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Frenc-Ren-Fst-art - 12/6/14

“Feast of St. Golias” by HL Baric Firehand (Bear). Menu and recipes from a French Renaissance SCA feast.

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NOTICE -

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium.

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

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Feast of St. Golias

by HL Baric Firehand (Bear)

The feast was for the College of Saint Golias in the Outlands on October 25, 2014.

Feast of St. Golias Menu

First Course

Fruit Rissoles

Puree of Chickpeas

Rosemary Bread

Second Course

Beef with White Sauce and Black Sauce

Mushroom Tarts

Turnips

Third Course

Salmon Pie with Cameline Sauce

Chicken in Sage Sauce

Glazed Squash

Bread

Fourth Course

Pears in Syrup

Wafers

Notes on the Feast:

The feast was planned as an attempt to recreate a Renaissance French feast. Recipes are mostly from French sources. Having no French bread recipes from this period, I chose to use a rosemary bread recipe that would be similar to a description of a dill rye from the same period and a basic white bread recipe that is similar to wheat bread produced in the period.

The feast was planned for 60 plates at a cost of $5 per plate. Actual cost ran $5.62 per plate. The price was set at $10 per person and we had 56 paid attendees producing a reasonable profit.

I made several miscalculations on timing and the skills of my staff, but I don't think these caused problems with the attendees. I was unable to prepare the black sauce correctly and dropped it from the feast. The salmon pies came out late (in part due to my decision to make individual pies) and were placed out at the end of the feast. The companion cameline sauce did not get made.

Everything else came out of the kitchen in a smooth flow, but there were some problems with the plating and the service. People got more than enough to eat, so complaints were minimal. As the attendees want me to do next year's feast, I assume this one was a success. In a related project, I need to write down basic instructions laying out and controlling the hall and the service, instructions for the waiters, and instructions for cooking and plating.

I will present a feast proposal to the Seneschal early next year. So far, the consensus is for German.

Recipes:

Rissoles

RISSOLES ON A FISH DAY. Cook chestnuts on a low fire and peel them, and have hard-cooked eggs and peeled cheese and chop it all up small; then pour on egg yolks, and mix in powdered herbs and a very little free-running salt, and make your rissoles, then fry in lots of oil and add sugar.

And note, in Lent, instead of eggs and cheese, put in cooked whiting and sciaena, chopped very small, or the flesh of pike or eels, and chopped figs and dates.

Item, on ordinary days, they can be made of figs, grapes, chopped apples and shelled nuts to mimic pignon nuts, and powdered spices: and the dough should be very well saffroned, then fry them in oil. If you need a liaison, starch binds and so does rice. Item, the flesh of sea lobster is good instead of meat.

Menagier de Paris, Janet Hinson translation

Rissoles are a turnover-like pastry that may have a variety of fillings. Other recipes can be found in Du fait de cuisine and English sources.

Fruit rissoles were prepared for the feast, to provide an additional vegetarian dish and produce a balance to the heavier dishes in the meal. The rissoles were produced with a 4" cutter and a pastry press. They were baked rather than fried to permit them to be frozen. The general consensus was there weren't enough of them.

Dough:

For 5 to 8 rissoles,

All purpose flour 300 g

Salt 1/4 teaspoon (1 g)

Sugar 2 to 3 Tablespoons (30 to 45 g)

Shortening 100 g

Water 6 to 8 Tablespoons

Mix flour, salt and sugar.

Cut the shortening into the flour mix to a crumb-like texture.

Add the water, one tablespoon at a time, and work into the flour mix until the mix clumps into a dough. Shape into a ball and flatten. Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a thin sheet. Cut out 4 inch diameter rounds.

Put a heaping tablespoon of filling in the center of aeach round. Dampen the edges with water. Fold over and press the edges together to seal.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until brown. Cool on rack.

Filling:

2 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and diced

4 figs, stems removed diced fine

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 sugar

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon grains of paradise (optional)

Simmer the fruit in the wine and water until soft but not mushy.

Drain and remove the softened fruit to a bowl. Stir in the spices and nuts. Spice to taste.

If wine is a dietary issue, the fruit can be simmered in water alone.

Rissoles can be deep fat fried. I chose to bake them to allow for refrigeration or freezing. They can be served at room temperature. To reheat, warm in 200 degree F oven for 20 minutes or until warm throughout.

