Recipes for River Haven Investiture Feast
Parsley Studded Leg of Goat (Carved at the Table)
Original Source: Le Menagier de Paris
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Roast mutton with fine salt or with verjuice and vinegar. The shoulder should first be put on the spit and rotated before the fire until it has rendered its fat,
then it
should be larded with parsley, and no sooner, for two reasons: first, because it is easier to lard, and secondly, because if it is larded earlier the parsley will burn before the
shoulder is roasted.
Ingredients:
Shoulder or Leg of Lamb or Goat
1/2 bunch Parsley
Salt
4 cloves of garlic, split into halves
Method:
Make holes in joint with a paring knife
Stuff sprigs of parsley in some holes, garlic cloves in some others
Rub with Salt
Wrap in foil and cook on a low heat until cooked (meat thermo at 70degC)
Feast Multipler: 20
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Roast mutton with fine salt or with verjuice and vinegar. The shoulder should first be put on the spit and rotated before the fire until it has rendered its fat,
then it
should be larded with parsley, and no sooner, for two reasons: first, because it is easier to lard, and secondly, because if it is larded earlier the parsley will burn before the
shoulder is roasted.
Ingredients:
Shoulder or Leg of Lamb or Goat
1/2 bunch Parsley
Salt
4 cloves of garlic, split into halves
Method:
Make holes in joint with a paring knife
Stuff sprigs of parsley in some holes, garlic cloves in some others
Rub with Salt
Wrap in foil and cook on a low heat until cooked (meat thermo at 70degC)
Feast Multipler: 20
Pork and Spelt Sausage (Apicius: De Re Coquinaria)
Original Source: Apicius: De Re Coquinaria
Modern Source: Apicius: A Critical Edition with an Introduction and an English Translation. Ed. and trans. Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger
Original Recipe:
Aliter: coctam alicam et tritam cum pulpa concisa et trita una cum piper et liquamine et nucleis. farcies intestinum et elixabis, deinde cum sale assabis et cum sinape inferes, vel sic concisum in disco.
Translation:
Another [Sausage]: [Take] cooked, ground, spelt and mix with chopped pork meat, pepper, stock and small nuts. Stuff the casings and boil, then salt and roast. Serve with mustard, or, if you like, slice onto a round dish.
Ingredients:
450g minced belly pork
60g ground almonds
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
100g soaked whole spelt
1 egg
sausage casings
Method:
Wash the spelt (or pearl barley) thoroughly. Soak overnight. Turn half into a mortar and pound to a paste. Mix the whole spelt with the spelt paste with the minced pork (on a coarse grind), ground almonds and black pepper. Add the egg to bind then blend in the fish sauce before stirring in enough stock to moisten the mixture. Use this mix to fill the casings and tie off as small sausages. Arrange the sausages in a pan, cover with water and bring to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes then arrange the sausages on a baking tray and transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200°C. Roast for about 12 minutes, or until the sausages are well browned and serve hot.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Modern Source: Apicius: A Critical Edition with an Introduction and an English Translation. Ed. and trans. Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger
Original Recipe:
Aliter: coctam alicam et tritam cum pulpa concisa et trita una cum piper et liquamine et nucleis. farcies intestinum et elixabis, deinde cum sale assabis et cum sinape inferes, vel sic concisum in disco.
Translation:
Another [Sausage]: [Take] cooked, ground, spelt and mix with chopped pork meat, pepper, stock and small nuts. Stuff the casings and boil, then salt and roast. Serve with mustard, or, if you like, slice onto a round dish.
Ingredients:
450g minced belly pork
60g ground almonds
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
100g soaked whole spelt
1 egg
sausage casings
Method:
Wash the spelt (or pearl barley) thoroughly. Soak overnight. Turn half into a mortar and pound to a paste. Mix the whole spelt with the spelt paste with the minced pork (on a coarse grind), ground almonds and black pepper. Add the egg to bind then blend in the fish sauce before stirring in enough stock to moisten the mixture. Use this mix to fill the casings and tie off as small sausages. Arrange the sausages in a pan, cover with water and bring to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes then arrange the sausages on a baking tray and transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200°C. Roast for about 12 minutes, or until the sausages are well browned and serve hot.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Lumbard Mustard (Forme of Cury),
Original Source: Liber cure cocorum, Sloane MS. 1986. 1420-1440
Modern Source: http://www.medievalcookery.com/recipes/lumbard.html
Original Recipe:
For lumbardus mustard. Take mustarde and let hit drye Anonyn, Sir, wyturlye. Stomper hit in a morter fyne, And fars hit þurghe a clothe of lyne. Do wyne þerto and venegur gode, Sture hom wele togeder for þe rode, And make hit þyke inowghe þenne, Whenne þou hit spendes byfore gode menne, And make hit thynne with wyne, I say, With diverse metes þou serve hit may
Ingredients:
500ml cup honey
500ml Wholegrain Mustard
75ml Pedro Ximenez Sherry
Method:
Mix ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve warm.
Note: I often mix this with seeded mustard to improve the texture
Feast Multiplier: 1
Modern Source: http://www.medievalcookery.com/recipes/lumbard.html
Original Recipe:
For lumbardus mustard. Take mustarde and let hit drye Anonyn, Sir, wyturlye. Stomper hit in a morter fyne, And fars hit þurghe a clothe of lyne. Do wyne þerto and venegur gode, Sture hom wele togeder for þe rode, And make hit þyke inowghe þenne, Whenne þou hit spendes byfore gode menne, And make hit thynne with wyne, I say, With diverse metes þou serve hit may
Ingredients:
500ml cup honey
500ml Wholegrain Mustard
75ml Pedro Ximenez Sherry
Method:
Mix ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve warm.
Note: I often mix this with seeded mustard to improve the texture
Feast Multiplier: 1
White Garlic Sauce
Original Source: Maestro Martino: Libro de arte coquinaria
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe: Take carefully skinned almonds and pound the, and when they are pouinded halfway, add as much garlic as you like, and pound then very well together, adding a little cool water to prevent them from becoming too oily. Then take crumb of white bread and soften it in lean meat or fish broth depending on the calendar; this garlic sauce can be served and adapted at will for meat days and days of abstinence.
