Stefan's Florilegium

rec-AFCF-art

rec-AFCF-art - 9/17/97

The recipes from Aethelmearc¹s First Crown Feast.

NOTE: See also the files: feasts-msg, feast-ideas-msg, feast-decor-msg,
Fst-Menus-art, fst-disasters-msg, headcooks-msg, kitchen-clean-msg.

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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
seperate 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 orignator(s).

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: Lord Stefan li Rous
mark.s.harris@motorola.com stefan@florilegium.org
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The recipes for Aethelmearc¹s First Crown Feast.

Please note: The Large Sotelties are prepared by the team of Master Dyfan ap
Iago from our Northern Neighboring Shire, Sterlynge Vayle and our own Lord
Ragnar Keitelsson and Lady Rowan of Ashebrook. Many of the Crown Dishes will be
prepared by cooks from throughout the Kingdom-to-be. Most notable are the
contents of the Third Course (the dessert course), all of which are donated by
the Cooks of Aethelmearc and the Known World.

Please enjoy these recipes in the spirit they are offered---in peace and with
the kind support of those around the cooking staff who have washed dishes and
humored us in the hopes that we would survive until the next time.

Lady Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon AND the Cook¹s Guild of Endless Hills.

Pickled Lemons (adapted from Preserved Orenges, Dawson, and A Sallet of Lemons
from A book of Fruits and Flowers, and various anecdotal evidence such as
Elizabeth Ayreton¹s Food in Briton, etc.). This recipe copyright 1997 by L.
Herr-Gelatt.

2 blemish-free lemons
Juice and zest of 1 lemon (no white)
1 cup white wine (sweet, like Rhine wine)
1 c. sugar
1/3 cup vinegar (I used home-made costmary/lemon verbena vinegar)

Cut a small round hole in the 2 lemons the size of the end of your little
finger. Remove the piece of peel. Insert a paring knife into the hole and
give it several twists to loosen and break the membranes. Insert little finger
and press gently against the flesh to try and loosen any pits. Remove the pits
that fall out, and reserve the draining lemon juice for syrup, below.

Gently bring to boil 1 quart of water in a suacepan. Lower lemons into the pan
and boil rapidly 5 minutes. Remove and drain. Repeat 3 more times with fresh
water (it is more efficient to have a pan heating while boiling in another).
Drain them well.

In a separate saucepan combine remaining ingredients (and the drained lemon
juice from above). Bring to a boil to combine, and turn off heat. When lemons
have been boiled in the 4 changes of water, put them (drained) into the wine-
syrup mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer approx. 15 minutes or
until syrup volume has reduced by 1/3-1/2. Cool. Remove lemon zest and reserve
for another use (it is now candied).

Store in an airtight container. Slice lemons thinly or dice and use pieces in
salads.

A Grande Sallet (adapted from T. Dawson, The Good Huswife¹s Jewel, 1596)

To Make a Sallet of all kinde of hearbes

Take your hearbes and pick them very fine into faire water, and picke your
flowers by themselves, and washe them al cleane, and swing them in a strainer,
and when you put them into a dish, mingle them with Cowcumbers or Lemmons pared
and sliced, and scrape Suger, and put in vinegar and Oyle, and throwe the
flowers on the toppe of the sallet, and of every sort of the aforsaide things,
and hard egges boyled and laide about the dish and uppon the sallet

A Grande Sallet

2 heads loose-leaf lettuce (red bib is pretty), washed and torn
1 large bunch dill, roughly chopped
1 large bunch Chives, roughly chopped
1 cucumber, pared and sliced
1 pickled lemon, diced finely, with 1/4 cup syrup reserved
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered for garnish
Marigold, Nasturtium or rose petals (or any edible flower), washed and white
pith removed.
Red wine vinegar
Olive oil

Toss the washed lettuce, chopped herbs, sliced cucumber, and diced lemon. Put
into the serving dish. Arrange hard-boiled eggs and flower petals in a pretty
pattern. Sprinkle with the lemon syrup, red-wine vinegar and oil to taste (or,
mix these to taste, and then pour gently over). Serve immediately. 8-10
servings.

