White-Foods-art - 4/3/20

"Seemingly Bland White Foods Can Be Tasty and Attractive" by Countess Tessa of the Gardens.

NOTE: See also the files: White-Dish-art, White-Mash-art, p-fd-coloring-msg, Edible-Flowrs-art, chestnuts-msg, Blancmange-art, blancmange-msg, armrd-turnps-msg.

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NOTICE -

This article was added to this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium, with the permission of the author. 

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator.

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org
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BASIC REDACTIONS
Seemingly Bland White Foods Can Be Tasty and Attractive
by Countess Tessa of the Gardens 
King's College Summer 2014 Class / Liz Lee

We will prepare three different "white” foods:  
onions / Sleet Sops;  
turnip roots / Naves;  
and pears / Peeres in Confyt

Oyle Sops sometimes called Sleet Sops

Onions, slit, sautéed in butter, scant salt, simmered w/ ale or wine, and broth, served over crusts of bread. I adapt my redaction processes to try several different ways.  Below is a source I like: 

Oyle soppes 

PERIOD: England, 15th century 
SOURCE: Harleian MS 4016 
CLASS: Authentic 
DESCRIPTION: Onion-ale soup served over bread 

ORIGINAL RECIPE: Oyle soppes. ¶ Take a good quantite of onyons, and myce hem, noyt to smale, & seth hem in faire water, And take hem vppe; and then take a good quantite of stale ale, as .iij. galons, And there-to take a pynte of goode oyle that is fraied, and cast the onyons there-to, And lete al boyle togidre a grete wile; and caste there-to Saffron and salt, And þen put brede, in maner of brewes, and cast the licour there-on, and serue hit forth hote. 
- Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Harleian MS. 279 & Harl. MS. 4016, with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1429, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS 55. London: for The Early English Text Society by N. Trübner & Co., 1888. 

GODE COOKERY TRANSLATION: Take a good quantity of onions, and mince them, not to small, & boil them in fair water, And take them up; and then take a good quantity of stale ale, as 3 gallons, And there-to take a pint of good oil that is fried, and cast the onions there-to, And let all boil together a great while; and cast there-to Saffron & salt, And then put bread, in manner of brews, and cast the liquid there-on, and serve it forth hot. 

INGREDIENTS:  Onions, Ale (stale), oil, saffron, salt. Day-old bread

DIRECTIONS: 

Boil the onions until only partially cooked; remove from the water and allow to completely dry. When dry, fry the onions in hot oil until completely cooked through; remove from oil. In a large soup pot, combine ale, onions, saffron, & salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and continue to cook for approx. 15 minutes to ½ hour. 

Cut the bread slices (sans crust) into small strips or squares; place these in the bottom of your serving bowl or in individual soup bowls. Ladle the hot soup over the bread, then serve it forth! 

A Boke of Gode CookeryMedieval Recipe Translations 
Oyle soppes © 2000 J L Matterer

Turnip Roots

Whole turnips, peeled, sliced thin (the thinner sliced, the quicker cooked), boiled in shallow water with torn sage leaves and slight salt; drained of most water, dressed with more torn sage.  Roasted chestnuts crushed may be added for a crunch.



Turnips were a staple food in medieval Europe; the poorest farmers had them 
as well as fine landed lords who found the taste of turnips intriguing. 
Photo by Liz Lee 2014 Turnips w Sage & Chestnuts

Naves aux Chateignes  -Turnips   -France, from Pleyn Delit #17

Cooking Staff Notes, Ansteorran Coronation, April 2014
Turnips, sage, salt, pepper, white wine, chestnuts will be cooked fresh on site by Tessa & Staff

Recipe for Naves / Turnips
Wash, peel, slice, and dice the fresh turnips.  
… We have 25 pounds but will not need to cook nearly all of them. 
 … Some turnips will be used raw in a display  near the big painted Viking sail.

Chop the chestnuts,  Pleyn Delit  #17 says use ¼ to ½ cup per every 2 lbs of chestnuts ; as many as you have time, energy to shell.

We have a TOTAL of about only 3 cups of chestnuts.
Place cut up turnips in large pot.
Per every 2 pounds of turnips, set aside 5 cups of water.
"         "     "                       "   add 1 cup of white wine
"         "     "                       "   add 1sprig fresh, torn sage 
"         "     "                       "   parboil turnips in only 4 cups of water;
Boil for 5 minutes. Salt to taste. 
Drain the turnips, then re-cover in the remaining 1 cup of water; 
Add the wine. 
Add chopped chestnut pieces.
Add more tor n sage and bring back to boil. Lower heat to simmer gently for 30 minutes.  
Turn off heat.   If need to rewarm for serving, warm on low heat, gently stirring only once or twice so as to not break up the turnips. 

Serving Staff:
Turnips, 20 large serving bowls, 20 slotted spoons, 

Peayrs in Cirup
Pears poached in wine then flavored with spices

Peeres in Confyt

Recipe adapted by Tessa
• 4 pears 
• 3 cups raspberry juice or blackberry juice 
• water (for poaching) 
• 2 cups sugar 
• 1/2 tsp. ginger

Peel pears, leaving the stems on, and cut a small amount off the bottoms so they will stand upright. Poach in water flavored with one cup of juice. Remove pears from water when they are just tender and place upright in a serving bowl. If desired, slice each pear in halves or quarters leaving about a half inch from the top uncut so the parts will remain attached. Make a syrup of remaining juice, sugar, and ginger. Bring syrup to a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer. Pour syrup over pears and serve hot.

Source [Curye on Inglish, Constance B. Hieatt & Sharon Butler (eds.)]: PEERES IN CONFYT. XX.VI. XII. Take peeres and pare hem clene. take gode rede wyne & mulberes oþer saundres and seeþ þe peeres þerin & whan þei buth ysode, take hem up, make a syryp of wyne greke. oþer vernage with blaunche powdour oþer white sugur and powdour gyngur & do the peres þerin. seeþ it a lytel & messe 


Photo by Liz Lee 2007 Pears in Confection

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Copyright 2014 by Liz Lee, Beaumont, TX. <tessa at gt.rr.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.

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Edited by Mark S. Harris	White-Foods-art	5 of 5