recipes-msg - 9/29/99

Various medieval recipes.

NOTE: See also these files: Redacting-Rec-art, Redacting-art, redacting-msg, vegetarian-msg, books-food-msg, cookbooks-bib, cookbooks-SCA-msg.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From:    Nemo 
To:      Ioseph Of Locksley
Date:    06-Jan-91 01:05pm
Subject: Aebleskivers

Nemo sends greetings to Mistress Sir Trude Lacklandia via her lord's net
access!
 
To she who asks, it shall be given...I was reading another conference today,
and found the following recipe forwarded from the INTERCOOK echo.  May you eat
them in good health!
 
* Forwarded by Rich Harper (ME2 1:104/419)
* Area : INTERCOOK
* From : Klaus Seistrup  at  2:230/114.15 29-Dec-90 17:58:00
* Subj.: Aebleskiver
 
Yo!
 
Somebody out there recently needed a recipe for 'aebleskiver' but I can't find the original msg.
 
Literally, 'aebleskiver' (approx. pron.: ableh-skeevor) means apple slices
(!), which sounded very delicious to me as a little child. My first 
encounter with aebleskiver was therefore a bitter disappointment since 
they've got absolutely NOTHING to do with apples! :-(
 
Anyway, I learned to enjoy 'em in spite of the missing apples :-) The 
following recipe is just ONE suggestion as to how to make those delicious 
 
'spheroids' - here we go:
 
      >>>>>>>  AEBLESKIVER  <<<<<<<
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      1 3/5 cups (4 dl) milk & beer
          1 oz (30 g) yeast
      1 3/4 oz (50 g) melted butter
          1 tbsp sugar
        1/2 tsp salt
          9 oz (250 g) wheat flour
        1/2 tsp cardamom
        2-3 eggs
 
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm mixture of milk & beer (3:1?). Then add the melted (and cooled!) butter, salt, sugar and the egg YOLKS. Mix thoroughly and let it ferment for an hour or so.
 
Then, just before baking, beat the egg whites until they're stiff and 
fluffy and add it carefully.

 For the baking you need a special pan (aebleskivepande), which usually 
has 7-8 holes into which you pour the dough. If you can't get hold of
such a pan, then you might try frying the dough as if it was french 
fries (shrimps, or whatever), but I can't guarantee that it'll work... 
 
Serve with strawberry (or black currant or ...) jelly and sugar. Tra-
ditionally they're to be served with very finely ground sugar (caster 
sugar), but I certainly dislike that 'coz it goes directly into your 
trachea if you inhale (and you need doing that every now and then, 
don't you?) while eating - so I tend to use 'normal' sugar...
 
       Bon appetit!
         - Klaus. 


From: STEWARTL at wood-emh1.ARmy.MIL (LOU STEWART)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Recipe needed
Date: 19 Apr 1993 10:30:20 -0400

My Greek cookbook, by Nicholas Tselementes, has a recipe for a spinach
pie, called Spanakopitta, which uses phyllo pastry, fresh spinach and
feta cheese.  I have no idea how period this recipe is, but the author
claims greek cookery was around before the Romans.  This is the recipe:

2 to 3 lbs. young spinach
1 lb. onions
1 1/2 cups olive oil
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped dill
1 bunch chopped scallions
8 to 10 sheets phyllo, large size
1/2 lb Feta cheese
Salt and Perrer to taste

Wash spinach in plenty of water and chop fine.  Mix in a large bowl with
parsley, dill and scallions.  After 10 minutes, drain and squeeze out water.
Chop onions and brown in oil.  Combine with other vegetables, add cheese
and mix well.  Salt and pepper to taste.
Grease shallow baking pan with oil and line with 4-5 pastry sheets, brushed
with oil and placed on top of each other.  Spread filling evenly over bottom
layers.  Cover with remaining pastry sheets.  Brush the top with oil, and
with the point of a knife, trace the crust in to square pieces.
Bake in a moderately hot oven for 40 minutes.  When golden brown, remove
from the oven, cool and cut.

The best I can remember, a "moderate" oven is 350 degrees.
Hope this helps.  Luigsech ni hIfearnain, Calanais Nuadh, Calontir


From: ayotte at milo.UUCP (Robert Arthur Ayotte)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Feast openers
Date: 5 Nov 1993 21:03:40 -0500

	It's good to hear that there's a large group of folks that are
activly seeking alternate and period feasting.  Much of the recent
discussion opens a new question.  What type of openers have worked in the
past for the Gentles here?  Recipies would be wonderful, or where we might
find them.

	I have found that many italian antipasti have changed very little
and offer almost unlimited possibilities (and can even be used as entire
meals in modern times)

Onions in vinegar-
5 pounds red onions sliced into thin rings
3 cups red wine Vinegar
3/4 cups sugar
2.5 teaspoons salt
1.5 tsp dry oregano, or 1.5 tablespoons fresh chopped fine

	Heat vinegar sugar and salt to a simmer, simmer until solids
desolved, remove from heat.  Add oregano and wit 5 minutes, pour over onions
and let sit at room temp for several hours (overnight).  This can hold in
the firdge for a week or so.

Marinated pastas-
	This I do free hand, so bear with me.  
In large bowl place precooked and cooled pasta, then sprinkel 1 tbsp of dry
herb (one of basil, oregano or one of your favorites) then drizzel olive oil
and red wine vinegar to lightly coat.  Finally press 3 cloves of garlic per
pound of pasta and add, mix well and chill for 3+ hours.

Marinated olives
Black olives...again this is free form...sorry

	Drain olives, and mix in basil and garlic cloved (lightly crushed),
put in jar.  Fill with 1/3 olive oil and 2/3 red wine vinegar.  Marinate at
room temp for a day or two, shaking up (inverting) once in a while.  Will
keep for a few weeks, or month+ in fridge.  Shake and drain before serving,
the marinade can be used over and over, or over pasta, or to marinate other
stuff.

	Sometime you do have to let folks how to eat some of the more
different foods, but the possitive thing is that they will try it just
because they were told how it was to be eaten.

	BTW, how long do those who do roast garlic roast it and at what temp?

Horace


From: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Lothar and pot lucks
Date: 17 Nov 1993 01:10:06 GMT
Organization: Cornell Law School

motto at cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto) wrote:
> I was thinking of bringing a roasted stuffed goose.  Would that be
> alright (I'm avoiding turkey)?  Does anyone know how it would be
> stuffed or trimmed in period?  What spices would be used?

I don't seem to have any worked out goose recipes. 

Here is a fifteenth century English stuffed goose--original not worked out:

Goose or capon farced. Take parsely, swines greece, or suet of sheep, and
parboil him in fair water and fresh boiling broth; and then take yuolks of
eggs hard boiled and hew him small, with the herbs and the salt; and cast
thereto pouder of Ginger, Pepper, Cinnamon, and salt, and grapes in time of
year; and in other time, take onions, and boil him; and when they been
boiled enough with the herbs and with the suet, all these together, then
put all in the goos, or in the capon; and then let him roast enough.
(spelling modernised)

> As a secondary dish, I was thinking about Grecian-style Lima beans,
> baked in casserole with lots of garlic.

It is not Greek, but here is a period Islamic beans with garlic:

Fuliyyah
Ibn al-Mabrad p. 21

Meat is boiled and fava beans are fried in fat, then you put them with the
meat and broth. Then you put pounded thyme, coriander and garlic with it.
Then you break an egg on it and sprinkle pepper and coriander seed on it.
It is covered until it thickens and taken off.

3/4 lb lamb (from 1 lb lamb chops) 	2 t fresh thyme (or 1 t dry)	2 eggs
2 c water	     1 1/2 T fresh coriander	               1/2 t black pepper
1 c dry fava beans (2 1/2 c soaked)   	1 large clove garlic (1/10 oz)	
1/2 t ground coriander seed
4-6 T fat	 	

Soak the beans overnight. Render the fat from about 6 oz of lamb fat,
giving 4-6 T of liquid fat; it would probably also work using olive oil.
Fry beans for about 10-15 minutes in the fat (just enough time for beans to
absorb most of the fat), then add to the meat, which has been boiling the
same length of time in 2 c water. Put thyme, chopped coriander, and peeled
garlic in a mortar and mash. Add to pot. Simmer for about another 45
minutes. Stir frequently, scraping the bottom, after adding the beans
(medium heat at most), since otherwise it can easily scorch. Beat two eggs
together and stir into the bubbling pot. Add pepper and coriander, then let
sit on low flame a few minutes while the egg sets. Serve.  This is good but
rather spicy; those who do not like spicy dishes might try using half the
quantity of pepper and garlic.

An alternative interpretation is that you are poaching an egg on top of the
Fuliyyah (“break an egg on it”). If you want to try it this way, start with
only 1 3/4 c of water, so that the Fuliyyah will come out thicker.
 
Hope this helps
-- 
David/Cariadoc
DDF2 at Cornell.Edu


From: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Feast formats
Date: 6 Dec 1993 22:42:04 GMT
Organization: Cornell Law School

Suze.Hammond at f56.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Suze Hammond) wrote:
> As an antidote to that "wisdom" have someone give you the recipe for
> "Armored Turnips", a period dish rather like turnips au gratin. (Methinks
> yclept "armored" because they are baked laid in a scale-armor pattern...)

Be careful--one repetition and it will be a historical fact. 

What Platina says is:

"Those who have a fortified gullet are pleased to call turnips "armored"
when they have been rolled in cheese, covered, as it were, with breastplate
and cuirass, as if their descent into the lower regions would not seem safe
without arms."

So it appears the analogy is to plate, not scale.

and someone else asked for the recipe.

         Armored Turnips
          Platina book 8

Cut up turnips that have been either boiled or cooked under the ashes.
Likewise do the same with rich cheese, not too ripe. These should be
smaller morsels than the turnips, though. In a pan greased with butter or
liquamen, make a layer of cheese first, then a layer of turnips, and so on,
all the while pouring in spice and some butter, from time to time. This
dish is quickly cooked and should be eaten quickly, too.

1 lb turnips (5 little)	2 T butter 	1/4 t ginger
10 oz cheddar cheese	1/2 t cinnamon	1/4 t pepper

Boil turnips about 30 minutes, peel and slice thin, layer turnips, sliced
cheese, etc. in 9"x5" baking pan, and bake 30 minutes at 350°.

> (Cabbage ought to be good too. You aren't cooking it right... Try Irish,
> Norse, German or Dutch recipes. I love colcannon, but my recipe has
> potatos, and is likely OOP.)

                Caboges
   Two Fifteenth Century p. 6/33

Take fayre caboges, an cutte hem, an pike hem clene and clene washe hem, an
parboyle hem in fayre water, an thanne presse hem on a fayre bord; an than
choppe hem, and caste hem in a fayre pot with goode fresshe broth, an wyth
mery-bonys, and let it boyle: thanne grate fayre brede and caste ther-to,
an caste ther-to Safron an salt; or ellys take gode grwel y-mad of freys
flesshe, y-draw thorw a straynour, and caste ther-to. An whan thou seruyst
yt inne, knocke owt the marw of the bonys, an ley the marwe ij gobettys or
iij in a dysshe, as the semyth best, and serue forth.

1 medium head cabbage    	4 lb marrow bones	   1 T salt
4 c beef broth   	pinch of saffron	    breadcrumbs
	
Wash cabbage. Cut it in fourths. Parboil it (i.e. dump into boiling water,
leave there a few minutes). Drain. Chop. Squeeze out water. Put it in a pot
with beef broth and marrow bones. Simmer until soft, stirring often enough
to keep it from sticking (about 20 minutes). Add saffron, salt, enough
bread crumbs to make it very thick. Simmer ten minutes more. Serve.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
DDF2 at Cornell.Edu


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: tbarnes at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Good Oatcakes! No BoD!
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 07:32:42 GMT

	Greetings from Lothar,

	I thought that it was only fair that people have an oatcake
recipie so that they can see what the BoD will be missing.

	Here it is:

	Oatcakes
	
	4 oz. (100 g.) fine oatmeal
	1/8 tsp baking soda
	1 tsp melted lard
	hot water
	oatmeal for rolling out

	Mix the ingredients together. Melt the fat. Stir in the fat and
enough hot water to make a stiff paste. Roll out onto a large round
board covered with oatmeal. Cut into six wedges. 
	Heat a griddle or thick frying pan and cook the oatcake until
they begin to curl at the edges. Turn and cook on the other side.
	Serve buttered with honey.

	[Withhold from the Board Member of your choice.]

	Taken from "Welsh Teas" Celtic Education Services, Ltd. Swansea
1976.

	(This is a small book of modern Welsh recipies for various sorts
of teas, and foods commonly served at tea-time in Wales. I am pretty
sure that it is NOT period (due to the baking soda). I have not
test-kitchened it yet.)

	Lothar \|/
		  0


From: hrjones at uclink.berkeley.edu (Heather Rose Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Good Oatcakes! No BoD!
Date: 21 Feb 1994 08:27:37 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley

[oatcake recipie deleted]
>
>	Taken from "Welsh Teas" Celtic Education Services, Ltd. Swansea
>1976.
>
>	(This is a small book of modern Welsh recipies for various sorts
>of teas, and foods commonly served at tea-time in Wales. I am pretty
>sure that it is NOT period (due to the baking soda). I have not
>test-kitchened it yet.)
>
>	Lothar \|/
>		0

There's a period Scottish recipie mentioned in passing by Froissart
(courtesy of the Penguin translation)

"The Scots ... take with them ... a large flat stone ... and a bag of
oatmeal ... they lay these stones on a fire and, mixing a little of their
oatmeal with water, they sprinkle the thin paste on the hot stone and
make a small cake, rather like a wafer ..."

Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn (nee Keridwen)


From: hrjones at uclink.berkeley.edu (Heather Rose Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Pre-1600 flower dishes
Date: 11 Mar 1994 05:12:42 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley

Michael McKay <mmckay at epas.utoronto.ca> wrote:
>	A friend of mine is planning on hosting a feast in July called
>the "Feast of Flowers" and she wants me to cater it with pre-1600
>dishes that employ flowers. Can any of you give me some recipes or sources?

Look for a recipie called "Sambocade". In its original form (many later
corrupted versions appear) it was a fritter of elder flowers. If you can find, 
it, there is a facsimile reprint (probably by the "English Experience"
series, but I'm missing some of the title pages) of a 1653 book entitled
"A Book of Fruits and Flowers" that has some relevant recipies -- although
later than your target period. The collection "A Fifteenth Century Cookry
Boke" has the following recipie:

Roseye

Take Almaunde Mylke and flowre of Rys, & Sugre, an Safroun,
an boyle hem y-fere; than take Red Rosys, and grynd fayre in a
morter with Almaunde mylke; than take Loches, an toyle hem with
Flowre, an frye hem, & ley him in dysshys; than take gode pouder,
and do in the Sewe, & caste the Sewe a-bouyn the lochys, & serve forth.

In other words, make a sauce of almond milk and rose petals thickened
with rice flour, and pour it over fried fish.

The same source has sauces/puddings (in the modern sense) flavored with
primroses, hawthorn flowers, or violets. Check it out.

Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glavryn  


From: davesg at netaxs.com (David J. Szent-Gyorgyi)
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Pre-1600 flower dishes
Date: 14 Mar 1994 05:45:28 GMT
Organization: Magyarotropic Medievialophiles

Michael McKay (mmckay at epas.utoronto.ca) wrote:
: 	A friend of mine is planning on hosting a feast in July called
: the "Feast of Flowers" and she wants me to cater it with pre-1600
: dishes that employ flowers. Can any of you give me some recipes or sources?
: Thank you.

The recipe below is taken from George Lang's THE CUISINE OF HUNGARY. It
is one of seven English-language translations for recipes provided in
the history of Hungarian cuisine at the front of the book. The recipes
are taken from an early sixteenth-century manuscript now in the
Szechenyi Library in Budapest, and from THE BOOK OF MIHALYI
SZENT-BENEDEKI (1601). Unfortunately, the primary sources aren't
provided.

Forgive me for posting a recipe without the primary source; I don't
have it. I'm willing to trust Lang's experience and background. He's a
professional restaurateur, and was born in Hungary. If you're
interested in the history of Hungarian food, you must read this book,
which is full of historical information -- Lang spends 150 pages on the
culinary history of Hungary and on profiles of the gastronomic regions
of the country!

I'll be a while tracking down the medieval manuscripts and books listed
in the bibliography; I'm looking for enough recipes to hold a period
Hungarian feast, complete with documentation for each dish.

Here's the recipe:

ROSE DOUGHNUT

"Make a batter of egg, flour and as much whey as necessary for right
consistency. Take a fully developed white or red rose with some of the
stem; wash it, and put it into a clean bowl to drain. (Make sure that
there are no bugs inside flower.) Dip it into the light batter, and
stand it up in plenty of hot butter to fry. Shake it every now and then
to make sure its petals will stand apart as they did on the rosebush.
If you add some rosewater to the batter, so much the better. Flavor
with cane honey."

Lang asks whether this recipe was a "poetic variation of the
zucchini-flower fritter they must have learned from the Italians some
generations ago."

If you quote the recipe, note that accents aigus should be used over
the two E's in "Szechenyi" and over the A in "Mihalyi."

Best of luck with the feast!
	  ,   ,  ,
Dave Szent-Gyorgyi/Kolozsvari Arpad, to his SCA friends
---                                                            ,   ,  ,
Dave Szent-Gyorgyi                                         Kolozsvari Arpad
davesg at netaxs.com     border of Bhakail & Hartshorn-dale, East Kingdom, SCA
"We HAVE to teach the net               On a field Sable, a trident between
 to handle diacriticals!"                     two hippocampi respectant Or.


From: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Recipe for Drunken Chicken, etc.
Date: 4 Apr 1994 01:51:12 GMT
Organization: Cornell Law School

Elizabeth suggested that we post our version of pynade, to show another
variant. This one really is a candy.

Pynade
Curye on Inglysch p. 79 (Diuersa Servicia no. 91)

For to make a pynade, tak hony and rotys of radich & grynd yt smal in a
morter, & do to that hony a quantite of broun sugur.  Tak powder of peper &
safroun & almandys, & do al togedere.  Boyl hem long & held yt on a wet
bord & let yt kele, & messe yt & do yt forth.

1/2 c honey        	         1/4 t pepper
2 radishes = 1 1/4 oz	 10 threads saffron
1/2 c brown sugar	      1 c almonds (1/2 whole, 1/2 broken)

Cut radish in ≈1/4" pieces, put in the spice grinder (a miniature blender)
with 1/4 c honey and grind small.   Mix all ingredients in a small pot and
heat.  Simmer, stirring,  until candy thermometer reaches at least 250°
(see below).  Dump out onto a buttered glass surface to cool. (Wet wood
sticks--I do not know what we are doing wrong or misinterpreting.)

It took about 45 minutes, on low to medium, to get to 250°, about another
10 minutes on medium to medium high to get to 270°. 

This recipe is one we are still working on; I am inclined to increase the
radishes and pepper. Elizabeth isn't.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
DDF2 at Cornell.Edu


From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)
From: bhaddad at lunacity.com (Barbara Haddad)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Periodicity of Recipes
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 13:36:33 PST
Organization: LunaCity BBS - (Clan Zen Relay Network) Mountain View, CA

     Since I had the recipe out, giving it to another, I decided to copy 
it here for those interested.  The recipe contains a variety of perfectly 
edible ingrediants that I would never have blended together on my own, 
but I have found that it makes a very hearty stew with an admittedly odd 
flavor -- but not too odd as to keep myself or others from having seconds
    Rota  (a 13th cent French recipe)
1 c. barley
2/3 c. thinly sliced apple
1/2 c. minced dried apricots
8 c. broth (chicken or beef)
1 t. ginger
1/2 t. salt
pinch pepper
1 c. fresh peas
1 c. raisins
    Make broth (takes about 3 hours), decant broth (strain), add all 
ingrediants (except peas) & simmer 3/4 hour.  Add the peas, simmer 15 
mins more; serve hot.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a thought from Barbara Haddad -> (bhaddad at lunacity.com)
LunaCity BBS - Mountain View, CA - 415 968 8140


From: sbloch at ms.uky.edu (Stephen Bloch)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Periodicity of Recipes
Date: 3 Apr 1994 23:40:22 -0400
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences

Barbara Haddad <bhaddad at lunacity.com> wrote:
>     Since I had the recipe out, giving it to another, I decided to copy 
>it here for those interested....
>    Rota  (a 13th cent French recipe)
>	[omitted]

This recipe matches (except for the raisins) a recipe in the infamous
_Fabulous_Feasts_, which claims its recipes are based on 14th-15th-century
English sources but doesn't quote the original recipes, nor tell which
recipes come from which sources.  Is there any documentation for this being
a 13th-century French recipe?  Or even a 14th-15th-century English one?
-- 
					Stephen Bloch
				     sbloch at s.ms.uky.edu


From: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Periodicity of Recipes
Date: 5 Apr 1994 03:37:28 GMT
Organization: Cornell Law School

In article <2no276$b3n at s.ms.uky.edu>, sbloch at ms.uky.edu (Stephen Bloch)
wrote:

> Barbara Haddad <bhaddad at lunacity.com> wrote:
> >     Since I had the recipe out, giving it to another, I decided to copy 
> >it here for those interested....
> >    Rota  (a 13th cent French recipe)
> >	[omitted]
> 
> This recipe matches (except for the raisins) a recipe in the infamous
> _Fabulous_Feasts_, which claims its recipes are based on 14th-15th-century
> English sources but doesn't quote the original recipes, nor tell which
> recipes come from which sources.  Is there any documentation for this being
> a 13th-century French recipe?  Or even a 14th-15th-century English one?
> -- 
> 					Stephen Bloch

So far as I know, the only 13th century French cookbook surviving is an
early manuscript of _Le Viandier_. I have checked the Scully translation of
Viandier and cannot find the recipe. There is also a short cookbook from
about 1300; I have checked it and cannot find the recipe. While it is
possible I have missed something, I think it  unlikely that it is actually
from a 13th century French source. I have not tried looking elsewhere. It
might, of course, be a later recipe for a dish mentioned by name somewhere
in 13th c. French literature.

I gather that Barbara copied the recipe from a secondary source long ago,
and does not now remember what it was. Secondary sources, inside and
outside the Society, are of very uneven quality. _Fabulous Feasts_ is one
example of an unreliable source; the Known World Handbook is another.
Unless someone can find the original, I do not think there is any strong
reason to believe this is a period recipe, although it certainly could be.

Incidentally, can anyone give examples of the use of dried apricots in the
English/French 13th-15th c. cookbooks? None come immediately to mind,
although I believe apricots were available in France--at least Scully says
they were.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
DDF2 at Cornell.Edu


From: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: recipe for switchel
Date: 17 Apr 1994 04:56:03 GMT
Organization: Cornell Law School

una at bregeuf.stonemarche.org (Honour Horne-Jaruk) wrote:
> 	Respected friends:
> 	Malice Emailed me with a request that I post the recipe for switchel,
...
> 	Yet another case where Period is cheaper, better, and more fun than
> Modern. Ain't the SCA wunnerful?
> 				In service to the Society-
> 				Honour/Alizaunde

 Several points. To begin with, it is unlikely that "Switchel" is a period
term for such a drink. The OED gives the first use in 1800, with reference
to America. Furthermore, the OED defines it as molassas and water,
sometimes with vinegar, ginger, or rum added.

At least one period term for a drink based on honey and vinegar is
"Oxymel," as I mentioned in another recent post.

I am curious as to Honour/Alizaunde's sources and basis for describing both
the drink and how it was used. So far, I have only found medicinal
references to the use of Oxymel in period--although I have not yet looked
very hard. Are there period descriptions of its being used as a thirst
quencher?
-- 
David/Cariadoc
DDF2 at Cornell.Edu


From: Gunnora.Hallakarva at f555.n387.z1.fidonet.org (Gunnora Hallakarva)
Date: 25 Jul 94 16:48:00 -0500
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Recipes
Organization: Fidonet: Cygnus I.I.N./San Antonio, TX/HST+V32T+VFC/210-641-2063 

     CATEGORY: Cooking                  ARTIST: Gunnora Hallakarva

B         LIHAMUREKEPIIRAS: FINNISH MEATLOAF WITH SOUR CREAM CRUST

The Finns believe devoutly in the preposition that no dish can ever be
complete without the addition of dairy products, and the richer the better.
Kalevala describes a typical Finnish meal:

               O the happy life thou leddest,
               In this household of thy father!
               Like a wayside flower thou grewest,
               Or upon the heath a strawberry,
               Waking up to feast on butter,
               Milk, when from thy bed arising,
               Wheaten-bread, from couch upstanding,
               From thy straw, the fresh-made butter,
               Or, if thou could eat no butter,
               Strips of pork thou then could cut thee.

This love of fat-rich food was probably due to living in such a cold climate,
where the excess calories were burned rapidly. Dishes such as
Lihamurekepiiras are traditional in Finland not only for their richness, but
the ease with which they are prepared and stored. My recipe for this
traditional Finnish Meatloaf is a little different from the traditional one,
because I add chopped spinach to the loaf. Similar Finnish meat pies,
meatloaves, and casseroles often add a variety of vegetables, including peas,
cauliflower, cabbage, or even pickled beets. For other related dishes, one
may consult Beatrice Ojakangas's The Finnish Cookbook (New York: Crown. 1964)
for both recipes and historical notes.

LOAF
3 lbs. ground meat   - may be a mixture of beef, pork, lamb, veal, chicken
                    or other poultry, or may include game meats such as
                    reindeer, elk, or even squirrel or hedgehog. I usually
                    use ground beef and pork, but I will include venison
                    anytime that I can get it to provide the most authentic
                    flavor.
1 cup cheese        - Cheeses which are good in this dish include any Swiss,
                    cream cheese, and goat cheese is very good.
1/4 cup minced leeks or onions
1 cup chopped mushrooms
2 eggs
2 cups chopped spinach, well-washed and drained
salt, pepper, garlic, dill, and other spices to taste

Mix meat, leeks, mushrooms, eggs, and spices as for any meatloaf. On a large
sheet of foil or waxed paper, pat the mixture into a 9" x 14" rectangle. Top
the mixture with cheese and spinach, then roll the sheet into a loaf with the
spinach and cheese inside. Carefully seal the seams and ends, or the cheese
wil melt and run out during cooking. The foil or waxed paper will be useful
in helping you to roll and shape the loaf. Move onto a cooking sheet and bake
for 30 to 45 minutes at 375 F, or until done.


