Nrmn-Scly-Fst-art

Nrmn-Scly-fst-art - 10/23/06

"A feast based upon the culture of Norman Sicily during the reign of King Roger II" by Donna Serena da Riva. (12th Century)

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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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A feast based upon the culture of Norman Sicily during the reign of King Roger II

by Donna Serena da Riva

Norman Sicily

To begin with, I must make it clear that I have been unable to uncover any culinary manuscripts from this region and time. In fact, the only reference to food served at Roger's coronation speaks only of serving women dressed in silks and bearing platters of silver and gold. While this is interesting information, it is utterly useless towards developing recipes for a feast. This pointed the direction for research towards the culture and peoples that made up the varied populace of Norman Sicily.

The island of Sicily was originally occupied by the Ancient Greeks who were annexed by the Romans during the second century BC. In 515 AD Roman Sicily was conquered by the Byzantine army and remained there for several centuries until the Saracen's began raiding from the North African coast during the 9th century. By the beginning of the 10th century all of Sicily was in the hands of the Saracens. Then along came the Normans at the end of the 11th century with Roger I the victorious "Count of Sicily".

And it is his son, Roger II that we are concerned with. In 1130 Roger II was crowned King of Sicily. A King who was crowned in Byzantine splendor yet maintained a Saracen style harem. Other positions in his court were occupied by Saracens including Historian and Cook. During the reign of Roger II, Sicily experienced a relatively tolerant atmosphere towards the religious and cultural differences of her peoples.

Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Saracen all combined to create a unique blending and it is upon this that I have based my conjecture as to what dishes might have been served at a Coronation Feast. While most of these recipes are based on extant period manuscripts, none of them are specific to Norman Sicily, so I would hesitate to claim that this is a truly "period" feast. But, based on my understanding of Medieval Cuisine and the constituent cultures, I feel I have arrived at the best educated conclusions possible at this juncture. And, I most sincerely hope that they are the tastiest conclusions.

North African Trade Influences

Many of the foods that we consider typically "Italian" in nature were first introduced to Europe through Sicily by the Saracens. Sicily's remarkably fertile land proved to be the perfect place to grow many of these foods and because of this we see the use of many exotic foodstuffs long before they become commonplace in other European countries. Among these food items are Spinach, Eggplant, Asparagus, Artichoke, Lemons, Oranges, Limes, Melons, Sugar Cane, Short Grain Rice, and an utter surprise to me; Bananas. I have tried to incorporate many of these items into the menu to reflect the character of Sicilian cuisine.

Feast Format

One thing that can immediately affect the atmosphere of a feast is for the arrangement of the High Table to reflect the practices of the time. Dining in the Roman Empire was conducted from a reclining position on a series of couches, with the far left couch as the position of Honor. After this dining arrangement fell into disuse and tables, both rectangular and semi-circular, came into fashion the position of Honor continued to be at the far left of the table. In the above image taken from a mosaic in the Cathedral of Monreale in Palermo (constructed during Roger's reign) Christ is portrayed in this position. It was not until the late 13th/early 14th century that the position of Honor moved to the position with which we are most familiar, the center.

As with the lack of recipes, there is a dearth of information on the format in which the feast was served. I have chosen the Roman convivium for inspiration. The tradition of opening a meal with a series of small dishes began in Rome and continues in the Mediterranean to this day. The Italian Antipasti, the Lebanese Mezza and the Spanish Tapas all reflect this style.

Gustatio

Chicken Pasteda

Discussion: The first avenue that I explored in identifying texts to utilize for this feast was to attempt to locate a book on period Sicilian cuisine. I was able to find references to two such texts. One, Giuseppe Coria's Profumi di Sicilia. Il libro della cucina siciliana, is available only in Italian and the time that would be involved in translation precludes it for this particular feast. The other is Pomp and Sustanance: 25 Centuries of Sicilian Food (P&S) by Mary Taylor Simeti, and luckily it is in English. I was able to purchase a copy of the latter and waited anxiously for its arrival. I will not say that it was disappointing, but for those interested in a strict academic text this is not the book for you. It does contain a fair amount of historical information, but it is even more useful for learning about traditional Sicilian cuisine.

All of the dishes in this feast reflect a synthesis of several different approaches. This text gave me a good grounding with what Sicilian cuisine eventually evolved into. I looked to the earlier Roman sources to see where things began and to relatively contemporary Arabic Texts for what was going on elsewhere at the same time. This dish is the first attempt I have made at a "fusion" style of redaction.

