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Kostlich-art - 5/14/20

"Selections from 'Köstlich New Kochbuch'" by Magister Giano Balestriere OL.

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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.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous

Stefan at florilegium.org

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Translations from 'Köstlich New Kochbuch'

by Magister Giano Balestriere OL

In March 2020, Volker Bach (Magister Giano Balestriere OL) started posting on the Internet, in the facebook "SCA Cooks" group and elsewhere his translation of Ana Wecker's 'Köstlich New Kochbuch' . I (hopefully) have captured all of his postings and many of the comments about them that others have made.

While I was waiting for him to finish, I decided that I will go ahead and publish what I have. I will be adding more as he posts more. I am always interested in getting redactions that folks have worked out, and hopefully cooked. I will add them below also, or as separate files.

I have posted these in the order that Volker posted them. But here is a table of contents that I've tried to create. - Stefan.

Table of Contents by given manuscript numbers (of what has been posted).

p. 1 Ein Mandelmilch mach also

(Make almond milk thus)

p. 14 Ein dorten oder fladen von Reiß

(A tart or fladen (flat cake) of rice)

p. 23 Ein gesetzte Milch

p, 24 A hedgehog

(A hedgehog shaped rice pudding)

p. 24 Ein Igel

p. 32 Mehr von allerhand herzlicher Essen von zueger / zuvor aber ein Mandelzueger oder kaeß

(more of all manner of hearty dishes of zueger (fresh cheese), but first an almond zueger or cheese)

p. 34 Ein Mayenmilch fuer die Krancken

(A May milk for the sick)

p. 54 Hobelspaen

(wood shavings)

p. 55 Ein Mandeldorten

(An almond tart)

p. 60 Lebzelten oder Lebkuchen von Mandeln

(Gingerbread of almonds)

p. 69 Ein gebackens Allemaenlein genannt

p. 72 Eine Dort von einer Mandelmilch

(A tart of almond milk)

p. 73 Ein Dottermuß

(A spoon dish of egg yolks)

p. 87 Ein Kolhauffen

(A heap of coals (a fake pastry case))

p. 92 Ein guelden suppen

p. 94 Ein ander Suppe für die Krancken ein Guesselein genannt

p. 108 Ein anders

p. 109 Grosse Aepffelkuechlein / da drey ein grosse blatten voll sind

(Large apple fritters of which three fill a large serving platters)

p. 113 Gute Krapfen zu machen

(To make good small pastries/filled fritters)

p. 114 Eine Dort von Kaeß und Birnen

(A tart of cheese and pears)

p. 134 Ein schoene weiß Pomerantzen einzumachen

p. 142 Wie man gruene Drauben durch das gantze jahr behalten sol

(How to keep green (fresh) grapes throughout the year)

p. 142 Den Agrest zubereiten

(To make verjuice)

p. 145 Ein Dort von Erdbeern / Kreusel oder Strichbeerlein / wie sie genennet werden

(A tart of strawberries or gooseberries)

p. 148 Ein Safft von Birnen

(A juice of pears)

p. 159 Ein Kinderessen

p. 167 Ein herzlich Essen vom Fleisch

p. 167 Ein herzliche Sueltz

p. 194 Ein gut und lustig Essen eines gefuelten Bratens

(A good and pleasurable dish of a stuffed roasting)

p. 206 Eine Pasteten von Huenern und Quitten

p. 225 Ein anders von Fleisch und Huenern

p. 230 Fleisch und Huehner in Kisserbsen

(Meat and chickens with chickpeas (or grass peas))

p. 235 Salmen zu braten

(To roast salmon)

p. 238 Fohren in einer Pasteten

(Trouts in pastry)

p. 242 Ein Pastet von den Schnecken

(A pastry of snails)

p. 246 Weiter von den Schnecken

p. 247 Von den Froeschen fuer die Lungsichtigen

(Of frogs for those suffering from lung disease)

p. 257 Wie man den Peterlein zu den Fischen als auch zu dem Fleisch bereiten solle

Volker Bach

March 31 at 2:59 PM

Today: a soup for the sick

In 1598, Anna Wecker, the widow of a respected physician, published her Köstlich New Kochbuch. The first such work known to be authored by a woman, it would become a bestseller and remain in print for a century. In an effort to keep structure in my day and because I think this really should be translated, I will endeavour to post a recipe from it every evening for the time being. Maybe after this is over, there is a chance to make this into a book?

Today's recipe is nothing much to write home about, except for the lovely bit of household advice in the middle. Go ahead, Mrs Wecker, tell us how you really feel.

p. 94 Ein ander Suppe für die Krancken ein Guesselein genannt

another soup for the sick called a Guesselein

If you have good meat broth, set it by the fire in a small pot. If it is already boiling, that is fine, if not, bring it to the boil at some distance from the fire so that it does not become fatty (schmalzig).

In this matter it is important especially to take care of the sick because it is bad for the stomach and harms the sick very much, as does burned food. And the majority of people, even those that should be adept (at cooking?) or want to be it, are accustomed to have their cooking stand in the middle of the fire so that sometimes the wood burns out over the pot and its lid. Sometimes there even is no lid at all, and it must boil and nobody knows if it is to be footwashing water or soup. With that kind of cookery, the stomachs of many healthy people are spoiled, not to mention the sick ones and much weaknesses and illnesses follow. And the rough (ungehobleten) cookpots that have no feet further this.

Now the abovesaid (is) for the benefit of the sick and to prevent such damage; Take fine, grated white bread according to how much soup you intend to make. For one person, take as much as is needed for an egg or two. It should be (mixed) a little thinner than a batter for Strauben (Straubenteig – a kind of hand-shaped fritter). Cut good herbs into it such as marjoram, thyme, parsley, one on its own or all together, as you like. Also (add) saffron, mace, raisins, as is needful.

Once the broth is boiling, put it in and leave it to boil gently (sittiglich – properly, demurely) on glowing embers, covered. Let it boil in the broth as one lump and the broth will turn out nicely clear. If the sick person will not eat bread or anything else (solid), give him the clear broth. But if he eats, break up what you boiled as one into small pieces the size of nuts and put them into the broth, that is very strong (strengthening?).

Also, if you have no meat broth, heat lard in a small pot and slice/grate (schabe) parsley root into it. Let it boil until the root can be gripped well (has softened?) but is not fully cooked through yet. Have done your preparations as described above and equally salt the broth, because it is (made with only) water. And this broths are excellent to drive out small kidney stones (Harm und Griß).

Volker Bach

4/4/20 at 3:21 PM

Today: a mystery legume

Today's recipe has a great deal of interpretative issues. First 'kisserbsen' may mean chickpeas, or it can refer to grass peas (lathyrus sativus). I tend towards the latter interpretation, given the description of the processing, but I cannot say for sure.

Second, there is the Mayenschmalz. This usually means fresh clarified butter, so I rendered it 'May butter'. Again, though, this is not certain. It may also refer to fresh lard.

Finally, the instruction to 'roesten' bread into the broth. I take that to mean thickening by frying breadcrumbs in the dish before adding the liquid. The technique is described in these terms with other solids - flour and pease flour - elsewhere.

But all of that is interpretation. So make of it what you will, and feel free to try it with chickpeas.

p. 230 Fleisch und Huehner in Kisserbsen

Meat and chickens with chickpeas (or grass peas)

At the time when the kisserbsen (may mean chickpeas or grass peas) are ripe, take such that are full and not too old for a sick person. Remove them from their shells (pods) and let them lie for a while in fresh water. Then put them into a small cookpot, and as much good broth of chickens or meat to them. When it has boiled properly, (but) there is still broth left for a soup, if you have a piece of meat or chicken (set aside) especially for a sick person, add it. Cut parsley and thyme small, and if you wish, also a leaf or four of chard or lettuce, but (cut them) small like parsley.

Then, when you wish to, take chicken or meat, what you have, when it (the pot with peas) has just boiled so that the peas can still boil with it and not turn into a mush, put it into a flat cooking dish (kaechelein) with the best broth, as much as is needful, and the peas along with it. Take a little more of the broth than (you would) for a soup. Add pepper or sweet spices and saffron, and (like) into a soup a little bit of pounded mace. And if you wish, cut up a little green leaf vegetables (kraut) small, or leave it out, depending on what the sick person likes to eat.

