomeo Sacchi, called Platina

 

Feast of the Seven Deadly Sins

February 13, 1999

Lady Caitlin Ruadh

 

Menu

First Course:

Meat Roll from Tame Animals             Pastillus ex Cicuribus             6.9

Garlic Sauce with Walnuts or Almonds    Alliatum ex Iuglande aut Amygdala  8.18

For Roman Cabbage                       In Brassicam Romanensem            7.69

On Vermicelli                           In Vermiculos                     7.52

Dish Made from Rosy Apple               Cibarium ex Malo Roseo             7.39

 

Second Course:

Roast Chicken                           Pullus Assus                       6.17

Meat Balls                              Esicium ex Carne                   7.50

Armored Turnips                         Rapum Armatum                     8.62

On Rice                                 De Riso                           7.7

 

Third Course:

Pear Pie                                Pirum in Torta                     8.30

Spiced Nuts                                                               3

Oranges                                                                   2

 

Sideboard:

Fresh Broad Bean Soup                   Ius in Faba Recenti                7.62

Beef Barley Soup                                                           7

Apples                                                                     2

Cheese                                                                     2.17

Bread

 

Notes:

 

As long as the Catholic Church has celebrated Lent, there has always

been a holiday on the day before it.  With the strict rules of what you

could eat during Lent and the severe limitations on meats and meat

products, it was necessary to get rid of anything that couldn't be

preserved through the holiday and enjoy a last taste of those foods

which would be severely limited or excluded throughout the next several

weeks.  Thus was born the holiday that most of us know now as Mardi Gras

(French), but was also known as Carnival (Italian) or Fat Tuesday

(English).

 

Lent begins in February, so we also have seasonal food limitations to

contend with.  Even in Italy, the average high temperature today only

reaches into the lower 50's, and there is some evidence to say that the

averages were lower in the late renaissance.  Thus you will note the

lack of vegetables or fruits beyond those that are easily preserved.

 

Platina (1421-1481) was a librarian at the Vatican later in his life,

but spent many of his early years as a philosopher and humanist.  It is

believed that this work was written in either 1464 or 1468 (depending on

which historian you believe) and is based heavily on the work of the

chef (Martino) to a Cardinal he spent the early summer of 1463 with in

Tuscany.  Martino went on to publish a cookbook from which more then 75%

of the recipes in Platina's work are.  Platina, however, added a great

deal of knowledge of humoral theory and medical application to the

recipes, as well as adding chapters on how to live, sleep, exercise,

when to have sex, what order to eat foods in and other related subjects.

 

He was born Bartolomeo Sacchi, but there is a wide variety of other

names he was known by.  The name Platina appears to be related to the

town of his childhood, Piadena, of which Platina is the Latin form.

 

Bibliography:

"PLATINA:  On Right Pleasure and Good Health.  A Critical Edition and

Translation of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine" by Mary Ella Milham,

Medieval & Renaissance Texts and Studies, Temp, Arizona 1998 ISBN

0-86698-208-6

 

All recipes in this document redacted by Lady Caitlen Ruadh, mka Becki

Tants.  For the feast, we are using THL Catalina Alvarez' redaction of

Armored Turnips, although I believe it is very similar.   All recipes

are from Platina and are noted as book.chapter.

 

THANKS

THL Catalina Alvarez, my assistant cook

Lady Jennet the Gentle, Serving Steward and Sanity Keeper

Claude DuVivier, provider of bread at really remarkable prices

The adventurous crew who came and test-ate the feast, providing

invaluable comments

And all the wonderful people who helped in the kitchen (far too numerous

to name but certainly never forgotten!)

 

Recipes

 

Meat Roll from Tame Animals:

I call tame animals all which are nourished at home, like calf, capon,

hen, and the like.  From these, you make a roll thus: take as much lean

meat as you want and cut it up fine with small knives. Mix veal fat

into this meat well with spices.  When it has been wrapped in thin

crusts, bake in an oven.  When they are almost cooked, put on the roll

two egg yolks separated from the white and beaten with a paddle with a

little verjuice and very rich juice.  Some add saffron for the looks.

