lamb-mutton-msg – 111/23/16

Medieval lamb and mutton. Recipes.

NOTE: See also the files: organ-meats-msg, rabbit-dishes-msg, sauces-msg, livestock-msg, butchering-msg, roast-meats-msg, roast-pork-msg.

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From: Deb Hense <debh>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Medieval comfort food!!
Date: 5 Oct 1995 16:21:33 GMT
Organization: Microware Systems Corporation, Des Moines, Iowa

I'm sorry I've been out of the loop lately.  Angharad/Terry asked for a
specific reference on the molded lamb's leg.  I have provided it below.  My
original response was given under the impression that the person inquiring
about meatloaf, wanted to introduce someone to period flavored dishes under the
guise of something familiar. Using forcemeats shaped as a meatloaf, would
introduce the person to the flavors of medieval times, while providing them the
comfort of eating something familiar.  It would be just another meatloaf,
flavored differently, but tasty nonetheless. The next step would be to
introduce the same recipe in its originally intended form, then inform the
person that it tastes just like the meatloaf they had last week.  I do this to
my family all the time and it works like a charm.  

I see that it is not Goodman of Paris, but Le Viander, I apologize.  When I did
the four course menu for competition, I used both sources for the recipes.
Again, sorry about the mixup.

Kateryn de Develyn

Stuffed Shoulder of Mutton
[212] Stuffed Shoulder of Mutton
Le Viander of Taillevent
Shoulder of mutton should be cooked in a pan on the fire, as well as legs of
mutton or pork - do not overcook them, then let them cool; the meat is taken
off from around the bones and is chopped up very fine, and the meat for
mangonels and towers similiarly; then get pine nut paste, currants, and a large
egg omlette fried in white bacon fat, and cut them into small pieces the size
of large dice, and keep them from burning; take all of these ingrediantes along
with crumbled creamy chees, and put everything into a clean pan or bowl and mix
them thoroughly together. Then you need sheep cauls; spread them out, sprinkle
them with fine spice powder and set the bones on them without the stuffing then
wrap up and pack around the bones, wrapping them withthe sheeps caul and sew
them together with little skewers of wood to keep the meat from falling away
from around the shoulder - as cooks help know how to do.

My version:
	1 shoulder of lamb 
2 lamb shanks - the shanks had bones in them whereas the lamb shoulder was
boneless. 
1 cup pine nuts - crushed fine into a paste. (easy to do as they are very
moist)
1 cup currants
3 egg omlette fried in bacon fat
1 cup shredded mozerella cheese 
chicken skin - I used the skin of chicken because I was unable to obtain sheeps
cauls. 
Roast the meat, then chop it very fine. Chop the egg omelette into small pieces
and add to the meat mixture. Next mix the pine nuts, currents, and
cheesetogether and add to the meat and egg mixture., Mold the meat mixture to
one of the lamb shank bones. Next, wrap the chicken skin around the molded
stuffing, and sew the chicken skin together using bamboo skewers. Then baked
this stuffed shoulder of mutton until the skin is cooked (approximately 45
minutes  at  375 degrees).


From: graydawn at pacbell.net
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: one "pot" meal
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 14:36:04 -0700

Here's a nice recipe adapted from one of the Gilroy Garlic Cookbooks (if you don't have them, run, do not walk...)  It's originally meant to be baked in an oven, but we've done it in a Dutch oven over a campfire and over a propane stove, both worked beautifully.

Lamb Shanks With Barley

Ingredients:

        A quantity of lamb shanks (I dunno, how many are you feeding?)
        Butter
        Olive Oil
        30-60 cloves of garlic, peeled
        A cup or so of cheap red wine
        Rosemary

        Barley
        Beef or chicken stock
        Mushrooms
        Butter
        Onions

        Either: mint jelly, or fresh mint leaves and honey

Melt the butter in a large pot, add the olive oil and brown the lamb shanks.  
Remove them from the pot and deglaze it with the red wine.  Return the shanks to 
the pot, sprinkle with rosemary and add the garlic cloves.  Cover VERY tightly (I usually cover the top with foil and then put on the lid, or seal the Dutch oven lid with dough.) and either bake in coals or simmer over stove for about an hour and a half.

Brown the onions and mushrooms in butter in another pot, remove.  Brown barley in more butter, add the onions and mushrooms and enough stock to cover.  Simmer 
gently, adding more broth as necessary until barley is tender (about an hour or 
so.)  Remove from heat and let stand, covered.

Remove shanks from pot, and strain out the garlic cloves.  Add the cloves to the 
barley mixture.  Bring the pot to a nice boil, scraping off the browned bits, until it thickens slightly.  Add the mint jelly, or mint leaves and honey, and cook a bit longer.  Turn out the barley mixture onto a large serving tray (for a company) or into plates, place lamb shanks in the middle, and spoon a quantity of the juice from the pot over the shanks.

Fairly simple, extremely yummy, and it's period as far as I know!  Pretty cheap, 
too, since lamb shanks can usually be found for as little as 99 cents a pound...

Enjoy!
Adellind le Quintain


Date: Tue, 08 Apr 1997 14:35:34 -0500
From: JANINE BRANNON <JANINEB at smtpgw.mis.ssh.edu>
To: sca-cooks at eden.com
Subject: Saracen Sauce

Try this - forwarded with the kind permission of Bertram, BMDL,
Aethelmearc, East.....


BERTRAM'S LAMB MEATBALLS WITH SARACEN SAUCE

  LAMB MEATBALLS

     1 lb.  lean ground lamb
            garlic salt
            ground pepper

      Fill a 4 quart pot three quarters full
      with water, add a teaspoon of salt, and
      bring to a rolling boil.

      Put garlic salt and pepper on the ground
      lamb, to taste, and form it into small
      balls, about the size of mellon balls.

      Place the meatballs in the boiling water
      and cook them for 5-10 minutes until they
      float or until one that you taste is cooked.
      For a large feast, freeze them and reheat
      them later, serving them with the Saracen
      Sauce described below.


  SARACEN SAUCE

      2 cups       onion soup or beef stock, strained
      1 cup        red wine
    1/2 teaspoon   ground pepper
    1/2 teaspoon   mace
    1/2 teaspoon   cinnamon
    1/4 teaspoon   ground cloves
      5 ounces     currants
      1 tablespoon sugar
    1/4 teaspoon   red food coloring
    ---------------------------------
      1 teaspoon   ground ginger
    1/4 cup        white vinegar
    1/2 cup        breadcrumbs

      In a large saucepan combine all the ingredients
      down through the food coloring. Bring to a boil
      and simmer for 10-15 minutes or longer.  When
      ready to serve, add the ginger and vinegar and
      stir well.  Remove from heat and add in the
      breadcrumbs, just enough to thicken slightly.

      Pour over the lamb meatballs or serve on the side.


Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 08:41:24 -0500
From: dangilsp at intrepid.net (Dan Gillespie)
Subject: SC - lamb recipes

>I've never cooked goat. If you have the time to send any recipes for goat
>or lamb, please do. I love lamb, but there are far too few recipes for it
>in my collection. This, by the way, is a request open to the rest of the
>list.
>
>Phlip

        Here's 2  recipes from the 1607 Arte de Cozina.  The sweet & sour
lamb is quite tasty, but would likely be rather expensive for a feast.  I
use lamb shoulder roast because it tends to be the least expensive cut that
I have found.  Let me know how you like the recipes!

                                                Antoine

Cap. II.  Como se ha de hazer una caçuela quajada.
Para hazer una caçuela quajada, lo primero se ha de picar la carne muy
bie(n) co(n) tocino, y todas verduras, y hecho esto, se ha de poner a la
lumbre, y desatarla muy bien. y echarle sal, y agraz, ò vinagre, y especias:
y despues de bien cozida la carne, echala en una caçuela con poca lumbre: y
si fueren dos o tres libras de carne, se le echaran quatro huevos.  Y se
advierte que quando pusieres la caçuela a la lumbre, ha de estar bien
sazonada de sal, y especias, y con poco caldo, y se han de batir los huevos
muy bien, y echarlos por encima de la carne, y no se ha de menear con los
huevos, sino taparla con una tapadera, y echar un poco de lumbre debaxo la
caçuela, sobre la tapadera hasta que se quajen los huevos: y luego se puede
partir en pedaços, o sacarla entera, ò como fuere menester.

Chap.2  How to make a "quajada" casserole

To make a thickened  casserole, the first step is to chop the meat very fine
with bacon, & all types of greens, & when this is done, set it on the fire,
& loosen it  very well.  And cast salt, & verjuice, or vinegar, & spices: &
after the meat is well cooked, cast it into a casserole pan with a little
fire: & if there is 2 or 3 pounds of meat, cast 4 eggs to it.  Be careful
that when you put the casserole on the fire that it is well seasoned with
salt & spices & a little broth & beat the eggs very well & cast them on top
of the meat & do not stir the eggs, but rather cover it with a lid & cast a
little bit of the fire under the casserole & on top of the lid until the
eggs set up & then you can cut it in pieces or send it out whole or whatever
does the job.

I #2 Quajada Casserole of Lamb

- -1.5 lbs of lamb shoulder roast, deboned, excess fat trimmed & minced
        (ground lamb would probably work quite well)
- -1/2 cup of salt pork, trimmed of excess fat & minced
        (either ham or bacon would work)
- -1/2 cup green onion, minced
- -1/4 cup parsley, minced
- -2 cups frozen spinach, thawed, drained & minced
- -3 Tbsp wine vinegar, or to taste
- -season to taste with:
        pepper, ginger, cinnamon, garlic
- -4 eggs, beaten

Brown the meat & drain excess fat. Add greens & cook 5 minutes, until
they;re wilted.  Season to taste with spices & vinegar.  Put into a ceramic
casserole dish.  Pour beaten eggs on top.  Bake 25 -35 minites at 325 degrees.

Cap. XI  Como se ha de hazer carnero lampreado.

Para hazer este guisado se ha de tomar el carnero del lomo, ò pierna, y
echar lo a cozer, sazonandolo del sal; y desque estuviere medio cozido, se
ha de quitar del caldo, y ponerlo en una tabla para q(ue) se escurra del
caldo, y luego se ha de tostar en unas parrillas, y ponerlo en una caçuela,
ò olla: y tomara unas especias y despues de majadas, desatallas con el vino,
ò vinagre, y esta(n)do desatado, se ha de echar encima del carnero, y no se
le ha de echar mas caldo de quanto cubra el carnero; y a quatro libras,
medio quartillo de miel, y un quarteron de açucar, y este açucar ha se de
hazer polvoraduque, para echar por encima de los platos quando se sirviere a
la mesa.  Y ad-viertese que ha de ser este guisado agredulce, con agraz, ò
vinagre.

Chap 11   How to make sweet & sour lamb

To make this dish, take lamb shoulder or leg & set it to cook, seasoning it
with salt; & when it is half cooked, remove the broth & set it on a board to
drain the broth, later toast it on some grills & set it in a cacerole or an
earthen pot:  & take some spices & then crush them, dissolving it with the
wine or vinegar, & being dissolved, cast it on top of the meat, & do not
cast more broth than covers the meat; & for 4 pounds, half a pint of honey &
a  quarter pound of sugar, & this sugar make it powdered, to cast on top of
the 2 plates when you serve it to the table.  And be warned to to make this
dish sweet & sour, with verjuice or vinegar.

I #11  Sweet & Sour Lamb

- -1 lb of lamb shoulder roast, deboned, excess fat trimmed & cut into chunks
- -2 cups of red wine
- -1/2 cup wine vinegar
- -1/4 cup honey
- -1 Tbsp olive oil
- -2 Tbsp white sugar
- -1/2 tsp each white pepper, cloves & ginger
- -salt to taste

Brown the meat in the oil & add the other ingredients.  Bring to a boil &
reduce heat to simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, til meat is tender.  Before
serving adjust the balance of sweet vs sour to taste.  Let the sauce thicken
well.  This was well received!

Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA


Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 09:48:11 -0500
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Mutton and thanks

> Mutton is a meat I would like to serve sometime but I have never been able to
> get it. ;-) Whenever I ask my butcher about he just laughs and shakes his
> head. The supermarket meat cutter's are , of course, absolutely worthless when
> it comes to 'requests'. Where does one get mutton in N. Central Pa.?
> Is it necessary to go to the livestock auction and buy it on hoof? Any
> tho'ts would be most welcome
> Ras

How about avoiding the auction, and go to a local herder and seeing if
they have any 2 year old culls? that is the age mutton is best at.[it
being the demarcartion between lamb and mutton.]
margali


Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 08:43:00 -0800
From: DUNHAM Patricia R <Patricia.R.DUNHAM at ci.eugene.or.us>
Subject: Re: SC - Lamb!!! (and kids)

Another issue with lamb...  I have a friend who once explained to me the
butcher's definition of "lamb" vs. "mutton" (over 15 or 18 months old,
or something like that) by the age of the animal...  What often gets
sold as lamb is only a few days from its "mutton" "birthday" (because,
of course, that's a larger animal)...  If you can cultivate a butcher or
grower who will sell you smaller animals at younger ages (like 8-12
months), it's a whole other ball game as far as tenderness and taste.
The lamb chops I ate at her house (only time) certainly didn't "taste
like wool".

Chimene


Date: Sat, 27 Dec 1997 16:00:54 EST
From: Mordonnade <Mordonnade at aol.com>
Subject: SC - cooking lamb

I have served a few lamb stews, made up of ingredients I had on the spot, at
encampments, and all were delicious, and well received.  But the most
successful lamb dish I have served was simply grilled over an open fire,
rubbed well with garlic, salt, and pepper.


Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 23:24:57 +0000
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - cooking lamb

My favorite recipe for lamb is shashlyk (AKA shish kebab)

2 pounds of lamb, cut into cubes, and marinated overnight in the
following mixture:

2 cups pomegranate juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf, crushed
1 teaspoon crushed thyme
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Grill on skewers.

(I usually increase the garlic, and I have also used this
successfully with beef.)

Pomegranate juice is available in East European and Middle Eastern
grocery stores.  It is tart, though not as sour as lemon juice.  I do
not know of any reasonable substitute.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom


Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 15:51:34 -0700 (MST)
From: "Jamey R. Lathrop" <jlathrop at unm.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Lamb and Goat recipe

> I've never cooked goat. If you have the time to send any recipes for goat
> or lamb, please do. I love lamb, but there are far too few recipes for it
> in my collection. This, by the way, is a request open to the rest of the
> list.
>
> Phlip

Good day to all, from Allegra Beati.  My version of the following recipe,
from Platina, has been a huge success both in the SCA and even among my
very non-SCA family.

The recipe calls for kid, but I remember seeing something in my studies of
humoural theory in period that lamb is an acceptable substitute for kid.
Boneless leg of lamb is easily obtained in Albuquerque, NM (I get mine at
Costco, the price varying a little throughout the year), and I use that in
this version. Obtaining the baby goat is a problem (unless you want to
order the entire 35-pound critter).  I've heard rumors of goat being
traditional to some hispanic festivals here in the Rio Grande Valley, but
I'm unaware of the time of year these festivals take place and which
markets are most likely to carry goat.  It's a shame-- I love both goat
and lamb!

I'm sorry that I can only give you the recipe as translated-- I cook like
the recipes read.  I'm not a "measuring" cook by any means, although since
starting a cookery group here, I've been making a habit of writing down
procedures and quantities for future reference (and future cooks!)  I
suppose that means I'll have to make this dish again soon....

Making the leg of lamb in advance for a camping event is quite simple-- I
wrap the cooked roast in foil, seal-a-meal it, and stick it in the
freezer.  I also put the cooked juices in a plastic container, and freeze
them as well.  At the event, I allow time for the frozen lamb to thaw, and
then slice it and warm it in a covered dutch oven with the saved juices.

Although I don't have a copy here, I've always used the general
temperature and timetable instructions for lamb as given in _The Joy of
Cooking_.

From _De Honesta Voluptate_, by Platina (Mallinckrodt edition):

        KID IN GARLIC

Grease a whole kid or the fourth part of one, with lard and cleaned garlic
cloves; put it on a spit and turn it near the fire.  Baste it often with
sprigs of bay leaf or rosemary and the sauce which I am about to describe.
Take verjuice and the rich juice of the meat, the yolks of two eggs well
beaten, two cloves of garlic well pounded, a dash of saffron and a little
pepper and mix this all together and pour it into a dish.  With this (as I
said), you baste what you are cooking.  When it is cooked, put it into a
dish and pour part of the sauce over it and sprinkle with finely chopped
parsley.  This food, when it is well cooked, should be served quickly and
not let cool.


Date: Wed, 07 Jan 98 18:37:34 PST
From: "Alderton, Philippa" <phlip at morganco.net>
Subject: [none]

Lord Ras,

I want to thank you for the goat recipe you sent me. the one that starts
with "Two goats, boned, meat cubed". I used it as a base for the dish I
served at the 12th Night Potluck we had, though with some extensive
modifications.
For one thing, I used a leg of lamb since the nearest market I'm aware of
that sells goat is a four hour drive away, and I suspect my neighbors would
not take it kindly if I borrowed one of theirs. I also cut it down
considerably, since I was serving 10-15, not 150.
A friend told me that goat, which I have yet to try, tastes much like lamb
but is leaner and tougher, so this is what I did.

1 4 lb leg of lamb, deboned and cut into cubes
lamb fat, rendered, with olive oil
3 medium onions, chopped
1/4 bunch coriander, chopped
cumin to taste
salt to taste (none)
ground black pepper
cider vinegar

I sauteed the onions in the oil and lamb fat, then moved them into a glass
baking casserole since I knew I'd have to reheat in a microwave when I got
there-1 hour drive. Added and browned the meat cubes then put everything in
the casserole, covered it, and cooked until the meat was tender, stirring
to mix occasionally. Towards the end, I tasted and it was missing some
thing, so I added a bit of cinnamon. That was it! I drove it down the road,
reheated, separated the food from the sauce, mixed yogurt into the sauce,
and served it on the side with good bhort-grain rice. Very little came
back, so I must have done something right. I'm sure it isn't period, but I
think it was at least peri-oid. Anybody have any suggestions for how I
might make it even better? Though it was pretty good as is.

phlip at morganco.net


Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 21:04:19 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: SC - Tharid-A Redaction

OK, folks! Here is my latest attempt at a period recipe.

Source:
A COLLECTION OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE COOKBOOKS; 6th ed.; 1993, vol. II.
An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century (A translation by
Charles Perry of the Arabic edition of Ambrosio Huici Miranda with the
assistance of an English translation by Elise Fleming, Stephen Bloch, Habib
ibn al-Andalusi and Janet Hinof the Spanish translation by Ambrosio Miranda.
Copyright 1992 by Charles Perry).

Tharid that the People of Ifriqiyya (Tunisia) Call Fatir

It is of the best of their dishes. Among them this fatir is made with fat
chicken, while others make it with the meat of a fat lamb. Take whatever of
the two you have on hand, clean and cut up. Put it in the pot with salt,
onion, pepper, coriander seed and oil, and cook it until it is done; then take
out the meat from the pot and let the broth remain, and add to it both
clarified and fresh butter, and fry (or boil) it. Then fabricate crumbs of a
fatir that have been prepared from well-made layered thin flatbread cooked in
a tajine with sourdough, and repeatedly moisten the dish [evidently, the dish
in which the crumbs are] until it's right.. Then spread on it the meat of that
chicken, after frying it in the pan with fresh oil or butter and dot it with
egg yolks, olives and chopped almonds; sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve
it.

Redaction:

Copyright 1998 L.J. Spencer, Jr.

2 lbs. lamb leg sirloin, cut in bite-size pieces
1 tsp. salt
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 tsp coaresly ground black pepper
1 tablespoons ground coriander seed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon clarified butter
2 whole sourdough pitas, reduced to fine crumbs
Cinnamon
The yolk from 2 hard boiled eggs, crumbled
1 small can (2 0z.) black olives, sliced

Brown the meat on all sides in hot olive oil. Add onions, salt, pepper and
coriander. Reduce heat to medium. Cover; continue cooking until the onions are
tender. Remove meat with a slotted spoon and put in the oven on warm while
making cakes.