CRUST
4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
 B
 WhBile the meatloaf is cooking, prepare the dough for the crust. Combine
flour
 and salt in a mixing bowl, then cut in butter until mixture is fine and
crumbly. Combine egg and sour cream, and work into flour mixture to form a
fairly stiff dough. Reserve about 1/4 of the dough to decorate the completed
loaf. After the meatloaf has been cooked and allowed to cool, roll out the
 dough into a large rectangle. Pat the meat dry, then center on dough, fold
the edges over and seal the meat within the crust. Place on clean cooking
sheet and brush with a mixture of beaten egg and a little milk. Take the
reserved dough and roll out, ten cut into strips about 3/8" wide. Arrange
strips in a lattice pattern atop the loaf, and brush again with the egg-milk
mixture. Bake at 375 F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until crust is brown. Serve
sliced, with dollops of sour cream.

SUGGESTIONS
Lihamurekepiiras makes an excellent tourney food. I find that it's most
convenient to make about six small loaves, and the meat part can be cooked
well in advance and frozen until the day before you plan to leave for the
event. After thawing, you can roll the little laoves in the crust, bake, and
then have them as ready food during the weekend, as this dish is quite tasty,
even when served cold. Since Ansteorra's climate is very unlike Finland's
many of us want to cut calories wherever possible, so one may substitute
margarine for butter, and non-fat yogurt for sour cream if desired. Other
suggestions include mixing dill into the sour cream garnish, or garnishing
with lingonberries.

======
Recipe above used as documentation for Arts & Sciences entry.  Enjoy!

::GUNNORA::
---------
Fidonet:  Gunnora Hallakarva 1:387/555
Internet: Gunnora.Hallakarva at f555.n387.z1.fidonet.org


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Subject: Re: A couple of questions . . .
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 1994 15:53:27 GMT

Liam O'Donnabhan writes:

"1. I'm helping the feastocrat at an upcoming event and will be involved
with a feast for 100. Need an idea for a period soup that we could
serve. Note: It could be cooked in advance."

Here is the one we did at this Pennsic (the carrots version):

Rapes in Potage [or Carrots or Parsnips]
Curye on Inglysch p. 99 (Forme of Cury no. 7)

Take rapus and make hem clene, and waissh hem clene; quarter hem;
perboile hem, take hem vp. Cast hem in a gode broth and seeth hem;
mynce oynouns and cast therto safroun and salt, and messe it forth
with powdour douce. In the self wise make of pastunakes and
skyrwittes.

Note: rapes are turnips; pasternakes are either parsnips or carrots;
skirrets are, according to the OED, "a species of water parsnip,
formerly much cultivated in Europe for its esculent tubers." We have
never found them available in the market.

1 lb turnips, carrots, or parsnips   6 threads saffron   
2 c chicken broth (canned, diluted)  3/4 t salt      
1/2 lb onions
powder douce:  2 t sugar 
                 3/8 t cinnamon
                 3/8 t ginger

Wash, peel, and quarter turnips (or cut into eighths if they are
large), cover with boiling water and parboil for 15 minutes. If you
are using carrots or parsnips, clean them and cut them up into large
bite-sized pieces and parboil 10 minutes. Mince onions. Drain
turnips, carrots, or parsnips, and put them with onions and chicken
broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Crush saffron into about 1 t of
the broth and add seasonings to potage. Cook another 15-20 minutes,
until turnips or carrots are soft to a fork and some of the liquid is
boiled down.

Here is one of our favorite period soups. You can do it in advance up
to just before adding the eggs, cheese etc., freeze it, then do the
final steps before serving.

Potage from Meat
 Platina book 7

Take lean meat and let it boil, then cut it up finely and cook it
again for half an hour in rich juice, having first added bread
crumbs. Add a little pepper and saffron. 

When it has cooled a little, add beaten eggs, grated cheese, parsley,
marjoram, finely chopped mint with a little verjuice. Blend them all
together in a pot, stirring them slowly with a spoon so that they do
not form a ball. The same may be done with livers and lungs.

2 1/3 lb stewbeef        3/4 t pepper        3/4 t dried or 1 t fresh
marjoram
4 c water        8 threads saffron        1 1/2 T chopped fresh mint
"Rich juice": 31 oz (3 cans)        5 eggs        verjuice: 3 T wine vinegar
    concentrated beef broth        1 1/2 c grated cheese (~ 7 oz)    
   1 t salt (to taste)
1 1/2 c dry bread crumbs        3/8 c chopped parsley

Bring meat and water to a boil and cook 10 minutes; take meat out and
cut up small; put back in water with broth, bread crumbs, pepper, and
saffron. Simmer 1/2 hour over low flame, being careful that it does
not stick. Mix in remaining ingredients; cook, stirring frequently,
for about 5 minutes. This makes about 10 cups.

This is a rather meat-rich version; it also works with as little as
half this much meat. If you want to use real verjuice, find "sour
grape juice" at a good Middle-eastern grocery.

Both of these are from the Miscellany that Elizabeth and I produce.

Incidentally, "feastocrat" is, in my view, an sca
abomination--presumably, by analogy with "democrat," it means someone
who believes that feasts should rule. Alternatively, by analogy with
"aristocrat," it is a feast in a society where feasts do rule. I
suggest "head cook;" others can doubtless offer more exotic period
substitutes.

David/Cariadoc


From: salley at niktow.canisius.edu (David Salley)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: RECIPE NEEDED: Apples and onions
Date: 1 Nov 94 01:33:26 GMT
Organization: Canisius College, Buffalo NY. 14208

Cara The Unbalanced writes:
JENNIFER CARLSON writes:
>>I've heard over the years about a period dish of apples and onions cooked
>>together.  If someone out there has it, would they be so kind as to post it?
>>Thanks in advance.

> I don't know where an actual recipe might be found, but last winter we 
> stuffed chickens with quartered apples and onions.  I never thought that 
> particular combination would be very appealing, but it was delicious!

I believe it.  I've had Apple Onion Pie at an event.  Yum-yum.  Make your 
favorite apple pie recipe.  Substitute onions for about 1/3 of the apples.
You can also make _Pork, Apple and Onion Pie_ too, but cook the pork first!

                                                       - Dagonell

SCA Persona : Lord Dagonell Collingwood of Emerald Lake, CSC, CK, CTr
Habitat	    : East Kingdom, AEthelmearc Principality, Rhydderich Hael Barony
Internet    : salley at niktow.cs.canisius.edu
USnail-net  : David P. Salley, 136 Shepard Street, Buffalo, New York 14212-2029


From: azrael at access3.digex.net (Razmus)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: cooking with beer
Date: 8 Nov 1994 13:09:52 -0500
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA

keithp1029 at aol.com (KeithP1029) writes:

>If anyone knows of any good recipes for cooking with beer please e-mail to
>me, I'm lookin for some good stuff for the family.

I'm posting this, not as an attempt at a period recipe, but because
there were a couple "me too!"s  

Beer Stew!
Cube .75 to 2 lbs of beef (.5 to 1 inch square) - and powder with a
concoction of flour w/pepper and garlic salt (I've added ground red
pepper and curry powder with success).
Brown the beef with a little oil in a good sized pot.
Add approx one bottle of beer - and let bubble for a bit.  (I think
this adds flavor to the beef, AND tenderizes it a LOT)
Add approx 20-30 oz of beef broth (I use two cans of broth)
Add cut up raw carrots, potatoes, and a large onion
Add thyme, sage, bay, basil, anise, all spice, etc to taste (garlic)
Add water as needed (at least to cover the veggies)

Let stew for an hour.  
8 to 15 minutes before serving - mix the remaining flour and pepper
and garlic salt from above with some water, to make a watery glue
mess, and stir it quickly into the whole.Mix completely, and let
simmer for a little longer...

Goes great with bread, and reheats well. (And its real easy to scale
up for as many of your friends as will fit in your kitchen. :-) )
-- 
Rich E. Weissler			azrael at access.digex.net


From: errickii at aol.com (Errick II)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Beer in cooking
Date: 7 Nov 1994 01:15:47 -0500

Greetings to all gentles.

Beer recipes? I've got a zillion, small joke :).

How about...

Danish Style Red Cabbage

1/3 cup butter 2 lbs red cabbage coarsely shredded
12 oz. beer         2/3 cup red currant jelly
1/2 tsp. salt

Melt butter in a large, heavy saucepan. Add cabbage and 
saute stirring frequently till limp, about 5 min. Stir in 
beer, jelly, and salt. Cover and simmer for 1 and 1/2 hours.
Remove cover for the last 1/2 hour to reduce liquid as much
as possible, stirring occasionally. 10 -1/2 cup servings.

Or...

Flemish Meat stew

4 lbs beef chuck or round cut into 1 inch cubes.

1/4 cup oil         2 Tbs parsley flakes
2 tsp Thyme         2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt          1/2 tsp pepper
2 bay leaves   2 cloves garlic minced
24 oz. beer         8 med. onions sliced
1/4 cup cornstarch

Brown meat in oil then place in a very large casserole or
use two smaller ones. Add seasonings and stir to coat meat.
Add beer to almost cover the meat, you may have to add a
little more beer or water to do this. Cover casserole and bake
at 300 degrees for 1 and 1/2 hours. Parboil onions in water 
until soft, stir into the meat, recover and continue baking for
another 1 and 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender. Make a 
paste of the cornstarch and a little water, stir into casserole.
Place back in oven for 10 min stirring two or three times.
Serve over noodles, rice, or heavy bread slices.
Serves about 12.

and for dessert...

Baked Apples
6 med. cooking apples         1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup packed brown sugar    1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup beer

Core apples, and remove a 1 inch strip of peel around the top
of each. Mix raisins, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Fill apples 
with mixture and place in a baking dish. Pour beer over all and 
bake at 350 degrees or about 45 min, or until apples are tender,
basting several times. Remove from oven and cool to room temp.
continue to baste while cooling. Serve with the cooking juices.
Serves 6

Errick von Falkenburg


From: mujle at uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Jennifer L Edwards)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Beer in cooking
Date: 7 Nov 1994 23:56:26 GMT
Organization: Educational Computing Network

Since this is an SCA net, and we are supposed to be a historical group.  I 
thought I might give a couple of period recipes 
with beer (or ale) in them. They are both from Two Fifteenth Century 
Cookery Books (circa 1420's). The first, I redacted, the second is found 
is Duke Sir Cariadoc's "A Miscelleny".

		Chykonys in Bruette

	1 whole chicken
	3 cups water
	12 oz (1 can) beer or ale
	1/2 tsp ground black pepper (preferably fresh ground)
	2 tsp ground ginger
	12 threads of Saffron (ground in 1 Tbs water)
	4 Tbs bread crumbs

Cut chicken into pieces and place in a large pot. Add water, beer or ale, 
pepper and ginger. Simmer until chicken is tender and falls off the bone. 
Strain, saving the broth and remove the skin and bones from the chicken. 
Return broth and chicken to the heat and bring to a boil. Add bread 
crumbs and saffron and simmer until thickened. Remove from heat and serve.
This is from the Harleian MS 276 (#97).

		Mortress of Flesh
	
	1 lb+ pork roast
	1 c ale or beer
	2/3 c bread crumbs
	3 threads saffron
	3 egg yolks
	1 tsp salt
	1 tsp ginger

Simmer a small pork roast fro 45 minutes. Take it out. Separate from the 
bones and fat. Chop it up small - if you have a large mortar mush it in 
that (my note- or use a food processor). Mix 2 c of the broth from the 
pork with ale and bread crumbs. Boil it, add saffron, mis in egg yolks to 
thicken. Add salt, pour over the meat, Sprinkle powdered ginger over the 
top and serve.
This is found on pg. 32 of Cariadoc's "A Miscelleny" copyright 1988.
 
Hope this is of some help.

Gwenhwyvar Lawen
March of Lochmorrow

Jennifer Edwards-Ring
Western Illinois University


From: meadhbhni at aol.com (Meadhbhni)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Need Recipes
Date: 18 Nov 1994 22:30:13 -0500

This is pretty easy, and it tastes great (especially for a winter feast).
Get either shoulder clods (boneless cut from the shoulder) or whole top
sirloin (a much better meat- should be available for < $2/lb).  Make a rub
of salt, pepper, garlic (fresh, minced), whatever herbs you like (oregano,
rosemary, marjoram, thyme, basil). Grind this up well and  rub this into
the meat. Let the meat marinate in a plastic bag for 24hrs. Remove the
meat from the bag and wipe dry with paper towels. Then, place the meat in
a deep roasting pan and start cooking at 350 deg F at 20min/lb..  Start
cutting up a mixture of root veggies:  carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips.
 About 1 1/2 hrs into cooking the meat, add the veggies to the pan. bast
the pan juices frequently over the veggies. At the same time, pour 1-2
beers over the roast.  I used a non-alcoholic variety (there are a few
members of my local group that are mormon, it was done for them) or any
good tasting brew.  frequently baste the veggies until done.  Cook until
desired doneness (for the meat-i prefer medium to med rare, gives you a
variety to feed people) and the veggies are somewhat soft.  Remove the
veggies from the pan and degrease the pan juices.  I did this for a feast
a number of years ago, it was a rousing success.  Pork can be substituted
for the beef it is desirable.  good luck.

meadhbh ni ruaidh o chonnemara, OL
Barony of the Stargate, Ansteorra


From: meadhbhni at aol.com (Meadhbhni)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Need Recipes part II
Date: 18 Nov 1994 22:35:40 -0500

This is a great side dish to go with the roast meat.  Don't tell people
what is in it before they taste it.  you will see why.  (ask any
ansteorran if they have had my pottage, most love it).
This recipe is from the first Early Period (with some modifications).