Ingredients:
70g almond meal
3 cloves of garlic
(BREAD IS OMITTED FOR DIETARY REASONS)
small amount of vegetable stock (massels ultrastock) - add to get required consistency.
salt to taste
Method:
Blend all ingredients to a smooth paste.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe: Take carefully skinned almonds and pound the, and when they are pouinded halfway, add as much garlic as you like, and pound then very well together, adding a little cool water to prevent them from becoming too oily. Then take crumb of white bread and soften it in lean meat or fish broth depending on the calendar; this garlic sauce can be served and adapted at will for meat days and days of abstinence.
Ingredients:
70g almond meal
3 cloves of garlic
(BREAD IS OMITTED FOR DIETARY REASONS)
small amount of vegetable stock (massels ultrastock) - add to get required consistency.
salt to taste
Method:
Blend all ingredients to a smooth paste.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Cameline Sauce
Original Source: Ludovico Frati: Libro di cucina del secolo XI
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Cameline. Note that at Tournai, to make cameline they pound ginger, cinnamon, baron, and half a nutmeg, moistened with wine then removed from the mortar; then take crumb of white bread, without grilling it, soaked in cold water and pounded in the mortar, moisten with wine and strain; then boil everything, and finish with brown sugar: this is a winter cameline. In summer, they do the same, but it is not boiled at all.
Ingredients:
1/2 slice country bread
1 1/4 Cups white wine ( 300 ml)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A few threads saffron
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 to 3 teaspoons light brown sugar
Salt
Method:
Cut up the bread and leave it to soak in 1 cup (1/4 liter) of water. Stir the wine into the spices.
When the bread has softened, squeeze out excess water and mash with a fork or a pestle, then stir in the spiced wine mixture. Press through a sieve into a small stainless steel or other nonreactive saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, until the sauce thickens. Add salt and brown sugar to taste.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Cameline. Note that at Tournai, to make cameline they pound ginger, cinnamon, baron, and half a nutmeg, moistened with wine then removed from the mortar; then take crumb of white bread, without grilling it, soaked in cold water and pounded in the mortar, moisten with wine and strain; then boil everything, and finish with brown sugar: this is a winter cameline. In summer, they do the same, but it is not boiled at all.
Ingredients:
1/2 slice country bread
1 1/4 Cups white wine ( 300 ml)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A few threads saffron
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 to 3 teaspoons light brown sugar
Salt
Method:
Cut up the bread and leave it to soak in 1 cup (1/4 liter) of water. Stir the wine into the spices.
When the bread has softened, squeeze out excess water and mash with a fork or a pestle, then stir in the spiced wine mixture. Press through a sieve into a small stainless steel or other nonreactive saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, until the sauce thickens. Add salt and brown sugar to taste.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Romania (Chicken with Pomegranite Sauce)
Original Source: Liber de coquina)
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Romania. To make Romania, fry chickens with pork fat and onions, crush unskinned almonds, and moisten with the juice of sour pomegranates and sweet pomegranates. Then, strain and boil with the chickens, stirring with a spoon. Add spices.
Romania. To make Romania, fry chickens with pork fat and onions, crush unskinned almonds, and moisten with the juice of sour pomegranates and sweet pomegranates. Then, strain and boil with the chickens, stirring with a spoon. Add spices.
Ingredients:
1 free-range chicken, about 3 1/4 pounds(l.5kg)
2 fresh pomegranates
1 cup unblanched almonds (150 g)
2 medium-large onion
2 ounces fresh pork fatback (50g) - use olive oil!!!
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon strong spice mixture ( recipe 150, variation C )
salt
Method:
Wash the almonds and dry them thoroughly. When they are completely dry, grind them to a powder in a blender. Remove from the blender jar and set aside (you need not wash the blender before the next step).
Cut the pomegranates in half and scoop out all their seeds into the blender jar. Puree the seeds and strain; this should yield 1 ¼ to 1 ½ Cups of juice. Mix the juice and the ground almonds, and add the lemon juice. Press the mixture through a fine strainer; the result will be an almond milk made with pomegranate juice instead of water.
Cut the chicken into serving pieces and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt. Cut the fat into 1/8 inch dice and render it over low heat in a heavy-bottomed casserole.
Peel the onion and slice into thin rings. When the fat has rendered, brown the chicken and onion until evenly golden. If excess fat remains in the casserole, spoon most of it out before proceeding.
Add the almond-pomegranate juice and the spices. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down as low as possible and simmer, covered, until the chicken is tender, 30 to 45 minutes.
Check for seasoning and serve.
Feast Multiplier: 12
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Romania. To make Romania, fry chickens with pork fat and onions, crush unskinned almonds, and moisten with the juice of sour pomegranates and sweet pomegranates. Then, strain and boil with the chickens, stirring with a spoon. Add spices.
Romania. To make Romania, fry chickens with pork fat and onions, crush unskinned almonds, and moisten with the juice of sour pomegranates and sweet pomegranates. Then, strain and boil with the chickens, stirring with a spoon. Add spices.
Ingredients:
1 free-range chicken, about 3 1/4 pounds(l.5kg)
2 fresh pomegranates
1 cup unblanched almonds (150 g)
2 medium-large onion
2 ounces fresh pork fatback (50g) - use olive oil!!!
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon strong spice mixture ( recipe 150, variation C )
salt
Method:
Wash the almonds and dry them thoroughly. When they are completely dry, grind them to a powder in a blender. Remove from the blender jar and set aside (you need not wash the blender before the next step).
Cut the pomegranates in half and scoop out all their seeds into the blender jar. Puree the seeds and strain; this should yield 1 ¼ to 1 ½ Cups of juice. Mix the juice and the ground almonds, and add the lemon juice. Press the mixture through a fine strainer; the result will be an almond milk made with pomegranate juice instead of water.
Cut the chicken into serving pieces and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt. Cut the fat into 1/8 inch dice and render it over low heat in a heavy-bottomed casserole.
Peel the onion and slice into thin rings. When the fat has rendered, brown the chicken and onion until evenly golden. If excess fat remains in the casserole, spoon most of it out before proceeding.
