This luncheon has been prepared
to celebrate the elevation of Lady
Jervisa Wainwright to the Order of the
Pelican. As an apprentice to Her Excellency, Baronaessa Maestra Dulcinea Maria Magdalena
Von Mulberg A Aguilar, and
Jervisa’s apprentice sister in her
household El Garo D’Oro, I wished to
create a meal fitting to the occasion.
Lady Jervisa was apprenticed to Her Excellency on
Valentine’s Day, 1994 so it is only fitting that her elevation to Mistress of
the Order of the Pelican, take place on the same day. This meal is based on
Lady Jervisa’s persona, which is mid 16th Century German/English. I have
attempted to recreate a meal that would be appropriate.
The sources I have used are listed at the heading of
the recipes, I only hope to do these historical documents justice in the
recreation of the dishes contained here-in. I hereby present this lunch as a
gift to Lady Jervisa.
A special thank you to Lady Ailiknn Olafsdotter for
her assistance in this lunch.
In service and
friendship, Lady Hauviette d’Anjou
English Recipes
Source,
Ancient Cookery- a 15th Century manuscript , found in “A Collection of
Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks” first compiled by Duke Cariodoc of the
Bow and the Duchess Diana Alena, 6th Edition.
Tart on Ember Day Recipe
#356-2
Parboyle onions, and fauge
and parfel, and hew hom fmall, then take gode fatte chese, and bray hit,and do
therto egges, and tempur hit up therwith, and do therto butter and fugur, and
raifynges of corance, and pouder of ginger, and of canell, medel all this well
togedur, and do hit in a coffyn, and bake hit uncovered, and ferve hit forthe.
Tart
on Ember Day
Parboil
onions, and sage and parsley, and chop them small, then take good fat cheese,
and grate it, and add eggs, and mix them, and add butter and sugar, and
currants and powdered ginger and powdered cinnamon, mix this together and put
it in a pastry shell and bake it uncovered and serve it forth.
_______________
Redacted Recipe- Tarts on
Ember Day
40
pre-made 2” pastry shells or 2-9” pie shells
1
medium cooking onion, peeled and quartered
10-12
fresh large sage leaves
1/2
cup fresh curly parsley
8
ounces grated Muenster cheese (or Brie)
8
large eggs
1/4
cup salted butter,chopped
2
tsp white sugar (turbinado if you can)
1/2
tsp ground ginger
1/2
tsp ground cinnamon (canel = Cinnamon Zeylanicum*)
1/8
cup currants
Placing
a steam basket in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Add onion, sage and parsley. Let boil for
3-5 minutes. Remove, drain and chop fine.
In
a medium mixing bowl, shred the cheese, add onion, herbs, butter, sugar,
cinnamon and ginger. Mix well, ensuring that the eggs are well blended.
Pour
mixture into raw pastry shells, (approximately 40- 2” tarts or 2- 9” pie
shells).Top with 5 currants placed in a pattern. Bake at 350 degrees 17-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Warduns in Syruppe Recipe
#366
Take warden, and pare home
clene, and fethe hom in red wyn with mulberryes or saunders, tyl that abyn tendur,
and then take home up, and cut home, and do hom in a pot; and do therto wyn
crete, or vernage, or other gode fwete wyne, and blaunch pouder, and fugur, and
powder of gygner, and let hom boyle awhile, and then ferve hit forth.
Pears
in Syrup
Take
pear, and peel the skin, and boil them in red wine with mulberries or
sandlewood, until tender, take them out and cut them and put them in a pot; and
add greek wine, or vernage or other good sweet wine and white pouder*, and
sugar and powder of ginger and let them boil awhile and then serve it forth.
___________________________
A Discussion
White
powder or Blaunch Pouder, was a shelf item of combined white spices used by
medieval cooks, much like we have “poultry seasoning” or “seasoning salt”
today. This period counterpart was most likely all white spices and may have
included white pepper, ginger and possibly sugar (it seems that sugar was
treated as a spice more than as a
condiment today). There are no recipes for this to my knowledge,
however, a ratio of 1:1:1 would provide an excellent balance and is a suggested recipe for use. I did not use
this combination in the recipe presented at this vigil, but did incorporate
cinnamon as several other period recipes of this type do.
I
have chosen not to use sandlewood as many people are allergic to it and I
usually try not to take too many chances when cooking for the masses. If
cooking for yourself, you can use sandlewood sparingly, but when needing a
darker colour, you may wish to use modern red food dye to achieve the deep ruby
colour or stick to the period recipe and add a dark red berry such as
mulberries. According to Waverly Root in Food, mulberries are hard to document in northern climes in period
until the time of Henry the IV as he
had them planted planted for ornament along the banks of the Seine. It is
obvious that they were available in the 15th Century as our recipe indicates.