And you need to give sick people variety and change if it is the same stuff (they eat). If a sick person will eat no meat or anything made from it, make it with half meat broth and half water and he will not soon taste it. Fry (roeste) breadcrumbs into it in the first boiling (to thicken it), as above, if you wish. When they are almost cooked, add May butter and let them boil quite dry.

When they have been boiled dry of water or meat broth, you may put them in a blaetlen (a sheet? a pan?) with May butter, ground pepper and mace and let it cook on the coals for half an hour, but these are not suited to every sick person because May butter does not make good stomachs when there is much bile. But where this is liked, pepper it all the more.

And you can also just boil it with a little toasted bread in the broth and pass it through (a colander or strainer) like other peas, and add seasoning, that is very good.

Volker Bach

4/5/20

Today's recipe is brief, basically just a neat trick. But it is interesting. Apparently the rule was to have raw parsley greens with meat, but cooked parsley with fish. I did not kow that and had no reason to suspect it.

p. 257 Wie man den Peterlein zu den Fischen als auch zu dem Fleisch bereiten solle

How to prepare parsley to go with fish as well as with meat

Take very fine roots, clean and brush them to the nicest, then tie them together with a string and place them in a soup pot. Behind that pot, set another pot that is as tall as the first (filled) with cold water so that as the roots are boiled, the greens always are in cold water. That way they stay nicely green.

When you take out the roots, dry the greens on a white cloth and lay them by the meat. If you want (to serve) them with fish, boil them in water that is salted and lay them by the fish. If you have time, lay the root in fish broth for an hour, which is possible (when served) with cold fish, with which there should be most parsley.

Volker Bach

April 6 at 2:05 PM

Today: a meat pastry with herbs

Today's recipe is short and simple, followed by a discourse on the virtues of certain herbs. It is not quite clear whether these are to be considered for inclusion or this was just an opportune 'teachable moment'.

'Serin' is a bit of a riddle. Leonhard Fuchs has 'Gartenhysop' as hyssopus officinalis, but I found the alternative names Sergenkraut and Gartenhyssop for summer savoury in an 1836 dictionary. Dialects are persistent phenomena, so that is why I will go with. but it is not certain.

p. 225 Ein anders von Fleisch und Huenern

Another (pastry) of meat and chickens

Take prepared (bereit – probably means cooked) meat or chickens, what you wish, put it in a small pot that is just right with water (filled with just enough water), do not add too little salt and let it boil lazily until it is half cooked. Place it in a small pastry crust and add a crumb of grated or ground white bread. Also add a little Serin or, as it is called, Gartenhysop (may be hyssop or summer savoury, I tend towards the latter) cut up very small, or sage or parsley each alone or all together. If it is wintertime, have them dried and finely powdered. Also add a little saffron and a little May (clarified) butter, if you wish, but do not make it too fat.

Pour into it as much of the broth it was cooked in as is right, (but) let it cook down into a small short broth (before). That is very healthy. And always add a spoonful of wine so that it is not well noticed, unless one particularly likes to eat sour foods or it may be that one was hot (hitzig – of hot complexion), then add a spoonful of vinegar. As soon as you first add this, you may also prepare a bit of marjoram with it. These are very healthy herbs.

The Serin (hyssop or savoury) parts and cuts the strong phlegm in the stomach, womb and guts like thyme (does). These herbs all boiled in meat broth with parsley root and greens and a little sweet butter are very useful. So is fresh chervil; wherever there is a growth of congealed or otherwise standing blood in the body, it is good when eaten in quantity and the water of it drunk.

Aislinn Bodiam

Is this actually a "pasty"? I don't see that it is put in a crust or anything.

Volker Bach

Aislinn Bodiam in the first paragraph. It goes into a crust - at least that is what that word usually means.

Volker Bach

4/8/20

Today: almond milk, and a lesson never to underestimate the amount of normally unwritten knowledge behind a seemingly simple thing.

p. 1 Ein Mandelmilch mach also

Make almond milk thus

For a Maß (Nuremberg measure 1.084 litres) of almond milk, take a vierling (quarter of a pound - Nuremberg measure 127 grammes), or if you like to have it strong, one and a half, of good sweet fresh almonds. Lay them in hot water, and as soon as they can be peeled, take off their skins and throw them in fresh well water. Let them lie for a while, then wash them cleanly.

Pound or stamp them in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle as small as possible. In many places, people have stones on which they grind them, that is well where they are, but if you don’t have one, help yourself as you can. But you must never pound them with an iron pestle, for then they will not only turn black, but also become bitter.

While pounding them, sprinkle them several times with rosewater or other (flower-)water because you intend to press them out. Otherwise they become oily and black. But do not use too much because if they become too wet, they can no longer be pounded small. They (the waters) must be clear and gentle, otherwise it is not only useless, but they do not lend their powers as they should.

If you wish to use it for cooking, take good fresh well water or milk as it comes from the cow, grind the almonds slowly (with that) in a mortar. Then place a clean white cloth in a bowl, pour the almonds into that, rub it back and forth a little with a spoon, take up the cloth and wring it out as hard as you can.

But if you want it for a sick person, be it for cooking or drinking, boil (the) water beforehand in a new, well-glazed cookpot (that is) carefully closed. Afterwards, bind good coarse-ground wheat bran or, as it is called in some places, grieß (in modern German this means semolina), or a piece of white bread, or raisins, or maybe also a handful or half of a handful of unpounded barley in a clean white cloth and boil it together with the water for greater strengthening (to make it more invigorating). When the water has boiled enough, add a quintlein (Nuremberg measure 3.98 grammes) of cinnamon, more or less, depending on whether you like to have it strong, break it into small pieces and add it to the boil(ing water) while it still bubbles. Then take it off the fire and let it cool down covered. Then use it.

But if you want a costive effect (German verb: stopffen) as with diarrhea (and) fluxes from a weak stomach, add more cinnamon. Also add red rose petals and dry quinces in that case, or what remains in the cloth of pressed quinces when one makes quince juice, dried, serves well.

Sometimes necessity requires that these waters be strengthened with gold or steel.

For ailments of the chest (Brustsuchten), boil anise, fennel, raisins, figs, liquorice root, jujubes and such things. For drinking, mix violet syrup, rose honey, or sugar candy into it. For a weak stomach, adding raisin juice or quince juice is very good. And if you want it to be laxative, do not moisten (the almonds) while pounding them. Then the oilier the better.

You also sometimes, when there is great heat (as in high fevers, pestilence and consumption), pound the seeds of melons, cucumbers or pumpkins, white poppyseeds and lettuce seeds that bring sleep with the almonds. Sometimes ground pearls or good gold leaf. For winds, especially for young children, and to those suffering from lung disease and consumption, goat milk serves well instead of water, be it for drinking or for cooking.

When you have prepared the almond milk thus, pour it into a clean metal (kanden) or stone(ware) (krug) pitcher that is allowed to drip off well after washing so that no water remains in it. Store it in a cool place, and when you want to use some of it, first pour it into a clean drinking cup or glass and back (into the pitcher) once or three times, because it separates as other milk does and in the end there is nothing (left) but water. Also, you should not pour back what remains (in the cup) after drinking, that will immediately make it go sour and curdle.

And if you take proper care you will know in all illnesses as you follow written cooking recipes (geschriebenen gekoechten), whether you are cooking with water or milk, that you should first prepare this (the alterations) of those (liquids).

You may also give almond milk as a drink to a woman in childbed who is weak and does not wish to eat, gives poor milk, and has her time (menses) too much or too little. And to children who are accustomed to water, it can be given made with fresh well water and strongly sugared. This serves well with (diseases of) great heat.

And though in many illnesses, people eschew almond milk and what is cooked with it due to its costive effect, it is nonetheless greatly useful for weak people. But to each according to his needs. That is why I am telling you how to prepare almond milk at the beginning of the book, as a guide in all things.

I have also prepared such milk with all manner of distilled waters that strengthen the heart and the head, purify, and help with inner growths (geschwolsten). Sick people may not want to use such things, so you must see to how you hide them. Now we shall proceed with the help of God and look at how this may be used in cooking.