Add the almond-pomegranate juice and the spices. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down as low as possible and simmer, covered, until the chicken is tender, 30 to 45 minutes.
Check for seasoning and serve.
Feast Multiplier: 12
Ham and Figs in Pastry
Original Source: Apicius: De Re Coquinaria
Modern Source: Apicius: A Critical Edition with an Introduction and an English Translation. Ed. and trans. Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger
Original Recipe:
Pernam, ubi eam cum caricis plurimis elixaveris et tribus lauri foliis, detracta cute tessellatim incidis et melle complebis. deinde farinam oleo subactam contexes et ei corium reddis ut, cum farina cocta fuerit, eximas furno est et inferes.
Translation:
Boil the ham with a generous quantity of dried figs and with three bayleaves. Take off the skin and make criss-cross cuts. Fill these with honey. Make a paste of flour and olive oil and completely cover the ham with this. When the crust has baked, remove the ham from the oven and serve as is.
Ingredients:
For the Interior:
1 ham (about 2.5kg)
100g dried figs
3 bayleaves
120ml runny honey
For the Crust:
350g plain flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
250ml olive oil (about)
1 egg
Method:
Begin with the crust. Sift together the flour and salt into a bowl. Mix in the egg then work in as much of the olive oil as you need to give a stiff, rollable dough. Form into a ball, cover with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and chill whilst you cook the ham (if you want a more flavoursome pastry mix in a few chopped herbs and a little verjuice or lemon juice). Place the ham in a large pot and add water so that it comes half way up the ham. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer then cover the pan and cook for 60 minutes. Discard this water then add the figs and bayleaves to the pot. Cover the ham with water, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes more. When the ham is cooked, remove from the pot then pat dry with a cloth and set aside to cool. Once cold, remove the skin and trim the fat. Score the remaining fat in a diamond pattern and rub in the honey. At this point remove the pastry from the refrigerator and roll out until large enough to completely cover the ham. Set the ham in the centre and fold around the pastry so the meat is completely covered. Smooth over the joins then sit on a large baking tray and transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170°C and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry is browned. Serve immediately.
Feast Multiplier: 10 + 1 without pastry
Modern Source: Apicius: A Critical Edition with an Introduction and an English Translation. Ed. and trans. Christopher Grocock and Sally Grainger
Original Recipe:
Pernam, ubi eam cum caricis plurimis elixaveris et tribus lauri foliis, detracta cute tessellatim incidis et melle complebis. deinde farinam oleo subactam contexes et ei corium reddis ut, cum farina cocta fuerit, eximas furno est et inferes.
Translation:
Boil the ham with a generous quantity of dried figs and with three bayleaves. Take off the skin and make criss-cross cuts. Fill these with honey. Make a paste of flour and olive oil and completely cover the ham with this. When the crust has baked, remove the ham from the oven and serve as is.
Ingredients:
For the Interior:
1 ham (about 2.5kg)
100g dried figs
3 bayleaves
120ml runny honey
For the Crust:
350g plain flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
250ml olive oil (about)
1 egg
Method:
Begin with the crust. Sift together the flour and salt into a bowl. Mix in the egg then work in as much of the olive oil as you need to give a stiff, rollable dough. Form into a ball, cover with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and chill whilst you cook the ham (if you want a more flavoursome pastry mix in a few chopped herbs and a little verjuice or lemon juice). Place the ham in a large pot and add water so that it comes half way up the ham. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer then cover the pan and cook for 60 minutes. Discard this water then add the figs and bayleaves to the pot. Cover the ham with water, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes more. When the ham is cooked, remove from the pot then pat dry with a cloth and set aside to cool. Once cold, remove the skin and trim the fat. Score the remaining fat in a diamond pattern and rub in the honey. At this point remove the pastry from the refrigerator and roll out until large enough to completely cover the ham. Set the ham in the centre and fold around the pastry so the meat is completely covered. Smooth over the joins then sit on a large baking tray and transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170°C and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry is browned. Serve immediately.
Feast Multiplier: 10 + 1 without pastry
Roast Onion Salad
Original Source: Franscesco Zambrini, Libro della cucina del secolo
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Of onion salad. Take onions; cook them in the embers, then peel them and cut them across into longish, thin slices; add a little vinegar, salt, oil, and spices, and serve. (Za 90)
This recipe appears at the very end of our Tuscan collection, after the recipes for invalids. It is clearly written in the hand of someone other than the scribe of the rest of the text. We searched in vain for this recipe in other cookbooks of the period, but it did not appear even in Maestro Martino. But a century later Bartolomeo Sacchi, known as il Platina, the illustrious librarian to Pope Sixtus IV and a learned epicure, would include it in his survey of gastronomy and nutrition, aptly entitled De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine On Honest Indulgence and Good Healthy. However, he replaced the vinegar with boiled wine.
Ingredients:
2 pounds medium red or other sweet onions, about 6 onions (800 g)
olive oil
wine vinegar
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine spices (recipe 150, variation A)
salt
pepper
Method:
If your fireplace is ablaze, roast the onions in the embers until they are very tender; if not, roast them in a 5OO-degree (250 degrees C) oven for about an hour individually wrapped in aluminum foil.
Remove the onions from the oven, unwrap them, and let them cool a while. The skins should be blackened and caramelized. When they are cool enough not to burn you, peel the onions and cut them into thin slices with a very sharp knife.
Put the onions into a salad bowl. Season with salt, pepper, and the spice mixture. Add a little olive oil and vinegar to taste. Mix and serve.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Of onion salad. Take onions; cook them in the embers, then peel them and cut them across into longish, thin slices; add a little vinegar, salt, oil, and spices, and serve. (Za 90)
This recipe appears at the very end of our Tuscan collection, after the recipes for invalids. It is clearly written in the hand of someone other than the scribe of the rest of the text. We searched in vain for this recipe in other cookbooks of the period, but it did not appear even in Maestro Martino. But a century later Bartolomeo Sacchi, known as il Platina, the illustrious librarian to Pope Sixtus IV and a learned epicure, would include it in his survey of gastronomy and nutrition, aptly entitled De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine On Honest Indulgence and Good Healthy. However, he replaced the vinegar with boiled wine.
