compost-msg – 8/25/06
A medieval pickled food composed of mixed fruits and vegetables. Also called compote. "Compost is a mixed pickle, usually, but not always, made from mixed fruits, vegetables, and sometimes immature nuts, usually in a sauce made from honey, white wine, vinegar, mustard and other spices."
NOTE: See also the files: campfood-msg, food-storage-msg, canning-msg, drying-foods-msg, meat-smoked-msg, stockfish-msg, vinegar-msg, eggs-msg,
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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.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: "Philip W. Troy" <troy at asan.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 00:57:03 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Pickles
linneah at erols.com wrote:
> Why haven't I seen more pickled things (veggies and meats) served at feasts?
> Is it because it takes too much planning or is there something else?
>
> Linneah
It might be just that people don't want to store the food for long
enough in advance for the process to be completed. I've had good sucess
with the composte recipe from The Forme of Cury. It's a sort of cooked
pickle/jam/chutney. A bit like Italian mustard fruits.
Adamantius
From: "James L. Matterer" <jmattere at weir.net>
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 11:49:41 -0700
Subject: Re: SC - SC Pickels
Cossette wrote:
>Why haven't I seen more pickled things (veggies and meats) served at
>feasts? Is it because it takes too much planning or is there something
>else?
>
>Linneah
Well, I've been making pickled dishes an integral part of every feast
I've done for the past several years. The most popular seems to be
English-style pickled eggs (which I usually make as part of a
Ploughman's Lunch, with pickled onions, bread, & cheese), but one of my
favorites is a dish called "Compost" which contains raisins, pears,
cabbage, walnuts, mustard seeds, anise seeds, white radishes... all
pickled together in white wine and honey. Here's the original recipe
with
my redaction:
Compost
redaction by Master Ian Damebrigge of Wychwood
"Take rote of persel, of pasternak, of rafens, scape hem and waische
hem clene. Take rapes & caboches, ypared and icorue. Take an erthen
panne with clene water & set it on the fire; cast alle thise therinne.
Whan they buth boiled cast therto peeres, & parboile hem wel. Take alle
thise thynges vp & lat it kele on a faire cloth. Do therto salt; whan it
is colde, do hit in a vessel; take vyneger & powdour & safroun & do
therto, & lat alle thise thynges lye therin al nyyt, other al day. Take
wyne greke & hony, clarified togider; take lumbarde mustard & raisons
coraunce, al hoole, & grynde powdour of canel, powdour douce & aneys
hole, & fenell seed. Take alle thise thynges & cast togyder in a pot of
erthe, & take therof whan thou wilt & serue forth."
- -Curye on Inglish, p. 120-121
The following is a modified (but just as tasty) version of the
medieval recipe, containing only the "pasternak" (carrots- from the
botanical "pastinaca"), "caboches" (cabbage), "peeres" (pears) and
"raisons of courace" (currants). The other medieval ingredients are
"rote of persel" (parsley root), "rafens" (radishes), and "rapes" (white
turnip).
2 lbs. carrots, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, in small pieces
3-4 pears, sliced thin
1 tsp. salt
6 tblsp. vinegar
2 tsp. ginger
few threads saffron
1 bottle (750 ml.) white wine
1/2 c. honey
1 tblsp. mustard seed
3/4 c. currants
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tblsp. each anise seed & fennel seed
Boil the carrots and cabbage for several minutes, then add the pears.
Cook until tender; drain well. Lay vegetables and pears in a large,
flat, non-metallic dish. Sprinkle on the salt. Let cool, then sprinkle
on the vinegar, ginger, and saffron. Cover with a cloth and let stand
for several hours or overnight. When ready, mix the vegetables with the
currants and the seeds. Place in a sealable container and set aside. In
a separate pot, bring the honey, cinnamon, and wine to a boil, skimming
off the scum until clear. Remove from heat and pour over the vegetable
mixture. Let cool and seal. May be stored for a week or more. Serves 12
- - 15.
Bibliography: Hieatt, Constance B. and Butler, Sharon. Curye on
Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century
(Including the Forme of Cury). London: For the Early English Text
Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.
