Cooking with the Souteneurs

  or belated Pi Day…  How about Happy Leftover Pi Day.  Yeah that works, because leftover pie is awesome.  Especially for breakfast!!  

I always seem to remember Pi day after the fact, you know?  But this year for a wonder I remembered in advance!  I had plans to make pie to take to work.  Then I had my Wisdom teeth out, and have been on hydrocodone for pain…  *sigh* So pie for work did not happen. However, pie, or should I say Tarte for home did!

One of the first cookbooks I was introduced to by my favorite Wildman and mentor, Master Corwyn, was Cariadoc's Miscellany.  This was in the late 90's at the beginning of the internet revolution.  He had a copy he'd purchased, and after some careful searches on the Web, I was able to find it.  Of course we had dial up at home, so I carefully and sneakily printed off sections at work, on our high speed connection… (Now I have a PDF on my tablet.. Times change!!)  The Miscellany is a collection of various articles written by Duke Cariadoc of the Bow (David Friedman), but my interest has been in the recipes he and his Lady redacted from various period cookbooks.

I have pulled various recipes from the book over the years, but true to my mundane interests< I return to the dessert section often..  The Wrangler loves the Dairyole recipe, and we've made Excellent Small cakes but my favorite recipe (so far) is the Tarte of Strawberries.  The recipe comes from A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye written in the 16th century.  The recipe from source reads:

Take and strain them with the yolks of four eggs, and a little white bread grated, then season it up with sugar and sweet butter and so bake it

The redaction is as follows:

2 c strawberries 4 egg yolks 1/2 c bread crumbs 1/3 c sugar 4 T butter 8" pie shell (see recipe above)

Force strawberries through a strainer or run through a blender, then mix with everything else (the butter should be melted). Bake crust for 10 minutes, then put filling into the crust and bake at 375deg. for 20 minutes.

So… Yeah, it’s been a while. Bad Glutton!! I have had a few culinary adventures in the last few months, that I will in fact be treating you to, however, today we’re going to talk about the most recent, which involves last minute changes, road trips, and extrapolation!

So for some background: our Barony hosts an annual charity event where wecoolect donations for Country Santa, a local charity that donates toys to children in need. It’s a fun, low key event, that is normally not a long trip for the Wrangler and me. Around Thanksgiving the autocrat contacted the Soutenniers and asked if we could do a luncheon for Her Excellency, and her guests. Of course we said yes, and plans were made. Since the event theme was Saturnalia we decided a Roman themed lunch was in order. We consulted with the head cook to ensure we would not duplicate dishes and a menu emerged: Ham, Cheese, Olives, bread, Broth with dumplings, custard for dessert, and… “Dormice”. As we planned, a wrench got thrown into the plans. Because of the wildfires in the South Carolina mountains, the event site was being used as a staging area for the fire crews. The event had to be moved. We got the word from the Autocrat about 2 weeks out that the event was moving to a Girl Scout Camp. In Bennettsville. 3 hours away. Our helpful Rus girl aka the Pastry Minion, said she’d drive if we wanted to day trip it, since she could not bring the little guys. The real Eliza Raven-Hair said that the Mad Chef had to stay home, so she was in. The Wrangler, not able to handle a six hour round trip with his back gave me his blessing to abandon him (on his birthday!) to go on. Since the holidays were in swing, getting together to cook was not going to work. Especially since Eliza and I were doing an overnight road trip to Kingdom Unevent the weekend prior. (Pro tip! If you are in Wilmington NC, check out The Platypus and Gnome. Great food, nice staff, and Swedish Meatball poutine!!! No. They are not paying me to plug them….) We decided that each of us would handle a portion of the lunch. E. got the Ham, cheese and bread together, Pastry Minion took care of the custard and the “dormice”, and I drew the soup. E. and I had discussed the soup on the way to Unevent, and she’d recalled a Broth with Dumplings from Apicius. I pulled it up on the Kindle app, and found the translation. (also available at Project Gutenberg):