Ingredients:
2 pounds medium red or other sweet onions, about 6 onions (800 g)
olive oil
wine vinegar
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine spices (recipe 150, variation A)
salt
pepper
Method:
If your fireplace is ablaze, roast the onions in the embers until they are very tender; if not, roast them in a 5OO-degree (250 degrees C) oven for about an hour individually wrapped in aluminum foil.
Remove the onions from the oven, unwrap them, and let them cool a while. The skins should be blackened and caramelized. When they are cool enough not to burn you, peel the onions and cut them into thin slices with a very sharp knife.
Put the onions into a salad bowl. Season with salt, pepper, and the spice mixture. Add a little olive oil and vinegar to taste. Mix and serve.
Feast Multiplier: 10
Sweet Potato with Orange and Rosewater
Original Source: Eninor Fettiplace
Modern Source:
Original Recipe: I'm going from memory as I cant find my fettiplace
Ingredients:
Sweet Potato
Orange Juice (preferably Seville)
Rosewater
Butter
Brown Sugar
Method:
Parboil sweet potato, let cool and slice up
Add layers between layers of butter
Pour Rosewater and Orange Juice over the Top
Sprinkle brown sugar over the top and bake.
Modern Source:
Original Recipe: I'm going from memory as I cant find my fettiplace
Ingredients:
Sweet Potato
Orange Juice (preferably Seville)
Rosewater
Butter
Brown Sugar
Method:
Parboil sweet potato, let cool and slice up
Add layers between layers of butter
Pour Rosewater and Orange Juice over the Top
Sprinkle brown sugar over the top and bake.
Grilled Garlic Mushrooms (sans Panchetta) (Maestro Martino: Libro de arte coquinaria)
Original Source:
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Mushrooms - packed with olive oil, garlic, and pepper, parsley and grilled to perfection.
Method:
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Mushrooms - packed with olive oil, garlic, and pepper, parsley and grilled to perfection.
Method:
Lentil Puree (Franscesco Zambrini, Libro della cucina del secolo)
Original Source:
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Lentils another way. Take some lentils, well washed and free of stones, and cook Them with aromatic herbs, oil, salt, and saffron. And when they are cooked, mash them well; and put on top beaten eggs, cut-up dry cheese; and serve.
This recipe, taken from our Tuscan-language treatise, is representative of a group of preparations for legumes chickpeas, peas, fava beans, and fasoles (faxoli, fasoli, etc., in Italian: an Old World bean native to Africa and similar to the black-eyed pea) using a liaison of beaten eggs and, generally, cheese. This, however, was a choice way to finish the dish: dried legumes could also be cooked more simply, with salt meat, aromatic vegetables, and herbs, or oil, as indicated in many recipes in this collection.
Ingredients:
1 pound green lentils (preferably the small Umbrian or French variety) (500 g)
1 bouquet garni: a selection of parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, etc.
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 pinch saffron (5 or 6 threads)
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 eggs, beaten
salt
Method:
Over low heat, cook the lentils in 4 times their volume of water with the oil, saffron, and bouquet garni. Add salt when the lentils are done. If a great deal of water remains, drain the lentils. Put them through a food mill, crush them in a mortar, or puree in a food processor.
Mix the beaten eggs with the Parmesan. Reheat the lentils, then remove from the heat. Add the egg mixture and mix well. The lentils will form a lovely, smooth, firm and very flavorful puree.
Feast Multiplier: 8
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Lentils another way. Take some lentils, well washed and free of stones, and cook Them with aromatic herbs, oil, salt, and saffron. And when they are cooked, mash them well; and put on top beaten eggs, cut-up dry cheese; and serve.
This recipe, taken from our Tuscan-language treatise, is representative of a group of preparations for legumes chickpeas, peas, fava beans, and fasoles (faxoli, fasoli, etc., in Italian: an Old World bean native to Africa and similar to the black-eyed pea) using a liaison of beaten eggs and, generally, cheese. This, however, was a choice way to finish the dish: dried legumes could also be cooked more simply, with salt meat, aromatic vegetables, and herbs, or oil, as indicated in many recipes in this collection.
Ingredients:
1 pound green lentils (preferably the small Umbrian or French variety) (500 g)
1 bouquet garni: a selection of parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, etc.
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 pinch saffron (5 or 6 threads)
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 eggs, beaten
salt
Method:
Over low heat, cook the lentils in 4 times their volume of water with the oil, saffron, and bouquet garni. Add salt when the lentils are done. If a great deal of water remains, drain the lentils. Put them through a food mill, crush them in a mortar, or puree in a food processor.
Mix the beaten eggs with the Parmesan. Reheat the lentils, then remove from the heat. Add the egg mixture and mix well. The lentils will form a lovely, smooth, firm and very flavorful puree.
Feast Multiplier: 8
Cabbage, leek, parsnip soup (Duszony Por z Pasternak i Giers)
Original Source: Unsure of recipe heritage - probably trad
Modern Source: Maria Dembinska: Food and Drink in Medieval Poland
Original Recipe:
This fasting dish, designed to take timely advantage of garden produce available during the early spring, would be a typical one-pot meal for a noble family living on a large rural manor in Little Poland. Cheese dumplings (see recipe page 1521 may have been served with this as a substitute for meat. The menu would also have included a pot of mush made with millet kasha, perhaps boiled in milk rather than water.
Alexanders, one of the ingredients in this dish, looks very much like angelica, but the taste of the leaves resembles cabeb, popular spice in the Middle Ages. Since alexanders is slightly bitter, it was often played against the sweetness of honey or used to counter the strong taste of "black" recipes that is, recipes containing blood. In this stew, which is both sweet and aromatic, the alexanders provides a somewhat Oriental accent consistent with the old Polish fascination for things Asian.
Ingredients:
4 pounds (2 kg) leek greens (use the leafy part that is normally discarded)
3 pounds (1.5 kg) small parsnips, trimmed, pared and sliced on a slant to resemble thick potato chips
2 cups (175 g) sliced leek, white part only
2 cups (175 g) white cabbage shredded as for sauerkraut
1 Cup (200g) coarsely chopped onion
4 cloves rocombole garlic sliced in half lengthwise
6 tablespoons (90 ml) honey
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons (30 ml) Hungarian white wine vinegar
1 cup (100g) coarsely chopped alexanders (leaves and small stems only) - substitute parsley
add massels vegetable ultracube to boost stock...