From: "Philip W. Troy" <troy at asan.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 14:10:02 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - SC Pickels
James L. Matterer wrote:
>
> Well, I've been making pickled dishes an integral part of every feast
> I've done for the past several years. The most popular seems to be
> English-style pickled eggs (which I usually make as part of a
> Ploughman's Lunch, with pickled onions, bread, & cheese), but one of my
> favorites is a dish called "Compost" which contains raisins, pears,
> cabbage, walnuts, mustard seeds, anise seeds, white radishes... all
> pickled together in white wine and honey. Here's the original recipe
> with my redaction:
<Original recipe snipped for space>
I've loved this dish for several years. I'm interested in your mention
of walnuts above. The source you cite doesn't mention them, but the
recipe in Le Menagier for a similar dish does mention green, immature
nuts, probably walnuts although no specific type is mentioned. I've
tried this with immature almonds, which I can get at Middle Eastern
markets near me about once a year. When cooked they resemble those large
"Italian" string beans.
> The following is a modified (but just as tasty) version of the
> medieval recipe, containing only the "pasternak" (carrots- from the
> botanical "pastinaca"), "caboches" (cabbage), "peeres" (pears) and
> "raisons of courace" (currants). The other medieval ingredients are
> "rote of persel" (parsley root), "rafens" (radishes), and "rapes" (white
> turnip).
Pretty similar to what I make. One trick I've been using is to put the
mixture into sterile canning jars. You could argue that this defeats the
period purpose of pickling, but it does prolong the shelf life by quite
a bit, and any unopened jars can actually be saved for the next time you
might want them (including another event, if you're of a mind).
Actually, if sealed jars are refrigerated, the compost will keep for
upwards of a year with no serious diminution of quality.
This is a wonderful Pennsic food and is especially good with cold meats
or sausage.
Adamantius
From: "Sue Wensel" <swensel at brandegee.lm.com>
Date: 22 Apr 1997 14:57:55 -0500
Subject: Re(2): SC - SC Pickels
> > Compost
> > redaction by Master Ian Damebrigge of Wychwood
> <snip!>
> > 1 bottle (750 ml.) white wine
> <snip!>
>
> This sounds really good. Can anyone suggest something I could
> substitute for the wine? (or am I out of luck on this one?)
>
> Claricia Nyetgale
> Canton of Caldrithig
> Barony of Skraeling Althing
> Ealdormere (still mostly in the Middle Kingdom)
Option 1: Try to get non-alcoholic white wine.
Option 2: Increase the amount of vinegar and water to approximate the amount
of white wine. I think the ratio may be 1 part vinegar to 3 (or 4?) parts of
water. You may also need to increase the sugar to account for the increased
tartness of the vinegar.
Derdriu
From: "James L. Matterer" <jmattere at weir.net>
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 20:35:32 -0700
Subject: Re: Re(2): SC - SC Pickels
> This sounds really good. Can anyone suggest something I could
> substitute for the wine? (or am I out of luck on this one?)
I would suggest using white grape juice that has been tempered with
cider vinegar or malt vinegar - just enough to sour the juice and
increase the acidity level to a close approximation of wine.
Master Ian
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 02:11:30 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Compost: was SC - bird or bay?
<snip>
It's a mixed pickle/chutney similar to Italian mustard fruits. Recipes
for it appear in le Menagier and in the Forme of Cury. The French
version calls for clove-and-ginger studded, immature nuts (probably
walnuts, but possibly hazels or some other type) to be pickled, along
with several other fruits and vegetables, each separately processed and
added to the mixture when their peak harvest date arrives (How's that
for thinking medievally, Aoife ; ) ) The English version is much more
straightforward, with the various ingredients being parboiled, diced,
salted overnight, and added to a hot vinegar pickle / honey-mustard
syrup.
As I say, I have a recipe for making something like 50 pounds or more of
the stuff, and have not yet had the opportunity to reduce it to more
managable quantities...unless...
waitaminnit. Go to (those of you who can) these URL's:
http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/cooking/ppb.html#compot
and
http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/cooking/twelfth.night.html#Sauseges
The first URL has a recipe for a reasonable amount of compost made from
green almonds, in a synthesis of the French and English versions.
The second has a recipe for an ungodly huge amount of strictly English
compost. You can ignore the accompanying sausage recipe, which isn't
period anyway. Or not, as you wish.
Adamantius
Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 18:36:59 +1000
From: Robyn Probert <robyn.probert at lawpoint.com.au>
Subject: Re: SC - Compost recipe
Ras wrote:
>Yep, it's mine. :-) Problem was I call it something else entirely in my modern
>kitchen. :-) Sorry. The liquid measurements are accurate for the way I do it
>because as the harvest season progresses I add more of the fruits and veggies
>to it as the season progresses. I don't exactly know what the reduced amounts
>of liquid would be. The consistency should be like a relish (maybe slightly
>more liquidy so the main ingredients are submersed). Hope this helps.
