A Rus/Viking event in the Shire of Eisental, October 30, 2004.
My most gracious lady,
At your request I have prepared a guest repast for the Rus lords as they visit us. I have done the best I could though as you know I am but new-come to the country and not very familiar with the way they make their food here. Since the incident in the store-room with the spice-box and the kvass barrel, you know we had a number of spices that needed to be used up or wasted, so I hope my use of them meets your approval. I hope I have balanced the humors correctly; I understand that some of our visitors do not observe the Saturday meatless fast, so hopefully I have prepared enough of both meat and meatless dishes.
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, undercook
* Note: items with asterisks didn't actually get served. :)
Original from Two Fifteenth Century
cookery Books:
Take Pork or Beef, whatever you like, and cut it in slices, and
broil it brown a little, and mince it like venison, choppe it in sieve? and
put it in a pot and add fresh broth; take herbs, onions, parsley and sage, and
other good herbs, and lay it up ? with brede. Take Pepper and saffron, cinnamon
powder, vinegar or wine, broth and salt, and let it boil together, until it
is done, and serve it forth running.
12 lb pork roast (loin and rolled roast), chopped into slices
half a large bunch parsley
4 large onions
10 leaves Sage
3 sprigs each Marjoram
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1.5 gallons beef broth ('better than bouillon' concentrate)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp Pepper
pinch Saffron
1/2 tsp Powdered cinnamon
dash Salt
1. Chop parsley and onions
2. Put the slices of pork on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan and broil (under
the broiler) 7-8 minutes for each batch.
3. Chop slices into gobbets. Put in pork a pot and cover with broth.
4. Add parsley, onions, sage and other herbs
5. Cook for a bit (5-10 minutes)
6. Add about 3/4 c breadcrumbs finely ground
7. Add about 1/4 c vinegar-- adjust to taste
8. Add pepper, saffron, cinnamon powder, vinegar, more broth or water and some
salt.
9. Cook until pork is cooked through (10-20 minutes)
10. Will hold on the back of the stove for several hours, kept under simmering
temp.
From The Forme of Cury:
"Take funges and pare hem clene, and dyce hem; take leke
and shrede hym small, and do hym to seeþ in gode broth. Colour it with
safroun, and do þerinne powdour fort."
3 gallons vegetable broth (made with 4 turnips, tops of 8 leeks, stems 1 bunch
of chard, trimmings from 3 bunches celery, 10 carrots, 1 big handful lovage,
5-8 sprigs thyme, 10-15 leaves sage, 3 onions, peelings from 4 cucumberst)
2 quarts dried mushrooms
4-5 lbs mushooms
6-8 leeks (white parts)
1/2 tsp saffron
1 tbsp cloves
1 tbsp ginger
1/2 nutmeg, ground
about 1 tsp pepper
1-2 tsp salt
Soak the dried mushrooms in the broth. Wash and dice the mushrooms. Slice, wash
and shred the leeks. Put mushrooms and leeks in the broth and cook until mushrooms
are cooked through. Add saffron and powder fort.
Das Kuchbuch der Sabina Welserin, 1553
152 To make a good roast
Take veal or a sirloin of beef, lay it overnight in wine, afterwards
stick it on a spit. Put it then in a pot.
Put good broth therein, onions, wine, spices, pepper, ginger and cloves and
let it cook therein. Do not
over salt it.
Adaptation: Since wine isn't particularly Viking, and I don't want to repeat
the onions, I'm omitting the onions and replacing wine with cider vinegar.
4-6 lbs beef roasts
2 cups beef broth
1 cup cider vinegar
Whole cloves
Ginger (powdered)
Pepper
Nutmeg?
1. Reconstitute beef broth if necessary
3. Mix vinegar, ginger, cloves, pepper with beef broth
4. Place roasts in pans and pour broth mixture over them.
5. Roast for about 5 minutes a pound at 450
6. Reduce heat to 325, turn roasts, add broth if necessary
7. Roast for another 5 to 7 minutes a pound
Libro della Cucina del Secolo XIV, 90
Of Onion Salad. Take Onions, cook them in embers, then peel them and cut them across into longish thin slices. Add a little vinegar, salt, oil and spices and serve.
