polenta-msg - 7/22/10

Period polenta. wheat and maize polenta.

NOTE: See also the files: flour-msg, rice-msg, grains-msg, maize-msg, bread-msg, breakfast-msg,  cooking-oils-msg, butter-msg, porridges-msg, fd-Italy-msg, Italy-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 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.

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 14:27:41 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - pulentium

> On another list polenta was discussed.  On researching the word origin I
> found that its origin as a food is a chestnut base from the Etruscans.
> None of the online sources of Apicius have a recipe for it so I was
> wondering if one of you fine SCA cooks who has Apicius' recipe book could
> check to see if it contains a recipe for pulentium.  Any help would be
> appreciated.
> Celestria

I don't have Apicius or Pliny handy, but polenta is fairly straight forward.
Take 1 cup of coarsely ground grain meal, 2 to 3 cups of water, and about a
teaspoon of salt.  Put the salt in the water, bring the water to a boil and
add the grain meal.  Stir often.  Cook it near the boil for about five to
ten minutes then simmer until the meal absorbs the water and the cooked mass
starts to pull away from the sides of the pot.  Put the mush into a bowl and
let it cool and set up.  Invert the bowl on a plate and you have a loaf of
polenta.  Use a string to cut it.

Polenta is descriptive of the mush either as a thick gruel or a loaf.  I've
seen recipes from Antiquity for both wheat and barley polenta.  If I
remember correctly, the wheat polenta with honey is from Apicius.  The
modern incarnation of this dish is made with corn meal.  I grew up knowing
it as corn meal mush.

Bear


Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 10:28:48 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - corn vs. polenta

> Does anyone have any Idea when Polenta was first cooked, and did it have
> any antecedents that predate the introduction of EarCorn? I think that
> barley, peas, and farina can all produce a similar pastes, was there a
> polenta type dish in our "Period"?
>
> Brandu

Polenta is crushed and boiled grain.  It takes the form of a thick gruel or
a coarse loaf shaped by some container, commonly a bowl.  It was a staple of
the Roman legions.  Apicius and Pliny give recipes for polenta, the first of
fine wheat, the second of barley.

Maize polenta appears to be very late period and most common to Northern
Italy, which is the grain belt of the country.

Modern polenta is primarily cooked corn meal and is regionally known in the
U.S. as cornmeal mush.

A basic recipe for polenta is heat three cups of water to boiling, add a
teaspoon of salt and one cup of grain.  Continue boiling, stirring the
mixture often, until the grain absorbs the water and the gruel thickens to
the desired consistency (thicker for loafs than gruel).  Serve or scoop into
a bowl and allow to cool.  With modern heat sources, you may want to boil
this for about 10 minutes, then reduce the heat and simmer to reduce the
chance of burning the polenta.

Loaves can be cut with a string.  Slices can be served cold or reheated.
Fine wheat or corn polenta, pan fried and served with honey or syrup is
quite tasty.

Bear


Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 18:34:49 -0400
From: Mike Hobbs <llewmike at iwaynet.net>
Subject: Re: SC - corn vs. polenta

Gedney, Jeff wrote:
> Does anyone have any Idea when Polenta was first cooked, and did it have
> any antecedents that predate the introduction of EarCorn?

Spelt makes an excellent period polenta.  LLEW


Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 21:38:10 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Polenta

I thought I had posted some polenta recipes a few months ago and was
discussing polenta with Sarah privately to conserve bandwidth.  Since my
earlier post seems elusive, let me post the recipes in question.

Bear

Fried Creamed Wheat

(Apicius 301, as taken from Giacosa, A Taste of Ancient Rome)

Aliter dulcia:  Accipies similam, coques in aqua calida ita ut durissimam
pultem facias, deinde in patellam expandis.  Cum refrixerit, concidis quasi
dulcia et frigis in oleo optimo.  Levas, perfundis mel, piper aspergis et
inferes.  Melius feceris, si lac pro aqua miseris.

Another sweet dish:  Take flour, cook in hot water so that it becomes a very
firm polenta, then spread it on a plate.  When it has cooled, cut it as for
sweet cakes and fry in oil of the finest quality.  Remove, pour honey over,
sprinkle with pepper and serve.  You will do even better if you use milk
instead of [water].  [corrected 12/05 – Stefan]

Barley Polenta

(Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 18, 73, as taken from Giacosa, A Taste of
Ancient Rome)

Vicenis hordei libris ternas seminis lini et coriandri selibram salisque
acetabulum.

