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White-Dish-art - 10/7/18

"The White Dish of Europe" by Lady Eleanor of Forth Castle. (Blancmange).

NOTE: See also the files: blancmange-msg, Blancmange-art, rice-msg, almond-milk-msg, chicken-msg, fish-msg, fruit-citrus-msg, peas-msg.

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Thank you,

Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

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"The White Dish of Europe"

by Lady Eleanor of Forth Castle

$C:\Users\Brooklyn\Pictures\A and S\IMG_20180109_140417426.jpg$

The two I have chosen to prepare are De'blanmangieri from Libro della cucina del secolo XIV (a collection of Italian recipes from the 14^th century edited by Francesco Zabrini) and the Lenten version of Bianco mangiare from Libro de arte coquinaria (The Art of Cooking by The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como)

Recipes for a dish consisting of chicken (or fish for days when animal products were forbidden), almonds, milk and rice in different variations appear in numerous collections throughout various centuries and cultures during the medieval period. My research (to date) has located 12 versions from English, French, Italian and German sources. The earliest recipe I have located is Blank-Mang in the Forme of Cury, an English collection of recipes from the 1390s.

Using my limited knowledge of foreign languages (from school and travel) I translated both recipes as far as I was able; I used online resources after that.

Recipe 1: De'blanmangerieri

(My translation is below)

Togli petti di galline, cotti, e, posti sopra una taola, falli sfilare piu sottili che puoi.

Take breasts of chicken, cooked, and put them on a table, and make them as thin as you can.

Intanto lava il riso e sciugalo, e fanne farina, e cernila con setaccio o stamigna;

Meanwhile, wash and dry the rice , and make flour, and sift it with a sieve or stamigna¹

poi distemperala detta farina del riso con latte di capra o di pecora o d'amandole, e metti a bollire in una pentola ben lavata e netta;

then temper the rice flour with goat's milk or sheep's milk or almond milk, and put to boil in a well washed pan

e quando comincia a bollire, mettivi dentro i detti petti sflati, con zuccaro bianco e lardo bianco fritto; e guardalo dal fumo, e fallo bullire temperatamente senza impeto di fuoco, sic he sia ispesso, come suole essere il riso.

and when it begins to boil, put in it the said split breasts, with white sugar and fried white lard; and keep from the smoke, and cook gently, without full force of the fire, be it thickened, as the rice

E quando tu menestrarai, mettivi suso zuccaro trito o pesto, e lardo fritto.

And when you serve it, put sugar, crushed or pounded, and fried lard.

Se tu vuoli, puolilo fare col riso intero da per se, apparicchiato e ordinate col latte di capra, a modo oltramontano;

If you want, you can make it with whole rice for yourself prepared together with goat's milk, in a modern way;

e quando tu il dai, mettivi su amandole soffritte nel lardo, e zenzovo bianco tagliato.

and when you give it, you put on almonds fried in lard, and cut white ginger

Materials:

· Fresh boneless and skinless chicken breast

· Arborio rice (I used Arborio rice after learning this rice was grown in Italy)

· Goats milk

· Granulated white sugar (ground with a mortar and pestle to resemble the fine sugar used in period)

· Fresh Pork Belly

· Almonds

· Mortar and pestle

A fork with two tines, similar to the "forcina" pictured on Plate 13 in Appendix II (Engravings) in The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) (Illustrated in Appendix 1)

Methods/Techniques:

Step 1: I boiled fresh pork belly until the fat melted to make the rendered pork fat that would be used in the recipe and to sauté the blanched almonds for the garnish. I used the directions found in The Art of Cooking by Martino of Como (in Chapter 1) translated by Jeremy Parzen except that I did not let the crushed pork belly and salt sit for a full day; it was only for several hours. The recipe is shown in Appendix 2.

Step 2: I cut the rest of the pork belly not used for pork fat into small cubes and fried them, to be used later to garnish the dish.

Step 3: I boiled a large boneless skinless chicken breast until a safe internal temperature was reached (165 degrees F). According to Maestro Martino [2], this is the preferred method for cooking chicken in period (the other being roasting)

Step 4: After the chicken cooled, I used the two-tined fork to shred the chicken into fine strands.