To make cakes: Add both butters to broth and stir until melted. Add broth in
pan to crumbs a little at a time until you are able to form 2 to 2 1/2 inch
medallions that hold together. Divide into 8 parts. Form each part into a
flattened pattie shape. Brown on both sides in olive oil.

To serve: Arrange medallions on a serving plate. Pour meat mixture over all.
Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Sprinkle egg yolks and black olives over
all.
- ---------------------------------------------------

So there you have it folks. Comments and suggestions are welcome. I served
this with "persian milk" (e.g. unflavored yogurt) as a condiment; sliced
fresh cucumbers and steamed spinach. All in all I tho't it was very tasty.

Ras


Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 13:45:49 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - lamb recipe

> Once upon a time we had a cooking workshop (this was in the days when we
> wondered how practical 'field cooking' was. In my Backyard, over an open
> fire, I prepared the following recipe (with changes as noted)
>
> Take one camel. (I couldn't find anywhere to take it from, so I skipped
> that bit. Plus we were feeding 20 people, all of whom were cooking
> something. It seemed like overkill.)
>
> Take one sheep   (which I did. without the neck opened. The butcher
> kindly got me one like that)
>
> Stick it in the camel (No camel. Well, what can you do)
>
> Take some ducks, geese, or chickens. (I got some chickens, and a buch of
> bits as well.)
>
> Put capons or quail in them. (quail went into chickens, ducks got capons
> filled with chicken breast)
>
> fill the rest with rice, pistachios, sultanas, figs and some other nut (I
> forget. I partially cooked the rice first)
>
> Put it on a spit over the fire, and cook it.
>
> What was amazing was that over about 8 hours, we ate nearly all the lamb,
> all the quails and most of the rest. It was really good.
>
> Unfortuantely I don't have any documentation.

I'm glad to see that somebody has actually tried this.  Here's your
documentation.  The following appears in the 13th-century Arabo-
Andalusian _Manuscrito Anonimo_, and is reprinted in Cariadoc's
Collection, volume II:

Roast Calf, which was made for the Sayyid Abu-L-'Ala in Ceuta

Take a young, plump ram, skinned and cleaned; open it deeply between
the thighs and carefully take out all the entrails that are in its
belly.  Then put in the interior a stuffed goose and into its belly a
stuffed hen and in the belly of the hen a stuffed pigeon and in the
belly of the pigeon a stuffed thrush and in the belly of this a small
bird, stuffed or fried, all this stuffed and sprinkled with the sauce
described for stuffing; sew up this opening and place the ram in a hot
tannur  and leave it until it is browned and ready; sprinkle it with
that sauce and then place it in the body cavity of a calf which has
been prepared clean; sew it up and place it in the hot tannur  and
leave it until it is done and browned; then take it out and present
it.

                                        mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu


Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 21:05:09 -0800 (PST)
From: "Cassandra L. Baldassano" <cassie at nas.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: SC - Roast Meats & Dry spice rubs

> cassie at sally.nas.nasa.gov writes:
>
> << I used an Andalusian recipe (13th or 14th century) for a feast two years
>  ago,  where a spice & herb mixture was basted onto a roast using egg yolks.
>  Euriol of Lothian
>   >>
> Great! :-) And the recipe is?
> Ras

Sorry to take so long to reply to this, but I had to hunt down
the recipe it has been over a year since I used it.

From An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century , translated by
Charles Perry.

Recipe for the Roast of Kings

Take half a lamb with its breast, sprinkle it with three dirham of pepper and
as much of caraway, three spoonfuls of water and a stalk of fennel, two
spoonfuls of oil and as much of murri, some Chinese cinnamon, some rubbed
thyme, four beaten eggs and sufficient salt. Put the lid on the pot and send
it to the oven, and when it is done and browned, present it and it has an
extremely good aroma.

For a serving of 8.

2 lbs. Boneless Leg of lamb
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. caraway
1/3 stalk of fennel
1 Tbs. water
2 tsp. oil
2 tsp. murri
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 egg

Combine all ingredients except for meat and baste meat with mixture. Roast in
covered pan (350 F), basting every 15 minutes until the lamb is cooked .

A recipe for murri is provided in Miscelleny, by Cariadoc and Elizabeth. I
omitted the salt in the final recipe for murri is a sauce saturated with salt.
If you are not inclined to make the murri, substitute 1 tsp. of salt for the
murri.

Euriol of Lothian
- --
Cassandra Baldassano                   cassie at nas.nasa.gov


Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 10:20:19 -0400
From: Marilyn Traber <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - An OOP scone recipe

Lamb Margali
Take 1 leg of lamb. Mix a marinade of 1 cup each white wine, olive oil, lemon juice and cider vinegar mixed with 3 tb mint leaves, 1 ts each oregano and cracked black pepper.

Take a branch of fresh rosemary and 3 or 4 bulbs of garlic turned into slivers. Poke the rosemary leaves and garlic slivers into the lamb, soak down with the marinade and let soak overnight[flip the lamb a few times to marinade well on all sides.] Remove from the marinade, reserve. 

Grill and occasionally baste with the marinade and put rosemary on
the coals to make an aromatic smoke now and then. 

Let rest 15 minutes and carve.

margali


Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 20:17:01 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - So I added Beer . . .

At 1:06 PM -0500 9/22/98, Shari Burnham wrote:
>...My questions are this:  does anyone have any
>documentation on beer being added to soup or potage as flavoring?  If
>so, what types?  I have heard of using beer OOP for things like brats,
>fish, etc, but don't know about in period.
>
>Lady Elisabeth, giving new meaning to the nickname Elisabreath (I like
>strong dark beer-not too wonderful for the breath)

And since I don't think anyone ever answered it:

Stwed Mutton
Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books p. 72

Take faire Mutton that hath ben roste, or elles Capons, or suche other
flessh, and mynce it faire; put hit into a possenet, or elles bitwen ii
siluer disshes; caste thereto faire parcely, And oynons small mynced; then
caste there-to wyn, and a litull vynegre or vergeous, pouder of peper,
Canel, salt and saffron, and lete it stue on  the faire coles, And  then
serue hit forthe; if he have no wyne ne vynegre, take Ale, Mustard, and A
quantite of vergeous, and do  this in  the stede of vyne or vinegre. [end
of original; thorns replaced by th]

Wine Version
1 1/2 lb boned lamb     2 T vinegar     1 t salt
1/4 c parsley   1 t pepper      3 threads saffron
2 medium onions (1 1/4 lb)      1/2 t cinnamon  about 1/2 c water
3/4 c wine

Beer Version
Substitute 1 c dark beer and 1/2 t ground mustard for the wine. Substitute
4 T of verjuice for the vinegar if you have it.

Roast the lamb (before boning) at 350° for about 1 hour, then chop it into
bite sized pieces. Chop onions fine. Combine all ingredients (and the
juices from roasting the lamb) in a covered stew pot; use enough water so
that there is just enough liquid to boil the meat in. Simmer it about 1/2
hour and serve it forth. It is good over rice.

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook


Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 10:20:16 -0500
From: "Nick Sasso" <Njs at mccalla.com>
Subject: Lamb marinade/recipe (was SC - meat and seafood marinades)

Here is a Lamb recipe that  I recommend.  It is not for whole lamb, but
braised pieces.  It could also be done with a roast, but I cannot predict the
results.  Do not overcook as this can get tough and tasteless.  Serve medium
at most.  My redaction follows the original text.

Monchalet
(The Forme of Cury, A Roll of Ancient English Cookery, c. 1390)

XVI.   Take veel or muton and smite it to gobets. See? it [in] gode broth.
Cast ?to erbes  yhewe1 gode wyne. And a qntite of Onyons mynced.  Powdo fort
and Safron. And ayle it w ayren and vions.  But lat not see? aft.

3# Mutton or lamb, cubed 2 cups table wine (red)
1 gallon stock or water 
1/2 c. minced onion
1 tbl dried herbs (e.g. thyme, rosemary, hyssop) 
1 tsp. powder fort
pinch saffron (4 threads) 
2 eggs

Braise the mutton/lamb in the stock and herbs.  After 15-20 minutes, add
onion and wine.  Let continue to braise till done.  Add powder fort and
saffron.  When ready to serve, add to beaten eggs slowly and stir vigorously
so as to prevent scrambled eggs.  Serve forth

niccolo difrancesco


Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 16:59:58 -0500
From: Jean Holtom <Snowfire at mail.snet.net>
Subject: SC - Re: Welsh Recipe

Thought you might enjoy this recipe.  I am assured that it is a very old and
good dish.

Elysant

Welsh Lamb Pie

1 1/2 lb. neck lamb
Teaspoon finely chopped parsley
Small bunch young carrots
pepper and salt
Short crust

Bone the meat and cut into small pieces, clean and cut carrots into thin
rounds, put layer in the bottom of the dish, then meat, parsley and pepper
and salt. Repeat until all is used; cover with water, 2 inches from top.
Cover with pastry and brush over with milk.  Bake two hours in moderate oven.

Boil the bones, one onion, pepper and salt 1 1/2 hours, and when the pie is
ready strain and pour into the pie.  Serve hot or cold.


Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 19:36:46 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - all of Pennsic?

Helen wrote:
> You are the BEST, Cariadoc!  Thanks tons for the info.  Just saw a whole lamb 
> at my indian store.... 23 lbs for $64... hmmmmmm

Not to belabor the obvious here, but I just happen to have had a chat
with Countess  Brekke Franksdottir this very day on the A(s)P(urchased)
weight of lambs versus E(dible)P(ortion). If I caught the details
correctly, Brekke was cooking a feast for the Coronation of one Sir
Cariadoc of the Bow, and learned the hard way that the EP of a small
lamb is somewhat under 50% of the total weight AP. She guesses more like 35%.

Something to consider: asking the butcher to estimate, roughly, the
amount of actual meat on a lamb weighing X pounds, when calculating what
or how much to purchase.

Adamantius


Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 02:38:33 -0400
From: Marilyn Traber <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - all of Pennsic?

Helen wrote:
> good idea, will research that.  I think you are right.  Only the legs really
> had meat.  They said they feed 25 from it.

Sidebar, having raised lambs and eaten said critters[especially the one named
lambchop...] I can say that from a lamb that dresses to 23 lbs you will at best be getting a less than 1 year old, rather than a 2 year old, so each leg will dress out to about one of the little half-football sized rolled leg of lam roasts you see for exhorbitant amounts of money in a grocery store. at best you will be able to feed 16 with little odd bits left over that if combined with the bones, assorted aromatics are best put in the bottom of a couscouserie to simmer into a rich lamb 'sauce' for the couscous.

Not that they aren’t tasty that young mind you, just ummmm, dainty.
margali


Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 02:31:12 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: SC - =?iso-8859-1?Q?Lamb=B4s_head?=

>>(And, it does have a sheep´s head recipe.)
>
>I just found it, and it looks good, but is it period? If we can find one
>that is period, I'd likely do that myself unless someone else REALLY wants
>to do it, but I want ALL the things we do with the lamb to be as done in
>period, and I don't mean borderline-up-to-1650.

I haven´t found any pre-1600 recipe (although I seem to remember having seen
at least one a long time ago, can´t remember where). A mention of a Roman
sheep´s head roasted with apples and with peaches marinated in Albanian
spirits, yes - but not an actual recipe. Quite a few 18th century recipes.

The traditional Icelandic and Norwegian method - certainly pre-1600 - is to
drive a stake into the head and hold it over an open fire to burn the wool
off, then scrape the skin with a knife. (This used to be a job for us kids
back on the farm, from the age of six onwards.) This is repeated until all
the wool has burned off and the skin is blackened. Then you split the head
in two and remove the brain, and wash the head in cold running water,
scraping it with a knife until the skin is brown and clean. Then the head is
boiled for an hour or so (or until meat begins to come off the bone) and
served hot or cold. In the 18th century and perhaps earlier, the head was
sometimes dipped in melted butter when cooked, then breaded and grilled.
This was done all over Scandinavia but I´m not sure how old that method is.

We serve the head with the eyeballs intact, and yes, we eat them. And until
maybe a few years ago, particular care was always taken to leave the ears
intact. There was a special reason for this. The ears of young lambs are cut
with special markings - every sheep farmer has his own distinct set of
markings and by looking at the ears of a sheep, you can instantly see whom
it belongs to (or look it up in a printed book if you don´t recognize the
markings). This has been done for hundreds of years. And if sheep´s heads
were served, or found in a farm kitchen, with the ears cut off, the farmer
and his wife were instantly suspected of having stolen the sheep and removed
the ears to hide the evidence. So, everybody served the heads with the ears
intact so that the markings would show that the animal indeed belonged to
them. This custom has survived, even though most people now buy their heads
in a supermarket and have no idea whom the markings on its ears belong to.

I am currently searching for old sheep´s head recipes and will let you know
if I find any pre-1600.

Nanna


Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 07:58:56 -0600 (MDT)
From: grasse at mscd.edu
Subject: SC - SC- Re: Lambs heads

Last night I checked "Ein New Kochbuch" (Are you sick of my Rumpolt yet?)
He does have a section on Lamb (and a separate section on mutton and a
separate section (in the game chapter of the cookbook) on Turkish sheep (I
am thinking maybe fat tail sheep?)

The first 9+ lamb recipes are for the head.  I hope to have some time this
evening to rough translate a few of them, and then perhaps tomorrow
afternoon I can throw them on the website. (I have totally reorganized the
site, please let me know what you think.)  If you have some specific
preferences as to what you do or don't want in a recipe let me know, so I
can try to pick one that fits your needs, as I won't have time to do them
all tonight.

And yes, this is pre-1600; 1581 specifically.

Gwen Cat
Caerthe, Outlands
http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/Welcome.html


Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 21:59:11 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Lamb recipe

This is the only Spanish recipe for lamb that I have come across.  It is
from the "Arte de Cozina" (1599) and is from the chapter on foods for
invalids.  The translation is mine.

Para hazer potaje de turmas de cordero, y de ternera de leche -- To
make pottage of the testicles of lamb, and of the suckling calf

Take the testicles of the lamb, or of the calf, recently dead, and remove
the sack, and cut them raw crosswise in slices, and put them in a little
casserole or pot, in which there is melted capon fat, not very hot, and
fry them little by little, stirring them, and when they have shrunk, and
are somewhat solid, add a little broth of capon or veal which is not very
salty, and a little cinnamon and saffron, and make it boil, and then put
in the materials of the previous chapter.

note:  the previous recipe is for a pottage made from the feet of calves,
kids, or chickens.  I don't feel like translatig the whole thing.  Here's the
relevant part: "...add the fruit of white hawthorn, or whole sour grapes,
without skin or seeds, with a few chopped herbs, and in the winter, in
place of whole sour grapes, verjuice, and if you wish to incorporate or
coagulate the broth, do it with the beaten yolks of fresh eggs."

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 22:09:36 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Lamb recipe

harper at idt.net writes:
<< This is the only Spanish recipe for lamb that I have come across.  >>

I don't know what you are defining as Spanish but a The Andalusian Cookbook
contains not a few recipes for sheep of varying ages.

Ras


Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 23:50:18 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Lamb recipe

And it came to pass on 27 May 99,, that LrdRas at aol.com wrote:

[quoting me]
> << This is the only Spanish recipe for lamb that I have come across.  >>
>
> I don't know what you are defining as Spanish

I was referring to the 15th-16th century Spanish cookbooks that I am
familiar with.  They contain many recipes for "carnero" (mutton), but I
could only find one that specified "cordero" (lamb).

> but a The Andalusian Cookbook contains not a few recipes for sheep of varying ages.

Looking at my copy, I see that this is so.  I know nothing about Arabic,
so perhaps HG Cariadoc or some other wise gentle could comment on
the terminology used in the original.  Is it specific as to the age of the
beast?  If so, then I then have to wonder: what changed (culinarily
speaking) between the Islamic period and the Christian era in Spain?

Brighid


Date: Tue, 01 Jun 1999 05:47:42 -0400
From: Marilyn Traber <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Lamb

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> << sheepz are lambs until they turn 2 then they are muttons...
>  margali >>
> So when are they ever sheep??
> Phillipa (a city girl)

Well, ovidae are like bovidae, every life stage and sex has a name, though they
are all sheep and cows, you just use different terms to mean different things,
sort of like a feline is a kitten for 1 year then they are a cat. My vet says
that other than foodservice, which is another can of worms entirely,
historically spring lamb is only able to be called spring lamb from birth
through weaning, then it becomes regular lamb, until it is 1 year old. Stock
lamb is from 1 year to 2 years, when it gets bred and becomes an ewe.  Ewe
following all this? Rams are lambs for the same 2 years until they get bold
enough to start challenging for the right to breed and accomplish it. I find
that stock lambs are the best eating given size and flavor, a but of muttony
taste without being overpowering, but it is also why more people don't like
lamb and coonsider it too strong tasting[but if you sneak in a really lovely
spring lamb either as a spit roast or in a good soup, you can sometimes change
their minds] and i find a good marinade will augment the mutton taste can be
made with [and keep it a secret, it's my own recipe] 1 cup each cider vinegar,
lemon juice and olive oil, mixed with an ungodly amount of dried mint[an entire
McCormics bottle, or about 1/2 cup dry measure] 2 tbsp coarsely cracked black
pepper, 2 tbsp greek oregano, 1 bay leaf and 1 stick of cinnamon, steeped for a
week and filtered. Stud the lamb to be cooked with rosemary leaves and slivers
of garlic and let sit for at least 4 hours in the marinade, and when spit
roasting toss the stems from the rosemary and peelings from the lemon onto the
fire to smoke the roast.

margali


Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 21:40:25 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - OT - stuffed camel

Helen wrote:
>>Then she gives a recipe for Quozi mahshi - a whole lamb
>
>I would love to see this recipe!

Quozi mahshi - Stuffed Roast Lamb
(from Traditional Arabic Cooking by Miriam Al Hashimi)

Serves 25

20-25 lb (10-12 kg) lamb
8 tbps lemon juice
8 cloves garlic, crushed
10 cups long-grain rice
4 large onions, finely chopped
1 cup almonds or cashews
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 cup pine nuts
4 tbps baharat
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp saffron threads
1/2 cup rose water (optional)
8 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup oil
salt

Rub the cleaned lamb with 3 tbps baharat, 2 tsp turmeric, garlic, lemon
juice, salt and 1/2 cup oil. Cover and leave overnight to marinate. Soak the
saffron in rose water for 10 minutes. Wash and drain the rice. To make the
stuffing, sauté the onions in the remaining oil. Add 1 tbsp baharat, salt
and the rice for a further 2 minutes. Add the water and bring to the boil,
stirring occasionally. Blanch the almonds to remove the skins. Add the nuts
and saffron rose water. Cover thigthly and leave to stand until the liquid
has been absorbed. Stuff the cavity of the lamb with the rice filling. Sew
up the opening with strong thread. Grill over charcoal for 5-7 hours, or
roast in a moderate oven until tender, basting occasionally with marinade.
The lamb may be covered to prevent dryness. Serve the lamb on a large tray
or platter, surrounded with the rice stuffing. (Traditionally the succulent
meat is served by pulling off pieces, but it can equally well be carved.)

*baharat - Arab spice blend, can vary very widely. The one recommended in
the book has 6 tbsps black peppercorns, 3 tbsps coriander seeds, 3 tbsps
cinnamon or cassia, 3 tbsps cloves, 4 tbsps cumin, 2 tsps cardamom, 3 tbsps
nutmeg, 6 tbsps paprika - all ground or grated, then mixed well and stored
in an airtight container.

Claudia Roden also has a recipe in her A Book of Middle Eastern Food but
that is a smaller lamb (or goat) - it is rubbed with onion juice, coriander
and ginger, and stuffed with rice, onions, saffron, almonds,
pistachio nuts, walnuts, and raisins - this one is roasted in the oven for
about 2 hours, or barbecued.

And - I had overlooked this - maybe here is the origin of the stuffed camel
stories - Roden says: "The lamb can also be boned before it is stuffed. I
have seen baby lambs served at weddings, made to look like miniature camels,
their boneless backs shaped into a hump."

