chicken-msg - 3/20/08 Period and SCA recipes for chicken. NOTE: See also these files: recipes-msg, birds-recipes-msg, fowls-a-birds-msg, butchering-msg, falconry-msg, roast-chicken-msg, chck-n-pastry-msg. ************************************************************************ 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 ************************************************************************ From: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Lothar and pot lucks Date: 17 Nov 1993 01:10:06 GMT Organization: Cornell Law School motto at cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto) wrote: > I was thinking of bringing a roasted stuffed goose. Would that be > alright (I'm avoiding turkey)? Does anyone know how it would be > stuffed or trimmed in period? What spices would be used? I don't seem to have any worked out goose recipes. Here are a couple for chicken that might help a little: Roast Chicken Platina book 6 Chykens in Hocchee Curye on Inglysch p. 105 (Forme of Cury no. 36) Take chykens and scald hem. Take persel and sawge, with other erbes; take garlec & grapes, and stoppe the chikenus ful, and see them in gode broth, so that they may esely be boyled therinne. Messe hem & cast therto powdour dowce. 3 1/2 lb chicken 3/4 oz = ~10 cloves garlic powder douce: 4 T parsley 1/2 lb red grapes 1 t sugar 1 1/2 t sage 2 10.5 oz cans conc. chicken 1/4 t mace 1 t marjoram broth + 2 cans water 1/4 t cinnamon 1 3/4 t thyme Note that all herbs are fresh. Clean the chicken, chop parsley and sage fine then mix with herbs in a bowl. Herbs are fresh, measured chopped and packed down. Take leaves off the fresh marjoram and thyme and throw out the stems, remove as much stem from parsley as practical. Add garlic cloves whole, if very large halve. Add grapes, and thoroughly but gently mix with the herbs. Stuff the chicken with the herbs, garlic and grapes. Close the bird with a few toothpicks. Place chicken in pot with broth and cook on stove top over moderate heat 1/2 hour, turn over, another 1/4 hour (in covered pot). Serve on platter with powder douce sprinkled over. -- David/Cariadoc DDF2 at Cornell.Edu From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Recipe for Drunken Chicken, etc. Date: 3 Apr 1994 01:21:29 GMT Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn. Several people have asked for the "drunken chicken" and pynade recipes to which Yaakov recently referred. Here they are. In each case, I've given several 14th (and in one case a 15th) century recipes for the same dish. _Curye on Inglysch_ is a collection of 14th C English manuscripts; the two letter reference for recipes from the collection identifies the manuscript, the following number the recipe number within the collection, and the last number the page on which it appears. The last version of pynade, from the Austin collection, gives the page number in Austin, followed after a slash by the page number (and quarter of page) in Cariadoc's collection. Mawmenny Recipes (originals) ============================ Maumenee (Curye on Inglysch, DC 7, 45) Wyn; braun of chapoun ipolled al to poudre, & soththen do thryn to boillen with the wyn; alemauns igrounden al drughe & idon thryn, & poudre of clowes idon thryn; alemauns ifried schulen beon idon thryn, & ther schal gret vlehs beon igrounden, & sucre fort abaten the streynthe of the specerie; the colour shal beon inde. Maumene (Curye on Inglysch, DS 30, 68) For to make maumene, tak the thyys other the flesch of the caponys. Sethe hem & kerf hem smal into a morter & tak mylk of almandys wyth broth of fresch buf, & do the flesch in the mylk or in the broth & do yt to the fyre, & myng yt togedere wyth flour of rys othere of wastelys als charchant als the Blank de Sure, & wyth the gholkys of eyryn for to make yt gholow, & safroun. & wan yt ys dressyd in dysches wyth Blank de Sure, straw vpon clowys of gelofre & straw vbon powder of galentyn, & serue yt forthe. Mawmene (Curye on Inglysch, UC 25, 88) Tak figges & reysnes & wasch hem in ale & braye hem wel in a mortere, & do therto wyn, & braye the flesch on hennes or capounes & do therto. & do good almound melk in a pot, & do therto thyn thynges, & stere wel togedere & make it for to sethe. & coloure it with blod of a goot or of a pygg & lok it be sothe & grounde & streyned, & put therto poudere of gyngere & of galyngale & clowes & greyn de parys, & sesen it with sugre & salt it, & do it fro the feere. Mawmenee (Curye on Inglysch, FoC 22, 102) Take a potell of wyne greke and ii pounde of sugur; take and claryfye the sugur with a quantite of wyne & drawe it thurgh a straynour in to a pot of erthe. Take flour of rys and medle with sum of the wyne & cast togydre. Take pynes with dates and frye hem a litell in grece other in oyle and cast hem togydre. Take clowes & flour of canel hool and cast therto. Take powdour gynger, canel, clowes; colour it with saundres a lytel yf hit be nede. Cast salt therto, and lat it seeth warly with a slowe fyre and not to thyk. Take brawn of capouns yteysed other of fesauntes teysed small and cast therto. Mawmenny (Curye on Inglysch, FoC 202, 144) Take the chese and of flessh of capouns or of hennes & hakke smal, and grynde hem smale in a morter. Take mylke of almaundes with the broth of freissh beef other freissh flessh, & put the flessh in the mylke other in the broth, and set hem to the fyre; & alye hem with flour of ryse or gastbon, or amydoun, as chargeaunt as the blanke desire, & with gholkes of ayren and safroun for to make hit ghelow. And when it is dressit in dysshes with blank desire, styk aboue clowes de gilofre, & strawe powdour of galyngale aboue, and serue it forth. Modern Comments =============== Mawmenny is a popular dish, unique to Anglo-Norman cuisine. It appears relatively frequently on surviving menus of elaborate feasts. It was often served in the same dish (one side one, the other the other) with Blanc Desire (sometimes called Blanc de Syry, later Blaundisorry). There are really two different dishes here. One has a broth base; the other is cooked in wine. I've made both, and prefer (my version of) the wine-based to (my version of) the broth-based. There is also an obvious choice whether to grind the meat or leave chunks. They appear most frequently to have ground it all to gruel. I prefer discrete pieces of meat. This does not much influence the flavor, but does affect how moderns respond to the dish. The first time I made this, I didn't use any water, just wine. "Drunken chicken", my personal name for this, refers roughly equally to the state of the dish if made diluted, or the state of the diner if not. Edited Version, with Modern Instructions ======================================== 1 chicken 1/4 tsp cloves 2 c white wine + 1 c water 1 c sugar 1 1/4 c almonds 1/2 tsp ginger 5 oz rice flour 1/4 cup piolas 1. Cook chicken (either boil or roast). 2. Remove meat from skin and bones. 3. Grind almonds. 4. Combine wine, water, sugar, almonds, and rice flour. Heat. 5. Brown piolas. 6. Add spices and simmer briefly. 7. Add piolas. 8. Add chicken. Medieval Recipes for Pynade =========================== Pynite (Curye on Inglysch, DC 21, 47) Wyn, sucre, iboilled togedere; gyngebred & hony, poudre of gynger & of clouwes; ipiht with pynes gret plentee, & schal beon adressed in coffyns of flour of chasteyns; the olour zolou wyth saffroun. Pynade (Curye on Inglysch, DS 91, 79) Tak hony and rotys of radich & grynd yt smal in a morter, & do to that hony a quantite of broun sugur. Tak powder of peper & safroun & almandys, & do al togedere. Boyl hem long & held yt on a wet bord & let yt kele, & messe yt & do yt forth. Pynade (Curye on Inglysch, UC 3, 83) Tak wyn & peres & boyle hem togedere, & tak tosted bred & grynde hem alle togedere & draw hem thorw a streynoure, & tak the thridde part of ceugre or elles lyg hony & tak penes & fry hem in fresch gres. & tak al this togedere & cast in a pot, & boyle it & force it vp with pouder peper, & salt it; & whan it is dressed florsche it with hole maces & clowes & with mynced gyngere & serue it forth. Pynnonade (Curye on Inglysch, FoC 59, 109) Take almaundes iblaunched and drawe hem sumdell thicke with gode broth other with water, and set on the fire and seeth it; cast therto zolkes of ayren ydrawe. Take pynes yfryed in oyle other in grece, and do therto white powdour douce, sugur and salt, & colour it with alkenet a lytel. Pynade (Two Fifteenth Century, H279 Leche Vyaundez iii, 34/59a) Take Hony & gode pouder Gyngere, & Galyngale, & Canelle, Pouder pepir, & graynys of parys, & boyle y-fere; than take kyrnelys of Pynotys & caste ther-to; & take chyconys y-sothe, & hew hem in grece, & caste ther-to, & lat sothe y-fere; & then lat droppe ther-of on a knyf; & ghif it cleuyth & wexyth hard, it ys y-now; & than putte it on a chargere tyl it be cold, & mace lechys, & serue with other metys; & ghif thou wolt make it in spycery, then putte non chykonys ther-to. Modern Comments =============== This is almost candy. Without the chicken, it _is_ candy. Edited Recipe, with Modern Instructions ======================================= 4 T honey 1/8 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp ginger 1/8 tsp grains of paradise 1/8 tsp galingale 2 T pinolas 1 tsp cinnamon 2 boneless chicken breasts 1. Brown pinolas. 2. Grind grains of paradise. 3. Boil all ingredients through grains of paradise. 4. Add pinolas. 5. Cook carefully until it sticks hard to a knife. 6. Chill and serve. Enjoy! -- Angharad/Terry Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Recipe for Drunken Chicken Date: 5 Apr 1994 05:14:00 GMT Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn. Gabriela dei Clementini asks: >Two questions, though. For those of us who are fairly period-cooking- >illiterates (or maybe we just don't speak the same English up here ;-))-- >what are "piolas"? A typo for "pinolas" (oops!), also spelled "pignolas", and sometimes even "pigniolas". > It sounds like they might be pine nuts? Yup. Same things. >Second, in your instructions for Pynade, #3 says "Boil all ingredients >through grains of paradise." Many pictures flitted through my mind, but I >thought it would just be easier to ask if this is a typo.... :-) I meant: combine the ingredients beginning with the first in the list and going on through the list until you have added grains of paradise (but no further) in a pot and bring to a boil. >Thanks for your help, and--again--thanks for the recipes! You're most welcome! -- Angharad/Terry From: mujle at uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Jennifer L Edwards) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Beer in cooking Date: 7 Nov 1994 23:56:26 GMT Organization: Educational Computing Network Since this is an SCA net, and we are supposed to be a historical group. I thought I might give a couple of period recipes with beer (or ale) in them. They are both from Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books (circa 1420's). The first, I redacted, the second is found is Duke Sir Cariadoc's "A Miscelleny". Chykonys in Bruette 1 whole chicken 3 cups water 12 oz (1 can) beer or ale 1/2 tsp ground black pepper (preferably fresh ground) 2 tsp ground ginger 12 threads of Saffron (ground in 1 Tbs water) 4 Tbs bread crumbs Cut chicken into pieces and place in a large pot. Add water, beer or ale, pepper and ginger. Simmer until chicken is tender and falls off the bone. Strain, saving the broth and remove the skin and bones from the chicken. Return broth and chicken to the heat and bring to a boil. Add bread crumbs and saffron and simmer until thickened. Remove from heat and serve. This is from the Harleian MS 276 (#97). Gwenhwyvar Lawen March of Lochmorrow Jennifer Edwards-Ring Western Illinois University Newsgroups: rec.org.sca From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman) Subject: Re:Need Recipes Organization: University of Chicago Date: Wed, 23 Nov 1994 14:40:09 GMT This is Elizabeth of Demdermonde posting on Cariadoc's account. "Help! we need recipes for an upcoming event....nothing fancy, just filling (and good!)"--brighid & treise Here are [two] recipes fitting your specifications; they are also period. Don't feel that at your first shot at head cook you cannot hope to make period food: there are a huge number of period recipes out there, ranging from enormously complex to very simple, and these are toward the simple end. What I have below is the period recipe (or a straight English translation of it) first, followed by our worked-out version. All have been done successfully at feasts I have cooked. I suggest you try them out for dinner at home to see if you like them. If you have any questions or for more recipes, email me. All of these are published in the Miscellany which Cariadoc and I sell, as well as lots more recipes and other stuff. Icelandic Chicken Icelandic Medical Miscellany p. 218/D1 (from a 15th century Icelandic manuscript, but actually probably originally 13th c. southern European) Original: One shall cut a young chicken in two and wrap about it whole leaves of salvia, and cut up in it bacon and add salt to suit the taste. Then cover that with dough and bake like bread in the oven. Our version: 5 c flour about 1 3/4 c water 1/2 lb bacon 3 lb chicken, cut in half 3 T dried sage (or sufficient fresh sage leaves to cover) Make a stiff dough by kneading together flour and water. Roll it out. Cover the dough with sage leaves and the sage leaves with strips of bacon. Wrap each half chicken in the dough, sealing it. You now have two packages which contain, starting at the outside, dough, sage, bacon, chicken. Put them in the oven and bake like bread (325! for 2 hours). We find the bacon adds salt enough. The part of the bread at the bottom is particularly good, because of the bacon fat and chicken fat. You may want to turn the loaves once or twice, or baste the top with the drippings. Fricassee of Whatever Meat You Wish from Platina book 6 (15th c. Italian) Original: You make a fricassee from fowl or whatever meat you choose in this way: in a pot with lard, close to the fire, put meat or birds well cleaned and washed, whether cut up finely or in slices. Stir this often with a spoon so that it does not stick to the side of the pot; when it is nearly cooked, take out most of the lard and put in two egg yolks beaten with verjuice and pour in juice and spices mixed into the pot. To this dish add some saffron so that it is more colorful. Likewise, it will not detract from the enjoyment of it to sprinkle finely chopped parsley over the dish. Then serve it immediately to your guests. Our version: 1/4-1/3 c lard fowl or meat: 1 lb boneless meat or chicken 2 egg yolks 2 T verjuice (or 1 T vinegar) RspicesS: 1/4 t pepper 1/8 t cloves 1/4 t cinnamon RjuiceS: 3 T chicken broth 8 threads saffron 1 T parsley 1/4 t salt Cut up meat. Beat egg yolks with verjuice. In another small dish, crush saffron into a little of the broth, then add the rest of the broth and the spices. Chop parsley. Heat lard. Fry meat about 8 minutes, stirring often, then add egg yolk mixture and broth mixture. Cook another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle parsley on top. You may want to reduce liquid a good deal for feast quantities. From: Dottie Elliott (10/4/95) To: Mark Harris, sjohns at mail.utexas.edu, fischer at cse.unsw.edu.au ==> Moorish Chicken [from Duke Cariadoc's Miscellany) [original recipe found in] Portuguese p. P-3 Cut up a fat hen and cook on a mild flame, with 2 spoons of fat, some bacon slices, lots of coriander, a pinch of parsley, some mint leaves, salt and a large onion. Cover and let it get golden brown, stirring once in a while. Then cover hen with water and let boil, and season with salt, vinegar, cloves, saffron, black pepper and ginger. When chicken is cooked, pour in 4 beaten yolks. Then take a deep dish, lined with slices of bread, and pour chicken on top. [redaction by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook] 4 lbs chicken 2 T lard 5 strips bacon (3 1/2 oz) 1/3 c green coriander 1 t parsley 1/2 T mint 1/2 t salt 10 oz onion 2 1/2 c water 2 T vinegar 1/4 t cloves 8 threads saffron 1/2 t pepper 1/2 t ginger 4 egg yolks 6 slices bread (toasted) Dismember chicken (thighs, legs, wings in two pieces, etc.), slice onion, wash and coarsely chop parsley, mint, and coriander. Melt fat, fry bacon a couple of minutes, put chicken, herbs, salt, and onion into pot and fry uncovered about 10 minutes, cover and cook covered another 20 minutes. Add water, vinegar, additional spices, bring to a boil and cook 45 minutes. Toast bread, arrange toast in bowl. Break egg yolks, stir them in and remove pot from heat, and pour into bowl with toast. Note that this is a 15th-century Portuguese idea of an Islamic dish: a real Islamic dish would not have the bacon! [Clarissa's Notes: I use chopped, skinless, boneless chicken breasts when making it for myself. For the feast, I also added skinless boneless thighs and 20 drumsticks. It should be even more flavorful if you use a cut up chicken or at least the chicken parts you like with the bones and skins attached. It just takes up more storage space. I use fresh herbs. I do not always add the egg yolks. Sometimes I add whole eggs instead or not add any eggs at all. Eggs were used to provide thickening and to stretch the dish. If the bones are there, this serves about 16. Without bones the same weight serves more like 20. I use white wine vinegar. Add the vinegar and spices to taste rather than trusting the recipe when you up the numbers for more people.] From: rmacdonald at microd.com Date: Sun, 25 Aug 96 11:39:06 GMT Subject: Re: one "pot" meal Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Here's one I have been known to do on occasion. It is a version of Cassolet, a dish from southern France that dates way back, but I cannot document how far. This version is designed for camping, using as many canned or dry components as possible: 2 cans of white or navy beans (if you want to be more authentic start from dry beans) 1 can chicken broth 1 cup cheap white wine 1 can chicken (or better duck if you can get some) 1-2 Carrots - diced 1 medium onion - diced 20-30 thin slices of pepperoni (I use commercially sliced and then dice further) Marjoram Garlic Ground Black Pepper Mix the chicken broth with the wine and the spices (to taste, also Italian Seasoning may be add. I don't tell people how much spice to use, we all have different tastes). Add the diced vegitables and bring to a boil. Cook the vegitables until they begin to soften and then add the rest of the ingreadients. Usually the whole cooking process can be done in 30-45 minutes having a completed product that will serve 3-4 or 2 hungry fighters. Other ideas: Breakfast sausage patty's may substitute for the pepperoni, duck for the chicken. Lamb shanks may be added especially if making a larger batch. It's basicly a bean soup/stew that almost anything you can find/catch/poach/ steal can be added to to increase flavor. It is fairly fast, easy, and safely transported with little that can spoil. In service to the society -- Iain of Rannoch ~);^) (Found in Fiach Ogan, Trimaris) From: "Martin G. Diehl" Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 22:45:16 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - Vinegar/verjuice Sharon L. Harrett wrote: > Can anyone provide me with documentation on the methods of > making vinegar or verjuice in period? I have many references to > their use, but none on their manufacture. > > Ceridwen One of my cookbooks "Renaissance Recipes (Painters and Food)" by Gillian Riley, pub: Pomegranate Artbooks, ISBN: 1-56640-577-7 , 96 pages, hbk. gives some information on verjuice and several recipes use it. [Partial quote] Verjuice: in Italian cooking is, in its simplest form, the juice of sour green grapes, used as a condiment or cooking medium. It can be boiled and fermented, and used throughout the year. The equivalent in English cookery ... sour gooseberries, plums, or acidic herbs such as sorrel. ... The book suggests that bitter orange (found in the Spanish foods section of a large supermarket) could be used as a substitute. One recipe that was given was Chicken with Verjuice, "Amorsa" 1 medium chicken, jointed 4 oz. pancetta 1 lb. sour green grapes, gooseberries, or unripe green plums fresh mint and parsley, chopped salt, freshly ground black pepper, saffron to taste Fry the chicken joints and diced bacon in olive oil until golden and half cooked. Crush the grapes and strain through a sieve into a casserole. Add the chicken; stir well to dissolve the brown bits and simmer until tender. Season with black pepper and saffron, check salt (pancetta may provide enough). Serve sprinkled with chopped herbs. Alas, although this lovely book does have a bibliography, specific references are not given for each recipe. I am, Vinchenzio Martinus di Mazza, - -- Martin G. Diehl Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 11:34:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Schuldenfrei Subject: SC - Re: Lombard Rice (fwd) Here, with Mistress Johanna's permission, is her recipe and redaction notes. I've taken the liberty of reformatting them for clarity. I've served this to modern people, and they LOVE it. I urge you to try this one. Tibor Lombardy Rice Dish The original recipe for this dish comes from Bartolomeo Scappi's Opera,from Venice in 1570. I based my recipe on the English translation that appears in Lorenza De'Medici's The Heritage of Italian Cooking (Random House, New York:1990). While the first line of the original recipe mentions both sausage and egg yolks, I have omitted both. I couldn't decide what would be an appropriate substitution for cervellate (brain sausage--apparently it is available, just not locally) and there are no instructions on what to do with the egg yolks. (You might wish to try adding hardboiled egg yolks to the chicken filling, or as a garnish.) I have also omitted geese. I use white chicken meat in my version. The first time I tried this recipe, I attempted to mold it in a fluted tube-cake pan without success. I've since discovered that it works well in a lasagne pan, although I don't own one deep enough to hold 3 layers. I have also successfully used large foil baking pans. The dish is at its best hot from the oven with the rosewater perfuming the air, but since Lorenza's variation of the recipe was depicted in a picnic setting, I have also served it as a cold dish. REDACTION: 1-1/2 Cups raw rice, cooked in chicken broth instead of water 4 boneless chicken breasts, cooked, cooled, and chopped (if you poach the chicken breasts, you will have chicken broth!) 