For each 20 librae of barley, 3 librae of linseeds and 1/2 libra of
coriander, in addition to an acetabulum of salt.

 Serves 4.

12 oz. ground barley
3 Tbs. linseeds
2 tsp. coriander
sufficient salt

Boil 1 quart of water, gradually add the ingredients, and leave to cook for
approximately 1 hour.  Add more boiling water if the barley consumes too
much.  A more flavorful polenta can be obtained by cooking the barley in
meat stock or vegetable broth instead of water.

Baric's Polenta

Take 1 cup of millet and crush it (I ran mine through a spice grinder).
Put 3 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt in a pan.  Bring to a boil.
Dissolve 1/4 cup honey in the boiling water.
Add the millet and cook until the mixture is stiff and the water is
absorbed.
Scrape the mixture into a bowl and allow to cool and set up (refrigeration
works best, but the loaf can be cooled on the counter).
When the loaf is cool, put a plate over the bowl and invert plate and bowl.
The loaf should drop onto the plate.
Slice the loaf with a fine cord and serve it forth.

Millet is slightly sour to my taste, so I chose to the honey to smooth the
flavor.
Millet is very granular and tends to be crumbly.  I am thinking of adding
some wheat flour for the cohesiveness of the gluten.


Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 11:54:43 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: SC - Polenta

Sarah Elmore very graciously sent me this information about improving my
polenta.  I'm forwarding it to the list as an addendum to the polenta
recipes.

Thanks again, Sarah.

Bear

> We tried your recipe. The changes that we made helped a lot.
>
> First we dry roasted the millet. This added considerable time but there
> was no sour taste. The woman that I talkedto a the mill said that this is
> needed with most of the grains that we are working with.
>
> Second. We added some millet flour. This help considerable with the
> crumbling that you mentioned. I also found that after dry roasting the
> millet the grain ground a little better. this might have also helped.
>
> Thank you very much. We ended up doing both a morning and dinner polenta.
> They we both enjoyed.
>
> Sarah
> St. Urban


Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 23:33:18 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Venizia - off topic [back on topic]

> Tomato sauces and polenta are from
> New World plants (polenta is always made from corn/maize, isn't it?), so
> they would certainly not be in use by the 13th c.,
<deleted>
> Elizabeth/Betty Cook

Polenta is a generic name for cooked grain.  Usually it is cooked very dry
and shaped into a loaf, but it can be served as a gruel.
Pliny gives a recipe for barley polenta.  Apicius give a recipe for wheat
polenta served with honey.  Modern polenta is most often made from corn meal
and is more commonly found in Northern Italy.

Bear


Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 10:17:40 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Breakfast

"Decker, Terry D." wrote, re polenta:
> Interesting, I normally mold it, slice it and fry it ala Apicius (well,
> actually, ala mother, she was doing it before I knew Apicius existed).  I
> can see polenta being eaten communally from a pot, a bowl, or a platter, but
> given the nature of the dish dumping it on the table is possible, but seems
> wasteful.  Do you happen to have recipes and documentation for the
> particular dish and practice?

I must shamefacedly admit the best polenta I ever had was made in a
Provencale restaurant I worked in, which we made with plain salted water
and held, cool, for service, at which time we would mash an order
smooth, add a dash of extra-virgin olive oil and a big spoonful of
mascarpone and some grated parmagianno-reggio, and reheat, covered with
plaswrap, _in a microwave_ !!!

The entire mass would leak just a bit of combined olive oil and
butterfat, and we were able to toss it in the plastic bowl (inertia
only, no utensils needed) until it was a smooth, satin-shiny golden
yellow ball, which got garnished with various things like escargots or
chicken oysters. Regardless of garnish, the polenta was surprisingly
good considering the punishment it took.

Adamantius
Østgardr, East


Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 09:28:26 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Breakfast

> This is how my husband's family always ate it.  They are from Sicily,
> however, not Italy proper.  When the occassion called for a sauce on the
> polenta, plates or bowls were  used.  It was always made very thick and to
> this day my husband hates the stuff!

I wonder if this is a hold over from when the Arabs held Sicily.  In
Northern Italy, thin polenta tends to be served in a bowl and thick polenta
is often molded and served as a fancy loaf.  While corn isn't period,
polenta can be made from any ground cereal.