Method:
Boil the leek greens in 1 gallon (4 liters) of water until soft and until the stock is reduced by one~fourth (About 1 hour). Strain and reserve the liquid, discarding the leek greens. Put the stock in a stewing pot with the parsnips, sliced leeks, cabbage, onion, and garlic. Cover and stew 45 minutes, or until the parsnips are tender, then add the honey, saffron, cinnamon, cumin, salt, and vinegar. Stew 15 minutes, then add the alexanders. let the alexanders cook for about 5 minutes, then serve immediately over piece of sale manchet bread or cheese dump
Feast Multiplier: 3
Modern Source: Maria Dembinska: Food and Drink in Medieval Poland
Original Recipe:
This fasting dish, designed to take timely advantage of garden produce available during the early spring, would be a typical one-pot meal for a noble family living on a large rural manor in Little Poland. Cheese dumplings (see recipe page 1521 may have been served with this as a substitute for meat. The menu would also have included a pot of mush made with millet kasha, perhaps boiled in milk rather than water.
Alexanders, one of the ingredients in this dish, looks very much like angelica, but the taste of the leaves resembles cabeb, popular spice in the Middle Ages. Since alexanders is slightly bitter, it was often played against the sweetness of honey or used to counter the strong taste of "black" recipes that is, recipes containing blood. In this stew, which is both sweet and aromatic, the alexanders provides a somewhat Oriental accent consistent with the old Polish fascination for things Asian.
Ingredients:
4 pounds (2 kg) leek greens (use the leafy part that is normally discarded)
3 pounds (1.5 kg) small parsnips, trimmed, pared and sliced on a slant to resemble thick potato chips
2 cups (175 g) sliced leek, white part only
2 cups (175 g) white cabbage shredded as for sauerkraut
1 Cup (200g) coarsely chopped onion
4 cloves rocombole garlic sliced in half lengthwise
6 tablespoons (90 ml) honey
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons (30 ml) Hungarian white wine vinegar
1 cup (100g) coarsely chopped alexanders (leaves and small stems only) - substitute parsley
add massels vegetable ultracube to boost stock...
Method:
Boil the leek greens in 1 gallon (4 liters) of water until soft and until the stock is reduced by one~fourth (About 1 hour). Strain and reserve the liquid, discarding the leek greens. Put the stock in a stewing pot with the parsnips, sliced leeks, cabbage, onion, and garlic. Cover and stew 45 minutes, or until the parsnips are tender, then add the honey, saffron, cinnamon, cumin, salt, and vinegar. Stew 15 minutes, then add the alexanders. let the alexanders cook for about 5 minutes, then serve immediately over piece of sale manchet bread or cheese dump
Feast Multiplier: 3
Salat of Herbs (John Murrel Two Books of Cookerie 1638)
Original Source:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Standard green salad... Looking at edible herbs, period lettuce, endive and other salad greens.
Dressed simply with salt, olive oil, and vinegar.
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Standard green salad... Looking at edible herbs, period lettuce, endive and other salad greens.
Dressed simply with salt, olive oil, and vinegar.
Method:
Buttered Colle-Flowre with a milk sauce (Sallets Humbles & Shrewsbery Cakes)
Original Source:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Cauliflower
White Sauce with Cheese...
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Cauliflower
White Sauce with Cheese...
Method:
Honeyed Butter (Bald's Leechbook)
Original Source: \Bald's Leech Book
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Honey and Butter... Derp... Not Hard
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Honey and Butter... Derp... Not Hard
Method:
Herbed Butter
Original Source:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Herbs and Butter... Derp... Not Hard
Wrap with chopped herbs and reset in fridge.
Probably whatver is in season - probably parsley, tarragon, sage
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Herbs and Butter... Derp... Not Hard
Wrap with chopped herbs and reset in fridge.
Probably whatver is in season - probably parsley, tarragon, sage
Method:
Mint Cordial (inspired by al-Andalusi)
Original Source:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Mint, sugar
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Mint, sugar
Method:
Cinnamon Cordial (inspired by al-Andalusi)
Original Source:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
cassia, sugar
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
cassia, sugar
Method:
Herb Cordial (inspired by al-Andalusi)
Original Source:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Herbs, citrus, sugar
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Herbs, citrus, sugar
Method:
Bilberry and Orange Cordial (inspired by al-Andalusi)
Original Source:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Orange zest, bilberrys, sugar.
Method:
Orange
Modern Source:
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Orange zest, bilberrys, sugar.
Method:
Orange
Hais
Original Source: al-Baghdadi
Modern Source: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/desserts.html
Original Recipe:
Take fine dry bread, or biscuit, and grind up well. Take a ratl of this, and three quarters of a ratl of fresh or preserved dates with the stones removed, together with three uqiya of ground almonds and pistachios. Knead all together very well with the hands. Refine two uqiya of sesame-oil, and pour over, working with the hand until it is mixed in. Make into cabobs, and dust with fine-ground sugar. If desired, instead of sesame-oil use butter. This is excellent for travellers.
Ingredients (american measurements):
2 2/3 c bread crumbs
2 c (about one lb) pitted dates
1/3 c ground almonds
1/3 c ground pistachios
7 T melted butter or sesame oil
enough sugar
Method:
We usually mix dates, bread crumbs, and nuts in a food processor or blender. For "cabobs," roll into one inch balls. Good as caravan food (or for taking to wars). They last forever if you do not eat them, but you do so they don't.
Modern Source: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/desserts.html
Original Recipe:
Take fine dry bread, or biscuit, and grind up well. Take a ratl of this, and three quarters of a ratl of fresh or preserved dates with the stones removed, together with three uqiya of ground almonds and pistachios. Knead all together very well with the hands. Refine two uqiya of sesame-oil, and pour over, working with the hand until it is mixed in. Make into cabobs, and dust with fine-ground sugar. If desired, instead of sesame-oil use butter. This is excellent for travellers.