6 cups canned beef broth
3 cups oatmeal (i use regular quaker oats)
3 cups finely chopped cabbage, steamed
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, all liquid squeezed out
garlic powder, 1 tsp.

bring broth to a boil with garlic, add oatmeal.  cook until thickened. 
add cabbage and spinach. Add some of the pan juices from the roast and a
good pat of butter----its ready.


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Subject: Re:Need Recipes
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 1994 14:40:09 GMT

This is Elizabeth of Demdermonde posting on Cariadoc's account.

"Help! we need recipes for an upcoming event....nothing fancy, just
filling (and good!)"--brighid & treise

Here are three recipes fitting your specifications; they are also
period.  Don't feel that at your first shot at head cook you cannot
hope to make period food:  there are a huge number of period recipes
out there, ranging from enormously complex to very simple, and these
are toward the simple end.  What I have below is the period recipe
(or a straight English translation of it) first, followed by our
worked-out version.  All have been done successfully at feasts I have
cooked.  I suggest you try them out for dinner at home to see if you
like them.  If you have any questions or for more recipes, email me. 
All of these are published in the Miscellany which Cariadoc and I
sell, as well as lots more recipes and other stuff.

Cooked Dish of Lentils 
from al-Andalusi p. C-5, no. 377 (13th c., Moorish Spain)

Original:  Wash lentils and put them to cook in a pot with sweet
water, oil, pepper, coriander and cut onion. When they are cooked
throw in salt, a little saffron and vinegar; break three eggs, leave
for a while on the flame and later retire the pot. Other times cook
without onion. If you wish cook it with Egyptian beans pricked into
which have been given a boil. Or better with dissolved yeast over a
gentle fire. When the lentils begin to thicken add good butter or
sweet oil, bit by bit, alike until it gets absorbed, until they are
sufficiently cooked and have enough oil. Then retire it from the
flame and sprinkle with pepper.

Our version:
1 1/2 c dried lentils = 10 oz
2 1/4 c water
1 1/2 T oil
3/8 t pepper
1 1/2 t coriander
2 medium onions = 1/2 lb
3/4 t salt
12 threads saffron
2 T vinegar
4 eggs
4 T butter (or oil)
more pepper

Slice onions. Put lentils, water, oil, pepper, coriander and onion in
a pot, bring to a boil, and turn down to a bare simmer. Cook covered
50 minutes, stirring periodically. Add butter in lumps and cook while
stirring for about 5 minutes. Add salt, saffron (crushed into 1 t
water) and vinegar, and bring back to a boil. Put eggs on top, cover
pot and keep lentils at a simmer; stir cautiously every few minutes
in order to scrape the bottom of the pot without stirring in the
eggs. We find that if the heat is off, the eggs don't cook; if the
heat is up at medium, the eggs cook, but the lentils start to stick
to the pot. A larger quantity might hold enough heat to cook the eggs
without leaving it on the flame. When the eggs are cooked, sprinkle
with a little more pepper and serve. Makes 5 1/4 c; is good served
over rice.  For feast quantities you really have to stir in the eggs
to cook them.

Fricassee of Whatever Meat You Wish
from Platina book 6 (15th c. Italian)

Original:  You make a fricassee from fowl or whatever meat you choose
in this way: in a pot with lard, close to the fire, put meat or birds
well cleaned and washed, whether cut up finely or in slices. Stir
this often with a spoon so that it does not stick to the side of the
pot; when it is nearly cooked, take out most of the lard and put in
two egg yolks beaten with verjuice and pour in juice and spices mixed
into the pot. To this dish add some saffron so that it is more
colorful. Likewise, it will not detract from the enjoyment of it to
sprinkle finely chopped parsley over the dish. Then serve it
immediately to your guests. 

Our version:
1/4-1/3 c lard
fowl or meat: 1 lb boneless meat or chicken
2 egg yolks
2 T verjuice (or 1 T vinegar)
RspicesS: 1/4 t pepper
	1/8 t cloves
	1/4 t cinnamon
RjuiceS: 3 T chicken broth
8 threads saffron
1 T parsley
1/4 t salt

Cut up meat. Beat egg yolks with verjuice. In another small dish,
crush saffron into a little of the broth, then add the rest of the
broth and the spices. Chop parsley. Heat lard. Fry meat about 8
minutes, stirring often, then add egg yolk mixture and broth mixture.
Cook another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle parsley on top.
 You may want to reduce liquid a good deal for feast quantities.


From: meadhbhni at aol.com (Meadhbhni)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: food - meat dish
Date: 7 Jan 1995 00:02:46 -0500

I read your post on a meat dish for a 12th night feast.  This is easy but
it uses a very good cut of pork.  Its called Arista.  Its a boneless loin
of pork.  Mix the following:
10 cloves of garlic (sliced, 4-6 slices)
1 1/2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
1 1/2 tbsp salt (I use kosher salt)
2 heaping tbsp. fresh rosemary.
 
10 pepper corns (in addition to the ground pepper)

mix the above together.  Take a boneless pork loin and spread about 1/2
the mixture in the center of the loin.  sprinkle with the whole
peppercorns.  put roast together and tie every 2 inches (it should look
like a salami).  Add some olive oil to the baking pan and place roast in
an oven pre heated to 375 deg. F.  cook at about 25min per pound.  after
1hr, turn the roast over.  The last 5-10 minutes turn the oven up to 400
degrees to allow the roast to brown.  Slice thin.  This meat tastes
wonderful hot or cold.  enjoy

meadhbh ni ruaidh o chonnemara OL
barony of the stargate, ansteorra

p.s.  this recipe is from the fine art of italian cooking by bughliani.


From: caradoc at enet.net (John Groseclose)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Disgusting Recipes
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 1995 00:14:40 -0700

In article <3k02tp$1slv at hopi.gate.net>, mdavis at news.gate.net (Mary Davis) wrote:
>To: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu
>Subject: Re: Disgusting Recipes
>
>D>If you want medieval recipes that taste good, the _Miscellany has
>D>quite a lot. If you specify your requirements I can EMail you a few.
>
>Would love to have some recipes for vegetables, fruits and grains if you
>have them.  I tend to eat plain healthy types of foods.

Found a recipe for a wonderfully filling dish... Kasha.

Just take a quantity of your favorite cracked grain (the one I tasted had
mixed wheat and rye) and boil it in a bit of water until it softens up.
Add a small bit of milk to thicken it, and sprinkle with a TINY bit of
salt.

The person who introduced me to this lives somewhere in Caid, and called
it "fighting food." It should also keep you fairly regular...

I believe (I haven't checked) that kasha was eaten by the peasantry in
most agricultural areas in the world at some time or another, but "kasha"
is a Polish term.
-- 
John Groseclose <caradoc at enet.net>


From: DUNHAM%EUGLIB at mred.lane.EDU (PATSY DUNHAM)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Apple/Tinker cakes & Martha Washington (WAS: Breakfast poll)
Date: 25 Apr 1995 14:30:15 -0400

(Yipes! LOOONG!)                                               

At last, the apple cake recipe.  I need to get my recipe sources back home
(from work), and I've about recovered from that snippy little flame about the
leavening agents in the yogurt biscuits (how do you smiley the
"poor-little-me, back-of-the-hand-to-forehead-_suffering_" thingie?)

Anyway, I got all paranoid & checked what I could trying to document the tinker
cake (apple) recipe I mentioned earlier.  It is from "The Lion's Gate Cook Book
of the Middle Ages", compilation by the Cooks Guild of the Barony of Lions
Gate, Vancouver BC, ca. 1976? (AS X).  Unfortunately, it is listed as "Source:
traditional Welsh recipe" in this little (36 p.) booklet, and there is not much
help in the small bibliography.  I have checked as many of the bibl. entries as
I had easy access to (seven centuries, king's taste, delectable past, horizon
cookbook), to no avail.  NOTE: This apple cake recipe is listed as "tinker's 
cakes"; the Lions Gate booklet also lists a "Welsh cakes" (same Source, argh!) 
that is quite similar except for having mixed dried fruit and an egg.

I also checked Pleyn Delit, Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books and 
Martha Washington (see below for more info on this book).

There are several recipes for apple "fritters"--fruit coated in thin
batter and deep fried (highly simplified description) in the first two books
(Harl. 279, p.44 "fretoure", Harl. 4016, p.73 "frutours"; PD39, variation on 
"frytours of pasternakes" from Forme of Curry) and Martha's gives a recipe for 
"applesauce pancakes"--pancake batter with baked apple pulp added (C151, p. 161
"to make little frying cakes with ye pulpe of apples or any other fruite")
So, fruit and batter was a period combination, but I have not been able to find
concrete evidence of this type of "cake" thingie, as opposed to more fritter-y
and crepe-y and wafer-y types.

***********************************************************
TINKER'S CAKES
1/2 lb. flour (1.5-1.75 c.)             1 medium apple
1/4 lb. butter                          1 Tbs. milk
3 oz. white sugar (1/2 c.)

Rub the butter into the flour and stir in the sugar.  Peel and grate the apple
and add with the milk.  Mix into a firm dough.  Turn onto a floured board and
roll out to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut into rounds and bake on a greased
griddle for 3 or more minutes on each side.  Makes about 16 cakes.
************************************************************

The recipe as my lord and I classically make it is white flour and white sugar
so that's not period*.  Exchanging honey would change the fluid balance
drastically I would think; we've never tried it.  *I have some very general
evicence that sugar as we know it was available by ca. 1250 but was exceedingly
rare, used in medicines and priced and considered practically a spice--nothing 
like as a replacement for honey until much later.  We did once try 50-50 white 
and wheat flour; I thought they were OK, Gerek didn't like it much.  I have 
converted the British-style ingredient weights to cup measures.

Let's see.  I usually start the butter with a pastry cutter, and rub when
things get good and small; saves over-working the flour a lot.  You do want to
do the "rub" step, as this "butters" all the flour uniformly.  We usually chop 
instead of grate (we prefer discernable chunks).  Experiment with different 
types of apples--Gerek prefers a sweeter apple to eat, but likes a tarter one 
for this, because of the sugar in the recipe.  A tarter apple will make a less 
sweet cake; these should be only barely sweet to the taste.  

This is a real nice dough to handle, will be quite moist, you definitely need 
to flour the board to keep it from sticking.  If your dough seems too dry, try 
adding a few drops of apple juice, as needed.  A biscuit cutter is a little 
small, we use (what?, I can't remember! I think it's a small can with both 
ends cut out that's maybe 1/4 to 3/8 inch bigger than a standard biscuit 
cutter) (cakes come out 3-3 1/2" diameter?).  

Grease griddle with oil or butter.  Butter will increase the chance of 
scorching but may be more to your taste.  These get a nice golden brown and a 
bit crispy on the surface.  A _light_ layer of flour on both sides from the 
board makes them easier to handle and gives a more uniform reaction to the 
griddle.  We have lots of fun doing this at home--the griddle stretches over
two different stove burners, which, of course, always heat at different 
rates...  Have done them on the same griddle over our camp firepit (barrel half
on legs) with coals (not flame!)--not any more difficult gauging the heat.

These are good hot off the griddle or flat cold.  The really great thing about
these for camp cooking is the simplicity and adaptability.  You can make them
from scratch on site; make and freeze dough at home and use the lump for the
freezer; or go clear to the cut cakes stage before freezing--then all you have 
to do is heat up the griddle & dig in the freezer!

-------------------
Martha Washington's Boke of Cookery, and Booke of Sweetmeats: being a Family
Manuscript, curiously copied by an unknown Hand sometime in the seventeenth
century, which was in her Keeping from 1749...  Transcribed by Karen Hess. 
Columbia University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-231-04930-7.  CURRENTLY IN PRINT!

        "Our manuscript is especially interesting...because the recipes span
        the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, or from mid-sixteenth century to
        about 1625."--introd.

The contents are much older than the title would suggest, falling just at the
end of period (1550-1625).  Hess gives the original recipes and copious notes,
but no modern redactions (!)  She does often give notes about how to make the
recipes more "cook-able"--I'm quite sure she has actually cooked most of
them.  Her notes are marvelous.  She gives a small essay on 16-17th C. food
philosophy in the intro to the Sweetmeats section; Appendix 1 is about the
history of this manuscript and about English household recipe manuscripts in
general; Appendix 2 is more about dating the parts of the manuscript.  20 p.
annotated bibliography and 30 p. index. 

Thanks, Siobhan--it was your mention of this that finally got me going again!

Enjoy!

Chimene
--Mistress Chimene des CinqTours, OP, An Tir                            
--Meistari Gerekr fjarsjandi Rognvaldsson, the Farseeing, OP, OL, An Tir
        mka                                                                
  Patricia R. Dunham, Gary Walker       e-mail: dunham%euglib at MRED.LANE.EDU     
  Eugene OR  USA                                chimenedes at aol.com
  home, machine: 503-688-7210                   gerekr at aol.com      
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   


From: jtn at cse.uconn.EDU (J. Terry Nutter)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Cold soups
Date: 11 May 1995 22:37:14 -0400

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.  Pascal asks,

> Could those of you who have recipes for good cold soups please mail them 
> to me?  (Or you can post them here, for the benefit of all, if you so choose.)

This is a cold chicken soup, or veal soup, or soup with both, and among those
who know it, it may be my most popular dish.  The recipe given below is from
the Menagier de Paris; the same recipe, in all essentials, can be found in
Taillevent.  It is late 14th C French.  The text of the recipe is from the
Eileen Power translation of the Menagier.  Notice that the recipe actually
specifies that it can be served cold.