  [52] PLAIN DUMPLING WITH BROTH ISICIUM SIMPLEX TO 1 ACETABULUM [1] OF STOCK [2] ADD 7 OF WATER, A LITTLE GREEN CELERY, A LITTLE SPOONFUL OF GROUND PEPPER, AND BOIL THIS WITH THE SAUSAGE MEAT OR DUMPLINGS. IF YOU INTEND TAKING THIS TO MOVE THE BOWELS THE SEDIMENT SALTS [3] OF HYDROGARUM HAVE TO BE ADDED 

Of course from a modern perspective you would assume that the dumpling mentioned were a wheat based product, but no. The dumplings Apicius mentions are actually forcemeat or a similar sausage. I decided that in this case, since the weather had turned very cold, VERY quickly, I wanted to do a hearty soup with both the forcemeat *and* a pasta. For the meat, I picked up a little over a pound of chicken breasts and ran them through finer plate on the meat grinder. To the ground chicken I added some fennel seed that I had broken in a mortar and pestle, parsley, basil, oregano, sea salt and ground Grains of Paradise. I then formed the chicken mix into small balls, and added them to a garlicky chicken stock, along with Celery, Carrot and allowed them to cook. Once I was sure the chicken was cooked through I added some Tortellini to bulk out the soup and to add some heartiness. (I know that the Tortellini were not Roman, however on a short time for research and experimentation, I did not want to take a chance on Gnocchi, which I found were made of fried Polenta in period. The next time I attempt this soup, I may try the polenta dumplings to see how it would work.)

Meadhbh’s Broth with Dumplings:

1 Tbs Canola Oil

1 Tbs Garlic

6 Cups Chicken Broth (I used a commercial Organic Broth)

3-4 ribs of Celery, chopped

2-3 Carrots, chopped

1 lb Ground chicken (Can’t find ground chicken, see if the guys at the meat counter will grind the whole breast for you if you don’t have a grinder at home.)

2 Tsp Fennel Seeds, crushed

3 Tsp Dried Basil, divided

3 Tsp Dried Oregeno, divided

3 Tsp Dried Parsley. divided

Pinch of Salt

Pinch of Ground Grains of Paradise

1 /2 lb of Tortellini (fresh or frozen)

In a large Stockpot, heat the oil and sauté the garlic for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock to the pot with the carrots and celery. Allow the vegetables to simmer in the stock while you make the dumplings.

If using a whole chicken breast, cut it into cubes, and run it through a meat grinder. (I used the fine plate on my Kitchen Aid attachment). To the ground chicken, add the fennel seed, 1 tsp each of the Basil, Oregano and Parsley, salt and Grains of Paradise. Mix the ingredients together, and using approximately ½ Tbs of the mixture form small balls. Add the dumplings along with the remaining herbs to the simmering broth, and bring the heat up until the stock is boiling. Let the dumplings cook 15-20 minutes in the broth then add the Tortellini, and cook according to package instructions. Add Salt and GoP to taste.

As this is a bit of an experiment, I may make some changes to the recipe over successive tastings. If you try this at home, please let me know what you think, as this is really the first time I have put one of my own direct redactions in writing, and I tend to be a “pinch of this – dash of that” type of cook!

You know when you get a good idea?  You know. the type that is super simple, but you don’t act on it?  Yeah.

So after the feast was over, I talked with the Chief Wrangler, and  said “You know, I should try a recipe from the books each month, so I can have things we’ve already test driven the next time I get asked to do a feast.”  He agreed that this was an excellent idea.  

That was in February..,

Right.  SO.

While perusing recipes, I found one for a sausage made with Pork and Fennel;  two of my favorite flavors.  However, the recipe called for it to be stuffed into casings.  This was one of those “things I’d never done” moments, but I did not let it stop me!  Luckily, a number of years ago, we’d gotten the meat grinder attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer, but I had never used it.  When I began to look at the Sausage recipe, I discovered that there was also a sausage stuffer attachment that went with the grinder, and since I had the big piece, I just needed the tubes.  Around $20 later, I had the attachments, and a bag of hog casings delivered to my front door. (Thank you Amazon!)