Step 5: I blanched a quarter cup of almonds, removed the skins after they had cooled, and then sautéed them in the rendered pork fat (to be used for the garnish). I learned after burning the first batch of almonds that this step had to be taken by itself as the almonds burned quickly if not given full attention.

Step 6: I rinsed and dried two tablespoons of the rice. After the rice grains had dried I ground them into flour using a mortar and pestle.

Step 7: I heated about two cups of goats milk and added the rice flour and stirred until it started to thicken. The recipe gives the option of using goat, sheep or almond milk. I chose to use goat milk because it was available locally and sheep milk was not. I also chose to use it as an ingredient I have not used before.

Step 8: I then added the shredded chicken, two tablespoons of white sugar and a teaspoon of fried pork fat. I continued to cook on medium heat and stir until it reached a low boil.

At one point I thought the mixture was not getting very thick and I decided to grind another tablespoon of rice grains to make more flour. I didn't bother to wash and dry the grains first and discovered that the grains were much harder to grind down into flour without that first step. I quickly washed and dried the grains as before, ground them into flour and added to the mixture which thickened more as a result.

The mixture was then poured into a serving dish and after it cooled I garnished it with a combination of items from both versions (sugar and fried pork fat from the first and almonds sautéed in the pork fat from the other).

Complexity:

· A period method was used to render the pork fat

· I blanched the almonds and removed their skins by hand

· I prepared my own rice flour by washing and drying the rice grains and then ground them with a mortar and pestle

· I used a mortar and pestle to grind granulated white sugar into a finer consistency before used to garnish the dish

· I recognized that more rice flour was needed to thicken the dish

Recipe 2: Bianco mangiare in Quadragesima.

Lenten Blancmange

(My translation is below)

Per farne dece menestre: pigliarai una libra³ et meza d'amandole mondate et pista molto bene como è ditto di sopra,

To make ten pottages: take approximately a pound of almonds cleansed and crushed as it is said above (the previous recipe in the text)

et habi una mollicha di pane biancho mollata in brodo biancho di peselli.

And take crumbs of white bread dropped into white broth of peas

Et non havendo piselli poi sopplire con altro brodo, facendo bollire in l'acqua un pane bianchissimo per spatio di meza hora, mettendo a moglio la ditta mollicha in questo brodo.

And not having peas, then supplement with other broth, boiling in the water a very white bread in this broth for half an hour

Poi habi qualche bon pesce di mare, o bon luccio d'acqua dolce cotto allesso.

Then take some fish from the sea, or freshwater pike boiled

Et de la polpa loro più soda et più biancha ne prenderai meza libra, et pistala molto bene con le amandole et mollicha, et con un pocho di brodo, et del sucho d'aranci, et non havendoni sopplirai con un pocho d'agresto agiungendovi dell'acqua rosata, et meza libra di zenzevero mondo, con octo oncie di zuccharo.

And firm and more white you will take approximately a half pound of fish, and crush very well with the almonds and bread, and with a little of broth, and orange juice and if you have not, supplement with a little bit of verjuice and rosewater, and approximately six ounces of ginger, and eight ounces of sugar

Et queste cose tutte stemperate inseme, passate per la stamegnia, le mettirai accocere in una pignatta per una octava d'ora discosta dal focho che non piglie fume;

And these things all mixed together, passed through the strainer, you will place them in a pot for an eighth of an hour far from the fire that does not smoke;

et di continuo le menerai col cocchiaro.

and continually you will keep cooking

This is not a complete recipe; however the other recipes for blancmanges in the same recipe collection (The Art of Cooking, The First Modern Cookery Book – The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como) have the last steps of adding the chicken or fish (depending on what version is being made) back into the mixture being cooked before garnishing and serving the dish. Therefore I concluded this was what should be done to complete the recipe.

I was also concerned with the direction to combine the crushed almonds with the fish, bread, and the other ingredients through the stamegna because this utensil (pictured in Appendix 1) appears to have holes so large that the pieces of almond would pass through along with the fish and I was sure that was not the intention. I located another recipe in The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (Book III, Recipe 218, called "To prepare whitedish with fish flesh" in which he specifically directs to make an almond milk by combining almonds which have been soaked and crushed in a mortar with cool water and a different mortar to crush the fish (and the recipe continues from that point). Therefore I felt justified in preparing the almond milk first and combing that with the fish and other ingredients instead of the almonds themselves.