The mulberry is similar to the blackberry and where you are unable to find
mulberries, the blackberry is an acceptalble alternative.
I
have found that the pears do well if soaked long enough in red wine. Other
period recipes call for red wine[ (Harlenian MS 279 (1430), Harlenian MS 4016
(1450), A Proper Newe Booke of Cookery
(16th C) and Sir Kenelm Digby
(1669)], however I have found that
this recipe is wonderful with or
without it. The recipe served at this vigil does not reflect a long soak time
in red wine and as such the pears are only lightly coloured.
It
is interesting to note that another original recipe (found in the 16th C
manuscript)calls for 20 wardons, which if the fruit has remained near to form,
weighs on average 10lbs. I have utilized the recipe below and consistently, 20
pears weighs in near to 10lbs.
If
you do not wish to use a modern canning method the recipe easily converts by
simply boiling the fruit in the syrup for 5 minutes, jarring and storing only 1
week in a refridgerator. Never take
chances with canning of any type, if the food appears to have turned scummy or
releases a bad smell upon opening or the seal is broken or bubbled DO NOT EAT
IT.
Adapted Recipe- Wardons in Syrop
Makes
4 quarts preserved fruit
3
cups red wine (can add sandlewood and/or mulberries or blackberries or red food
dye for colour)
1cup
honey 10 lbs firm but ripe
pears, peeled, cored and sliced in half
1
cup sugar 8 pieces of sliced
ginger
3
cups water 6-8 2 inch
pieces of whole cinnamon
1
cup sweet white wine, not sparkling
Modern
Canning Method
I suggest
reading up on canning methods before trying this for the first time, get to
know the general terminology and methods , it will save time and help prevent any accidental food poisoning.
Just for your knowledge I have been canning food since I was 13 years old but I
still refer to reference books before I begin.
Soak
the pears in the red wine for 1 hour
Combine
the honey, sugar, water and wine. Bring to a boil. Add 3-4 pieces of
ginger and 3 or 4 sticks of cinnamon..
In the meanwhile have 4 quart canning
jars cleaned, sterilized and ready with piece of ginger and 1-2 cinnamon pieces in each. Place 6-8
pear halves into each jar. Pour the syrup over each to within 1/4 inch from the
top. Seal with proper canning lids (sterilized of course) . Place into a hot
water bath and bring to a boil for 25 minutes. Remove, cool and store. When the
lids seal you will hear a pop, at that point slightly tighten the jar, wash
down the outside with a damp cloth.
Pommes Dorre
Recipe # 440
Take felettes of pork, and
rogte hom half raw, and bray hom, and in the brayinge caft therto a few zolkes
of eyren, and a few clowes; and when hit is brayed, do hit into a veffel, and
put therto pouder of pepur ynogh, and colour hit with faffron; and do therto
fugre or honey clarified, and a few raifynges of corance, and medel al togeder;
and then fet a panne over the fire with water, and let hit boyle,and make
rounde pelettes of the greneffe of an ey of the fame ftuff, and caft hom into
the boylynge water, and fethe hom, and then do hom on a fpit, and rofte hom;
and in the rothynge, edore hom zelow with zolkes of eyren, and flour, and
faffron, medeled togeder, and fome grene if thouw wyl with royft of herbes
endorre hom, and ferve hit forthe.
Pommes
Dorre
Take
fillets of pork, and roast them half raw, and grate them and in the grating put
a few egg yolks and a few cloves and when it is grated put it in a vessel and
add ground pepper and colour it with saffron, and add sugar or clarified honey,
and a few currants and mix this together; then bring a pot of water to boil,
and make balls the size of an eye, and put them in the boiling water and bring
to a boil, then put them (the meat balls) on a spit and roast them, and while
they are roasting, coat them with a yellow mixture of egg yolks , flour and
saffron, well mixed, and some green if you want, made of herbs, coat them (and
allow the coating to roast) and serve them forth.
________________
A Discussion
I
have thought about the multiple cooking steps in this and many other medieval
recipes. At first glance these steps may seem to serve a culinary purpose, such
as par-roasting to make the chopping easier, or additional cooking to ensure
that the meat is well done, or even to reduce the use of fuel by using boiling
water which was a standby at all times in the medieval “kitchen”. I believe
however that the medieval cookbooks we
are reading from are those intended for the highest of tables and the cooks had
an alterior motive to the multiple cooking steps.I have cooked this recipe
using both a roasted meat and a raw meat as the starting point and did not find
a significant difference in taste. I will admit that ground pork resulted in a
somewhat “springier” consistency than the pre-roasted then ground pork.