Not being the type that wants to wait, I went ahead when I got home, and began to make my first batch of sausage.  The recipe came from Bartolomeo Scappi’s Opera dell arte del cucinare:

To make mortatelle (sausages) of lean meat of boar or domestic pig wrapped in casing. Cap CIII Take 10lbs of the above written meat without bones, skin and nerves, that which has both fat and lean. Beat with a knife on the table, and add eight ounces of cut salt, and six ounces of sweet dried fennel, four ounces of pepper coarsely ground, one ounce of cinnamon ground, half an ounce of ground cloves and mix everything together well with the hands. Add four ounces of water and mint and marjoram chopped with a little thyme. Leave to rest in a wooden or ceramic pot for four hours in a cold place. Take the casing of this pig well washed of skin and soaked in warm water, and make of this mixture the mortatelle with the caul in the way one makes tomacelle. And during the winter let them rest two days in a dry place, then one cooks them on the grill or in a frying pan with liquid lard. One can also cook them on the spit between bay leaves, and the mortatelle may also be spitted along the length of sticks of rosemary. But in whatever way they are cooked, you want to serve them warm. Of the same mixture you can fill guts of pig, that first are cured in salt, and when they are full in winter you can let them sit for two days and then they must be boiled. Of the said meat lean, that has been well beaten you can also make cervellate with the caul or the guts, take for every ten pounds of the said meat one and a half pounds of grated parmeggiano, and one and a half ounces of ground cinnamon, another ounce and a half of peppper ground, an eighth of saffron, half a beker of cold water and three ounces of salt, and as it is mixed everything together one makes the said cervellatte with the caul or with the guts and one cooks in the above mentioned way. If one also wants to make tomacelle in the caul, add eight ounces of currants (dried grapes) and eight egg yolks, and the said tomacelle in winter are much better two days after being made. Of the mortatelle and other salami that one makes from the said meat I will not talk as it has never been my job/profession.(Translation by Louise Smithson)

I started with the redaction provided by Lady Avelyn Grene, but before I even started cooking, I *KNEW* I wanted more fennel.  The recipe called for 1 lb of pork, but the package I’d gotten was approximately 1.5 lbs, so I scaled most of the recipe accordingly.  However, I doubled up the fennel.  The Scappi recipe called for the sausages to be smoked to preserve them, but that was not an option for me, nor apparently for Lady Avelyn.  In her redaction she calls for Liquid Smoke for flavor.  I don’t normally use such a thing, and the Wrangler is not a big fan, so I decided to keep the amount the 1 lb of pork would call for.  The final changes came in the spice blend.  I was out of Mace and so substituted Nutmeg, and kept he level of clove unchanged, as I find it rather astringent.  I also substituted Grains of Paradise for the Black Pepper.   So after my tinkering, we had:

1.5 pound pork

1/4 cup minced fennel

1.5 tsp Ground Grains of Paradise

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp clove

3/8 tsp mace

1/4 tsp liquid smoke*

2 1/4 tsp water

I ground the pork with the fine plate, then mixed in the Fennel, Spices and Liquid Smoke as thoroughly as possible, then added the water.  During this, I had a 2 foot length of the casing soaking in hot water for about half an hour.  Once it was done soaking, I rinsed it with hot water, making sure, I rinsed the interior of the casing as well.

I assembled the sausage tube, and using a lower speed setting, worked the sausage mixture through the grinder, and into the casing.  I was quite happy that the casing did not break or split, but I did end up with a couple of air pockets due to my inexperience.  I was able to get the air out, by using a small pin to prick the casing.

The sausage had to sit for two days for the flavor to meld, so since we were going to an SCA event that weekend, Friday night I pulled out the links.  I braised them in water for about 20-30 minutes, then browned them in the fry pan.  I let them cool, then sliced them into pieces to take the next day.  Everyone that tried them thought that the flavor and texture were very good, the fennel was not overpowering, and the spice level was just right. 

So...   It’s time now to gather everything together and figure out what I have learned from this particular feast...  See each time I have run a feast, I have learned at least ONE important thing, and tried to move forward.  My first time at bat running a kitchen I learned that my job was not so much to *make* dishes, but to delegate the making of the dishes.  It’s a little counter intuitive when you’re the “Head Cook” but you really don’t do *much* cooking!