Here is a redaction of the same recipie from "The Medieval Cookbook" by
Maggie Black, published by British Museum Press. This is a nice book which
*does* include the original with the redaction.
COMPOST
900g/2 lb mixed parsley roots, carrots, turnip and radishes
450g/1 lb white cabbage
450g/1 lb hard eating pears
6 Tbsp salt
1 Tsp ground ginger
1/2 Tsp saffron threads
2 cups white wine vinegar
50g/2oz currants
2 1/2 cups fruity white wine
6 Tbsp clear honey
1 Tsp french mustard
1/8 Tsp each cinnamon and pepper
1/4 Tsp each anise and fennel seed
50g/2oz white sugar
Prepare the root vegetables and slice them thinly. Core and shred the
cabbage. Put these vegetables into a large pan of water and bring slowly to
the boil. Peel, core and cut up the pears and add them to the pan. Cook
until they start to soften. Drain the contents of the pan and spread in a
5cm/2in layer in a shallow non-metallic dish. Sprinkle with the salt,
saffron, ginger and 4 Tbsp of vinegar. Leave covered for 12 hours. Rinse
well, then add the currants. Pack into sterilised storage jars, with at
least 2.5cm/1in headspace.
Put the wine and honey in a pan. Bring to simmering point and skim. Add the
rest of the vinegar and all the remaining spices and sugar. Reduce the heat
and stir without boiling until the sugar dissolves. Bring back to the boil.
Pour over the vegetables, covering them with 1cm/ 1/2in linquid. Cover with
vinegar proof seals and store.
Rowan
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
Robyn Probert
Customer Service Manager Phone +61 2 9239 4999
Services Development Manager Fax +61 2 9221 8671
Lawpoint Pty Limited Sydney NSW Australia
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 09:03:06 -0400
From: Phil & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - pickled vegetables and fruits
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Looking through the pickled-food-msg file in my Florilegium, I find that
> a number of the recipes don't seem to name specific vegetables. However,
> I did find the following ones mentioned:
>
> Lemons, oranges, raisins, pears, cabbage, walnuts, white radishes,
> currants, carrots, turnips, mushrooms, onions, cucumbers, lentils, chard.
>
> Many of these appear to be a mix of vegetables at once called compost
> and not just a single vegetable at a time.
Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. There's an English recipe for
compost in The Forme of Cury, which appears to make a product pretty similar
to the pickled nut recipe in Le Menagier de Paris, except it uses a slightly
smaller variety of fruits and vegetables, all more or less in season at the
same time.
The recipe in Le Menagier is, well, disguised, I think, as several recipes in
sequence, but it is, I think, one long, complex recipe. How closely it is
expected to be followed is in question, but basically the process seems to
call for making a nut pickle, then when something else on the list, that is
ready for harvest or market two weeks later, is available, it is cooked and
added to the original pickle, and so on. It seems likely the pickle is stored
in a stone crock with a lid, and items would be dipped out of it about as
frequently as they are added, but as autumn progresses the variety of the
pickle grows.
And, BTW, this stuff really does keep well, especially refrigerated. Of
course, before we worry too much about the fact that Le Menagier's bride
wouldn't have had refrigeration, we should consider the effects of storing a
wet pickle in a porous stone or earthenware jar in a larder or cellar, in
autmn. Maybe not 35 - 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but possibly not too far from
it, either.
Adamantius
stgardr, East
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 15:33:35 -0600
From: Melissa Martines <mmartines at brighthorizons.com>
Subject: SC - Vegetable Names
Help! I am trying to redact the following recipe for compost:
Compost from Curye on Inglysch pp. 120-21
"Take rote of persel, of pasternak, of rafens, scrape hem and waishe hem
clene. Take rapes and caboches, ypared and icone. Take an erthen panne
with clene water and set it on the fire; cast alle thise perinne. When they
both boiled cast therto peeres, and perboil hem well. Take alle thise
thynges and lat it kele on a faire clothe. Do therto salt; when it is cold,
do hit in a vessal; take vynegar and powdour and safroun and do therto, and
lat alle thise thynges lye there all night, other all day. Take wyne greke
and hony, clarified together; take lumbards mustard and raisouns coraunce.
All hoole, and gryne powder of canel, powder douce and aneys hole and fennel
seed. Take all thise thynges and cast togyder in a pot of erthe, and take
therof when thou wilt and serve it forth.
I have a redaction by a Master Iain, but he leaves out some of the
ingredients, and I also don't agree with him on all his interpretations of
what is what.
If anyone has any documentation or educated guesses about what the following
items are, please let me know. Thanks in advance!!