Let’s
consider the Galenic idea of balancing
humors. A major consideration of the medieval cook was to prepare food for the health of those who would consume
it. If we analyze the above period recipe,it should be noted that pork is
considered to be cold/moist. As the meatballs are boiled, this increases the
coldness/moistness, therefore by par-roasting the meat first you are balancing
this process. If the par-roasting isn’t done, the end product could be too
cool/moist and result in a disruption of the bodily humours of the person
feasting on it. This theory need to be expanded by analyzing other recipes as
to the degrees of moist/dry, hot/cold
in order to determine how effective it is. For now, it’s an interesting idea
that fits this situation.
The
endoring can be done over a grill or barb-b-que or using the oven at a hot
temperature (450 degrees). The grill is much more efficient as you do not have
to keep opening the door to the oven, and is also more true to the original
recipe. However, in the winter , I admit , standing over a grill, is not my idea
of a great time but I did do it for this vigil,and I felt the results were
justified. You may choose to use the oven and by all means don’t feel guilty.
A Redacted Recipe- Pommes
Dorre
1
lb boneless pork (butt ends seem to
have enough fat, loin is too lean) or for convienence, ground pork
2
egg yolks
2
cloves
1/8
tsp ground cloves
1
tsp ground white pepper
3-5
strands of saffron, crushed
2
tsp sugar
1
tsp currants (optional)
Endoring
paste
5
egg yolks
5
strands of saffron (gold) or 1/4 cup pureed parsley (green)
1/8 cup unbleached all purpose flour
If
using ground pork, eliminate the roasting and grinding.
Roast
the pork steak for 10-20 minutes at 350 degrees so that it is half cooked. Cut
into chunks. In a food processor, finely grind the meat. Add the egg yolks,
spices, and if using, the currants. Blend well.
Bring
a pot of water to boil and form 3 inch balls of the meat mixture. Carefully
drop the balls into the boiling water, allow to come to a boil again and cook
for 3 minutes. Remove and thread onto either a
metal or bamboo skewer.
Brush
the egg paste onto the meatballs, allowing to cook between coats. Roast the
meatballs well to ensure that the egg paste is cooked. Serve hot or cold. Makes
25-35 meatballs.
German Recipes
Daz Buch
von Guter Spise (1345 to 1354) From an Original in the University
Library of Munich, Translation by Alia Atlas. Found in A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance
Cookbooks, 7th Edition
Although
earlier than Lady Jervisa’s persona, this manuscript afforded me a chance to
recreate something that I had yet to work with. I found many of the recipes to
be refreshing in comparison with the French counterparts found in Le Viander de
Tallaivent and the Menagier de Paris. I hope those who partake in this lunch
enjoy it as much as I did in recreating the dishes.
Original Recipe #11
Ein
gut spise von huenern (a good food of hens)
Cut a roasted hen in small
pieces. Take white bread. Make a thin egg dough. Pound saffron and pepper and
do that together and mix it well in a vat and take a mortar with fresh fat and
pound this all (possibly refers to the hen, bread and spices) to meal and level
it above with a trowel. And cover it with a dish and turn the mortar thick
about towards the fire, so that it has the same heat and stays flexible. When
it becomes hard, so then lower down the fat and shake jout that hen in a dish
and give out.
_______________
A Discussion
In
reviewing this recipe I spent some 5 trials working on it’s instructions. The
recipe begins easy enough and leads you to believe this will be a pasty type
dish, utilizing and egg dough. At first it appears that the egg dough is all
but forgotten, yet when considering the overall construction I believe it is
used to line the mortar and provide the meat with a form to be retained after
being baked, much like turning out
tarts that have been baked. With the addition of the mortar and trowel
uses in the manufacture of the recipe, it further confirms that a molded meat/bread puree is the final intention as the mortar
is packed with the ingredients then levelled. The final sentence adds some
confusion to the mix, indicating that it is necessary to “lower down the fat”
which I have interpretted to mean that lard is used to loosen the molded dish.
This could also be interpretted as greasing the pan. Overall, the dish is quite
pleasing, with the buttery taste of saffron and the bite of black pepper, balanced by the subtle
flavours of roast chicken and bread.
A Redacted Recipe- A Dish of
Hens
Filling
1
lb roasted chicken chopped (approximately 2 breasts, 2 whole legs- larded and
baked at 350 degrees for 40 minutes)
1/3
loaf of 60 % whole wheat bread- cubed
1/4
- 1/2 tsp crushed saffron
2
tsp freshly ground black pepper
2
Tbsp lard
Egg
dough
1
1/4 cup unbleached white flour
1/2
cup whole wheat flour
3/4
tsp salt
3/4
cup lard*
4-5
Tbsp cold water
1
egg
Mix
the flours and salt.With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the lard until
the consistency of coarse meal. Mix the egg with the water and add slowly,
stopping to mix, about 2 tablespoons at a time until the dough is sticky. Chill
until ready to use. Roll out thinly and cut in rounds for 2-inch tart shells,
with smaller rounds for the tops. Makes enough for 3O- 2 inch tart shells with
tops.