Materials:

· Almonds

· Bread, baked a day ahead (pictured in Appendix 1)

· Dried peas (for the broth) (replaces fresh peas (dried peas were probably used because fresh peas were only available during a short time during the year and also would yield a more flavorful broth)

· Fresh fish (I used cod since it was readily available)

· Sugar (ground fine in a mortar and pestle to resemble sugar in period) (pictured in Appendix 1)

· Blood orange juice (which I squeezed from a fresh blood orange), which I used for its tartness which is similar to Seville oranges in period)

· Fresh ginger

· Mortar and pestle

· Colander (in place of the stamegna – pictured on Plate 11 in Appendix II (Engravings) in The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) (Illustrated in Appendix 1)

· Cheesecloth

Method/Technique:

The day before I cooked the Bianco mangiare I purchased the ingredients to be used (almonds, dried peas, fresh fish (I used cod because it was available locally), and fresh blood oranges (I used blood oranges because of their tartness similar to oranges in period). I already had the other ingredients on hand.

I also prepared some the ingredients to be used the next day:

· I baked the bread (using flour, salt, water and yeast)

· I soaked the dried peas to be cooked the next day for the broth to be used to soak the bread

· I took three cups of shelled almonds (slightly over one pound), and soaked them overnight in the refrigerator⁴

The next day I prepared the recipe as follows:

Step 1: I prepared the almond milk by removing the skins from the soaked almonds and combining them with six cups of cold water [5] and grinding them with a food processor (due to time constraints). The mixture was then strained through several layers of cheesecloth to produce almond milk.

Step 2: I prepared a broth using the peas, which had been soaking overnight

Step 3: I took several slices of the bread I made the day before and soaked them in the reserved pea broth

Step 4: I squeezed a blood orange by hand to extract the juice

Step 5: I boiled a pound of cod until it reached a safe temperature (145⁰). I then crushed the cooked cod with a mortar and pestle. (Pictured in Appendix 1)

Step 5: About half of the crushed cod was combined with the almond milk, bread (which had been soaked in pea broth), the blood orange juice, some of the broth made from boiling the cod, fresh ginger and sugar.

Step 6: The resulting mixture was pressed through a colander and then was cooked and stirred over a medium temperature until thickened.

Step 7: The remaining crushed cod was stirred into the mixture. I continued to stir the thickened liquid and cod until it was heated through. It was then removed from the heat.

I poured the Bianco mangiare into a serving dish and garnished it (with blood orange slices, (my choice), as well as thin slices of fresh ginger).

I observed that whereas the De'blanmangieri made with chicken and rice flour thickened to a pudding consistency as it cooled, this version using fish remained as a thick soup or stew (pottage) containing pieces of fish. Based on the word "menestre" used at the start of the recipe I believe this to be the correct consistency for this dish.

Complexity:

· I baked the bread used to prepare the dish

· I cooked the dried peas to get the broth to use in the dish

· I made fresh almond milk with raw almonds

· I used a mortar and pestle to grind granulated white sugar into a finer consistency before used in the recipe

· I used a mortar and pestle to crush the fish

· I squeezed the blood oranges by hand to extract the juice

· Blood oranges were used to replicate the sour flavor of the Seville oranges used in period. Although other orange varieties with a sweet flavor may have been known to Como (I know they were familiar to Bartolomeo Scappi a century later) in numerous other recipes in The Art of Cooking, Como suggests to replace verjuice (which has a sour taste) with orange juice (or vice versa). I concluded his purpose was to replace one ingredient with a sour taste with another with a sour taste if the first one was not available.

· I used personal judgement as to how much orange juice to use

· I recognized the recipe was incomplete and researched the other blancmange recipes in the source to determine the next step(s)

· I realized the correct consistency had been reached because of the word used to describe the servings (menestre) is used elsewhere in the same recipe collection for pottages.

Conclusions:

Recipes need to be read completely before starting in case there are steps that appear to be missing.

Published translations need to be compared to the original text to verify methods and ingredients.