Herbed Chicken - Veal with Herbs
================================

In winter, killed chickens, dampened, and then placed six days in the ice, and
in summer dead for two days (without sun) or smothered under a mattress; put on
to cook in water and with bacon to give appetite, and add parsley, sage,
egg-shell (?) and hyssop, a little verjuice to sharpen it, and a very little
ginger, and saffron to add color.  This is a proper soup if served cold, but
if served hot, you need neither chicken nor veal but only bacon and saffron.

Amounts as I make it:
====================
1/2 chicken     
2 cans chicken broth + 2 cans water     
6 slices bacon, cut small       
8 T chopped parsley     
1 tsp sage       
2 1/2 tsp hyssop
3 tsp verjuice*
1 tsp ginger
pinch saffron 
1/8 tsp black pepper

* If you can't find verjuice, you can substitute with 4 parts white grape 
  juice + 1 part lemon juice

Step-by-step:
============
1.      Boil the chicken in broth with bacon until chicken is done, about 20 to
        30 min.  Longer will gel more (which I like).
2.      Remove chicken, but keep broth and bacon.
3.      Skin and bone chicken, and cut into bite sized chunks.
4.      Put chicken back into broth and heat to simmer.
5.      Grind hyssop and sage.
6.      Put parsley, sage, and hyssop in with meat.
8.      Simmer about 5 min; make sure bacon is fully cooked.
7.      Add verjuice, ginger, saffron, and pepper.

Notes:
=====
Hot, this is a fairly straightforward soup.  Cold, it looks odd: it gels a
little, and the parsley suspended in the cold soup is unexpected.  But it's
wonderful.  Once they taste it, they never look back (though some of them call
it Martian Soup -- but demand it, under that name, regularly!).

Cheers,
-- Angharad/Terry


From: jtn at eng2.uconn.EDU (Terry Nutter)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: 16th C Recipe for Blaunche Powder
Date: 19 Jul 1995 23:17:42 -0400

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

I have been going through a new-to-me 16th C cookbook (John Partrige,
The Treasurie of Commodious Conceipts and hidden Secrets, 1573), and 
found a recipe for blaunche powder.  Period cookbooks from the 14th C 
on call for the stuff, and many people have asked exactly what it is.
This is not precisely the answer, since it is only one account, and
a late one.  But it is _a_ late 16th C answer.

        To make fine Blaunche pouder for rosted Quinces.

        Take fyne Suger halfe a pound beaten in a whote* Morter too
        fyne powder, of whyte Ginger pared halfe an ounce, of chosen
        Sinimon a quarter of an ounce beaten ready to fynd powder, 
        mixt them well together, and yf you wyl haue it moste 
        excellent cast two Spoonful of Rose or Damask water in the 
        heatyng of the Suger.

Enjoy!
Cheers,

-- Angharad/Terry

* Whote?  What the heck is a whote mortar?  You got me.  My best guess,
is that it's a typo for "white".


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: DDFr at Midway.UChicago.edu (David Friedman)
Subject: Re: 16th C Recipe for Blaunche Powder
Organization: University of Chicago Law School
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 14:37:38 GMT

Terry Nutter asks:
>* Whote?  What the heck is a whote mortar?  You got me.  My best
> guess, is that it's a typo for "white".

Given the reference later to the heating of the sugar, I suggest a "hot"
mortar.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
DDFr at Midway.UChicago.Edu


From: RCMANN at delphi.com
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Food sources needed...Please help
Date: 17 Sep 1995 09:23:33 GMT

Quoting jtn from a message in rec.org.sca
   >Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.
   >Brighid ni Chiarain writes:
   >:    There is a potato recipe in "The Good Huswifes Jewell" (1596).  It
   >:    is also my favorite period recipe *title* -- 'To make a tarte that
   >:    is a courage to a man or woman'.  ISTR that Karen Hess, in a note
   >:    in "Martha Washington's Cookbook" said that this recipe is
   >:    supposed to be an aphrodisiac, as potatoes had that reputation
   >:    then.
   >Ah, so that's where it's from.
   >One meaning of "courage" is "sexual vigor".  (If you don't believe me,
   >look it up. ;^)  The title directly _says_ this is an aphrodisiac.

   I believe you. :)

   Come to think of it, I have heard an English folksong (probably
   post-period) on a Maddy Prior album.  The refrain was a woman
   lamenting, "Me husband's got no courage in him".

   >I have only the second part of the Good Hus-wiues Iewell (1606), which,
   >on the pages of the text, bears the running head "A Booke of Cookerie".
   >I have not seen the first part, but my impression was that it was
   >largely a non-culinary miscellany, implying that the recipe in question
   >would be viewed as medicinal, not as culinary (a treatment, not a food).
   >Can you confirm or contradict?

   The book contains both kinds of material, although it is primarily 
   a cookbook.  There are about 30 medicinal recipes, mostly 
   clustered at the end -- and 3 times as many culinary recipes.  
   There are also a few remarks on animal husbandry.  A few of the 
   remedies are scattered, apparently randomly, in the middle of the 
   cooking section.  The "courage" tart appears between a culinary 
   recipe for filet of beef and a medicinal recipe for stewed cock 
   (which does not specify what it is supposed to cure!) that 
   includes pieces of gold in its list of ingredients.

   (It would be interesting to research the belief in the curative
   power of gold.  In "Libro de Guisados" by Ruperto de Nola, there
   is a recipe for a medicinal broth that is essentially chicken soup
   that has been cooked with gold coins.  The author asserts that it
   will revive even those who are almost dead.)

   The tart recipe also calls for the brains of cock sparrows
   (another aphrodisiac ingredient, according to Karen Hess).  Oh,
   what the heck, why don't I just post the whole thing here?

   "TO MAKE A TARTE THAT IS A COURAGE TO A MAN OR WOMAN

   Take twoo Quinces and twoo or three Burre rootes, and a potaton,
   and pare your Potaton, and scrape your rootes and put them into a
   quart of wine, and let them boyle till they bee tender, & put in
   an ounce of Dates, and when they be boyled tender, Drawe them
   through a strainer, wine and all, and then put in the yolkes of
   eight Egges, and the braynes of three or foure cocke Sparrowes,
   and straine them into the other, and a little Rose water, and
   seeth them all with suger, Cinamon and Gynger, and Cloves and
   mace, and put in a little sweet butter, and set it upon a
   chafingdish of coles between two platters, and so let it boyle
   until it be something bigge."

   >-- Angharad/Terry

   Hope this helps.

Robin Carroll-Mann ** rcmann at delphi.com
SCA: Brighid ni Chiarain, Settmour Swamp, East

p.s.  It was a BAD idea to run this particular post through my
spellchecker.  <g>


From: Ginny Beatty <70003.7005 at compuserve.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Medieval Meatloaf (was Re: Medieval comfort food!!) [long]
Date: 2 Oct 1995 12:58:48 GMT

This is my documentation for the Meatballs. It received a second place at 
the Midrealm's Kingdom A&S competition, 1993
Gwyneth Banfhidhleir

Pomes, Pomes Vert, and Pommes Dorylle

This entry is a study in how a recipe changes over a period of time.

What I like to do for fun is take a modern recipe and then work backwards 
to determine its authenticity. In this entry, I took a two-step approach, 
from modern times to the 15th century, and then from the 15th century to 
the 14th century. What was also interesting to note was how the 
interepretation of the recipe changed over the course of a century.

I started out with something that is fairly common in modern 
Americaómeatballs. I then looked through various sources to find 
something that came close to ground meat shaped into balls. What I found 
was a description of Pomes:

Pomes
To mak pomes take and grind raw pork and temper them with fwonge egges 
caft ther to good poudurs and it in a balle and lay it in boillinge water 
to hardyn then tak it up and endore it with yolks of egges and ye may 
make it grene or red with juice of erbes and ferue it.
ófrom A Noble Boke off Cookry for a Prynce Houssolde (1470)

Pomes and its variations are mentioned in several sections of the Noble 
Boke. First, a "poums vert" (green apples) is listed in the third course 
of the feast of Archbishop George Neville of York and Chancellor of 
England on the occasion of his installation in York. Pomes are also 
listed in the "kalender of the book off cookery" in the same book.

Robina Napier, the 19th century editor of A Noble Boke, indicated that 
the dishes listed in the book were similar to those found in A Forme of 
Cury, written over a century before A Noble Boke, in 1390. In the 
Introduction to the book, she describes Pomesdorreóas she described 
itówas minced and pounded meat mixed with egg and savory herbs and made 
into little balls. Pommesdorre loosely translates into "golden apples" 
which could indicate that the meat was made to look yellow by using 
either saffron in the meat mixture, and/or coating the meat ball with egg 
yolk.

So, I referred to A Forme of Cury, and behold the recipe:

For to make Pome Dorryle and o˛e ˛yng
Take ˛ lire of Pork rawe and grynde it finale. medle it up wi˛ powdre 
fort, fafron, and falt, and do ˛to Raisons for Corance, make ball j-of 
and were it wele Ì white of ayren.  Do it to fee˛ boill˝g wat. Take hem 
up and put hum on a spyt. rost hÈ wel and take pfel ygronde and wryng it 
up with ayren a pty of flo and lat enr y abpnte fpyt. And if ˛ wilt, take 
for pfel fafron, and sue it forth.

Now, what Napier described and what the actual recipe is are similar, but 
not exact. Essentially, this is ground pork, mixed with a combination of 
powder fort, saffron, salt, and currants. These ingredients are mixed 
together, coated in egg white, poached in boiling water, then roast on a 
spit. Optional instructions include rolling the balls in saffron. 

NOTE: Powder fort was a spice mixture made up pungent spices. As 
described in Le Viandier de Taillevent,the mixture is made up cinnamon, 
clove, pepper, grains of paradise, ginger, and galingale.

 I also referred to a contemporary book of A Forme of Cury, known as 
Ancient Cookery. It has a recipe listed as Pommedorry:

For to make Pommedorry
Tak Buff and hewe yt fmal al raw and caft yt in a morter and grynd yt 
nozt to fmal tak fafron and grynd ther'wyth want yt ys grounde tak thy 
wyte of the eyren zyf yt be nozt ftyf. Caft into the Buf pouder of Pepyr 
olde refyns and of foronfe fet over a panny wyth fayr water and mak 
pelotys of the Buf and wan the water and the pelots ys wel yboylyd and 
fet yt adon and kele it and put yt on a broche and roft yt and endorre yt 
with zolkys of eyryn and ferve yt forthe.

This recipe is similar to the one in A Forme of Cury, only the spices are 
pepper and saffron, not powder fort, and it uses beef instead of pork. 

Redaction

What follows is my redaction of the recipe plus 2 variations.

PomesóStandard Recipe: yields about 15 large meatballs
1 pound pork roast, boneless
1 cup currants, chopped
2 egg whites
1 tsp. Cassia 
1 Tablespoon Grains of paradise, ground
1/2 tsp. ground Cloves
1 tsp. ground Black pepper
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Saffron, ground fine with pinch salt.

Instructions/Description of the Process

I ground the pork using a food processor. Using a mortar and pestle would 
have been a more authentic process, but incredibly labor intensive. I 
chopped the currants in a mechanical (not electric) nut chopper. The 
cassia and cloves were already pre-ground, so I hand-ground the pepper, 
saffron, and grains of paradise. 

I mixed the meat and currants together, then added the spices. Exact 
measurements were not included in any of the recipes, so I did it "to my 
taste, hopefully blending the meat and the spices without overpowering 
the taste.I then formed the mixture into meatballs, coated them in egg 
white, and then poached them for 5 minutes in simmering water. 

The water turned yellow because of the saffron. It also had a lite scum 
of foam [I guess from the egg white]. Poaching the meatballs also made 
them less greasy. I tried this recipe once and roasted the meatballs, and 
they turned out quite greasy.

Pomes Dorryle
Use Standard Recipe, plus 2 egg yolks. Coat the meatballs in egg yolk and 
cook in a 300 degree oven until the yolks have cooked approximately 5-10 
minutes.

Pomes Vert
Use Standard Recipe, plus 2 egg yolks and 1 bunch parsley, chopped fine. 
Coat the meatballs in egg. Add parsely to the water and simmer with the 
meatballs.

How the Dish is Served
Forks were most likely seen as a curiosity druing the 14th century. So I 
suspect this dish was either eaten with fingers or cut into small pieces 
with a knife.

Sources
All sources were taken from the Collection of Medieval and Renaissance 
Cookbooks - David Friedman, editor. 4th edition, Volume 1 1987.

Ancient Cookery (1381) p. 106 (A38)
Forme of Cury (1390), p. 78 (A31)
A Noble Boke off Cookry for a Prynce Houssolde (1470)


From: ericmc at ix.netcom.com (Eric McCollum )
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Frumenty
Date: 28 Sep 1995 17:05:28 GMT

>Do you have a recipe for Frumenty?  THe impression I have of it is of
>a wheat porrage with dried fruit in it.
>
>thanks - MArian

"The Medieval Cookbook" By Maggie Black contains a recipie for
frumenty. Based on this recipie, I use cracked wheat (it calls for 10
oz). Boil in water (5 cups ish) for 15 min, let stand for 15 min until
the liquid is mostly absorbed. Then add a can of beef stock, and bring
back to a boil. Stir over a low heat for a little longer until it
reaches the consistancy you want. I add bullion cubes for a richer beef
taste and a bit of salt.  I also have substituted more beef broth for
the initial water. 

I've served this at feasts as a side dish, but I really enjoyed it with
rabbit stew served over it. Good luck!