The second time I ran the kitchen, I learned I needed to think about the equipment I had on hand, and how I was going to prepare a dish.  For example, I had a LOT of dishes that were supposed to be cooked on the stove top.  However, we only had 4 burners, and it would have taken forever to do the dish!  So we had to cook a few of the dishes in the oven instead, to ensure thorough cooking in the time we had open to us...

This time around, our feast was twice as large as I had ever cooked for before.  This led to a number of issues I had not run into before!   Luckily, I had thought ahead, and in the 3 ring binder I was using for my feast notes, I added some notebook paper.  As things came up during the day, I wrote them down, so I could review them later.  So take aways?

1. Have another cook review the recipes.  There are 2 things I need to check..

a.  Are all the recipes scaled up appropriately?

b. Are redundant ingredients being used efficiently?

So here I find 2 errors that really got magnified by the numbers of the feast..  I scaled up some of the sauce recipes, and ended up with WAY more than I needed.  I probably could have cut it by a third...  The second boo boo was not  thinking about recipes that called for *parts* of an ingredient.  Specifically: we had a number of recipes that called for egg yolks, and several that needed whole eggs.  Instead of thinking that I could cut the need for eggs by subbing some of the egg whites for the whole eggs, I just bought one whole egg for each time the recipes called for an egg yolk, or egg white or whole egg.  I overpurchased eggs by quite a lot, and ended up wasting money.

2. Review the Feast notebook before I leave home to be sure ALL the recipes are printed!  

With the Souteniers, we have an excel recipe template we use, that standardizes the recipes into a modern format.  What I do (personally) is print off each recipe, place it in a sheet protector, and put them all in a 3 ring notebook.  What happened at this event is one of the recipes did not get printed at all, and one *was* printed off, but did not get placed in a sheet protector, and got lost in the paperwork in the notebook.  LUCKILY...  I did have backup on my tablet and was able to retrieve and hand write the recipes on notebook paper.  However, the custard sauce was NOT exactly the same one I’d typed in, so again, there was some waste of purchased ingredients.

3. Create a master list of all ingredients, and cross reference the dish they are in.

We always do an ingredient breakdown for the feast that we post on the door, so if you want to know if a certain dish has something you’re allergic to, you can check, if you have not contacted me prior to the event date.  But this list is unwieldy when you are asked: “What dishes do you need the Parmesan cheese for?”   At that point you have to scan the list dish by dish, and work out where this one ingredient belongs.  That is a pain.

As a corollary: use the master ingredient list as a packing check list, so you know it’s somewhere in the boxes of stuff.  Also, when you unpack, write down on the checklist WHERE the stuff has been unloaded to!  At this last event, we had a couple of refrigerators, and a multitude of folks unloading groceries.  Somehow about 3 or 4 bags of Parsnips ended up in a separate fridge from the others, so we were short on filling for the tarts...

4.  Check with the autocrat on who will provide water for the populace at the event.  

Since the hall was being used for A&S display, Court, a Baronial Meeting, etc, we had a TON of folks coming into the kitchen to ask for water, or ice. We finally had to lock the doors between the hall and kitchen so we did not have people underfoot.  Prior discussions with the Autocrat as to who was providing water coolers, and getting ice for the royals would have helped this IMMENSELY!

5.  Get the entire feast crew together in one meeting to review the recipes.

This was a big error on my part.  Since everyone was cooking a different dish, and I was coordinating, I could not be everywhere at once, and some dishes, like the Vermicelli, and Parsnip Pye ended up missing things.  I mean, we got LOTS of compliments on the feast, but I know things were not 100%.

6.  Discuss what garnishes that the decorating minion wants to use, so we don’t have to send folks off site for it.

Nuff said!!

Invariably when I am doing a feast, I tend to make a decision that later on looks *crazy*...  Last time, I made pasta by hand.  For 50.  And I mean, and hand crank pasta cutter....  (Lesson learned: Kitchen aid pasta attachment..)