2 Cups shredded Mozzarella cheese (Approximately) 1/2 Cup shredded fresh Parmesean cheese (Approximately) 1 stick of melted butter Cinnamon-sugar, as desired (mix cinnamon and sugar to taste) Rosewater, as desired (can be bought in Indian grocery stores) (can be omitted) In a lasagne-sized pan or large casserole, spread a layer of cooked rice. Sprinkle the rice layer with cinnamon-sugar, some of the cheese and some melted butter. Cover the spices and cheese with a generous layer of cooked chicken. Then repeat with the cheese, spices and butter. Add another layer of rice and repeat as desired. Your top layer should be rice with cheese and spices and butter on top. Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered until cheese melts and rice begins to brown. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with rosewater and serve forth. Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 12:01:57 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Re: Lombard Rice (fwd) Mark Schuldenfrei wrote: > While the first line of the original recipe mentions both sausage and > egg yolks, I have omitted both. I couldn't decide what would be an > appropriate substitution for cervellate (brain sausage--apparently it > is available, just not locally) While cervelles, in culinary French, are indeed brains, I'm almost positive that cervellate is not brain sausage. It is what they call a boiling sausage, similar to a cotechino, usually made from a mixture of pork and veal. There are still several Italian varieties of a sausage called cervellato available, not to mention saveloy, the French equivalent. Mostly they're along the lines of a cotto (rather than Genoa or hard) salami. I suspect, based on some of the (admittedly modern) recipes I've seen, that the sausage mixture was formed into a ball, wrapped in some kind of wrinkly membrane like caul fat or calves' tripe, tied up with string, and boiled, the whole thing looking vaguely brainlike. If you've ever seen a zampone, which is an Italian specialty (I've forgotten the region if I ever knew) consisting of a boneless pig's foot and hock, kinda like a lady's evening glove, stuffed with sausage meat and smoked/air dried. The stuff inside is cervellato. This being one of the few topics the Larousse Gastronomique is pretty reliable on, you could probably get more info there. Adamantius ______________________________________ Phil & Susan Troy troy at asan.com Date: Sat, 2 Aug 1997 11:08:29 -0700 (PDT) From: rousseau at scn.org (Anne-Marie Rousseau) Subject: SC - pomegranite chicken! Hi all from Anne-Marie. Wow! No less than seven requests for this recipe! OK, here it is. I got the primary sources from Cariadoc's collection of medieval and Renaissance cookbooks. The reconstructions are mine. from _An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteeth Century_, translated by Charles Perr. Another Tabahajiyya (A37) Cut the meat up small and fry with oil and salt, and when it is brown, cooki ti until done with vinegar. Pound a handful of almonds or walnuts and thrown them on and boil a while. Take pomegranate juice and dissolve in it a lump of sugar to get ride of its tartness, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Anne-Marie's Pomegranite chicken: 3 chicken breasts, hacked to gobbets 1-2 T olive oil 1/2 tsp salt Salt the chicken chunks, and sautee in a hot skillet with the oil until almost done and just starting to brown. Meanwhile, make the sauce: 1/4 cup water 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 T sugar 1/4 cup pomegranite syrup (from middle eastern grocers. If you can't find the syrup, you can use the juice, but boil it for a lot longer, and omit the water). Boil these together in a small sauce pan to blend and dissolve the sugar. When the chicken is almost done, throw on 1/4 cup white wine vinegar (cider vinegar works too), the boiled sauce, and 3 T of pounded almonds. Continue to simmer until the chicken has absorbed most of the liquid. Serve on a bed of cous cous. (recipe below). Soldier's Couscous (Kuskusu Fityani) (A55) [same source] The usual moistened cous cous is known by the whole world. The Fityani is the one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual, and when it is done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the pot and put them to one side; strain the bones and rest from the broth and return the pot to the fire; when it has boiled, put in the cous cous cooked and rubbed with fat and leave it for a little on a reduced fire or the hearthstone until it takes in the poper amount of the sauce; then throw it on a platter and level it, put on top of it the cooked meat and vegetables, prinkle it with cinnamon and serve it. This is called Fityani in Marrakesh. Anne-Marie's version of Soldiers Cous Cous 2 cups quick cooking cous cous 1 can Swansons veggie broth and 1 can water 4 T butter 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp salt Bring the broth and water to a boil in a good heavy pot with a tight lid. Stir in the couscous and finish according to the directions on the box. You can also leave the covered pot on the stove, with the burner tunred off. In about 15 minutes, the water should be absorbed. Stir in the butter over low heat until it is melted. Fluff with a fork and sprinkle heavily with cinnamon. Enjoy! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Anne-Marie Rousseau rousseau at scn.org Seattle, Washington Date: Mon, 04 Aug 97 13:34:01 -0600 From: "Stephanie Rudin" Subject: SC - Advice, please! I am doing my first feast the first weekend of September and I am trying to keep the costs down as much as possible. One of the recipes I've chosen is from "The Original Mediterranean Cuisine" by Barbara Santich. The recipe is given three ways, once in the original italian (at least I think it's italian - going back to italian class in high school almost 20 years ago), once in an english translation and once in the author's redaction. Di Limonia Di Polli (from Libro della Cucina) Friggansi li polli con lardo e cipolle, e pestisi l'amido non mondo e distemperesi col brodo de la carne de porco, e colisi, e cocansi con li detti polli e spezie. E se non avessi amido, spessisi il brodo colle tuorla d'ova; e quando sira presso l'ora del ministrare, metti in quello succhio di limoni, o di lomie, o di cetrangole. Limonia of Chicken Fry chicken with salted pork fat and onions, and grind unblanched almonds and combine with pork stock, and strain, and cook with the chicken and spices. If you don't have almonds, thicken the liquid with egg yolks; and when it is nearly time to serve the dish, add the juice of lemons or bitter oranges. So... my problem is that in the redaction, Santich calls for ground ginger, pepper, salt (depending on saltiness of stock) and saffron. I would prefer not to use the saffron because of the cost involved. (If this were for only a few I wouldn't mind but we are planning for over 100 people and I don't think I can swing it.) Since the original author only says spices, I don't have any clue what to substitute. I am not familiar enough with period cooking to know what would taste right and I am not familiar enough with saffron to know what the lack of it will do to the recipe's flavor. The only thing I can think of is that the recipe seems to lack garlic, but that might just be a personal thing for me. Hence, I am throwing myself on the mercy of the experienced cooks on this list. I welcome any advice you might have. Mercedes rudin at okway.okstate.edu Date: Tue, 05 Aug 97 15:55:46 -0600 From: "Stephanie Rudin" Subject: Re: SC - Advice, please! Sorry - I should have just gone ahead and added the author's redaction on my first posting. Here it is. Mercedes rudin at okway.okstate.edu Chicken in Lemon Sauce 1 KG (2 lbs) chicken drumsticks or 800 G (just over 1 1/2 lbs boneless breasts) 2 onions, chopped 1-2 tblspns oil 1 cup ground, blanched almonds 2 cups chicken stock 1-1 1/2 tspns ground ginger freshly ground pepper salt (depending on saltiness of stock) 1/2 teaspoon pure saffron (threads) infused in 1/4 cup hot stock juice 1-1 1/2 lemons Trim chicken pieces as necessary, pat dry. Heat oil in a wide shallow pan (large enough to hold the chicken comfortably in one layer). Lightly fry onions until soft, but do not allow them to colour. Add chicken pieces and slowly seal on all sides, again without browning. Place almonds in a food processor. Add hot stock and process for about two more minutes. Using a course sieve, strain this almond milk over the chicken, pressing down on almond residue to extract all the liquid. The almond milk should have the consistency of thin cream; it will thicken during cooking. Add ground ginger and saffron seeped in stock, together with a good grinding of pepper. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes (for breasts) or 30 minutes (for drumsticks). Reduce the lid and increase the heat to boil the sauce down to a thick, creamy consistency. Add the juice of 1 lemon, taste, and if necessary add more lemon juice. The lemon flavor should be distinct but not overpowering. Check for seasoning and add a little salt if desired. From "The Original Mediterranean Cuisine - Medieval Recipes for Today" by Barbara Santich, Chicago Review Press, 1995. From: Glenda Robinson Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: The History of Rice Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 10:22:26 +1000 Organization: Flamberge Computer Services > Strange, I know, but I'm curious (for a good reason)... > Anyone out there know when rice became widespread, which were the first > countries to use/import/cultivate/trade for it? > > Lysander There is a recipe using rice in "To the King's Taste", from "The Forme of Cury, written around 1390. It's one of my favourites, and it goes something like this. Blank-Mang [White Dish] Take capons [or chooks?]and seeth hem. Thenne take hem up. Take alamandes [almonds] blanced. Grynd hem and alay hem up with the same broth [or just use styore bought ground almonds]. Cast the mylk [almond milk] in a pot. Waisshe rys [rice] and do thereto and lat it seeth. Take the brawn of capons. Teere it small and do thereto. Take white greece [lard], sugar and salt, and cast thereinne. Lat it seeth. Then mess it forth and florish it with aneys [aniseed] and confyt rede other whyte and with almandes fryed in oyle and serve it forth. The 'modern' version of this recipe suggests: 2 large capon or chook breasts 2 1/2 cups water 1 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup ground almonds 1 cup rice 1 tbsp butter 4 tsp light brown sugar and go for it. This dish is very light, in colour (why they called it 'White Dish', texture and flavour. It is delicious. Just stir the rice often, otherwise it tends to burn at the bottom. Glenda. Date: Thu, 21 Aug 97 16:41:05 -0600 From: "Stephanie Rudin" Subject: Re: SC - When life gives you lemons, then what? Caitlin - one of the women in our shire, HL Rhiannon Redwolf, makes a wonderful dish she calls lemonshire chicken. There isn't really a recipe. I made it once with her standing over me and since then I just throw stuff in. Basically start with chicken breasts, pounded a little, a large onion, diced, some white wine worcestershire, minced garlic, capers, butter, olive oil and salt and pepper. Saute the onions and garlic in a little olive oil and butter then add the chicken breasts and brown them slightly, and add the worcestershire (1/2 cup or more to your taste), capers (about half of a small bottle), salt and pepper and let simmer until the chicken is done. Then add the juice of one lemon (or more to your taste). Serve over rice. I usually use quite a bit of worcestershire so that there is extra sauce to go over the rice. I have added lemon zest every now and then with good results. Mercedes rudin at okway.okstate.edu Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 18:02:16 -0700 From: ladymari at GILA.NET (Mary Hysong) Subject: Re: SC - When life gives you lemons, then what? > Any idea what I can do with > chicken breasts and lemons (beside the usual thing with sherry, which is my > fallback unless you folks have a better idea). > > Caitlin HI Caitlin, here's my favorite lemon chicken: put some butter in a skillet, sprinkle chicken breasts with garlic powder, other fvorite herbs to taste, brown in the butter, squeeze the lemon, strain and mix a spoonful of sugar with it, pour in the middle of the skillet and stir it into whatever chicken juice/butter is there, then stir all together [oops, forgot to say cut the meat in small peices first] cheers, Mairi Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 08:33:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Schuldenfrei Subject: Re: SC - When life gives you lemons, then what? HI Caitlin, here's my favorite lemon chicken: put some butter in a skillet, sprinkle chicken breasts with garlic powder, other fvorite herbs to taste, brown in the butter, squeeze the lemon, strain and mix a spoonful of sugar with it, pour in the middle of the skillet and stir it into whatever chicken juice/butter is there, then stir all together [oops, forgot to say cut the meat in small peices first] This is a delightful recipe. I prefer to add some specific wine, and call it Chicken Marsala.... As a technique question: I've found that I get a better, and more intense lemon flavor, if I use the zest of the lemon grated into a sauce, than if I just use juice alone. Have you tried that? I'd dredge the chicken breasts in a flour and lemon zest coating (mix in herbs as you like: savory and black pepper pop to mind) and bake or saute. Make a sauce as above. Tibor Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 14:15:20 -0600 From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt Subject: SC - Apricot Chicken Recipe My apologies if this is a repeat. I lost power at the end of typing this out before, and it was gone when I finally got back on 6 hours later. Apricot Chicken: I have found recipes for what is basically the same dish in several places...Russian Cookbooks, Mid-east cookbooks, even Martha Washington IIRC. Here's what you do: Take one cut-up boiler/fryer or equivalent favorite parts in weight. Brown it in olive oil or butter in a large kettle with 1 very large onion, cut up into large squares.Onions need not be completely soft. At this point, decide whether this is a stove-top, fireplace, or oven dish, and put it in an appropriate pot. Add water or chicken stock to cover and a pound of dried apricots, halved if very large. Add more if they are the very-moist variety. Simmer on the stove top, over the fire, or bake in the oven, all covered, for about an hour. Add salt and white pepper to taste. Some heretics have been known to add white wine to the mix with the stock. This looks very fetching with green garnish of sliced spring onion greens or parsley, and we like to serve it with something that will sop up the incredible juices, such as noodles (with parsley or herbs for color contrast) or in bread bowls. I was delighted to find a Rev. War re-enactor, who just "discovered" the SCA, cooked Apricot Chicken over the campfire for his turn at our camp meal at Pennsic. Along with it he served roasted onions: Cover whole onions (slice off only the top. leave on the brown skin layers) with foil and place in the coals until soft. To serve, open the foil, carefully (hot!) squeze the brown skin and the onion will pop right out onto your plate. Serve with butter or salt and pepper, or plain if desired. Amazingly simply and incredibly good. For some reason it doesn't work in the oven at home quite as well. Hope you enjoy it! It all tastes far more complicated than the recipe would indicate! Aoife Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 10:59:53 EST From: LrdRas Subject: SC - Chicken-apologies and facts M'lord Alaistair and list members, My humble apologies. It appears that taken at face value m'lord Al was correct. Cornish Game Hens as available in the supermarket under that name are indeed nothing more than another variety of chicken. They are raised from several breeds that have been improved for meat and are known as broilers. They are harvested when they have reached the weight of 2 1/2 lbs. or 7 weeks of age.whichever comes first. Due to the young age of the harvested bird they have a flavor which is more succulent and rich compared to older birds. As a side note, according to Dr. John Schwartz of the Landcaster Office of the Pennsylvania Co-Operative Extention office, the flavor of chickens rapidly deteriorate after arriving at the supermarket. There they are washed in antiseptic and bleaching/antibacterial agents often times on cutting surfaces that are coated with antibacterials and packaged. This ruins the flavor. The best flavored birds are those with minimal processing that have been killed quickly and bled rapidly. and immediately chilled down. Whne treated thusly the flavor of range fed vs. commercial birds is not, accordinging to his mother, significantly different. In fact, broiler and frying chickens are bred today specifically for flavor and good meat to bone ratios. Well, there you have it. My apologies for my for my former faux paux. Ras Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 12:54:20 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - french cooking or is Ham mousse just a fancy sausage? Capons Stwed (this is 15th c. English, but English and French cooking were very similar at the time) Take parcelly, Sauge, Isoppe, Rose Mary, and tyme, and breke hit bitwen thi hondes, and stoppe the Capon there-with; colour hym with Safferon, and couche him in a erthen potte, or of brasse, and ley splentes underneth and al about the sides, that the Capon touche no thinge of the potte; strawe good herbes in the potte, and put thereto a pottel of the best wyn that thou may gete, and none other licour; hele the potte with a close led, and stoppe hit aboute with dogh or bater, that no eier come oute; And set hit on the faire charcole, and lete it seeth easly and longe till hit be ynowe. And if hit be an erthen potte, then set hit on the fire whan thou takest hit downe, and lete hit not touche the grounde for breking; And whan the hete is ouer past, take oute the Capon with a prik; then make a sirippe of wyne, Reysons of corance, sugur and safferon, And boile hit a litull; medel pouder of Ginger with a litul of the same wyn, and do thereto; then do awey the fatte of the sewe of the Capon, And do the Siryppe to the sewe, and powre hit on the capon, and serue it forth. [end of original] 1 chicken, about 3 lb First batch of herbs: 1/3 c fresh parsley 1 T dried sage 1 t dried rosemary 1 t thyme, ground 2 T hyssop, dried 1 1/2 c wine 6 threads saffron + 1 t water Second batch of herbs: 1/2 t tarragon 1/2 t sage 1/2 t rosemary 1/2 t thyme about 1/2 c flour enough water to make a stiff dough Sauce: 1/2 c wine 1/2 c sugar 1/2 c currants small pinch saffron 1/4 c wine 1 t powdered ginger Mix first batch of herbs and stuff chicken with them. Put chicken and wine in a pot with a top; if you are using a stove top rather than an oven, you may want to put wood pieces or something under the chicken to keep it from sticking. Paint the chicken with water with saffron crushed into it. Sprinkle on second batch of herbs. Mix flour and water into a stiff dough, roll it out into a string, and use it between pot and lid as a seal. Bake at 350∞ or simmer on stove top about 1 1/2 hours. Take out, drain, separate out some of the liquid without the fat. Make a thick syrup of wine, sugar, currants, and a pinch of saffron. Boil briefly. Mix another 1/4 c wine with powdered ginger. Combine. Add 1/2 c of the liquid from the chicken to this, heat, pour over capon, serve. Elizabeth/Betty Cook Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 08:00:04 -0800 From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" Subject: Re: SC - frozen pomegranate seeds Hi all from AM! A possible use for pomegranite seeds....Pomegranite Chicken! Like the pomegranite sauce for pork already suggested, but slightly different ingredients and documentably period (at least for you middle eastern types). The recipe follows...this stuff is wonderful and a big hit with the meat and potatoes crowd when served with cous cous (also period, when cooked with broth and butter). Great for tourneys, its so easy. If you use a cast iron pot, it is rather brown, but if you use a stainless steel pot its a pretty dark red. The pomegranite chicken calls for walnuts, but since they appear to be my singular food allergy, I chose to sub with almonds. Interestingly, the Persian restaurants here in Seattle have something like this on their menus. Course, since they use the proper walnuts, I can't try it, but it appears to be less sweet-sour, and is far more soupy. Oh, and the chicken pieces are bone in, for the modern "authentic" version. Interesting! As always feel free to use my recipe, I just ask that you let me know, cite me in any publications and let me know how it worked for you too! These and other recipies are the ones in the last Serve it Forth, I believe. Enjoy! Recipes from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century, translated by Charles Perr (in A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks. 6th Edition, ed. by Duke Cariadoc and Duchess Diana Alene, privately published. Vol 1, 1991, Vol 2, 1993.) Another Tabahajiyya (A37) Cut the meat up small and fry with oil and salt, and when it is brown, cook it until done with vinegar. Pound a handful of almonds or walnuts and throw them on and boil a while. Take pomegranate juice and dissolve in it a lump of sugar to get rid of its tartness, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Pomegranite Chicken 6 chicken breasts, hacked to gobbets 1-2 T olive oil to sautee 1/2 tsp salt to sprinkle on breasts 1/2 cup water 1 tsp cinnamon 2 T sugar 1/2 cup pomegranite molasses or syrup** 1/2 cup white wine or cider vinegar 6 T pounded almonds Chunk and salt the chicken, brown in oil 'til almost done. Meanwhile, make a sauce of the water, sugar and pomegranite syrup. Boil to blend. When the chicken is almost totally cooked, dump in the vinegar. Then add the sauce, along with the almonds. Simmer till the sauce is thick, about five minutes on a hard boil. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve on cous cous. Serves 6. **If you can't find pomegranite syrup at a local middle eastern market, you can use pomegranite juice, but you'll need to add more sugar and omit the water. By using the pomegranite molasses, I can save a bit of cooking down time. Soldier's Couscous (Kuskusu Fityani) (A55) The usual moistened couscous is known by the whole world. The Fityani is the one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual, and when it is done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the pot and put them to one side; strain the bones and rest from the broth and return the pot to the fire; when it has boiled, put in the couscous cooked and rubbed with fat and leave it for a little on a reduced fire or the hearthstone until it takes in the proper amount of the sauce; then throw it on a platter and level it, put on top if it the cooked meat and vegetables, sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve it. This is called Fityani in Marrakesh. Soldier's Cous cous 2 c. cous cous 1 can veggie broth + 1 canful water 4 T. butter 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1 t. salt In a large pot with a good lid, bring the broth and water to a boil. Stir in the cous cous, and clap on the lid. Let sit off the heat until all the water is absorbed. Stir in the butter and sprinkle heavily with cinnamon. Fluff with a fork to keep from being gloppy. Serves 6-8 generously. Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 11:49:04 -0800 From: "Crystal A. Isaac" Subject: Re: SC - frozen pomegranate seeds Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'm going to try to make pomegranate wine (my barony has not yet reimburesed me for expenses and I think I'll just lose that recipt so the seeds will be mine, not the SCA's.) Although from another source my recipe was not unlike Anne-Marie's, including the subsititution of almonds for walnuts. When I make this at for myself, I tend to just make the sauce with extra spice and pour it over the chicken to bake. I don't like boiled chicken. thanks again, Crystal of the Westermark Chicken with Pomegranate NARSIRK This is a Persian word, meaning "Pomegranate and vinegar" Cut fat meat into middling pieces, then put into the sauce pan and cover with water. Adding a little salt. Boil, and remove the scum. When almost cooked, throw in coriander, cumin, pepper, cinnamon and mastic; bray all separately from the cinnamon, leaving this last in its bark. Cut up onions, wash and put into the pot, with a few sprigs of mint. Add kabobs of [chicken] minced with seasonings. Take pomegranate seeds, grind up fine, mix with wine-vinegar strain and pour into the saucepan. Peel [almonds], grind them fine, soak in hot water and add, flavoring the mixture to taste, and putting in sufficient [almond] to give it consistency. Then throw on top a few pieces of whole [almond], and rub in sprigs of dry mint. Spray with a little rose water; wipe the sides with a clean rag, and leave over the fire to settle. Then remove. Arberry, A.J., translator. _The Bagdad Cookery Book_. (c.1226CE) Reprinted in _A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookery Books_. Volume I by Friedman, David (Sir Cariadoc of the Bow) Published privately. Chicken: Take chicken thighs and boil in chicken broth, adding ground coriander, ground cumin, ground pepper, cinnamon sticks, mastic (a tiny drop of spruce essence will do), chopped onions and mint. If time permits, add some meatballs of ground chicken, ground almonds and spices. Sauce: Grind pomegranate seeds and mix with 1/4 of that volume white wine vinegar. [or pomegranate juice] Blanch, peel and grind almonds. Add ground almonds to sauce to thicken. Add spices (ground coriander, ground cumin, ground pepper) to taste. Prep: Remove chicken and onions from boiling bath and place in baking/serving dishes. Pour sauce over chicken. Heat in hot oven for a 10 minutes Sprinkle with whole almonds, pomegranate seeds and mint. Serve. Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 16:02:15 -0700 From: "Morgan" Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #639 >I would like to know if anyone of you out there has some ideas for >recipes I could use to serve to the Crown and thier entourage for a >light lunch. >Tegan Viaunde of Cypress Ryalle (chicken in sweet sauce) 4 cups chopped cooked chicken 1 cup white wine 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup honey 1/2 teasp. each ground cloves, mace and ginger 1/4 cup ground almonds 1/2 cup currants Boil the wine and sugar together for ten minutes or until it thickens and clings to the spoon. Add honey, spices almonds and currants and cook for an additional five minutes. Pour the sauce over the chicken, coating well. Chill well; serve cold. I have had much sucess with this "picnic" recipe. I have used cut up breast meat, small drumsticks, even plain ol' cooked chicken parts. I put the cooled sauce and meat in a ziplock, and throw it in the cooler until time to eat, then arrange the meat on platters, and see it disapper! Taken from >Travelling Dysshes< by Siobhan Medhbh O'Roarke Caointiarn Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 01:29:30 -0500 From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON) Subject: Re: SC - Yikes! I'm teaching a class! Here's a recipe from An Ordinance of Pottage that they might like. Floreye A rose-decked version of Chicken pudding. Use rose or deep pink rose petals, choosing ones which are just beginning to wilt and cutting off their white bases. Chicken Pate with roses petals of 4 medium-sized roses 1 1/2 cups chicken broth or water 2 oz. (1/2 cup) blanched almonds, slivered 1 teaspoon sugar 3 cups cooked chicken breast, chopped 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste Reserve some of the inner, less wilted petals. Put the rest in a blender or processor with the almonds and process them; then add the chicken meat and seasonings and process again. Put this mixture in a saucepan and stir into it the broth or water, previously brought to a boil. Leave to steep for 10 minutes, then bring to a boil, stirring, and continue to stir over a low heat for no more than 5 minutes. The dish can be served hot, mounded on a serving dish. Or it can be packed into a bowl and chilled, then unmoulded before serving. Either way, garnish at the last moment with the reserved rose petals. This should be simple enough for beginners, and as a cold dish, work for an after meeting pot-luck. Allison Date: Thu, 06 Aug 1998 02:44:22 EDT From: korrin.daardain at juno.com (Korrin S DaArdain) Subject: Re: SC - Fried Chicken in Apicius??? On Wed, 05 Aug 1998 17:14:39 -0400 Phil & Susan Troy writes: >Today, for the second time in the last week or so, I have heard a >reference made to a fried chicken recipe in Apicius. The trouble is, I >can't seem to find such a recipe in Apicius. > >Can anyone provide a name for the recipe, or maybe info indicating >this is somebody's loose secondary interpetation of a boiled or braised >chicken recipe from Apicius (there are several), or what? > >Adamantius I don't know if this is what you are looking for but a search of my recipe collection for "Apicius" turned up the following recipes for chicken. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pullum Frontonianum (Chicken a la Fronto) (Apic. 6, 9, 13) From an old Roman cookbook: Marcus Gavius Apicius: De Re Coquinaria. The book I have is edited and translated from Latin to German by Robert Maier. Posted and translated from German to English by Micaela Pantke (hz225wu at unidui.uni-duisburg.de) 1 fresh chicken (approx. 1-1.5kg) 100ml oil 200ml Liquamen (A salty fish sauce), or 200ml wine + 2 tsp. salt 1 branch of leek fresh dill to taste Saturei (Savory) to taste coriander to taste pepper to taste a little bit of Defritum (A thick fig syrup, or a thick condensed grape juice) Start to fry chicken and season with a mixture of Liquamen and oil, together with bunches of dill, leek, Saturei and fresh coriander. Then cook approximately 1 hour with 220 deg C in the oven. When the chicken is done, moisten a plate with Defritum, put chicken on it, sprinkle pepper on it, and serve. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pullus Fusilis (Chicken With Liquid Filling) (Apic. 6, 9, 15) From an old Roman cookbook: Marcus Gavius Apicius: De Re Coquinaria. The book I have is edited and translated from Latin to German by Robert Maier. Posted and translated from German to English by Micaela Pantke (hz225wu at unidui.uni-duisburg.de) 1 fresh chicken (approx. 1-1.5kg) 300g minced meat (half beef, half pork) 100g groats (of oat) 2 eggs 250ml white wine 1 TB oil 1 TB Liebstoeckl (A kind of celery) 1/4 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. ground pepper 1 tsp. green peppercorns 50g stone-pine kernels Liquamen (A salty fish sauce) or salt to taste Ground pepper, Liebstoeckl, ginger, minced meat and cooked groats. Add eggs and mix until you have a smooth mass. Season with Liquamen, add oil, whole peppercorns and stone-pine kernels. Fill this dough into the chicken. Cook approximately 1 hour with 220 deg C in the oven. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Korrin S. DaArdain Kitchen Steward of Household Port Karr Kingdom of An Tir. Date: Thu, 06 Aug 1998 08:08:36 -0400 From: Phil & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Fried Chicken in Apicius??? Korrin S DaArdain wrote: > >Can anyone provide a name for the recipe [a fried chicken recipe in > Apicius], or maybe info >indicating > >this is somebody's loose secondary interpetation of a boiled or braised > >chicken recipe from Apicius (there are several), or what? > I don't know if this is what you are looking for but a search of my > recipe collection for "Apicius" turned up the following recipes for > chicken. Yes, this is the recipe that seems to come closest to fried chicken, and it's actually a stew. The chicken is browned and then braised until done in a minimum of nine ounces of liquid (per the redaction below) not in the oven, according to the bare translation I have by Flower and Rosenbaum (we don' need no steenking redactions!), but over a heat source, presumably on the stove. I was just wondering if the recipe had been substantially reworked, which sometimes greatly changes the character of the dish until it is barely recognizable. See, for instance, well, I _think_ it was the first edition of "Pleyn Delit" that turned mortrews, a thick pottage of ground meat, into meat loaf.By the way, the Liebstoeckl mentioned in the German text, and left untranslated in English, is presumably lovage, a celery-ish plant commonly found in Apician recipes. Adamantius Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 14:07:35 EDT From: PhlipinA at aol.com Subject: SC - On roast beef and fried chicken- long Was just going through my copy of Platina, "De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine", the Milham translation, 1998, and found the following instructions. The second one comes from the same book, 6, chapter 11, entitled "Frictum ex Quavis Carne", translated as " A Fry from Whatever Meat You Want": You will make a fry from fowl and whatever meat you want in this way: put meat and birds into a pot on the fire with lard after they have been well gutted and washed and cut up, either in small pieces or quartered, and stir frequently with a spoon so they do not stick to the sides of the pot. When the cooking is nearly finished, take out the greater part of the lard and pour into the pot two egg yolks, beaten with verjuice and mixed with juice and spices. It is necessary for it to boil only until properly cooked. Some add saffron to this dish so it becomes more colored. It will not be alien to pleasure to sprinkle finely chopped parsley on the dish and serve immediately to your guests. It will be very nourishing, and, even if it is digested slowly, it will repress bile and help the heart, liver, and kidneys. Now, this is very similar to how I make my Southern Fried Chicken- the major difference being that the spices are added in a liquid medium at the end of cooking, where I add the spices in flour and corn meal at the beginning- in fact, this one is very reminiscent of Buffalo Wings. Being modern, I usually use peanut oil for the fat and bake it after it's browned, to reduce fat, but I have frequently fried chicken in lard until it was done. Maybe I'll try this one, next time I'm in a fried chicken mood... Again, I think this is another example of a generic frying recipe, used instead of a specific recipe for a common practice, just as in the Roast recipe. Thoughts? Phlip Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 15:05:16 EDT From: Mordonna22 at aol.com Subject: SC - Apicius Fried Chicken I dunno about this Vehling guy >From Apicius; Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome translated by Vehling, pg. 154, recipe 250 CHICKEN AND CREAM SAUCE [1] PULLUS LEUCOZOMUS [2] TAKE A CHICKEN AND PREPARE IT AS ABOVE. EMPTY IT THROUGH THE APERATURE OF THE NECK SO THAT NONE OF THE ENTRAILS REMAIN. TAKE [a little] WATER [3] AND PLENTY OF SPANISH OIL, STIR, COOK TOGETHER UNTIL ALL MOISTURE IS EVAPORATED [4] WHEN THIS IS DONE, TAKE THE CHICKEN OUT, SO THAT THE GREATEST POSSIBLE AMOUNT OF OIL REMAINS BEHIND [5] SPRINKLE WITH PEPPER AND SERVE [6] [1] The ancient version of Chicken a la Maryland, Wiener Blackhahndl, etc. [2] tor. leocozymus; from the Greek leucozomos, prepared with white sauce. The formula for the cream sauce is lacking here. Cf. Rx no. 245 [3] The use of water to clarify the oil which is to serve as a deep frying fat is an ingenious idea, little practised today. It surely saves the fat or oil, prevents premature burning or blackening by frequent use, and gives a better tasting friture. The above recipe is a fragment, but even this reveals the extraordinary knowledge of culinary principles of Apicius who reveals himself to us as a master of well-understood principles of good cookery that are so often ignored today, Cf. Note 5 to Rx. no. 497 [4] the recipe fails to state that the chicken must be breaded, or that the pieces if chicken be turned in flour, etc., and fried in the oil." It sure does fail to state that. So where does he get it? "[5] another vital rule of deep fat frying not stated, or rather stated in the language of the kitchen, namely that the chicken must be crisp, dry, that is, not saturated with oil, which of course every good fry cook knows [6] With the cream sauce, prepared separately, spread on the platter, with the fried chicken inside, or the sauce in a separate dish, we have here a very close resemblance to a very popular modern dish Vehling's notes indicate a Chicken Fricassee. My redaction of his translation of the recipe is to simply deep fry the unseasoned chicken in olive oil until done inside, remove, and sprinkle with pepper. Still not Southern Fried Chicken, but definitely something modern palates would find familiar, with perhaps the addition of a bit of salt. Mordonna Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 15:05:15 EDT From: Mordonna22 at aol.com Subject: SC - Apicius's fried chicken >From Apicius; Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome, Now for the First Time Rendered into English by Joseph Dommers Vehling, Published by Dover Publications, New York, 1977 [238] CHICKEN SOUR PULLUM OXYZOMUM A GOOD-SIZED GLASS OF OIL, A SMALLER GLASS OF BROTH, AND THE SMALLEST MEASURE OF VINEGAR, 6 SCRUPLES OF PEPPER, PARSLEY AND A BUNCH OF LEEKS G.-V. [laseris] satis modice Vehling's redaction: "These directions are very vague. If the raw chicken is quartered, fried in the oil, and then braised in the broth with a dash of vinegar, the bunch of leeks, and parsley, seasoned with pepper and a little salt, we have a dish gastonomically correct. The leeks can be served as a garnish, the gravy, properly reduced and strained over the chicken which like in the previous formula is served in a casserole" My redaction: 1 1/2 cup (12 fl oz) olive oil 1 cup (8 fl oz) chicken stock dash of vinegar 1 tsp ground black pepper 1/4 cup (2 fl oz) chopped fresh parsley 1 large bunch leeks Clean and dry the chicken. In a heavy saucepan heat the oil on high heat until a drop of water dropped into it sizzles and evaporates instantly. Drop the chicken into the oil a few pieces at a time and brown and remove. Reduce heat to medium low. Add the broth, vinegar, pepper, parsley, leeks, and return the chicken to the pot. Bring to a slow simmer, cover, and cook until Leeks are tender and chicken is done. My Reaction: To my modern palate, this definitely could have used a bit of salt. Otherwise it was delicious. Meat was moist and tender, sauce was a tiny bit tart. Very rich sauce, though. Mordonna Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 02:02:08 EDT From: Gerekr at aol.com Subject: SC - Apician Teriyaki Chicken 8-); and ostrich sauces While regailing my husband with the saga of the Phantom Apician Fried Chicken, I finally found the recipe in Flower and Rosenbaum and was reading it off. Quoth he, "If liquamen is a soy sauce analog (Cariadoc and Charles Perry reference), that sounds more like teriyaki chicken". "No no," quoth I, "teriyaki is sweet as well as salty." So I puddled on thru some more and find a sweetener! He was right! Phlip wanted the latin. Here is Apicius 250 from the Flower & Rosenbaum text and their translation. F&B, p.164, #12 (Vehling #250(?)) Pullum Frontonianum: pullum praedura, condies liquamine oelo mixto, cui mittis fasciculum anethi, porri, satureiae et coriandri viridis, et coques. ubi coctus furit, levabis eum, in lance defrito perunges, piper aspargis et inferes. Chicken a la Fronto. Brown the chicken, put in a mixture of liquamen and oil to which you add a bouquet of dill, leek, savory, and green coriander; and braise. When it is done take it out, place on a serving-dish, sprinkle generously with defrutum, powder with pepper, and serve. Notes in the introduction (pp. 22-24) identify liquamen as "garum", but state that the term "liquamen" is used almost exclusively in the Mss. They describe the short method of liquamen production which they used (very general, no quantities). "Defrutum" is a sweet, reduced wine preparation... F&B say they make theirs (p. 24-25) from tinned grape-juice, reduced to 1/3 of its volume. The effect is "an excellent flavor and a very pleasant slight sweetness." Chimene & Gerek (who was right!, 8-)) Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 16:15:32 EDT From: Gerekr at aol.com Subject: Re: Re: SC - Apician Teriyaki Chicken 8-); and ostrich sauces >From: margali at 99main.com (Marilyn Traber) ... >[she asked for pullus leucozomus, not frontonianum] >margali > >Gerekr at aol.com wrote: > >> Phlip wanted the latin. Here is Apicius 250 from the Flower & Rosenbaum >> text and their translation. >> >> F&B, p.164, #12 (Vehling #250(?)) >> Pullum Frontonianum: pullum praedura, condies liquamine oelo mixto, >> Have fun, >> Chimene & Gerek (who was right!, 8-)) true, but the fronto is the only thing that even vaguely resembles "fried chicken". I'll look again for "leucozomos" Ah. p. 164 (#154) Pullus leucozomus: accipies pullum et ornas ut supra. aperies illum a pectore, accipiat aquam et oleum Hispanum abundans. agitatur ut ex se ambulet et humorem consumat. postea, cum coctus fuerit, quodcumque porro remanserit inde levas. piper aspargis et inferes. Chicken with white sauce. [does not include