Gwendolen Wold


From: jtn at newsserver.uconn.edu (Terry Nutter)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Frumenty (Re: Autohaggis)
Date: 28 Sep 1995 21:39:04 GMT
Organization: University of Connecticut

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

Marian asks,
: Akimoya,

: Do you have a recipe for Frumenty?  THe impression I have of it is of a wheat
: porrage with dried fruit in it.

I'm not Akimoya, but....

I know of numerous recipes for frumenty, from the 14th and 15th centuries.
(It's the first recipe in Forme of Cury, for instance.)  They all tend to
agree pretty precisely.

Take wheat.  Work it in a mortar until the hulls come away, and get rid of
them.  Then boil it in water until the kernels burst.  Take the boiled
wheat, and add broth (but not for porpoise or on fish days), almond milk
or cow's milk (almond milk when it is to go with porpoise or in lent;
otherwise, either one; one recipe calls of hazel nut milk) and heat.
Then add eggs and saffron.  Don't boil after adding the eggs.  Fifteenth 
century recipes in Austin's collection sometimes call for sugar and salt.  
I don't know offhand of any that call for dried fruit.

Most often served with venison or with porpoise.

Cheers,
-- Angharad/Terry


From: rmacdonald at microd.com
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 96 11:39:06 GMT
Subject: Re: one "pot" meal
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Here's one I have been known to do on occasion.  It is a version of Cassolet, a 
dish from southern France that dates way back, but I cannot document how far.  
This version is designed for camping, using as many canned or dry components as 
possible:

2 cans of white or navy beans
 (if you want to be more authentic start from dry beans)
1 can chicken broth
1 cup cheap white wine
1 can chicken (or better duck if you can get some)
1-2 Carrots - diced
1 medium onion - diced
20-30 thin slices of pepperoni (I use commercially sliced and then dice further)
Marjoram
Garlic
Ground Black Pepper

Mix the chicken broth with the wine and the spices (to taste, also Italian 
Seasoning may be add. I don't tell people how much spice to use, we all have 
different tastes).  Add the diced vegitables and bring to a boil. Cook the 
vegitables until they begin to soften and then add the rest of the 
ingreadients. Usually the whole cooking process can be done in 30-45 minutes 
having a completed product that will serve 3-4 or 2 hungry fighters.

Other ideas: Breakfast sausage patty's may substitute for the pepperoni, duck 
for the chicken. Lamb shanks may be added especially if making a larger batch. 
It's basicly a bean soup/stew that almost anything you can find/catch/poach/
steal can be added to to increase flavor.

It is fairly fast, easy, and safely transported with little that can spoil.

In service to the society
--
Iain of Rannoch  ~);^) (Found in Fiach Ogan, Trimaris)


From: graydawn at pacbell.net
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: one "pot" meal
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 14:23:55 -0700

rmacdonald at microd.com wrote:
> Here's one I have been known to do on occasion.  It is a version of Cassolet,
> a dish from southern France that dates way back, but I cannot document how 
> far. This version is designed for camping, using as many canned or dry 
> components aspossible:

  <snippety snip>
 
> Other ideas: Breakfast sausage patty's may substitute for the pepperoni, duck
> for the chicken. Lamb shanks may be added especially if making a larger batch.
> It's basicly a bean soup/stew that almost anything you can find/catch/poach/
> steal can be added to to increase flavor.

We also do a cassoulet, but we generally use Italian sausage and add barley, mostly because my lord husband has a legume allergy and appreciates keeping bean exposure to a minimum...  Green bell peppers go well in it also, but I believe they're New World, correct?

Adellind le Quintain


From: idavis at ix.netcom.com(Irene Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Origins of Spaetzle (was: one "pot" meal)
Date: 27 Aug 1996 17:46:00 GMT

Gartner Michael <ges95kll at studserv.uni-leipzig.de> writes: 
>
>It got me to thinking about one of my favorite dishes, a specialty of
>Swabia.  Known as Spaetzle, it is a type of egg noodle made from flour,
>eggs and a touch of salt.  Thats it.  
>snipped<
>So my question is, have any of you learned cook types come across a
>period recipe that fits my description? 

I have been making Spaetzle for years! It is a family favorite in the
winter and goes well with many types of sauces, gravies and stews
thrown on top (or just plain butter). My recipe is: 2 cups of flour, 1
teaspoon of salt, 2 eggs, and 3/4 cup milk. Stir it all together. I put
mine through a real spaetzle maker, but you can also push the batter
through a colander with large holes - right into boiling water. I
usually cook for about five minutes, and that is it! To reheat it later
(if there is any left) just saute in a little butter until lightly
browned. YUM! Have fun!

Irene
Barony of Aeschyrst


From: johi at email-cd.oesd.co.at (Jean le Confus)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Origins of Spaetzle (was: one "pot" meal)
Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 09:28:56 GMT
Organization: Verlag Österreich

idavis at ix.netcom.com(Irene Davis) wrote:

>In <Pine.A32.3.91.960827180058.38986A-100000 at studserv.uni-leipzig.de>
>Gartner Michael <ges95kll at studserv.uni-leipzig.de> writes: 
>>
>>It got me to thinking about one of my favorite dishes, a specialty of
>>Swabia.  Known as Spaetzle, it is a type of egg noodle made from
>>flour, eggs and a touch of salt.  Thats it.  
>>snipped<
>>So my question is, have any of you learned cook types come across a
>>period recipe that fits my description? 

Yes, we have. You will have to look it up in the cookbooks, but there
are a few recipies that fit the description. Furthermore, in the
kitchen of castle Kreuzenstein (near Vienna/Austria) there is a
contraption from the mid 16th century was used to make Spaetzle or
noodles.

> I put mine through a real spaetzle maker, but you can also push the
> batter through a colander with large holes - right into boiling water.

Or, even simple, just scrape the batter from a cutting board with a
large knife directly into the boiling water. Works fine, even for
camping cooking. Spaetzle can be easily produced without any modern
appliances at an event, and is always popular.

> To reheat it later (if there is any left) just saute in a little butter until 
>lightly browned. YUM! Have fun!

Or even better, poor an egg with some cheese over it while in the pan.
Gets the stuff more juicy. Best served with salad.

Mahlzeit,

Jean le Confus
Ad Flumen Caerulum / Drachenwald

mka Johannes Blach
johi at email-cd.oesd.co.at
Vienna / Austria


Date: Wed, 02 Oct 1996 09:57:17 +0100
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy M Renfrow)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period recipes

In article <52t26t$fkt at nntp.sierra.net>, Tony Baldacci / Neighborhood
Nuclear Superiority <tandmb at sierra.net> wrote:

> Can anyone direct me to a source for some period recipes?
> Preferably something I can FTP on-line.
> 
> George of Berwick

Hello!  You can find a few at my web site:
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/ plus links to most of the other web sites
containing period recipes on my links page.

Hope this helps!

Cindy Renfrow
renfrow at skylands.net
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/


From: dpeters at panix.com (D. Peters)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Recipes...(Was: Anybody in the northern East Kingdom...)
Date: 3 Mar 1997 23:16:43 -0500

Honour Horne-Jaruk <una at bregeuf.stonemarche.org> wrote:
>       I have a goat. She has two 3 week old buck kids. You 
>hungry? E-mail, please.

Sounds nummy, but I don't think we have the freezer space....

>       (Just so this post isn't a total waste of bandwidth:
>anyone got _pre-17th century western European_ recipes for
>either kid or goat?

I scanned my medieval English sources, and found the following:

From _An Ordinance of Pottage_:  #54. Bruet of Kedes; #59. Kyd Stewyd;
#156. Kyd Rostyd

From _Curye on Inglysch:  Forme of Cury, #23: Egurdouce

From _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_:  (Harleian 279):  #36 (Potages
Dyvers): Vele, Kede, or Henne in Bokenade; #38 (Leche Vyaundez) Kyde
A-Forsyde; (Harleian 4016): Kede Rosted; Bukenade (again) 

These sources also contain sauces to be served with roasted kid.

I've only checked the medieval English ones (it's late, and time for bed),
but I believe that both Platina, the Islamic Andalusian, and *maybe* the
Catalan collections, also have recipes for goat/kid.

(I worked in a Jamaican neighborhood for a year, and frequented a butcher
whose sign read "fresh goat daily."  I bought some and we made an
egredouce out of it; it tasted glorious, but the goat was rather, ahem,
mature, and a bit tough.  Longer slow cooking may have remedied this;
we're hoping that Lord's Salt will have a tenderizing effect.  If so,
we'll be making Egredouce of Goat at Pennsic this year....)  

Hope this helps--
D.Peters


From: Leslie  Watson <Leslie.Wat at hwcn.org>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 11:01:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks Pakoras

On Sun, 13 Apr 1997, James L. Matterer wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>   I'm new to the list and so therefore am "out of the loop" as far as
> the conversations here are concerned. Is there a recipe exchange or
> posting happening?
>    Just recently I've gotten into Indian (Asian) cooking. I'm busy
> tracking down the elusive recipe for Pakoras - batter-fried fruits &
> vegies, also done in "hush puppy" style. Is anyone familar with this
> dish? And does anyone know of a good recipe? What I've found so far
> isn't nealy as tasty as the Pakoras I've had in Indian restaurants and
> at Hindu temples. Don't know how period they are, though I'm sure they
> fit in the SCA time-range.
> 
> Hope to meet lots of you!
> 
> Master Ian

I have a recipie for Pakors

3/4 c Chick pea flour
1T ground corriander seeds
3/4 t salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2/3 c warm wter
1 teaspoon oil
 vegies of choice.  I like cauliflower

in bowl wisk together everything except the vegies.  set aside in a wrm
place for about 30 minutes

wash vegies and cut them into medium size peices

heat oil for deep frying

coat veggies in batter and fry in oil that when a peice of raw veg is
dropped in it it rises quickly to the top.

cook about 3 to five peices at a time to not over crowd the pot and so the
temperature of the oil does not become to low.  cook for about 3 to 4
minutes until the pakora is golden brown.  remove from oil and drain on
papeer towles.  
 As for this being period. 

My suspect that it is just by the ingredience.  and the metho of cooking
the Indian popilation like to think they invented deep frying as they
where frying food long before the Moslims invaded.  The early Jain
cononical from the 5th centry mentions frying food and gives them the name
of supakvam.  The Susruta  (4th centruy) calles articles fried in
clarified butter (ghee) ghrta taila pakvah.  Now that word itself is very
similar to the name of the mordern dish.  Another example of this is from
the fourth centry thor of the Angavijja name a number of foods as deep
fried as daka,saskuli, pupa,phenaka, utkarika and divalika.

From the Susruta Su V 27 Angv,. p 180 it is mentioned that balls of wheat
flour stuffed with  vegtables and fried in oil called udumbara (hindi -
Hola)  

I hope htis is what you where looking for.  My research on Indian food is
extensive so if you want any more info just ask.  

Aibhilin of Skye  


From: robin.hackett at wadsworth.org (Robin Hackett)
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 09:43:33 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - Theme Feasts

Julleran wrote:

>>was a collection of "delicacies" tempered with enough pork or
>>raisen/fig pasties to satisfy timid eaters.
>>Leri
>>
>Ooh, I love raisins and figs. Could you post a recipe?
>Julleran

The recipe used for the filling is Fig and Raisin 'Cream' from Maggie
Black's "The Medieval Cookbook". At the top she quotes from "Curye on
Inglysch".

4 oz well-soaked dried figs
40z raisins
1 1/4 cup red wine (not too dry)
pinch black pepper
dash cinnamon
pinch gr cloves
dark brown sugar
rice flour
salt to taste

Drain figs, reserve liquid. Raisins,figs,wine,spices,sugar in pan to boil.
Process mix until smooth, using the reserved liquid if necessary. Cream
rice flour w/ reserve or wine and add to mix. Simmer until slightly
thickened. Season as desired w/ salt and more sugar.

The CI recipe calls for coloring with Saunders but I don't have much luck
with that. In order to get good color so much is added that the dish starts
to taste like wood. Food coloring can be substituted, I guess, or can be
left out entirely.

We made this dish to serve over ice cream or porridge and wound up putting
it into pastry dough as an aside. Best whim we've had so far!

Leri
robin.hackett at wadsworth.org


From: "James L. Matterer" <jmattere at weir.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 1997 22:45:31 -0700
Subject: SC - Tredure

I just submitted this recipe to the Misty Highlands for use in their
newsletter - thought I'd share it with all of you.

Tredure
from Forme of Cury, no. 17
   
"17. Tredure. Take brede and grate it; make a lyre of rawe ayren, and do
therto safroun and powdour douce, and lye it vp with gode broth, and
make it as a cawdel. And do therto a lytel verious."
                                                                        
My translation: Take bread and grate it; make a thickening of raw eggs,
and add saffron and cinnamon and sugar, and mix it up with good broth,
and make it smooth and thick. And add a little verjus.

My redaction:

2 eggs
1/2 - 1 c. bread crumbs
4 c. broth (3 c. chicken broth, 1 c. pork broth, seasoned with pepper,
cummin, saffron, and salt)  
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tbs. white grape juice vinegar

   Beat together the eggs and bread crumbs until mixture is smooth and
thick; set aside. Bring broth to a boil. Add egg mixture, spices, and
lemon juice, and while stirring vigorously with a wire whip, return to a
boil. Reduce heat, allow to cook for several minutes, then remove from
heat. Make sure that the final product is very smooth and thick. Serve
warm. Serves 4.