2 lbs small onions
1. Make fine spice mixture
1. 2 rounded tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2. 2 rounded tablespoons ground cinnamon
3. 2 rounded tablespoons ground ginger
4. 11/2 tablespoons saffron threads crushed to a powder in a mortar or with
your fingers
5. 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2. Cut tops and bases from onions
3. Arrange onions in roasting pan
4. Roast at 500 degrees about an hour, until soft
5. Cool for an hour
6. Peel and slice onions into long strips
7. Pack into pans and cover
8. Before serving, drizzle on a little salt, vinegar, oil & spices.
cooked by Christopher Calhoune
From the Viander de Taillevent:
Larded milk. Take some
[cow's] milk, boil it on the fire, lift it down from the fire, put it on a few
coals, and thread in beaten egg yolks. If you wish it for a meat day, take lardons,
cut them into two or three bits, and throw them into the milk to boil. If you
wish it for a fish day, do not add lardons, but throw in some wine and verjuice
to curdle it before you lift it down. Remove it from the fire, put it in a white
cloth, let it drain, wrap it in 2 or 3 layers of the cloth, and press it until
it is as firm as beef liver. Put it on a table, slice it into strips the size
of a full palm or three fingers, button them with whole cloves, fry them until
they are browned, set them out, and throw some sugar on top.
1 gal whole milk
6 small eggs (4 large eggs)
4 oz lard
2 cups vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp salt (not in original recipe but recommended)
cheese cloth
Part I: Making the larded milk
1) gently boil the milk and lard, stir to avoid burning the milk
2) once the milk boils, take the milk off the heat
4) temper the eggs with the milk
5) add the tempered eggs to the boiled milk
6) whisk well to avoid 'scrambled eggs', 8-10 minutes
7) once the egg/milk is smooth, add the acid to curdle the milk
8) make sure that the milk has curdled,
separate the curds from the whey by draining through the cheese cloth
9) press the liquid from to the curds so they become "as hard as a beef
liver'
10) form curds into a loaf
Part II Frying and Serving
a) cut the loaf into pieces as you like (cubes are nice) - the smaller the pieces
the crispier they will be
b) place a whole clove 'button' into each piece
c) fry in oil until outside of the curd turns brown (about 1 minute per side)
d) remove from oil, sprinkle with sugar and serve
(Conjectural Polish dish from Dembinska
and Weaver)
4 cups peeled, cored and cubed semi-ripe pears
4 cups peeled, seeded and cubed cucumbers
1 cup honey
1 cup figs, chopped
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
[Rosewater]
1 cup water
P ut cucumbers, honey, figs, spices and water in a heavy dish and cook on medium-low
for 20 minutes (should be tender). Add pears. Cook 7-10 minutes longer. Cool.
Add a tsp of rosewater.
2 Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books:
.xij. Vyaund leche.--Take Eyroun, þe whyte & þe
3olke, and caste hem in a morter, an breke hem wyl; þan take cowe mylke
& caste þer-to, & menge hem wyl to-gederys; þan put al in
a panne, & lat boyle; & with ale make it to a poshotte; þen hange
þe croddys in a pynne, & let it ouer-renne; melle þe croddys
with hony; þen take þe bladys of Barlyche, or of Percely, &
stampe hem, & wrynge þorw a cloþe; & so alle þe grene,
melle it a-mong þe croddys; þenne take þe cruddys þat
comen fro þe deye, melle hem to-gederys, presse hem, & serue hem forth;
an þe coloure wyl ben þan Motley.
(Based on Cindy Refrow's redaction:)
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1.5 cups beer
1/2 cup honey
1/2 large bunch parsley, minced
2 cups cottage cheese
Beat eggs and mix with milk. Heat to a low simmer and add the beer. Set aside
until it curdles. Place the curds in a strainer with a cloth inside, allow to
drain overnight. Chop up the parsley (leaves and stems) in a food processor;
strain through a cloth to get juice, and mix the juice and the honey with the
curds. Swirl in the cottage cheese, wrap in a cloth and attempt to drain. (Note:
it didn't solidify very well.)
From An Old Icelandic Medical Miscellany
( Harpestreng-manuscript, Icelandic version supposed to be 15th C., from a lost
manuscript of the 13 th C.)
One shall take mustard (seed) and a third of honey and a tenth
part of anise and two such of cinnamon. Grind this all with strong vinegar and
put it in a cask. This is good for three months.
3 c. mustard seed
1 c. honey
1 tbsp cup aniseed
2 tbsp cinnamon
Malt vinegar / Cider vinegar
Grind the mustardseed, and the anise and cinnamon. Mix together and add honey,
then add vinegar and stirr until it is thin and running.