This time, well, it was crepes.  200 crepes to be exact.  

How did this come about?  Well..  Back in November, I was having a get together here at “The Library”.  I made the meal, and everyone else brought a little something.  One of my dear friends is Gluten Intolerant, and the Pastry/Decorating Minion’s hubby can’t eat chocolate, so I was scrambling for a dessert option.  I made White Chocolate Mousse, since it fit all the parameters.  The Pastry Minion brought some Rice Flour Crepes, and we commented that since the feast was French, Crepes would be perfect.  

The Coffee Minion had in fact done crepes at an event before, but it had been many years ago, so we decided what the heck..  The Quince would be made into a filling, along with some apples to bulk out. Since I was not a TOTAL masochist, I made the executive decision to make the crepes offsite, and freeze them,  All in all, the plan worked out very well!  The Crepe recipes that follow were provided by the Pastry/Decor minion.  I am NOT sure of the proper attribution, but they are modern recipes.

Gluten Free Crepes:

1 2/3 Cups whole milk

3 large eggs

1/2tsp salt

1 Cup plus 3Tbsp white rice flour

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter (melted)

Blend everything,  when combined let rest (I am guessing about 2hrs in fridge). Cook in crepe pan hot enough to sizzle water drop.  Before pouring batter spread approx. ½ tsp butter with paper towel around bottom of crepe pan.   Makes about 12 crepes.

For these crepes, the rest time is crucial, since the rice flour tends to make them a bit puffier, and more pancake like.

Standard crepes:

1 ¾ Cup whole milk

4 Large Eggs

½ tsp salt

1 ½ Cups Flour

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter (melted)

Whizz milk, eggs, and salt in blender till mixed.   Add in flour and whizz till mixed.   Then add butter.   Let batter rest 5 min.   If still too thick add ½ Cup additional milk.   Note:  I have never needed the additional milk with this recipe.

Now when I was making the standard crepes in batches, I was working alone, so I developed an assembly line.  I made a single batch of batter and poured it into an 8 cup glass measuring cup.  I then made a second batch, that I left in the blender while I worked though the first.  When I was ready for the second batch, I poured it into the Measuring cup, and blended a third batch.  The batches that sat for more than a few minutes did need a bit more milk as it thickened up on standing, but otherwise, I did not feel that there was any need for additional milk.

As the crepes came out of the pan, we layered them with sheets of parchment between them.  When I completed a double batch, I wrapped the stacks in plastic wrap/cling film, and then put them in freezer bags for storage.  This method worked remarkably well and kept the crepes fresh.

The filling we did was a simple combination of the canned Quince, and sliced Granny Smith apples fried in butter, with fine spices.  Simple and quite yummy!

During the planning, E. suggested we perhaps make a Creme Anglaise to pour over the crepes, and then we realized that Vanilla was very post period.  We scratched our heads, and decided that we would use the syrup from the canned Quince to flavor the custard sauce.  O.M.G.  That was the most incredible solution.  The custard was beautifully creamy and not overly sweet.  The Honey and Star Anise from the syrup just made the custard sing!

1 Cup Cream

1 Cup Milk

1/3 cup Sugar

5 Egg Yolks

1 Tbs Quince syrup (See: How to Cook Quince)

Mix the yolks and sugar together.  In a saucepan heat the milk and cream to just under a boil, and remove it from the heat.  Take a tablespoon of the cream mixture, and whisk it into the eggs to temper them.  Slowly add the remaining cream until everything is well blended.  (Seriously.  Go SLOWLY.  If you rush, you’ll end up with very sweet scrambled eggs...)  Place the saucepan back on the heat, and bring the mixture to 170 degrees, or until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Do NOT allow the custard to boil!

Thought I’d forgotten to post the next course huh?  No such thing!   Been crazy at the day work, so I have not been too energetic when I get home in the evenings...

So the Third Course was relatively simple.  A Beef Roast in a sauce of leeks, Vermicelli, and Buttered Peas.