One of the traditional dishes discussed in P&S it what seems to be a type of bread pie called an Impanata. P&S supplies three different stuffings for this Impanata which is very similar to our traditional two crusted pie, only bread dough is used in place of a pastry crust. The first filling contained: Swiss chard, tomatoes and red pepper. The second: cauliflower, Sicilian sausage, fennel seeds and cheese. The third: spinach, ricotta and parmesan cheese. While the third recipe sounded very enticing to me, the amount of dairy already planned for the feast had gotten excessive for both the budget and the number of dishes that the dairy-free populace could not enjoy. So, I set this dish aside for quite some time. Most of the feast had come together when another dish in P&S caught my eye.

Listed as "Pasticcio di Mohammed ibn Itmnah", it is another enclosed bread dish; only the bread is baked and then hollowed out. The removed bread is mixed with chicken, almonds, pistachios, capers, parsley and lemon and then returned to the bread to be baked again. P&S cites two similar recipes as possible ancestors of this dish; one from Apicius and one adapted from "a medieval Arabic cookbook" by Claudia Roden. I looked through my copy of Apicius and was unable to determine which dish she was referring to, but I was able to find "Chicken Awsat" in Roden's A Book of Middle Eastern Food. One of the drawbacks to Roden's book is that she does not provide the source material from which she develops her recipes, but for this one she cited the original text as Kitab al Wusla il al Habib. Incidentally, Roden's stuffing recipe calls for chicken, chicken livers, sesame oil, allspice, pistachio nuts, parsley, mint, lemon and rose water.

Mideval Arab Cookery contains only references to Kitab al Wusla but one of the translated texts it does contain, The Book of the Description of Familiar Foods, has two recipes that are very similar to Roden's "Chicken Awsat". The first is titled "Bazmāward" and the second is "Ausāt".

Bazmāward [Persian bazm, banquet, and award, bringing]
Take nice well-done roast meat, as much as necessary, from the ribs and other parts, and pound it fine with the cleaver. Throw fresh mint leaves on it and, if you want, a little celery leaf. Sprinkle it with a little vinegar and lemon juice: and if you wish, put in the juice of salted lemons or of sour fruits instead of lemon juice; they are pounded with it [the meat]. Flavor it with a little milled mastic and Chinese cinnamon and sprinkle it with good rosewater. Pound it exceedingly well until it becomes fine. Then take some brick-oven bread, watched over as it baked in the oven, and let it be in the shape of a tulma loaf, in the middle of which there is a lattice rose, whose rim is not high. It should be well cooked, between dry and soft, that rose being conspicuously arched. Set it aside then split it with the knife and stuff it well with that prepared roast, and cut it into thin pieces and arrange it in baking trays Throw mint leaves on it. It is eaten right away and the following day.

Ausāt [middles, viz. rolled up canapes, bread with fillings].
Take the same roast meat described in bazmaward, then spread it out widely on jardaq bread, which you fold nicely and roll up tight. Cut it up and arrange it as described. Ausāt might be made another way, which is that roast meat is taken and pounded by itself without the mentioned spices and spread out in strips of jardaq bread. Put shelled hardboiled eggs inside and roll it up tight and cut into ausāt the length of four or three fingers. Some people take that roast meat which we have described with the described spices and make ausat in jardaq of it.

After reading these recipes I hit upon the idea looking to these stuffings for inspiration to develop a filling for the Impanata that had previously sparked my interest.

I liked the idea of using chicken even though it is debatable whether the Middle Eastern texts are calling for chicken or lamb. But I decided that as long as I was developing this as a fusion dish I might as well tailor it towards something that my patrons would find exceptionally palatable. And a combination of mint and celery for the aromatics did not sound particularly appetizing. Both almonds and lemon sounded like good elements to keep, but what to pair with them. I had not yet included mushrooms into the feast in any way, and mushrooms always go well with chicken. Then, while perusing yet another source, I stumbled on the following quote:

Celery, coriander, dill and leeks may be added in the preparation of all foods, so long as the leeks are parboiled a little beforehand.