Roasted Pork

Whole bone-in pork loin was smeared with a mixture of the following:
Fennel seed, Pepper, Salt, Garlic powder, onion powder, cilantro. Pork was
refrigerated to incorporate the flavor, and then roasted until done.

Savory Toasted Cheese--with many thanks to Master Dyfan ap Iago and the
cooks of SCA-COOKS for the ³Cheese Goo² recipes, and to Lord Valerie Killmister
who is preparing this dish for Crown.

1 round Loaf of bread sliced in 1/2
1/2 lbs Cream Cheese
1/4 lbs Brie
2 Tbs of Butter
3 Tbs of onion finely chopped
1 Thin Slice of Ham (optional)

In double boiler melt 1 Tbs of the butter, Cream Cheese, Brie. Blend until
smooth and creamy. Saute onions in the remaining butter, drain off butter then
add to melted Cheese, stir. Spread over the 2 rounds of the bread, place Ham
strips or (design) on top. Place in a broiler until Cheese is toasted 2-3 min.
Let cool till it is safe to eat (melted cheese burns your mouth and hands).
Basic recipe from Dyfan

The original recipe for Renaissance Applesauce:
From The Goode Huswife's Jewel by Thomas Dawson, 1596:
To Make Apple Moyse

Roste your apples, and when they be rosted, pill and straind them into a
dish, and pare a dozen of apples and cut them into a chafer, and put in a
little white wine and a little butter, and let them boil till they be as
soft as Pap, and stirre them a little, and straine them to some wardens
rosted and pilled and put in some Suger, Synamon, and Ginger, and make
Diamonds of Paste, and lay them in the Sunne, then scrape a little Suger
uppon them in the dish.

In modern terms:
Take pie crust dough and cut it into 4 inch square diamond shapes. Bake
these in the oven (according to package directions) until crisp. Sprinkle
sugar on them as they come out of the oven.
Roast 6 apples and 6 pears in the oven (roast them whole) until soft
(about 350 degrees, and I suggest you put 1/2 cup of water in the dish to
speed things up a bit, and cover them with foil).

Meanwhile, peel and core and slice 6 more apples. Put the slices in a
large pot, add 1/2 cup white wine, 1/4 cup of butter, and 1/2 cup of
sugar. Cook these covered, and stir occasionally, over low heat until
very soft (the slices will break apart somewhat. That's OK. You're making
fancy applesauce). When soft, take them off the heat and put them aside.

When the apples and pears in the oven are soft, cool them a little to
make them easy to handle. Take off the peels gently, take out the cores,
and put them into a strainer (colander) Hold this over your pot with the
wine/apple slices. Mash the apples and pears through the strainer into
the pot.

(A redaction note: I found the pears (I used Bosc) hard to mash and had to whirl
them in the food processor. The pears have been left out for this feast version:
Instead a combination of apples were used---Empire (a Macintosh Highbrid) for
tartness, Granny Smith for High Apple Flavor, and Cortland for sweetness, rich
color, and resistance to excessive browning ).
Add 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. Ginger. I added a dash of nutmeg, which was
not in the original. Mix well. Cool. Put into a fancy bowl. When ready to serve,
top with your pastry "diamonds"

To make a Tarte of Spinadge , The Good Huswife¹s Jewel, T. Dawson 1596

Take spinadge and seeth it stalk and all, and when it is tenderly sodden, take
it off, and let it drayne in a Cullynder, and then swing it in a clowte, and
stamp it and straine it with two or three yolkes of egges, and then set it on a
chafin-dish of coales, and season it with butter and Suger, and when the paste
is hardened in the Oven, put in this commode, strake it even.

As this recipe was very bland, I ³doctored² it, however the results justify the
change! We baked the spinach custard rather than creating a stirred custard for
convenience sake.

2-- 9-inch pie shells, prebaked 7-10 minutes
1--1 lb. spinach, washed and tough stems removed
1 medium sweet onion, sliced thinly and then roughly chopped
4 tbsp. butter
8 egg yolks
2/3 cup light cream
2/3 cup Romano or Parmesan Cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper to taste

Pre-bake the pie shells. While they are in the oven, plunge the spinach into
boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and then plunge into cold water.
Drain very well. Wring out excess moisture with your hands by squeezing. Roughly
chop the spinach.
Saute the onion in the butter until transparent, and add this to the spinach.
Lightly combine the egg yolks, cream and cheese. Toss with the spinach and
divide this mixture between the pie shells. If desired, sprinkle with salt and
pepper.
Bake approx 30 minutes, or until egg is set. Protect the edges of the crust, if
necessary, to prevent burning.