"Powdour douce" is defined by Curye on Inglish (from which this recipe
is drawn) as a mild mixture of ground spices, usually containing
cinnamon and sugar, which is what I have used.  The "lyre," or
thickening, of egg and bread not only ensures that the end result is a
"cawdel"- a smoothly thickened sauce or soup - but also makes an
excellent binding agent for the cinnamon. I've found that passing the
finished soup through a food processor or blender will provide you with
an excellant cawdel. Curye on Inglish also defines "verious" as being
the "liquid of acid fruits such as sour grapes and crabapples."

For the broth, I used "Hens in bonet" from Napier's Noble Boke of Cookry
as translated in W.E. Mead's The English Medieval Feast, p. 71: "This is
made by stewing hens and fresh pork together, grinding pepper, bread,
and cummin, seasoning it, tempering it with the hens' broth, colouring
it with saffron, adding salt, and serving it." When making the broth I
left out the bread crumbs, as they were added later on when making the
Tredure.

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.

Mead, William Edward. The English Medieval Feast. New York: Barnes &
Noble, Inc.


From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 07:44:49 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: SC - Game pies

At 11:22 AM 5/15/97 -0600, you wrote:
>	I would love to see the game pie recipes (both) would you be 
>willing to post them?
>
>Sabia(Outlands)

I've been reading about the "bastardized beef in the form of Red Deer", and
have come to the conclusion that it was a common practice to marinate
venison before cooking. When the Deer Population died out from over-hunting,
(England) in period, the same method was applied to Beef in an attempt to
mask the beef flavor. Apparently, it was met with varying levels of success.
Some of the discussions on this list were helpful.

I'll give the originals, which we followed fairly closely, from Martha
Washington. Although it can be argued that she's "Not Period", I'd like to
point out that the frontspage of the book says "Martha Washington's Booke of
Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats: being a Family Manuscript, curiously copied
by an Unknown Hand in the Seventeenth Century, which was in her keeping from
1749, the time of her Marriage to Daniel Custis, to 1799, at which time she
gave it to Eleanor Parke Custis, her Granddaughter, on the occaision of her
marriage to Lawrence Lewis."  This puts a great many of the recipes within
our grasp (whatever date we individually decide our "grasp" is), and it is
fairly clear to me that some of these recipes are indeed direct from England
during our period---otherwise why on earth would someone in the colonies
want to fake "Red Dear" when venison was so readily available here? I have
chosen to use recipes that have strong elements of other period practices,
and it was my job to sort this out for myself before presenting these
recipes for redaction. This discussion could take long hours to resolve, so
I'll just go right to the recipes. Don't shoot me, I'm just the piano player.

To Make Red Dear of Beef  rcpt 48

First take a piece of young buttock of beefe & larde it. Yn season it wth
nutmegg, ginger, pepper & salt. Yn lay it in calrret wine, & a little wine
vinegar for a day or two, then put it in a coarse paste with a good deale of
butter, & when you set it into ye oven, put in the vinegar & let it be well
soaked. A neats tongue soe seasoned is excellent good meat, & allsoe veal.

Another Way To Make Beef Like Red Deare   rcpt 49

take a piece of ye clod of beefe next ye legge & cut ye sinews from it; then
put it in a clean cloth & beat it extremely; yn lard it very well, & season
it with nutmegg, pepper, & salt; then lay it on a clean dish & pour upon it
halfe a pinte of white wine & as much wine vinegar. let it lye insteepe al
night, & ye next day poure away ye vinegar & wine. put ye meat in a round
coffin of paste crust & lay s or 3 bay leaves under and as many above it.
put in a store of butter, & let it stand 6 hours in ye oven. make a hole in
ye lid & fill it up with butter when it comes outof ye oven.

NOw, we adulterated these recipes for several reasons: I have a small supply
of real venison, enabling me to put some in each pie. So we used approx.2
lbs beef and 1 lb venison, which we cut up to mingle. Then we followed the
recipes as we chose:  Claret is a sweet wine, so it makes an excellent
marinade. We added nutmeg, ginger, salt, pepper, and red wine vinegar. The
meat needs to be wrung out fairly dry before putting into the pastry. Bay
leaves go above and below it, as stated--we used 6-8 fresh ones.It is then
dotted with 2 tbsp. butter and a little vinegar poured on (we used my own
herbed vinegar, but red-wine vinegar would do). We made a hot-water pastry
with whole wheat flour, butter, salt, and hot water, and raised a coffin to
put the meat in (it took about 1 1/2 lbs flour). This type of pastry hardens
when cool but uncooked (reminiscent of play-doh), enabling the filled crust
to stand alone like a semi-soft box (coffin) with a lid. Had it been left to
chill it would have hardened. It was baked at 350 for about 1 1/2 hours, and
was quite juicy and wondeful. When we do this for real, we'll give it a
longer marinade time. It only had 2 hours due to time constraints.

To Season a Venison Pasty  rcpt 51

Take out ye bones & turn ye fat syde down upon a board. Yn take ye pill of 2
leamons & break them in pieces as long as yr finger & thrust them into every
hole of yr venison. then take 2 ounces of beaten pepper & thrice as much
salt, mingle it, then wring out ye juice of leamon into ye pepper & salt &
season it, first takeing out ye leamon pills haveing layn soe a night. then
paste it with gross pepper layd on ye top & good store of butter or mutton suet.

This is straight forward and quite tasty: we again mixed small chunks of
beef and venisonin in a (pounds) 2:1 proportion. We seasoned with a marinade
of fresh lemon peel, lemon juice, salt--we used rather less than called
for--and pepper. This sat about 4 hours. Again, it needs to be wrung out
(pressed) pretty throroughly, as the meat/ venison retained much of the
marinade. Again, we raised a wheat coffin and put in the meat mixture, and
sprinkled with pepper and lemon zest rather heavily, a sprinkle of lemon
juice,  and dotted with about 2 tbsp. butter before closing the pastry. It
was baked the same as the above pie.  This one was my favorite.

I'd like to note that these redacted recipes are the creation of the cook's
guild of Endless hills, and not specifically my own. I had a hand in
supervising (and tasting!), but these were made by novices, with truly
wonderful results. They did a fabulous job....some of them were redacting
for the very first time.

'Raising coffins' also belongs to another discussion another day, but for
those who have not tried hot-water pastry, I urge you to experiment. Imagine
making pastry without any flour flying all over the counter/floor/cook! You
don't need pie plates (which render your creations "tarts" and not pies),
and the contents of the pies are generally denser and more satisfying (at
least to my brit-blood palate). Besides, they're fun to make, thus appealing
to the kitchen hands who're looking a little bored.

Respectfully submitted this 16th day of May with the help of little Siusan
nic Ghille Brighde, aged 2.

Aoife


From: "Nick Sasso (fra niccolo)" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 09:31:17 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Types of food to serve non-medieval food people

>   How, in other words, do I make the
> bride and the guests happy at the same time?  All suggestions will
> be received with shameless, pathetic, puppy-like worshipful adoration!
>
> Juana Teresa de Salamanca

I have had no one turn up their mundane or medievel noses at a roman
roasted meat.  You roll it copiously in salt and herbs to form a crust.
Then wrap and bake slowly (325-350) until tender enough to shred with
forks.  When shredded, turn off oven and return to foil wrapping.
Slather with liquid honey.  The result is an intensly salty/sweet
balance that is indescribable.  The risk to heart is stipulated here
:o)  You'll find the technique described in Apicius as 'roast meat'.
Works on pork, lamb, beef for sure; maybe others.
- --
In Humble Service to God and Crown;

fra nicolo difrancesco


From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 10:16:03 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Types of food to serve non-medieval food people

Nick Sasso (fra niccolo) wrote:

> I have had no one turn up their mundane or medievel noses at a roman
> roasted meat.  You roll it copiously in salt and herbs to form a crust.
> Then wrap and bake slowly (325-350) until tender enough to shred with
> forks.  When shredded, turn off oven and return to foil wrapping.
> Slather with liquid honey.  The result is an intensly salty/sweet
> balance that is indescribable.  The risk to heart is stipulated here
> :o)  You'll find the technique described in Apicius as 'roast meat'.
> Works on pork, lamb, beef for sure; maybe others.

Sounds lovely, and I'll certainly try it. My only concern is that the
dish seems to owe as much to Meridien pulled barbecue as to Apicius, who
simply says, "1. Meat roasted plain in the oven, sprinkled with plenty
of salt. Serve with honey."

Luckily, I love Meridien pulled barbecue. I'm also a big fan of Apicius'
Tarpeian Lamb, which is a little closer to what you describe, I think.
Almost like a sort of curried roast with honey. The almost-done roast is
cut up in slices or chunks, put back in the pan with some wine and
honey, and the liquids deglaze the pan and dissolve the herb crust into
a thick sauce. Very serious business indeed. I'm working from memory
here, so I hope you'll forgive any omissions from the process here, like
the odd bit of liquamen or something like that.

Your suggestion would probably be quite effective, though... .

Adamantius


From: "Nick Sasso (fra niccolo)" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 17:19:53 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - RE: Meat -- Roman roasted meat

> >>You roll it copiously in salt and herbs to form a crust.
>
> Any suggested as to which herbs?

Sadly, I remembered parts of two recipes on the same page.   The Apicius
herb roasted meat on  page 88-89  recommends 6 scruples each of
parsley,  siphilium [Greek name for laser],  ginger, siphilium root,
oregano, cyperus & celery seeds; 3 scruples of pyrethrum, 5 bay berries,
a bit of costusroot, 12 scruples of pepper, and suffiicient garum and
oil. (1)

Due to scarcity of several of the ingredients, the author recommends
this marinade: 2 Tbs total fresh minced parsley, oregano, mint, and
chervil; 1 1/2 tsp ginger; 5 coarsely crushed bay berries;1 1/2 tsp
celery seeds; 1 Tbs pepper; 3 garlic loves, pressed for their juice; 1
Tbs garum; 2 Tbs olive oil.  Mix well and brush onto meat intended to
roast.  Let stand 2 hours.  She gives directions for use as a baste as
well.

I recommend using a variant on the fried creamed wheat on page 159 as an
accompaniment starch (1).  I made the dish into a savory one by (using
cream of wheat as the base) halving the sugar, replacing half the milk
with water, and adding black pepper to taste and about 2 Tbs fresh
grated parmesean.  Bread and fry as recommended, but leave off the
powdered sugar.  They are a good laugh when you say you're serving fried
cream of wheat, but worth high praise when served with well spiced
roasted meats.  The recipe as written is suggested for serving with
fried meats, but seemed to need a small change for the spiced roast.
Our Gracious Lord of culinary gifts is well aware that we need more
variety of starches to serve with our feasts; rice and buttered noodles
are fine, but they do get rather..... mundane, if you will.
- --
In Humble Service to God and Crown;

fra nicolo difrancesco
(mka nick sasso)

(1) Giacosa, I.  _A taste of ancient rome_.  Chicago:  University of
Chicago Press.  1986.
                  ISBN 0-226-29032-8

PS I would recommend adding black pepper, garlic, oregano, mint and
parsley for the salt crust if you were to vary it.  I really don't know
what proportions would work.....I think I'll get a cheap hunk o' beast
flesh and experiment!


From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 17:09:56 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: SC - Roasting Methods

>> >>You roll it copiously in salt and herbs to form a crust.
>>
>> Any suggested as to which herbs?
>
>Sadly, I remembered parts of two recipes on the same page.   The Apicius
>herb roasted meat on  page 88-89  recommends 6 scruples each of
>parsley,  siphilium [Greek name for laser],  ginger, siphilium root,
>oregano, cyperus & celery seeds; 3 scruples of pyrethrum, 5 bay berries,
>a bit of costusroot, 12 scruples of pepper, and suffiicient garum and
>oil. (1)
>
>Due to scarcity of several of the ingredients, the author recommends
>this marinade: 2 Tbs total fresh minced parsley, oregano, mint, and
>chervil; 1 1/2 tsp ginger; 5 coarsely crushed bay berries;1 1/2 tsp
>celery seeds; 1 Tbs pepper; 3 garlic loves, pressed for their juice; 1
>Tbs garum; 2 Tbs olive oil.  Mix well and brush onto meat intended to
>roast.  Let stand 2 hours.  She gives directions for use as a baste as
>well.

Celery seeds?

Try this mixture: Finely chopped Cilantro, Fennel seeds, Salt, Pepper,
crushed garlic, crushed or very well minced onion, tossed with a little oil,
ingredients in order of quantity, but to taste.

The meat should be "green" with spices, should sit with the spices in a cold
place over night, and then roasted as usual. It's not documentably period,
but I have been gathering that what we know about roasted meat is only
marginally better than what we know about bread recipes in period. This
mixture is similar to the Apecian one, and works well with pork, lamb, beef,
etc... Incidentally, it's a local favorite, commercially available in this
tiny area of the world.

Aoife...who once again worked backwards from what I wanted to make, then on
to "can we document it?" Baaaaaaad Aoife. They sent the bones back to the
kitchen shaped like a little dinosaur fossil in a museum. Picked clean.


From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 17:35:13 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: SC - RE: Meat -- Roman roasted meat

<< Any suggested as to which herbs? >>

Tyme, Savory, Oregano, Rosemary, sage.

Lord Ras


From: "Nick Sasso (fra niccolo)" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 18:26:24 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - RE: Meat -- Roman roasted meat

Peters, Rise J. wrote:
> >>Sadly, I remembered parts of two recipes on the same page.
>
> What was the other one?  And where does the slathering with honey come in?
>  Frankly, the salt crust with the honey sounds absolutely scrumptious.  I'm
> sorry it was a figment of your memory but may do it anyway.
>
> What roasting temp (usually I cook everything at 400 degrees unless told
> otherwise...)