Nanna


Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 23:44:29 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - OT - stuffed camel

Phlip wrote:
>Whether Ras does or not, Nanna, I do. Can you tell from the recipe if it's
>like our head cheese?

No, because I don´t know what your head cheese is like. It is not that much
like Icelandic head cheese because that is just head, water and salt, boiled
until the bones can be slipped out easily, then chopped roughly and pressed.
Here is the Arabian one:

Ras kharouf

1 sheep´s head, split and skinned
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 carrot, diced
4 celery stalks, chopped
4 cardamoms, cracked
4 bay leaves
6 peppercorns
2 loomi, pierced twice
salt and pepper

Crack the skinned skull lenghtwise with a cleaver and soak in several
changes of salted water. Cover the head and the remaining ingredients with
water and boil for 1 1/2 -2 hours. Remove any scum as it forms. Remove the
head and reserve the strained stock. Remove the bones and slice the meat. To
serve cold in a mould, boil some peas and carrots in salted water until
tender. Drain and add chopped pickles. Layer the bottom of a cake mould with
half the meat, vegetables and the remaining meat. Cover with stock from
boiling the head. Refrigerate until the gel sets. Turn out onto a serving
dish.

(From Traditional Arabic Cooking by Miriam Al Hashimi)

Nanna


Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 10:06:27 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Sauce recipe for Lamb Shanks

Fra Niccolo wrote:
> A good cameline suace should do you well.  You can find recipes for same in Pleyn Delite, The Medieval Kitchen, and, I believe, the miscellany.  I'll post my own version this evening at home, if needed or wanted.

Taillevent recommends salt, cameline, or just verjuice for roast mutton.
I've been looking for possibilities for boiled mutton (I'm assuming you
won't roast your lamb shanks, although I guess you could, if it were
done right) but so far nothing in the early early period sources I've checked.

On the other hand, you might also do well with bukkenade, which can be
made from veal, kid, or chicken. One version of it is basically the
broth you cooked the meat in, minced  onions, herbs, egg yolks to
thicken, and a bit of verjuice or vinegar and salt. Good stuff. I may be
able to post a recipe later.

Adamantius


Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 23:27:28 -0600
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Marwick Arts Exhibition

At 10:36 PM -0500 11/8/99, Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
>The recipe was redacted and cooked by Lady Andrea MacIntyre.  Her
>handout says that she got the English translation of the original recipe
>(Tuffahiyya) from the Miscellany.  However, the recipe she quotes in her
>handout is from the Andalusian cookbook, and is not the Andalusian
>Tuffahiyya with Eggplants that appears in the Miscellany.  I think it is
>instead from Cariadoc's cookbook collection... but it must be from a
>different edition than the one I have.   She does not give detailed
>measurements for her redaction.  The handout says that she simmered
>the cut-up lamb in an iron pot with two cups of water and the spices
>until tender.  She then transferred it to an earthenware dish, added
>sugar, musk, camphor, rosewater, and the apples.  It was baked for 30
>minutes in an oven with a baking stone which had been preheated to
>350F and then turned down to 300 F.

Tuffâhiyya, a Dish Made With Apples

Take meat as mentioned in the recipe for safarjaliyya and prepare the
same way; then add tart apples, peeled and cleaned, as many as
needed... [Huici Miranda estimates 4 words missing] and when you take
it to the hearthstone, put in a little sugar, and cut with musk and
camphor dissolved in good rose water. The acidity is most efficacious
in lightening and strengthening the heart and it can be made with the
flesh of birds, such as fat hens or young squabs of the domestic dove
or stock-dove and then it will be finer and better.

This sounds closer to what you describe than any other Tuffâhiyya in
the Andalusian.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 03:32:01 EST
From: Mordonna22 at aol.com
Subject: SC - For submission to the Chronus Draconum

From Mordonna’s Kitchen

Tuffahiya
From al-Baghdadi, "A Baghdad Cookery Book" (1226 A.D./623 A.H.) A.J.
Arberry,translator, Islamic Culture, 1939, As found in Duke Sir Cariadoc's
Collection copyright 1992 by David Friedman

Tuffahiya
al-Baghdadi p. 37/5
Take fat meat and cut into small strips: throw into the saucepan with a
little salt and dry coriander, and boil until almost cooked. Remove and throw
away the scum. Cut up onions small and throw in, with cinnamon-bark, pepper,
mastic and ginger ground fine, and a few sprigs of mint. Take sour apples,
remove the pips, and pound in a stone mortar, squeezing out the juice: put in
on top of the meat. Peel almonds and soak in water, then throw in. Kindle the
fire under it, until the whole is done: then leave over the fire to settle.
If desired, add a chicken, cutting it into quarters, and letting it cook with
the meat. Then remove.

My adaptation;
2 lb. lamb’s tail,
1 frying chicken,
2 c. water,
1 t. salt,
2 large onions,
2 tsp dry coriander,
1 tsp each ground cinnamon, black pepper, and ginger,
1 pinch mastic,
3 or 4 sprigs fresh mint,
8 large "Granny Smith" apples,
1/2 cup almonds.

Put almonds on to soak in an equal amount of water.  Core apples, and place
in a blender with a little water and blend until the consistency of
applesauce (this will take several batches) or use a food processor.  Place
cheesecloth over a bowl and allow apples to drain while completing the rest
of the dish.  Cut lamb into thin strips and quarter the chicken.  Dice the
onions, and add the onions and the meats to the water with the spices and
mint, cover, and boil until very tender (about 30 to 45 minutes depending
upon how thinly you have sliced the meat.)  Skim off the scum and remove the
chicken quarters to serve separately.  Add the apples and the drained almonds
and cook another 5 to 10 minutes uncovered.  Serve hot with a salad and fresh bread.

 Note on the SCA-Cooks e-mail list:  This list is for anyone interested in
medieval cooking: recipes, techniques, and ingredients.  To subscribe, send
e-mail to Majordomo at Ansteorra.Org with the words Subscribe SCA-Cooks as the body of the message.

Mordonna the Cook is head cook for House Warrior Haven.  She is from late
sixteenth century Ireland and can read and write.  She has studied all the
great chefs of history.  She is a widow.  She is the alter ego of Anne
Francoise DuBosc, an early 14th century French noblewoman who can neither
read nor write, and who has never learned to cook.  Both are loyal subjects
of the Barony of SunDragon, Kingdom of Atenveldt.
Pat Griffin is a customer service tech for Conair Corporation, an avid cook,
and has been n the Society for over three years and four Estrellas.
All three can be reached at Mordonna22 at aol.com


Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 10:29:14 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - For submission to the Chronus Draconum

Seton1355 at aol.com writes:
<< Do you HAVE to use lamb's
 tail or can you substitute another cut of meat?  The recipe looks real yummy.
 Philllipa >>

My take on the recipe is that 'fat meat' is used, most likely mutton or goat
would be a good substitute for the tails and chicken in the version that was
posted. Al-Baghdadi usually specifies fat tails as a source for fat instead
of meat and oftentimes clearly indicates that 'meat or chicken' can be used.
This recipe appears to not specify tails and gives no indication of poultry
use.

However, because of my continued interest in this manuscript, I immediately
tested Mordonna's version and it was very tasty and worked well. Given a lack
of 'fat tails' I used fatty lamb for that part of her redaction. :-)

Ras


Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 15:33:19 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - For submission to the Chronus Draconum

Mordonna22 at aol.com wrote:
> I have not tried another cut of meat.  However, "meat" in Andalusian recipes
> is almost always lamb or mutton.  The lamb's tail was available, and
> certainly fatty enough.

Another possibility in a place where some of these lamb cuts don't often
make it to, such as Phillipa's PA, or my NY, might be breast of lamb,
which is fatty enough, and if you don't mind the bones, which lamb's
tail would have anyway, you can have the butcher slice across the bones
into, say, half-inch strips, as is done for beef flanken.

Adamantius


Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 22:53:55 -0500
From: "Richard Kappler II" <rkappler at home.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Glazed Lamb with garlic and rosemary

For all who asked:

Haedus in Alio (glazed Leg of Lamb (or kid) with Garlic and Rosemary
Pleyn Delit 102 (Platina 6)

Grease a kid or a quarter of one with lard and cleaned garlic cloves; put it
on a spit and turn it by the fire.  Baste it often with sprigs of bay or
rosemary and the sauce I shall now describe.  Take verjuice and the juice of
the meat, the yolks of two eggs well beaten, two cloves of garlic well
pounded, a pinch of saffron and a little pepper, and mix this and pour into
a dish.  With this (as I said) you baste what you are cooking.  When it is
done, put it in a dish and pour some of the sauce over it and sprinkle with
finely chopped parsley.

cooking notes:
Since the verjuice I ordered a couple of weeks ago is not yet in, and I had
much else going on, plus other recipes to redact, I just cooked the roast
exactly as Hieatt et al redacted in Pleyn Delit.  Basically what you do is
set the oven at 450, coat the roast with olive oil (lightly), rub with a
clove of garlic and put it in the oven.  Ten minutes later, reduce heat to
325.  With mortar and pestle, powder 1/2 tsp rosemary, 1/4 tsp black pepper
and a goodly pinch of saffron.  Once this is well powdered, add two garlic
cloves and make it into a paste, then add two well beaten egg yolks and
juice of 1/2 a lemon.  About 35 minutes after the lamb went into the oven,
take it out, add drippings to your sauce, mix well, paint the lamb with the
glaze, throw it back in the oven.  Repeat every 15 minutes, adding drippings
to sauce before basting/painting, until lamb reaches an internal temp of
150.  At this point, turn the oven off, but leave the roast in until ready
to serve.  When you take the roast out, add all the drippings to your sauce,
mix well, pour over roast, sprinkle with parsley, slice and serve.  YUMMY!

regards, Puck


Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 21:10:31 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Recipe: Sweet and Sour Lamb

Tonight's dinner was from _Libro de Guisados_.  

It was pretty good, though I can see several things I'd do differently next time.

Source: Ruperto de Nola, _Libro de Guisados_ (Spanish, 1529)
Translation: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

ADOBADO DE CARNERO -- Pickled Mutton

You must take breasts of mutton; and cook them in a pot with your salt ; and when it is almost half cooked, remove it from the pot, and cut them to pieces the size of two fingers; and then gently fry it with bacon fat; and then take honey and all spices, and put it in a little pot, and take hard bread grated and cast it inside of that honey and the spices; and let there be a greater quantity of cinnamon than the other spices; and the take the best broth of the pot and cast it inside; and then the fat which shall be necessary, according to the quantity of the bread and the meat; then cast in a good cup of white vinegar because the sauce of this pottage is desired to be sweet and sour; and cook all this: and while it boils cast in the meat with a little saffron, because this sauce is desired to be deep in color; then prepare dishes of the said pottage, and upon them cinnamon, however you should cast in pears; and quinces which should be cut and have first been brought to a boil; and set them on the meat.

Redaction comments:

I'm not going to post a formal recipe, because this is still a work in progress. 
 
The only lamb breast I could find in my local supermarket was a 1-1/2 pound package with the rib bones still attached.  Looking at the recipe, it seems to expect 1-inch cubes of boneless meat.  Would getting boneless leg work for next time?  I can get that at a reasonable price.

I put the lamb in salted water that just covered it, and simmered until half-cooked, about 20 minutes.  I assume thicker meat would require a longer time.  Meanwhile, I rendered the fat from a strip of bacon in a frying pan.  I removed the lamb from the pot, reserving the liquid, and cut the ribs apart.  I fried the meat in the bacon fat over medium-low heat until well-cooked (half an hour?).In a separate pot, I heated the sauce.  I kept adjusting the quantities, but what I ended with was:

3 cups lamb broth
1/4 cup honey
2 TBS white vinegar
6 TBS dried plain breadcrumbs
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
salt and pepper to taste

I brought the sauce to a simmer, then added the lamb ribs and a pinch of saffron.  For reasons of personal health and aesthetics, I did not add more fat to the sauce.  I let it cook while I fixed the side dishes (plain white rice and asparagus), until the saffron had released its color, the sauce was thick, and the meat tender.  I cheated and garnished the meat with canned pears (juice-packed, drained, and rinsed).  Verdict: easy and tasty.  Because I wound up diluting the sauce with more broth to get the flavor balance right, I had much more sauce than I needed for such a small amount of meat.  That quantity of sauce would be enough to accompany 2 pounds of meat cubes.

Although bacon fat is the traditional fat used for meat-days, it does not lend a noticeable taste to this dish, and on other occasions I might use lard or oil if it seemed convenient. Next time I would definitely prefer boneless meat with less fat attached.  Will substituting leg of lamb for the breast meat work?  I believe I have used boneless leg for stew-type dishes in the past.

Also, does anyone know if crumb-thickened sauces can be successfully refrigerated and reheated?  If so, this strikes me as a good candidate for a cook-in-advance dish.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 23:30:13 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Recipe: Sweet and Sour Lamb

harper at idt.net writes:
<< Next time I would definitely prefer boneless meat with less fat attached.  Will  substituting leg of lamb for the breast meat work?  I believe I have used boneless leg for stew-type dishes in the past. >>

If you cut along each side of the ribs along the bone and then cut the strips into 1 inch lengths, I think this recipe would work well and be close to the original intention. Nice bite sized chunks are created this way and from the cooking description would be tender and tasty. The extra sauce sounds like it would be good for soaking bread in or as a 'dipping' sauce for bread chunks. 

Nice work. Looking forward to your perfected recipe although I saved this one to my personal files. :-)

Ras


Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 21:07:45 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Recipe: Sweet and Sour Lamb

Tonight I made the lamb again, with the changes I had contemplated, 
and was very pleased with the results.  Here goes:

Source: Ruperto de Nola, _Libro de Guisados_ (Spanish, 1529)
Translation & redaction: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

ADOBADO DE CARNERO -- Marinated Mutton

You must take breasts of mutton; and cook them in a pot with your salt; 
and when it is almost half cooked, remove it from the pot, and cut them 
to pieces the size of two fingers; and then gently fry it with bacon fat; 
and then take honey and all spices, and put it in a little pot, and take 
hard bread grated and cast it inside of that honey and the spices; and 
let there be a greater quantity of cinnamon than the other spices; and 
the take the best broth of the pot and cast it inside; and then the fat 
which shall be necessary, according to the quantity of the bread and the 
meat; then cast in a good cup of white vinegar because the sauce of 
this pottage is desired to be sweet-sour; and cook all this: and while it 
boils cast in the meat with a little saffron, because this sauce is desired 
to be deep in color; then prepare dishes of the said pottage, and upon 
them cinnamon, however you should cast in pears; and quinces which 
should be cut and have first been brought to a boil; and set them on the 
meat.

Sweet and Sour Lamb (ADOBADO DE CARNERO)

2-1/2 pounds lamb breast, excess fat trimmed
2 TBS bacon fat
1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
2 TBS + 2 tsp. honey
4 tsp white wine vinegar
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch saffron
salt and pepper to taste
sliced pears canned in juice, drained (or fresh pears, poached until 
tender)

Put the lamb in a large pot and just cover with salted water.   Simmer 
until half-cooked, about 15-20 minutes.  Remove the lamb from the pot, 
reserving the broth.  Cut the ribs apart into inch-thick pieces.  Heat the 
bacon fat in a large skillet.  Add the lamb and slowly fry over medium-
low heat until well-cooked, about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, set aside 2 
cups of the lamb broth and steep the saffron in it.

In a large pot, combine the bread crumbs, honey, spices, broth, and 
vinegar.  Mix well.  Bring to a boil, stirring to prevent lumps.  Reduce 
heat to medium-low.  Place the lamb in the sauce and simmer gently 
until the meat is very tender and the spice flavors have blended together.
Serve, garnished with pears.

Notes:  This time, I bought my meat at a local ethnic grocery, and the 
pieces of lamb breast were closer to chops than ribs.  It's not clear to 
me from the original recipe if the meat is meant to be boneless or not.  I 
think this would work with any cut of lamb, as long as the meat was 
given enough time to cook to tenderness.  I intend to try it sometime 
with cubes of boneless leg.  Mutton is hard to come by in this area -- 
those who have access to it might try it.

The bacon fat could be replaced by oil, if desired.

I decreased the amount of sauce from 3 cups to 2, but there was still 
plenty to go around.  I kept the same proportions, except for increasing 
the spices.  Changing over to white wine vinegar made a noticeable 
improvement in the flavor -- the sourness was subtler and less harsh.  

I forgot to buy pears for garnishing, but it was tasty anyway.  I loved the 
sauce, and would happily make this dish again.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 18:32:48 EST
From: allilyn at juno.com
Subject: Re: SC - Competition entry

On Tue, 14 Mar 2000 10:09:07 -0600 "Debra Hense" <DHense at ifmc.org>
writes:
>Almost a year ago I entered a cooking competition - with a lamb stew 
>dish from Menagier.  I cut up the lamb into bite-sized chunks and 
>cooked and then served the dish.  I didn't 'stew' the dish until the 
>lamb was in stringing shreds.  I was marked down by the judges because 
>it wasn't shredded - "as that is how lamb and mutton are supposed to 
>be served. " Her words - not mine.   I know its being picky, but this 
>was the only area where my marks were lowered.  And it has bothered me 
>ever since.  
>
>I disagreed then, and I disagree now that all mutton and lamb when 
>served in a sauce or stew/soup must be cooked to mushy strings.  IMO, 
>the chunks had a nice texture and were extremely tender and tasty. 
>
>Am I wrong about this?  Has lamb and mutton always been cooked to 
>mush? Or, is this a case where modern tastes and preferences of the 
>judge are taking precedence over what was medieval?  
>
>Kateryn de Develyn
>nickiandme at worldnet.att.net

Since I have _The Medieval Kitchen_ open before me in order to answer a
different post, here are some lamb comments from it:

Recipes for lamb shoulder roasts on the spit, cooked until most of the
fat is released, then stuck with parsley, served with verjuice.

Recipe 40.  Haricot of Lamb.                     from the Menagier.
Cut it into small pieces, then boil it for a moment, and fry it in lard,
and fry with it some onions finely cut up and cooked, and moisten with
beef broth, and add mace, parsely, hyssop, and sage, and boil it
together.  (Certainly does not imply 'mush' or 'strings')
Their comment: "So what is the meaning of these terms--'hericot',
'haricot', or even 'hericoq'--found in the titles of a whole series of
medieval recipes for lamb or mutton stew?  The most common theory is that
'haricot' is derived from the verb 'aricoter'--to cut into little
pieces--which is apt for a stew made with small chunks of meat."

41.  Lamb 'Ausoerre'.       from the Menagier.
Cut the mutton into pieces, then wash it and cook it in water, then crush
parsley and bread, and strain, and put it into a pot with spices.

42. 'Sardamone': Lamb Saute.     Libro della cucina del secolo XIV
Take flesh of mutton, from the breast; cut it small and boil it well; and
when it is boiled so that it no longer has a high odor, remove the water
and fry the meat with pork fat; then add enough of that water so that
little remains of the broth; and when this is cooked, add coriander and
chopped carrots, with spices and sufficient saffron.  If you have no
coriander, add cumin; and eat it.

Here are 3 examples from one book that prove you right, Kateryn.  Let's
hope the judging Laurel has continued to learn, too.

This last recipe, calling for the carrots and the coriander leaves (as
the authors suggest it does) is beginning to look a lot like stew, isn't
it?

Regards,
Allison,     allilyn at juno.com


Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 22:16:26 -0400
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: SC - Lamb recipe and vegetable stew recipe request

Monchalet serves 6-8
(The Forme of Cury, A Roll of Ancient English Cookery, c. 1390)

XVI.   Take veel or muton and smite it to gobets. See˛ it _ gode broth.  Cast ˛to erbes  yhewe * gode wyne. And a qntite of Onyons mynced.  Powdo fort and Safron. And ayle it w ayren and vions.  But lat not see˛ aft.