Marx Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch, c. 1581:
"Brown mustard made up with clear vinegar/ is also good." (translation
by GwenCat)
1-2 cups mustard seed
3-4 cups cider vinegar
1. Grind the mustard seed to get 3 cups ground brown mustard
2. Before serving, mix with vinegar to make a running sauce.
Harleian 4016, Buttered Wortes:
Take al maner of good herbes that thou may gete, and do bi ham
as is foresaid; putte hem om þe fire with faire water; put þere-to
clarefied buttur a grete quantitie. Whan thei ben boyled ynogh, salt hem; late
none otemele come there-in. Dise brede small in disshes, and powre on þe
wortes, and serue hem forth. (Austin, 69)
2 heads colored kale
1/4 lb butter
Cut the kale off the stem, into leaves.
Put in a pot and cover with water. Add butter and bring to a boil; then cook
until done; drain and serve.
(Platina)
3 cups milk
1 cup millet
Rinse the millet in one change of water and drain. Add the milk, and cook over
low heat until liquid is absorbed.
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup barley groats
Combine in a crockpot and cook until broth is absorbed.
as cooked by Christopher Calhoune
About one bottle of homebrew ale
1 lb flounder
Lay fish in a shallow pan and add ale. Cook over low heat until translucent. Drain and serve cold.
Curye on Inglysch p. 154
To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie it on +
e fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste
it into + e boylenge hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse +
at it bren not to + e vessell. & + anne take it doun and put + erin ginger,
longe pepper & saundres, & tempere it vp with + in handes; & than
put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe + eron suger, & pick + erin clowes
rounde aboute by + e egge and in + e mydes, yf it plece you, &c.
2 c. Honey
Breadcrumbs
Ground ginger
Long pepper
Sugar
cloves
Heat the honey. Add spices to taste and sufficient breadcrumbs to get a nice
paste. Roll into little balls and insert a clove, strew with sugar.
(Based loosely on the instructions derived from
"A goodlye secret for to condite or confite Orenges, citrons, and all other fruites in sirrop", a recipe from Thomas Dawson, THE SECOND PART OF THE GOOD HUS-WIVES JEWELL , 1597. , by Dame Alys Katherine)
20 lemons
10 limes
Sugar
3 days ahead: peel your fruit with a paring knife, striving for the least white pith on the peels. Place in a container, cover with water, cover the container, and refrigerate about 24 hours. (Lemon and Lime should go in different containers)
2nd day: drain the peels, put the peels in (separate) pots covered with water, and simmer 30 minutes. Drain, put back in containers, and cover with water and refrigerate 6 hours. Repeat. Scrape any loose white pith off the inside of the peels.
3rd day, Repeat process, then scrape/cut any white pith again. Repeat again.
*Lay peels on sheets to dry out-- 3-12 hours.
Then prepare a sugar solution of 2 cups water and one and a half cups sugar. (One batch for limes, one for lemons)
Drain the peels, and place in sugar syrup and simmer 30 minutes.
Remove from the sugar syrup and spread on plates to dry.
Boil the sugar syrup down to soft-ball stage.
Add the peels and bring back up to soft-ball; cook about 5 minutes at that stage.
Remove peels from syrup onto plates of sugar and separate.
Lay to dry on a tray.
Store in a sealed container.
You can also do this by soaking your
peels for 8 consecutive days, changing the water every day and scraping/cutting
the peel off, then boil in fresh water 1 1/2 days ahead, and repeat from * above.
Le Menagier de Paris
Sweet Tisane
Take water and boil it, then add for each sixth of a gallon of
water one good bowl of barley, and it does not (or it does not matter? - Trans)
if it (p. 238) still has its hulls, and get two parisis' worth of licorice,
item, or figs, and boil it all until the barley bubbles; then let it be strained
in two or three cloths, and put in each goblet a large amount of rock-sugar.
This barley is good to feed to poultry to fatten them. Note that good licorice
is the youngest, and when cut is a lively greenish colour, and if it is old
it is more insipid and dead, and dry.
Eberhards. _Das Kochbuch Meister Eberhards_ circa 1500 CE. Translated by Alia
Atlas. Published on-line akatlas at csbu.edu
#27 Barley swells and cools and does not feed well and hurts
all those who have the affliction, and who become cold nature or who have colic
in the body. But for hot people and those who would be smaller, it is good.And
one eats or drinks it with fennel seeds, so it is good for many afflictions
in the breast, and Avincenna says that barley water harmsthe stomach which is
cold. It is also very good for feverish people.
2 cups barley
3 quarts water
1/4 cup fennel seed
Mix and simmer for 1/2 hour. Allow to cool, strain and sweeten.