Volker Bach

April 8 at 1:37 PM

Today's recipe is a boiled sweet meat loaf. A sickbed dish, unlikely to appeal to modern tastes, but interesting.

p. 167 Ein herzlich Essen vom Fleisch

A hearty dish of meat

When a sick person does not like to eat chickens or meat, take the meat as of chickens or of calves and chop it as finely as if it was ground. Then season it well with sweet spices, also add saffron, chop mace into it, and you may also chop in marjoram, thyme and parsley. Also add raisins cleaned of seeds and stones. Salt it properly.

Place it in a cooking vessel (kachel oder haefelein) that is not wide, add water and wine and let it boil. Do not stir it. That way, the meat will cook together again (aneinander sieden). If you have more (than you need), keep it. Let the meat cool a little and cut it in slices like white bread. Lay them in hot lard and fry them brown quickly.

Place them in a bowl. Make a good thin sauce (bruehlein) for it from cinnamon, sugar, and strong wine, or take the broth that the meat was boiled in, that is best. Prepare it alone with cinnamon and all manner of spices, and make it sweet or leave it as it is.

You can also add sugar to the meat. That way, it and the broth become sweet. (In that case) season it better, add raisins, let it boil, pour it over (the meat) and strew it with cinnamon.

It is better if you dry(-roast) it on a griddle and brown it than if you fry it in lard. And (prepared) with broth poured over it like fish. Or if you cook it for healthy people, chop bacon into it, then it bastes itself, and otherwise you should chop in as much of (other) fats such as been marrow as is needed. (But) for sick people, you should not cook fatty.

Volker Bach

April 9 at 12:02 PM

Today's recipe is for snails. It looks quite attractive, actually.

p. 246 Weiter von den Schnecken

Further of snails

Snails are commonly served in March when their shells are still firmly closed. Place them in a pot of water by the fire and let them boil until the shells open. Then take them out with a knife, remove the guts and innards, and clean them like the viscera of a calf in warm water that gets ever warmer and warmer until all uncleanliness (Wust) is removed. Place them in a pan with water on the fire and let it boil up well once. Then keep them in fresh well water until you prepare them.

Boil and clean the shells. Then take the snails from the water and dry them a little with a cloth. Salt them properly, and season them with pepper mixed with a little cloves and enough cut parsley. Mix all of that together.

Then have meat broth ready and put a little wine or vinegar into it, (just) so you barely notice so that the snails do not grow hard. Put a spoonful or half a one of the broth into each shell, add a snail to each, and a good piece of sweet butter with which you make it so the broth does not run out (seal it).

Place them in a wide, flat pottery pan (kachel), that is better than on the griddle, and pour a bit of meat broth into the pan so it does not split. Place it in the embers and put a lid or metal sheet on top, and heap embers on that. Once they are cooking so you can see them move in their shells, let them cook as long as eggs. Have hot broth on hand to always add to the pan.

Serve it hot, and if there is broth left in the pan, pour it over the snails when you arrange them on the platter. Many serve them in the pan because of the warmth. You may also put them in a flat pastry pan.

Volker Bach

April 8 at 2:29 PM

A bonus recipe because I don't want to face lights out quite yet. this one fascinates me. Sueltz/Sülze by the sixteenth century typically means a galantine, but here it looks more like a bread-thickened liver sauce that reminds me of the Harpestreng manuscript. I would love to try this and see if it gels, and how the bread interacts with the gelling and consistency.

p. 167 Ein herzliche Sueltz

A hearty sueltz

(The term usually refers to galantine at this time, but here it does not. This may be an earlier meaning of the word and reminiscent of the ‘Sauce for Lords’ of the Harpestreng MS)

Take a good chicken or capon, prepare it as it should be, and cut it into four parts. Set it to cook with old wine, three parts wine to the fourth part water, salt it very little and do not make more of the broth than that you have left the fourth part of a Maß (a Nuremberg Maß is 1,08 litres) after boiling when it is skimmed. Set it on embers well away from the fire so that it boils gently and does not boil over, well covered. That way it retains it vigour and you do not lose much.

When the chicken has been cooked, pour off the broth into a clean dish so that it separates and skim the fat off well. Meanwhile, toast a slice of bread or four nicely on a griddle, very gently and not burned, so that it is nicely crisp throughout. Lay it in a platter or bowl, pour the broth of the chicken over it, and cover it so that it becomes nicely tender.

But before you pour off the broth of the chicken, take the liver which you shall keep in cold water diligently. Put it into the boil(-ing liquid), let it merely boil up once and pound it finely in a mortar. Now take this together with the soaked bread, pound it in a mortar and pass it through a sieve or colander (Durchschlag) with Malvasier or other delicious wine so that it is like a porridge or spoon dish. Add enough cinnamon, a quarter of a nutmeg, a piece of galingale, mace, and also let it boil together with ginger, especially if you want to make it for a woman in childbed.

Now mix it all together and make it right with the abovementioned wine, as thick as Strauben (a pulled fritter) batter. But if someone was not allowed wine or could not bear the smell, as often happens, prepare it with the broth of chicken and make it sweet with sugar above all. Keep it in a glazed container well stoppered and it will stay good for a long time if it is handled cleanly.

If the sick person will eat meat, place the quarters of the chicken on a nice white cloth, let it dry of the broth and then lay them into the sueltz so that they draw the flavour to themselves. And when it has thickened as it does, make it proper with the abovementioned things. And when you give it to a sick person, strew it with cinnamon.

But if the sick person will eat neither meat nor chicken, leave them out and give him the sueltz alone. I have often helped them to begin eating this way, especially women in childbed who neither liked chicken nor meat. But for those, leave out the nutmeg.

Another kind common for guests

Take a young piglet, those between six and thirteen weeks are best, cut it to pieces and boil it in half wine and half water so that no more (of the cooking liquid) is left to soak six or eight slices of bread to fill a bowl.

Then take (a piece) of the pig’s liver the size of a goose egg, blanch (schupffs) it in the pig broth and pound it small. Then pass the bread and the liver through (a sieve) with good sweet wine or Malvasier. Where you do not have that, take the best wine you may get.

If you are concerned that it may become too strong (thick), add of the broth. Make it the right thickness, make it yellow with saffron, and add sweet spices so that it becomes roesch (tasty?), but do not add too much. When it has stood overnight, the spices lose their power. If it is not strong enough, improve it. Add a good amount of cinnamon and nutmeg, the cinnamon and nutmeg are supposed to stand out before the other spices. If the wine is not sweet, make it right with sugar.

I have stated before that it should be as thick as Strauben (a pulled fritter) batter. The meat should be salted together with the broth. Lay it out so it dries, as you did with the chicken, then place it in the sueltz. It may be kept eight or fourteen days, especially in wintertime. But what is returned from the table, do not mix back into it or it will become runny. Always have it in a cool place and stir it whenever you take some of it (because) the thick part settles to the bottom. This is called a liver sueltz.

Volker Bach

April 9 at 12:16 PM

A bonus recipe: frogs.

It is interesting with a view to how food markets worked that she claims to have seen a locally sourced animal cooked, but not alive. The ideal of uniting as many processes as possible under one roof clearly had its limits.

p. 247 Von den Froeschen fuer die Lungsichtigen

Of frogs for those suffering from lung disease

There are several (kinds of) frogs that are eaten, (and) I have seen them cooked, but never properly alive. However, I know that they are found in ponds and I believe they are green in colour and a little larger than tree frogs. The large black ones are poisonous.

Now you cut them apart like a hare, the back part from the front, skin them and put them in fresh water for a while. Then dry them off with a white cloth. You sprinkle them with good vinegar and salt and flour them like other fish and fry them.

You also boil them in wine, mixed with a little water, and when they are done, you pour off the broth into a bowl or platter. Add enough pepper and sweet butter and set it on a chafing dish/brazier to cook covered until the fat becomes clear. They turn as white as chickens.

But where people shy away from this (dish), you must cut the meat off the bones after they are boiled and then prepare them in a platter or pastry pan like crawfish. They are also cooked in a cloves broth like black carp.

Song Palmese

Why is the color of the cloth specified?

Volker Bach

I am guessing because a white cloth will not bleed dye and is obviously clean. but it might just be a conceit. White linen denoted status in sixteenth-century Germany. Keeping it white took labour. You had to be able to afford the servants for it. and it was considered hygienic.

Volker Bach

April 10 at 3:06 PM

Today: A pastry of snails, and a warning for parents of teenagers

p. 242 Ein Pastet von den Schnecken

A pastry of snails

Prepare the snails as they should be. Take them out of the water and swing them like lettuce in a clean cloth. Then place them in a platter or bowl, season with plenty of pepper and a bit of cloves, and mix it well.