white sauce in this recipe!] Take a chicken and truss as above [as for chicken in liquamen, which I can't see quickly]. Open it at the breast. Fill it with water and plenty of Spanish oil. move it , so that it gives off its juice and absorbs the liquid. When done take it out of whatever is left of the liquid, sprinkle with pepper, and serve. That sounds like stewed chicken, even if stewed-from-the-inside, to me... And on the subject of "cornflour", the edition of F&B I have is printed in England, 1958, marked "not for sale in the US" and has this to say about "amulum": "Most of the sauces in our book are thickened with "amulum." We have translated this word for the sake of convenience as 'cornflour,' for this is the starch most frequently used for this purpose to-day. The "amulum" was, however, wheat-starch." and proceed to give a long quote from Pliny about the manufacture, grades and qualities of WHEAT-starch. Chimene Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 22:09:18 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: SC - Garlicy Chicken-An update Here is an update (including spelling corrections) for the garlic chicken recipe. Remember that this is a creative effort of a cook in the current middle ages and is a composite of 2 recipes in Ancient Cookery. I still don't have me copy back from the person I lent it to so i can't give you the 2 original recipes I combined at this time. :-( Chekynes in Garlik (A Composite recipe created from 2 recipes in "Ancient Cookery") copyright 1998 L. J. Spencer, Jr. 8 chicken thighs 1/4 cup butter, melted 4 sheets phyllo (filo) pastry, cut in half 1 head garlic 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs 3/4-1 cup chicken broth 1 large pinch ginger, ground 1 large pinch cinnamon, ground 1 pinch cloves, ground salt, to taste Preheat oven to 400 deg. F. Wrap garlic minus 1 large clove of garlic in foil. Bake 30 mins. Brush a half phyllo sheet with melted butter. Place chicken at the top of the sheet and roll up. Tuck ends underneath. Place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat for other chicken pieces. Bake at 350 deg. F. until a golden brown. SAUCE:: Soak breadcrumbs in broth. Squeeze cooked garlic into crumb mixture. Blend well. Mash raw clove of garlic into a paste. Add to mixture. Add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat top low and simmer until thickened, stirring frequently to avoid sticking. TO SERVE: Put wrapped chicken on a plater and pour sauce over top. You may sprinkle with a small amount of cinnamon for garnish. Enjoy! :-) NOTES: Since doing this recipe I have experimented with using pastry dough and find that although phyllo sheets are wonderful when used for this dish it is also particularly tasty using pastry dough ESPECIALLY if salted butter made from soured cream is used for the dough making. Also use day old bread with the crust removed for the crumbs. Using dried breadcrumbs produces an inferior product. The amount of broth needed will vary depending on the humidity. A'aql ibn Ras al-Zib (pronounced "Ras") Guildmaster The Guilde of Ste. Martha Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 19:13:28 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: SC - Question for Ras and another Garlicky Chicken People who like chicken with garlic may also want to try (apologies if I posted it earlier): Recipe for Th˚miyya, a Garlicky Dish Andalusian p. A-8 Take a plump hen and take out what is inside it, clean that and leave aside. Then take four ˚qiyas of peeled garlic and pound them until they are like brains, and mix with what comes out of the interior of the chicken. Fry it in enough oil to cover, until the smell of garlic comes out. Mix this with the chicken in a clean pot with salt, pepper, cinnamon, lavender, ginger, cloves, saffron, peeled whole almonds, both pounded and whole, and a little murri naqÓ'. Seal the pot with dough, place it in the oven and leave it until it is done. Then take it out and open the pot, pour its contents in a clean dish and an aromatic scent will come forth from it and perfume the area. This chicken was made for the Sayyid Abu al-Hasan and much appreciated. 1 hen 1 t cinnamon 15 threads saffron in 1 T water 5 oz of garlic 2 t lavender 1/2 c whole almonds, 7/8 c crushed 6 T oil 1 t ginger 1/4 c murri (see p. 3-4) 1/2 t salt 1/4 t cloves ~1 c flour + water = dough to seal 1/2 t pepper Crush garlic. Fry garlic and giblets from chicken in oil on medium heat for about 15 minutes. Put all ingredients except dough in the pot. Mix flour and water to make the dough, roll it into a strip, put it on the edge of the dish and jam the lid onto it to seal the lid on the pot. Bake at 350∞ 1 hour. Charles Perry, who translated this, notes that four ˚qiyas of garlic (1/3 of a pound) works out pretty close to the 40 cloves called for in a famous ProvenÁal dish. "Leave out the spices and the almonds, and you'd about have poulet ‡ 40 gousses d'ail." David/Cariadoc http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 18:43:23 -0600 (MDT) From: Mary Morman Subject: SC - pomegranate chicken The original is from the translation in The Medieval kitchen by Odile Redon. the redaction is my own loosely based on both the recipe and the redaction in the book. Romania To make romania, fry chickens with pork fat and onions, crush unskinned almonds, and moisten with the juice of sour pomegranates and sweet pommegranates. Then strain and boil with the chickens, stirring with a spoon. Add spices. Liber de coquina Comments: This is found in an early Italian manuscript and is probably based on an arabic sourse. The word for pomegranate in arabic being "rumman". For a table of eight: one chicken cut up (or a variety of 8-10 chicken pieces) 1 cup of almonds 2 pomegranates, 1 lemon 1 small onion lard or olive oil salt, pepper, cloves (ground), nutmeg (whole) - - Grind the almonds - - Juice the pomegranates and lemon together, reserving a few dozen pomegranate seeds for garnish. - - Make an "almond milk" from the almonds and the juice. Strain through cheesecloth and set aside. - - Cut the onions - - Brown the chicken and onions in the oil or lard - - Put the chicken in a casserole or baking pan, add spices, and pour the sauce over it. - - Cover and cook in a slow oven (300 degrees) until chicken is tender. - - Serve garnished with pomegranate seeds. Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 10:16:19 EST From: Seton1355 at aol.com Subject: SC - REC: A Turkie Boyled - 1615 I must be in a Pilgrim mood today! (singing...We gather together, to ask the Lord's blessing...... sorry!) Phillipa A Turkie, Boyled 51 An excellent way to boile chickens If you will boile chickens, young turkeys, peahens, or any house fowl daintily, you shall, after you have trimmed them, drawn them, trussed them, and washed them, fill their bellies as full of parsley as they can hold; then boil them with salt and water only till they be enough: then take a dish and put into it verjuice, and butter, and salt, and when the butter is melted, take the parsley out of the chickens' bellies, and mince it very small, and put it to the verjuice and butter, and stir it well together; then lay in the chickens, and trim the dish sippets, and so serve it forth. Gervase Markham. The English Housewife (1615 and later editions). Michael Best, ed. (Montreal, 1986), p.79 [Again in 1621, butter was probably not available. KC] Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 12:09:47 -0500 From: Christine A Seelye-King Subject: SC - Documentation We tried the recipie below tonight to see how it would work for Friday night fare at our event this weekend. It came out really nice, and I didn't get much when I got home after Chorusters tonight! I have a question, though, what is the line "tempere +in powajes with wyne;" referring to? Is powajes = pottage? as in the broth and meat? Bruette Saake Two Fifteenth Century Cook Books p. 27 Take Capoun, skalde hem, draw hem, smyte hem to gobettys, Waysshe hem, do hem in a potte; +enne caste owt +e potte, waysshe hem a-gen on +e potte, and caste +er-to half wyne half Bro+e; take Percely, Isope, Waysshe hem, and hew hem smal, and putte on +e potte +er +e Fleysshe is; caste +er-to Clowys, quybibes, Maces, Datys y-tallyd, hol Safroune; do it ouer +e fyre; take Canelle, Gyngere, tempere +in powajes with wyne; caste in-to +e potte Salt +er-to, hele it, and whan it is y-now, serue it forth. about 3 lbs frying chicken 2 c wine 2 c broth 4 T fresh parsley 1 1/2 T fresh hyssop 1/8 t cloves 1/4 t cubebs measured whole then ground 1/2 t mace 1/4 c = 3 oz dates 15 threads saffron 1/2 t cinnamon 1/2 t ginger 2 t more wine 1/2 t salt Cut chicken into separate joints, add broth and wine and set to boil. Chop herbs and grind cubebs in a mortar; add herbs, dates, cloves, cubebs, and mace and cook about 35 minutes uncovered. Mix cinnamon and ginger with remaining wine, add them and salt to chicken, cover and let simmer another 30 minutes. Should be served with bread (or rice, although that is less appropriate for 15th-century England) to sop up the sauce. Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 03:31:26 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Documentation Christine A Seelye-King wrote: > I have a > question, though, what is the line "tempere +in powajes with wyne;" > referring to? Is powajes = pottage? as in the broth and meat? You got me. Since Austin apparently saw nothing confusing about the term (and probably since we're all spoiled by Connie Hieatt's work), we're left with a huge question mark, unless perhaps we can look in a fifteenth-century English dictionary. The context would seem to indicate either the pottage in general is to be thinned down a bit with wine, or the last two named ingredients, the cinnamon and the ginger (I think) are to be what Scully usually calls "distempered" (basically infused) in wine. I think the end result would be more or less the same. Adamantius Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 17:19:47 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - Documentation Christine A Seelye-King asked, concerning bruet saake: >> I have a >> question, though, what is the line "tempere +in powajes with wyne;" >> referring to? Is powajes = pottage? as in the broth and meat? and Adamantius answered: >You got me. > >Since Austin apparently saw nothing confusing about the term (and >probably since we're all spoiled by Connie Hieatt's work), we're left >with a huge question mark, unless perhaps we can look in a >fifteenth-century English dictionary... But Austin was confused; at least, you look it up in the glossary and get: "? meaning. A. reads "powares." " (A. presumably being another manuscript.) My guess at it when we did this recipe (our version is in the Miscellany) was that the word was a scribal error for powders and therefore meant the cinnamon and ginger mentioned just before the phrase in question. Elizabeth/Betty Cook Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 08:54:00 EST From: Seton1355 at aol.com Subject: SC - my medieval dinner party - long Last night I had some mundane friends over and served them a medieval feast. They really enjoyed it and were interested in the background of the recipes. The evening went off well so I thought I'd post the recipes I used. Phillipa ***Chicken Ambrogino With Dried Fruit*** The Medieval Kitchen Redon, Sabban, Serventi University of Chicago Press 1998 If you want to make Chicken Ambrogino, take the chicken, cut them up, then put them to fry with fresh pork fat and a bit of onion, cut crosswise. When this is half cooked, take some almond milk, mix it with broth and a little wine and add it to the chickens. First skim off the fat if there is too much. Add cinnamon cut up with a knife and a few cloves. When it is dished up, add some prunes, whole dates, a few chopped nutmegs and a little crumb of grilled bread well pounded and mixed with wine and vinegar. This dish should be sweet and sour. The name of this dish appears on a menu of a feast given at Siena on Tuesday, December 23, 1326 ****************************************************************************** 1 chicken - 3 1'2 - 4 lbs 1 C almond milk a 1" piece of cinnamon fresh pork fatback 4 C chicken broth 3 cloves 2 medium large onions 3/4 C dry white wine 8 prunes 10 dates 2 slices whole wheat bread 3 Tbsp wine vinegar 1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg salt Toast or grill the bread; remove crusts. Cut the chicken into serving pieces and slice the onions. Cut the fat into tiny pieces. Over medium heat, render the fat in a large skillet.*1 Then add the chicken and onions and cook until lightly browned. Mix the almond milk with the broth and half of the wine. When the chicken is lightly browned, season it with salt to taste and add the almond milk mixture, the cinnamon, the cloves and simmer for about 30 minutes. Pit the prunes and dates. Break up the bread and mix it with the vinegar and the remaining wine. When the chicken is nearly done add the prunes, dates, bread mixture and nutmeg to a small saucepan and cook over low heat ensuring that the prunes and dates remain whole. When the sauce has thickened, salt to taste and remove the pan from heat To Serve: Arrange the chicken on a serving platter topped with the almond milk sauce in which it is cooked and surrounded by the prunes and dates from the second sauce. Pour the second sauce over the first. *1 - I would skip the pork fat and spray the skillet with vegetable spray and a very little water to cook the chicken in. NOTES: I liked "frying" in 2 Tbsp oil and 1/2 C water. I think the chicken came out lighter than if I had fried it. Also, I did not put one sauce on top of another because it would have overflowed the serving dish. I put the sauce in a seperate bowl and let people help themselves. Anyway, this was my menu...oh yes, I also made fried potatoes, no recipe. Everyone liked everything, includeing my picky son! Phillipa Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 00:41:19 -0230 From: Mark Simms Subject: Re: SC - Introducing myself to the list Phillppa, > Got a couple questions- what are- > 6. Chicken Ambrogino This one is taken from the Medieval Kitchen as well (page 83, recipe 30), which is essentially chicken parts lightly browned with pork fat and simmered in a mixture of almond milk, wine, and spices until done. A second sauce is then poured over the chicken and served. Donal - -- Mark Simms Engineering Student, Class of 2002 Memorial University of Newfoundlan Vice President, 6th St. John's Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:06:55 -0700 From: Anne-Marie Rousseau Subject: Re: SC - request for info hi all from Anne-Marie Rhiannon asks: >A short while ago I posted asking if the recipe for pomegranate chicken I >had found on this list was a redaction or an original recipe. I know how >things can get lost in the shuffle of a busy list, so I'll ask once again if >anyone knows, and if it is a redaction, what the original source is. I am >trying to separate the info I save from this list into interesting but OOP, >and period, documentable stuff. There are two versions of pomegranite chicken I know of. One is from a middle eastern source, the other is Italian (Libro della cocina. Translation and a modern version in Barbara Santiches _Original Mediterranean Cuisine_). The version I've reconstructed (which I believe is the one you have?) is the middle eastern. The only place I really cheated is by mixing a sauce of the ingredients instead of doing them in the specified order. No particular reason other than to meld the flavors better, and it doesn't actually say WHEN you're supposed to add the pomegranite juice. Since I could find the pomegranite molasses instead of pomegranite jucie, I omitted the additional sugar (the molasses being plenty sweet) and added a bit of water (since the molasses was so darn thick). The italian version has you combine the sauce ingredients, except the spice which you add towards the end. enjoy! all rights reserved, no publication without permission, etc etc etc. Oh, and we've found lately that we've needed to add about twice the sugar. I wonder if the molasses has changed? - --AM Pomegranite Chicken: Another Tabahajiyya (A37) Cut the meat up small and fry with oil and salt, and when it is brown, cook it until done with vinegar. Pound a handful of almonds or walnuts and throw them on and boil a while. Take pomegranate juice and dissolve in it a lump of sugar to get rid of its tartness, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Our Version: 6 chicken breasts, hacked to gobbets 1-2 T olive oil to sautee 1/2 tsp salt to sprinkle on breasts 1/2 cup water 1 tsp cinnamon 2 T sugar 1/2 cup pomegranite molasses or syrup 1/2 cup white wine or cider vinegar 6 T pounded almonds Chunk and salt the chicken, brown in oil 'til almost done. Meanwhile, make a sauce of the water, sugar and pomegranite syrup. Boil to blend. When the chicken is almost totally cooked, dump in the vinegar. Then add the sauce, along with the almonds. Simmer till the sauce is thick, about five minutes on a hard boil. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve on cous cous. Serves 6. Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 21:07:46 EDT From: Seton1355 at aol.com Subject: SC - questions: TO BOIL PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, CAPONS AND CURLEWS (The Forme of Cury 1378) TO BOIL PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, CAPONS AND CURLEWS Take good broth and do thereto Fowle and do thereto whole peper and flower of canel a gude quantity and let them seeth therewith and mix it forth and then cast thereon sweet aromatic powder. MY REDACTION (OK, left to my own devices, I tend not to measure anything....) Put a chicken in a large stock pot and cover well with water. Add coursely ground peper. Stir some canel flour into the water. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about an hour or so. Take out the bird (It should fall apart) and sprinkle on a bit of ground ginger, a bit of cinamon. QUESTIONS: What is canel flour? What is a curlew? IS, Phillipa Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 23:25:31 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - questions: TO BOIL PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, CAPONS AND CURLEWS Seton1355 at aol.com writes: << What is canel flour?>> Ground cinnamon <> A shorebird. Ras Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 23:08:41 -0700 From: "David Dendy" Subject: Re: SC - questions: TO BOIL PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, CAPONS AND CURLEWS > Seton1355 at aol.com writes: > << What is canel flour?>> > > Ground cinnamon The original phrase quoted, as I recall, was "flower of canel". I agree that canel is cinnamon. However, though "flower" might be a homonym for "flour", it could also mean "flower" in the sense of the finest or best; ex., "the flower of chivalry". Of course, if the latter meaning is intended, that still does not preclude it from being the finest *ground* cinnamon. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Actually, it is neither. "Flower of canel" is cassia buds -- the 'flower' bud of the cassia/cinnamon tree (similar in appearance to cloves). The idea that for some reason canel/cassia/cinnamon ground up was referred to as "flour/flower", when all other spices ground up were powders, is something perpetrated by early translators of cookery books, who were not very familiar with spices, and didn't know that cassia buds were a popular spice in period Europe. Francesco Sirene P.S. If you want to try cassia buds, we can supply them. David Dendy / ddendy at silk.net partner in Francesco Sirene, Spicer / sirene at silk.net Visit our Website at http://www.silk.net/sirene/ Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 07:57:29 -0700 From: Anne-Marie Rousseau Subject: Re: SC - flour of cinnamon Hey all from Anne-marie... Ras sez: >The origin of the word flower and flour is identical so I fail to see how >pieces is more logical than ground especially when such an interpretation >confuses the recipe rather than clarifying it. Consider that one of the >definitions of flower itself is 'a finely divided powder. With all the >evidence in hand, I would still go with finely ground cinnamon (e.g., flowers >of cinnamon) unless more substantial evidence is forthcoming. interestingly, Taillevent calls for "fleur de cassia". James Prescotts translation interprets this as cassia buds, which are available from Francesco as well as from WorldSpice. Thorvald/James told me that he tried the recipe with the dried buds and it was yummy, albeit less cinnamon-y than if you used the flour of cassia, ie ground cinnamon. I personally think its very rude of those Mssr Taillevent to use that particular term and not tell us what he meant. Hmph. - --AM, who got the cookbooks unpacked first after her move this weekend :) Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 09:11:08 -0600 From: "Karen O" Subject: SC - Re: SC from Traveling Dysshes Viaunde of Cypres Ryalle 4 cups cooked chicken; parts, chunks, whatever, 1 cup white wine 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup honey 1/2 tsp each ground cloves, mace, ginger (I use fresh ginger & whole cloves) 1/4 cup ground almonds 1/2 cup currants Boil the wine and sugar together 10 minutes or until it thickens and clings to the spoon. Add honey, spices and almonds, currants, simmer for another 5 minutes. Pour the hot syrup over the chicken, chill well, serve cold. serves 6 - 8 people **there are times I forgo the almonds coz I havent any, and it is just as good. Traveling Dysshes< is a great pamphlet fort the beginner cook/medievalist. According to the back page, copies are available by writing the author: Pat McGregor, 3507 Santos Circle, Cameron Park, CA 95682-8247 Or Green Duck, a very popular (book) merchant in the West Kingdom, is available on the web, and may keep her book in stock. price is (was) approx $10.00 Enjoy Caointiarn Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 09:42:23 EST From: WOLFMOMSCA at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - advice needed - possibly OOP troy at asan.com writes: << You know you're getting old in this game when "To The Queen's Taste" is a rare antiquity among our cooks. >> Yeah, well, if the shoe fits..... ;-) To boyle a Capon with Orenges after Mistres Duffelds Way, from the Good Huswives Handmaid Take a Capon and boyle it with Veale, or with a marie bone, or what your fancy is. Then take a good quantitie of that broth, and put it in an earthen pot by it selfe, and put thereto a good handfull of Currans, and as manie Prunes, and a fewe whole maces, and some Marie, and put to this broth a good quantitie of white Wine or of Clarret, and so let them seeth softlye together: Then take your Orenges, and with a knife scrape of all the filthinesse of the outside of them. Then cut them in the middest, and wring out the juyce of three or foure of them, put the juyce into your broth with the rest of youre stuffe. Then slice your Orenges thinne, and have uppon the fire readie a skillet of faire seething water, and put your sliced Orenges into the water and when that water is bitter, have more readie, and so change them still as long as you can find the great bitternesse in the water, which will be five or seven times, or more. If you find need: then take them from the water, and let that run cleane from them: then put close orenges into your potte with your broth, and so let them stew together until your Capon be readie. Then make your sops with this broth, and cast on a little Sinamon, Ginger, and Sugar, and upon this lay your Capon, and some of your Orenges upon it, and some of your Marie, and towarde the end of the boyling of your broth, put in a little Vergious, if you think best. Wolfmother Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 00:15:49 EST From: Korrin S DaArdain Subject: Re: SC - advice needed - possibly OOP On Wed, 05 Jan 2000 22:06:26 -0500 Philip & Susan Troy writes: >Does anybody have the Capon In Orange Sauce After Mistress Duffeld's >Way (I think that's it) on disk? I know I've posted this to the cooks' >list at least once before, and I'm still suffering from Books In Boxes >Syndrome. As I recall the dish is for a capon or chicken braised in >orange juice and white wine with dried fruit and spices, which, >incidentally, includes cinnamon and raisins, respectively. > >Adamantius This is about the closest I have in my collection. I would like a copy of the one you are looking for when you find it. Korrin S. DaArdain Kingdom of An Tir in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com Quondo Omni Flunkus Mortati (When All Else Fails, Play Dead.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Boil a Capon with Orange and Lemmons From ÏThe Good HuswifeÌs Handmaide for the KitchenÓ, 1594 From The Queens Rapier Champion Tourney: Spring Feast Recipes: May 8, 1999 Posted by Nancy Santella (annaoftderturm at pathway.net) Take Orenges or Lemmons pilled, and cutte them the long way, and If you can keepe your cloves whole and put them into your best Broth of mutton or Capon with prunes and currants and three or Fowre dates, and when these have beene well sodden put whole pepper, Great mace,a good peece of suger, and some rosewater and either white Or claret wine, and let all these seeth together a while, and so serve It upon soppes with your capon. 2-1/2 lbs. Chicken Thighs 1 Tbs. Olive Oil 1 Tbs. Butter 2 cups Chicken Broth 1 tsp. Rosewater 1 cup White Wine 4 Oranges peeled + cut 4 Prunes 4 Dates 1/2 cup Currants 1/4 tsp. Salt 1/2 tsp. whole Peppers 1/2 tsp. whole Cloves 1/2 tsp. Mace In a large dutch oven, heat the Oil andButter until hot. Season Chicken with Salt and Pepper and place in pan. Brown well on all sides. Soak Prunes, Dates and Currants in 1/2 cup of broth, then coursely chop. Add 1-1/2 cups of the Chicken Broth, Rosewater and Wine and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the Fruit, Salt, and Mace. Place Peppercorms and Cloves in a cheese cloth bag and add to stock. Continue to simmer For another 15 minutes or until the Chicken is tender. Remove the cheese cloth bag. Serve in large bowls with strips of fried bread. Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 17:02:24 -0700 From: "Karen O" Subject: Re: SC - chicken recipe >I "lost" the recipe that I was given on this list. referred to it as period >Chicken McNuggets >Begga Elisabeth From * 2 15th Century Cookery Books* the recipe is called: Viaunde of Cypres Ryalle this particular redaction is from *Traveling Dysshes* by Siobhan Medhbh O'Roarke Cooked chicken: parts/peices 1 cup white wine 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup honey 1/2 tsp each: cloves, mace & ginger 1/4 cup ground almonds 1/2 cup currants Boil the wine and sugar together for 10 minutes or until it thickens and clings to a spoon. Add honey spices & currants and cook for another 5 minutes. Arrange the chicken in your serving dish, Pour the hot syrup over the chicken. Chill well, serve cold. NOTE: I use whole cloves, and fresh grated ginger, and tend to use a heavier hand with the spices (maybe 1 tsp each) Caointiarn Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2000 15:26:00 -0700 From: "Karen O" Subject: Re: SC - chicken recipe Adamantius pointed out a couple errors: - --Viaunde of Cypres Ryalle >> 1/4 cup ground almonds >>Add honey spices, ********** & currants and cook for another 5 minutes.< > So how do the almonds figure in?< The almonds are added with the spices & currants. I missed this, as it isn't written in the redaction, and I tend to leave them out. >What I'm familiar with under this name is slices of a sort of ground-capon-meat pudding, thickened with egg yolks, rice flour, or something along those lines, served under a reduced wine sauce. Of course there are several variants and this may be either one I just haven't seen, or a loose adaptation of one that I have seen.< I tried to look up the original in the photocopy version of the *2 15th Cent Books my Roomie owns, but alas and alack, her copy is *missing* this page. (aaaarrrgghhh) Siobhan's redaction calls for "4 cups cooked chopped chicken," I just like to use chunks or small pieces (legs, "drumettes") Looking at the origianl recipe in the pamphlet, it does seem to be more of a pudding-ish mess. . . . Tak the braun of capounes or of hennes ysothe or rosted & bray it in a morter small as myed bred, & take good almound melk lyed with amondyn or with floure of rys & colour it with safroun and boyle it wel. & charge it with rosted braun, and sesn with honey and salt, and florsche it with maces and quibybes. Caointiarn Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 14:27:59 -0500 From: Christine A Seelye-King Subject: SC - Sallat of Cold Capon Rosted This looks like it to me. It sure sounds good. Hey, it's the least I can do! Christianna Sir Kenelme Digbe - The Closet Opened Sallat of Cold Capon Rosted pg 206 "It is a good Sallet, to slice a cold Capon thin; mingle with it some Sibbolds, Lettice, Rocket, and Tarragon sliced small. Season all with Pepper, Salt, Vinegar and Oyl, and sliced Limon. A little Origanum doth well with it." Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 06:55:21 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Sallat of Cold Capon Rosted Stefan li Rous wrote: > What are "Sibbolds"? An green-oniony unit, chives or scallions, I forget which. > What is "Origanum"? Oregano > I think I will have to try > this one sometime, if I can get the ingredients. It's an excellent recipe. I vaguely recall having eaten it made with arugula, radicchio and Belgian endives, which in combination were pretty bitter, but they offset the sweet capon meat and the vinegar rather well. Adamantius Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 15:54:20 -0500 From: Lurking Girl Subject: Re: SC - Period French Toast Recipies Bonne of Traquair wrote: > Someone snagged the copy of Digby from UNC library, which is frustrating > because I know there is a chicken breast on salad greens recipe in there. > I've put a call out for it to be returned. For bizarre reasons, I have my copy here at work: SALLET OF COLD CAPON ROSTED It is a good Sallet, to slice a cold Capon thin; mingle with it some Sibbolds, Lettice, Rocket and Tarragon sliced small. Season all with Pepper, Salt, Vinegar and Oyl, and sliced Limon. A little Origanum doth well with it. The glossary says that Sibbolds are Welsh onions, and doesn't give an entry for Rocket. Vika Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 20:43:23 -0800 From: "James F. Johnson" Subject: Re: SC - serving whole chickens at feast "Laura C. Minnick" wrote: > What we did at Investiture was made the whole pieces (whole chicken, big > joint of meat, etc.) for the high table, and I cajoled, er, sweet-talked > one of our knights into serving as carver. The rest of the hall got the > other portions, pre-cut, etc. One small suggestion on _cooking_ the whole bird is to cook about 25% of the total cooking time each on alternate sides, then finish breast up. The darker meat on the sides takes a little longer to cook, and this helps make sure this meat is fully cooked without overcooking and drying out the faster cooking breast. So, if the total cooking time is one hour, fifteen minutes on the left side, then fifteen minutes on the right side, then the last thirty minutes breast up (on it's back). Seumas Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2000 09:28:38 -0800 From: Ron and Laurene Wells Subject: SC - Chicken in Milk & Honey CURRY >>Take good cowmilk and do it in a pot. Take psel., sage, Hissop, >>savory, and other good herbs. Hew them and do them in the milk and >>seethe them. Take capons half y-roasted and smite them on pieces and >>do thereto pine and honey clarified. Salt it and color it with saffron >>and serve it forth. I kinda-sorta redacted this recipe last night. I didn't look at it close enough when I first started out though, because it turned out that I did NOT have more than half the spices it called for. And even so, it still is not the same as the Chicken in Milk and Honey we had at the Revel. I'll have to keep trying. This DID however turn out to be a very good dish! Even my kids ate it! Since you guys post the cooked versions of your recipes, I will post what I cooked last night. I know you will find MANY differences between this and the original recipe. Perhaps enough differences that you will say it is no longer the same thing, I do not know. ANYWAY, this is what I did 2 lbs. (more or less) boneless chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces olive oil 1 t. rubbed Sage 1/2 t. Cardamom 1/2 t. thyme 1 t. fenugreek petals of 1 Calendula flower 7 juniper berries 1 qt. of milk (more or less) 1/2 c. honey 1 t. salt Fry the Chicken pieces in olive oil until mostly cooked. Add enough milk to completely cover the chicken (a little more would have been better so there is enough sauce for the rice). Add sage, cardamom, thyme and fenugreek. Bring to a boil, and let it cook until the herbs blend with the milk. About 15 minutes. Add the calendula petals (a distant substitute for saffron, marigolds are a closer substitute. I did not have the real thing.) salt, honey and juniper berries. Cook an additional 10 minutes or so, until you feel the juniper berries have offered their seasoning, and the petals have colored the dish. Serve over rice. This turned out to be a VERY MILD curry, sweet and flavorful without the heat. I liked it. Everyone like it. But it still wasn't anything near what we had at the SCA Revel last month. I will keep trying. - -Laurene Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 11:15:52 -0600 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - Chicken in Milk & Honey CURRY At 9:28 AM -0800 3/7/00, Ron and Laurene Wells wrote: > >>Take good cowmilk and do it in a pot. Take psel., sage, Hissop, > >>savory, and other good herbs. Hew them and do them in the milk and > >>seethe them. Take capons half y-roasted and smite them on pieces and > >>do thereto pine and honey clarified. Salt it and color it with saffron > >>and serve it forth. > >I kinda-sorta redacted this recipe last night. I didn't look at it close >enough when I first started out though, because it turned out that I did >NOT have more than half the spices it called for. ... >2 lbs. (more or less) boneless chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces >olive oil >1 t. rubbed Sage >1/2 t. Cardamom >1/2 t. thyme >1 t. fenugreek >petals of 1 Calendula flower >7 juniper berries >1 qt. of milk (more or less) >1/2 c. honey >1 t. salt > >Fry the Chicken pieces in olive oil until mostly cooked. Add enough milk >to completely cover the chicken (a little more would have been better so >there is enough sauce for the rice). Add sage, cardamom, thyme and >fenugreek. Bring to a boil, and let it cook until the herbs blend with the >milk. About 15 minutes. Add the calendula petals (a distant substitute >for saffron, marigolds are a closer substitute. I did not have the real >thing.) salt, honey and juniper berries. Cook an additional 10 minutes or >so, until you feel the juniper berries have offered their seasoning, and >the petals have colored the dish. Serve over rice. > >This turned out to be a VERY MILD curry, sweet and flavorful without the >heat. I liked it. Everyone like it. But it still wasn't anything near >what we had at the SCA Revel last month. I will keep trying. Quite aside from missing herbs, what you have done is not all that close to what the recipe says to do, so it wouldn't be surprising if it came out rather different from the original. 1. The recipe says to start with half roasted capons; you fried them in olive oil instead. 2. The original first boils the herb in the milk, then (apparently) adds the pieces of chicken, pine nuts (my guess for "pine"), and honey. I presume it then cooks the chicken some more, since it says it has been only half cooked, but the recipe isn't clear on that. You cover the fried chicken with milk, and only then add the herbs. 3. No fenugreek in the original. 4. No juniper berries in the original. Was that your guess for pine? Leaving out things you don't have is fine, but adding strongly flavored spices to a recipe that doesn't have any--just herbs--is going to change it significantly. David/Cariadoc http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 13:51:23 +1100 From: "HICKS, MELISSA" Subject: RE: SC - Chicken in Milk & Honey FOR LAURENE Laurene, > I kinda-sorta redacted this recipe last night. I didn't look at it close > enough when I first started out though, because it turned out that I did > NOT have more than half the spices it called for. And even so, it still > is > not the same as the Chicken in Milk and Honey we had at the Revel. I'll > have to keep trying. This DID however turn out to be a very good dish! > Even my kids ate it! Do you have a copy of "To the Kings Taste" by Lorna Sass? It contains a redaction of Douce Ame that some cooks (who aren't comfortable with redacting their own recipes) use. I used it until I got up enough courage (hmm - maybe I should have changed that word, oh well) to redact it myself. It is as follows: Please note, I am not saying this is a good redaction, only that as it is in a published source, it is a redaction that may have been used if your cook wasn't confident (much better word) at redacting. Meliora. Douce ame (Capon in milk and honey) Douce Ame. Take gode cowe mylke and do it in a pot. Take parsel, sawge, ysope, savray and other gode herbes. Hewe hem and do hem in the mylke and seeth hem. Take capons hald yrosted and smyte hem on pecys and do thereto pynes and hony clarified. Salt it and color it with saffron and serve it forth. Forme of Cury 3-4 lb capon (or chicken) cut into pieces 1/2 cup flour mixed with a little salt and pepper 3 Tbsp oil 3 cups milk 1/3 cup honey 3 Tbsp minced fresh parsley 2 leaves fresh sage (minced) or ∫ teas dried 1 tsp hyssop 1/2 tsp savory 1/4 - 1/2 tsp saffron 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 1/3 cup pine nuts Dredge fowl in flour mixture, then brown the pieces in oil until golden. Combine milk, honey, herbs, salt and pepper in a bowl. Pour the liquid over the browned fowl in the saucepan and stir to combine the drippings with the sauce. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until fowl is tender. Stir in pine nuts just before serving. Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 08:40:34 -0600 From: Magdalena Subject: Re: SC - RE: SC Verjus RANDALL DIAMOND wrote: > Ms. Riley also lists a recipe for "Chicken with Verjuice "Amorosa"' by > Platina from the household of Poggio Bracciolini of Mantua. Green plum > verjuice is also called for in her redaction. Is this documentable > from the original text? My Latin and Italian is lousy. Platina 6.16 Chicken in Verjuice Cook chicken with salt meat. When it is half-cooked, put in the boiling pot a mash of verjuice grapes with the stones removed from the middle. Cut parsley and mint fine, and grind pepper and saffron to powder. Put all this in the pot where the pullet has been cooked, and fill the platter immediately. Appropriately, B. Poggius frequently eats this dish even when I am invited. There is nothing more healthful, for it is quite nourishing, is easily digested, agrees with the stomach, heart, liver, and kidneys, and represses bile. - -Magdalena Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 11:24:36 EST From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - RE: SC Verjus magdlena at earthlink.net writes: << Platina 6.16 Chicken in Verjuice Cook chicken with salt meat. When it is half-cooked, put in the boiling pot a mash of verjuice grapes with the stones removed from the middle. >> The title of this recipe seems to be a misnomer. Although it says Chicken in Verjuice, the recipe clearly indicates that verjuice grapes are seeded, mashed and added to the chicken. This would result in a very different dish (albeit it tasty) than the addition of verjuice. Ras Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 12:13:56 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - RE: SC Verjus LrdRas at aol.com wrote: > magdlena at earthlink.net writes: > << Platina > 6.16 Chicken in Verjuice > > Cook chicken with salt meat. When it is half-cooked, put in the boiling > pot a mash of verjuice grapes with the stones removed from the middle. >> > > The title of this recipe seems to be a misnomer. Although it says Chicken in > Verjuice, the recipe clearly indicates that verjuice grapes are seeded, > mashed and added to the chicken. This would result in a very different dish > (albeit it tasty) than the addition of verjuice. Perhaps it is a translation error. The title in Latin is something like "pullam in acrestum", and while acrestum does generally refer to verjuice, and even still does today (agresto), it doesn't specifically refer to "green juice" as the English or French ver jus does. Basically it refers to a sour _stuff_, which, technically, this is. Just not in the way me might have assumed. I might have called the dish, in English, "chicken in a sour sauce", something like that. Adamantius Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 13:16:19 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Serving Temperature of Food The thread on Boston Market got me thinking about re-heated chicken. Many of the feasts I have attended had prepared dishes re-heated and served, yet on what evidence is the food served hot? Chicken today is commonly served hot or cold. Why would people in peiod only serve it hot? A quick run through Platina, yields this from Book IV.21; "Besides, as in winter we more safely eat warm food, in summer, cold; as in summer, kid and chicken, acid and cold; in winter, squab, warm and dry; in autumn, quail and figpeckers; in spring, little birds taken from the nest after they have put forth feathers; in winter, thrushes and blackbirds." Considering this in the light of humoral theory, a cook might want to serve "cold" foods hot to help off-set the humors. By the same logic, "hot" or "warm" foods might be served cold. Some dishes, like frumenty, are best hot. Others are best cold. What evidence, if any, is there for the serving temperature of foods which need to be cooked, but can be eaten either hot or cold? Bear Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 09:29:06 EDT From: Seton1355 at aol.com Subject: SC - here are your recipes- Lombardy Chicken I *knew* organizing my recipes would come in handy! BRUET OF LUMBARDY Boiled Chicken in Almond Milk Pepper Sauce Take hennys, chikens, konyngs, or other flesch, sodyn; do hit in a potte. Do therto mylke of almondys. Do therin pepyr, and alay hit with bredde, & do therin yolkes of eyron sodyn hard, growndyn & drawyn up with percellye; & do therto a lytyll grece or claryfyd boture or the fat of pork, & sesyn hit up with poudyr, salt, & venyger, & make hit rede as blod. MS Beinecke 163 (The almond milk may be made with the broth the chicken was boiled in. I found it more convenient to make the sauce separately and add the chicken to it, rather than make the sauce around the chicken, as the original recipe implies. I also added a quarter tsp. of cubeb to the spice powder mix. Not having any period red food coloring on hand, and disliking the idea of loading this dish down with FD&C reds 40 and 3, I chose to serve this dish uncolored.) 