3# Mutton or lamb, cubed	
1 cup table wine (full red)
3 c. stock or water	
2 c. minced onion
1 tsp. dried herbs (2 tsp fresh)(e.g. thyme, rosemary, hyssop)	
1 Tbl.  powder forte**
5-6  saffron threads(1/8 tsp)	
1 egg, beaten

Braise the mutton/lamb in the stock and herbs.  After 20-25 minutes, add onion and wine.  Let continue to braise till done.  Add powder fort and saffron.  When ready to serve, add to it beaten egg slowly and stir vigorously so as to prevent scrambled eggs.  Serve forth

* Shredded

** Powder forte is a spice mixture mentioned in various period recipes I have not yet been able to find exactly what spices. I use a mixture containing, by weight: 1 part cloves, 1 part mace, 1 part cubebs, 7 parts cinnamon, 7 parts ginger, and 7 parts pepper, all ground, as created by David Friedman in Cariadoc's Miscellany, 1992.

Lamb will not be as strong a flavor as mutton, but as we have discussed here before, modern lamb may be older than that of some Middle Ages times periods/cultures, so could be a useful substitute.

niccolo difrancesco


Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 03:29:26 EDT
From: CBlackwill at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Venison recipe request

Just take a boneless lamb leg roast, brown it off in butter, throw in some 
onions, parsnips and turnips, some beef stock, fresh rosemary and garlic, and 
then chuck in a can of Guinness Stout.  Done. Best Lamb dish you'll ever 
have, guaranteed (and periodoid, too, if I am not mistaken)

Balthazar of Blackmoor


Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 20:26:12 -0400
From: "Alderton, Philippa" <phlip at morganco.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Easter Dinner

Laurene skrev:
>so I
>bought the first "Leg of Lamb" that I have ever bought, and we are having
>this for Easter dinner tonight.  I just put it on the stove in my deep Cast
>Iron pot (like a Dutch Oven only with a handle, I don't know what it is
>really called)

If it's what I'm thinking of, it's usually called a chicken fryer- it allows
you to cook fried chicken deeper in the oil than a standard frying pan does,
and, being cast iron, helps retain the heat so you get fewer temperature
variations. One of the tricks to fried chicken is keeping it and the oil
hot, so it doesn't get greasy.

>and put a skillet over the top for a lid because the roast
>stuck up too high for the regular lid.
>    I looked in all the recipe books for Leg Of Lamb recipes and all of
>them called for wine.  I don't have any wine, and the stores are all closed
>today.

The wine is used to cut the fat a bit.

 >I didn't have any grape juice either.  Or apple juice.  And I
>thought that much Huckleberry Vinegar would be WAY too strong, not to
>mention expensive.  So... I used Orange Juice (thinking the flavor of lamb
>is kinda strong like duck, so maybe the orange would work with mutton just
>as well).

Actually, the problem many folks have with lamb or mutton, is that the
flavor is not so much strong, as different, just as beef and venison are
different from pork.

> I don't kow if they had oranges at the time of Christ in Israel,
>but ... well, I wasn't real confident in using plain water so I used the
>juice.

Good choice, if untraditional.

>he spices I added were Fennel, Mint, Fenugreek, and little White
>Pepper.  And salt.  Hope I didn't ruin the lamb!!!  Now I will let it cook
>a few hours and see how it turns out.  Probably have dinner about 5 or 6
>tonight.

Leg of Lamb, if you got reasonably decent lamb, is actually a meat at its
best when roasted, rather than boiled or braised. Unless it's badly
over-cooked, it is a very tender, lovely roast meat. The reason that many
folks have a problem with it, as near as I've been able to figure, is that
they over-cook it, or have only had it over-cooked, into shoe-leather. This
also tends to burn the fat, which also makes its distinct flavor stronger,
with definite overtones of burned ;-)

However, if I've read your intentions right, you have managed to cook it in
such a manner, that it will be very good, if not at its best- the reason
being, that while you'll be over-cooking it, you're also replacing the lost
moisture, so you shouldn't be winding up with over-priced shoe-leather.

The traditional spices/herbs to be used with lamb are mint, garlic, and
rosemary, and to truly be at its best, it should be cooked about medium
rare. Obviously, not everyone likes medium rare meat, and again, the flavor
of lamb is different, rather than strong. One of the tricks I've used for
ameliorating the lamb taste for those who aren't fans of it, is to remove
all surface fat, and replacing it with bacon, so that it stays moist, but
with a more familiar flavor- I also do the same sort of thing with venison
and pheasant.

Don't mistake, btw, the flavor of lamb, with that of mutton- the flavor of
mutton, being the mature animal, is much stronger than lamb, just as a well-
aged beef-steak is much stronger than a veal steak.

I've been looking at a number of modern cookbooks in the past few years, and
almost all of them seem to show lamb to be cooked to 170 degrees internal
temperature, which is well-done for pork and beef, Since lamb is very
delicate, this is, in my opinion, rather extreme over-cooking, thus lots of
people hate that tough, burned, chewy stuff that they've been taught was
lamb. The same thing happens with liver, another delicate meat, which,
again, is at its best when delicately sauteed, rather than cooked until
totally juiceless.

My suggested recipe for cooking lamb follows- this is done, more or less, in
the French tradition, and provides you with a delicate, juicy, tender meat-
again, if you're one of those who wants all your meat well-done, this will
not be to your taste.

Roast Lamb

Leg of lamb
Whole garlic cloves
Rosemary
Mint sauce

Take leg of lamb, and cut slits in the fat. Split garlic cloves in half or
quarters, and insert in the slits. Shake rosemary leaves over all. Place in
oven for 15 minutes or so, at high heat, to seal the roast, then reduce temp
to 325 or thereabouts. Cook until done to medium rare, or perhaps
(barbarian!) to medium. Remove from oven, and let rest. Carve, and serve
with a mint sauce on the side- mint jelly works, but I don't like the extra
sugar.

Now, I'm specifying whole garlic cloves because I don't want you using
garlic powder or (shudder) garlic salt. Garlic powder doesn't get the flavor
into more than the surface, garlic salt dries the meat out. I'm saying split
them because if you insert them whole, again, the garlic flavor does not get
into the meat, but I'm suggesting either halved or quaretered, but no
amounts, because different people like differing amounts of garlic in any
dish. I have my preferred amounts, but I know other's tastes are different-
I'll use a whole head. I will suggest that you use a bit more than you
usually might.

The whole rosemary being sprinkled on top allows just a hint of rosemary
flavor to add itself to the dish, with little bits of rosemary on the
surface of your slices, for a mini-burst of flavor.

Phlip

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio


Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 15:41:09 EDT
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - From His Grace Cariadoc  ::::::]A ROAST OF MEAT                  

Your Grace,
Can you tell me please, why you have to cook the lamb seperately from the 
onions & garbanzos.  It would seem to me that the juices from the meat would 
give the other stuff such a lovely flavor that you couldn't really get by 
putting the meat in at the end.
thank you
Phillipa

A ROAST OF MEAT                 

(Western Islamic, 13th c. Andalusian p. A-38.)
>From Cariadoc's Miscellany. Copyright © by David Friedman, 1988,  1990, 1992
    
Roast salted, well-marbled meat [cut up] like fingertips, and put in a pot 
spices, onion, salt, oil and soaked garbanzos. Cook until done and add the 
roast meat; cover the contents of the pot with cilantro and sprinkle with 
pepper and cinnamon; and if you add whole pine nuts or walnuts in place of 
garbanzos, it will be good.
    
1 1/2 lb lamb or beef
2 15 oz cans chickpeas
3 small onions = 3/4 lb
1 t salt
spices:
    1/4 t cumin
    1/2 t coriander
    1/2 t cinnamon
    1/4 t black pepper
3 T olive oil
1/4 c green coriander, pressed down
1/8 t more pepper
1/4 t more cinnamon
    
Note: an earlier recipe in the same book calls for spices and then specifies 
which ones: "all the spices, pepper, cinnamon, dried coriander and cumin."
    

Roast meat and cut into about 1/4" by 1/2" pieces. 
Slice onions.
Put chickpeas, onion, spices, salt and oil in a pot and cook over moderate 
heat, stirring, for 10 minutes, turning down the heat toward the end as 
it gets dry; 
Add meat and cook one minute, 
Add green coriander and cook another minute, and turn off heat. 
Sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon
Serve     


Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 16:32:09 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - From His Grace Cariadoc  ::::::]A ROAST OF MEAT

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> Can you tell me please, why you have to cook the lamb seperately from the
> onions & garbanzos.  It would seem to me that the juices from the meat would
> give the other stuff such a lovely flavor that you couldn't really get by
> putting the meat in at the end.
> thank you
> Phillipa

Probably because if you follow the directions and use soaked, dry
chickpeas, the meat would disintegrate by the time the chickpeas were
done. Even if you soak them, dried chickpeas take a fairly substantial
cooking time, probably a minimum of 90 minutes in most cases. And when
the mutton is cut into 3/4 inch dice, well, it cooks pretty quickly.
There are some recipes that call for fresh legumes straight from the
pod, and these cook more quickly, but this recipe doesn't appear to call
for them. 

Of course, there's nothing to stop you from adding any juices that
accumulate in your meat pan, and for serious yummers, this is probably
one of those dishes that responds very well indeed to reheating the next
day. There'd be some loss of that fresh coriander flavor and texture,
but the blending of the flavors would probably compensate.

Adamantius


Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 16:19:03 -0400
From: Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com>
Subject: SC - Lamb Technique and Notes

On Fri, 20 Oct 2000 10:48:45 -0400 "Philippa Alderton"
<phlip at morganco.net> writes:
> Those of you who attended my butchering class, could you send me at:
> phlip at morganco.net, the recipes you used on the various parts of the
lamb? Also, anybody  else with some good lamb recipes, preferably period,
please send them along.
> Thanks,
> Phlip

Ok, this was not so much a recipe as a technique.  It comes from Digby,
page 171, and is called "An Excellent Way of Making Mutton Steaks".

AN EXCELLENT WAY OF MAKING MUTTON STEAKS
 Cut a Rack of Mutton into tender Steaks, Rib by Rib, and beat the flesh
well with the back of a Knife.  Then have a composition ready, made of
Crumbs of stale Manchet grated small, and a little Salt (a fit proportion
to Salt the meat) and a less quantity of White-pepper.  Cover over on
both sides all the flesh with this, pretty thick, pressing it on with
your fingers and flat Knife, to make it lie on.  Then lay the Steaks upon
a Gridiron over a very quick fire (for herein consisteth the well doing)
and when the fire hath pierced in a little on the one side, turn the
other, before any juyce drop down through the Powder.  This turning the
steaks will make the juyce run back the other way; and before it run
through, and drop through this side, you must turn again the other side;
doing so till the Steaks be broiled enough.  Thus you keep all the juyce
in them, so that when you go to eat them (which must be presently, as
they are taken from the fire) abundance of juyce runneth out as soon as
your Knife entereth into the flesh. The same Person, that doth this,
rosteth a Capon so as to keep all its juyce in it.  The mystery of it is
in turning it so quick, that nothing can drop down.  This maketh it the
longer in rosting.  But when you cut it up, the juyce runneth out, as out
of a juycie leg of Mutton; and it is excellent meat. 


Notes:
I did this pretty much exactly as written.  I beat small cutlets (I made
them small because we were serving this at the Cook's dinner, and I
wanted several portions), and coated them with breadcrumbs, salt, and
white pepper.  I then put the cutlets on my gas grill, and turned them as
soon as I saw any juice start to appear on the outside of the meat. 
There was no juice drippage that I saw, and the steaks did come out very
juicy.  
	I took the racks (without the meat) and grilled them until they were
cooked through, and cut the ribs apart for hungry carnivores.  I think I
threw some salt, pepper, and rosemary on them before they went on the
grill.  
	I made a sausage (with the help of Ras' sausage grinder) from someone
else's Spanish cookbook, maybe "A Drizzle of Honey" (?), and stuffed it
into the caul, which I then roasted in my Coleman oven.  It was fabulous,
but I don't remember the recipe, and I know I didn't follow the one in
the book religiously.  (So sue me!)

Christianna


Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 00:28:40 +0100
From: TG <gloning at Mailer.Uni-Marburg.DE>
Subject: SC - Lamb recipes

There are two lamb recipes in the cookbook of Sabina Welser (ca. 1553).
I guess they would be a real challenge ... see Valoise Armstrong's
translation at:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html
# 153 To prepare an Easter lamb 
# 154 A lamb of another sort
(The German text is online, too.)

Thomas


Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000 21:37:55 -0400
From: "Philippa Alderton" <phlip at morganco.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Lamb recipes

Thomas skrev:
>There are two lamb recipes in the cookbook of Sabina Welser (ca. >1553).
>I guess they would be a real challenge ... see Valoise Armstrong's
>translation at:
>http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html
># 153 To prepare an Easter lamb
># 154 A lamb of another sort
>(The German text is online, too.)

Oooooh, Thomas, I like them!!!!!

Questions (I'm posting the recipes below) :

1. Basting it with eggs. Would we be basting it for a few minutes, in order
to get a roasted/baked crust, or are we instructed to merely put the eggs on
it while hot, then letting the eggs dry as the lamb cools? Would either
method work as either a crust or a base for the (presumably) chilled butter?
(Figuring spring house, likely in early spring when it's cooler, and the
lambs are no more that 40 lbs, live. Valoise- was there any indication of
their sizes or ages,in the text, other than Easter, which arrives on the
first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox?).

2. Is anybody aware of the technique of straining the butter in another
context? I would assume we're talking a fairly coarse cloth here- was there
a standard in period? Would a modern fine mesh strainer work?

3. What is May butter? Is that a special name for a butter with more or less
fat than usual? Or would they have deliberately aged the butter for the
better part of a year from the last May? (My reasoning on this being that
Easter usually shows up well before May),

4. Are we talking all yolk or all white omelettes here?

5. I only count three colors, white, yellow, and red/brown. Did I miss
something?

6. I'm assuming you place these on the lamb in a patchwork?

7. What is Strauben batter, yellow or otherwise? And what kind of cinnamon
sticks are they using? The ones I'm familiar with would be rather large for
the application, unless you cut sliver off. Is this Cassia, or true
Cinnamon?

8. I'm having trouble visualising this. It's starting to look like the lamb
is wearing Joseph's coat of many colors, with serious warbles.......

9. Where does the cooked meat go?

10.  Valoise, Thomas: What is the word that you translated as ugly? Is that
perhaps a colloquialism for something more accurately descriptive?

Nice translation, Valoise- thanks. I think, despite my questions, I might
try this on a couple of rabbits, not only in preperation for spring lambing,
but because I really don't think I could eat an entire lamb of whatever size
in any reasonable amount of time. I'm sure Stubby and the cats would be
willing to help, but dog and cat food are expensive enough ;-)

153 To prepare an Easter lamb

Take the lamb and draw off the skin and leave him the ears and the feet and
the tail , cover with a wet cloth, so that the hair does not burn. Roast the
whole lamb in this manner in the oven on a board. And if you would like for
it to be standing, then stick a spit into each leg. When it is almost
roasted, then baste it with eggs (1, Phlip) and take it out. Let it cool,
take a cloth that is three spans long, fill it full of butter and bind it up
and press it through with a stick. (2, Phlip) It gets crinkled like real
wool, then take it and make wool out of it for the lamb. Stand it then on a
nice board. Make a fence out of butter around it, in the manner which
follows. [17]

[Note 17- See recipe 53

53 To make a fence out of butter

Take butter or May butter (3, Phlip) and sugar, knead it in, so that it
becomes sweet, and then take an icing bag and fence it around. The fence
posts that go with it, make from cinnamon sticks. Also there belongs inside
the fence, roasted fish or whatever you have that is good. ]

154 A lamb of another sort

Make it exactly as the preceding description, cover it, however, with a
multicolored covering. It is made like so: Take eggs, put the whites
separate from the yolks, beat the eggs, put some salt into it and sugar,
take a pan, put pure fat into it, let it become hot, pour the fat completely
out of the pan, put the egg white into it, let it run here and there around
the pan, hold it over the fire, not too long, however, only until it begins
to quiver. Afterward hold the pan on the fire, until it becomes dry, and
hold it not too near, so that it remains white, and make in this way as many
pancakes as you wish. Do not make them too thick, not thicker than a thin
cloth. (4, Phlip) Afterwards make the yellow ones exactly like this, put
saffron in the egg yolks. Brown is made precisely so, take cherry jam
strained through with the eggs and make pancakes out of it. So you have four
colors,  (5, Phlip) cover the lamb with them and cut the colors according to
the length, as wide as you would like. (6, Phlip)After that take cinnamon
sticks, make small nails out of them, push them with the thick end into
Strauben batter,  (7, Phlip) which should be yellow and fry them in fat,
then they have buttons. If you would like, you can gild or silver them. Then
take hard-cooked eggs and cut them open at the end, take the fried cinnamon
sticks, stick them through the tips of the eggs and fasten the colors in the
fashion on the lamb. (8, Phlip)And color half the eggs yellow and leave the
others white. Make a fence from good spices around the lamb, put the lamb on
the board. After that take smoked meat, that is very red, cook it and cut
off the outside. Chop it very small, then take eggs, cook them hard, cut
them apart, the white from the yellow, chop each by itself, and when the
lamb is ready, then put the white on one side of the board and the yellow on
the opposite side, in one place or the other lay the whole hard-cooked eggs
on it and also the pancakes, also if you have it or want it, honey. (9,
Phlip)This lamb is better for eating than that described earlier. When the
meat is prepared in this way, it does not become ugly (10, Phlip)and
everything is edible except the board.

Phlip

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio


Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 16:01:12 -0500
From: Diana L Skaggs <upsxdls_osu at ionet.net>
Subject: SC - Lamb recipes

> Also, anybody else
>with some good lamb recipes, preferably period, please send them along.
>
>Phlip

My favorite recipe for lamb, especially the leg or larger cuts:Rub all over with olive oil, cut small slits all over the meat and insertslivers of garlic (you can use whole cloves, but I like smaller bits), thensprinkle with dried oregano and/or basil.  I then roasted the meat bypre-heating the oven to 425 degrees, putting the meat in on a roasting rackand turning down the heat to 350 degrees after 15 minutes.  I also triedenclosing the meat in foil and baking, but I didn't like the results aswell.  It was also great done this way on the grill using chops.  

Leanna


Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 12:49:40 -0800
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: SC - fleece cleaning

Olwen enquires:
>Speaking of sheep...and on food topic...I have a lamb leg quarter to
> prepare for household 12th night on the 30th.  Anyone have a good recipe?

Poke slits in the lamb with a knife, insert cloves of garlic cut in half
lengthwise, and equal-sized chunks of candied ginger.  Marinate and
baste with cheap nasty red jug wine, nothing you'd drink, you want the
extra acid content for tenderizing.  Roast until done, usual way.  We
have served this at the last several large feasts we've done and it's
always a hit.

Selene


Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 06:54:41 -0600
From: Diana L Skaggs <upsxdls_osu at ionet.net>
Subject: Re: SC - leg of lamb recipe

>So what is your recipe? Leg of lamb appears to be one of the expensive
>cuts of meat, but it sounds like it might be good.

I pierce the leg at intervals and insert slivers of garlic.  Then rub all
over with olive oil and rub in basil, salt and pepper.  Preheat the oven to
425 degrees. Put the lamb on a roasting rack - one of the wire-looking
kind. Bake for 20 minutes then turn the oven down to 350 and continue to
bake to desired doneness.  I usually end up baking mine an addition 1 1/2
hours.  DO NOT overcook lamb.  It gets nasty when it's cooked too long.

Liadan


Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 12:23:04 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb breast
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Vicente wrote:
>>>
The local independent grocery store is selling lamb breasts at a 
ridiculously low price ($0.99 per pound!!!)  Now, I love lamb, but 
I've never really dealt with this part of the critter before. I've 
seen recipes for stuffed lamb breast; how do I carve and seve it? 
How many people can a reasonably-sized lamb breast serve?  Should I 
just barbecue the darn thing like pork spareribs?