When the pastry case is ready, put in salt and fresh butter and close it when the case hardens. In the meantime, prepare fresh meat broth with enough finely cut parsley and add sweet butter to it. If the snails are not strongly peppered, add more (pepper) to the broth as it boils. Pour it into the pastry as always, and let it bake half an hour.

Otherwise there is no better way to prepare them than putting them back into their shells and placing them in a deep pan, boiled with a broth made as is described above. You must take it off the fire so that it is not too hot and pour on the broth and boil it about as long as one boils hard eggs.

There is little useful about snails. They mostly serve (as food for) lechers. That is why young people should not eat too much (of them), otherwise great harm can come of it as I know to tell from many examples.

Volker Bach

April 11 at 1:45 PM

Today's recipe isn't what it says, but it has interesting instructions for roasting fish and what spices go with which kind.

p. 238 Fohren in einer Pasteten

Trouts in pastry

If you wish to fry fish nicely and in the best fashion, gut them first, especially trout, eels and grayling, which are commonly served cold. Leave the back in one piece. If they have roe and fat innards, seek out the gall and leave the rest inside. Lay them in vinegar as long as you have time. But before, cut carefully from the back halfway to the belly. Cut on both sides (of the bone?) according to how thick or thin the fish is, not all the way through.

After they have lain in vinegar long enough, take pepper and ginger and then whatever else people like to have with their fish for boiling, that is also good for roasting. That is: carp like to have pepper, ginger and cloves, that also serves for roasting them, and pepper more than the rest when you roast them. For bream, trout, roach, perch, eel, nase, and the like, take mace and cloves. Also put sage behind their ears (gills) (and) into their bellies. Prepare it well with the spices beforehand and salt the innards inside the cuts well. If they have none, place them on a griddle and dry (toast) them gently. The vinegar makes them nicely firm.

Prepare a broth (a baste) with fat, vinegar, the named spices and thoroughly cut sage, and let it boil. Rub (brush on) them repeatedly with sage until they are fully roasted. Then dry them off. In this manner (also) prepare other fish that you wish to put into pastries.

Cut them, then let them lie in vinegar overnight or from the early morning until the evening. Then prepare put them in the pastry case with pepper, ginger, mace, cloves and cut sage like you know (to do) with salmon. That is a hearty fish for pastries for those who know how to cook it right. You may add lemons, but they add nothing to it except ostentation (herrligkeit) because they dry out and stick to the top crust. You eat trout in place of salmon. Bake it for an hour and a half. Adorn and shape (the pastries) according to whether they are large or small. I will not take too much time here, (do) as was said before with pike, carp and (other fish) that are good for roasting.

Volker Bach

April 12 at 10:38 AM

And here is today's recipe: fun with pears and honey (pastries and subtelties)

p. 113 Gute Krapfen zu machen

To make good small pastries/filled fritters

Take good pears and roast them in the ashes until they turn soft. Then take off their skin and cut away only the best so that no pips or green comes with it. Afterward, grind as much of figs and raisins as you have of pears and chop it small all together.

Then take well-skimmed honey that has been cooked well in a flat pottery cooking vessel (kachel), add the chopped (fruit) and let it roast or cook therein the way you would usually fry something in lard. Then season it, but with good spices.

Make pastries (krapfen) like filled wafers (oblaten), as is described in the first part. Or prepare a dough and shape it in triangles, like you do small apple cakes, or as a sausage.

You should know that when you make krapfen, you should not just spread on (the filling) as you do with oblaten, but that they should contain a good quantity. Now prepare them and fry them in lard or bake them in an oven, as you wish. But they are better baked in an oven or a pan (pastry baking container) especially if the dough is sweetened and spiced.

You may also fill this stuff(ing) into pig guts (that have been blown up and dried, and soaked in warm water again) and roast them on a griddle like other sausages. You may (also) make a hedgehog of this stuff. It becomes quite firm when it is cold. Stick it with cloves.

Another way

Take of the above stuff when it is all ready and put it on a plate. Spread it out the way you open out rice. When it is cold, spice it strongly, then cut it (into pieces) and arrange it in a bowl.

If you wish, make a gentle sauce with it and strew or scatter sugarcoated fennel or anise over it, or serve it without sauce. For this kind (of dish), you may well take quinces instead of pears, or both together, or quinces and sweet apples.

Another

Take good pears and peel them carefully so that the peel stays in one piece and the stem with the core stays attached. Then cut out what is next to it so that only the core remains. Then you shall prepare the same recipe that you have done before of figs or for krapfen.

When it has cooled a little so that you can suffer it on your hands, shape it over the pears lengthwise and shape it like pears. Carefully put the peels back on and push the stem back in. Put them in a cool place and then serve them like other fruit. This is amusing and heartily good.

Volker Bach

April 13 at 10:31 AM

Today's recipe is simple: curdled milk. But people ate simple things.

p. 23 Ein gesetzte Milch

A settled (i.e. curdled) milk

Take milk that has come (fresh) from the cow. Place it in a clean glazed pot that is not used for anything else and (make sure) that no water comes into it neither from the straining cloth nor from anything else. Put it in a place where it is cool, but not as cold as in the cellar, perhaps in a container (closet or chest) in which you keep all kinds of things that should be kept clean.

The cream rises to the top and the milk hardens (gestehet). Take off the cream into a clean dish. Then place the milk in a clean cloth bag and let the whey run off (until it is) all dry. Place the milk in a churn in which you churn butter. Stir it well and also add the cream you took off. Serve it in the summertime in great heat.

This is also allowed as food to those who otherwise may not eat cream or pure milk. It is often permitted to the feverish, but in that case do not add any cream.

Volker Bach

April 14 at 2:18 PM

Today's recipe: rice tart

It is not exciting except for two points: the appreciation of difference in raisins and the note about a pastry case 'hardening' - which I suspect may indicate blind-baking. The good part about this book is definitely the casually mentioned detail.

p. 14 Ein dorten oder fladen von Reiß

A tart or fladen (flat cake) of rice

Take well-cooked rice (that was cooked) in fat milk and stir it well. Then beat eggs, or best take the yolks, and then (add) as much good cream or almond milk as you like. Sir up the rice and make it in the proper thickness, like a Strauben batter (a pulled fritter), salt it a little, and if you wish (add) rosewater.

Prepare a pastry crust as you know. Let it harden and put the stuff into it. When it thickens (gestehet), strew it well with sugar. Bake it slightly brown. If you wish, colour it green with juice of kraut (leafy vegetables – often parsley).

If you want to prepare it for a fladen (flat cake), do as described above, but add a lot of two kinds of raisins (Weinbeer and Meerdräubel – I suspect roughly corresponding to raisins and currants), and raisins dried on the vine (Zibeben), and cut figs. Bake it nicely like other fladen.

Volker Bach

April 15 at 1:51 PM

Today's recipe: faking a pastry case from egg batter.

I am not convinced this works, but I'm willing to try it, Aside from the clear instructions, note the economical thinking even in a kitchen that will readily use saffron, nutmeg and cinnamon.

p. 87 Ein Kolhauffen

A heap of coals (a fake pastry case)

Beat two or three eggs very well and add a spoonful of cream or of meat broth. Grate a good amount of nutmeg and saffron into it and salt it properly. Then take a deep small pan with a flat bottom. Heat a little fat in it, swirl it about (to coat the sides) and pour it out again. Then put in the eggs and swirl them about in the pan, let them run all over the botton and around the rim so that it is shaped like a pastry case (Dorttenhafen). Let it bake (cook) nicely, and when it parts from the pan, take it out.

Put it on platters that fit on a serving plate(?thu sie in blatten die recht auf ein teller). Then fill into it whatever you wish, and also the broth, if you prepared any, be it from chickens, (or for) whatever good cooked, baked or roasted things you have that you make sweet sauces for.

And if you wish, make a sheet (pancake) like the above, but without an edge, and place it on top like the lid on a pastry. That is enjoyable, hearty and good. But if you so wish, leave it as you like it.

If you serve this to guests, you should neither cut the lid nor the case, and when you take it off the table, take out what was in it. Have cinnamon sauce (Zimetbrueh) ready, take the lid or case and cut it as you do egg pancake (Eyerfleck). That way, you soon have another dish at low cost.