1 Three- to four-pound chicken, cut into serving pieces 1 ? C unstrained almond milk 1/2 C white bread crumbs 3 hard boiled egg yolks 1 T parsley, minced 1 T butter 1 tsp black pepper 1/8 tsp ea. powdered ginger, cinnamon, mace Salt to taste Red food coloring, optional 1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, over medium heat, put chicken and about two cups of water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for about half an hour or until chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken and pour off stock, reserving for later use. The almond milk may be made from this stock. 2. In a bowl, mash egg yolks and parsley together into a paste. 3. Combine almond milk and spices in the pot, and, over medium heat, bring to a boil and reduce heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, for five minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients, and continue to simmer, stirring constantly, for another five minutes. 4. Add boiled chicken to the pot, and stir it into the sauce completely covering the pieces. Cover, and simmer for a further two or three minutes, stirring carefully, making sure the sauce does not burn on the bottom of the pot. Serves six to eight. LOMBARD CHICKEN PASTIES (MEDIEVAL COOKBOOK P47) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 23:04:52 EDT From: Elysant at aol.com Subject: SC - SC: Fried Chicken For those wishing to find a period Fried Chicken dish, here's the recipe and Ras's redaction of a Fried Chicken dish from Le Manegier de Paris. The dish was cooked at last years Weekend of Wisdom event. It was absolutely delicious. :-) Elysant GEORGÖ BRUET (Parsley-laced Soup) This dish was very well received with only one piece of chicken being uneaten by a vegetarian. I had thought that the liver and blood might be a problem but no one commented prior to service and there were only good things said about the dish after service. (from Le Manegier de Paris. Translation by Janet Hinson) Redaction copyright 1999 L. J. Spencer, Jr. Makes 8 servings. ORIGINAL RECIPE: George Soup, Parsley-laced Soup. Take poultry cut into quarters, veal, or whatever meat you wish cut into pieces, and put to boil with bacon; and to one side have a pot, with, blood, finely minced onions which you should cook or fry in it. Have also bread browned on the grill, then moisten it with stock from your meat and wine, then grind ginger, cinnamon, long pepper, saffron, clove and grain and the livers, and grind them up so well that there is no need to sift them: and moisten with verjuice, wine and vinegar. And when the spices are removed from the mortar, grind your bread, and mix with what it was moistened with, and put it through the sieve, and add spices and leafy parsley if you wish, all boiled with the blood and the onions, and then fry your meat. And this soup should be brown as blood and thick like 'soringe.' Note that always you must grind the spices first; and with soups, you do not sift the spices, and afterwards you grind and sieve the bread. Note that this is only called parsley-laced soup when parsley is used, for as one speaks of 'fringed with saffron,' in the same way one speaks of 'laced with parsley'; and this is the manner in which cooks talk. 8 Chicken quarters 4 slices Bacon, diced 2 Chicken livers 2 Onions, finely minced 1 T Cooking fat (e.g. lard) 1/2 cp. Blood 1 slice Bread, toasted dark 1/2 cp. Chicken stock 1/4 cp. Red Wine 1/4 tsp. Long pepper, ground 1/2 tsp. True cinnamon, ground 1/8 tsp. Cloves, ground 1 pinch Saffron, ground 1/4 tsp. Grains of Paradise, ground 1 T Verjuice 1 T Red wine 1 T Wine Vinegar 1/4 cp. Italian parsley (leaves only) 1/4 tsp. Black pepper, ground 1/4 cp. Lard In a large pot, cover chicken and bacon with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. Cook until chicken is tender but not falling apart or until flesh turns white. Remove chicken from stock. Continue boiling the stock until it is reduced by half. In another pot, saute onions in fat until transparent and tender. Whisk in blood. Continue cooking on low. Mash liver and put through a sieve. Mash parsley. Moisten bread in 1/2 cp. of stock and 1/4 cp. red wine. Moisten long pepper, cinnamon, cloves, saffron, grains of paradise and black pepper in 1 T red wine, verjuice and vinegar. Mash bread mixture and force through a strainer. Mix liver into onion mixture. Mix blood into liver mixture, stirring continuously. Add parsley. Mix in bread mixture and spice mixture. Simmer, stirring continuously for 5 min. Brown chicken in lard. Serve chicken with sauce poured over top. Ras Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 09:56:30 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Fried chicken? Stefan li Rous wrote: > There was a recipe for "fried" chicken in Apicius that we discussed > here for quite a while. There are several others in other manuscripts. > It may depend on your definition of "Fried Chicken". Do you consider > just frying it in oil to count? Or do you want a recipe that rolls > the chicken pieces in flour or breadcrumbs first and then fries it > in the oil? Pullum Frontonianum, a.k.a. Chicken A La Fronto, seems to be braised "au brun" (nothing like a little needless French jargon early in the morning, right, Stefan???). Yes, it's browned in oil, but then the cooking is finished in a mixture of liquamen and oil, presumably over low heat. In other words, more of a brown stew. I'm pretty sure all of the later fried chicken recipes (at least the period ones) that I've seen are for things like fricassees, which may or may not require frying the chicken first, but end up serving the stuff in a rich sauce, usually involving wine and/or vinegar or verjuice, and a thickening of egg yolk. Adamantius Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 20:53:19 EDT From: Seton1355 at aol.com Subject: SC - TO BOYLE A CAPON WITH ORENGES AFTER MISTRESS DUFFELDS WAY Please, What is a marie bone in the first line of this recipe? Phillipa TO BOYLE A CAPON WITH ORENGES AFTER MISTRESS DUFFELDS WAY >From To the Queen's Taste, p. 50: Take a Capon and boyle it with veale or with a <<>> or what your fancy is. Then take a good quantity of that broth, and put it in an earthen pot by itself, and put thereto a good handful of currans , and as many prunes, and a few whole maces and some marie, and put to this broth a good quantity of white Wine or of Clarret, and so let them seethe softlye together. Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 19:03:26 -0600 From: "Brian L. Rygg or Laura Barbee-Rygg" Subject: Re: SC - TO BOYLE A CAPON WITH ORENGES AFTER MISTRESS DUFFELDS WAY I believe a marrow bone. Raoghnailt Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 19:31:47 -0800 From: Kerri Canepa Subject: SC - A Chicken dish from al-Baghdadi Recently I was able to procure pomegranates at an insanely cheap price (for Alaska) and went looking for recipes that included the seeds or juice. A friend (with whom I cook with every other week) had pulled out a chicken and so I was on the quest for a pomegranate and chicken dish. Al-Baghdadi was just the thing. The recipe that resulted is sort of a hybrid dish composed of various parts of several chicken dishes. The original: CHICKEN DISHES - Boil the chicken, then quarter it. Fry lightly in fresh sesame-oil, with dry coriander, mastic and cinnamon. If desired sour, after frying make a broth either with sumach-juice or pomegranate-seed, or lemon-juice or grape-juice, or the two last mixed, or vinegar and sugar as for zirbaj. Peel sweet almonds, grind small, mix with water, and throw into the saucepan. Spray with rose-water, and rub over the pan some sprigs of dry mint. If not made a la zirbaj, omit mint. If made a la masus, fry lightly in sesame-oil after boiling, adding celery and vinegar coloured with saffron: some garnish with poached eggs. If made a la mamqur, after frying lightly throw on vinegar and murri mixed in equal parts with alittle of the boiling-water. If made a la mutajjan, throw on a little of the boiling-water and some old murri: when removed from the fire squeeze on it fresh lemon-juice but first fry in sesame-oil until growned. If made maqlu, fry in sesame-oil, throw on a little of the boiling-water and garnish with poached eggs. If made a la isfidbaj, boil the chicken with mastic, cinnamon and salt: then grind small sweet almonds, mix with water, and add, together with a handful of chick-peas, peeled and soaked, and a ring of dill. .... (Kind of) Zirbaj Chicken 1 whole chicken 1/2 cup gomegranate juice (the juice from 1 baseball sized fruit) 2/3 cup crushed almonds 1 cup water 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp dried coriander salt 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed sesame oil water vinegar Put chicken in large pot, cover with water, add salt (about 2 tsp) or not, cover and boil until done (about 45 minutes). Remove and cool. Cut into pieces. Heat sesame oil in pan until hot. Add chicken pieces and sprinkle with spices. Fry on both sides to coat with oil and spices, about 5 minutes. Remove to plate. Add to pan pomegranate juice, water and almonds and heat until gently boiling. Add drained, rinsed chickpeas and cook until reduced and thickened. Sprinkle with vinegar and salt to taste, and serve over chicken pieces. NOTE: There's no cumin mentioned in the recipe but I like it in combination with dried coriander. Salt is only mentioned once in the whole listing of recipes and mastic is something I didn't have and couldn't find in this area. I didn't do the finishing, the rosewater and mint, because there wasn't any of either where I was cooking. The 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice was not enough to make it sour so I'd increase the amount to a whole cup. The addition of vinegar and chickpeas is not specified in zirbaj but common enough in the other dishes. This dish is very fragant even without the rosewater and mint. With more pomegranate juice, it would have been more sweet and sour tasting, but had an engaging enough flavor for the non-SCA roommate to eat it with gusto. Except for the difficulty and expense of obtaining pomegranates, this dish would be easy enough and tasty enough to use on a feast menu. Cedrin Date: Sat, 09 Sep 2000 09:57:37 -0800 From: Kerri Canepa Subject: Re: SC - A Chicken dish from al-Baghdadi Wadji and Anahita, >Ahh, how much sesame oil and vinegar, please? I figured someone would ask that question AFTER I splashed the oil and sprinkled the vinegar. Sorry! If I had to guess, about 1/4 cup of oil and 2 tbsp of vinegar. >Here i assume you use the light sesame oil, not the roasted kind >that's used in Chinese and Korean cooking. Would be good to specify, >cuz the two kinds taste *real* different and some folks might only >find the roasted kind in the supermarket. Seeing as how I was at someone else's kitchen, the sesame oil that was available was the roasted variety. The flavor would definitely be different with a light sesame oil. Also, for the same reasons, the vinegar available was rice vinegar. It was not as bitey as other vinegars and slightly sweetened so using almost any other kind of vinegar (except balsalmic) with produce a stronger flavor. You'd probably want to use less of it as well. Cedrin From: "Decker, Terry D." To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Redon-Medieval Kitchen-chicken w/ sour orange Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 09:58:31 -0500 > I remembered to purchase the chicken and the sour oranges, but forgot the > book has gone back to the library. Can someone owning the book help me out > with the recipe for chicken with sour orange juice? I think it is not much > more than cook the chicken and serve with the juice poured over as sauce, > but I'd greatly appreciate a reminder of any other ingredients/details. > Bonne While I don't have the Redon recipe which is from Master Martino, I have this version from Platina, who was using Master Martino's recipes. Latin did not have a word for oranges so Platina used the word for lemons instead. Bear > "17. Roast Chicken > Roast a chicken which is well plucked, gutted and washed, and when the > roast is placed in a dish before it cools, put lemon juice or verjuice > on it with rose water, sugar and well-ground cinnamon, and serve it to > your guests." Essentially Martino's recipe. I used the version from The Medieval Kitchen and tried their substitution of adding 1/2 a lemon to three sweet oranges to make a more bitter sauce. I used about 1/8 teaspoon of fresh grated cinnamon. No sugar was added because the oranges were already sweet. 1 Tablespoon rosewater which is all I had on hand. From: rcmann4 at earthlink.net To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2001 20:44:15 -0400 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Carbonadoes Kirrily said: > To me, fricassees and carbonadoes seem distinctly 17th century (Pepys, > Restoration, and all that), and I'm wondering whether the text I have is > perhaps very different to the first edition. Granado (1599) has a recipe for "Carbonadas de ave" (Carbonadas of fowl) made with chicken breast meat. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 10:25:42 +0200 From: Volker Bach To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Seeking Opinions Sue Clemenger schrieb: > I don't know about Niccolo, but I've never heard of it before....and the > original sounds yummy....Can anyone post the recipe? I'm a big fan of > chicken anything (well, except mcnuggets and kin, but that doesn't > really count as food, does it? ) Note that I haven't tried this before (I'm not much with poultry), my pocket translation of Apicius gives the following: "Briefly brown the chicken, season it with a mixture of /liquamen/ (the infamous fish sauce) and oil and a bundle of fresh dill, leeks, bean straw (I am fairly sure this is something else, but I haven't the time to try my hand at the Latin just now - probably what German cooks know as /Bohnenkraut/. Anyone got the English word handy?) and fresh coriander and stew (?) it in this. When it is done, take it out (of the pan, I guess, though the Latin simply uses a prefix structure here), put it on a plate and pour /defrutum/ over it." I'd say that's fairly clear. /defrutum/, by the way, is new wine boiled down to either half (Pliny the Elder) or a third (Varro, Columella) its volume. I am fairly sure cooks involved all kinds of spices, but I haven't tried this one yet. How would everybody go about cooking this? I'd say use chicken pieces and a skillet or deep frying pan. Has anyone tried anything like this with a whole chicken, and how much success have you had? Giano Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 10:28:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Ruth Frey To: Subject: [Sca-cooks] "Honey gilded" chicken. Okay, I'm finally getting some of my Banner War Arts recipes posted here (as I promised to a while ago). This first one is the result of an ingredient snafu, that still managed to produce excellent results. The background: Banner war this year was held at Three Meadows campgrounds in Northern Idaho. Lovely place, wonderful facilities (including a full restaurant-style kitchen -- we had trouble getting some of our cooks to leave that kitchen when the event was over!), but out in the middle of absolute nowhere. At least a 3-hour round trip to the nearest grocery store. One of my planned Arts entries was "gilded" chicken, which is roast chicken coated in an egg yolk/flour/spice crust; it's a well- documented Period recipe, and one I figured would be pretty easy to do. I pre-measured the spices and flour and put them in a little jar, arranged with the breakfast cooks to reserve 4 eggs for my recipe, and tossed a chicken in the cooler. Lo and behold, the morning of the day of the Arts tournament, the breakfast cooks decided to beat the morning rush by cooking up the eggs ahead of time -- *all* the eggs, and there was no hope of getting more that day. A frantic inventory of free ingredients on hand, and a consultation with the Mistress of Arts and Sciences, resulted in my substituting honey for the egg yolks. I was actually leaning towards making a Bisquick crust, myself, since I feared the honey wouldn't seal in the juices effectively (the goal of gilding is to keep the meat moist, while adding flavor). But, A&S favored honey, and one listens to the Mistress of A&S, so . . . The resulting honey coating did manage to seal in the juices, and the chicken came out with excellent flavor. People who had tried the "real" gilded chicken I had made at home as a test vastly preferred the honey version. The A&S judges, in a fit of culinary transport, awarded me a Masterwork (which I disputed, since the recipe as actually concocted has no Period documentation whatsoever; but the A&S Mistress told me to take the award and shut up, so . . .). The chicken itself was stripped to the bone within minutes of handing it over to the crowd of onlookers. Any recipe that gets that kind of reception deserves to get passed along, though with the caveat that it is *not* documentable to Period, as far as I know. I am, however, considering making it up again in the future -- I think it would adapt especially well to the Period practice of coating roast fowl in crusts of various colors and flavors. Add parsley juice, or red sandalwood, or some other colorant, change the spices a little, and the possible variety is endless. Anyway, the following recipe is adapted from Cindy Renfrow's _Take a Thousand Eggs or More_ redaction of gilded chicken; I have listed both the honey and the egg yolks, so folks can try both incarnations of the recipe. "Gilded" Chicken 1 whole roasting chicken, giblets and excess fat removed. 