The source of this wisdom was Anthiumus, a 6th century doctor in Gaul who wrote a treatise on food entitled De obseruatione ciborum. Leeks were the answer for me. Leeks are a ubiquitous vegetable that formed the staple of many medieval tables. It would have been a familiar food for the invading Normans, and a valued crop by the native Sicilians. So with this I had my ingredients, but no seasoning. Again looking at the dishes I already had planned I tried to think what I had not used yet. For this I turned to the Tacinum Sanitatis (discussed in more detail shortly) and perused the available herbs and decided on marjoram. I surmised that marjoram has a delicate flavor that would not overwhelm the other subtle flavors at play in this dish, and I turned out to be correct.

So, while it was a long and round about path to this dish I believe it came out well. I would in no way claim that this is a truly period dish. It was inspired by a combination of period and traditional dishes and has ingredients prepared and assembled in a period fashion. Call it a dish in a period style, but do not call it period.

Recipe:

1 1/2 lbs chicken, 1 each breast, leg and thigh

1 Bay Leaf

8 Peppercorns

1/2 t Pickling Salt

1 Pinch Saffron

Combine above ingredients except chicken with sufficient water and bring to boil. Add chicken and boil until done, approximately 20 minutes. Remove from water, reserve cooking liquid for later. Allow chicken to cool then remove skin and meat from bones. Place skin and meat into a food processor and process until almost a paste. Set aside in a bowl.

2 large Leeks

4 oz Canned Mushrooms

1 T + 1/2 t Finely Minced Lemon Zest

Remove the green tops from leeks, quarter, separate and clean them. Drain the mushrooms. Place a pan on medium heat and coat the bottom with olive oil. Add the mushrooms and leeks to pan sprinkle lightly with salt to induce sweat. Sweat covered until limp and then allow to brown slightly. Deglaze pan with small amounts of chicken cooking liquid to avoid burning. Once vegetables are limp add lemon zest and allow to cook for a couple of minutes to release oils.

Transfer veggie mixture to food processor and add the following:

3 oz Blanched Almonds

1/2 t Kosher Salt

1/4 t Black Pepper

3/4 t Dried Marjoram

1 T Olive Oil

Process until almost a paste and then combine with chicken mixture. Have 1 lb ball of pizza dough at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Divide both stuffing and dough into two equal portions. Working with one half of dough and stuffing at a time; roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle roughly 16 in by 4 in. Place stuffing down the center of the dough spreading until you have an even, thin layer of stuffing, leaving 1/3 in of dough free all around. Take the leading edge of the long side of the dough and roll until you have achieved a rough log shape. Pinch the ends shut and place seam side down on a lightly oiled baking pan. Bake in oven for 25 – 30 minutes, or until done. Allow to cool and slice into 1/4 inch pieces to serve.

a final note: In trying to decide what to call this dish I considered many things. Initially I thought to call it an Impanata, but decided that would be misleading. Then I considered Calzone, because that is the modern dish it most closely resembles. But again I believe it would be a misnomer. Then I stumbled across a discussion of Italian bread turnovers in A Mediterranean Feast, a text that was extremely useful for this feast, if not for the recipes then most assuredly for the historical references. Wright states that the Arabs of Sicily called such dishes "sfinci" which is nigh on unpronounceable so of no use. Another unpronounceable name the Italians have for a stuffed focaccia is "scaceiate" which will not work. But then he mentions an Italian text written in 1348 titled the "Declarius of Senisio" which calls such stuffed dishes "pasteda" and I had a name.

Melon Relish:

Discussion: One of the texts that I felt would be of help in planning this feast is The Four Seasons of the House of Cerruti. Cerruit. This book is a modern translation of a 14th century Italian translation of the 12th century Arabic text called the Tacinum Sanitatis. The Tacinum is a medical treatise that was written in the by the Arab doctor Ibn Botlan. In the 14th century it became a very popular text and was translated into the modern language and presented with illuminated images of the discussed items. Several of these manuscripts have survived to this day, the text translated for Cerruti being one of them. Because it is a medical text it contains a great deal of information on the foods being consumed alongside their humoral properties. Considering that this text was Arabic in origin, yet Italian in location I decided it would be a good source for inspiration for possible foods and dishes to be served. One of the entries in the manuscript is as follows:

Melons

We are told by the Arab doctor Ellbochasim de Baldach that the best melons come from Samarkland. They should, in any case, be perfectly ripe, nourishing, brightly colored, and fragrant. They promote blood moderately and suit phlegmatic and bilious temperaments. They relive the pain of calculi and cleanse the skin, but cause a flux from the belly, which can be treated with syrup of vinegar. Eat melon with mature cheese and salty foods and drink a fine wine, but not too strong; then eat some other nourishing food. This is a suitable food for when the weather is very hot.