> Where I'm from we just eat grits, "same thing only different".  I am also
> pleased to say we used bowls or plates...always.
>
> Isabella/Dee

Not quite the same thing, but the principle is the same.  Grits are mealed
hominy.  Modern polenta tends to be regular corn meal.  I've found I prefer
butter, salt and pepper for the grits and the polenta sliced, fried and
served with maple syrup (traditionally that should be honey, but I'll go
American).

So far, I've tried corn, wheat, millet and barley in polenta and it's a toss
up between the millet and the wheat as to which is best.

Bear


Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 06:50:53 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - A Dilemma on what to cook for Dinner-HELP!

> "ana l. valdes" wrote:
> > I had the great polenta recipe.
> > Here it comes:
> >
> > Boil one liter water on a pan
> > Add the polenta (200 grams to a liter water) grain and take away of the
> > stove
>
> This sounds lovely! I have a question, though. If this is indeed
> attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, that would put it at the late 15th,
> early 16th centuries. Do we have any reason to believe that the polenta
> grain called for (if the word polenta is used) is in fact maize? Hasn't
> polenta referred in the past to both chestnut meal and barley meal
> cereal? Da Vinci's contemporary, Platina, seems to refer to polenta as a
> barley meal product.
>
> I'm sure it's lovely made with those, too, though!
>
> Adamantius

I believe you will find polenta is used to describe cereal grains cooked
drier than a puls and often shaped into loaves.  Apicius gives a recipe for
wheat polenta and Cato (IIRC) gives one for barley.

There is a 29 year window when maize could have been used in Leonardo's
lifetime.  Of this, the most probable period he would have come in contact
with maize is his second Florentine stay from 1500 to 1515.  After this time
he was in France and before it he was serving Milan in a often itinerant
capacity.

I don't recall any references to Leonardo and maize, although if it had been
available his experimental bent would probably have made him one of the
first to use it.  I would say the connection is probably apocryphal.

As for the maize, it may have been in use in Italy early in the 16th
Century.  It was probably imported by the Venetians who were the major
traders between Spain and Turkey.  It was certainly known by the end of the
16th Century.

Bear


Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 08:44:33 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - A Dilemma on what to cook for Dinner-HELP!

Having been pressed for time when I answered originally, let me also say you
can get a finer grained polenta by using the corn flour which is used for
tortillas.

If you are looking for cereal meals to cook into polenta, look for farinas.
A farina is a finely ground meal commonly cooked as puls or pudding.

Bear


Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 13:19:44 -0500 
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Urgent query

> The ancient Greeks used to make what they call puls...a flat 
> bread, cooked on hot rocks and used as a dish for eating other foods.  
> 
> Balthazar of Blackmoor

Puls is a dish of cooked grain which can be of almost any consistency.  The
dry form, pulentium, is basically polenta.  IIRC, the term "puls" is derived
from Latin rather than Greek.  

I might also argue against the hot rocks business unless we are talking
about field preparation.  The Greeks had cloche ovens.

Bear


Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2000 11:50:33 -0500 
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC -corn in the USA

Polenta describes a boiled grain meal usually cooked drier than a puls or a
gruel.  Apicius has a recipe for one from fine wheat flour which is sliced,
fried and served with honey.  Cato (IIRC) speaks of barley polenta.

Bear


Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 09:29:23 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Which is which?

XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com wrote:
> Is Semolina and Polenta the same thing or byproducts of something? And if I
> have a recipe calling for semolina, can I use polenta? Thanks!
>
> Misha

There are a lot of variables. It's true that polenta has been made from
semolina (which is itself a preparation of durum wheat), but generally
polenta _today_ refers to a preparation of yellow corn meal. Geography
may also be a factor, but probably less so now than, say, 100+ years
ago, given the increased availability of freight transport.

Polenta can be made from virtually any grain - it has been,
historically, made from barley, chestnuts, wheat, and corn. Semolina, on
the other hand, is used for lots of things in addition to its occasional
appearance in polenta. It's also used for gnocchi, pastas and couscous,
in breads, and quite extensively in various desserts.

Adamantius, who likes mascarpone in his polenta


From: rcmann4 at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 20:17:50 -0400
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Which is which?

On 14 Jun 01,, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> Polenta can be made from virtually any grain - it has been,
> historically, made from barley, chestnuts, wheat, and corn.