To make a Tart of Parsneps and Scyrrets, from Martha Washington
1749, containing recipes from at least the previous century.

Seeth yr roots in water& wine, then pill them & beat them in a morter, with raw
eggs & grated bread. bedew them often with rosewater & wine, then streyne them &
put suger to them * some juice of leamons, & put it into ye crust; & when yr
tart is baked cut up & butter it hot, or you may put some butter into it, when
you set it into ye oven, & eat it cold. Ye juice of leamon you may eyther put in
or leave out at yr pleasure.

We chose carrots for flavor and color, Scyrets (a white root resembling the
shape and flavor of carrots) not being available. Besides, that makes the tarte
red and white!

The redaction (Redacted By Lord Ragnar Keitelson, Prepared by he and his Lady
Wife Rowan of Ashebrook):
3/4 lb. carrots
3/4 lb. parsnips
2 c. wine
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. wine and/or rosewater
2 eggs
1 c. breadcrumbs
1 deepdish pie crust

egg for glaze

Peel and chop roots. Boil in 1 qt H2O and the 2 c. wine until soft. Mash
roughly with 1 c. breadcrumbs, the eggs, the butter, melted, sugar, and rest of
wine/rosewater. A rough texture here is fine. Put into pre-glazed pie crust
(brush some of the egg across the bottom to prevent soggy crust), glaze top with
remaining egg, put in pre-heated 400 degree oven for 50 mins.

Beef and Game Pies--as posted on SCA-Cooks by Aoife
³I've been reading about the "bastardized beef in the form of Red Deer", and
have come to the conclusion that it was a common practice to marinate venison
before cooking. When the Deer Population died out from over-hunting, (England)
in period, the same method was applied to Beef in an attempt to mask the beef
flavor. Apparently, it was met with varying levels of success.

³I'll give the originals, which we followed fairly closely, from Martha
Washington. Although it can be argued that she's "Not Period", I'd like to point
out that the frontspage of the book says "Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery
and Booke of Sweetmeats: being a Family Manuscript, curiously copied by an
Unknown Hand in the Seventeenth Century, which was in her keeping from 1749, the
time of her Marriage to Daniel Custis, to 1799, at which time she gave it to
Eleanor Parke Custis, her Granddaughter, on the occaision of her marriage to
Lawrence Lewis." This puts a great many of the recipes within our grasp
(whatever date we individually decide our "grasp" is), and it is fairly clear to
me that some of these recipes are indeed direct from England during our period--
-otherwise why on earth would someone in the colonies want to fake "Red Dear"
when venison was so readily available here? I have chosen to use recipes that
have strong elements of other period practices, and it was my job to sort this
out for myself before presenting these recipes for redaction. This discussion
could take long hours to resolve, so I'll just go right to the recipes.²

³To Make Red Dear of Beef ³ rcpt 48

³First take a piece of young buttock of beefe & larde it. Yn season it wth
nutmegg, ginger, pepper & salt. Yn lay it in calrret wine, & a little wine
vinegar for a day or two, then put it in a coarse paste with a good deale of
butter, & when you set it into ye oven, put in the vinegar & let it be well
soaked. A neats tongue soe seasoned is excellent good meat, & allsoe veal.²

³Another Way To Make Beef Like Red Deare² rcpt 49

³Take a piece of ye clod of beefe next ye legge & cut ye sinews from it; then
put it in a clean cloth & beat it extremely; yn lard it very well, & season it
with nutmegg, pepper, & salt; then lay it on a clean dish & pour upon it halfe a
pinte of white wine & as much wine vinegar. let it lye insteepe al night, & ye
next day poure away ye vinegar & wine. put ye meat in a round coffin of paste
crust & lay s or 3 bay leaves under and as many above it. put in a store of
butter, & let it stand 6 hours in ye oven. make a hole in ye lid & fill it up
with butter when it comes out of ye oven.²

