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. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 06:47:08 PST From: "Rebecca E Tants" 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 Sauté 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 Edited by Mark S. 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