> Adamantius, who likes mascarpone in his polenta

Granado has a recipe for millet polenta.  (He doesn't *call* it polenta, but
the cooked grain is mixed with egg and grated cheese, then cooled and
sliced, and the slices fried in butter.  If it quacks like a polenta...)

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Which is which?
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 08:42:27 -0500

> Is Semolina and Polenta the same thing or byproducts of
> something? And if I
> have a recipe calling for semolina, can I use polenta? Thanks!
>
> Misha

Semolina is the "middlings" from milling durum wheat.  It is a high gluten,
coarse wheat flour used in making pasta.

Polenta is an Italian dish of cooked grain flour molded into some shape
(barley and wheat were used in Antiquity, maize is used today).  If you have
"polenta meal" or "polenta flour," it is a fancy way of saying corn (maize)
meal.  Sometimes, you can get polenta that comes wrapped like a sausage or
cookie dough.  This is already cooked grain molded into a tube to be sliced,
heated and eaten.

If I had to replace semolina in a recipe, I would consider spelt flour, a
50/50 mix of whole wheat and white flour, whole wheat flour and white flour
in that order to approximate the gluten and texture of semolina.  In my
opinion, only the spelt would be a good trade for the semolina.

Locally, semolina runs about $1/pound where whole wheat and white flour run
$0.20/pound, so I only keep 3 to 5 pounds on hand for specialized baking
projects.

Bear


Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 15:09:56 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Indian Maize in Italy in period??????
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> I've never done my own polenta...  any hints, suggestions, or outright
> recipes from the house?
>
> Grise

The quick recipe is 2 to 3 cups of water, 1 cup of meal and a little salt.
Bring the water and salt to a boil, stir in the meal reduce the heat to a
low simmer and let the meal absorb the liquid.  This forms a porridge about
the consistency of Cream of Wheat (polenta by another name).  It can be
eaten as porridge or the porridge can be placed into a bowl and allowed to
cool to form a loaf.  The loaf can be sliced and fried.

Pliny references barley polenta with linseeds and coriander.  Apicius uses
wheat meal, suggests replacing the water with milk and make fried polenta
served with honey and pepper.  There are references to all of this out in
the florilegium, so I won't get into a lot of detail.

Bear


Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 19:11:34 -0800
From: "Nick Sasso" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Winter comfort food...
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

As in a dish found in Apicius.  Fried Creamed Wheat (I've done it  
with Creamof Wheat <TM> with pretty good results as well.)

These cakes from Apicius appeal to me as a simple dish that people in
southeastern US can relate to and still admit they are eating food from 200
AD.  Fried mush where the mush is actually wheat instead of corn.  You can
translate it into corn polenta instead and make it still more familiar, but
less Roman.  I plan to use it at a banquet this weekend and use a blend of
semolina and coarse corn meal as my grains, chicken stock as my liquid, and
butter, parmesan and a pinch of saffron as my seasonings.

Cook until very thick; cool; cut into diamonds or triangles; egg wash and
breadcrumbs; fry until golden brown (I'll deep fry for convenience sake).
They hold for 45 minutes to an hour with little quality drop.

niccolo difrancesco

> On Dec 5, 2005, at 2:12 PM, Nick Sasso wrote:
>> If you cut it in smaller pieces, dredge in breadcrumbs instead then fry,
>> and serve with a roast, you get an Apician dish that goes
>> fabulously with Prime Rib roast for the holidays!!
>
> Apician as in, fit for a gourmet, or Apician as in, there's a recipe
> in Apicius for this?
>
>> It ain't yorkshire pudding . . . and it is reminiscent of those
>> fried potato triangles you get at Arby's in the south USA.
>
> Adamantius


Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:52:11 -0400
From: "Nick Sasso" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] medieval boil-in bag meals
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

-----Original Message-----
This year, for that event, Friday night I brought pre-cooked and
frozen polenta and sauce. Not even faintly medieval, but available in
my freezer (the week before spun a bit out of my control) and easy to
reheat for a quick meal after set up. . . . <SNIP>

Ya' know, if you make that polenta out of coarse ground semolina, some broth
and a little hard grating cheese, you are in the realm of Maetro Martino's
recipe from 1400's Naples.  My version, along with Italian language
transcription and Scully's translation are here:

http://franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/cemolella_ciciliana.htm

Happy polenting!

pacem et pizza,
niccolo difrancesco


Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:19:12 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] polenta or rice dish?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Brighid ni Chiarain gave two recipes using rice in reply to comments
> about a polenta dish. While these were sent in reply to a polenta
> dish, they aren't considered polenta dishes, correct?