This roll can even be made in a well- greased pan without a crust.  For

special pleasure, cook in a roll capon, pullet or whatever you want,

whole or cut up in pieces.  There is also much nourishment in this; it

is slowly digested, has little indigestible residue, aids the heart,

liver and kidney, is fattening, and stimulates the libido.

 

1 lb. 80% lean ground beef

black pepper

salt

garlic powder

1 C flour

1/3 C shortening

2 egg yolks

1 T red wine vinegar

2 T water

2 T beef broth

 

Make a dough of the flour, shortening and enough water to hold it

together.  Roll out into a sheet and set aside.

 

Mix beef and spices together until combined thoroughly. Form into a

roll.  Wrap dough around beef and bake at 325 until a meat thermometer

reaches 160 degrees when inserted into the beef.  (~30-45 minutes)

 

Mix egg yolks, vinegar, water and broth together with a fork and brush

on top of roll.  Let cook for a couple more minutes, remove and serve

with Garlic Sauce.

 

Garlic Sauce with Walnuts or Almonds

Add to semicrushed almonds or nuts as much as you want of clean garlic

and grind best at the same time, as is sufficient, sprinkling

continually with a bit of water so it does not produce oil.  Put into

the ground ingredients bread crumbs softened in meat or fish stock, and

grind again.  If it seems too hard, it can easily be softened in the

same juice.  It will keep very easily to the time we mentioned for

mustard.  My friend Callimachus is very greedy for this dish, even

though it is of little nourishment, delays a long time in the stomach,

dulls the vision and warms the liver.

 

1/2 C crushed almonds

3 cloves garlic

beef stock

bread crumbs

 

Soften bread crumbs in stock.  Grind almonds, garlic, and crumbs in a

food processor with enough stock to make a nice sauce.

 

For Roman Cabbage

Toss cabbage which you have torn with your friends boiling water.  When

it is semicooked and its own water thrown away, transfer into another

pan and wrap with well-pounded lard.  Also put in as much rich broth as

necessary.  Let boil a little, for it does not require much cooking.

This food is harmful to stomach and head, as I said about cabbage.  This

is why my friend Tacitus, although he is Roman, rejected the stalk as a

dangerous thing.

 

1 lb. cabbage

4 T butter

Vegetable Broth

 

Boil cabbage  in water until almost cooked.  Throw out this water.  Cook

for a couple more minutes in vegetable broth and butter until done,

about 3-5 minutes.

 

On Vermicelli

Beat flour in the same way as above. (Well sifted flour with egg white

and rose water and plain water.)   When it is beaten, separate into bits

with you fingers.  You will call these bits vermiculi (worms), then

place in the sun.  When they are well dried, they will last two or more

years.  When they have been cooked for an hour in rich broth and put in

a dish, season with ground cheese and spices, but if there is a fast day

cook with almond juice and goat's milk.  Because milk does not require

much cooking, first make it boil a little in water, then add the milk.

When they have cooked remember to sprinkle with sugar. The cooking of

all pastas made from flour is the same.  They may be somewhat colored

with saffron, unless they have been cooked in milk.

 

1 lb. kluski noodles

1/4 C cheddar cheese, shredded or ground

1/4 C mozzarella cheese, shredded or ground

1/4 C parmesan cheese, shredded or ground

1/2 C milk

salt

pepper

nutmeg

 

Cook noodles for time directed in either water or broth. (Feast done in

water.)  Layer into greased pan noodles, some of each cheese and some of

each spice until pan is full.

Pour milk over the top.  Bake in 350 oven for 15-30 minutes to melt

cheese and brown top.  (Almost any cheese tastes good. Use whatever is

handy.)

Dish  made from Rosy Apples

Cook rosy apples, which are so called because of their color, I think,

with meat stock.  When they have been nearly cooked, put in a little

parsley and chopped mint in the same pot.  The juice can easily be

thickened with bread crumbs, as we said for trout.  When it has been put

in dishes, sprinkle spices on it.