Syseros (Chickpea)

76.Again syseros: and to give understanding to him who will prepare the syseros let him take his chick-peas and pick them over grain by grain such that there remains nothing but the chick-peas themselves, and then wash them in three or four changes of lukewarm water and put them to boil; and, being boiled, let him remove them from this water and put in other fresh water and put back to boil and, being boiled put them to rest in the said pot until the next day; and when the next day comes drain the water off them and put in again other fresh water and put to boil with a very little salt, almond oil, and parsley together with its roots well picked over and cleaned -- and these roots should be scraped and very well washed -- and a little sage. And do not put in anything else without the doctor's order, and if he tells you to put in a little cinnamon and a little verjuice to give it a little flavor, put them in; otherwise not.

Chiquart, Du fait de cuisine, 1420 (Elizabeth Cook, trans.)

175 g dried chickpeas (3/4 cup)

30 g almond oil (2 Tablespoons)

1 – 2 g salt (1/4 teaspoon)

5 g cinnamon (1 teaspoon)

2 g ground sage (optional) (1/4 teaspoon)

30 g chopped fresh parsley (optional) (2 Tablespoons)

45 g verjuice (optional with possible substitutes of wine vinegar or lemon juice) (3 Tablespoons)

Wash the chickpeas to remove any dirt and gravel. Cover with fresh water and let soak overnight.

Drain the chickpeas, put them in a two quart pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer until very soft. Drain and reserve the cooking liquid.

Puree the chickpeas with a food processor add the salt, cinnamon and almond oil. Add reserved cooking liquid to reach the desired consistency of puree. For a finer texture, use a blender to further reduce the puree.

Plate. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley and serve. Serves 6.

As you can tell, I've modified somewhat to produce a lighter, sweeter tasting dish than the original recipe and to accommodate the puree. Chiquart's recipe is for cooking whole chickpeas. The recipe was meant as food for invalids and, based on some of the medical texts of the day, it was recommended that the chickpeas themselves be discarded and the broth served.

Rosemary Bead

2 tsp yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 1/2 Cups of flour

1 Tbsp crushed rosemary

1 tsp salt

Cream yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup water

Mix flour, rosemary and salt together

Add 3/4 cup water and stir to mix

Add 1 Tbsp olive oil and yeast mixture, mix

Let stand until doubled

Form a loaf or multiple small loaves

Place on a baking sheet with parchment

Let rise until double

400 oven, bake 10 min

Brush with olive oil (coarse salt and additional rosemary optional)

Return to oven, bake 10 more minutes until golden

cool on racks

Beef Roast

Take beef roasts (4 oz. Per person), rinse them and sprinkle the fatty side with salt and pepper (add herbs, rosemary marjoram, thyme, etc. if desired). Place in a pan in a 325 degree F oven (this may need to increase to 350 F at higher altitude). Roast to an interior temperature of 165 degrees F. Remove from the oven. Rest for 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

I had planned to prepare Numbles of Beef with Lamprey Sauce from Du fait de cuisine replacing the spit-roasted beef with the oven roasted beef. A numble is serving size piece of beef which for this feast would be slices. The lamprey sauce proved to be too similar to the cameline sauce served later in the meal, so I replaced it with white sauce. The idea to present the beef with white sauce and black sauce was a whimsy I didn't carry off.

White Garlic Sauce

Take some almonds that have been carefully peeled and crush; when the are half-crushed, add however much garlic you like, and crush together adding cool water so they do not purge their oil. Then take some white bread and soak it in lean meat broth, or fish broth if on a fast day, and you can serve this garlic sauce to suit all seasons, fat or lean, as you wish.

Martino, De atre coquinaria, 1425(?) (Jeremy Parzen, trans.)

70 g almonds, blanched and slivered

3-4 cloves of garlic

1 slice of bread, crust removed and ground to fine crumbs

400 g broth

salt to taste

In a blender, coarsely grind the almonds. Add the garlic one clove at a time and continue until the garlic and almonds are finely ground.

Soak the breadcrumbs in some of the broth. Whisk until smooth

Add the breadcrumb mixture to the garlic and almonds and blend.

Add the remaining broth and blend smooth. Add salt to taste.

If you want a thicker sauce, place the sauce in a small pan and bring to a low boil. Whisk gently until the desired consistency is reached. Remove and cool.

For the feast, I used a vegetable broth I had prepared to keep vegetable dishes vegetarian and to avoid some allergies within the group.