*I chose to add lard to the dough and avoid
greasing the tart tins.
In
a food processor combine the ingredients to a fine consistency.
After
lining pastry shells, place about 2 Tblsps of the filling and cover. Seal the
edges and crimp with a fork. At this point the original recipe seems to call
for covering the dish with a plate, this may be the modern version of using tin
foil. I chose to bake the tartlets uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 25
minutes or until golden brown.
Serve
warm or chilled.
Original Recipe #63
Heidenische
erweiz (Heathen (Saracen)Peas)
Wilt du machen behemmische
erweiz. so nim mandel kern und stoz die gar cleine. und mengez mit dritteil als
vil honiges. und mit guten wurtzen wol gemenget. so ers aller beste hat. die
koste git man kalt oder warm.
How
you want to make heathen peas. So take almond kernels and pound them very
small. And mix it with a third as much honey. And with good spices well mixed.
So it has the very best. One hands this out greedily, cold or warm.
_______________
A Discussion
The
original recipe calls for a 3 to 1 ratio of almonds to honey. In my trials I
have found that this results in a meal that is a little too loose to roll
properly. I have reduced the ratio to 4 to 1 and am much happier with the end
result. This effect could be accounted for in the original recipe as the cook
using approximations which might be off slightly.
Although
this recipe does not call for roasting the ground nuts at all, I have found
that this extra step eliminates the sometimes harsh taste of the oil in the
almonds. If you feel you would like to
stick to the letter of the recipe, I would simply suggest you avoid that step.
A Redacted Recipe- Heathen
Peas
4
cups whole almonds
1
cup honey
2-3
tsp ground cinnamon
In
a food processor, coarse grind 3 cups of almonds.On a baking sheet, place the
almonds into a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes.
Finely grind 1 cup of the almonds and add to the roasted almonds. Mix in
cinnamon.
Warm
the honey and add to the almonds, stirring well.
Keeping
a bowl of warm water near by (to rinse your hands occasionaly), take a generous
pinch of the honey/nut mixture and roll into a 1 inch ball. Continue until all
of the mixture is used. Keeps well in a cool place, sealed container. Makes
approximately 90- 1 inch balls
Original Recipe #48
Ein
condimentlin (A condiment)
Mal kumel und enis mit
pfeffer und mit ezzige und mit honige. und mach ez gel mit saffran, und tu dar
zu senf. in disem condimente maht du sulze persilein, bern und clein cumpost
oder rueben, was du wilt.
Flavour
caraway seeds and anise with pepper and with vinegar and with honey. And make
it gold with saffron. And add therto mustard. In this condiment you may make sulze (pickled or marinated) parsley,
and small preserved fruit and vegetables, or beets, which(ever) you want.
_______________
A Discussion
Modern
Adaption-As I have chosen to recreate this recipe using a modern canning method
it is apparent that this recipe is not an exact recreation of the dish. My
concerns are often for storage and food safety. The use of water in the brine
is to offset the higher acid content of
the vinegar used to marinate the
fruit/vegetable where it is not heated as I am doing to can the recipe. I have
however utilized the spices from the
original and the basic ingredients for the pickle(I have added salt to coincide
with modern canning recipes, and if you note, most of the recipes contained in
this manuscript instruct you not to “oversalt” ). If you wish to remain exactly
true to the period recipe, simply increase the vinegar to a total of 4 1/2
cups and the honey to 2 cups. Do not
boil the pickle but simply store in a non reactive container for at least 2
weeks to develop flavour.
An Adapted Recipe- Preserved
Carrots
2-3
lb. of 4 in quartered carrots sticks or
baby carrots
1
cup of cider vinegar
1
1/2 cups white vinegar
2
Tbsp salt
3
cups of water
1
1/4 cup of honey
1
tsp each of caraway and anise
1/2
tsp each mustard and whole pepper corn
5
threads saffron
Mix
the brine and bring to a boil. Place carrots into the brine and boil for only a
few minutes. Remove carrots place into sterilized jars, fill to 1/4 inch from
top, seal, ready in a few weeks.
An Exerpt from Daz Buch von
Guter Spise;
This book speads of good
food.
It makes the ignorant cook
wise.
want to teach you of the cooking arts.
He who cannot understand
them
should look at this book.
How he can make great dishes
from many small things,
he who remembers this
learning very carefully,
which will be given in this
book!
For it can well teach
of many dishes of great and
of small,
how they combine themselves
and how they see to it
that they make insignificant
bits into noble foods.
He should take this book and
should not be ashamed
if he asks about what he
does not know.
This decision makes him
quickly a wiser man,
who then wants to learn to
cook.
He should mark well this
book..