Volker Bach

April 16 at 12:11 PM

Today: really big apple fritters

This recipe is interesting because it illustrates what people determined to play with their food could do even without much specialised equipment. That said, the skill level required to get this right must have been considerable. I'd love to try it, but I don't feel I am quite ready.

p. 109 Grosse Aepffelkuechlein / da drey ein grosse blatten voll sind

Large apple fritters of which three fill a large serving platters

Take fine flour and make a batter with boiling wine like (the thickness of) a Strauben batter. Finally add an egg. Then cut nice peeled apples into four pieces, throw them in and turn them around so that they are coated by the batter (den teig annemen).

Then you shall have (ready) a copper or iron pan that is equal at the bottom and on top (straight-sided). Put fat into it, not too much. When it is hot enough, set it up so you can see into it (direct line of sight from the top). Then set the apple slices into a ring in the middle one after the other, then again one with each two, then another ring, and into the middle ring, place three.

Then have very hot fat ready in a pan and pour that quickly over them so that it rises as high as the apples. Then let it fry until you notice that it is done well enough above and below. Turn it around with a skewer. If you cannot handle this well, pour off the fat into another pan and keep it hot. Then lay a pewter plate over the pan or a well-made iron lid, turn it around and quickly put it back into the pan with the hot fat so that it finishes frying. Be quick about it, but do not pour (fat) over it again otherwise they turn out fatty (schmaltzig).

When they are (done) enough, pull them out. Lay them on bread or a white cloth and if you would have them very good, strew them well with sugar in the pan or sprinkle them with rosewater or cinnamon water and sprinkle it well with sugar, especially (if it is meant) for a sick person.

When you lay them (in the pan), you must not place the inner slices as close together as the outer ones so that the fat may reach through and through and they fry well and not be doughy. They are miraculously pretty and good if you do them justice.

Volker Bach

April 17 at 12:01 PM

Today's recipe: sort of a wine custard meets bread pudding. It's a dish with possibilities, and one would love to find out how big a 'standard' bread slice was.

p. 73 Ein Dottermuß

A spoon dish of egg yolks

Take four good slices of white bread and toast them, but not brown. Take half a Maß (Nuremberg measure Maß is 1.08 litres) of Malvasier, or otherwise the best wine you can get, pour it over the bread so that it softens well and let it boil up together. Pass it through (a sieve of colander) together. Then take the yolks of twenty-four eggs, beat them well and finely, and stir in the passed-through bread along with the remaining wine.

Heat fat in a tiegel (tall pottery cooking vessel) or a kachel (wide, flat pottery cooking vessel) on the embers, not overly much, and pour it in there. Fresh May butter (clarified butter) would be best, the size of an egg. Stir it until it boils and do not let it burrn. When it is thick enough, add saffron and sugar and let it stand for a while.

Afterwards, spread it on a serving platter smoothly with a spoon the way you serve cold beans and let it cool. Then pour over it nice boiled honey or good quince juice cooked with sugar or honey, or a thick almond milk, or cream and raisins, depending on who you intend to serve it to.

Six yolks belong with each slice of bread, and half of that to half a one, and also half the wine.

If you wish, spread it on a plate like (you do with) rice, as far it can spread out and two fingers thick. When it goes cold, slice it but do not sugar it. Take it and fry it, or dip it in egg, as you wish, you may also fry it like Kroßeyer. And if you want, make a batter of sweet wine and shape it (the yolk mush) like slices of large apples and dip them into it, but not for sick people. And as you bake it, strew it (with sugar) as soon as you take it from the fat, and sugar it well.

(Note: Kroßeyer are a bit of a mystery. They are clearly an egg dish, but some recipes refer to a spiced batter being filled into eggshells and then roasted in the embers while others describe it being fried in fat. I tend towards interpreting this as a type of fritter in this instance.)

Volker Bach

4/19/20

Today's recipe is a mild, gentle version of lebkuchen. The height of luxury.

p. 60 Lebzelten oder Lebkuchen von Mandeln

Gingerbread of almonds

Take almonds pounded very small and well-clarified honey cooked with rosewater. When that is cold, mix the almonds with it into a dough that is not too thin. Grate a good lebkuchen and work it into that until you can knead and roll it into shapes large and small as you please. Then press lebkuchen moulds onto it, also put in finely pounded cinnamon and, as is customary, put cut ginger back and forth between the moulds, so (you use) gilded and sugared almonds. Bake them or dry them in the oven or in a (baking) pan. It is good for pregnant women, it strengthens mother and child. You may also make them with a flesh-coloured (leibfarben) rose honey, that way they act as a laxative.

Volker Bach

April 20 at 1:52 PM

Today's recipe: preserving grapes in brine.

p. 142 Wie man gruene Drauben durch das gantze jahr behalten sol

How to keep green (fresh) grapes throughout the year

In autumn, when the grapes begin to become transparent, break off as many as you wish that are not too thick so that no uncleanness is in them. Lay them in fresh well water and make them nice (clean). Take a nicely glazed cooking pot or a small cask and lay the grapes into that. Take clean well water, as much as you will need, salt it like a brine (Silper) for herring or salmon and pour it over (the grapes). Weigh them down sso that it covers them well and close it up so nothing unclean can get in.

Keep it clean, do not put your hand into it, and when you wish to use them from time to time, take out with a knife what you need. Keep it clean so no Kahn (the layer of fermentation byproduct produced in sauerkraut making) is upon it, that way the last all year. And if you want to use them, have a care of the salt and always lay them in clean water beforehand.

Many lay them in verjuice, but that is not necessary, they stay nicer this way. These serve sick people well. (The final sentence was clearly added post-typesetting)

Steven Angelo.

Has anyone done this?

How much salt is needed for a 'brine (Silper) for herring or salmon' ?

Do the grapes shrivel or swell ?

Do they take on a salty taste that persists after their soak in clean water?

Volker Bach

Steven Angelo not yet. The traditional brine for herring is fairly strong, but I wonder whether the author had any practical experience with it. I will certainly want to try out a few variations on that theme.

Volker Bach

4/21/20

An extra: pear juice reduction, as a sweetener, with a side order or classism. I think I want to try that this year.

p. 148 Ein Safft von Birnen

A juice of pears

Take well ripe pears that have much juice and soon become soft (teig – lit. dough) such as is commonly the case with Speck- and Wasserbirnen (two sorts then in trade) and more of their kind. After they have lain a bit and begin to go soft, they give the most juice.

Peel them, slice them thin and pound them small. Place them in a thick, coarse sack, lay it under a press (Pressen oder Trotten) until all the juice comes from them and then leave it to stand well because of the thick matter that is in it.

Skim off the clear (juice) thoroughly from the container in which you got it into a fine copper kettle. Hang it over a bright fire and when it comes up (boils up), take off the first foam as with wine, but only once, at most two or three times, no more. Let it always cook at an even boil, stir it often, and the more it thickens, the more you must stir it so it does not burn.

Take it off. Three Maß (a Maß of Nuremberg measure is 1.08 litres) commonly produce one, and if six Maß produce one and a half, it is a lot. It should be like unclarified honey as it first comes from the comb of that is boiled to its (proper) state after skimming.

Then place it in a dish and let it cool. Store it in a small cask or other dish. You can boil slices of quince in it, or bitter oranges, that way it always tastes that much better in cooking. It also serves as a Sueltz (a preservative medium) for roast (meat). Strew it with cinnamon and ginger and will stay good for several years.

And with this and others more, improvements can be made in the kitchen to sauces and otherwise (it is to be) used like sugar, but (only) for healthy people. It does not serve the sick because of the liver and the wounds, as (does) boiled meat.

Because of these things (issues), I leave out many things such as of beans, chestnuts, pease, raisins and nutmeg. Nonetheless such things serve with Durchbruch (hernia?), but we will leave that to the peasants who mostly also know how to prepare it in the places where people have wine.

Volker Bach

4/21/20

Just a short recipe today - it was a long day. How to make verjuice (and another mystery herb)

p. 142 Den Agrest zubereiten

To make verjuice

Take the grapes as instructed before, clean them nicely, press them, squeeze out the juice and let it settle. Then salt it right, put it in a ready cask, close it well and let it ferment.