Mushroom Tarts

MUSHROOMS of one night are the best, and are small and red inside, closed above: and they should be peeled, then wash in hot water and parboil; if you wish to put them in pastry, add oil, cheese and powdered spices.

Menagier de Paris, (Janet Hinson, trans.)

Pastry:

All purpose flour 300 g

Salt 1/4 teaspoon (1 g)

Shortening 100 g

Water 6 to 8 Tablespoons

Mix flour, salt and sugar.

Cut the shortening into the flour mix to a crumb-like texture.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a thin sheet.

Roll the dough onto the rolling pin, unroll into a tart or pie tin. Form and trim into a pie shell.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Blind bake the pie shell for ten minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F.

Filling:

450 g Button mushrooms

15 g olive oil

200 g cheese (mozarella, brie, gouda, etc.)

Clean and trim the mushrooms. Quarter if necessary.

Toss in olive oil and put in the pie shell.

Shred or slice cheese and lay over the mushrooms.

Topping spice mix (from Terence Sculley):

3 g ginger, ground

2 g cloves, ground

1 g cinnamon, ground

5 g brown sugar

2 g salt

45 g Parmesan cheese, grated

Mix the spices and Parmesan cheese together. Sprinkle on top of the pie.

Bake in 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes or until top is lighly browned.

Slice and serve.

Turnips

TURNIPS are hard and difficult to cook until they have been in the cold and frost; you remove the head, the tail and other whiskers and roots, then they are peeled, then wash in two or three changes of hot water, very hot, then cook in hot meat stock, pork, beef or mutton.

Item, in Beausse, when they are cooked, they are sliced and fried in a pan, and powdered spices thrown on.

****

Take, around All Saints Day (November 1), large turnips, and peel them and chop them in quarters, and then put on to cook in water: and when they are partially cooked, take them out and put them in cold water to make them tender, and then let them drain; and take honey and do the same as with the walnuts, and be careful not to over-cook your turnips.

Menagier de Paris, (Janet Hinson, trans.)

450 g turnips

750 g water

750 g broth

Fine Spice Powder

Trim, clean and peel the turnips.

Put them in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and boil for 20 minutes until the turnips start to soften. Drain and rinse to cool.

Slice, dice or quarter the turnips.

Return them to the pan, cover with broth and bring to a boil for 10 to 20 minutes until the turnips are soft.

Remove the turnips to a bowl with a little of the broth to keep them warm and damp.

Sprinkle with fine spice powder and serve.

An alternate serving technique is to drain the turnips through a colander, then return them to the pan with a little honey and stir until the honey is warm and the turnips are thoroughly coated.

Vegetable broth was used in this recipe.

Fine Spice Powder (Bear's Blend)

30 g ground black pepper (2 Tbsp)

30 g ground cinnamon (2 Tbsp)

30 g ground ginger (2 Tbsp)

3 g ground cloves (1/2 tsp)

Mix the spices together thoroughly. Store in a sealed container until used.

Salmon Pie

FRESH SALMON should be smoked, and leave the backbone in for roasting; then cut it into slices boiled in water, with wine and salt during cooking; eat with yellow pepper or with cameline sauce and in pastry, whatever you like, sprinkled with spices; and if the salmon is salted, let it be eaten with wine and sliced scallions.

Menagier de Paris, (Janet Hinson, trans.)

450 g cooked salmon, roasted or poached

30 g butter

marjoram

pastry dough (see Rissoles or Mushroom Tarts)

Roll out your dough and shape it to your pie tin(s). Roll out dough for covers.

Place salmon in the pie shell.

Dot with butter and sprinkle with marjoram.

Cover the pie and crimp the pie shells and covers together.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake pies for 20 minutes or until golden.

I baked individual tarts for this feast using 4 inch tartlet pans and 5 inch diameter shells and covers. Each took roughly 30 grams of salmon or about 15 servings per pound. In a standard pie shell, I would assume 8 servings per pound. I used the rissole dough for my pies.

Cameline Sauce

CAMELINE. Note that at Tournais, to make cameline, they grind together ginger, cinnamon and saffron and half a nutmeg: soak in wine, then take out of the mortar; then have white bread crumbs, not toasted, moistened with cold water and grind in the mortar, soak in wine and strain, then boil it all, and lastly add red sugar: and this is winter cameline. And in summer they make it the same way, but it is not boiled.

Menagier de Paris, (Janet Hinson, trans.)