³Redaction Experiments made by Sigurd.²
³Now, we adulterated these recipes slightly for several reasons: I have a small
supply of real venison, enabling me to put some in each pie. So we used approx.2
lbs beef and 1 lb venison, which we cut up to mingle. Then we followed the
recipes as we chose: Claret is a sweet wine, so it makes an excellent marinade.
We added nutmeg, ginger, salt, pepper, and red wine vinegar. The meat needs to
be wrung out fairly dry before putting into the pastry. Bay leaves go above and
below it, as stated--we used 6-8 fresh ones.It is then dotted with 2 tbsp.
butter and a little vinegar poured on (we used my own herbed vinegar, but red-
wine vinegar would do). We made a hot-water pastry with whole wheat flour,
butter, salt, and hot water, and raised a coffin to put the meat in (it took
about 1 1/2 lbs flour). This type of pastry hardens when cool but uncooked
(reminiscent of play-doh), enabling the filled crust to stand alone like a semi-
soft box (coffin) with a lid. Had it been left to chill it would have hardened.
It was baked at 350 for about 1 1/2 hours, and was quite juicy and wondeful.
When we do this for real, we'll give it a longer marinade time. It only had 2
hours due to time constraints.²

³To Season a Venison Pasty² rcpt 51

³Take out ye bones & turn ye fat syde down upon a board. Yn take ye pill of 2
leamons & break them in pieces as long as yr finger & thrust them into every
hole of yr venison. then take 2 ounces of beaten pepper & thrice as much salt,
mingle it, then wring out ye juice of leamon into ye pepper & salt & season it,
first takeing out ye leamon pills haveing layn soe a night. then paste it with
gross pepper layd on ye top & good store of butter or mutton suet.²

³Redaction experiments by Lord Valerie Killmister.
This is straight forward and quite tasty: we again mixed small chunks of beef
and venison in a (pounds) 2:1 proportion. We seasoned with a marinade of fresh
lemon peel, lemon juice, salt--we used rather less than called for--and pepper.
This sat about 4 hours. Again, it needs to be wrung out (pressed) pretty
throroughly, as the meat/ venison retained much of the marinade. Again, we
raised a wheat coffin and put in the meat mixture, and sprinkled with pepper and
lemon zest rather heavily, a sprinkle of lemon juice, and dotted with about 2
tbsp. butter before closing the pastry. It was baked the same as the above pie.
This one was my favorite.²

³I'd like to note that these redacted recipes are the creation of the cook's
guild of Endless Hills, and not specifically my own. I had a hand in supervising
(and tasting!), but some of these were made by novices, with truly wonderful
results. They did a fabulous job....some of them were redacting for the very
first time.²

³'Raising coffins' also belongs to another discussion another day, but for those
who have not tried hot-water pastry, I urge you to experiment. Imagine making
pastry without any flour flying all over the counter/floor/cook! You don't need
pie plates (which render your creations "tarts" and not pies), and the contents
of the pies are generally denser and more satisfying (at least to my brit-blood
palate). Besides, they're fun to make, thus appealing to the kitchen hands
who're looking a little bored.²

White Torta (Ginger Cheesecake)
as featured in Tournaments Illuminated Spring 1993, Issue #106, based on two
White Torta recipes, from On Honest Indulgence, and Epullario.
Cheese Filling:
24 oz. Ricotta cheese
12 egg whites
2 c. sugar
3/4 lb. softened butter
1/2 c. milk
1 2-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and chopped fine
dash of rosewater
2 9-inch pie shells, pre-baked
Variations: add any of the following: 2 tbsp. cinnamon, or 2 pinches saffron, or
1/4 cup liqeur

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
While pre-heating, beat Ricotta with mixer or whisk until smooth. Add sugar and
beat again until smooth and light. Blend in the butter and milk. Add ginger (and
other flavorings if desired).

Beat egg whites untill stiff. Fold into cheese mixture. Add a dash of rosewater.
Fill pie shells and bake for approx. 45 minutes (or until center is firm). Chill
well before serving. Note: we topped with a red sugar ³escarbuncle².

<the end>