Research into melons indicated that the melon commonly sold as cantaloupe in the U.S. is not actually cantaloupe at all but musk melon. Musk melon is a period variety of melon and entirely appropriate for this application. In reading the Cerrui entry I must admit that I chose to stretch my conclusions a bit thin. It calls for melon to be served with mature cheese and salty foods. I thought, why not a mature, salty cheese. The stretch comes in classifying Feta as a mature cheese – which it is not. But Feta is most commonly associated with and similar to the types of cheeses found in Middle Eastern cuisines. Feta is also a period type of cheese and suitable for inclusion in the feast. I tested my inclinations and must say it makes for an unusual, yet tasty combination. Although I received many prods towards the idea, I can only stretch so far and was unable to justify wrapping slices of the melon in strips of Prosciutto.

Recipe:

8 oz Cantaloupe

1 oz Feta Cheese

Cut melon in half and place cut side down onto cutting surface. Peel off rind with knife. Slice and then chop melon into roughly 1/4 inch cubes. Set aside. Crumble Feta Cheese into very small bits. Combine melon and feta in a bowl and cover. Allow to set in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes but no longer than 1 hour.

Counterfeit IsfÓriy’ of Garbanzos:

Discussion: This recipe is from the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook. This cookbook has proven to be invaluable in the planning of this feast. Written sometime in the 13th century it contains recipes from another Arabic population living in Europe, and more specifically another Mediterranean culture. I did not delve deeply into the history of the Saracen conquest of this portion of Spain, but there are enough parallels for this to be as close as I could come to Norman Sicily in both region and time period.

Chickpeas are a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine and I felt that I had to include them in some form. But I wanted something a little unusual and less ammunition shaped. Within the Anonymous Andalusian manuscript I found the following recipe:

Pound some garbanzos, take out the skins and grind them into flour. And take some of the flour and put into a bowl with a bit of sourdough and some egg, and beat with spices until it's all mixed. Fry it as before in thin cakes, and make a sauce for them.

Recipe:

7 1/2 oz Chickpea Flour, weighed then sifted

1 pinch Kosher Salt

1/4 C Warm Water

1 t Yeast

10 threads Saffron

1 pinch Sugar

2 Eggs

1/4 t Black Pepper

1/2 t Coriander

1/4 t Cumin

1 t Cinnamon

2 C Canola Oil

Combine water, yeast, saffron and sugar and allow to proof. Sift chickpea flour into a bowl and add spices, mix with whisk until well combined. Beat eggs in a bowl and add to flour, add yeast mixture and combine well. Roll out to 1/8 in thickness on a floured surface and cut into 1 in. squares. Bring oil to a temp of around 375 degrees F and hold there. Fry several pieces at a time turning once. 1 – 2 minutes per fritter. Remove to draining rack and sprinkle with kosher salt while hot. Remove to paper towels.

Sauce:

Discussion: Unfortunately the text was singularly unhelpful in the case of the sauce. After preparing the fritters I sampled them and tried to envision what sauce would suit them. With this I had to take into consideration all of the other items served in this course as well as the courses to come. One element that is very common in Medieval Arab cookery and so far missing in my feast is the combination of sweet and sour. Another element frequently mentioned in the purely Arabic sources and not yet represented was the pomegranate. With the spiciness of the fritters I decided a sweet and sour pomegranate sauce would be very appropriate. I combed through The Baghdad Cookery Book and noted all of the references to pomegranates in sauce. The most appropriate thickening agent indicated would have been ground almonds, but I already had almonds in this course. Wanting to avoid too many nuts I looked further and found a reference to the combination of pomegranate and raisins. Using a pureed dried fruit is a common thickening technique in Arabic cuisines and it would bring the sweetness that I was looking for to the sauce. The most common souring agent in the texts is most obviously vinegar. To keep a nice bright color I chose to stick with a red wine vinegar.

Recipe:

1/2 C Water

3 T Pomegranate Molasses

2 oz Raisins, pureed

1 t Red Wine Vinegar

Sugar to taste

Puree raisins. Combine all ingredients in small saucepan, simmer and stir vigorously until desired consistency is reached.