Correct.  They are similar in being grain-with-cheese dishes, but the
recipes I gave are not polenta.

> Polenta is made
> with wheat or (late in period) corn (maize) meal, and not rice,  
> correct?

I believe that one of the defining criteria of polenta is that it's made
from meal (ground or crushed grain) and is cooked into a porridge/mush.
Granado has a millet recipe that seems to be a kind of polenta: cooked
millet, mixed with cheese, cooled, sliced, and fried in butter.  As with
most of Granado, the original may be from Scappi.  (Paging Mistress
Helewyse...)
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom


Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 10:20:09 -0500
From: "Kingstaste" <kingstaste at comcast.net>
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] 12th Nights

I made Fried Mush, which was a big hit.
 
I had a box of multi-grain cereal meal that I had bought because it was
wheat-free, only to find that it wasn't gluten-free as it contained barley.
I was making a pot of turkey stock with the carcass from a big dinner the
day before, so fresh turkey stock, one box of wheat-free mulit-grain cereal
mix, and some salt, then cooked long enough to soften all the various grains
and poured into a cookie sheet and left to chill overnight.  In the morning
I cut it into triangles and fried each one on my iron griddle.  I finished
them off with some sea salt and a sprinkling of fresh green coriander
(cilantro leaves).  They made a lovely large stack of GBD triangles, and
since one of the main dish offerings was a stew, they went beautifully with
that.

I tried to find the entry in Apicius that I thought I remembered that was
basically fried polenta, but I couldn't find it, so they went entirely
undocumented.  Ah well, didn't stop people from clearing the platter of
them!

Christianna


Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 00:04:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pre-1600 recipes for "anchient grains"

--- On Mon, 4/5/10, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
(much snippage)
Is your info on millet polenta medieval? I think I only have info on wheat and maize polenta, so I'd like to see your info on millet polenta.

Stefan
===============

I encountered, years ago, a book in which much was made of the cutting down of chestnut trees in Italy, and the consequent complaints of the poor that they could no longer make polenta. That led to my finding these recipes:

http://bendaniel.org/?p=45#more-45

http://www.academiabarilla.com/recipes/toscana/pattona-chestnut-cake.aspx

As you can see, the techniques are very different. But the common factor is the use of chestnuts before the introduction of maize. The latter produced so much more salable product, with so much less labor, that the vast chestnut groves were not long for this world once Italy had maize.
There are several other recipes using chestnuts from Italy, but I don't know how old they are.

Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-

(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.

Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict


Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 07:54:15 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Polenta was Pre-1600 recipes for "anchient
	grains"

Polenta is a reference to pearl barley which was the primary grain of the 
Roman Republic and to the porridge made from barley (IIRC, the Florilegium 
has a recipe for barley polenta from Cato).  The wheat polenta comes from 
Apicius.  Maize polenta pops up in the 16th Century after maize was 
introduced into Northern Italy.  In its general usage, polenta is meal or 
flour cooked in liquid until thickened.  As near as I can tell, the 
consistency can be from porridge to solid, molded loaf.

The use of chestnut meal to make polenta is believed to date to Antiquity. 
If so, it would also be a medieval dish.

I know of no period recipes for millet polenta, but the grain was available 
and the method of preparation is so simple and common that it was almost 
certainly done.

BTW, lightly toasting grain meals in the oven before making polenta improves 
the flavor.

Bear


Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 07:50:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Raphaella DiContini <raphaellad at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Millet Polenta & "Maize" frumenty was
	"anchient	grains"

Here's the "millet polenta with verjuice" recipe from the anon. Venetian: 

LV. Panicata con agresta.

Se tu voy fare panichata con agresta, toy lo panico pesto e ben lavata la schorza e ben monda, e toy do libre de mandole ben monde e ben macenate e distemperate con aqua chiara, e toy tre oche e mitile a rosto, e miti a fogo lo late de le mandole, le do parte e 'l panizo ben mondo, e fay coxere, e quando ? ben cocto, toy lo grasso de l' ocha e mitillo entro lo panizo ed altro grasso frescho de struto che sia de porcho e una quantitade de zucharo e sale tanto che basta. Questa vivanda vuole essere biancha al pi? che tu poi, e volse dare per scudelle e zucharo de sopra e le oche per taiere con uno altro savore, e vuole essere fatto como disse. Chi tolle lo figato de l' ocha e rossi d' ova lessali insieme e quando sono cocti, pestali in mortaro con bone specie fine [e] distempera cum l' alessa?ra e con un pocho d' aceto e d' agresta e falo coxere a questo savore vole essere camelino.