Anybody got any favorite recipes?
<<<

There are some recipes for lamb breast in the anonymous Andalusian cookbook.
-------
Roast Lamb Breast [literally, "flank"]

Pound a ratl of meat in a stone mortar and add the same amount of 
cut-up fat, a little onion and both cilantro and coriander and cheese 
...[word illegible because of a worm hole, Huici Miranda writes; 
probably an adjective describing the cheese such as "fresh"]... and 
almonds, a large handful of shelled and pounded walnuts, and some 
murri naqî' to moderate its taste; add to it Chinese cinnamon, 
pepper, ginger and pound all this with the meat until it is mixed, 
and knead it until uniform. Then take a breast of plump ram and 
cleave it between the ribs and the meat, and fill it with the 
stuffing; then sew it up with gut or palm leaves and smear the breast 
with oil and dust it with ground starch. Hang it in a tannur and shut 
it, and when it is ready, take it out and present it: it is a good 
roast.

Another Kind of Lamb Breast

Get the breast of a plump lamb, pierce it between the meat and the 
ribs, so that the hand and fingers can fit in; then get a large 
handful each of peeled almonds and hazelnuts, and a dirham each of 
Chinese cinnamon, lavender, cloves, saffron and pepper, and a little 
salt; pound all this and mix it with breadcrumbs and knead it with 
oil, and knead until it thickens and can be used as a stuffing. When 
it is stuffed, sew up the breast with clean gut and hang it in a 
tannur, and set under it an earthen pot into which what melts from 
the breast can drip, and when it is done take it out.

Another Extraordinarily Good Lamb Breast

Take the breast of a plump lamb and cook it in vinegar until it is 
done, then take it out and leave it to dry. Then take a wide frying 
pan and pour in fresh oil, juice of cilantro, mint, thyme and a 
whole, cleaned onion; when its flavor is discernible, take it out of 
the oil and put in the lamb, which should be fried until the sides 
are browned. Then sprinkle with murri naqî', sprinkle with cinnamon 
and cut it up. You might do it in the oven [instead].
-------

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 06:30:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pennsic pot luck
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Brighid ni Chiarain said:
>I was there.  I brought the sweet and sour lamb dish.  

And the recipe for this dish is...?
Stefan
----------------------------------

Adobado de Carnero
http://breadbaker.tripod.com/meat.html
Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 18:02:57 -0500 (EST)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Lamb with QuincesRe: [Sca-cooks] Menu help! Pretty please.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>> We tried both the Mukhallah and the Lamb with Quinces last night. The Lamb
>> with Quinces (supposed to go together in the Moorish course-- ick. Ick. I
>> don't know what we did wrong but... ick. So that's out.
>
> OK, let's start at the beginning. What does the original say, and what > did
> you do? What about it was ICK!  ? It just might be that a misunderstanding
> on your part may have caused the difficulty.

Hm.. well, first let me point out that, when we tried the Mukhallah, we
agreed that we couldn't put any acidic dish in the same course, and the
lamb with quince dish is acidic. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they
are supposed to fill the same place in the order of the Islamic meal...

The original

Safarjaliyya, a Dish Made With Quinces
This is a good food for the feverish, it excites the appetite, strengthens
the stomach and prevents stomach vapors from rising to the head. Take the
flesh of a young fat lamb or calf; cut in small pieces and put in the pot
with salt, pepper, coriander seed, saffron, oil and a little water; put on
a low fire until the meat is done; then take as much as you need of
cleaned peeled quince, cut in fourths, and sharp vinegar, juice of unripe
grapes (verjuice) or of pressed quince, cook for a while and use. If you
wish, cover with eggs and it comes out like muthallath.

What we did:

Took about a pound of lamb loin chop (it was what I could get) and cut it
up, removing the bones. The lamb looked and smelled fine at that point.
We then put that lamb in a pot with a little water (maybe a quarter-inch)
and about half-teaspoon of coriander seed, a teaspoon of oil, a sprinkling
of pepper and salt, and a quarter-teaspoon of ground coriander, plus 4-5
threads of saffron.

We cooked the lamb until it seemed to be cooked through. It smelled odd.
Very mutton-y.

Then we added a quince, cut up (half of it was cut into small pieces by
mistake, the other half into eigths) and some substitute verjuice (lemon
juice and water). We cooked it, covered, for a bit.

It really started to smell like old mutton at that point, and to be
unappealing. So I added a bit of vinegar.

After the water had cooked away and it had started to caramelize, it was a
bit better, and we served it for tasting.

I think it was a waste of a good quince.

Could it have been bad lamb or something? Or what? I've never cooked lamb
before!

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net


Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 18:29:37 -0500
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: Lamb with QuincesRe: [Sca-cooks] Menu help! Pretty
	please.
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Took about a pound of lamb loin chop (it was what I could get) and cut it
> up, removing the bones. The lamb looked and smelled fine at that point.
> We then put that lamb in a pot with a little water (maybe a quarter-inch)
> and about half-teaspoon of coriander seed, a teaspoon of oil, a sprinkling
> of pepper and salt, and a quarter-teaspoon of ground coriander, plus 4-5
> threads of saffron.
>
> We cooked the lamb until it seemed to be cooked through. It smelled  
> odd. Very mutton-y.

OK, sounds to me like you have a couple of things going on here.

First, lamb loin chops are very tender and good, but not particularly if you
boil them. They're truly at their best broiled, grilled, or possibly pan
fried, but they are rather stronger flavored than other cuts. If the lamb
you had had a lot of fat on it (and loin lamb chops frequently do) that,
right there could account for a lot of the muttony taste. Secondly, I don't
know why, but Americans seem to think that lamb should be cooked to
well-done. As far as I'm concerned, you might just as well boil up an old
piece of shoe leather- it'll taste better, and likely be easier to chew ;-)
Lamb is at its best at rare to medium rare.

Instead of the loin chops, try to find some very lean lamb- easiest to find
is a leg- lately, they've been selling those boneless New Zealand legs at
Sam's and other low cost/high volume stores- that might be a better piece
for you to try.

Go light on the coriander- it's not, IMO, the best flavor match for lamb,
but just a hint would be fine.

When you cook it, don't try to cook the bejayzus out of it- just get it
heated through, and add the quince, and let it simmer until the quince is
tender..

If you're not used to lamb, it might still be a bit strong for you, but it
looks to me that on your initial try, you did everything you could to make
it stronger. Possibly adding real verjuice instead of lemon juice and/ or
vinegar- possibly a dab of real cider vinegar- might be a better choice.

Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS


Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 18:26:10 -0500
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lent, wine, indulgences, de Nola
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>Message-ID: 

> As for lamb, anyone got recipe recommendations?  Anything particularly
> springy, from pre-1550.  Most of the recipes  can think of are for
> mutton, not lamb.

Sabina Welserin, # 153 or #154, with #53:

153 To prepare an Easter lamb

Take the lamb and draw off the skin and leave him the ears and the feet and The tail , cover with a wet cloth, so that the hair does not burn. Roast the whole lamb in this manner in the oven on a board. And if you would like for  it to be standing, then stick a spit into each leg. When it is almost roasted,  then baste it with eggs and take it out. Let it cool, take a cloth that is three  pans long, fill it full of butter and bind it up and press it through with a stick. It gets crinkled like real wool, then take it and make wool out of it  for the lamb. Stand it then on a nice board. Make a fence out of butter around  it, in the manner which follows. [17]

53 To make a fence out of butter

Take butter or May butter and sugar, knead it in, so that it becomes  sweet, and then take an icing bag and fence it around. The fence posts that go  with it, make from cinnamon sticks. Also there belong inside the fence, roasted  fish or whatever you have that is good.

154 A lamb of another sort

Make it exactly as the preceding description, cover it, however, with a multicolored covering. It is made like so: Take eggs, put the whites separate from the yolks, beat the eggs, put some salt into it and sugar, take a  pan, put pure fat into it, let it become hot, pour the fat completely out of the  pan, put the egg white into it, let it run here and there around the pan, hold it over the fire, not too long, however, only until it begins to quiver.  Afterward hold the pan on the fire, until it becomes dry, and hold it not too near, so  that it remains white, and make in this way as many pancakes as you wish. Do not make them too thick, not thicker than a thin cloth. Afterwards make the  yellow ones exactly like this, put saffron in the egg yolks. Brown is made  precisely so, take cherry jam strained through with the eggs and make pancakes out of  it. So you have four colors, cover the lamb with them and cut th colors  according to the length, as wide as you would like. After that take cinnamon sticks,  make small nails out of them, push them with the thick end into Strauben  batter, which should be yellow and fry them in fat, then they have buttons. If  you wold like, you can gild or silver them. Then take hard-cooked eggs and cut  them open at the end, take the fried cinnamon sticks, stick them through the tips  of the eggs and fasten the colors in the fashion on the lamb. And color half  the eggs yellow and eave the others white. Make a fence from good spices around  the lamb, put the lamb on the board. After that take smoked meat, that is  very red, cook it and cut off the outside. Chop it very small, then take eggs,  cook them hard, cut them apart, the whie from the yellow, chop each by itself,  and when the lamb is ready, then put the white on one side of the board and the yellow on the opposite side, in one place or the other lay the whole hard-cooked  eggs on it and also the pancakes, also if you have i or want it, honey. This  lamb is better for eating than that described earlier. When the meat is  prepared in this way, it does not become ugly and everything is edible except the board.

I have every intention of doing this recipe at some point for a feast- anybody in EK who wants to cut me loose on it as part of their feast,  let me know. It's far too complicated for me to try to be Head Cook as well as  do this.

> Would rabbit be another thing to do for spring?

Well, it kinda depends. Rabbits are associated with Spring because of their fertility and the whole Easter thing. It might be a slam to some folks to associate the Easter Bunny and roast (or whatever) rabbit. If it were me, I'd do rabbit at another time of year- they're fertile year round, and easy keepers- they might also make a good dish for a hunting themed article.

> Katherine

Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS


Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 00:02:03 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Lamb (was Re: lent, wine, indulgences, de
	Nola)
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Sheep are the general animal.  Rams are adult males.  Ewes are adult
females.  Lambs are young sheep of either sex.  Mutton is the meat of 
the sheep.

According to the OED, lamb first appears in written English in 725.  That
would make the appearance Old English  (Anglo-Saxon), a derivative of Old
Teutonic.  The meaning is "young of the sheep."  A cursory examination of
the OED doesn't show any reference in cooking.

Mutton's earliest reference in the OED is 1290 and is in reference to food,
but not in a cookbook.  Since Old French dates from the 9th to the 16th
Century, earlier references are probably in Latin rather than English.
Earliest meaning is "flesh of the sheep, used as food."  The common usage is
"flesh of a mature sheep."  The OED does not precisely define the common
usage in the 13th Century.

Sheep are "ruminant animals of the genus Ovis."  The earliest written
appearance in English is 825.  It is Old English derived from Old Teutonic,
where the origin is believed to be prehistoric.

I would point out that lamb and sheep are both of Anglo-Saxon derivation,
while mutton is of Norman-French derivation.  The cookbooks we have are
written for noble households and date from after 1100, when Middle English
came into common use.  Middle English is Anglo-Norman and the use of the
word mutton rather than lamb or sheep is probably an artifact of the Norman
French of the ruling class.  It may be that mutton did not have a clearly
defined age implication at that time or it may be that lambs were too
valuable to waste as food.

Bear


> I know that lamb and mutton are different, but how much difference was
> there in period.  The word "mutton" obviously comes from French
> (Webster.com says: Middle English /motoun/, from Old French /moton/ ram
> - Date: 13th century), whereas "lamb" comes from German (Date: before
> 12th century).
>
> The word "lamb" however doesn't appear at all in Forme of Curye, Liber
> cure cocorum, A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye, or Two Fifteenth-Century
> Cookery-Books.  FoC uses only the term sheep, LCC and PNBoC use mutton
> exclusively, and except for two occurrences ("pownche of a chepe" and
> "panche of a shepe") TFCCB uses mutton everywhere else.
>
> Ok, so I guess what I'm wondering is if all the recipes for mutton in
> LCC, PNBoC, and TFCCB were intended for sheep over a year(?) old, or
> did they just not make the distinction?
>
> Also, how was the word "lamb" used in period English?  If it was in use
> in the 12th century (as asserted by webster.com) then why doesn't it
> show up in these English cookbooks up through the 16th century?
>
> Could someone with access to the OED please look up "lamb", "mutton",
> and "sheep" and see what it has to say on the matter.
>
> - Doc (who is just going to have to get an OED of his own)


Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 08:45:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Lamb
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

> Ok, so I guess what I'm wondering is if all the recipes for mutton in
> LCC, PNBoC, and TFCCB were intended for sheep over a year(?) old, or
> did they just not make the distinction?

The Italian cookbooks I work with do make a
distinction.  There is some reference to sheep
(pecorino) but that is always in relation to cheese.
Not the meat.  The meat that was eaten (as understood
from the cookbooks and menus) was castrato or castrone
(depending on dialect).  What this referred to was
castrated sheep of less than 1 year old.  Essentially
you don't keep Rams around too long, because they get
nasty and really aren't needed, after all 1 ram can
service bunches of sheep.  So you castrate them and
raise them for food.  I would have to check my copy of
Scappi to see if there is any comment made on the
preferred age of the animal, but the Italians at least
seem to be eating something more closely related to
lamb than sheep.

Helewyse


Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 20:52:45 -0500 (EST)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: P Re: [Sca-cooks] Plentyn Delit

> I made two dishes from Plentyn Delit today - for yours truly!
> The Mishmishiya - lamb in almond apricot sauce.  Came out fantastic, 
> but the way it is written no water or liquid of any kind is added for 
> the cooking process.  The lamb would have burned, so I first added 
> just a bit of olive oil (usual in moroccan cooking), to brown lamb and 
> onions with all the spices that had already been added to lamb.  
> Simmered for at least hour over med low heat and at end added the 
> ground almonds and blended apricots (as per recipe).  Mishmish is 
> apricot, by the way.

Hi Angharad!
Sounds like you had fun with this recipe. But, if you read the original
recipe carefully, you'll see that you are to cover the lamb with water
after you put the salt on. Hieatt sort of elides over that in her
redaction, saying "as directed in the original..."

I'm a traditional 'by eye' cook, and I often find that reading the
original recipe (in translation, if necessary) is a lot easier than
following someone else's modern style recipe. I wonder if it has to do
with the way people's brains work or just the way we are taught to cook?

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net


Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 17:26:04 -0500
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Liver and Lamb, for Jadwiga.
To: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>, "Cooks within the SCA"
	<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Nope, I mean mutton (and older lamb, but young lamb is ok) Even
> undercooked mutton doesn't work for me.

OK, then in that case, make sure that whatever piece you try has no fat on
it. If it needs fat, lard it or bard it with pork or beef fat- most of the
specificly "sheep" flavor is in the fat, as in most meats, and that may be
why you can't stand older lamb or mutton.

Saint Phlip,
CoD


Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 12:36:48 -0500
From: "marilyn traber 011221" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any good Lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> I was recently asked to cook feast for an event in June. The
> autocrats had requested a main dish with Lamb (with a choice of
> chicken for those who don't like lamb)  Anyway, it is have been some
> time since I have cooked lamb, and then it was a simple roast barded
> with garlic and rosemary . Anyone have any recipe they would like to
> share? The feat will have about 100-150 people.
>
>   I wasn't given any specific region or time that they wanted me to
> stick with, so it is pretty much open. As for a budget, that hasn't
> been determined yet, but I would like to give them a few choices
> (inexpensive, moderate and oh my gosh how much?)
>
>   Rosemary is out though (His Majesty is allergic to it)
>
>   -Muiriath

Two that rather run the range as far as expense would be the Bal Po Stew from
Soup for the Qan (primarily leg of lamb abd chickpeas/garbanzos. The other
would be Sabina Welserin's Easter Lamb in a fence of butter. Since it
requires an entire suckling lamb, it would tend to be pretty pricy.

The big thing you need to remember about lamb is that it's a rather delicate,
but strongly flavored (for those who aren't used to it) meat. Despite the
many US cookbooks who want you to cook it to well done, it's actually at its
best rare or medium rare. Cooking it to well done will give you strong
tasting shoe leather. Even boiling it too long in a stew wuill give you
strong tasting chewy bits.

One suggestion, as you look over recipes, is that if you cook it with bacon,
it eases the strong, lamby taste considerably, as does minimizing the fat.
I've fed lamb to people who think they don't like it (because usually their
only experience has been with strong tasting shoe leather, a la various well
meaning cafeterias) by taking loin chops, defatting and deboning them, and
wrapping them in a bacon strip, like people do with filet mignon, and
broiling or baking them.

And yes, rosemary and mint are the most common and tasty accompanying
spices for lamb (as long as you stay away from most nasty commercial mint
jellies) but many other flavors go very well with it- juniper  
berries, as an example.

Phlip


Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 11:48:36 -0800
From: "Nick Sasso" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Any good Lamb recipes?
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I have a great recipe from "Neopolitan Cuisine" (Scully) that is intended
got kid, but I substituted Lamb.  It is a braised, stewy thing that I served
over/with a starch.  Three separate thickeners, and it was spectacularly
rich and filling.  It cooks VERY well in a table top roaster in a few hours.
You can find it webbed with original text, Scully's translation, and my
version .at:

http://franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/ 
carne_de_capretto_in_tegamo_alla_fiorentina.html

I prepared it for 170 or so at an event and nothing came back.  It converted
several avowed lamb despisers as well.  The melded flavors are  
greater than the sum of its parts.

Monchalet:
http://franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/monchalet_forme_of_curye.html

niccolo difrancesco


Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 13:16:22 -0500
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any good Lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Two that rather run the range as far as expense would be the Bal Po  
> Stew from Soup for the Qan (primarily leg of lamb and chickpeas/garbanzos.  
> The other
> would be Sabina Welserin's Easter Lamb in a fence of butter. 
>
> Phlip

I have made Bal-po a couple of times, once for a feast. It turned out
very well. The hardest part about it was locating the tsaoko cardamom
that it calls for. I can send you my redaction of the recipe if that's
the kind of thing you'd like.

There are also a number of lamb stew recipes in Medieval Arab Cookery.
One that I'm fond of uses lamb with prunes and jujubes. Served over
couscous, it's not all that expensive and is tasty.

*Recipe of Marwaziyya [/marwazi/, of the **Central** **Asian** **City**
of Merv]*

**A pound and a half of meat, four ounces of prunes, half a pound of
onions, a /nsif/ and a /rub/ (three quarter, sc. of a /dirham/) of
saffron, two and a half ounces of raisins, four ounces of good wine
vinegar, an ounce of jujubes, half a bunch of green mint and /atraf
al-tib/. The fry the meat with the spices, and when the meat smells
good, put in the measure of a bowl of water, the measure of a pound and
a half. When the water boils, wash the onions after cutting them up.
Wash them in salted water and (then, in plain) water. Then put them on
that meat and leave them until the onions boil and are halfway fragrant.
Let the prunes be soaked in water. Put them in the pot, and the raisins
and jujubes after them. Then let it rest until the prunes and raisins
are fragrant. If you wish, put three ounces of sugar on it after that.
And when it boils, put vinegar on it. And when it boils much, throw in
the mint and /atraf al-tib /and let it settle.

--/Kitab Wasf al-At’ima al-Mu’tada /(The Description of Familiar Foods)
trans. Charles Perry

Redaction:

1 1/2 lbs. lamb
3 cups water
4 oz. prunes
1/2 lb. onion (2 medium)
2 1/4 grams saffron
2 1/2 oz. raisins
4 oz. red wine vinegar
1 oz. jujubes
2 tsp. mint
3 tsp. mixture of pepper, mace, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom
3 oz. sugar

    1. Soak jujubes and prunes in water to soften.
    2. Fry the meat with 1 1/2  tsp. spice mixture
    3. When browned, add water to cover and bring to a boil.
    4. Chop onion into a large dice.
    5. Add onions to meat/water mixture.
    6. When onions are halfway tender, add prunes (cut in half), raisins
       and jujubes (cut in half and seeded) and bring to a slow boil.
    7. Dissolve saffron in a little of the meat broth; add this and
       vinegar to stew.
    8. If desired, add 3 oz. sugar.
    9. Bring to a full boil and add mint and remaining spice mixture
   10. Simmer until tender.
   11. Can be served over couscous.

