verjuice-msg – 1/17/08
Medieval verjuice. Modern sources and substitutions.
NOTE: See also these files: vinegar-msg, wine-msg, sauces-msg, murri-msg, garum-msg, broths-msg, beer-in-food-msg, beer-msg, fruit-citrus-msg, cider-msg.
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Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Uduido at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at eden.com
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 18:13:37 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: sca-cooks Re: [ck] introduction
<< Have any of you tried naturally fermented cider vinegar as verjuice? Do
we have any sources that say regular apples were
always/occasionally/never used? >>
I have made verjuice from crab apple juice for 3 yrs. now. Used in pork
recipes mundanely and in any recipe from period calling for it has always had
positive results. There is some disagreement on what it was exactly but the
crab apple and green grape people seem to be the logical winners. Green
grapes were not the kind you find in the supermarket but were rather
unripened grapes. The crab apples were the ones used in apple jelly. Hard to
find now a days but some old homesteads still have them. Ornamental
crabapples can be used to make a useable product.
Simply run them through a food processor or crush. Add water to cover. Place
a cheese cloth over them to keep out insects and ferment for 3-4 days. Strain
and squeeze juice from pulp. Can in mason jars or bottle in beer bottles and
cap.
Lord Ras the Reformer
From: "Philip W. Troy" <troy at asan.com>
To: sca-cooks at eden.com
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 19:53:29 -0400
Subject: Re: sca-cooks Re: [ck] introduction
Uduido at aol.com wrote:
> I have made verjuice from crab apple juice for 3 yrs. now. Used in pork
> recipes mundanely and in any recipe from period calling for it has always had
> positive results. There is some disagreement on what it was exactly but the
> crab apple and green grape people seem to be the logical winners. Green
> grapes were not the kind you find in the supermarket but were rather
> unripened grapes. The crab apples were the ones used in apple jelly. Hard to
> find now a days but some old homesteads still have them. Ornamental
> crabapples can be used to make a useable product.
>
> Simply run them through a food processor or crush. Add water to cover. Place
> a cheese cloth over them to keep out insects and ferment for 3-4 days. Strain
> and squeeze juice from pulp. Can in mason jars or bottle in beer bottles and
> cap.
>
> Lord Ras the Reformer
Recipe is in Gervase Markham's "The English Housewife". Made pretty much
like cider, but from crabapples.
Adamantius
From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 22:27:08 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: SC - Vinegar/verjuice
In a message dated 97-06-04 15:00:30 EDT, you write:
<< Can anyone provide me with documentation on the methods of making
vinegar or verjuice in period? >>
I just put crabapple juice in bottles and when it stops its spitty sputtery
thing I cap it.
Lord Ras
From: "Martin G. Diehl" <mdiehl at nac.net>
Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 22:45:16 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Vinegar/verjuice
Sharon L. Harrett wrote:
> Can anyone provide me with documentation on the methods of
> making vinegar or verjuice in period? I have many references to
> their use, but none on their manufacture.
>
> Ceridwen
Greetings to m'Lady Ceridwen,
One of my cookbooks "Renaissance Recipes (Painters and Food)" by
Gillian Riley, pub: Pomegranate Artbooks, ISBN: 1-56640-577-7 ,
96 pages, hbk. gives some information on verjuice and several recipes
use it.
[Partial quote] Verjuice: in Italian cooking is, in its simplest
form, the juice of sour green grapes, used as a condiment or cooking
medium. It can be boiled and fermented, and used throughout the
year. The equivalent in English cookery ... sour gooseberries, plums,
or acidic herbs such as sorrel. ...
The book suggests that bitter orange (found in the Spanish foods section
of a large supermarket) could be used as a substitute. One
recipe that was given was Chicken with Verjuice, "Amorsa"
1 medium chicken, jointed
4 oz. pancetta
1 lb. sour green grapes, gooseberries, or unripe green plums
fresh mint and parsley, chopped
salt, freshly ground black pepper, saffron to taste
Fry the chicken joints and diced bacon in olive oil until golden and
half cooked. Crush the grapes and strain through a sieve into a
casserole. Add the chicken; stir well to dissolve the brown bits and
simmer until tender. Season with black pepper and saffron, check
salt (pancetta may provide enough). Serve sprinkled with chopped
herbs.
Alas, although this lovely book does have a bibliography, specific
references are not given for each recipe.
I am,
Vinchenzio Martinus di Mazza,
- --
Martin G. Diehl
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 00:57:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: SC - Vinegar/verjuice
According to a (modern) persian cookbook of Jaella's that I was reading
while visiting D.C., verjuice is made from green grapes which are picked in
order to thin the bunches so that the remaining grapes will turn out
better. Unfortunately, it didn't describe the fermentation process. I
should check the (crabapple based) recipe in Robert May. One of the grape
vines I planted a year and a half ago has lots of bunches on it.