Ingredients (american measurements):
2 2/3 c bread crumbs
2 c (about one lb) pitted dates
1/3 c ground almonds
1/3 c ground pistachios
7 T melted butter or sesame oil
enough sugar
Method:
We usually mix dates, bread crumbs, and nuts in a food processor or blender. For "cabobs," roll into one inch balls. Good as caravan food (or for taking to wars). They last forever if you do not eat them, but you do so they don't.
Orange slices with Rosewater and Orange flower water
Original Source: al-Andalusi
Modern Source:
Original Recipe: Cant find it - relying on my memory.
Ingredients:
Slices of Oranges
Dusted with Sugar, rosewater, Orange Flower Water, Cinnamon.
Method:
Modern Source:
Original Recipe: Cant find it - relying on my memory.
Ingredients:
Slices of Oranges
Dusted with Sugar, rosewater, Orange Flower Water, Cinnamon.
Method:
Darioles
Original Source: Maestro Martino: Libro de arte coquinaria, 1465
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Dinola. Form the dough into the shape of a deep pie and fill it completely with flour so it will keep its shape; cook it in a pan until it is somewhat dry. And when this is done, remove the flour and take some egg yolks, milk, sugar, and cinnamon. When these things are made into a mixture, put it into the pastry, cooking it like a tart, moving it from time to time and stirring with a spoon. And when you can see it starting to set, pour on some rose water and stir well with a spoon. And when it has set completely it is cooked. Note that it should not cook too much, and that it should quiver like a junket.
Ingredients:
For the pate brisee
1 3/4 Cups flour (250 g)
9 tablespoons butter ( 125 g )
1/3 Cup water, approximately (100 ml)
1 scant teaspoon salt
For the filling
3 cups milk (750 ml)
6 egg yolks
1 1/2 Cups sugar ( 300g )
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 tablespoons rose water
Method:
A few hours in advance, prepare the pate brisee according to the instructions given in recipe 153 (variation B). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Roll out the pastry and line a 9-inch (22 cm) pie or tart pan at least 2 inches (5 crn) deep. Line it with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans (or you could try flour, as Maestro Martino suggests~. Bake for about 15 minutes, remove the weights and foil, and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar with the cinnamon and a pinch of salt until smooth and glossy, then slowly beat in the milk.
Pour the egg mixture into the partly baked shell, return to the oven, and bake for about an hour or until set but still soft enough to quiver slightly when moved. If the top is browning too quickly, cover it with aluminum foil.
When done, remove from the levels anal sprinkle with rose water.
Note that we have strayed from Martino, who instructs us to stir the mixture at It cooks. The closed oven of the modem kitchen makes this impractical—And its even float makes it unnecessary.
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Dinola. Form the dough into the shape of a deep pie and fill it completely with flour so it will keep its shape; cook it in a pan until it is somewhat dry. And when this is done, remove the flour and take some egg yolks, milk, sugar, and cinnamon. When these things are made into a mixture, put it into the pastry, cooking it like a tart, moving it from time to time and stirring with a spoon. And when you can see it starting to set, pour on some rose water and stir well with a spoon. And when it has set completely it is cooked. Note that it should not cook too much, and that it should quiver like a junket.
Ingredients:
For the pate brisee
1 3/4 Cups flour (250 g)
9 tablespoons butter ( 125 g )
1/3 Cup water, approximately (100 ml)
1 scant teaspoon salt
For the filling
3 cups milk (750 ml)
6 egg yolks
1 1/2 Cups sugar ( 300g )
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 tablespoons rose water
Method:
A few hours in advance, prepare the pate brisee according to the instructions given in recipe 153 (variation B). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Roll out the pastry and line a 9-inch (22 cm) pie or tart pan at least 2 inches (5 crn) deep. Line it with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans (or you could try flour, as Maestro Martino suggests~. Bake for about 15 minutes, remove the weights and foil, and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar with the cinnamon and a pinch of salt until smooth and glossy, then slowly beat in the milk.
Pour the egg mixture into the partly baked shell, return to the oven, and bake for about an hour or until set but still soft enough to quiver slightly when moved. If the top is browning too quickly, cover it with aluminum foil.
When done, remove from the levels anal sprinkle with rose water.
Note that we have strayed from Martino, who instructs us to stir the mixture at It cooks. The closed oven of the modem kitchen makes this impractical—And its even float makes it unnecessary.
Almond Macaroons
Original Source: Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, 1604
Modern Source: Spurling, Hilary (1986) Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, Penguin Books,
Original Recipe:
To make french biskit bread:
Take one pound of almonds blanched in cold water, beat them verie smale, put
in some rose water to them, in the beating, wherein some musk hath lien,
then take one pound of sugar beaten and searced and beat with your almonds,
then take the whites or fowre eggs beten and put to the sugar & almonds,
then beat it well together, then heat the oven as hot as you doe for other
biskit bread, then take a paper & strawe some sugar upon it, & lay two
spoonfulls of the stuf in a place, then lay the paper upon a board full of
holes, & put them into the oven as fast as you can & so bake them, when they
begin to looke somewhat browne they are baked inough.
Ingredients:
100g ground almonds
100g icing sugar
1 beaten egg white
little rosewater
Method:
Mix all dry ingredients together, fold in wet ones and bake as small biscuit (the size of the palm of your hand) in 180C 15-20 mins (until they are light brown). I find that if I wet my hands with rosewater while rolling the mixture into little balls, it gives the finished macaroons a smooth shell.
Modern Source: Spurling, Hilary (1986) Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, Penguin Books,
Original Recipe:
To make french biskit bread:
Take one pound of almonds blanched in cold water, beat them verie smale, put
in some rose water to them, in the beating, wherein some musk hath lien,
then take one pound of sugar beaten and searced and beat with your almonds,
then take the whites or fowre eggs beten and put to the sugar & almonds,
then beat it well together, then heat the oven as hot as you doe for other
biskit bread, then take a paper & strawe some sugar upon it, & lay two
spoonfulls of the stuf in a place, then lay the paper upon a board full of
holes, & put them into the oven as fast as you can & so bake them, when they
begin to looke somewhat browne they are baked inough.