1 tbsp. flour 4 beaten egg yolks *OR* 1 cup honey 2 tsp. ginger powder 1 tsp. ground black pepper 1 tsp. salt Pinch saffron, to taste (more saffron gives a stronger golden color). Place the chicken breast side up in a roasting pan. Combine the remaining ingredients to make the batter for the "gilding." Apply a coat of batter with a pastry brush (for the honey version, I found that spooning it on worked better than brushing), and bake at 350 F, brushing (spooning) on a fresh coat of batter every 20 minutes until done (1 1/2 - 2 hours). If you use honey, which makes a runnier batter, you can spoon up the runoff in the pan and use that to re-coat the chicken, if you run out of fresh batter. May future last-minute substitutions turn out so well for us all! :) -- Ruth Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 10:52:02 -0400 (EDT) From: Subject: [Sca-cooks] A Jewish Dish of Chicken To: So, we ran a first test of the chicken dish this weekend. from Perry's translation of the Andalusian manuscript, webbed on Cariadoc's site: Clean the chicken [p. 20, recto] and pound its entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs, a little flour, salt, and cut-up fennel and cilantro. Beat it with six eggs and the amount of a quarter ratl of water. Then expose the chicken over the fire a little and place it in a clean pot with five spoonfuls of fresh oil, and do not stop turning it on the fire in the oil until it is well browned. Then cover the contents of the pot with stuffing prepared earlier and leave it until it is bound together and wrinkled. Ladle it out and put the stuffing around it, garnish with cut rue and fennel, eyes of mint, and toasted almonds, and present it, God willing. So, what I did: - I had decided to use chicken pieces because I couldn't figure out how to handle a whole chicken and thought maybe it would be ok to use chicken pieces instead. Boneless pieces are just easier to deal with, though I realize that they take less time to cook. We defrosted about 4 pounds of chicken breast (ok, we had thought it was boneless chicken breasts but it turned out to be chicken breast tenders). - After conversation with the list and with Sarah bas Mordechai who was raised Orthodox Jewish, we decided that only the liver and the gizzards would have been used of the innards. We bought chicken livers, but couldn't find gizzards. - Chicken livers (in modern times) are 'koshered' by searing with a flame-- we seared them in a cast-iron pan because we were working with an electric stove. - I chose to grind the almonds finely, and to use store bought fluffy cheap white bread for the bread crumbs. - we didn't have fennel because I forgot to get it. We also didn't have a tool for mashing the cilantro leaves so they were just cut up with a knife, not finely minced. So: The stuffing: - about 12 slices of bread, some toasted, ground to breadcrumbs - about a cup of ground almonds - leaves from 1/3 of a large bunch of cilantro - about 1 tablespoon of ground coriander. - pinch flour - 4 seared chicken livers, minced and squished - 6 eggs I realized too late that 6 eggs were probably too much for this mixture (we had to add the last 6 slices of bread to make it stuffing-y). So no water was added. If I do this again for the same size servings, I would add some water but less eggs. We sauteed the chicken in a little oil in a deep cast-iron skillet until it was browned, then combined all the chicken in the skillet and spread the stuffing on top. Then we baked it in a 325 degree Farenheit oven for about an hour-- we might have used a 350 degree oven instead but we were baking bread at the time as well. It came out very good, the spice tastes penetrated through to the chicken and the stuffing was yummy. We didn't bother with the serving suggestion but just took it out with a pie server. However, a little of the stuffing went a long way, so I suspect that next time I will use crumbs of good, not fluffy-white, bread, and make the stuffing less moist so it isn't as dense. We decided that for 40=60 people we will probably only need about one container of chicken livers to make this... it could have used more cilantro but I think I like it this way. My biggest concern is seeing if it can be baked in a covered electric roaster, as this version was baked uncovered. -- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 12:38:56 -0700 From: lilinah at earthlink.net Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Garlic Challenge To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Since you asked, Stefan, Here's my Moretum recipe that we made for the Greco-Roman Feast at the beginning of this September: --------------------- And since you seem to like garlic, here's the Thumiyya recipe with which i won the Iron Chef Cook-off in the Spring of 2001: Thumiyya from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook - 13th century Translation by Charles Perry Take a plump hen and take out what is inside it, clean that and leave aside. Then take four uqiyas of peeled garlic and pound them until they are like brains, and mix with what comes out of the interior of the chicken. Fry it in enough oil to cover, until the smell of the garlic comes out. Mix this with the chicken in a clean pot with salt, pepper, cinnamon, lavender, ginger, cloves, saffron, peeled almonds, both pounded and whole, and a little murri naqi. Seal the pot with dough, place it in the oven and leave it until it is done. Then take it out and open the pot, pour its contents in a clean dish and an aromatic scent will come forth from it and perfume the area. This chicken was made for the Sayyid Abu al-Hasan and much appreciated. Redaction by Anahita al-Qurtubiyya bint 'abd al-Karim al-Fassi 4 lb. chicken breasts and thighs 4 ounces of garlic, peeled 3 Tb. olive oil 1-1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. pepper 1 Tb. cinnamon 2 tsp. lavender 1 tsp. ginger 1/2 tsp. cloves hearty pinch of real saffron 1/2 c. ground blanched almonds 3/4 c. peeled whole almonds 1-1/2 Tb. murri naqi In honor of the noble gentles to whom i am serving this dish, and especially the Princess's delicate sensibilities, i used skinless, boneless chicken breasts and thighs and did not use any of the chicken's innards. 1. Puree peeled garlic. 2. Fry it in oil until the smell of the garlic comes out. 3. Put chicken in pot, spoon garlic and remaining ingredients and spoon over it. 4. Cover the pot well, place it on a medium-low fire, and cook until done, stirring occasionally, and adjusting the heat, as necessary. 5. When done, pour contents onto serving dish. NOTE: This is the only recipe i've ever tested. Anahita Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 06:07:32 -0600 From: Robert Downie Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Cruel food To: Susan Browning , Cooks within the SCA Susan Browning wrote: > Can't quote you the source, but I have seen a recipe on how to cook a > chicken/goose? alive, and start to eat it while it is still living. > > Eleanor These were convieniently located on the Gode Cookery website: Faerisa A Goose roasted alive - from Magia Naturalis: To make a Chicken be Served Roasted - from The Vivendier: To make a Chicken be Served Roasted. Get a chicken or any other bird you want, and pluck it alive cleanly in hot water. Then get the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs; they should be beaten with powdered saffron and wheat flour, and distempered with fat broth or with the grease that drips under a roast into the dripping pan. By means of a feather glaze and paint your pullet carefully with this mixture so that its colour looks like roast meat. With this done, and when it is about to be served to the table, put the chicken's head under its wing, and turn it in your hands, rotating it until it is fast asleep. Then set it down on your platter with the other roast meat. When it is about to be carved it will wake up and make off down the table upsetting jugs, goblets and whatnot. Scully, Terence. The Vivendier. Devon: Prospect Books, 1997. Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:19:50 -0800 (PST) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: [Sca-cooks] Pressure cooking To: Cooks within the SCA According to the Oxford Companion to Food, the inventor of the pressure cooker was Denys Papin (1647-1712), but that the first practical applications were developed in the 20th Century. The pressure cooker is a large pot with a sealed metal lid and a pressure valve in the middle of it, which you have to release slowly after your meal is cooked. You cannot just open up the pot or it will explode and you will scald yourself and your food will have to be scrapped off the floor, walls and ceiling. Pressure cookers are very dangerous. Putting a crust over a pot and putting the chicken on something to raise if off from the pot sound more like a steamer than a pressure cooker. The crust is porous and wouldn't allow the pressure inside the pot to build up. But it would keep the steam from escaping. Try making a pie without vent hole and see what happens. It doesn't explode, but it will leak all over the oven. Huette --- Michael Gunter wrote: > There was a question about the "pressure cooked" chicken and why not do it a > period way. Well, that is period. > > Capon Stwed from Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks > Take parcelly, sage, Isoppe, Rose Mary, and tyme, and breke hit bitwen thi > hondes and stoppe the Capon there-with; colour hym with Saffron, and > couche him in a rethen potte, or of brasse, and ley splentes underneath and > al about the sides, that the capon touche no thinge of the potte, and put > thereto a pottel of the best wn that thou may gete, and none other licour > hele the potte with a close led, and stoppe hit aboute with dogh or bater, > that no eier come oute; And set hit on the faire carcole, and lete it seethe > easily and longe till hit be ynowe. And if hit be an erthen potte, then set > hit on the fire whan thou takest hit downe, and lete hit not touche the grounde > for breking; And whan the hete is ouer past, take oute the Capon with a prick > then make a sirippe of wyne, Reysons of corance, suur and safferon, And > boile hit a litull; medel pouder of Ginger with a litul of the same wyn, and > do thereto; then do awey the fatte of the se3we of the Capon, And do the > Siryppe to the sewe, and powre hit on the Capo, and serue it forth. > > Basically, color Capon (in my case hen) with saffron and water. Get a big > kettle and put some broken up bamboo skewers in the bottom. Cover the poultry > with parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme. Pour a good wine in the bottom of the > kettle. Placethe hen on the sticks so they don't touch the bottom or sides. > Make a dough and place on the rim of the kettle and press on the lid. Turn on > the fire and let the hen cook in the steam of the wine and drippings. > When done, remove the bird, por off the liquid and to that add more wine, > sugar, currants, and powdered ginger and let boil down to thicken. > Serve the hen with the sauce. Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:04:54 -0800 From: lilinah at earthlink.net Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Overdocumentation with food content To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org I'm *excited* that we plan to make a 9th or 10th century Abbasid recipe for chicken on a bed of pomegranate seeds and chopped cucumber with an almond-mustard sauce and decorated with olives. Barida David Waines, "In a Caliph's Kitchen", pp. 82-83 Waines' Comments: This cold dish made from chicken was devised by Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi. The recipe is expressed in poetic form, not surprising from a man who was not only a gourmand, but well known as a poet too. He describes the dish as perfect summertime fare. The physician al-Razi observes that such dishes of the bawarid type, when made with vinegar or with the juice of sour fruits, serve to cool the temperament and moderate it. Qutha and faqqus, mentioned in the original recipe, are species of cucumber. ORIGINAL: Two parts almonds and sugar and two parts vinegar and mustard mixed together in a vessel with partially dried safflower adding colour around the [one short word not legible in my photocopy, may be "edges"]. Cucumber peeled, qutha and faqqas and pomegranate, chopped up small and sprinkled around the vessel. Add a little oil. Take a fine young chicken, cooked in vinegar, jointed and cut up in pieces and placed over the other ingredients in one vessel. Decorate the dish with pomegranate (seeds) and with almonds and olives chopped up fine. Since we haven't made it yet, we don't have a worked out recipe to offer, but i'm really looking forward to making this. Because we're serving this in a hotel and it's a vigil, not a sit-down dinner, we will skin and de-bone the chicken and cut the meat into pieces of a reasonable size to make it easier on the diners. Anahita Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:25:50 -0800 From: lilinah at earthlink.net Subject: [Sca-cooks] Barida - Cold Chicken Dish, 9th or 10th C. Abbasid To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org, west-cooks at yahoogroups.com, SCAFoodandFeasts at yahoogroups.com I made this for a double Vigil at West Kingdom Twelfth Night. I made it like "chicken salad" because that would be easier for guests to eat than whole joints. I thought it was good and hope to make it again, and at least one of the vigilees was quite taken with it :-) Anahita -------------- BARIDA - 9th or 10th C. Abbasid Cold Chicken Dish -= Original =- Two parts almonds and sugar and two parts vinegar and mustard mixed together in a vessel with patially dried safflower adding colour around the [edges] [one short word not legible in my photocopy]. Cucumber peeled, qutha and faqqas and pomegranate, chopped up small and sprinkled around the vessel. Add a little oil. Take a fine young chicken, cooked n vinegar, jointed and cut up in pieces and placed over the other ingredients in one vessel. Decorate the dish with pomegranate (seeds) and with almonds and olives chopped up fine. -= Comments =- This cold dish made from chicken was devised by Ibrahim ib al-Mahdi. The recipe is expressed in poetic form, not surprising from a man who was not only a gourmand, but well known as a poet too. He describes the dish as perfect summertime fare. The physician al-Razi observes that such dishes of the bawarid type, hen made with vinegar or with the juice of sour fruits, serve to cool the temperament and moderate it. Qutha and faqqus, mentioned in the original recipe, are species of cucumber. - - - - - David Waines, In a Caliph's Kitchen, pp. 82-83 -= My Version =- 9 lb. chicken parts bottle (about 24 oz.) rice vinegar 1/2 cup ground almonds 1/2 cup sugar 1 cup white wine vinegar 1 cup prepared Dijon mustard partially dried safflower 2 English Cucumbers, diced (no need to peel or seed) seeds from 3 pomegranates 1/2 up sesame oil 2 cups slivered blanched almonds 1 cup pitted purple/black olives 1 cup pitted green olives 1. Cook chicken in vinegar, adding a little water, as necessary. The liquid doesn't need to completely cover the chicken, as long as the cook periodcally turns pieces so all pieces spend time submerged. I don't remember how long this took - 1/2 hour? 2. Mix together almonds and sugar, with vinegar and mustard and spread around serving dish, then put safflower around the edges. 3. Cut cucumber into meium sized dice. No need to peel or seed. 4. Peel pomegranates over a bowl of cold water, dropping seeds into water. When done, remove "floaty bits" and drain seeds. Take care because pomegranate can stain. 5. Sprinkle cucumber and 2/3 of pomegranate seedsaround serving dish on top of mustard sauce. 6. Sprinkle with a little oil. 7. Cool chicken, joint it and cut up in pieces. 8. Place chicken over the other ingredients in serving dish. 9. Decorate the dish with additional pomegranate seeds, slivered almons, and sliced olives. -= NOTES =- 1. I used rice vinegar to cook the chicken because it is milder than wine vinegar and i didn't want the vinegar taste to be too strong in the chicken. 2. Prepared Dijon mustard was a short cut. It is unclear whether powdred mustard seed or prepared mustard would be used in the original. 3. I used safflower, but i think saffron would be more effective, and i wonder if Waines made an error with his translation. 4. English cucumbers are the closest i could find to Middle Eatern cucumbers. They are so much nicer than the usual cucumbers, much less bitter, and not "burpy" at all. 5. For the Vigil, we skinned the chicken, then separated the meat from the bones, discarding fat and connective tissues. 6. For the Vigil, we tossedthe cucumber with the mustard sauce, and took each ingredient to the site in a separate zip-close bag. Then i tossed the chicken with mustard-tossed cucumber and 2/3 of pomegranates and dumped it onto the serving dish. Then decorated the edges as instructd. 7. I used two colors of olives for aesthetic purposes. Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 22:01:12 -0800 From: David Friedman Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Barida - Cold Chicken Dish, 9th or 10th C. Abbasid To: Cooks within the SCA I have a different recipe, also 9-10th c., but credited to Abu Ja'far al-Barmaki Bâ ridah (a cold dish) of Abu Ja'far al-Barmaki Translated by Charles Perry from a 9-10th c. Islamic collection. A fowl is taken, roasted, jointed and thrown in a jar into which are put coriander, pepper, cumin and cinnamon. Verjus is added, and mint, tarragon and fresh thyme are cut over it, and good oil is poured over it. Fresh spices are minced onto it, and it is decorated with chopped cucumber. -- David/Cariadoc www.daviddfriedman.com Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 15:46:30 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickens in Hochee- To: Cooks within the SCA How large were the garlic gloves? Size of the bird? The recipe says Add garlic cloves whole, if very large halve. This indicates it's done in about 45 minutes. Alton Brown's recipe for 40 Cloves and a Chicken takes an hour and half in an oven. He's using 1 whole chicken (broiler/fryer) cut into 8 pieces. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/ 0,1977,FOOD_9936_16200,00.html James Beard's recipe calls for an hour and half too. http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/jbh/chick_40_cloves.html Johnnae > I made the Chicken in Hochee (from COI- Cariadoc has it with his > redaction at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/poultry.html#3 ) in > camp Sunday evening (along with Losyns, some asparagus, and a Tart of > Strawberye) and it was a hit- but there was one part I wasn't happy > with- the garlic didn't cook through. The recipe doesn't say anything > about the garlic being already cooked, but the cloves weren't cooked > when I unstuffed the chicken, even though the chicken was falling off > the bones. The garlic was still crunchy, and quite hot. > Might there have been a step left out? Or did the writer mean cooked > garlic and neglected to mention it? I think it was very good as is, > but would be spectacular with the garlic cooked through. Any thoughts? > Bueller? > 'Lainie Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 13:28:16 -0700 From: "Laura C. Minnick" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickens in Hochee- To: Cooks within the SCA > How large were the garlic gloves? Size of the bird? Uhh... the bird was a good size for a chicken. I want to say four pounds but I'm not sure. The garlic cloves were pretty standard size, and yes, I halved them. But even the halves, and the ones that were already skinny, weren't cooked through. > The recipe says > Add garlic cloves whole, if very large halve. > This indicates it's done in about 45 minutes. Yup. Actually, I left it in about ten minutes longer, as I was waiting For the Losyns to be done (I browned them in the oven). > Alton Brown's recipe for 40 Cloves and a Chicken > takes an hour and half in an oven. He's using > 1 whole chicken (broiler/fryer) cut into 8 pieces. > http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/ > 0,1977,FOOD_9936_16200,00.html > > James Beard's recipe calls for an hour and half too. > http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/jbh/chick_40_cloves.html Hmm. If I'd left the chicken in the broth that long, it would fall apart (as it was, I had a hard time getting it out of the pot), which would rather defeat the purpose of stuffing it, I'd think. So I'm back to wondering how the garlic and the chicken are done through at the same time. 'Lainie Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 17:56:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickens in Hochee- To: Cooks within the SCA --- "Laura C. Minnick" wrote: > Hmm. > If I'd left the chicken in the broth that long, it would fall apart (as it > was, I had a hard time getting it out of the pot), which would rather > defeat the purpose of stuffing it, I'd think. So I'm back to wondering > how the garlic and the chicken are done through at the same time. > > 'Lainie Since you think that the time was sufficient to cook the chicken but not the cloves of garlic, then quarter the garlic or slice it so that it will take less time for it to cook. The original recipe says: Take persel and sawge, with other erbes; take garlec & grapes, and stoppe the chikenus ful It doesn't say anything about the size of the garlic or whether they are cut up or not. I personally would chop them up a bit before stuffing the chicken. This would allow them to cook and to infuse more garlicky goodness into to chicken. Huette Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 10:12:39 -0600 From: Sheila McClune Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Chickens in Hochee To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org On May 31, 2005, at 4:28 PM, Laura C. Minnick wrote: >>> If I'd left the chicken in the broth that long, it would fall apart >>> (as it was, I had a hard time getting it out of the pot), which >>> would rather defeat the purpose of stuffing it, I'd think. So I'm >>> back to wondering how the garlic and the chicken are done through >>> at the same time. Could it be possible that the chicken *is* supposed to fall apart, and that the purpose of stuffing it is just to get the flavor of the grapes and garlic through the meat more efficiently? Looking back at the original recipe, the serving instructions simply say, "/Messe hem & cast (th)erto powdour dowce."/ I don't have access to an OED, so I can't look it up, but to me, the term "messe" does not imply a tidy, intact chicken... :) I could be off-base on this, but it is another possibility. Just a thought, Arwen Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 14:22:46 -0400 From: rbbtslyr Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Chickens in Hochee To: smcclune at earthlink.net, Cooks within the SCA >>> Could it be possible that the chicken *is* supposed to fall apart, and that the purpose of stuffing it is just to get the flavor of the grapes and garlic through the meat more efficiently? Looking back at the original recipe, the serving instructions simply say, "/Messe hem & cast (th)erto powdour dowce."/ I don't have access to an OED, so I can't look it up, but to me, the term "messe" does not imply a tidy, intact chicken... :) I could be off-base on this, but it is another possibility. Just a thought, Arwen <<< It is the ancestor of the military term "Mess" it means to serve I looked it up and there is a good on line page I came across called the "Good Cooking Ring" that has a glossary and recipes from the Middle Arges and conversions for modern Kitchens. Mess is to Serve so it means to "Serve him and cast the powder? down" Kirk Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 18:30:12 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: chickens on sca cooks To: Cooks within the SCA I queried Master Johann regarding the Chickens question-- Here are his thoughts--- Johnnae I've read the posts and my first reaction is that the bird used was not a free range bird, nor necessarily an adult bird, ie a year old!? If purchased in a grocery store this is certainly the case! The texture and flavors of the adult bird are simply not there yet, despite the size of the carcass. An adult bird, and a free range one, is going to have a tougher carcass that will put up with the long cooking time and will stand up to the amount of garlic used. As to the amount of garlic and cooking times, I'm sure they could be played with to affect the desired out come. Though I did not perceive of any specifications in the recipe dictating an older bird, the evidence given by length of time and amounts of garlic tell me that that is probably what the author had in mind. Johann If you need such a bird, like a year old cock? let me know! Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 19:27:06 -0400 From: Subject: [Sca-cooks] FW: OED Definition of a word "hocchee" To: "SCA Cooks" -----Original Mesage----- From: Mistress Bronwen [mailto:mistressbronwen at solhaven.com] Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2005 12:05 PM To: SCA Heralds List; Christianna MacGrain Subject: OT: OED Definition of a word "hocchee" This word appears in a recipe one of my protégés is trying to redact, and she has come across conflicting definitions. Could someone with access to the OED or some other likely source please let me know what is said about this word? The recipe is Elizabethan, from a cook book (The Forme of Cury) presented to Elizabeth by Richard II. The recipe reads: CHYKENS IN HOCCHEE [1]. XXXIIII. Take Chykenns and scald hem. take parsel and sawge withoute eny oþere erbes. take garlec an grapes and stoppe the Chikenns ful and seeþ hem in gode broth. so þat þey ma esely be boyled þerinne. messe hem an cast þerto powdour dowce. [1] Hochee. This does not at all answer to the French _Hachis_, or our _Hash_; therefore qu. She is trying to find out what the term "Hocchee" means. Can anyone assist? How about the composition of "powdour douce" ~ Bronwen Date: Sun, 10 Jl 2005 18:42:12 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] FW: OED Definition of a word "hocchee" To: "Cooks within the SCA" > She is trying to find out what the ter "Hocchee" means. Can anyone > assist? > ~ > Bronwen Try the Old French "hocher" meaning "to shake together" (mix or stew). It's the origin of the Middle English "hochepot." Bear Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 21:11:58 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subjct: Re: [Sca-cooks] FW: OED Definition of a word "hocchee" To: Cooks within the SCA The Middle English Dictionary which I have access to gives the entry as <>hocche (n.) (There's a line over the e) [?Cp. hoche-pot.] Cook. chikenes in ~, ?chickens boiled in a mixture of ingredients. (a1399) Form Cury (Add 5016) p.25: Chykens in hocchee. Take Chykens and cald hem; take persel and sawge withoute eny oþere erbes; take garlec and grapes and stoppe the Chikens ful and seeþ hem in gode broth, so þat þey may esely be boyled þerinne. Heatt and Butler in their edition of Curye on Inglysch give i as Chykens in hocchee IV 36 (OF houssie 'with parsley'): cf. Hauceleamye in the glossary section. That entry Hauceleamye sends one back to the Menagier de Paris and to the VT which is the Pichon Viandier. That information is being repeated in the forthoming Concordanace of English Recipes that will be out in 2006. You might send your protege to look at the MP and VT as well as the Hieatt and Butler edition. As to why the FoC is associated with Elizabeth.... well actually it turns out that the manuscrpt roll was presented to her as a gift in the 28th year of her reign by Lord Stafford's heir. Richard Warner's edition of the FoC from 1790 gives the details in his volume titled Antiquitates Culinarie. (See the Prospect Books facsimile for details.) It's just one of those curiousities that the manuscript of Richard II's recipes were presented later to Elizabeth. Johnnae llyn Lewis Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 21:35:40 -0700 From: lilinah at earthlink.net Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Plums was: Lammas 1005 menu To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Lyse wrote: > Are red plums or reg. plums used in this sauce? > I did not know that the reg. plums had made it so far west of the > orient by this time. > Would love [the] source. > >> Anahita, I was reading old email and found your recipe for the Apicus >> plum sauce, thank you for sharing it. I'm leaving out the fish >> sauce, but otherwise it fits what I know about Hiberno-Viking >> cooking. I've read that they loved plums. >> >> Ranvaig Well, the Romans imported dried plums (aka prunes, but that's so old fashioned) from Syria - which was a Roman province at the time... I used a mix of fresh and dried, and it needed more honey than i'd used. It's on my website... gee, this is getting to be a refrain :-) But i'll post it here: Pollos cum Iure : CHICKEN WITH PLUM/PRUNE SAUCE Original: Sauce for Various Birds. Pepper, grilled cumin, lovage, mint, stoned raisins or damsons, a little honey; blend with myrtle wine, vinegar, fish sauce, and oil. Heat up and stir with celery and savory. [--- Apicius, Book VI, Chapter V, Recipe 1] My Version: Plum/Prune Sauce 60 pitted Prunes warm Water to cover 40 fresh Plums 1 gallon Red Wine 1-1/4 cups Red Wine Vinegar 1-1/4 cups Tiparos (brand) Thai Fish Sauce 1-1/4 cups Olive Oil 1/4 cup & 3 Tb. Honey 2 Tb. fresh Mint 2 Tb. Lovage Herb or Chinese Celery Leaves 1 Tb. ground roasted Cumin Seeds 1-1/2 tsp. ground Black Pepper 5-10 leafy stalks Celery 1 container fresh Savory Herb Soak prunes in lukewarm water. Plunge fresh plums in boiling water. -- Drain and remove and discard skins. -- Cut in half and discard pits. Drain and chop prunes, saving liquid. Tie celery and savory into bouquets. Put all ingredients in saucepan, bring to boil and simmer 20 min., stirring with bouquet, and mashing prunes and plums occasionally. Taste and adjust seasonings. When done, leave bouquet in sauce until ready to serve. NOTE: Plums didn't grow in Italy at the time. Rather, dried plums were imported from Syria, where they grew. I assumed a sauce entirely of prunes would be too sweet, so I mixed fresh and dried in hope that the sauce would be less cloying... see note below. In fact the sauce was not sweet enough and needed more honey. Shoulda just done all prunes. And, hey, I really like prunes. Chicken 36 lb. Chicken Thighs and Legs Put pieces in a single layer in enough roasting pans. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Roast at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, turning so they brown evenly until cooked through, between 30 and 45 minutes. To serve, plate cooked chicken and pour sauce over. Also, note, that i didn't have access to fresh myrtle to flavor my wine, so i just used a nice red. Anyone know where to get myrtle berries? -- Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM) the persona formerly known as Anahita Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:13:25 -0700 From: "Laura C. Minnick" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A Challenge to Find a Dish To: Cooks within the SCA At 02:09 PM 9/7/2005, you wrote: > Your rules do not help me so much but I found a dish that may work... > But I really like the hunt for the dish that starts with 'C' > > Chekyns in browet > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > This is an excerpt from Liber cure cocorum. > The original source can be found on Thomas Gloning's website. > > Chekyns in browet. Take chekyns, scalde hom fayre and clene. Take persole, > sauge, oþer herb3, grene Grapus, and stope þy chekyns with wynne. Take > goode brothe, sethe hom þerinne, So þat þay sone boyled may be. Coloure þe > brothe with safrone fre, And cast þeron powder dowce, For to be > served in goode mennys howse. I served this to the Prince and Princess of the Summits at an event last month- it went over well and I didn't have to figure out what to do with the leftovers- because there weren't any! The only thing I wondered about- anyone have an opinion as to whether the grapes were 'green' as in underripe, or 'green' as in color? 'Lainie Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 16:20:41 -0700 From: "Laura C. Minnick" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A Challenge to Find a Dish To: Cooks within the SCA > Please post your redaction! > Christopher Mmblememlbele.... I usually cook directly off of the recipe, but I'll try to reconstruct what I did... >>> Chekyns in browet >>> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> This is an excerpt from Liber cure cocorum. >>> The original source can be found on Thomas Gloning's website. >>> >>> Chekyns in browet. Take chekyns, scalde hom fayre and clene. Take >>> persole, sauge, oþer herb3, grene Grapus, and stope þy chekyns with >>> wynne. Take goode brothe, sethe hom þerinne, So þat þay sone boyled may >>> be. Coloure þe brothe with safrone fre, And cast þeron powder dowce, For >>> to be served in goode mennys howse. I used a roasting chicken because that's what they had at Safeway. I took a handful of parsley, some sage, some rosemary, and chopped them up together. I took some Thompson's seedless grapes (again, because those were the green grapes available when I was at the store, and I didn't have time to go elsewhere), a softball-sized bunch, split each grape in half, and mixed them in with the herbs. I pulled the giblets out of the chicken and rinsed it thoroughly inside, then stuffed the grapes and herbs inside, and pinned it closed with a bamboo skewer. *note*- the recipe says to stuff the chicken with 'wynne'- which is not wine! 'Wyn' or 'win' is wine- the word 'wynne' is either the word 'joy' (from the OE) or the verb 'gather' or 'come'. Which make more sense to me than trying to stuff or stop up a chicken with wine! So I gathered the opening and pinned it closed with my skewers. I boiled the chicken in a pot of broth (Knorr's cubed- travels better than canned) with a generous amount of saffron (I happen to like saffron) until the joints were loose (at home about 45 min- but in camp with the wind blowing, about an hour and ten), turning it over two or three times. When it was done, I wrestled it out of the pot and into the serving dish, pulled out the skewers, and loosened up the stuffing, then sprinkled a bit of cinnamon sugar over it (I don't know where my powder douce went to, but it wasn't in my cook basket) and gave it to Edouard to carve. People ate and made nummy noises, so I guess it was good. Will that suffice? 'Lainie Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:15:07 -0400 From: "Barbara Benson" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Rumpolt Hungarian Chicken To: "Cooks within the SCA" To make things more fun and interesting, here is my interpretation of the same dish: 4 C Peeled and Chopped Apples 4 C Peeled and Chopped Onions 2 1/2 Lemons 2 C Chicken Broth 4 lbs Chicken Legs, Thighs and Breasts 3/4 C White Wine (Reisling) 1 T White Wine Vinegar 1/4 t Pepper 2 t Salt 20 threads Saffron 1 T Sugar Peel and chop apples and onions. Put into pot. Peel 1 and 1/2 lemons and remove pith from membranes, removing seeds at the same time over the pot so as not to lose any juice. Cover and simmer until they become soft. Place chicken in water and bring to a boil, simmer for 15 - 20 minutes or until lightly poached. Crush Saffron and steep in wine. Add wine, vinegar and spices to the apple mixture. Then add partially cooked chicken. Simmer covered for 20 minutes then remove cover to reduce. If the chicken is getting too done remove from the sauce and hold while reducing sauce further. Slice one whole lemon with the rind on very thinly. Stir into chicken and sauce just before serving. I look forward to seeing yours!! Glad Tidings, Serena da Riva On 4/19/06, Cat . wrote: > Greetings Kiri-Hime > Gwen Cat> I pulled up the original and no, it very clearly > specifies Wine and vinegar: > "geusz lauter Wein vnnd ein wenig Essig darein" > > pour clear wine and a little vinegar therin... > > which is not to say he didnt steal it from a recipe > that used Verjuice, but in Rumpolt it states wine and > vinegar. Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 18:08:17 -0400 From: "Barbara Benson" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Rumpolt Hungarian Chicken To: "Cooks within the SCA" Aw shucks! The reason I added it in is that I love to see what everyone comes up with - everyone interprets things differently. Case in point: Here is Gwen Cat's translation from her site (considering how behind in the digests she said she was): 2. Done Hungarian (style) yellow cooked hens. Take apple and onion/ also lime (lemon)/ chop them small/ take thereafter a beef broth/ and put them in/ and let them simmer/ till they are cooked down. Take the hens/ that are cooked/ but may still be simmered/ put the chopped (cooked down veggies) into a tinned fish pot/ pour clear wine and a little vinegar thereto/ lay the hens in there/ and let it simmer/ season it after with spices/ pepper and saffron/ and sugar it well/ let it simmer/ that a short broth appears. You can also chop in a little bread/ so it becomes a little thick therefrom// cut a little (chamomile? Anacyclus officinarum Hayne) thereto/ or (you) can cut lemons nicely thick/ so it is good and delicate. And here is the one I hacked out: Yellow preserved chicken in the Hungarian Style Take Apple and Onion/ also lemon/ chop them small/ Take thereafter a Beef Broth/ and set them to/ and let (them) simmer/ until they are well cooked/ Take a chicken/ that has been boiled/ and do not cook overmuch/ this you chop into a tinned Fishpot/ pour clear wine and a little vinegar therin/ have the chicken therein/ and let it simmer therewith/ thereafter season with/ Pepper and Saffron/ and add Sugar/ let it simmer therewith/ until you have won a small broth/ you can also add a little chopped Bread therein/ so it wil be a little thick/ cut a little Bertrumkraut thereon/ or make lemon therein sliced nicely thin/ so it is good and welltasting. Very similar, and you get the idea. I am sure that if good Giano were to do a translation, it would be slightly different also. After getting a better understanding - I have already identified a goof in mine - the final word that I translated as welltasting is most definitely not welltasting - delicate is correct. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!! Glad Tidings, Serena da Riva Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 16:04:53 -0700 (PDT) From: "Cat ." Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Rumpolt Hungarian Chicken To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Thanks, I have actualy been trying to follow this thread, since I was aware of it. Below is my redaction of 'a cooked old hen in a broth in the Hungarian Style' from 'Caerthes A and S and Outlands Crown Tourney II', November 4, 2004 . *NOTE: I was cooking this for a crown tourney (the redo-rescheduled-dropped-on-the-small-A&S-was-taking-a-breand-new- team-to) and it was a DRY site, so I used all vinegar (in retrospect could have used half grape juice, but ... If I were to re-do it, it would be 1C cider vinegar and 1C white wine (Rhein or Riesling) Gwen Cat Rumpolt old hen recipes LXXXI I. GEsotten Hennen in einer Bru:eh I. cooked hen in a broth 2. Auff Ungerisch gelb eyngemacht Hennen. Nim(b) Epffel vnd Zwiebl/ auch Limonien/ hack sie klein/ Nim(b) darnach ein Ridtfleischbru:eh/ vnd setz sie zu/ vnd lasz sieden/ bisz dasz gar eyngekocht. Nim(b) die Hennen/ die gesotten ist/ vnnd doch noch sieden gedarff/ thu das Gehack in ein vberzinten Fischkessel/ geusz lauter Wein vnnd ein wenig Essig darein/ leg die Hennen darein/ vnd lasz darmit sieden/ machs darnach ab mit Gewu:ertz/ Pfeffer vnd Saffran/ vnnd zuckers wol/ lasz darmit sieden/ dz ein kurtze Bru:eh gewinnet. Du kanst auch wol ein wenig Brot darein hacken/ so wirt es ein wenig dick davon/ schneidt ein wenig Bertrumkraut daran/ oder magst Limonien schneiden fein breit/ so ist es gut vnd zierlich. 2. Done Hungarian (style) yellow cooked hens. Take apple and onion/ also lime (lemon)/ chop them small/ take thereafter a beef broth/ and put them in/ and let them simmer/ till they are cooked down. Take the hens/ that are cooked/ but may still be simmered/ put the chopped (cooked down veggies) into a tinned fish pot/ pour clear wine and a little vinegar thereto/ lay the hens in there/ and let it simmer/ season it after with spices/ pepper and saffron/ and sugar it well/ let it simmer/ that a short broth appears. You can also chop in a little bread/ so it becomes a little thick therefrom// cut a little (chamomile? Anacyclus officinarum Hayne) thereto/ or (you) can cut lemons nicely thick/ so it is good and delicate. For 75 servings 50 lbs chicken leg/thighs (lots of waste...) 10 lbs apples (peeled, cored, chunked) 5 lb lemon (peeled, pith removed, cut into chunks ) 5 large onions peeled and cut into chunks chicken broth (left from prepoaching the chickens) 2 cup cider vinegar *note above salt pepper sugar saffron additional lemons, thinly sliced I forgot to start them in beef broth, but as I cooked them in batches, the first batch had water with onion, and by the final batch it was good strong chicken broth. I simmered the chicken for about 20 minutes each, then removed the skin, bagged and froze them. Separately I took the chunks of apple, lemon and onion and simmered them (started with a little water with lemon, then the natural juices came out) till they were soft. Then put all the chunks through a food mil, thinning with the vinegar. At the site I plan to season with salt, pepper, saffron, and sugar, add a few more chunks of everything and let the chicken simmer for another 2 hours. Final presentation will include thin sliced lemons. Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:15:27 -0400 From: Elaine Koogler Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] looking for simple german vigil chow To: Cooks within the SCA I made Master Tirloch's Hungarian Chicken for his vigil...cut the chicken breasts up into bite-sized pieces and supplied toothpicks to pick the pieces up with. (Auff Ungerisch gelb Henne) Hungarian Chicken 6 C chicken broth 2 Granny Apples, with skins on and chopped into small chunks 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped into small chunks 3 limes ? juice only 1 T salt 1 T ground black pepper 8 boneless chicken breasts 1 1/2 C cider vinegar 1 C Riesling white wine 1 g saffron ? crushed 1/4 C sugar In a large pot, add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the chopped apples and onion and add the lime juice. When the apples and onions are soft, add the cider and wine. Add the crushed saffron. Add 1 T ground black pepper, 1 T salt and the sugar. Stir. Add the chicken breasts and simmer until done. Chickens will be golden yellow when they are ready. Serve over bed of greens with the cooked apples and onions surrounding the chicken. Serves 8. > From Gwen Cat?. SCA Cooks? List. Tirloch did the original transcription from old German! Kiri Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 21:53:38 EDT From: Bronwynmgn at aol.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Kings College Class test part 1. (Long) To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org In a message dated 5/22/2007 12:02:09 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, countgunthar at hotmail.com writes: <> We did a spinning chicken over/beside a wood fire at Pennsic one year, and that also took a long time - we finally ended up jointing it and finishing it on the grill over the coals. But we did discover that watching a chicken spin is mesmerizing. People would walk into camp to talk to us and lose the thread of the conversation while staring at the chicken. Brangwayna Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 21:29:38 -0400 From: Patrick Levesque Subject: [Sca-cooks] Back to Basics To: "Cooks within the SCA " As I'm plunging back again into French cookery, I've decided to get better acquainted with the basic stuff. So I've decided to begin with the Vivendier's Barbe Robert. Here's my quick translation of the original: "Take some clear water and boil it with butter, then add wine, mustard and verjuice, and spices of variety and strength such as you like, and boil everything well. Then cut your chicken in pieces and boil it shortly (laissiez boullir une onde seullement) and then roast it. Make sure there is enough broth left, and color it with a little saffron" Redaction: -1 cup water -1/2 cup butter -1/2 cup white wine -1/4 cup prepared mustard (chose your favorite variety - I used Meaux) -a dash of white wine vinegar (no verjuice at hand, unfortunately) -some pepper -1 1/2 to 2 pound de-boned chicken thighs -a pinch of saffron In a pan, drop the butter in water and heat to a boil as the butter melts. Add the wine, mustard, and vinegar. Mix well. Add the chicken, simmer five minutes (somewhat longer, maybe, then required. It is unclear how long "une onde" should be). Remove the chicken pieces, put them in an oven safe dish and roast them 15 minutes at 350. Meanwhile, add the saffron and reduce the sauce, whisking frequently. (I added a bit more butter near the end to smoothen it out) Serve the chicken hot, covered with the sauce. It got the definite approval of all my unvoluntary taste-testers (2, 4, and 27)!. In his edition, Scully compares the sauce to a "fortified mustard" although I get quite a different impression from my redaction. I'm interested in hearing of your own variants of various Barbe Robert type sauces, in order to compare. I'm wondering, at times, to which fair-bearded Robert the sauce is dedicated? :-)) Petru Edited by Mark S. Harris chicken-msg Page 63 of 76