Eggplant Pancakes:

Discussion: As mentioned earlier, eggplant is one of the exotics introduced to Sicily by the Saracens. The most common "traditional" dish of eggplant associated with Sicily is Caponata. All of the modern recipes I found for this item involved large amounts of tomato, and frequently cocoa. There is much speculation as to what the origins of this dish are, with no conclusive answers. Combing through the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook I found several dishes that I believe might be ancestors of this Sicilian delicacy.

Preparation of Arnabi: Take sweet eggplants of great size and cut in half. Boil with water and salt, then take out of the water and leave to drain. Then take a tajine and put in it sharp vinegar and a smaller quantity of murri naqÓ', pepper, cumin, thyme, saffron, chopped garlic and a lot of oil; put in it the boiled halves of eggplant and roll in this broth; then arrange in the said tajine and put in the oven, where you will leave it until the sauce is dry and [only] the oil remains; take out and leave until it loses its heat and use. There are those who break in eggs and then put it in the oven.

A Vegetarian Version of the Same[136] Prepared by Ibn Muthanna[137]

Take eggplants and with a stick pierce them on all sides and boil. Then press out the water in which you boiled them and put in a pot; pour on them vinegar, murri naqÓ', plenty of oil, pepper, saffron, cumin, cinnamon, cloves of garlic wrapped in sprigs of thyme and two whole onions, place on a coal fire and cook; then put a lid [heated] from the fire on the pot and leave until brown on top and the sauce is dry; then take out of the fire and throw out the two onions and then use. This dish keeps for many days without going bad and does not change, like Arnabi.

My attempt at preparing this dish was not even remotely a success. I believe it could be a tasty dish, but it would have taken extensive testing and fiddling. And even then, it would only appeal to die hard eggplant lovers. For a feast I desire to find something that will appeal to a wider range of tastes and hopefully encourage people to try new things. So I was back to square one for an eggplant dish. This search was made doubly difficult by the fact that I do not particularly care for eggplant. Actually, I hate it. I then found a dish in Cariadoc's Miscellany listed as coming from La Cocina Arabigoandaluza. This text was translated from Arabic into Spanish by Fernando de la Granja Santamaria and from Spanish into English by Melody Asplund-Faith.

Get sweet eggplant and boil it with water and salt until it becomes well cooked and is dissolved or falling apart. You should drain the water, crush and stir it on a dish with crumbs of grated bread, eggs beaten with oil, dried coriander and cinnamon; beat it until all becomes equal. Afterwards fry cakes made with this batter in a frying pan with oil until they are gilded. Make a sauce of vinegar, oil, almori, and mashed garlic; give all this a shaking and pour it over the top.

It proved to be delicious even to myself – an abject eggplant opponent.

Recipe:

1 large eggplant (1 1/2 lbs)

Salt

2 oz Bread Crumbs

2 Eggs

1 T Sesame Oil

1 1/2 t Coriander

1 t Cinnamon

2 pinches pickling salt

Peel and chop eggplant coarsely. Bring heavily salted water to a boil and add eggplant. Boil for 20 – 25 minutes or until completely squishy. Allow to drain. Place in large bowl and puree with immersion blender. Add remaining ingredients and combine well. Can hold overnight. Bring cast iron skillet to a medium heat and rub lightly with butter. Using a standard tea spoon (like for eating with) place heaping scoops of batter onto hot skillet. Pat to a round shape about 1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter. Cook on first side until edges start to brown and the batter loses its shiny-ness. Flip and cook until done on the other side. Remove to cooling rack. Pancakes can be held in refrigerator in an airtight container layered with waxed paper. Reheat in 350 degrees oven until heated through.

Sauce:

Discussion: The difficulty in this recipe lies with the first ingredient, Murri. As with garum it is a salty fermented sauce used extensively in the manuscript but with the assumption that one will be buying it from your local merchant. There are explicit recipes for the manufacture of murri in The Book of the Description of Familiar Foods all of which are too lengthy to quote, but I can provide a brief synopsis. Loaves of barley bread are made and wrapped in fig leaves. They are allowed to rot for 20 days and then turned and allowed to rot for 20 more days, if at that point they do not have red veins throughout their interior they can be allowed to rot for an additional 20 days. After this period you are to combine the rotten barley with 1/5th its weight in salt and a list of seven spices (included are instructions on proportions). This is allowed to steep with water in the sun in a clear jar for 60 days and then it is good. The liquid is drained off and then the remaining matter can be used for a second and third extraction, but they are of decreasing value.