Ingredients:
100g ground almonds
100g icing sugar
1 beaten egg white
little rosewater
Method:
Mix all dry ingredients together, fold in wet ones and bake as small biscuit (the size of the palm of your hand) in 180C 15-20 mins (until they are light brown). I find that if I wet my hands with rosewater while rolling the mixture into little balls, it gives the finished macaroons a smooth shell.
Marchpane
Original Source:
Modern Source: Lorwin, Madge; Dining with William Shakespeare; Athenneum, New York, 1976
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
3/4 lb almond paste
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp rose water
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tbsp rose water (for icing)
3 tbsp sugar
Method:
Mix almond paste and rosewater and set aside wrapped in plastic to keep from drying out. Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in egg yolk. Stir in flour a little at a time. Refrigerate dough for at least 15 minutes. Roll dough out on floured cookie sheet to about 9" in diameter. Trim edges. Brush with the egg white. Sprinkle a sheet of baker's parchment with 2 tsp of the powdered sugar. Pat out the almond paste atop it and sprinkle with the remaining powdered sugar. Top with another sheet of parchment and roll out to about 7-8" in diameter. Carefully remove the top sheet of paper and turn the round over on top of the cookie base. Remove the bottom sheet of paper, very carefully. Turn up and flute the outer edge of cookie base. Bake at 375° F for 5 minutes, then lower heat to 325° F and bake 15 minutes more. Mix rose water and sugar and brush the top of the Marchpane with this. Return it to the oven for 5 more minutes. It may then be decorated as you wish. Yields 1 Marchpane. I made 2; a sotelty for the high table and a plain one for the servers. An account of the sotelty produced for the high table is found at
Modern Source: Lorwin, Madge; Dining with William Shakespeare; Athenneum, New York, 1976
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
3/4 lb almond paste
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp rose water
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tbsp rose water (for icing)
3 tbsp sugar
Method:
Mix almond paste and rosewater and set aside wrapped in plastic to keep from drying out. Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in egg yolk. Stir in flour a little at a time. Refrigerate dough for at least 15 minutes. Roll dough out on floured cookie sheet to about 9" in diameter. Trim edges. Brush with the egg white. Sprinkle a sheet of baker's parchment with 2 tsp of the powdered sugar. Pat out the almond paste atop it and sprinkle with the remaining powdered sugar. Top with another sheet of parchment and roll out to about 7-8" in diameter. Carefully remove the top sheet of paper and turn the round over on top of the cookie base. Remove the bottom sheet of paper, very carefully. Turn up and flute the outer edge of cookie base. Bake at 375° F for 5 minutes, then lower heat to 325° F and bake 15 minutes more. Mix rose water and sugar and brush the top of the Marchpane with this. Return it to the oven for 5 more minutes. It may then be decorated as you wish. Yields 1 Marchpane. I made 2; a sotelty for the high table and a plain one for the servers. An account of the sotelty produced for the high table is found at
Nucato
Original Source: Francisco Zambrini, Libro della cucina del secolo
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Honey, pepper, ginger, nuts (almond, hazelnuts, walnuts)
Method:
Make toffee, roast nuts in toffee, add spices at the last minute - allow to get cool.
Modern Source: The Medieval Kitchen: Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi
Original Recipe:
Ingredients:
Honey, pepper, ginger, nuts (almond, hazelnuts, walnuts)
Method:
Make toffee, roast nuts in toffee, add spices at the last minute - allow to get cool.
Poached Pears in Spiced Syrup
Original Source: Constance Hieatt: An Ordinance of Pottage
Modern Source: Constance Hieatt: An Ordinance of Pottage
Original Recipe:
Pears in syrup. Boil pears so that they are quite tender; peel them and cut them into pieces. Take a great deal of cinnamon; put it through a sieve three or four times with good wine, into a pot. Add a great deal of sugar, anise, cloves, and mace and, if you like, chopped dates and currants. Put it on the fire; when it boils add the pears; let them boil together. When it has boiled enough, make sure it is brown with cinnamon, and add a great deal of powdered ginger; make sure it is rather sweet, and serve. (Hi 65)
Our English manuscripts include excellent recipes for pears cooked in wine with spices; these are not found in French texts of the period. Indeed, there is little mention of this fruit in French, Latin, or Italian culinary sources. There was a clear distinction between pears to be eaten raw and those to be cooked. Some of the latter were used as vegetables in the words of the author of Le Menagier de Paris, "like turnips." Although several French and Italian menus refer to "Pears with Hypocras" cooked in spiced wine not until the fifteenth-century edition of Le Viandier of Taillevent do we find a recipe for this. Candied pears were served at the end of the meal every day at the series of banquets organized at Siena in 1326 for the knighting of Francesco Bandinelli (see above, p. 6).
Ingredients:
2 1/4 pounds firm pears, just ripe (1 kg)
3 cups good red wine (750 ml)
4 tablespoons sugar (5O g)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon teaspoon
½ tsp whole anise seeds
3 pieces blade mace
2 cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup currants or raisins (optional) (60 g) - OMIT
12 dates, pitted and coarsely chopped (optional, but not recommended) - OMIT
Method:
Poach the pears in simmering water just until they begin to become tender. Peel them, cut them into quarters, remove the cores, and reserve.
Whisk the cinnamon into the wine and leave to steep for about 10 minutes. Strain through a very fine sieve into a stainless steel or other nonreactive saucepan. Add the sugar, the anise, the mace, and the cloves. If you are using the raisins and/or dates, add these as well. Bring to the boil, skimming if necessary, then lower the heat. Add the pears and simmer until completely tender and beginning to turn translucent and amber-colored. Add the ginger, remove from the heat, and allow to cool before serving.
If you use a softer variety of pears, do not precook them, but peel, core, and quarter them raw before adding to the spiced wine mixture. The reason we do not recommend using dates is that their skins come off during the cooking, making the dish look rather unattractive.