Keep it. It is useful for many things in the kitchen , especially to sick people who like to eat sour foods and to whom vinegar is forbidden, in great heat and thirst with foods, and for fish galantines (Fischen Sueltzen). This juice may be boiled with sugar or without sugar like a quince juice. That serves a strongly heated stomach, as does Sawerampffer (usually sorrel, here prob. Referring to a class of sour herbs), especially der rund Gartemampffer (prob. Rumex patientia – patience dock)

Allison Skewes

Hey there! I'm wondering if you could clarify how it's different than Sabina Welserin's cookbook which was written in 1553 and why the Wecker cookbook gets the distinction of being the first known example authored by a woman.

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya

I'm not Volker, nor do I play him in the SCA (and, hey, we know each other :-) ), but it appears to me the difference is that Sabina's is her personal manuscript, and Anna's was published, i.e., reproduced in print and sold.

Volker Bach

Because with Sabina Welserin, as with Maria Stengler, who also dates earlier, we cannot be sure of authorship. The texts belonged to women and may have been written by them. Anna Wecker was written (or at least dictated) by a woman as far as we know. Also, it was published and thus clearly meant as a cookbook in the modern sense. But mostly it is a matter of certainty. I am fairly sure quire a few earlier culinary texts were produced by women, but I have no evidence.

Volker Bach

4/22/20

Today: curly almond cookies. Short because I am sooo tired.

p. 54 Hobelspaen

wood shavings

Prepare finely pounded almonds with sugar and rosewater, spread it thinly on wafers and then cut it into long, thin ribbons with scissors on a stuertz (a kind of wooden container?). Bake them in the oven or in a pastry pan. They curl and are also nice and good. They are to stay white.

Volker Bach

4/23/20

Today, a stuffed roast. It is fairly basic, but probably not bad.

p. 194 Ein gut und lustig Essen eines gefuelten Bratens

A good and pleasurable dish of a stuffed roasting

Take a hind leg or Qualen (foreleg?) of a calf or ram. Wash it clean, then curt it open from above at both ends and hollow it out with a knife (shaped?) like a last. Nicely in the middle of the meat. Put vinegar and pepper inside and let it lie.

Meanwhile, take of another hind leg or Qualen (foreleg?) as much as seems necessary to you. Wash it and skin it and boil it quickly (ueberbrueh es), but do not let it boil long, barely one boiling up. Then chop it properly small and also chop a proper amount of beef marrow into it. Season it with vinegar and a good amount of pepper and salt it properly. Fill the roast with this, and if you are skilful at hollowing it out, the filling should go all around inside.

Close the holes above as you hollowed it, stick it on a spit and roast it well. In the end, baste it with the juice that drips out of it, but (only as much) so that you still have enough of it in the platter to serve. You may also put raisins and other seasonings into the chopped (filling) as you prepare the good chopped pastries. And when the roast begins to drip, strew it well with ginger and pepper.

Volker Bach

April 24 at 12:38 PM

Today: chickens and quinces in a pastry

p. 206 Eine Pasteten von Huenern und Quitten

A pastry of chickens and quinces

Take quinces and hollow them out so that the seeds and cores are removed. Fill them with cinnamon, sugar, ginger and raisins after you have washed them clean. Also prepare chickens with that (filling?), half or whole, but they are most hearty whole. Also prepare the chickens with good spices on the inside such as sweet spices or ginger, pepper and cloves pounded together and broad quince slices pounded into it.

Then stir a crust of bread into a pastry case, put in the chickens as is proper and thrust the quinces inbetween, a good quantity of raisins and the above spices so that they are black above from the spices, especially of cloves, (but) only the chickens, not the quinces. Add a good quantity of fat or sweet May butter. Do not oversalt it.

Close it well and bake it for an hour. You also may, if you like to have a proper liquid (brueh) with it, loosen the lid in one place and turn it aside so you can see what there is. If you think it is too little, take half wine and half meat broth, (add) sugar and spices and a crust of bread stirred small or perhaps a little quince electuary and what such things are. Stir it, let it boil together, stir it in, let it bake fully until it is very enjoyable and good. You can also roast the chickens half done and fry the quinces in fat and close them up.

Volker Bach

April 27 at 1:55 PM

Today's recipe is for a pancake stack. It would make a lovely breakfast dish.

p. 69 Ein gebackens Allemaenlein genannt

A fried dish called Allemänlein

Pound almonds very small and pass them through (a sieve) with rosewater, a good eggshell full. Beat two or three eggs into this, (add) sugar and a little salt, or if you wish, leave out the sugar until it is all fried. Heat fat in a pan that is not rubbed and that has a flat bottom. (Do not) heat much, and when it is hot, pour it out into another (pan). The pan is only to be stained (schmutzig) or greased and slick. Now soon, because the pan is hot, take a spoonful of the beaten batter and pour it around the pan so that it produces a flat cake like a wafer, as thin as may be, but equal(ly thick) in all places. Raise it over the fire until it can be removed from the pan. Then strew sugar and cinnamon all over it and lay them atop each other like Hueppen (another kind of wafer). If the pan is still greasy, continue, if not, pour the melted fat into it again and out as before, and then continue. The pan should neither be too hot nor too cold, otherwise it hardens too soon. Keep it warm, or serve it immediately.

Kristin Page

Tried this one a while back . Large and X-Large eggs: use one, not two or three. Use a half eggshell full of ground almonds moistened with rose water, NOT an eggshell full of rosewater. Think: French omelet.

Volker Bach

April 28 at 2:44 PM

Today's recipe is a hedgehog-shaped rice pudding. Because you know what they say about hedgehogs.

p. 24 Ein Igel

A hedgehog

Take a thoroughly well-cooked rice and as much pounded almonds and pass them through (a sieve) with boiled cream or almond milk as thick as you can make it. Add sugar and rosewater, if you wish. Shape it on a platter like a hedgehog, round and tall, and make it a small, pulled-in head, a pointy, upraised snout with cloves for eyes, and when they see, a red tongue.

Slice almonds. They should be pointy at one end. Stick them around and over everywhere except for the head alone. The first ring around the head should be three or four thick (wide), and as they taper (sich einstrumpffen – literally to sticking inwards), always (set) one against two. You can gild their upper parts. Strew raisins between or stick it with cloves, thrusting in the heads and leaving the tails sticking out. Make a good sauce of almond (milk) or cream, sugar and rosewater for it.

Volker Bach

April 29 at 3:24 PM

Today's recipe is all about playing with your food. And about that rule that you should only publish a translation once you understand exactly what it is about? I broke that good and hard. But this sounds too much fun not to try.

Zueger or ziger, by the way, is most likely not related to Ziege (goat). Today, it describes a buttermilk cheese. Back then it looks as though it could mean freshly made cheese of various kinds.

p. 32 Mehr von allerhand herzlicher Essen von zueger / zuvor aber ein Mandelzueger oder kaeß

more of all manner of hearty dishes of zueger (fresh cheese), but first an almond zueger or cheese

Take almonds pounded small and good wellwater and make a good almond milk. Hang it over the fire and stir it until it is just about to begin boiling. Then add a little rennet (Lab oder Renne) as though you would make another kind of cheese. Or add seydmilchen (probably sour whey with the required bacteria), (or) if you do not have that either, take wine or vinegar enough to make it curdle. Or leave it standing in boiling water overnight if you have that. Let it curdle like a zueger or cheese and (illegible, probably ‘take’) it off the fire then.

Set it on a ring (poorly legible – probably a wooden base or coaster, the schüsselring), sprinkle water all around it with your hand (illegible) cover it with a white cloth as you do an egg zueger or cheese. Take it up soon with a spoon that has many holes into baskets or other moulds. When the whey drains from it, sprinkle it with rosewater and sugar.

When it has settled well into this (? darein schleufft), urn it out onto a clean platter in which you wish to serve it. Do it again (sprinkle with sugar and rosewater). If you wish, make a good thin sauce (brueh) over it with almond milk or rosewater or otherwise. This zueger turns nicely white.

In another way

Take the milk described before, beat eggs into it, and these latter (are beaten) first, then the milk added, as you know of egg zueger. Then (add) scheid Molcken (acidic whey) or where there is none, a cup or a half of wine according to whether it is sour and how much of the milk there is. It should be no more than (enough) so that it will curdle and not turn sour. Stir it over the fire until it is about to curdle, then put the spoon on it and let it solidify like a cheese. Do with it as (described) before.