 

1 lb. red apples, something with a strong flavor (Red Delicious)

Stock (vegetable used for the feast)

Parsley

Mint (to taste)

 

Bring stock to a boil, add apples and cook for a minute or two.  (Not

too long - they will lose all their flavor if cooked to a soft texture

in the stock..)  Add Parsley and Mint to taste at the last minute, cook

for a moment longer, then put into bowls and serve.  You can sprinkle on

cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg or cloves to taste if you like.

 

Roast Chicken

Roast a chicken which is well plucked, gutted and washed, and when the

roast is place in a dish before it cools, put lemon juice or verjuice on

it with rose water, sugar and cinnamon, and serve to your guests.  This

is not displeasing to Bucinus because he craves sour and sweet at the

same time to repress bile, by which he is disturbed, and to fatten his

body.

 

Roasting Chicken, 6-7 lbs.

1/2 Lemon, juiced

1 T Rose Water (if available)

2 T sugar

1 t cinnamon

 

Mix and pour over chicken just before serving.

 

Meat Balls

For ten guests, boil a pound of pork belly or veal belly well.  When it

is cooked and cut up, add half a pound of aged cheese and a little fat,

and mix with fragrant herbs, well cut up, pepper, ginger, and cloves.

Some even add breast of capon, well pounded.  When these have all been

worked with meal and reduced to a thin sheet, roll into balls the size

of a chestnut.  When rolled, cook in rich juice and color with saffron.

They require little cooking.  When they are transferred to serving

dishes, sprinkle with ground cheese and rather sweet spices.  It is also

possible for this food to be made from breast of pheasant, partridge, or

other fowl.

 

1 lb. ground pork

1/2 lb. cheeses, ground (parmesan, asagio, romano)

2 T butter

2 T well chopped Parsley

1 T well chopped Mint

1 T well chopped Marjoram

pepper

ground ginger

ground cloves

2 C Beef Stock

6-8 threads Saffron

 

Mix pork, cheese, butter, herbs and spices by hand until well combined.

Roll into meatballs the size of a golf ball.  Bake in a 325 oven until

cooked through (~20 minutes).  Remove and cook briefly on the stove in

beef stock, baking pan scrapings and saffron mixture. Remove meatballs

to the serving dish and reduce stock mixture by half. Pour over meat

balls and sprinkle with a but more cheese and a bit of ginger and

cloves.

 

Armored Turnips

Those who have a taste "with ramparts" want rape to be called "armored"

which is rolled in cheese like a cuirass and breastplate, as if it in no

way seemed to be safe to be going down into the depths without arms.

What profit it is that what was invented for safety turned totally to

the ruin of rape since the gluttonous, as if they were the strongest

athletes in the cookshops, prefer to devour an armed enemy rather than

an unarmed one?

 

Cut up rape in pieces, either boiled or cooked under ashes.  Also do the

same for not quite fresh and rich cheese, but these pieces should be

thinner then those of the rape.  Make a first layer of cheese in a pan

oiled with butter or fat, the second of rape and so on, continuously

pouring on spice and some butter.  This mixture is quickly cooked and

must also be quickly eaten, but since it is dangerous, let it be served

to the very greedy Domitianus.

 

1 lb. turnips

1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, thinly sliced

1/2 stick butter, melted

pepper

nutmeg

 

Peel and slice turnips.  Boil them twice, throwing out the water in

between and adding fresh, until they are soft (like potatoes for

mashing).  Drain.  Brush butter onto the bottom of the pan, then begin

layering cheese, turnips, brush with butter, sprinkle with spices,

repeat until the turnips are gone.  Try to have a bit of cheese left for

the top layer.  Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 to melt and slightly brown

the cheese.  Turn out onto a plate and serve.

 

On Rice

Rice, which I think was called oriza in the ancient spelling, is of warm

and dry force, and for this reason it is very nourishing, especially if

it has been seasoned with ground almonds, milk and sugar as will be

described later.  When it is cooked in pure water, it constricts the

belly.  Its frequent use, however, harms those accustomed to suffer with

pain in the bowel.