The error was not the existance of the salt/honey roast, but that there
were added herbs.  The two recipes are 1) salted and honey  &  2) herb
marinated.

The recipe for the salt/ honey does exist, and roasting time/temp varies
based on size and shape of roast.  I stay in the 300-325F range until
done.  cover with honey and place in turned-off oven.  Shred or
slice.....I usually end up slicing, though every other person locally
shreds/pulls theirs with forks.
- --
In Humble Service to God and Crown;

fra nicolo difrancesco
(mka nick sasso)


From: maddie teller-kook <meadhbh at io.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 06:37:59 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - RE: Meat -- Roman roasted meat

Peters, Rise J. wrote:
> >>Sadly, I remembered parts of two recipes on the same page.
> 
> What was the other one?  And where does the slathering with honey come in?
>  Frankly, the salt crust with the honey sounds absolutely scrumptious.  I'm
> sorry it was a figment of your memory but may do it anyway.
> 
> What roasting temp (usually I cook everything at 400 degrees unless told
> otherwise...)

I would cook the meat at 400 for 15 minutes to seal the juices in and
then decrease the oven temp to 350-375.  I cook until the internal temp
reaches the appropriate temp (depending on the meat i am cooking--).
This method also keeps the meat juicy.  After the meat is out of the
oven let it rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing it up...happy
eating!!!!

meadhbh


From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 20:39:57 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Roasting Methods

L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt wrote:

> BTW I have read a little about the dredging process to form a crisp crust on
> a roast with flour and fat and some flavoring. Does anyone have any sources
> for this practice? I can only find secondary sources.

Best I can offer is the dredging instructions found in Gervase Markham,
for roasting meat. Fairly similar to the coating for the pound of butter
roasted well and curiously, also from Markham. The instructions are
fairly long, if I remember correctly, but I recall it involved roasting
the meat for long enough to moisten the fat, then sprinkling it heavily
with very fine white bread crumbs, letting them toast a bit, basting
them to re-moisten, and then adding more crumbs. This process is
repeated as many times as is necessary to achieve the desired crunchy
crust.

Presumably Markham is talking about fresh crumbs from something like a
trimmed Pullman loaf, in effect if not in origin. I can't imagine using
the dry tinned bread crumbs after having experienced the real thing.
 
> Aoife...who once again worked backwards from what I wanted to make, then on
> to "can we document it?" Baaaaaaad Aoife. They sent the bones back to the
> kitchen shaped like a little dinosaur fossil in a museum. Picked clean.

Naughty Aoife! Points off for documentation after the fact. Any more of
that roast left?

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 07 Aug 1997 09:14:41 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - [Fwd: Aloyaulx - was: Need recipe, please!]

I was reminded by some activity on the Madrone Culinary List that we
never did get a recipe for Aloyaulx of veal on this list. I'm taking the
liberty of forwarding both my response to such a request, and somebody
else's. My response was supposed to come to this list also, but seems
not to have made it for some reason...I just hope this shows up in some
coherent form. Thanks!

Adamantius
____________________________________________________
Subject: Aloyaulx - was: Need recipe, please!
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 23:03:50 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
To: arousseau at immunex.com
CC: "SCA - Madrone's Culinary Guild" <culinary at u.washington.edu>
	SCA-Cooks at Ansteorra.ORG

Anne-Marie C Rousseau wrote:
> So, we've decided to do a cooking-over-the-fire thang at South Sound Unity
> tourney. Sometime in the past, several people have mentined something called
> Alowys of Beef, ie little fillets stuffed and skewered and roasted over the
> fire.
> 
> Could the person(s) with those recipes, please pretty please share them 
> with me?

The dish seems to appear first in Taillevent, and is called Aloyaulx, or
Little Larks. This is the ancestor of the various stuffed veal birds
still eaten today. Again, not a redaction, per se; I'm having trouble
finding my notes from the last time I did these.

They are a very thin slice of veal, wrapped around a finger-sized piece
of raw marrow, kind of like a boneless osso bucco, skewered, roasted and
glazed with Taillevent's egg-yolky crepe batter. Lacking marrow, suet
can be used, but Taillevent cautions that the fingers of suet should be
blanched in boiling water for a few seconds to plump them.

I've borrowed from Le Menagier and some of the more modern recipes for
veal birds, and come up with something the mass market can handle just a
bit better: basically it gets a sort of poultry stuffing, made from
bread crumbs moistened in water, boiled, diced chestnuts, diced marrow
for moistness, chopped hard-boiled egg yolk (sometimes I use the whole
hard-boiled egg, chopped), some Parmesan cheese, and enough minced or
pureed parsley to make the stuffing a pale green. Copious salt and
pepper, of course.

The glaze was just egg yolks beaten with a small amount of flour and a
tiny bit of cream for fat. We added some for a gilded effect. We cooked
these under a broiler, that being what we had at the time, and dipped
the skewered birds in a tall pitcher of the gilding batter while they
were still blazing hot, which caused the batter to stick quite well.
They then went into an oven to finish cooking the glaze.

If I remember correctly, we made these with bottom rounds of beef the
butcher sliced paper thin on the deli slicer (something that can't be
done very far in advance, BTW) which was both economical and an
incredible labor-saving measure. Served on a bed of Taillevent's porree
de cresson, WITH the optional cheese.

Try them some time with the pure marrow filling; they're wonderful!

Adamantius


Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 20:51:36 -0700
From: Ron and Laurene Wells <tinyzoo at vr-net.com>
Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #329

Someone asked for a feast menu.  I've never made this, but thought it
sounded interesting:

                      Caer Galen Cooks Corner: The recipes

The recipes, conveniently located in one place

To make Leach: Hugh Plat's "Delightes for Ladies":
59. To make Leach
Seeth a pint of Creame, and in the seething put in some dissolved Isinglasse,
stirring it till it be very thicke, then take a handful of blanched Almonds,
beat them and put them in a dish with your Creame, seasoning them with sugar,
and after slice it and dish it.

A leach, after Hugh Plat:
Heat 3 cups of cream or milk. Mix 1/2 to 3/4 oz. gelatin with another cup of
milk according to directions on gelatin. Add 1/4 to 1/3 cup of sugar to the
heating milk. Mix in the gelatin.  Stir till well dissolved. Cool.

To make tender and delicate brawne:Hugh Plat's "Delightes for Ladies":
13. To make tender and delicate brawne.
Put collars of brawn in kettles of water, or other apt vessels into an oven
heated, as you would for household bread; cover the vessels, and so leave them
as long in the over as you would doe a batch of bread. A late experience
amongst Gentlewomen far excelling the old manner of boiling brawne in great and
huge kettles. Quare if putting your liquor hot into the vessels, and the brawn
a little boiled first, by this means you shall not give great expedition to
your work.

Brawne after Hugh Plat
Take a medium size pork shoulder and place it into a dish.  Cover it with
water.  Bake it at 400F for 90 minutes or so until done. If the roast is
thicker, it will take longer to cook, if small less time.  Slice thinly and
serve with mustard.

Mustard Meale:Hugh Plat's "Delightes for Ladies":
25. Mustard Meale
It is usual in Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in their markets as we doe
flower and meale in England: this meale, by the addition of vinegar, in two or
three daies becommeth exceeding good mustard; but it would be much stronger and
finer, if the huskes or huls were first divides by searce or boulter: which may
be easily done, if you dry your seeds against the fire before you grinde them.
The Dutch iron hand-mils, or an ordinary pepper-mill, may serve fro this
purpose.  I thought it very necessary to publish this manner of making your
sawce, because our mustard which we buy from the chandlers at this day, is many
times made up with vile and filthy vinegar, such as our stomacks would abhorre,
if we should see it before the mixing thereof with the seeds.

Mustard after Hugh Plat
Begin with as much vinegar as you wish to have mustard.  Add either dry mustard
or ground mustard seeds to taste.  Let is sit a couple of days to mellow.  A
rough ration is 3 tsp mustard to 1/4 cup vinegar. I used white wine, I would
suggest perhaps a cider or some other more strongly flavored vinegar.

To Make a Tarte of Spinage:"A New Booke of Cokerye":
TO MAKE A TARTE OF SPINAGE
Take Spynage and perboyle it tender, then take it up and wrynge oute the water
cleane, and chop it very small, and set it upon the fyre wyth swete butter in a
frying panne and season it, and set it in a platter to coole then fyll your
tarte and so bake it."

Tarte of Spinage after A new Booke
Thaw a pound or so of frozen spinach.  Fry it up with butter, salt, pepper and
garlic to taste.  When it is well and truly covered in the hot butter, transfer
it to a pie shell and bake it for 15 minutes or so at around 350.

Roast Capons in wine sauce over soppes
Chicken:  just roast the damn things.  Any cookbook will tell you how.
Soppes:   toast bread and arrange it on the tray.  Shepherds loaves, or a a
rough wheat would be good.

A Good Sauce: "Daz Buoch von Guoter Spise":
Take wine and honey.  Set that on the fire and let it boil.  And add thereto
pounded ginger more than pepper.  Pound garlic, but not, all too much, and make
it strong and give it impetus with eggwhites.  Let it boil until it becomes
brown.  One should eat this in cold weather and it is called Swallenberg sauce.

A good sauce after Daz Buoch von Guoter Spise
Take two to one wine to honey, and a hefty helping of ginger.  Add pepper and
garlic to taste. Some lightly beaten eggwhites, warmed before adding should
thicken it a bit.

Roast Beef with pepper and vinegar sauce over soppes
Beef: see chicken above
Soppes:   see soppes above

Pepper and vinegar sauce, after a number of sources:
Mix two parts vinegar to one part wine, add pepper and ginger to taste. Simmer.
Thicken with breadcrumbs (or cheat and use a beurre manie). Correct the
seasoning with more wine or vinegar before serving.

Game hens with various sauces:
Hens:  those are trivial to cook and left as an exercise to the reader.
Sauces: serve both of the sauces from above.
Also,
Sorrel Sauce:"Booke of Cokerye":
"Take Sorell, grynde hem small and draw (strain) him through a streynoure, and
caste thereto salt and serve hit forth" attributed to Austin.  "Take sorel
sauce a good quantite and put in Cinomone and Suger, and let it boyle and powre
it upon the soppes and then laye on the chekins."

Sorrel Sauce after the Booke of Cokerye
Grind Sorrel finely, or food process it.   Add it to a mix of equal parts water
and wine.  Spice to taste with cinnamon, salt and sugar. Boil it a a while,
then either strain for a clear sauce, or leave the sorrelly bits in if they are
small enough.

Tarte:
Use your favorite quiche recipe.  For vegetables use onions and maybe green
peas.

Fritters:The Harleian MS
"Longe Fretoure.-Take Milke,an make fayre croddes ther-of, in the manner of a
chese al tendyr; then take owt the whey as clene as you may, & putte it on a
bolle; then take yolkes of Eyroun & Ale, & menge floure, & cast there-to, a
gode quantyte, & draw it thorw a straynoure in-to a fayre vesselle; then take a
panne withe fayre grece, & hete it on the fyre, but let it not boyle, & then
ley thin creme a-brode; then take a knyff, & kytte a quantyte ther-of the borde
in-to the panne, & efte a-nother, & let 8t frye; & when it is brownne, takeit
vpee in-to a fiayre dyssche, and caste Sugre y-now ther-on, & serue forth."

"Fretoure.-Take whete floure, ale yest, Safroun, & Salte, & bete all to-
gederys as thikke as you schuldyst make other bature in fleyssche tyme; & then
take fayre Apples, & kut hem in manerof Fretourys, & wete hem the bature up on
downne, & frye hem in fayre Oyle, & caste hem in a dyssche; and caste Sugre
ther-on, & serue forth."

Fritters after the Harleian MS
Mix 1/2 flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 cup flat beer of your choice (I'd recommend
something with a little kick to it - Guiness maybe.) Add flour to it until it
has the appropriate texture for batter. If you wish add a little milk as well.
Cut up apples, not Red Delicious, into slices, or for a change, core them and
slice into rounds.  Slather them well in the batter and fry in hot oil.
Sprinkle with sugar, and serve while warm.
--
Alexandre Lerot d'AvignÇ, nexus at panix.com, 4/25/94


Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 01:44:04 -0400
From: marilyn traber <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - below the salt

Jessica Tiffin wrote:
> Margali wrote:
> >My version of Cassoulet d'isignie
> 
> (lots more snipped)
>
> I assume this is period - could you give us the documentation, pretty
> please??
>
> Melesine

I was classically french trained, and it is something I learned the hard
way, by doing them in large quantities over the course of a winter
daily. I have no clue of how old the recipe is offhand, except as much
of the classic french cuisine dates to the 17 and 1800s. Instead of the
chicken legs, it is supposed to be confit of goose, which I forgot to
give directions for.


Take the legs and drumette sections of raw goose, take and melt enough
unseasoned goose fat to cover the legs.drumettes laid out in a
rectangular pan [pieces not touching] place in a very slow oven, 250 f
until all the water is driven out of the fat and goose has absorbed much
of the fat. I find about 2-3 hours is enough. It sounds like it would be
greasier than all get out, bt if you use the confit, you dont add butter
to the top. Confit if placed in a jar, and the fat poured over all will
keep without refrigeration for about a week.

margali

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	recipes-msg	 of 49