A May dish (Mayenmuß) of a zueger

Take such a zueger as (described) above before, when the whey drains from it and stir it well smooth. Then take good sweet butter and stir it into that gradually. (Note that if you make something into which you stir sweet butter, such as commonly May dish, do not add it at once, but fittingly. Put it in a small platter or bowl and let it become soft over hot water. Always stir in a little until there is enough. There must commonly be be more of butter than of zueger, but (judge) according to how you wish to prefer it and whether the stuff is loose or firm. What you wish to pile high commonly needs more than what lies flat. In general, the butter is not to predominate too much, but some).

When it is well stirred so that it is enjoyable, sugar it well. If you wish (to add) rosewater, it is healthy and good in there. The sugar must always be added last since it is not easy to stir after that. Then make what pleases you from this, a hedgehog, a lamb, and eagle, or through a syringe as you customarily serve butter at the table. Or (make) small works through a sieve, or in heaps, as you may. To describe all of this would take too much time and would still be in vain for it takes a special head to envision it. Otherwise, nobody will manage sight unseen from writing.

The most common (way) is through a syringe. So make a shape as you have of a mountain here. Shape it smoothly with a knife or a smooth small shovel, always wet with warm water and shaken well dry. Then have ready two or three spoons, one larger than the other, and make indentations (rinnen) like on a pinecone. Use the largest first, up to the smallest. Or you may put it into a colander and stir it around and around over a platter with a cooking spoon that is to be large. It falls down like little worms. Hold it so that it comes to make a nice pile.

In another shape

Take a very coarse, strong veil that is woven thin. Place a good spoonful of the May dish in one corner, fold it together and press it though gradually until it all comes through. Take it off with a knife and set it upright. This way it turns out like sheaves in a field. But the May dish must be well buttered, otherwise it is bad to handle. Make as much as you will and set it well with each other as skilfully as you can.

A fine, sweet butter washed well with rosewater and sugared and then made thus also serves well, also (piped) through a syringe or piled up with shovels, or and made into all kinds of animals. But because it is not for the sick, but serves superfluity, it is needless effort to describe how to to use this.

Volker Bach

April 30 at 11:48 AM

Today, the recipes continue where I left off yesterday. Blessed are the cheesemakers.

p. 34 Ein Mayenmilch fuer die Krancken

A May milk for the sick

Take of the aforesaid zueger one of almond (milk), whichever you prefer. Make a good, thick almond milk. When the zueger has had the whey pressed out well, stir it until it is soft, then gradually add the almond milk. Make it as thick as a proper Straubenteig (a fritter batter), sugar it well together with rosewater.

Thus you may also use a good egg zueger, according to how things are, or make it from milk of sheep or goats as above. And you can also take zueger of all three kinds and prepare them with good, fat cream. The white zueger make a nice white dish, but the egg zueger are healthier.

And since there follow a number of dishes of almond (milk) and below numerous with zueger, I will describe their preparation beforehand.

Bereitung der zueger

Preparing the zueger

All zueger of plain milk, be it of sheep, goats or cows, are made as is written of the almond zueger before. And the scheidmolck (acidic whey) is best which you obtain from those who make cheese and churn butter, just as you can sometimes get the zueger from those people. But if not (if you cannot get it) and you must separate it with wine or vinegar, do not do too much so that it does not become sour. Vinegar also affects it harder than wine which is why you quickly add too much of it.

If you have made such a zueger or one as described after, pour the whey into a clean dish until it settles well. Pour off the clear (liquid) above into a pitcher or small pot that is new. Keep it in a place that is not too warm, well closed. When you wish to use it, remove the skin if it has formed one and pour of it into that (liquid) which you want to separate. It does not matter if the skin is grey or yellow, the (liquid) underneath stays good. You may salt it, that way it keeps all the better. It becomes like a vinegar. Always refill the pot again.

Einen guten eyerzueger oder kaeß mach also

Make a good egg zueger or cheese thus

The common egg zueger or cheeses, as they are commonly called, should be made thus: Take four or five or at most six eggs to a Maß of milk (a Maß of Nuremberg measure was 1.08 litres). When there is too much egg, they turn too fatty, but if you intend to cook something with it, you may take more. But not above one or two (some make it as thick with eggs that they do not require pressing, but I would rather have them seemly and press them well dry so they do not turn out long and tough (?zech)).

Beat the eggs as well as can be done and strain them through a colander into a cauldron or a pan, whatever you have. Where you have no cauldron, it should be a good brass pan. Beat the milk into it, and also a good cupful of schuetmolcken (acidic whey). Put it over the fire and stir it until it begins tearing. Then place the spoon on it and let it gently curdle over the fire like a cheese. When the whey turns clear, take it off, sprinkle clean water around on it and cover it with a white cloth for a while. Then lift it out with a clean perforated spoon into baskets or other moulds that are made for it. Thus the whey drips off.

When you wish to send it to the table, turn the lowest part over itself onto the platter (i.e. invert them), that way the moulded part comes out above. And there are moulds like fish, some like birds and other animals, so that you may gild the feet, claws, beaks, feathers, scales of fish and what more there is. Such superfluity may stay outside (this work), but the good gold leaf (used) with such dishes is very useful to the sick because it drives out the wind and prevents stomachaches.

Volker Bach

May 1 at 9:44 AM

Experiment number one: strawberry tart from Anna wecker (1598)

p. 145 Ein Dort von Erdbeern / Kreusel oder Strichbeerlein / wie sie genennet werden

A tart of strawberries or gooseberries (Kreusel- oder Stichbeeren), whatever they be called

Take eggs, the yolks alone or all together as you wish, beat and whip them well, then take good thick cream that is sweet, stir in as much as there are eggs, add rosewater if you wish, grind of almonds what is right and pass it through (a cloth) with the cream, but in that case take a little more of the milk (cream) than of the eggs. Hold it over a bright fire, but far away, stir it diligently until it begins to thicken a little, but do not let it boil. Then the dish (pastry) should be ready, and it should not be too high, half as high as another tart is. Then pour the mix into it and place nice strawberries or gooseberries in it so that they are half in the mass and half sticking out, and strew it well with sugar so that you neither see the mass nor the berries. The strawberries should be washed in rosewater and not too ripe, for then they turn to mush immediately, but the gooseberries are fine and right when they are already yellow and clear. They need much sugar. Bake them well and give a lot of heat below, but not too much above so that they stay nicely white. It is enough quickly. If you bake them in an oven, lay a piece of paper on top.

Volker Bach

May 1 at 12:30 PM

Experiment number two: pear and cheese tart from Anna Wecker (1598)

p. 114 Eine Dort von Kaeß und Birnen

A tart of cheese and pears

Take good sweet pears, prepare them, and cook them in fat until they dissolve. Speckbirnen (a sort of pear) are commonly the best because they readily turn to mush. When they are well cooked, mash them in a dish and stir or beat in eggs. Then add a good handful of Parmesan cheese or Dutch cheese that is no longer new, enough ginger, nutmeg (ground) very small, sugar and raisins. Prepare a very thin crust, put it into this and (i.e. together with) a good amount of sweet butter. Put a fine rolled-out (?gelegten) lid onto it so that the tart is well closed all around and bake it quickly.

Volker Bach

May 2 at 11:16 AM

After yesterday's May Day celebrations, something light and easy: French Toast.

p. 92 Ein guelden suppen

Golden sops

Take freshly basked fine white bread (Semelbrot), cut it in slices as though you wanted to bake gilded slices (gueldenschnieten). Moisten the crust well with rosewater. Beat eggs very well and lay the slices in them until the egg soaks well through and they are very soft.

Fry them well and quickly in hot fat so that they do not turn hard. Have ready a fish scoop (Fischschaeuffelein) with which you shall lift them into the fat. You cannot otherwise take them into your hand due to their softness. Lay a clean white cloth into a serving bowl so that it draw the fat to itself and (the bread sops) stay warm.

Make a thin sauce (brueh) with cinnamon, sugar and rosewater. Lay them in a warm bowl, the sauce over them, place it briefly over a chafing dish so that they barely warm together, strew it well with cinnamon and sugar and serve it.

In another way

Prepare it with Malvasier (malmsey) or other delicious wine as (described) before with rosewater. Soften it with egg the same way and fry it. You may place it back in the egg after frying or draw them through it and fry them again, three times, and they turn out hearty and well. But these do not serve well for the sick on account of the fat. For the sick, once is enough. Leave it to soak in the egg all the longer.