David/Cariadoc
From: Robin Hackett <robin.hackett at wadsworth.org>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 10:28:35 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - Vinegar/verjuice
Ceridwen,
Vincenzio wrote:
>One of my cookbooks "Renaissance Recipes (Painters and Food)" by
>Gillian Riley, pub: Pomegranate Artbooks, ISBN: 1-56640-577-7 ,
>96 pages, hbk. gives some information on verjuice and several recipes
>use it.
>
>[Partial quote] Verjuice: in Italian cooking is, in its simplest
>form, the juice of sour green grapes, used as a condiment or cooking
>medium. It can be boiled and fermented, and used throughout the
>year. The equivalent in English cookery ... sour gooseberries, plums,
>or acidic herbs such as sorrel. ...
This is the definition we used to make our own. Emerson has this grape vine
he won't let me chop down in the yard (he wants to make a trellis complete
with statuary, but thats another topic!:)) that produced all of two bunches
of grapes last year. So I got to experiment with them! We simmered the
unripe grapes (test by tasting...very tart!) with a little water to prevent
sticking or burning. Simmered long enough to burst the grapes. Then
strained them through a cheesecloth lined strainer into a bowl, overnight.
Don't press the grapes, you want the verjuice to be as clear as possible.
We used it fresh so didn't go to any lengths to ferment it.
Leri
robin.hackett at wadsworth.org
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 19:02:18 +0000
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - extraneous misc.
And it came to pass on 4 Sep 97, that Marisa Herzog wrote:
>I wish I could find where I had seen bitter orange listed as
> a probable verjuice source
In various recipes in the _Libro de Guisado_ (Catalan/Spanish, 16th
century), orange juice is listed as an alternative to verjuice or
vinegar, and is used as the primary sauce ingredient in many of the
fish dishes. Presumably this would be from sour/bitter oranges; I
believe that the sweet varieties are modern.
Barbara Santich, in _The Original Mediterranean Cuisine_, says, "The
standard accompaniments to fried fish were lemon juice (or the tart
orange juice of the time) or green sauce." She comments elsewhere in
the book that vinegar and verjuice were interchangeable in many
recipes, and that lemon juice or the juice of bitter oranges were
other substitutes.
> -brid
Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 01:49:49 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: lutefisk! etc.
Uduido at aol.com wrote:
> << As a relative newcomer, I would LOVE to have this receipe! Verjus, please!
> Esko >>
>
> Come on, A, you can do it. I know you can. Blueberry verjus recipe please. :-)
> Lord Ras (ROFL)
Heh heeeeehhhhh, ya dirty old...
Lessee now...if it's really blueberry verjuice you want, and not
vinegar, then I suppose you want about fifteen pounds of unripe, green
blueberries, or enough to give you around a gallon of pressed juice.
Strain into a wide-mouthed fermenting jar, and tie a clean piece of
muslin over the mouth. Leave this out in the open for a week or two,
then transfer to a one-gallon secondary fermenting jug with an airlock.
When no more bubbles form in the airlock, you can bottle the stuff in
sterile bottles, such as clamp-top Grolsch bottles. Let age in a dark
place for 3-6 months before using. This is your basic verjuice.
If you then want to add a more recognizable blueberry character to it,
add one quart of additional crushed ripe blueberries (skins and seeds,
too) to your secondary fermenter, and let it sit for 2-3 weeks. Strain
and bottle.
OR, you can make a thick, sweet, blueberry wine and let it turn into
vinegar, either naturally or by adding a vinegar "mother" or culture.
OR, you can make vinegar or verjuice, and infuse blueberries in it,
which is more or less where we started, isn't it?
Adamantius
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 19:27:04 EDT
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: SC - Substitute for verjuice
<< Using a mix of mostly orange juice and
some lemon juice is one substituion I have seen for verjuice.
>>
Verjuice is , IMHO, the juice extracted from crabapples or, more commonly,
unripe (green) grapes. After extraction it is allowed to undergo a natural
fermentation process and is then pottled or crocked. It really bears no
resemblance to citrus juices in flavor.
It would be my recommendation to not use the orande/lemon juice mixture as a
substitute for verjuice on the grounds that in the tasting process the
complexity of flavors produced by the citrus family is very much different
from that which is produced by either the pomes or the vinas.
OTOH, the complexity of flavor produced by the pomes and vinas for the most
part contain many characteristics that are common to each thus allowing for
the substitution of verjuice made from either crabapples or unripe grapes.
Using either of these verjuices in any given recipe would produce a product
that only a trained palatte could discern with difficulty. The average person
would most likely not notice any change in the taste.
The use of citrus as a verjuice substitute would, IMHO, produce a dish that is
so radically different in flavor with the end result being a dish
unrecognizable when compared to a dish using pome/vina derived
verjuice............
al-Sayyid Ras
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 21:39:49 -0500
From: "Martin G. Diehl" <mdiehl at nac.net>
Subject: SC - Verjus in the Current Period
Greetings to those Noble Kitchen Toilers of the Laurel Kingdoms,
In other words: Hi
In today's New York Times (11/05/97) in the Dining In/Out
section on page F5, there appeared an article entitled "Verjus,
a Tart Splash for all Dishes"
Some citations from the article [no, they did not quote any
primary sources <G>]:
"Navarro Vineyards, in Mendocino County, CA, began making
verjus at the request of the Booneville Hotel in Mendocino.