Modern Source: Constance Hieatt: An Ordinance of Pottage
Original Recipe:
Pears in syrup. Boil pears so that they are quite tender; peel them and cut them into pieces. Take a great deal of cinnamon; put it through a sieve three or four times with good wine, into a pot. Add a great deal of sugar, anise, cloves, and mace and, if you like, chopped dates and currants. Put it on the fire; when it boils add the pears; let them boil together. When it has boiled enough, make sure it is brown with cinnamon, and add a great deal of powdered ginger; make sure it is rather sweet, and serve. (Hi 65)
Our English manuscripts include excellent recipes for pears cooked in wine with spices; these are not found in French texts of the period. Indeed, there is little mention of this fruit in French, Latin, or Italian culinary sources. There was a clear distinction between pears to be eaten raw and those to be cooked. Some of the latter were used as vegetables in the words of the author of Le Menagier de Paris, "like turnips." Although several French and Italian menus refer to "Pears with Hypocras" cooked in spiced wine not until the fifteenth-century edition of Le Viandier of Taillevent do we find a recipe for this. Candied pears were served at the end of the meal every day at the series of banquets organized at Siena in 1326 for the knighting of Francesco Bandinelli (see above, p. 6).
Ingredients:
2 1/4 pounds firm pears, just ripe (1 kg)
3 cups good red wine (750 ml)
4 tablespoons sugar (5O g)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon teaspoon
½ tsp whole anise seeds
3 pieces blade mace
2 cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup currants or raisins (optional) (60 g) - OMIT
12 dates, pitted and coarsely chopped (optional, but not recommended) - OMIT
Method:
Poach the pears in simmering water just until they begin to become tender. Peel them, cut them into quarters, remove the cores, and reserve.
Whisk the cinnamon into the wine and leave to steep for about 10 minutes. Strain through a very fine sieve into a stainless steel or other nonreactive saucepan. Add the sugar, the anise, the mace, and the cloves. If you are using the raisins and/or dates, add these as well. Bring to the boil, skimming if necessary, then lower the heat. Add the pears and simmer until completely tender and beginning to turn translucent and amber-colored. Add the ginger, remove from the heat, and allow to cool before serving.
If you use a softer variety of pears, do not precook them, but peel, core, and quarter them raw before adding to the spiced wine mixture. The reason we do not recommend using dates is that their skins come off during the cooking, making the dish look rather unattractive.
A Disshe of Snow
Original Source: A Propre new booke of Cokery
Modern Source: www.godecookery.com
Original Recipe:
To make a dissh full of Snow.
Take a potell of swete thicke creame and the whites of eight egges & beate them al togider with a spone / then put them in youre creame and a saucer full of Rosewater and a disshe full of Suger with all / than take a sticke & make it cleane / and than cutte it in the ende foure square / and there with heate all the aforesayde thinges togither / & ever as it ryseth take it of and put it into a Collander / this done / take one apple and set it in the myddes of it and a thicke busshe of Rosemary and set it in the middes of the plater / then cast your Snow upon the Rosemary & fyll your platter therewith. And if you have wafers cast some in with all and thus serue them forth.
Ingredients:
12 Egg Whites
500g Icing Sugar
Rosemary Stalks
2 Bags, Large Marshmallows
Method:
Beat a dozen egg whites to hard peaks
Sift in icing sugar until very hard
Serve on Rosemary Stalks
Use Marshmallows as roots for rosemary leaves
Modern Source: www.godecookery.com
Original Recipe:
To make a dissh full of Snow.
Take a potell of swete thicke creame and the whites of eight egges & beate them al togider with a spone / then put them in youre creame and a saucer full of Rosewater and a disshe full of Suger with all / than take a sticke & make it cleane / and than cutte it in the ende foure square / and there with heate all the aforesayde thinges togither / & ever as it ryseth take it of and put it into a Collander / this done / take one apple and set it in the myddes of it and a thicke busshe of Rosemary and set it in the middes of the plater / then cast your Snow upon the Rosemary & fyll your platter therewith. And if you have wafers cast some in with all and thus serue them forth.
Ingredients:
12 Egg Whites
500g Icing Sugar
Rosemary Stalks
2 Bags, Large Marshmallows
Method:
Beat a dozen egg whites to hard peaks
Sift in icing sugar until very hard
Serve on Rosemary Stalks
Use Marshmallows as roots for rosemary leaves
Digby's Small Cakes
Original Source: Sir Kenelm Digby's Closet Unlocked, 1669.
Modern Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16441/16441-h/16441-h.htm
Original Recipe:
Take three pound of very fine flower well dried by the fire, and put to it a pound and a half of loaf sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dried; 3 pounds of currants well washed, and dried in a cloth and set by the fire; when your flour is well mixed with the sugar and currants, you must put in it a pound and a half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of cream, with the yolks of three newlaid eggs beat with it, one nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of sack. When you have wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through warm. Then make them up in little cakes, and prick them full of holes; you must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards ice them over with sugar. The cakes should be about the bigness of a hand breadth and thin; of the size of the sugar cakes sold at Barnet.
Ingredients (american measurements):
700ml flour
175ml sugar
340g currents
170g lb butter
40ml double cream
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp nutmeg or ground mace
10ml sack (use Sweet or Cream Sherry or Pedro Ximenez)
Method:
Cut butter into the flour as one would for piecrust. Add rest of ingredients. Bake cakes about 20 minutes at 180degC. To Ice the Cakes Icing: about 1/3 c sugar and enough water so you can spread it.
Modern Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16441/16441-h/16441-h.htm
Original Recipe:
Take three pound of very fine flower well dried by the fire, and put to it a pound and a half of loaf sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dried; 3 pounds of currants well washed, and dried in a cloth and set by the fire; when your flour is well mixed with the sugar and currants, you must put in it a pound and a half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of cream, with the yolks of three newlaid eggs beat with it, one nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of sack. When you have wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through warm. Then make them up in little cakes, and prick them full of holes; you must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards ice them over with sugar. The cakes should be about the bigness of a hand breadth and thin; of the size of the sugar cakes sold at Barnet.
Ingredients (american measurements):
700ml flour
175ml sugar
340g currents
170g lb butter
40ml double cream
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp nutmeg or ground mace
10ml sack (use Sweet or Cream Sherry or Pedro Ximenez)
Method:
Cut butter into the flour as one would for piecrust. Add rest of ingredients. Bake cakes about 20 minutes at 180degC. To Ice the Cakes Icing: about 1/3 c sugar and enough water so you can spread it.