LV Millet polenta with verjuice

If you want to make a millet polenta with verjuice.  Take millet, which has been washed free of the husk, peeled and ground.  Take two pounds of peeled ground almonds which have been tempered/mixed with clear water (and the almond milk strained off).  Take three geese and put them to roast.  Put (one half of) the almond milk on the fire, mix the remainder with the ground millet, then add to the pan and allow to cook.  When it is well cooked take the goose grease and mix it into the polenta, or use any other fresh fat that you have from pork, and add a quantity of sugar and sufficient salt (to season to taste).  This dish should be as white as possible.  It should be served in a dish with sugar dusted on top, and the sliced geese served carved with another sauce.  And it (the sauce) should be made as is said (here).  Take the liver of the geese and egg yolks and boil them together, and when they are cooked grind them in a mortar with fine, good spices,
temper/mix them with the cooking water and with a little bit of vinegar and verjuice, and cook, this sauce should be a camel/beige color.

There is another interesting grain recipe in this source that is currently translated in the title as "Maize" but then calls for wheat in the body of the recipe itself: 

XXIV.	Formentra bona e utille perfetta.
Se tu voy fare formentra, toy lo formento, e pestelo ben fin s? che lieva la scorza; poy lavalo ben, poy lo meti a bolire non tropo, poy getta via l? aqua, poy lo meti entro quello grasso de la carne che tu cosi, e volo essere spesso non tropo, e mitili spesie dolze e forte, e zaferano, e se tu non avesse formento, toy rixo; sar? bono.

XXIV Maize dish (Frumenty) good and very useful. 
If you want to make frumenty, take the wheat berries, and grind/beat it well until the husk lifts, then wash it well.  Put it to boil in water, but don?t boil it too much, then pour away the water.  Then add inside the fat of whichever animal you wish, and you want to make sure that you don?t add too much.  Add sweet and strong spices, and saffron, and if you don?t have wheat then you can take rice, and it will be good.

In joyous service, 
Raffaella 

--- On Tue, 4/6/10, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:
<<< Polenta is a reference to pearl
barley which was the primary grain of the Roman Republic and
to the porridge made from barley (IIRC, the Florilegium has
a recipe for barley polenta from Cato). The wheat
polenta comes from Apicius. Maize polenta pops up in
the 16th Century after maize was introduced into Northern
Italy. In its general usage, polenta is meal or flour
cooked in liquid until thickened. As near as I can
tell, the consistency can be from porridge to solid, molded
loaf.

The use of chestnut meal to make polenta is believed to
date to Antiquity. If so, it would also be a medieval dish.

I know of no period recipes for millet polenta, but the
grain was available and the method of preparation is so
simple and common that it was almost certainly done.

BTW, lightly toasting grain meals in the oven before making
polenta improves the flavor.

Bear >>>


Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 11:20:38 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Polenta was Pre-1600 recipes for "anchient
	grains"

On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 8:54 AM, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:
<<< I know of no period recipes for millet polenta, but the grain was available
and the method of preparation is so simple and common that it was almost
certainly done. >>>

There's one in Granado which was plagiarized from Scappi.  Since
Scappi is nearer to hand...

186.  To prepare a thick soup of cracked millet or foxtail millet.

    Get cracked millet or foxtail millet, although the latter is much
better and tastier than ordinary millet.  Clean any dust and other
dirt from it -- that is, clean it of any grit the way hard wheat is
done -- and put it into an earthenware or tinned copper pot with a
meat borth.  Cook it along with saveloy or a piece of salt pork jowl
to heighten the flavour.  When it is done, combine it with grated
cheese, beaten eggs, pepper, cinnamon, and saffron.  Those grains can
also be cooked in goat's or cow's milk the way semolina is done in
Recipe 153.  Also, after they are cooked in broth and are fairly firm,
they can be taken out of the pot and let cool on a table or in another
wooden or earthenware vessel.  When they have thoroughly cooled, cut
them into slices and saute those in fresh butter in a pan.  Serve them
hot, dressed with sugar and cinamon.

From: The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570), translated by Terence Scully.

Brighid ni Chiarain

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	polenta-msg	Page 14 of 14