 

1 C Basmati Rice

2 C water

touch of salt

 

Rinse rice thoroughly.  Bring water, salt and rice to a boil in a

covered pan.  Remove from heat and let sit, covered, until all of the

water is absorbed (about 20 minutes).

 

Pear Pie

Mix and cook under ashes and coals almost all those things we described

for gourds with rape and pears or quinces, well cooked and ground up.

Glaucus will devour this because he is tortured by dysuria and compains

that passion is deadened in him.

 

(Gourd Pie:  Grind well-washed gourds as you are accustomed to do for

cheese, then boil a little either in rich juice or in milk.  When they

have been half cooked and passed through a sieve into a bowl, mix,

adding as much cheese as I described before, half a pound of sowbelly or

very fat udder, boiled and pounded with a knife, or, in place of these,

if it pleases you, add the same amount of butter or fat, half a pound of

sugar, a little ginger some cinnamon, six eggs, a cup of milk, and a

little saffron.  Cook this in on oiled earthenware pot with an

undercrust, under or over a slow fire.  Some add pieces of pastry leaves

which they call crepes in places of an upper crust. When it is cooked

and transfer into a dish, sprinkle with sugar and rose water.  Let

Cassius not eat this because he suffers from collic and stone.  It is

likewise difficult to digest and nourishes badly.)

 

2 can pears in light syrup

2 lb. ricotta cheese

2 stick butter

1 piece fresh ginger, about the size of the first two joints of your

pinky

12 egg yolks

1 1/3 C sugar

3 pie crust

 

Drain the pears.  Cut one can of the pears into small chunks and spread

in the pie crusts.  Put remaining pears and the ginger into a food

processor and process.  Leave the processor on while adding the butter

in chunks.  Stop processor and add the ricotta cheese. Turn back on and

leave processor running while you separate and add each egg yolk, one by

one.  Leave running while adding the sugar 1/3 cup at a time.  When

mixture is smooth, pour over the pear pieces in the pie crusts.  Bake at

325 for 45-50 minutes, until set.  If you wish, you can mix rose water

and sugar, spread over the top, and caramelize slightly before serving.

This pie tastes best served chilled!

 

Spiced Nuts

Throughout the book, Platina mentions serving spiced nuts to calm and

close the stomach.  Since he mentions this in relation to several

different nuts and in many different places, I have not included a

quote.

 

1 cup mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, and pine nuts)

1/2 C sugar

1 T clove

2 T cinnamon

1 T ginger

1 T nutmeg

1 egg white (made using egg white powder that contains no egg)

 

Mix sugar and spices in a bowl.  Dip nuts into the egg white, then into

the sugar mixture and turn to coat thoroughly.  Put nuts on a baking

pan, separate them as much as possible.  Bake at 250 for about 1 hour.

Store in an air-tight container.

 

Fresh Broad Bean Soup

Peel broad beans in hot water as you are accustomed to do for almonds,

and put in a pan on the hearth with rich broth and salted meat.  When

you think it is almost cooked, put in parsley and cut up mint.  Other

pulse ought also to be cooked this way but with the skins so that they

are not peeled like the bean.

 

2 lb. beans (variable, fava being fairly close but not an exact match)

vegetable stock to cover

parsley, well chopped

mint, well chopped

pepper

 

If you use dried beans, soak overnight.  Cook beans in vegetable stock

until cooked through.  Just before serving, add pepper, a handful of

parsley and mint to taste.  (This is the vegetarian version - for a non

vegetarian, I would use a meat stock and proscuitto or bacon.)

 

Beef Barley Soup

On a section on Groats he says "From groats, rice and pearl barley he

(Celsus) says the best broths and gruels are made".

 

1 lb. Stew Beef

1-2 Onions, chopped fine

2 T butter

Beef Stock

1/2 lb. Barley

 

SautŽ onions and beef in butter.  Add lots of stock.  Cook as long as

possible.  45 minutes before serving, add the Barley and cook until

soft.  Add more stock

 

<the end>



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
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Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org