Rote of persel
Rafens
Rapes
Caboches
Also, did we ever determine if raisin of courance were currents or raisins?
Morgan MacBride
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 22:41:06 GMT
From: kerric at pobox.alaska.net (Kerri Canepa)
Subject: SC - Need help with "Compost"
And I don't mean that stuff you put in your garden...
I'm looking at Form of Cury and specifically at Compost. I'm having more trouble
than I'd like figuring out the ingredients and cooking process. Here's the
recipe as best that I can type it, considering I don't have the special
characters or superscripts.
Note: ? are the funny "p" character for the hard "th" sound, I'm guessing.
Take rote of psel (parsley root?), pasternak of rasens (carrots? parsnips?),
scrape hem and waisthe he clene, take rap (turnips) & caboch (cabbage) ypared
and icorne. take an erthen pane w clene wat & set it on the fire. cast all ?ise
?inne. when ?ey buth boiled cast ?to peer (pears?) & pboile hem wel. take ?ise
thyng up & lat it kele on a fair cloth, do ?to salt whan it is colde in a vessel
tkae vineg (vinegar) & powdo & safron & do ?to, & lat all ?ise thing lye ?in al
nyzt o? al day, take wyne greke and hony clarified togid lumbarde mustard
&raisons corance al hoo. & gyne powdo of canel powdo douce & ancys (anise) hole.
& fenell seed. take alle ?ise thing & cast togyd i apot of erthe. and tkae ?of
whan ? wilt & sue forth.
My guess is you take all the parsley root, carrots or parsnips, turnips and
cabbage, chunk them up and boil them in water. Then I'm not so sure. Looks like
pears are parboiled and added or just added and parboiled, the whole thing is
taken out of the cooking water and let cool. When cool it's put back in a pan
with salt, vinegar, and saffron where it's allowed to sit for a period of time.
Then greek wine and clarified honey along with lombard mustard, dried currents,
powdered cinnamon, powder douce, whole aniseed (?) and fennel seed are added.
It's served at room temperature.
Can anyone tell me if I'm on track or way out in left field?
Anyone want to take a guess on Greek wine and Lombard mustard?
Last question, it appears this is a "have it around just in case" dish; would it
have been served at dinner?
Kerri
Cedrin Etainnighean, OL
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 03:13:14 EDT
From: Korrin S DaArdain <korrin.daardain at juno.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Need help with "Compost"
On Fri, 01 Oct 1999 22:41:06 GMT kerric at pobox.alaska.net (Kerri Canepa)
writes:
>And I don't mean that stuff you put in your garden...
>
>I'm looking at Form of Cury and specifically at Compost. I'm having
>more trouble
>than I'd like figuring out the ingredients and cooking process. Here's
>the
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Compost
Forme of Cury 103. Copyright 1997 by L. J. Spencer, Jr. (a.k.a.
Lord Ras al Zib) Posted by Lord Ras (LrdRas at aol.com). Reposted by
Bronwynmgn (Bronwynmgn at aol.com)
Take rote of parsel, of pasternak, rafens, scrape hem and waische
hem clene. Take rapes & caboches, ypared and icorue. Take an erthen panne
with clene water & set it on the fire; cast all (th)ise (th)erinne. When
(th)ey buth boiled cast (th)erto peeres, & perboile hem wel. Take alle
(th)ise thynges vp & lat it kele on a faire cloth. Do (th)erto salt; whan
it is colde, do hit in a vessel; take vinegar & powdour & safroun & and
do (th)erto, & lat alle (th)ise thynges lye (th)erin al ny(gh)t, o(th)er
al day. Take wyne greke & honey, clarified togider; take lumbarde mustard
& raisouns coraunce, al hoole, & gynde powdour of canel, powdour douce,
anys hole, & fenell seed. Take alle (th)ise thynges & castt togyder in a
pot of erthe, & take (th)erof whan (th)oui wilt & serue forth.
There is a redaction in 'Pleyn Delit which, IMHO, deviates away
from the original in very significant ways so I am not posting it. My
translation and redaction follows:
Take parsley root, parsnips, radishes, scrape them and wash them
clean. Take turnips and cabbages, pared and cored. Take an earthen pan
with clean water and set it on the fire; cast all this therein. When they
both boiled cast therein pears, and parboil them well. Take all these
things up and let it cool on a fair cloth. Do thereto salt; when it is
cold, do it in a vessel; take vinegar and powder and saffron and do
thereto, and let all these things lie therein all night, other(wise) all
day. Take Greek wine and honey, clarified together; take Lumbard mustard