Kiri


Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 14:05:16 -0500
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any good Lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> it sounds great. Love Couscous too. I have heard of  but never used  
> jujubee's.  I am assuming i would have to special order them.
>
>   -Muiriath

I managed to find them at an oriental grocery store.  You might try
"googling" them.  Just be careful that you don't get the candy.  These
are usually dried, about 3/4 the size of dates, kind of reddish brown in
color, and the ones I've gotten have stones in them.  So they're a pain
in the "well anyway" to get off of the stones.  I'm planning to serve
this at an event I'm cooking in February.

Kiri


Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 20:19:53 +0100
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any good Lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Here is one I served this weekend. It is from the Liber de Coquina (prob.
Southern Italian, before 1310). The downside is that stewed lamb  
always gets tougher than roast

Lanietus - lamb in wine sauce
recipe carnes eduli vel agni vel vituli. Et incidas pro minuta frustra ad
quantitatem duorum digitorum. Postea ponas decoqui in aqua bulliente. Et
quando semel bullierit, pone ibi zucaram, partem optimi vini. Postea bonas
species trittas detemperantas cum eodem brodio intus  pone. Et quando carnes
decocte fuerint, deponas ollam de igne et ova bene batuta in scutella cumk
parvo de illo brodio infrigidato intus pone, distillando suaviter et
verberando predictum brodium cum cocleari.

Et, si velis, ova predicta potes fortiter coqui in prunis: et vitella eorum
ovorum tritta in mortario distempera cum eodem brodio et pono loco aliorum
ovorium. Talis cibus vocatur: lanietus (VII, 40)

Take flesh of kid or lamb or veal and cut it into slices, two fingers thick.
Then put it into boiling water to cook. And when it has boiled once, add
sugar and a little of the best wine. Later, add ground spices stirred with
the same broth. And when the meat is done, take the kettle off the fire and
add egg, beaten well with a little of the chilled broth, to the bowl, slowly
dripping it in from above and stirring the mentioned broth with a spoon.

And, if you want, you can also roast the aforementioned eggs in the coals.
Grind their cooked yolks in the mortar with the same broth and add it in
place of other eggs. This dish is called 'Lanietus'

While in keeping with the period and setting, this dish was a last-minute
addition occasioned by the unavailability of geese in sufficient numbers.
Lamb is not, of course, a typical winter meat even in Southern Italy.

Giano


Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 11:00:00 -0800
From: Maggie MacDonald <maggie5 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any good Lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I cooked mutton for 12th night for His Majesty (and 12-13 guests at head
table), and all we did was baste it with garlic, candied ginger, and red
wine (as the rosemary is right out).  I then deboned it and froze it.

On site it was broken apart from large masses, basted lightly with a  
little beef broth to make sure it stayed moist.

For such a simple dish it got some huge raves.

The feast was for 150, I cooked 26 chickens, 16 pork roasts, and about 2
entire sheep.  There was a bit left over, and amazingly, there wasn't much
of the mutton at all.

Maggie MacD.
Only moderately sane after doing the 12th night in Caid.


Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 10:50:55 -0800
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any good Lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

There are lots of period lamb recipes, mostly Islamic, in the
Miscellany, webbed at:

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/miscellany_pdf/Miscellany.htm

Many of them specify "meat," so are lamb recipes only in the sense
that we have done them with lamb and liked the result. We also tend
to do mutton recipes with lamb, mutton not being that readily available.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com


Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 05:18:50 -0800 (PST)
From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] mutton VS. lamb
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

David Friedman/Duke Cariadoc said:
> We also tend to do mutton recipes with lamb, mutton not being
> that readily available.
> --  
> David/Cariadoc
> www.daviddfriedman.com

Respected friend:
Unless you are buying your lamb from a slaughterhouse,
the chances are better than 95% that you aren't eating
actual lamb.

Supermarket lamb is about six months old at slaughter.
Until the 1920s or so, such meat was labeled "young
mutton". Lamb was originally  an animal under three
months old. At that age, the flavor is so mild that a
fat-free piece can't always be identified as lamb in a
taste test, even by professional chefs.

(This is one of my hobby-horses - when names stay the
same but the object they're talking about changes.
Purple carrots, anyone?

Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-
(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
Alisond de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict


Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:22:29 -0400
From: "Barbara Benson" <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb recipes?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On 4/20/06, Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs at liripipe.com> wrote:
> I just received 18 lbs of homegrown lamb stew meat, and am looking for
> some inspiration...

> What would you guys do with all this bounty?

Sticking with the German rutt that I seem to be in, here is a Lamb
Meatball in Almond Sauce recipe. It stretches the lamb, not as much as
a stew would - but it does stretch it. And somehow, when I made this
for a feast it became the Magical Meatballs being that I portioned out
the meatballs and ended up with more meatballs by weight than the
weight of the constituent components. Magic!!

For the feast (for 100) I had a meatball making party at my house and
it did not take long at all. I laid them out (raw) on sheet pans
(lined with Pam-ed Al Foil) and put them in my deep freeze. Once they
were frozen solid I transferred them to large zip top bags. I thawed
them out laid flat in their bags (each on their own tray with glasses
to seperate the trays - stacked in towers in the fridge, I would think
it would work in a cooler also) overnight and then some.

The sauce was prepared seperately on the stove and then the meatballs
par-boiled on a propane tank Turkey Fryer thingie. They were
transferred to two Turkey Roasters and then covered with the sauce.
Cooked for an extended time and basted frequently. There were no
leftovers.

Lamb Knödel
Ein New Kochbuch. Marx Rumpolt. 1581, Transcribed and translated by
Barbara Benson.

17. Lemmern Knödel macht man/ wie vorhin vnterricht geschehen vö
Kalbfleisch zu machen. Man kan sie auch zum eindämpffen abbreunen auff
einem Roßt/ mit einem gescharb/ oder in einem Pfeffer/ sie seing auf
allerley mainier gut.
Lamb meatball you will make/ as earlier instructed (chapter? Recipie?)
from Vealmeat you make. One can also steam them brown on a Rack/ with
a sauce/ or in a pepper sauce/ they are in all manners good.

43. Knödel vom Kalbfleisch zu machen/ Nim dz Kalbfleisch/ vn schneide
klein/ vnd hacks durcheinander mit einem Rindtfeißt/ wie vorhin
vermeldt ist/ vn wend u dz Fleisch klein gehact hast/ so nim mehr
dazu/ auch ein geweichten Wect/ Peffer unnd Saffran/ thu auch brey
oder vier Eyer darunter/ vun hack es durcheinander/ vn versalkl es
nicht/ Und wenn due s klein gehackt hast/ so schneidt Mandelen darein/
die klein geschnitten/ auch saubere klein Rosein/ vnd ein wenig
Zucker/ daß es ein wenig süß wirdt/ thy es alles durcheinander/ vnd
rür es mit saubern Ha:nden/ vnd wenn due s wol gerürt hast/ so mach
Knödel darauß/ rundt vnnd lenglicht/ wirff sie in ein gesotten Wasser/
laß es an die statt sieden/ thu es herauß auff ein saubers Bret/ und
nim geschnittene Mandeln/ auch klein Rosein/ Wein/ ein wenig Essig vnd
Zucker/ brenn ein wenig Mehl darein/ laß es miteinander sieden/ nim
Pfeffer vnd Saffran darzu/ vnd laß es auch dermit sieden/ so wirst
haben ein guts Mandelgescharb/ Vnd wenn du hast auffsieden lassen/ so
thu die Knödel darein and sek es auff heisse Eschen/ so bleibts warm/
biß daß due s anrichtest/ Wiltu aber haben solche Knödel/ wie du die
hast gemacht/ so leg es auff ein Roßt/ vnd breuns ab/ vnnd mach darzu
ein gutern Pfeffer mit einem Hennenschweiß/ wie es vorhin gemeldt ist/
wie man Pfeffer mache sol/ es fey süß oder saur/ seined auff beyde
manier gut. Mach auch solche Knödel/ wie du die hast gemacht/ die
abgebreunt seyn. Du magsts auch einda:mpffen mit Wacholderbeern/ oder
Pettersilgen Wurkel/ vn machs nicht saur/ sondern mit einer
Rindfleischbrüh/ vnd magst es dermit eindämpffen/ so wirt es gut vnd
woldeschmack.

Meatball made from Veal Meat/ Take Vealmeat/ and cut it small/ and
hack it altogether with Beef Fat/ as earlier stated/ and when the
flesh has been small hacked/ so take more therto/ and a grated Loaf/
Pepper and Saffron/ put also three or four Eggs therunder/ and mix it
altogether/ and oversalt it not/ And when you have hacked it well
small./ so cut Almonds therein/ the small chopped/ also clean small
Raisins/ and a little Sugar/ that will make it a little sweet/ mix it
all together/ and knead it with clean Hands/ and when you have well
kneaded/ so make meatballs thereof/ round and long/ throw them in
boiling water/ and let it there simmer/ put them out of it and onto a
clean board/ And take chopped Almonds/ also small raisins/ wine/ a
little vinegar and sugar/ brown a little Flour therein/ let it
altogether simmer/ take Pepper and Saffron thereto/ and let it also
seethe there/ so you will have a good Almond sauce/ And when you have
let them simmer/ so put the meatballs therein and set them on the hot
Ashes/ so it will stay warm/ until you will serve it/ If you want to
have another such meatball/ as you have made/ so lay it on a Rack/ and
brown it off/ and make thereto a good Pepper with some Chicken Fat/
that has been melted before/ as one (who) makes Pepper should/ be it
sweet or sour/ it is in both manners good. Make also such meatballs/
that you would have made/ the browned kind. You make also boiled with
Juniper berries/ or Parsley Roots/ and do not make it sour/ so they
are with Beef Broth/ and make it with steam/ so it will be good and
well tasting.
		
For the Sauce
1 C Ground Almonds
2 T Pureed Raisins
1/2 C Red Wine (additional 1/3 C needed)
1 1/2 t Apple Cider Vinegar
1 T Sugar
1 T Flour
1 T Olive Oil
1 t Salt
20 threads Saffron
1/2 + 1/8 t Black Pepper
1 C Water (additional 2/3 C needed)

Add olive oil to a sauce pan and heat. Add flour and whisk until it
reaches a light caramel brown. Add almonds and stir well. Add raisins
and stir well. Add 1/2  C wine and 1 C water. Stir well. Add spices and 1
t vinegar and allow to simmer. Reserve 1/3 C of wine, 1/2  t vinegar and
2/3 cup of water to thin out sauce. Keep covered on a low heat,
stirring occasionally.
			
For the Meatballs
1 lb Ground Lamb
1/4 lb Chopped Beef fat
3 oz Bread Crumbs
1/4 t Black Pepper
1 pinch Saffron
3 Beaten eggs
3/4 t Salt
3 T Ground Almonds
1/4 C Chopped Raisins
Pinch Sugar

Add saffron to beaten eggs and allow them to sit while preparing the
meat mixture. Combine lamb and fat with hands and add pepper, salt,
almonds, raisins and sugar, knead well. Add eggs and combine well. Add
bread crumbs and knead one last time until well combined. Check sauce
and add the additional liquid. Put a pot of water on to boil and form
meatballs. Each meatball should be approximately 2 1/2  oz raw. Form into
balls and then roll into egg shaped forms without the pointed ends.
Place on cookie sheet and hold in refrigeration until ready to boil.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place meatballs gently into boiling water
and boil covered for 15 minutes. Remove from water and allow to cool
on a flat surface. Check on sauce and see that it is a fairly liquid
consistency. Place meatballs in a casserole dish and pour sauce over
them all. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and place in oven. The
meatballs are tasty after 1 hour and even better after 2 hours. Check
on the meatballs during the cooking and turn them over so that the
tops do not dry out, spooning the sauce back over them is good too.
After cooking remove meatballs to a serving dish and you can add some
water to the sauce to loosen it back up. Bring it up to heat and pour
it over the meatballs just before serving.

Serena da Riva


Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:24:15 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I did a wonderful lamb stew for our Middle Eastern event:
Servings: 70

Notes: A pound and a half of meat, four ounces of prunes, half a pound
of onions, a nsif and a rub (three quarter, sc. of a dirham) of saffron,
two and a half ounces of raisins, four ounces of good wine vinegar, an
ounce of jujubes, half a bunch of green mint and atraf al-tib.  The fry
the meat with the spices, and when the meat smells good, put in the
measure of a bowl of water, the measure of a pound and a half.  When the
water boils, wash the onions after cutting them up.  Wash them in salted
water and (then, in plain) water.  Then put them on that meat and leave
them until the onions boil and are halfway fragrant.  Let the prunes be
soaked in water.  Put them in the pot, and the raisins and jujubes after
them.  Then let it rest until the prunes and raisins are fragrant.  If
you wish, put three ounces of sugar on it after that.  And when it
boils, put vinegar on it.  And when it boils much, throw in the mint and
atraf al-tib and let it settle.
                             --Kitab Wasf al-At'ima al-Mu'tada (The
Description of Familiar Foods)
                                 trans. Charles Perry

15 pounds lamb
7 1/2 quarts water
2 5/8 pounds prunes
5 pounds onion
1/16 ounce saffron
1 1/2 pounds raisin
2 1/2 pints red wine vinegar
10 ounces jujube
6 3/4 tablespoons mint
5/8 cup mixture pepper, mace, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom
3 3/4 cups sugar

1.    Soak jujubes and prunes in water to soften.
2.    Fry the meat with 1 1/2  tsp. spice mixture
3.    When browned, add water to cover and bring to a boil.
4.    Chop onion into a large dice.
5.    Add onions to meat/water mixture.
6.    When onions are halfway tender, add prunes (cut in half), raisins
and jujubes (cut in half and seeded) and bring to a slow boil.
7.    Dissolve saffron in a little of the meat broth; add this and
vinegar to stew.
8.    If desired, add 3 oz. sugar.
9.    Bring to a full boil and add mint and remaining spice mixture
10.    Simmer until tender.
11.    Can be served over couscous.

Of course, if you don't want to feed 70, you can cut it back!  The
recipe is one that I redacted from al-Baghdadi.  Jujubes are Chinese
dates and can be found in oriental markets, either dried or fresh.  If
fresh, you don't really need to soak them.

The recipe is from Description of Familiar Foods...and the name of the
recipe is Recipe of Marwaziyya [marwazi, of the Central Asian City of  
Merv].

Kiri


Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 00:07:59 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Defining lamb was lamb recipes?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Is this "lamb" by medieval terms? or is this modern mutton which  
> is  often called "lamb"?
>
> Stefan

What is the Medieval usage of "lamb" and what references prove that  
usage?

Modernly, by regulation in the U.S. and the United Kingdom (IIRC), lamb is
defined as a sheep under one year of age.  In the U.S., yearling lamb must
be labelled "young mutton" or mutton.  So, lamb and mutton are legally
defined and one can not be the other. ergo, "modern mutton" is not often
called "lamb," at least not legally.  (You might also consider that U.S.
growers can resort to growth hormones).

The term hogget is used for yearling sheep and it dates back to at least the
early 14th Century, so the one year distinction is at least that old.

If by lamb, you should mean unweaned sheep, then you are describing a
condition that lasts for six to seven months.  According to Platina, lambs
were sold while they were still sucklings.  I think this represents an
economic motivation, recouping expenses from both meat and milk rather than
letting the lambs wean naturally and losing profits, and not specific usage.

From the few references I have found, while lamb may have commonly been used
to describe unweaned sheep, it is not necessarily limited to that
definition.

So, does anyone have any evidence of how the term "lamb" was used in the
Middle Ages or Renaissance?

Bear


Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:35:49 +0200
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Am Freitag, 21. April 2006 05:08 schrieb Stefan li Rous:
> Anne-Marie asked:
> =======
> I just received 18 lbs of homegrown lamb stew meat, and am looking for
> some inspiration...

it's not exactly a stew, but I really liked this. We had it at this year's
Twelfth Night Coronation:

Lanietus - lamb in wine sauce
recipe carnes eduli vel agni vel vituli. Et incidas pro minuta frustra ad
quantitatem duorum digitorum. Postea ponas decoqui in aqua bulliente. Et
quando semel bullierit, pone ibi zucaram, partem optimi vini. Postea bonas
species trittas detemperantas cum eodem brodio intus  pone. Et quando carnes
decocte fuerint, deponas ollam de igne et ova bene batuta in scutella cumk
parvo de illo brodio infrigidato intus pone, distillando suaviter et
verberando predictum brodium cum cocleari.

Et, si velis, ova predicta potes fortiter coqui in prunis: et vitella eorum
ovorum tritta in mortario distempera cum eodem brodio et pono loco aliorum
ovorium. Talis cibus vocatur: lanietus (VII, 40)

Take flesh of kid or lamb or veal and cut it into slices, two fingers thick.
Then put it into boiling water to cook. And when it has boiled once, add
sugar and a little of the best wine. Later, add ground spices stirred with
the same broth. And when the meat is done, take the kettle off the fire and
add egg, beaten well with a little of the chilled broth, to the bowl, slowly
dripping it in from above and stirring the mentioned broth with a spoon.

And, if you want, you can also roast the aforementioned eggs in the coals.
Grind their cooked yolks in the mortar with the same broth and add it in
place of other eggs. This dish is called 'Lanietus'

While in keeping with the period and setting, this dish was a last-minute
addition occasioned by the unavailability of geese in sufficient numbers.
Lamb is not, of course, a typical winter meat even in Southern Italy.

Liber de Coquina, South Italian c. 1310

Giano


Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:09:17 -0400
From: "grizly" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] lamb recipes?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I have One from Neapolitan Cusisine that I liked quite well.  It is
exceptionally rich, and thickened three ways (yolk, crumbs, liver).   
It and another fave are webbed here:

http://franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/ 
carne_de_capretto_in_tegamo_alla_fiore
ntina.html  (this is actually for goat, but lamb rocks in this preparation).
You get a rich, deep flavored broth/sauce and chunks of meaty goodness.  I
recommend a good-size cube, like that for goulyas.

http://franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/ 
olde_eng_fest_recipes.html#egurdouce
is my favorite egurdouce: simple and elegant with the right wine.

Monchaletr is also a good French idea:
http://franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/monchalet_forme_of_curye.html

And if the recent thread calls to you . . . . a good lamb sausage could
move you.

niccolo difrancesco


Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:06:48 -0400
From: Patrick Levesque <petruvoda at videotron.ca>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb vs. mutton
To: "Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>"
	<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Although Bonnefons does not mention what distinguishes lamb from mutton in
'Les Délices de la Campagne', he does describe lambs as sometimes being the
size of a rabbit (which, although I'm no expert in either wild rabbits, nor
lambs generally, I take to mean a pretty young lamb), sometimes bigger. Lamb
also has to be fat from milk (L'Agneau gras de lait...)

Not quite period, but close enough.

Petru

> Lambs can wean in as little as 3 to 4 weeks or as much as 5 to 6 months, so
> weaning may not be a solid indicator of "lambness."  So the question in my
> mind is what is the proof that a sheep is not a lamb after weaning.  The
> only evidence I've found so far is in Platina, and it does not provide a
> thorough definition of lamb.
>
> Bear


Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:49:23 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb vs. mutton
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

While this describes the condition of lamb Bonnefans desires as a delicacy,
it does not specifically define what is a lamb.

Platina says that lambs are sold to the butcher before they are weaned.  Is
this because they are only lambs until then or because the lactating ewes
can be milked, providing further profits?

While considering some other aspects of lamb, it occurred to me that a key
difference between a lamb and a sheep is sexual maturity.  Different breeds
mature at different rates but the average is 6 to 8 months.  Modern breeding
recommendations suggest 13 months for males and 15 months for females.
Castration for wethers is recommended after 3 months.

Interestingly, Platina states that castration should be at 5 months.  The
variance in castration times suggests that modern diet may lead to earlier
maturation, but lacking corroborating evidence, that is pure  
speculation.

Bear


Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:01:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] feast
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> Not yet...I'll try some new dishes out of the Medieval Arab Cookery  
> book, along with possibly
> some Mughal dishes...maybe one course of each and mixing the two  
> for the dayboard.  Now that
> I've found a source for good cheap lamb, it makes things a LOT easier!
>
> Kiri

Well I made Lamb Samosas that were very popular.