Even though neither recipe says to add salt during cooking, it may still have been added. The final paragraph of Cuoco Napoletano (The Neapolitan Recipe Collection), translated by Jeremy Parzen, states: "Note that you need to add a sufficient amount of salt for everything. Remember that if the cook is not too sharp, all the sweet things that he makes will be either overly salted or too bland. Make sure that the cook is a glutton, not for his sake but rather for his master's."

Footnotes

[1] stamigna is woven cloth with a wide weave used in the kitchen as a sieve. I used cheesecloth as a substitute.

[2] Cappone bono vole esser allesso ("Good capon should be boiled") The Art of Cooking, The First Modern Cookery Book – The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como

[3] Libra was equivalent to approximately twelve ounces

[4] many modern recipes for almond milk I located on line for almond milk call for this first step because it softens the almonds

[5] the modern recipes for almond milk I located on line for almond milk call for either a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of cold water to raw almonds

Bibliography

Libro De Arte Coquinaria, Composto Per Lo Egregio Maestro Martino (University of Marburg, Germany)

The Medieval Kitchen, Recipes from France and Italy by Odile Redon, Franҁoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi ) (The University of Chicago Press , 1998)

The Art of Cooking, The First Modern Cookery Book – The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como, translated by Jeremy Parzen (University of California Press, 2005)

The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) translated by Terence Scully (University of Toronto Press, 2008)

Works cited

Website: https://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2009/03/renaissance-kitchen.html Accessed on 2/1/2018

Cuoco Napoletano (The Neapolitan Recipe Collection), translated by Jeremy Parzen

Appendix 1

Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) d

Two tined knive (forcina) is pictured on the bottom left

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Freshly baked bread to soak in the pea broth

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Sugar ground fine with mortar and pestle

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Crushing the cod with the mortar and pestle

Two samples of the Stamegna are pictured on the right side of this plate.

Appendix 2

Another translation of De'Blanmangerieri

The Medieval Kitchen, Recipes from France and Italy by Odile Redon, Franҁoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi ) (The University of Chicago Press , 1998)

"Take cooked breasts of chicken and put them on a table and shred them into the finest fibers you can. Then wash the rice and dry it, and make it into flour, and put it through a stamigna; then moisten this rice flour with goat's, sheep's, or almond milk, and boil it in a well-washed and clean pan; and when it begins to boil, add those shredded breasts, with white sugar and fried white pork fat; and keep it away from the smoke and let it boil gently without excessive fire, so that it becomes as thick as the rice should be. And when you serve it, top it with crushed or pounded sugar, and fried pork fat. If you like, you can make it with whole rice, moistened and prepared with goat's milk, in the foreign style; and when you serve it up, top it with almonds fried in pork fat and sliced white ginger.

Another translation of Bianco Mangiare in Quadragesmia

The Art of Cooking, The First Modern Cookery Book – The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como, translated by Jeremy Parzen (University of California Press, 2005)

"To make ten servings, take a libra¹ and a half of peeled almonds and crush well, and take some bread white that has been soaked in white pea broth. If you do not have any peas, substitute with another broth by boiling very white bread in water for half an hour and then soak the above-mentioned bread white in this broth. Then take some good saltwater fish or some good freshwater pike that has been boiled. Take a half libra of its most firm and white meat and crush well with the almonds and bread white, a little broth, a half libra of peeled ginger, eight ounces of sugar, and some orange juice, which if unavailable, can be substituted by a little verjuice to which rosewater has been added. Incorporate and pass through a stamine, cook in a pot for an eighth of an hour, away from the flame so that it does not burn, and stir continuously with a spoon."

How to Prepare Rendered Pork Lard

Translation of "Per far structo de porco" from The Art of Cooking, The First Modern Cookery Book – The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como, translated by Jeremy Parzen (University of California Press, 2005)

Take some fresh pork fat or fresh lard and cut into pieces the size of a chestnut, and add a generous amount of salt. Then crush well and let set for a day; and then place in a pot over heat; and for a hundred librae, add ten or twelve jugs of water and let boil slowly until thoroughly melted. Then strain the rendered lard through a stamine; and very slowly scum the top so that you do not remove the water below; and place the rendered lard in a clean jar and keep in a cool place. With this method, it will keep for a year.

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Copyright 2018 by Denise Oberlin. <irene_31320 at yahoo.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, please place 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.