Make a thin sauce (Brueh) of Malvasier over it, (or) strew it well with sugar if you serve it dry, (and) maybe with cinnamon, maybe with nutmeg. For the feverish, they are better with rosewater.

Volker Bach

May 3 at 12:22 PM

Today's recipe: Roast salmon. It is basic and does not sound bad.

p. 235 Salmen zu braten

To roast salmon

If you wish to prepare the back of a salmon to roast in the best way, wash it with vinegar or good, strong wine, one as much as the other. Leave it to lie for half an hour.

Then, take pepper, a little cloves and mace, all pounded small, and mix it with salt (but) not too much. Strew it well over the back and prepare it on the griddle, let it dry gently.

Then prepare a sauce (brueh) in the same (fashion?), heat fat, add a good quantity of the aforementioned spices, a little hard bread, half wine and half vinegar, and well chopped sage and parsley. Let it boil well together so it becomes like a thin pepper sauce.

Pour this on the roast and brush it on its back with a bunch of sage. They are roasted enough soon. If you wish to serve it warm, pour the sauce over it warm, (but) if you want to serve it cold, pour it on (when) the sauce has developed a skin and is nicely black. That way it stays nicely moist. Then you can make a sauce with cinnamon, ginger, sugar and raisins and pour it on.

Volker Bach

May 4 at 1:46 PM

Today: Almond meringue pie. And the first recipe that suggests pastry cases were blind-baked. Very interesting all around.

p. 55 Ein Mandeldorten

An almond tart

Take half a pound of finely pounded almonds on the table for one tart. Beat four or five eggs very well and remove the birds, and take as much good skimmed-off cream that has been boiled before and cooled again. Also add rosewater and sugar and a little grated white bread, that makes it tender (lucker).

Make a party crust as you do all the time and shape it as you please, round or as a heart or however you can. After it is hard, fill in the stuff and bake it at a gentle heat from above and below. When it has firmed up and baked well, brush it with rosewater and strew a good amount of sugar on it, or make a paste from egg white, rosewater and sugar and spread it on it (the tart). Give it a good heat, then it rises and glistens like a marzipan, which you brush the same way. It saved sugar, and when the egg whites are well beaten, you may leave out the rosewater or use very little.

If you like, and if you can, you may cut a very tender lid that is very broad, or a nice rope (braided edge?). Make a dough from egg whites, sugar and rosewater and roll it out well. When the filling has firmed up, place the nicely cut (covering) on it and give it a good heat so that the cut parts stand out yellow and brown and the tart filling white. But it must be broad and cut differently than for other tarts.

And this way, you can also cover other tarts made with dairy products (milchspeiß). If you would make it for a sick person who must not eat milk, use as much almond milk with rosewater or another kind of boiled (distilled?) water that otherwise serve for the need of the sick with the eggs, as much as you need, as always.

Volker Bach

May 5 at 1:50 PM

Today: feeding kids the 16th-century way. The second recipe does sound appealing, though it has very little in common with the first except maybe shape.

p. 159 Ein Kinderessen

A dish for children

Boil eggs hard, chop them and add a bowlful of cream. Pour hot fat into it. Stir it until it boils, salt and sugar it, and serve it. It constipates a little.

In another manner

Take good dry apples, peel them and cut them into cubes. (Add) clean Meetraeubel (raisins) or Rosinlein, as some call them, one as much as the other. Prepare a batter with a little sugar and honey boiled together, throw it in and fry it like small dumplings (Knoedlein oder Knoepfflein), or in a thick-walled container so that it does not draw as much fat to itself.

Volker Bach

May 6 at 2:57 PM

Today's recipe is open to interpretation in many plkaces, but it is the clearest description I have found of blind-baking a pie crust in Anna Wecker yet. And I think it sounds worth trying in several iterations.

p. 72 Eine Dort von einer Mandelmilch

A tart of almond milk

Take six or eight egg yolks, more or less, and as much thick almond milk. Beat that well together, sugar it properly, and take rosewater with it. If you wish, make of a sugared dough, as you know how, a bottom as you please. Make a very small rim for it and let it harden as you have done before. Put it (the filling) in, and lay back and forth a bit of sweet May butter (beforehand?). When it melts, strew it generously (gewaltig) with sugar and give it heat again. It is done soon enough.

Thus (also) do with egg yolks, but not as much rosewater, half as much is enough. Prepare it as above.

Volker Bach

May 7 at 2:02 PM

Today: Candied oranges. I want to try it, but I feel intimidated by the time it takes. Maybe in autumn.

p. 134 Ein schoene weiß Pomerantzen einzumachen

A fine way of preserving bitter oranges

I had thought of holding back this piece together with other, but as it serves sick people so well, especially with bellyaches (in Grimmen, bevorab aber inn dem Magengrimmen), I cannot hold it back since it is very useful.

Therefore take nice, healthy, fresh bitter oranges and cut them nicely star-fashion, but not all the way through, only through the peel. The inner apple is to stay whole and untouched. Loosen (remove?) the peel to the marrow, but that shall be uninjured with its membrane (heutlein) so that the juice may not run out. And the peel should stay on the apple below. It is to have approximately eight points, like stars appear.

Place them in a deep dish. Pour well water over them and weigh them down so they do not float up. Cover it well and let it stand in a warm place for a day and a night. Pour off the water, add new, and let it stand again as before.

Then put them all together into a glazed cookpot, covered well, and set them by the fire surrounded by embers at a distance. Let them slowly begin to boil and keep it up (?so durchauß) until the peel begins to grow soft. Then take them out carefully so you do not detach a point and lay them on a nice cloth over folded over.

Take the water into a brass pan that is so wide one apple can lie in it next to the other. It is best with a glazed pottery cooking vessel (kachel) on the embers. Take one pound of the best sugar for each three apples, and if they are very large, take five quarters (1 ¼ lbs).

Take enough water. If you do not have enough from (cooking) the apples, take fresh well water, and if the sugar produces foam, take it off with a spoon. And when the cooking liquid is clear and the syrup has been boiled white, put them in a dish and when it has cooled, lay in the apples carefully (hoeflich). Weigh them down and let it stand for a day or two.

When the liquid has become thin, boil it again as before. And by the third time, boil the apples with it, but very gently. If you handle them right, they will turn out so clear, not only the peel, but also the inner apples, that you can see the pips inside.

Store them so that the crystal grow on them, that way they turn out all the nicer. You can give sick people joy with these all year, for cooking and otherwise. They also serve for great headaches that come from a burping and indigestive stomach.

Rebecca Friedman

"Apple" seems, if I'm reading it right, to be referring to the sour oranges themselves. Is there any ambiguity in the word? Could it possibly mean fruit?

... that's the first time I've ever seen sour orange peels candied *with their sour oranges*. Wow. Interesting recipe, but you're right, it does look extremely time-consuming.

Volker Bach

Rebecca Friedman in contemporary German, oranges are frequently described as "Äpfel". I dont think there is any scope for confusion here. But these half-peeled elegantly carved oranges must look very appealing.

Rebecca Friedman

Only confusion for people who don't speak German, then.

She certainly describes them as looking very pretty. And it's nice of her to give all those precise details - not just a star, but an eight-pointed star. About double the cuts I make to peel for ordinary candying.

Volker Bach

5/13/20

Very short today - I am tired, and I get the sense that so was Anna Wecker when she dictated this recipe. You know, whatever. It's apples.

p. 108 Ein anders

Another dish (of apples)

Cook apples, be they green (fresh) or dried, in half wine and half water. Toast bread thoroughly, but not burned, and pass the apples through (a sieve) together with the bread. If you do not have enough cooking liquid, take quince water (cooking water used for quinces?). Make it properly thick. Pour in a little hot fat and add quince juice so it becomes slightly sweet, or sugar it, or cook raisins with it. Mash it all well, pass it through (a sieve) together and prepare it as above. If you wish, make a pastry crust for a tart, put it all in there and bake it.

Jeremy Fletcher

Your definition for quince water makes sense; it would have lots of pectin in it.

Volker Bach

I am not sure of it, but I doubt she is talking about a distilled water, and juice uses a different word. It is odd that she would use 'wasser' and not 'brueh' for a cooking liquid. There may be a different explanation entirely yet.