1 slice of bread, crusts removed

300 g white wine

3 g ground ginger

5 g ground cinnamon

1/2 g freshly grated nutmeg (or 1 g of ground nutmeg)

15 g brown sugar

salt to taste

a few threads of saffron (optional)

Soften the bread in a little water, squeeze out the excess water and put the softened bread in a blender.

Whisk the spices other than the brown sugar, saffron and salt into the wine.

Add the wine mixture to the bread and blend.

Place the sauce in a small pan and bring to a low boil.

Add the desired saffron and whisk in the sugar.

Add salt to taste.

Boil gently until the desired consistency is reached.

Remove from heat and cool.

Cold Sage (Chicken in Sage Sauce)

Now it remains to be known with what sauce one should eat the pilgrim capons: the pilgrim capons should be eaten with the jance, and to advise the sauce-maker who should make it take good almonds and blanch and clean them very well and bray them very well; and take the inside of white bread according to the quantity which he needs, and let him have the best white wine which he can get in which he should put his bread to soak, and with verjuice; and when his almonds are well brayed put in a little garlic to bray with them; and take white ginger and grains of paradise according to the quantity of sauce which he needs, and strain all this together and draw it up with the said white wine and a little verjuice and salt also, and put it to boil in a fair and clean pot.

And if the staffs are lampreys make lamprey sauce in the manner which is devised above under lamprey pasty.

And if they are eels, green garlic made with sorrel and verjuice.

The calunafree of partridge: he who will make it should take his partridges and clean them well and properly and restore(?) them and lard them very well and then spit and roast them very well and properly; and when they are roasted, take them off onto a fair and clean board, and then take them one after the other and cut them into fair members and leave the wings whole and cut the white meat very small as if one were carving it before the lord, and put this on fair silver dishes -- and if you do not have enough silver dishes put then in a fair and clean pan. And take a great deal of cameline sauce and put it so that it covers everything, and put on only enough mustard to give it taste, and put on verjuice to cover everything. And according as you have meat take onions and chop them very small and put them in, and sugar, and flavor it with salt in good manner; and then put it to boil. And then when it comes to the sideboard arrange it in good order on fair serving dishes.

And to give you to understand how you make the cold sage arrange that you have a great deal of parsley, a great deal of sage, and let them be well cleaned and washed and drained and brayed very well, and bray such a great quantity of it that it may be thoroughly green; and when they are well brayed mix them and put them with your bread [see recipe 48]. And then take your spices, that is white ginger, grains of paradise and pepper and strain all this, and season with vinegar and strain it to be very thick. And when your meat is well cooked take it out onto fair boards and fair and clean tables, and then separate the meat, that is the poultry in one place and the pieces of piglet in another, and such that when it comes to the sideboard you put in each dish four pieces of the said meat, that is a quarter of poultry and a little piece of the said pork on top in half of each dish, and as much in the other part; and in each dish on one part put calaminee and on the other part next to it put cold sage. And then take the egg whites and cut them into little dice, then scatter onto the said dishes onto the cold sage; and sugar-spice pellets on the calaminee.

Chiquart, Du fait de cuisine, 1420, (Elizabeth Cook, trans.)

1 kg boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 bunch parsley

60 g fresh sage

200 g hot chicken broth (can be from steaming the chicken breasts)

60 g white wine vinegar

2 hard-boiled egg yolks (reserve whites)

2 slices of bread, crusts removed and processed to crumbs

3 g salt

3 g ginger

1 g grains of paradise

2 g cinnamon

2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced

In a covered pot, steam the chicken breasts until done. Reserve the liquid.

Cool and slice. Put the slices in serving dish.

Chop the sage and chop about 1 cup of the parsley. Put these in a blender and blend in the chicken broth (boullion or other broth can be used).

Mash the egg yolks in the vinegar until smooth. Add to the blender. Blend.

Add the spices and blend.

Put the sauce mix in a small pan and bring to a low boil. Taste and modify spicing as necessary.

Slowly whisk in the bread crumbs until the desired consistency is reached. Remove from the heat and cool.

While the sauce can be kept separate and put on the chicken later, spreading it on the chicken and refrigerating overnight allows the flavors to meld and mellow.

Before serving, chop the reserved egg whites and put then and the slices of egg on top of the dish. Parsley sprigs can be added for decoration.