'I have a doctorate in medieval history, so I knew what it
was,' said Deborah Cahn, who owns the winery with her
husband Ted Bennett. Verjus is often listed in recipes
from the Middle Ages."
"Verjus is a natural byproduct of winemaking and has
undoubtedly been made as long as wine has been made.
To strengthen grape vines and allow them to produce
full flavored fruit, winemakers often thin the vines
when the grapes are just beginning to ripen. When
this early crop of unripe grapes is pressed, verjus
is the result"
Verjus can be ordered from the producers at about $10
per bottle.
Fusion foods
Rutherford, CA
800-297-0686
Navarro Vineyards and Winery
Philo, CA
800-537-9463
Sagapon Vineyards
Sagaponack, NY
516-537-5106
They are making white, red and chardonay verjus
I will try to find out if the entire article is online.
I am,
Vinchenzio Martinus di Mazza,
In Service to the Dream
- --
Martin G. Diehl
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 15:23:28 -0800
From: "Crystal A. Isaac" <crystal at pdr-is.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Verjuice sources-please
You can also get verjuice from Navarro Vineyards in Navato, CA, and
Bonny Doone in Santa Cruz, CA.
Crystal
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 09:29:26 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: SC - The Making of Verjuice
A few people have written to me privately asking for the "recipe" for Making
Verjuice.
I can but offer 11 years of trial and error as the source of info. SFAIK,
there is no know source of information which gives those of us living in the
Current Middle Ages any indication of methods for home production of verjuice
that may have been known to the noncommercial producer of verjuice during the
Middle Ages.
If I may be so bold as to offer a personal opinion, as opposed to an opinion
based on focused research, I do not see home production of Verjuice any more
practiced by your average nobleman's household during times of peace and
prosperity than the percentage indicated by the number of people that produce
their own Ketchup in the Current Middle. From everything that I can recall
reading, in any number of unrelated disciplines, I am of the opinion that
verjuice was a commercially produced product throughout the Middle Ages. As
such it was most certainly purchased pre-made at the market.
Given the above, this is how I make verjuice based on experimentation rather
than period references.
Verjuice- Another Way
1 bushel unripened grapes (crabapples make be substituted if unripened grapes
are unavailable)
3 (36 inch by 36 inch) pieces of cheese cloth
1 large non-reactive container (a canning kettle or a Tupperware or Rubbermaid
tub)
If you have access to a press, press the juice form the fruit or you can chop
the fruit in batches in a food processor, which is what I do. Line the
container with the cheese cloth and dump your pulp in as you make it. Pull
the sides of the cheesecloth together and tie firmly. Lift the pulp package
above the tub with a rope and leave to drip over night. (I hang it from a
broom handle between 2 chairs.) Squeexe any remaining juice from pulp. Cover
with clear plastic wrap or a cloth and leave sit for 48 hours in a relatively
cool place. Skim top if necessary or strain through more cheesecloth to
remove additional sediment. Sterilize pint or quart jars and lids. Fill jars
and seal. Place in a boiling water bath for 90 minutes being careful to keep
your water level above the jar tops by adding boiling water as necessary. Or,
place jars in a pressure canner and process at 10 lbs. pressure for 30
minutes. Remove from water unto a towel. Cover with a cloth and cool. Use
as needed when verjuice is called for.
Ras
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1998 11:09:42 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - The Making of Verjuice
At 9:29 AM -0500 3/5/98, LrdRas wrote:
>A few people have written to me privately asking for the "recipe" for Making
>Verjuice.
>
>I can but offer 11 years of trial and error as the source of info. SFAIK,
>there is no know source of information which gives those of us living in the
>Current Middle Ages any indication of methods for home production of verjuice
>that may have been known to the noncommercial producer of verjuice during the
>Middle Ages.
Robert May has a (17th c.) recipe for making verjuice from crab apples;
that's the nearest thing I have found.
David/Cariadoc
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 02:40:19 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - The Making of Verjuice
> Robert May has a (17th c.) recipe for making verjuice from crab apples;
> that's the nearest thing I have found.
>
> David/Cariadoc
Somewhat earlier, and arguably period, is Gervase Markham's "The English
Housewife", published in 1615, but the subject of lawsuits accusing
Markham of plagiarizing his own older works. I doubt the method changed
much over time, and suspect the biggest changes in the process as
described were more a function of geography, since they were using
crabapples instead of grapes.
Period recipe or not, it's pretty clear that medieval cooks were using
something called verjus, and it is fairly reasonable to think it might
be a similar product to what is described in later recipes.
Adamantius