Lamb Samosas

> From the Sultan's Book of Delights (late fifteenth century)

Another kind of Ghiyath Shahi's samosas: take finely minced deer meat and flavour ghee with fenugreek and, having mixed the mince with saffron, put it  
in the ghee.

Roast salt and cumin together.  Having added cumin, cloves, coriander and a quarter of a ratti of musk to the mince, cook it well.  Put half of the minced onion and a quarter of the minced dry ginger into the meat.  When it has become well-cooked, put in rosewater.  Take it off and stuff the samosas.  Make a hole in the samosa with a stick and fry it in sweet-smelling ghee and serve it (when)  
tender.  By thesame method of any kind of meat that is desired, can be made.

Ingredients:

Filling:

1 lbs ground lamb
1 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1/4 tsp saffron
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp coriander
1 large sweet onion, minced [1 cup approx.]
1/4 cup minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp rose water

Put ghee in a large frying pan and add fenugreek and saffron, stirring for a
few minutes.  Add lamb and start to brown.  Add salt, cumin, cloves, coriander
onion and ginger, stirring until the meat is brown and fragrant.  Add rose
water and remove from heat.

Pastry:

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1/2 to 3/4 cup water

Sift flour and salt together. Make a well in the center of the mixture and quickly pour in ghee and water. Stir briskly until combined, gradually adding  
more water if necessary. You should aim for a slightly moist dough that sticks  
together.  On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for 10 minutes until smooth  
and elastic, cover with damp towel.

Assembly:

To assemble samosa, break off pieces of dough (leaving what's left under the towel) and shape into balls. Roll each ball into a circle about 1/10 of an inch  
thick and 5 inches across. Cut the circle in half. In one side put filling, fold half of the half circle over to make a triangle. Seal by brushing a bit of water along the edges and pinching it together with your finger.  Heat 2 inches ghee in a skillet or pan  to 375 degrees.
Put in samosas and let it fry to a golden brown on each side. Then drain on cloth or paper towel and eat.

Note:  I didn't experiment with the roasting cumin and salt together.  But I added both to the filling.  I didn't have any musk to add and couldn't think of an adequate substitute, so I left it out.  I followed a modern Indian recipe for  
the pastry since the original was so vague.

Huette


Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:31:56 -0700
From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] lamb at feast
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

My best lamb recipe is not from an historical document but very simple.  Leg of lamb, cut with slits, slits filled with one-half clove garlic and an equal-sized chunk of candied ginger; marinate in cheap nasty red wine, must be nasty, those tannins degrease and tenderize the lamb like nothing else does.  Baste with same while the lamb roasts until done.  This is a lamb for non-lamb-lovers;  the 
only one who ever complained was the boy who was allergic to lamb and 
did not know it before trying and liking this dish.

Selene


Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:44:49 -0300
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Flavors accompanying lamb or mutton
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Stefan quoted:
<<< "And yes, rosemary and mint are the most common and tasty accompanying
spices for lamb (as long as you stay away from most nasty commercial  
mint jellies) but many other flavors go very well with it- juniper
berries, as an example.

Phlip" >>>

    No necessarily. The use of herbs when preparing baby lamb or mutton 
in England and Iberia has been governed by what the mother ewe eats or 
the lamb eats to bring out the flavor of the milk or the meat. In 
England, for example, sheep grazing in valleys where mint is abundant 
can be cooked in water in which mint has been boiled. Those bred in the 
mountains are seasoned with wild thyme. Mutton from the marshlands are 
prepared with salt grass from estuaries and seaweed. Mutton from the 
orchards of the Midlands were and still are served with red-currant 
jelly and fruits sauces. The Hispano-Arabs seemed to have had more 
variety of spice and herb combinations such as salt, pepper, coriander, 
saffron, cinnamon, lavender, oil and other spices on hand or Chinese 
cinnamon, lavender, cloves, saffron and pepper.

    Today the problem is that we don't know where lamb comes from that 
we buy in the supermarket. Even it is says it is from New Zealand it 
does not give the area. As a result when not making couscous, I cheat by 
assuming the lamb was raised in a mint filled valley as I like mint so much!

    Thank you all for your nice mint sauce/jelly recipes. We shall try 
the sauce with apple vinegar today as we have it that on hand.

Suey


Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:27:07 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for a Recipe for Lamb Meatballs

How about a version of this

Fartes of Portingale (Lamb Meatball Soup)

Recipe from Handout

6 cup beef broth or stock
1 lb. ground lamb
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. mace
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp. currants
1 1/2 Tbsp. dates, pitted, finely minced
Bring stock to a boil, then reduce to simmer. In a bowl, combine  
remaining ingredients, being careful to sprinkle spices and salt  
evenly over meat. Roll mixture into small balls. Place meatballs in  
simmering stock. Cover pot and continue to simmer for 10 minutes or  
until meatballs are done. Skim excess fat from top. Serve hot.

Source for Recipe Presented

I got this redaction from Olena Ksen'ia [Yana] Barsova when she lived  
here in my barony. I don't know who actually did the redaction,  
whether it was her or someone else.
From a bit of research I've found out that the original recipe is in  
The Good Huswives Handmaid for Cookerie, 1588
Notes and additional versions

The Good Huswives Handmaid for Cookerie, 1588.
How to make Fartes of Portingale. Take a peece of a leg of mutton.  
Mince it smal and season it with cloves, mace, pepper, and salt, and  
Dates minced with currants: then roll it into round rolles, and so  
into little balles, and so boyle them in a little beef broth and so  
serve them foorth.

Johnnae


Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:27:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Donna Green <donnaegreen at yahoo.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] some liver and other offal recipes

I made lamb stew with liver sauce (See Brighid's translation below) from Nola for the potluck at the Crosston Ball yesterday. It was well received. It also finally used up the lamb liver that has been sitting in my freezer for a while.

Juana Isabella
West

22. Pottage Of Marinated Kid Which Is Called Janete Of Kid
Potaje De Cabrito Adobado Que Se Dice Janete De Cabrito
Take a forequarter of kid and cook it in a pot, and after it is cooked take it out, and cut it into pieces as big as a walnut; and take fatty bacon, and gently fry [the kid] with it and with a little bit of onion; then take toasted almonds and grind them in a mortar with a piece of kid's liver roasted on the coals and with a crustless piece of bread soaked in white vinegar; and all of this should be ground together with a pair of egg yolks for each dish; and after it is all well-ground, blend it with good broth. And then strain it through a woolen cloth; and when it has been strained, put it in the pot where it must cook. And cast in all fine spices; and put the kid in the pot together with the sauce. And cook it, and when it is cooked, cast a little cut-up parsley in the pot, and sugar, and make it in such a manner that it tastes a little of vinegar; and cast on it the pot-grease from the first cooking of the kid, and cast on enough.


Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 16:18:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Daniel And elizabeth phelps  <dephelps at embarqmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Ashkenazic Passover recipes

<<< Bottom line -- any suggestions of tried-and-true "medieval" northern European roast lamb recipes?

-- Galefridus >>>

There are two recipes in "Early French Cookery" but they both call for cheese.

"an Ordinance of Pottage" has a bare bones recipe that calls for roasting breast of mutton or lamb and saucing with lemon or tart fruit juice (Seville oranges) seasoned with ginger and heated.

"The Medieval Kitchen, Recipes from France and Italy has several recipes but most call for pork products to be used as well.

"The Sensible Cook, Dutch Foodways in the Old and the New World" has a number of recipes that you would need to work out.  They tend not to have objectionable ingredients but are probably later period that you want.
 
Daniel 


Date: Sat, 02 Apr 2011 17:39:04 -0700
From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Ashkenazic Passover recipes

On 4/2/11 5:07 PM, Claire Clarke wrote:
<<< Bottom line -- any suggestions of tried-and-true medieval northern European
roast lamb recipes?

-- Galefridus >>>

"Buttes' Way of Seasoning a Lamb" from The Good Hous-Wiues Treasurie 1588

"Cut a clove of garlic in half. Energetically rub the cut end over every 
inch of lamb. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in a roasting pan 
with a whole onion. Liberally sprinkle with whole rosemary and ground 
sage. Roast as usual."

My personal recipe:  poke holes in the leg of lamb and fill them with a 
sliver of candied ginger and a halved or slitted clove of garlic.  
Marinate in nasty cheap red wine.  Must be cheap and nasty, tannin 
tenderizes the meat nicely.  Baste with same as it roasts.

Selene


Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2011 10:25:51 -0400
From: Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Ashkenazic Passover recipes

May I suggest Sabina Welserin?

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html

153 To prepare an Easter lamb

Take the lamb and draw off the skin and leave him the ears and the
feet and the tail , cover with a wet cloth, so that the hair does not
burn. Roast the whole lamb in this manner in the oven on a board. And
if you would like for it to be standing, then stick a spit into each
leg. When it is almost roasted, then baste it with eggs and take it
out. Let it cool, take a cloth that is three spans long, fill it full
of butter and bind it up and press it through with a stick. It gets
crinkled like real wool, then take it and make wool out of it for the
lamb. Stand it then on a nice board. Make a fence out of butter around
it, in the manner which follows. [17]

154 A lamb of another sort

Make it exactly as the preceding description, cover it, however, with
a multicolored covering. It is made like so: Take eggs, put the whites
separate from the yolks, beat the eggs, put some salt into it and
sugar, take a pan, put pure fat into it, let it become hot, pour the
fat completely out of the pan, put the egg white into it, let it run
here and there around the pan, hold it over the fire, not too long,
however, only until it begins to quiver. Afterward hold the pan on the
fire, until it becomes dry, and hold it not too near, so that it
remains white, and make in this way as many pancakes as you wish. Do
not make them too thick, not thicker than a thin cloth. Afterwards
make the yellow ones exactly like this, put saffron in the egg yolks.
Brown is made precisely so, take cherry jam strained through with the
eggs and make pancakes out of it. So you have four colors, cover the
lamb with them and cut the colors according to the length, as wide as
you would like. After that take cinnamon sticks, make small nails out
of them, push them with the thick end into Strauben batter, which
should be yellow and fry them in fat, then they have buttons. If you
would like, you can gild or silver them. Then take hard-cooked eggs
and cut them open at the end, take the fried cinnamon sticks, stick
them through the tips of the eggs and fasten the colors in the fashion
on the lamb. And color half the eggs yellow and leave the others
white. Make a fence from good spices around the lamb, put the lamb on
the board. After that take smoked meat, that is very red, cook it and
cut off the outside. Chop it very small, then take eggs, cook them
hard, cut them apart, the white from the yellow, chop each by itself,
and when the lamb is ready, then put the white on one side of the
board and the yellow on the opposite side, in one place or the other
lay the whole hard-cooked eggs on it and also the pancakes, also if
you have it or want it, honey. This lamb is better for eating than
that described earlier. When the meat is prepared in this way, it does
not become ugly and everything is edible except the board.
-- 
Saint Phlip


Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:02:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mutton

--- On Thu, 4/28/11, David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> wrote:
<<< We have at least one
recipe that specifies mutton, for which we've used lamb, and
I wanted to see how much difference it would make so I
looked up local halal butchers. Yesterday I picked up two
pounds of meat (including the bones--I got about 1 1/4lb of
meat out of it) at about $8/lb, which struck me as
expensive. When we made the dish, we didn't notice any
change in taste at all, which set me wondering whether the
mutton was really mutton.

-- David/Cariadoc >>>

    Actually, what you were sold probably was mutton. Under US law any sheep, any age, can be sold as lamb. The only thing the producers care about is the age at which the muscle growth-to-feed ratio starts falling off. For obvious reasons, they push that limit to the last quarter hour.

    The situation is made more complex still by the fact that much of our lamb comes from Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, any sheep that has no permanent incisors is still lamb. In New Zealand, the first incisors may be present but not yet touching.

  However, all these standards involve ages at which a sheep from our period of interest would be considered mutton. (By the Australian standard, "young mutton"). The important factor for our purposes is that sheep as young as six months old are already exclusively grass-fed and producing sex hormones, and it is those two factors which make sheep meat mutton.

    In our era lamb was an animal either exclusively or primarily milk-fed - four to eight weeks old, preferably under six weeks old. The taste is much, much more delicate; it's even more obvious than the difference between real veal and beef. The chances are quite high that the vast majority of SCA cooks have never used, or even tasted, real lamb.

    I happen to be allergic to mutton. I can, however, eat small amounts of milk-fed lamb. There's that much difference.

Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-
(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict


Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:55:16 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mutton

<<< In our era lamb was an animal either exclusively or primarily milk-fed - four to eight weeks old, preferably under six weeks old. The taste is much, much more delicate; it's even more obvious than the difference between real veal and beef. The chances are quite high that the vast majority of SCA cooks have never used, or even tasted, real lamb.
   I happen to be allergic to mutton. I can, however, eat small amounts of milk-fed lamb. There's that much difference. >>>

I agree--real lamb is VERY different from what we in the States generally 
get as "lamb". When the Consort and I were in Yorkshire I had a 
roasted lamb shank that was, by the size of it, a milk-fed lamb, and it 
was OMG delicious. I practically swooned, it was that good. It was served 
with a very simple sauce of vinegar, sugar, mint, and probably some water.

But yes, much more delicate and tender than what we get as lamb.

Margaret FitzWilliam


Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:09:43 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mutton

I have a co-worker who raises sheep to breed for lamb.  I told him that if
he ever needed to put one of his older sheep down..I'd take it.   He just
butchered and packaged a 7 year old ewe..and she is now  in my freezer!  Our
cook's guild is going to be doing mutton this month!  

  Do you have any medieval recipes (that can be cooked over an  open fire,
if possible)? >>>

early 17th c., not medieval.

Boiled Meats Ordinary
The English Huswife p. 47

You shall take a racke of mutton cut into peeces, or a leg of mutton 
cut in peeces: for this meat and these joints, are the best, Although 
any other joint, or any fresh beefe will likewise make good pottage: 
and having washt your meat well, put it into a cleane pot with faire 
water, and set it on the fire: then take violet leaves, endive, 
succory (chiccory?), strawberie leaves, spinage, langdebeefe, 
marygold flowers, Scallions, and a little persly, and chop them very 
small together, then take halfe so much oatmeale well beaten as there 
is herbes, and mix it with the herbes, and chop all very wel 
together: then when the pot is ready to boile, skumme it very wel and 
then put in your herbes: And so let it boil with a quicke fire, 
stirring the meat oft in the pot, till the meat be boild enough, and 
that the hearbes and water mixt together without any separation, 
which will be after the consumption of more then a third part: then 
season them with salt, and serve them up with the meat either with 
sippets or without.

2 lb boned lamb	1 1/4 lb mixed greens = 6 c
5 c water	3 c oatmeal
1 1/2 t salt
(Greens: scallions, endive lettuce, Belgian endive, parsley, spinach, 
and mustard greens)

Note: we used rolled oats in this recipe, which were invented out of 
period; Irish/steel cut oats would be more appropriate.
Cut up lamb into bite-sized pieces. Put in a pot with water, bring to 
a boil. Chop greens fine, mix with oatmeal and add. Simmer about 1 
hour.

Variants: If you want the pottage green but without visible herbs, 
beat the oatmeal and herbs in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle. 
Strain it, using some warm water from the pot. If you want it without 
herbs, use lots of onions and more oatmeal than before.

We've now done it with steel cut oats, half the weight of the greens, 
which seems to work fine.
-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/


Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:37:47 -0400
From: Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mutton

_I_ don't. Problem is, it's different from beef or veal, and I think
people dislike it because lamb LOOKS like beef, but distinctly isn't.

I'm still cringing from when someone on this List took some (lovely,
delectable, heavenly, DELICIOUS) loin lamb chops, boiled the bejezus
out of them, and decided they didn't like lamb.

Lamb is best cooked gently and served at worst medium rare, and mutton
needs more cooking to help break down connective tissue, but still
doesn't need to be boiled into grey mush. If I ever emigrate to Oz, it
will be for the inexpensive lamb down that way. Lamb is my favorite
red meat (as long as some idiot doesn't believe certain cookbooks and
cook it past well done.)

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 4:24 PM, Antonia di B C <dama.antonia at gmail.com> wrote:
<<< Cariadoc, the problem is that Americans barely tolerate the strong
flavor of lamb, and wouldn't tolerate the intensity of true mutton,
so it basically isn't sold, except that most of what passes for lamb
nowadays would have been considered mutton a few years ago. >>>

*goggle*

You think *lamb* is strong-tasting?
--
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo


Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 10:39:38 +1200
From: Antonia di B C <dama.antonia at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mutton

On 30/04/2011 9:37 AM, Saint Phlip wrote:
<<< Lamb is best cooked gently and served at worst medium rare, and mutton
needs more cooking to help break down connective tissue, but still
doesn't need to be boiled into grey mush. If I ever emigrate to Oz, it
will be for the inexpensive lamb down that way. Lamb is my favorite
red meat (as long as some idiot doesn't believe certain cook books and
cook it past well done.) >>>

Actually, I like it broiled very fiercely, so that it's got a delectable 
crust on the outside but remains juicy and pink on the inside. It can be 
cooked to well done very successfully, but I think the only way to do it 
nicely is to slow-roast it.

Mutton makes the most wonderful stews, and also many "lamb" curry 
recipes are considerably better when made with young mutton.
-- 
Antonia di Benedetto Calvo


Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 17:47:39 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mutton

And tonight we did the meat, greens and oatmeal recipe using mutton. 
I think the meat was a little more strongly flavored than lamb and 
Elizabeth thought it was a little tougher and should perhaps have 
been simmered longer, but on the whole the recipe was a success, and 
is now in _How to Milk an Almond ..._ with both lamb and mutton as 
options, as well as improved proportions.

I think tomorrow we will do one of the Islamic recipes that has mutton.

At some future point I may try to get mutton from an older animal, 
since one of the Islamic recipes specifies two to three years, and 
see if it is more strongly flavored.
-- 
David Friedman


Date: Mon, 02 May 2011 11:40:50 -0400
From: Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
To: sca-cooks <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mutton

Greetings!  Several years ago when visiting the UK, we were told that 
the reason "mutton" had a bad reputation was because of improper 
preparation - wrong age of the sheep, improper "hanging time", etc.  I 
don't recall the specific, but here is some information I found for 
Herdwick mutton.  (We had Herdwick mutton for a meal and it 
was...wonderful!!)

(http://www.alternativemeats.co.uk/HERDWICK-MUTTON-FROM-LANGDALE--CUMBRIA./c-1-69/)
"Until this year, there were no industry-wide standards for meat sold as 
mutton. New guidelines drawn up by Mutton Renaissance aim to ensure that 
mutton is consistently of the quality expected by chefs and home-cooks. 
The standards specify that sheep must be over two years old, and that 
animals must have a forage-based diet (for example, grass, heather and 
root crops). We're delighted to be able to source our Herdwick mutton 
from Cumbria (The Lake District)."

It may be that what has been sold commonly as "mutton" is sheep that 
haven't received the best care in preparation for being used as "mutton".

Alys


Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 17:55:19 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Interesting find from Bib. Palatina

This weekend one of my classes at the West Coast Culinary Symposium (hosted in An Tir this year) cooked actual lamb "burgers" from the Anonymous Andalusia (one of the Ahrash recipes). We ate them with mustard - Sinab - which includes ground almonds, although the original says to serve them with a sauce of oil, vinegar, and garlic. I may have posted this recipe here a few years ago. I've tried to remove all the special characters...

A Type of Ahrash Called Isfiriya
(Medieval Moroccan Lamb Burgers)
This is the recipe used by Sayyid Abu al-Hasan and others in Morocco, and they called it isfiriya. Take red lamb, pound it vigorously and season it with some murri naqi', vinegar, oil, pounded garlic, pepper, saffron, cumin, coriander, lavender, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, chopped fat, and meat with all the gristle removed and pounded and divided, and enough egg to envelop the whole. Make small round qursas (flatbreads) out of them about the size of a palm or smaller, and fry them in a pan with a lot of oil until they are browned. Then make for them a sauce of vinegar, oil, and garlic, and leave some of it without any sauce: it is very good.