Glazed Squash

GOURDS. Let the rind be peeled, for that is best: and always if you want the insides, let the seeds be removed, though it is said that the rind is worth more, then cut up the rind in pieces, then parboil, then chop lengthways, then put to cook in beef fat: almost at the end yellow it with saffron or throw saffron thread by thread, one here, another there; this is what cooks call 'fringed with saffron'.

*****

Item, when gourds are in season, take those which are neither too hard nor too tender, and peel them and remove the seeds and cut into quarters, and do the same to them as to the turnips.

Menagier de Paris, (Janet Hinson, trans.)

450 g of zucchini or yellow squash

60 g of honey

Wash, trim and slice the squash.

Steam the squash in a covered pot until softened.

Drain squash through a colander.

Return the squash to the pan and add the honey. Stir until the honey is warm and the squash is coated. Transfer to a bowl and serve.

Bread

Now for basic bread. For two loaves:

Water 450g (2 cups)

Flour 840g (7 cups)

Yeast 10 g (2 tsp)

Salt 15g (1 Tbsp)

Cornmeal (or other coarse grain) to place on the baking sheet (or use baker's parchment)

Using a sponge will give you a leg up and improve the flavor of the bread. For a sponge, 1 cup (225 g) of warm water (90-100F), proof the yeast in the water for about 15 minutes until the, top is foam, beat in 2.5 cups (300g) of flour thoroughly to make a soft, sticky dough, place in a 2 quart bowl (or larger), cover with plastic wrap and leave on the kitchen counter (or some safe room temperature place, remembering the cats) for up to 24 hours.

To make the bread: Break the sponge apart in the second cup of warm water. Mix the remaining flour and salt together. Slowly add the dry mixture to the liquid, beating and working it in until it forms a dough. Beat, knead or work the dough for five to ten minutes until it forms an elastic and not too sticky ball. NORMALLY: Let rise in an oiled, covered bowl until doubled in size. FOR SPEED: Ignore this rise. Scatter cornmeal on the baking sheet to form a thin layer on top of the baking sheet. Divide and shape the dough into two balls. Place them on the baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled in size (or for about two hours). Bake 40-45 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 425 F.

NOTES:

This is a basic bread dough as would have been prepared in period. You can produce a softer loaf by adding 2 Tablespoons (30 g) of butter, oil or shortening when combing the dry and liquid mixtures.

You can glaze the bread by brushing on a mixture of egg white and water (1 egg white in 1 Tablespoon (15g) of water) before putting in the oven. Or you can soften the crust by brushing on melted butter or oil before or after baking.

This recipe can be be frozen after the first rise if you double up on the yeast. Shape your loaves, wrap them in plastic wrap. Place in a freezer bag and freeze. CAVEAT: Storing in a self defrosting freezer for an extended period subjects the dough to temperature stress. Storage in a deep freeze is best. To BAKE: Prepare the baking sheet as normal. Place the loaves on the sheet, let thaw and rise. Bake as normal.

For the Feast of St. Golias, I added 2 Tablespoons of olive oil to the recipe. The fat helps keep the bread moist in low humidity and high altitude.

Pears in Syrup

Item, take choke-pears and cut them in four quarters, and cook them like the turnips, and do not peel them; and do with them neither more nor less than with the turnips.

Menagier de Paris, (Janet Hinson, trans.)

4 cooking pears

325 g sweet red wine

325 g water

250g honey

Since the available pears aren't choke-pears, peel, core and cut the pears into quarters or eighths.

Cook the pears in the water and wine until tender (10-15 minutes).

Add the honey and cook until soft (about 10 minutes).

Remove the pears with some of the cooking liquid to a bowl and serve.

If there is time, the cooking liquid can be boiled down to a thicker syrup and poured over the pears.

Wafers

Flour 160 g (1 cup)

Sugar 60 g (4 Tbsp)

Salt .5 g (1/8 tsp)

Water 90-120 g (6 to 8 Tbsp)

Whisk the dry ingredients together.

Whisk in the water one tablespoon at a time until reaching the desired thickness of batter.

Lightly oil the wafer iron before each baking. Using nut oil improves the flavor of the wafer.

Bake as instructed by the iron's manufacturer.

Humidity and altitude affect the amount of water required.

I used a Cuisinart Pizzelle Press for the actual baking. The high setting produced a crisp, medium brown wafer that could be shaped while still warm.

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Copyright 2014 by Terry D. Decker, P.O. Box 720338, Norman, OK 73072. <t.d.decker at att.net>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited and receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.