minced-meat-art - 2/13/98 "Paste en Pot de Mouton" by Anne-Marie Rousseau. A medieval dish of minced onions and meat. NOTE: See also the files: lamb-mutton-msg, broths-msg, stews-bruets-msg, onions-msg, spice-mixes-msg, chopped-meat-msg, Gos-Farced-art, meatloaf-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 23:29:09 -0800 From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" Subject: Re: SC - french cooking or is Ham mousse just a fancy sausage? Hi all from Anne-Marie Due to popular request, here's the recipe for the mince of meat and onions I mentioned earlier. I've given you the whole article I wrote for _Serve it Forth_ a while ago. Please, if you use this recipe, all I ask is that you let me know. Enjoy! - --AM PASTE EN POT DE MOUTON Prenez de la cuisse, et gresse our mouelle de beuf ou de veel hach* menu et oignons menus hachi*s, et faictes boulir et cuire en un pot bien couvert a bien petit de boulon de char ou autre eaue, puis mettez boulir dedans espices, et un petit de vinaigre pour aiguiser, et dr*ciez en un plat. (from le Menagier de Paris, c. 1395) According to Randall Cotgrave's A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, printed in 1611, past* en pot is "minced meat Boiled in a pot with a little broath, and hard yolkes of eggs until it be half consumed". With Cotgrave's help, the original French text can be translated to read: Past* en pot de Mouton. Take the thigh, and fat/grease [Cotgrave gives both as definitions] or beef marrow or of veal, finely minced [literally "hashed small"] and onions finely minced, and make to boil and seethe in a pot well covered with a good bit of meat broth or other water then put to boil within spices, and little vinegar for sharpening ["to put an edge on it'] and serve in a platter. Interestingly, the hard boiled egg yolks that Cotgrave calls for in the dish are missing in the Menagier version, but that may have something to do with the intervening 300 years. There are similar recipes for meat and onion stews flavored with spices and sharpened with vinegar scattered throughout the contemporary sources. Taillevent's Civ*e de Veau (Prescott, 1989), Forme of Curye's "Mounchelet" (which, by the way, is indeed thickened with egg yolks) (Hieatt et al, 1996), and the very nearly identical 15th century "Stwed Mutton" from the Harlein MS 4061 (Renfrow, 1990). "Stwed Mutton" gives the variation of ale, mustard and verjuice as spicing, which promises to be tasty as well, like a piquant carbonnade. My reconstruction resulted in a stew with a tender meat morsel that practically melts in the mouth, with a slight sharp vinegar bite, and the familiar medieval spicing. The onions disappeared, and the resulting gravy was thick and flavorful. The modern version of the recipe is as follows: 2 T olive oil 1/2 cup minced onion 1 lb minced "thigh o' lamb", fat and all (see note below) 1 cup beef broth (I used the bottled concentrated stuff, diluted 2 tsp/1c hot water) 4-5 threads saffron 1 tsp poudre forte (see note below) 1/4 cup white wine vinegar In a pot with a tight lid, heat the oil on medium high heat. Mince the onion and add to the hot oil. Mince the meat, and add to the onions and oil. Add the broth and clap the lid on. Let simmer for 25 minutes. Moosh the saffron threads in a little of the hot broth, and add to the pot. Add the poudre forte and vinegar, and simmer a few more minutes more to evaporate some of the liquid "until it be half consumed" as in the words of Randle Cotgrave. Serve on a platter. I chose olive oils as the fat and white wine vinegar as the vinegar because Chiquart mentions them by name in his shopping lists (Scully, 1986). The meat I chose to use here was actually several lamb tip steaks. The original recipe calls for thigh of mutton. Tip steaks come from the hip area of the sheep, the closest I could get to the thigh without having to buy a whole leg of lamb. Also, the grocery store version of lamb is actually fairly mutton-like, being close to a year old when butchered. As no specific spicing was specified in the original recipe, I used a combination that seemed likely, creating a poudre forte based on the spices called for in other contemporary French recipes sources, as well as saffron, which is called for in many of the other similar dishes and recipes. The version of poudre forte used here is: 1 1/2 T ground ginger 1/2 tsp. grains of paradise, ground with a mortar and pestle 1 T ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper. Combine ingredients and store in an airtight container. Please be aware that every source has it's own combination of spices and proportions for their poudre fortes and poudre douces. Some include cubebs, some include nutmeg and/or galingale, some include herbs. The version above is a seemly compromise, and uses the spices most specific to the source the original recipe is from, le Menagier a Paris. In short, Past* en pot de Mouton is very characteristic of medieval French and English food: a piquant mince of meat and onions, stewed in it's own juices and seasoned according to the tastes of the time. Sources Cited: Scully, Terence, ed. and transl. Chiquart's 'On Cookery': A Fifteenth Century Savoyard Culinary Treatise. American University Series, Series IX, vol 22, 1986. Peter Lang Publishing Cotgrave, Randle. A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. Reproduced from the first edition, London, 1611 (University of South Carolina Press, Columbia. 2nd printing, 1968). Prescott, James. Le Viandier de Taillevent. (Alfarhaugr Publishing Society.2nd Edition, 1989). Renfrow, Cindy. Take a Thousand Eggs or More. (1990, Privately Published). Spices mentioned can all be obtained in person or by mail order from Tony Hill at WorldSpice, 1509 Western Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. Phone: 206.682.7274. Email: hill at worldspice.com. ------ If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan. Edited by Mark S. Harris minced-meat-art Page 3 of 3