Commentary
This is the third recipe in the 13th century anonymous Andalusian cookbook. It is the second one for Ahrash, and there is another Ahrash recipe, #78. This one is identified as coming from Morocco, although the others are not identified with a particular region. One of the others tells the cook to make meatballs, not patties.

My Version

1-1/2 lb. ground lamb
2 Tb. soy sauce, instead of murri naqi' (source 2)
2 Tb. wine vinegar
2 Tb. olive oil
6 cloves garlic, pounded
1 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. saffron, crumbled
2 tsp. cumin	
1 Tb. coriander
1-1/2 Tb. lavender buds
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
scant 1/4 tsp. cloves
2 eggs, beaten
olive oil for frying

Sauce
3/4 c. white or red wine vinegar
2 Tb. olive oil
6 garlic cloves, smashed

1. Pounded meat has a different texture from ground meat, finer, smoother. To achieve this, run the ground meat through the food processor. Do not process too much. When the eggs are mixed in, if the texture of the meat it too fine, the patties will not stay together.
2. Season with soy sauce, vinegar, oil, garlic, pepper, saffron, cumin, coriander, lavender, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, processed meat, and eggs. 
-- I used soy sauce, based on Charles Perry's experiments of making murri from scratch.
-- I omitted sheep fat because modern sheep are less lean.
3. Make small round patties the size of the palm of the hand or smaller.
4. Fry them in a pan with a lot of oil until they are browned. Patties shrink while cooking.
5. Make sauce of vinegar, oil, and garlic. Serve on the side; it needs to be stirred before using.
-- There's a sauce for meatballs in the same cookbook that includes murri which is even more flavorful.
-- And then there is Sinab, mustard sauce, see below.

Sources

An anonymous 13th century Andalusian cookbook. Charles Perry, trans., commonly known as "The Anonymous Andalusian cookbook":
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian_contents.htm
According to Nawal Nasrallah, in personal e-mail exchanged between us in the summer of 2008, the actual title of the book is Anwa' al-Saydala fi Alwan al-At'ima, which I translate as "Phamacopeoia of the Preparation of All Kinds of Food".

Charles Perry. "What Rot!", Los Angeles Times, 14 January 1998
____________. "Still Rotting", LA Times, 18 February 1998
____________. "Rot of Ages", LA Times, 1 April 1998
____________. "O.K., It's Rotted", LA Times, 1 April 1998

Alan Davidson, editor and contributor. The Penguin Companion to Food. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: 1999, 2002.

---------------------

Recipe for Making Sinab

Clean good mustard and wash it with water several times, then dry it and pound it until it is as fine as kohl [32]. Sift it with a sieve of hair, and then pound shelled almonds and put them with the mustard and stir them together. Then press out their oil and knead them with breadcrumbs little by little, not putting in the breadcrumbs all at once but only little by little. Then pour strong vinegar, white of color, over this dough for the dish, having dissolved sufficient salt in the vinegar. Then dissolve it well to the desired point, and strain it thoroughly with a clean cloth; and there are those who after it is strained add a little honey to lessen its heat. Either way it is good.

[32] i.e., very finely powdered-kohl is powdered antimony. (HM)

Powdered Mustard Seed
Blanched Almonds
Fine Breadcrumbs
Salt
White Wine Vinegar
Honey, optional

Grind almonds.
Mix well with mustard powder.
Knead to get oily (this works best with very fresh almonds), otherwise you might want to add a few drops of almond oil.
Add breadcrumbs little by little, kneading between additions.
Dissolve sufficient salt in the vinegar.
Pour vinegar over mustard mix.
Stir to blend thoroughly.
Then strain it in a fine sieve to remove any lumps.

Optional: After straining add a little honey.

This will be hot, no matter what, when first made. I would suggest making it a few days before you plan to use it.

Since we were making things on the spot, i bought Dijon mustard (the kind with white wine in it), then ground almonds and mixed them into the mustard. It's cheating, i know, but we were busy making several other dishes, too!

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM!)


Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 00:26:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Black-eyed peas recipes?

To a French speaker, all of these would be  haricots.

It's worth pointing out, I think, that the main words for beans used to be 
fasiolus (phaseolus) and faba. The word haricoq - as students of French 
medieval food will know - originally applied to a mutton dish:

"To make haricoq, take sheep bellies and brown them on the grill. When they are browned, cut up them into pieces, and put in a pot. Take peeled onions, and chop them up fine. Put in the pot with the meat. Take white ginger, cinnamon and  assorted spices, that is, clove and seed. Moisten with verjuice and add to the  pot. Salt to taste."

Note that there are no greens in this recipe, though the TLF says that the 
dish was later made with string beans. The name apparently referred originally to something cut up:

".  1 d?verbal de l'anc. verbe harigoter ?  d?chiqueter, mettre en lambeaux 
? (1176-81, CHR. DE TROYES, Chevalier  Lion, ?d.  M. Roques, 831), lequel 
est prob. un d?r. en -oter* (cf.  tapoter) de  l'a. b. frq. *hari?n ?  g?cher 
?, prononc? *harij?n (d'o?  l'all. verheeren ?  d?vaster, d?truire ?) et 
entr? en Gallo-Romania sous la forme *harig?n.  Hericot est  peut-?tre d? ? 
l'infl. d'?cot*  ? rameau ?lagu? imparfaitement, chicot d'arbuste ?, le 
rapprochement de ces deux  mots s'expliquant sans doute par le fait que la viande du haricot de mouton est  d?coup?e en morceaux irr?guliers. "

http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=2857712835;

But as a word for beans, it came along fairly late.

Faba is less complicated, vicia faba having been found often in  
archeological digs.

Jim  Chevallier


Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 02:02:10 -0400
From: Saint Phlip <saintphlip at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any favorite lamb recipes?

On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 12:38 AM, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at gmail.com>wrote:
<<< I got a lamb breast/side at my local grocery this past Sunday, for
$2-3/pound. They also had chunks of leg of lamb for $5/pound. Since even
the ground lamb is often 8 or more dollars/pound here, I ended up buying
the breast. Basically ribs with a slab of attached meat on the package I
bought, where the ribs were getting smaller and smaller.

Maybe I should have bought the leg, since it was still less than much of
the beef currently?

The lamb breast is US, but the lamb leg chunks were products of New
Zealand.

Any suggestions on how best to cook it? Either modern or period recipes.
As I said, I seldom see lamb here, much less at a reasonable price.

I don't know if my wife will even try it, but we'll see. At least it is a
chance for me to try some lamb. (technically probably young mutton, but the
store labels it as lamb.)

Stefan >>>

Stefan, whatever you do, don't overcook it. Lamb is at its best rare to
medium rare, and overcooking it makes it tough and gamy tasting.

For some reason, American cookbooks have people cooking it to well done-
all I can think is some ignoramus confused it with pork, which had been
cooked to well done because of the trichinosis problem.

Breast of lamb is not my favorite cut, because it is best cooked slow and
wet. Leg of lamb is a lot easier to deal with- I cooked one over the
campfire for one of our open fire classes. Al I did was bone it, lay it out
flat, brown it on one side, flip it and brown it on the other side, then
put it on a platter covered with foil while the rest of the meal cooked,
carve and serve.

Your wife probably won't try it because it tastes very different from beef,
although it looks a lot like it.

Lamb is a strongly flavored meat, so it goes well with strongly flavored
spices, notably garlic and rosemary, but it also is beautiful in a curry
like this one which follows, that is close enough to the one I make, that I
simply modified it for you, to save typing.

And, pitch the mint jelly- mint goes well with lamb, but I have NO idea
where that insipid apple juice jelly with a dash of mint flavor came from,
but as far as I'm concerned, it should be reserved for your morning toast.

Here's my favorite lamb recipe, for things like breast:

Curried lamb breast baked with onions (serves 4):

2 lb lamb breast
3 onions, sliced
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon chili powder
6 curry leaves

  1. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and sear the lamb on each
  side. Put to one side while you fry the onions gently.

  2.  Chop the garlic and ginger together into a chunky paste. When the
  onions have softened add the garlic / ginger mix. Fry for a minute and then
  add all the spices, frying for another minute.

  3. Add half the onion mix to the pot, pop the lamb on top then add the
  remaining onions. Add a cup of water and pop the lid on for about 2-3
  hours, on low simmer until the lamb can be pushed apart with a spoon.

  4. Remove the lamb to the side for one minute so you can remove any
  bones or gummy bits of skin 'n' stuff that lamb breast can have. Pop a
  sieve on a saucepan and put the onions into the sieve. Put the lamb and
  drained onions with a sprinkle of salt back into the pot while you work on
  the reserved liquid.

  5. Simmer the liquid until reduced by half, add a dash of white wine
  vinegar. Dish up the lamb and onions, spoon over the sauce and
serve with *Basmati  rice.*


Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 02:15:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any favorite lamb recipes?

In a message dated 5/28/2014 11:02:21 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
saintphlip at gmail.com writes:
<<< Stefan, whatever you do,  don't overcook it. Lamb is at its best rare to
medium rare >>>

Indeed. I don't even know if you can get it any other way in France.

Personally, I've always found garlic (lots and lots of garlic) enough.  
Herbes de Provence are also pretty much made to order for it. You can always  
make the lamb with those and serve them with string beans brushed with garlic 
and olive oil.

Otherwise, if you'd like a hint from Anthimus:

"Mutton used frequently is suitable, either in the simple juices, or in 
roasting it cook  it far from the flame. For if it is near the fire, the meat 
will be burned  outside and the inside become raw, and it can harm more than 
help. But as I have said [cook it] far away and for a long time, so that 
it becomes as if steamed,  and while roasting season it with salt mixed with 
wine, spread with a feather. 
 
The meat of a lamb, or from a kid is best, whichever you wish, either 
steamed or boiled in the juices. And they are also good roasted." 
My own redaction of the first uses a lamb chop but other forms of it 
should work: 
"This assumes the use of a broiler at the bottom of a stove, made to be 
used with the door partly open.

1 lamb chop 
2 tablespoons of salt 
1/4 cup red wine 
   1.  Mix the salt into the red wine.  
Place the lamp chop towards a front corner of the broiler pan.  
Brush it with the red wine using a pastry brush.  
Leaving the broiler door slightly more open than usual, start broiling it.  

Baste regularly with the mixture.  
After ten minutes, turn it over and baste the opposite side.  
Continue basting regularly for ten more minutes or until done."

Of course, if you'd rather be English, you can just boil it to death and  have it with mint jelly.

Jim Chevallier


From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any favorite lamb recipes?
Date: May 29, 2014 1:54:28 AM CDT
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I only have one period recipe that is specifically for the breast.

Another Kind of Lamb Breast

There are lots of lamb recipes in the Miscellany, most of them Islamic ones that don't actually specify what kind of meat they use. One favorite of ours is:

Tabâhajah from the Manuscript of Yahya b. Khalid

We're also very fond of Barmakiya, made with lamb.

All three are in the Miscellany.

On 5/28/14, 9:38 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
<<< I got a lamb breast/side at my local grocery this past Sunday, for $2-3/pound. They also had chunks of leg of lamb for $5/pound. Since even the ground lamb is often 8 or more dollars/pound here, I ended up buying the breast. Basically ribs with a slab of attached meat on the package I bought, where the ribs were getting smaller and smaller.

Maybe I should have bought the leg, since it was still less than much of the beef currently?

The lamb breast is US, but the lamb leg chunks were products of New Zealand.

Any suggestions on how best to cook it? Either modern or period recipes. As I said, I seldom see lamb here, much less at a reasonable price.

Stefan


Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 10:03:10 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any favorite lamb recipes?

Stefan,
Take a look here:   http://www.saveur.com/article/-/Lamb-Rules

Lots of tips & recipes from Saveur. Otherwise check out Cook's Illustrated.  Or listen to Christopher Kimball talk to Ivan Day regarding spit roasting lamb.

http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/atk-radio/2013/12/the-interview-ivan-day-food-historian/

Johnnae


Date: Thu, 29 May 2014 10:11:24 -0400
From: Sharon Palmer <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Any favorite lamb recipes?

<<< I got a lamb breast/side at my local grocery.

Any suggestions on how best to cook it? Either modern or period recipes. >>>

From Rumpolt:

Lamb 8.  A stuffed lamb breast to grill or to cook/ be it yellow or 
white/ or to made in a pie/ as is described before to make breast/ 
from a calf/ be it with lemon/ parsley root/ or white small broth/ 
that is made with egg yolks/ or also in a black pepper (sauce).

And the calf recipe:
Kalb  20.  To stuff veal breast.  Cut a little salted bacon/ and 
onions together/ also green well tasting herbs/ and take an egg five 
or six/ and beat it well together/ and take a little clear butter in 
a pan/ make it warm/ and put the eggs in the pan/ and make a 
scramble/ and make it rather hard/ put it with the bacon/ and chop it 
together/ But if you make a scramble and have no butter/ then cut a 
bacon and render it/ and when you have rendered it/ then do not pour 
it/ and let it stay like this/ that the bacon stays with it/

But if you will cut onions in it/ then sweat them in it/ and when it 
is sweated/ that it is not black/ then break the eggs in it/ and make 
a scramble/ because it is better tasting/ than when you make a 
stuffing.

And if you make a scramble with the butter/ then chop it together 
with the bacon/ with well tasting herbs/ then take pepper/ and a 
little saffron/ and an egg or two/ that are raw/ and also chop it 
together/ and salt it not much/ because the bacon is already salted/ 
otherwise you will soon over salt it.  You might make the stuffing 
yellow or white/ as it is good in both ways/

Stuff the breast/ and skewer it closed with a wooden (skewer)/ that 
it does not come out/ and set it to (the fire) with a water/ and when 
the water boils/ then lay it in/ and let it simmer/ until it is 
nearly done/ and see that it does not over cook/ that one can clean 
it off/ and when you have cleaned it/

then lay it in a clean tinned fish kettle/ and pour the broth again 
on it/ If you have little broth/ then pour a beef broth on it/ and 
cut a clean parsley root in it/ and cut the core out of it/ simmer it 
in the parley/ put a little mace in it/ and also a whole pepper/ and 
let it simmer with it/

and brown a little flour in it/ that the broth becomes somewhat 
thick/ and when you are nearly ready to dress it/ then cut green well 
tasting herbs in it/ and throe in an unsalted fresh butter in it/ and 
let a boil open with it together/ 

and when you want to dress it/ as it then boiled long/ then the herbs 
will be pale/ and when you dress it on the dish/ then throw a green 
parsley over it/ that is chopped small/ and see/ that you did not 
over salt the soup/ then it will be well tasting and good.

Kalb 21.  When you want to cook a breast in another manner/ then take 
salted bacon/ and cut it small with green herbs/ and take ginger with 
it/ also a little ground pepper/ and chop it together.

Also take three or four yolks of the eggs/ and do not over salt the 
filling/ because the bacon is already salted/ stuff the breast with 
it/ set it to (the fire) in a water/ and let it simmer/ and when it 
is completely cooked/ then clean it off/

and then pour the broth on it again/ and let simmer again/ check the 
broth/ if it is well tasting or not/ and also see / that is it not 
over salted/ Because when one boils it dry/ it is commonly over 
salted/

Take egg yolks one or ten/ and stir it together/ and take a little 
vinegar with it/ and when the breast simmers/ the pour it in the 
broth/ and do not let it come completely to a boil/ also put in a 
fresh butter/ that is not melted/ then the broth will be nicely 
smooth/ and stay white/ if you let it simmer long then the eggs will 
curdle/ then you have twice the work/ that you must strain it/ that 
it is again smooth/ and when you will dress the breast/ then pour the 
yolks with the vinegar in it/ then it goes quickly from place 
(quickly is overdone)/ then the broth becomes nicely thick from the 
eggs/

and when  you will dress it/ then pour the broth over it/ But if you 
would rather sprinkle with finely chopped parsley/ you might do that/ 
or might leave it.

Then you might also prepare a stuffed breast as a roast/ make the 
stuffing a little yellow/ and take no more to it/ as is now 
described/ then it is also good.

And one for mutton, doesn't give directions for the stuffed breast, 
but for a sauce to serve with it:
Hammel 10.  To prepare a stuffed breast from mutton.  Take sour milk/ 
beat eggs into it/ and a little flour and vinegar/ set it on the 
fire/ and stir it together/ until it comes to a boil/ and when it has 
boiled/ then strain it through a hair cloth/ and when the breast it 
cooked/ one pours the broth over the top/ put in a little unmelted 
fresh butter/ let a boil open with it (come to a boil)/ then it is 
good.  Such a broth is good over various meat/ that are boiled.

Ranvaig


Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 10:34:21 -0700
From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Buttermilk?

On 5/29/14, 8:52 AM, Donna Green wrote:
<<< Oh, and Stefan ... as my mother in law says, eat more lamb, fifty million American coyotes can't be wrong :-)

Juana Isabella
West >>>

Much agreed about Lamb.  My family recipe involves studding a legolam 
with garlic cloves and candied ginger, then marinating and basting with 
nasty cheap red wine during a long slow roast.  Must be nasty, must be 
cheap, because it's the tannins that do the biochemical magic.  Egri 
Bikavr or Two Buck Chuck will do nicely.

Selene
Caid


From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Lamb vs. Fowl in recipes, was Re:  Any favorite lamb recipes?
Date: June 1, 2014 12:52:01 PM CDT
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

A question:  I see in the Miscellany that the Barmakiya recipe does specify lamb along with the various poultry options.  Was this common? "Fat meat" is usually assumed to be mutton, but is that obligatory?  I have been justifying Fesanjan at SCA events [yes, it is a modern favorite, but I keep getting requests]  with the following:

NARSUN, from THE DESCRIPTION OF FAMILIAR FOODS [Kitab wasf al-at'ima al-mu'tada) translated by Charles Perry.

"This is a Persian name, and its root is /anasirk,/ which means pomegranate and vinegar.The recipe of this dish is that you cut up fat meat small and put it in the pot with water to cover, and you put the spices on it and moderate the salt and skim it.Cut up a small amount of onions and wash them and put in the pot.When it is nearly done, take pomegranate seeds, as much as needed and what the pot will bear, and pound them fine.Throw vinegar on them and macerate them well by hand, then strain them and add [the juice] to the pot.Take walnuts meats also, as much as needed, and pound them fine.Put as much water as needed in a pot and macerate [the walnuts] well and add them to the pot [where the meat is].Moderate its taste [with salt] as desired, and crumble bunches of dry mint onto its surface.Throw in whole pieces of walnut meats, and sprinkle a little rose-water on top of it.Wipe the sides of the pot with a clean cloth and leave it on a quiet fire, and then take up."

Selene Colfox


From: <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 98, Issue 1
Date: June 1, 2014 6:16:00 PM CDT
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Susan Fox wrote:
<<< A question: I see in the Miscellany that the Barmakiya recipe does 
specify lamb along with the various poultry options. Was this common? 
"Fat meat" is usually assumed to be mutton, but is that obligatory? I 
have been justifying Fesanjan at SCA events [yes, it is a modern 
favorite, but I keep getting requests] with the following:

NARSUN, from THE DESCRIPTION OF FAMILIAR FOODS [Kitab wasf al-at'ima 
al-mu'tada) translated by Charles Perry. >>>
SNIP

Fesenjan is a regional Persian dish, which was not known until fairly recently in other parts of Persia. It is traditionally and most typically cooked with duck. I have also heard that it can be cooked with pheasant or chicken. I have never heard of it being cooked with lamb.

There are other recipes in the historical Middle Eastern cookbook corpus that say to substitute one for the other -- chicken or lamb -- and a few that use both. But i would say that it is not most which acknowledge the interchangeability, only a few. Lamb (or mutton) was common. Chicken was generally more expensive.

Urtatim


Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 15:33:28 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] [MR] Marinus Lumpia Booth  at  Golden Rose

I eventually located mutton by trying Hallal butchers in the area. One 
of them actually took me into the giant freezer and showed me the animal 
he was cutting a chunk off of for me. Probably younger than most period 
mutton but older than what we get as lamb.

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	lamb-mutton-msg	Page 74 of 74