Within the essays contained in Medieval Arab Cookery there is a discussion on murri and it's similarities with soy sauce. Both are fermented grain products and the speculation is that soy sauce should be an acceptable substitute. In Cariadoc's Miscellany the author has come to a different solution involving a second murri recipe in the same period text. His rationale is as follows:

In addition to the surviving recipes for murri, there are also at least two surviving references to what was apparently a fake murri a substitute made by a much simpler process. If one cannot have real murri, period fake murri seems like the next best thing.

He proceeds to provide the period recipe and his redaction using spices, nuts, burnt bread and scorched honey. All of this is appended to the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook. While I have the utmost of respect for Duke Cariadoc's accomplishments in the culinary field I have to disagree with this conclusion. My specific rational for this departure comes from a statement made earlier in the period text when the author discusses the ingredients found in the presented recipes:

Murri is not suitable to be used unless of the infused sort, because of its benefits and penetrating quality; following this is murri made of grape juice with spices but without burned bread. The murri that people make with scorched honey and bread and other things is not suitable to be used at all, for it causes black bile and has neither benefit nor penetrating flavor.

So a compromise had to be found. The decision I arrived at was to abide by the recommendations of the culinary historians who authored Medieval Arab Cookery and use soy sauce as my base ingredient. Assuming that the soy sauce already contained sufficient salt I added the appropriate spices and allowed it to sit on my back porch in the sun for a week. A longer infusion would most likely produce a stronger flavor but I judged a week to be enough. After straining the spices and herbs from the soy sauce I returned the liquid to its original container. The sauce for the pancakes provides a wonderful platform to showcase the flavor of the murri, and it is quite delicious as an ingredient if not on its own.

Recipe:

1/2 C + 3 T Murri

3 T + 2 t Sesame Oil

1/4 C Red Wine Vinegar

2 Cloves Garlic

Puree garlic. Combine with other ingredients and place in lidded container. Shake well before service.

To make Murri:

1 gallon Soy Sauce (make sure ingredient label includes wheat and the word distilled)

1/3 C Dried Thyme

1/3 C Whole Dry Coriander

1 T each Whole Caraway, Whole Nigella, Whole Fenugreek, Whole Anise

1 1/3 T Whole Fennel Seed

Combine all spices in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and crack coarsely to release oils. Pour half of the soy sauce into a clear jar and add the spices, top off with the remaining soy sauce and seal tightly. Place in a sunny spot outdoors and stir daily. After a week strain through fine woven cheese cloth set into a strainer and then return to soy sauce container.

Cena Prima

During the convivium a fully laden table bearing all the food for each course would be carried to the diners and then the individual dishes would be served to the couches from this table. Thus it was termed the First Table or Cena Prima. The Second Table was typically made up of fruits, sweets and beverages. This Secunda Mensae (later known as Bellaria) will be presented separately at the White Rose Ball.

Ferculum

Pork in a Sprightly Sauce:

Discussion: The source that I was able to find that most closely approximates the time and region of Norman Sicily is Salernitan Regimen of Health. The poem dates from the 12th century and is a medical treatise supposedly written by the Medical School of Salerno as instructions on healthy living for the English King. It is not certain who actually wrote the piece, but it is possible that it was Arabic in origin. More on the provenance of this piece can be found at the cited website. Regardless of its origin, the Italian version dates from the 12th century and was available to the people of the time. Salerno is in southern Italy, a mere 100 miles from Palermo (the capital of Sicily) as the crow files. There is a great deal of sage advice in the poem, one tidbit being:

From sage, salt with wine, pepper, garlic, and parsley

Make a sauce, mixing it together in a sprightly manner.

Further on in the text the following is stated:

If you eat pork without wine, it is worse than mutton.

If you add wine to pork, then it is food and medicine.

And finally this:

Why should a man die in whose garden grows sage?

Against the power of death there is not medicine in our gardens

But Sage calms the nerves, takes away hand

Tremors, and helps cure fever...

O sage the savior, of nature the conciliator!

With this ringing endorsement, I would be remiss in my duties to the health of my Crown should I chose not to serve this Sage based dish. And with this dish the singularly most Norman aspect of the feast. As in modern times, the majority of the Arabic population eschews pork and pork products. This dish would have never been found on a Middle Eastern table, but is right at home here in Norman Sicily.

Recipe:

3 lbs Boston Butt

3 T Dried Sage

2 T Dried Parsley

1 C Chardonnay

2 t Kosher Salt

1/2 t Black Pepper<