Beef always goes over big at our feasts, so we took basic chuck roasts, seared them on the grill, then roasted them off in tn.  The kick to this dish was the Leek Sauce:

To make the White Leek Sauce, have him who is charged with them get his leeks and chop them up small, wash them well and put them to boil. Then have him get a good chunk of salt pork back; clean it very well and put it with them to boil; and when they have boiled at length, take them out and put them on good clean wooden tables, and keep the bouillon in which they have boiled. There should be a good mortarful of white almonds; take the bouillon in which the leeks have boiled and draw out your almonds in it, and watch that it is not too salty. After that set your broth to boil in a good clean kettle. Then take two good clean knives and chop up your leeks, then take and grind them in the mortar; once they are ground, put them into your broth, made of equal quantities of almonds and water, half boiled. After they have boiled, when they get to the dressing table, place your meat in good dishes and then pour some of that leek broth over the top.

We liked the sauce as was, so we did not make any large changes to the redaction:

   3-4 cups beef broth 

3 leeks 

2 strips bacon 

1/2 cup almonds, ground 

water, as needed

Wash and chop leeks, discarding the green parts. Place in broth with bacon and bring to a boil. Simmer until leeks are tender and then strain, retaining both leeks and broth. Set leeks aside, discarding bacon if desired. Add almonds to broth and simmer until thick. Blend leeks in a food processor and return to broth. Add water to thin to desired consistency. Serve hot.

The Vermicelli...  Well that did not go quite as planned. 

The Bourbelier of Pork was a hearty dish, so we needed a needed some strong sides.  The Parsnip Pye was a great choice!  

The original recipe came from Overture de Cuisine:

To make a pie of fresh Parsnips. Take the parsnips well washed, & put them to boil until they are cooked, then take two or three chopped onions & fry in butter, a salted lemon in pieces, nutmeg, & pepper, a little chopped mint, & put all together in the pie, & butter enough.

Note it is necessary to cut the parsnips into pieces, when the pie is half cooked put therein a little Spanish wine.

The redaction was provided Daniel Myers at Medieval Cookery:

8 - 10 parsnips 

1 medium onion 

5 Tbsp. butter 

1/2 salt cured lemon *

1/4 tsp. nutmeg 

1/8 tsp. pepper 

1/4 cup sweet wine (Marsala) 

Peel parsnips, cut into large pieces, and remove any woody core. Put into a large pot of boiling water and cook until tender. Drain and set aside.

Cut onion into quarters and slice thinly. Fry in 2 tablespoons of butter until soft.

Rinse salt-preserved lemon discarding any pulp, and cut into thin slices.

Place parsnips in bottom pie crust. Cover evenly with onions and lemon. Sprinkle with nutmeg and pepper, and dot with remaining butter. Cover with top crust, cutting a small (about an inch) hole in the center. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F, pour wine into hole, and then bake for 20 more minutes.

In tests we decided that the preserved Lemons needed to be kicked up a bit more, so we increased the Lemon to 3/4, and we did not add the additional butter.  Since we used the Pate Brisee recipe for the pie crust, we felt there was enough butter.  

For the Vegetable we made a blanched broccoli, that wasthen sauteed on the flat top with garlic.  

At the end of the course we sent out Crystal Jellies as a palate cleanser.  The redaction is courtest of Baroness Elizabeth Cangeys the Ravenhaired and Baron Talun the B. ;)   :

1 1/2 oz unflavored gelatin (** when in doubt, go up in quantity - will set firmer**)

2 3/4 cups water, divided in half

2 3/4 cups red wine (young and fruity, like a zinfandel or a red table wine)

1 3/8 cups sugar

1 3/8 sticks cinnamon, broken into large chunks

1/3 oz fresh ginger, sliced 

Combine red wine, sugar, half the water, and the spices in a pot.  Bring to a full boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer 10 minutes to fully infuse the spice flavors, then bring back to a boil.  Sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining (cool) water and allow it to dissolve.  Strain the wine mixture to remove the spices and add it to the gelatin.  Stir well to mix.  Pour into a 9' x 13" pan and chill several hours to set.  We have had to freeze it for service for hot weather events.  Slice into 1" squares, makes about 9 dozen.  I like to dust with superfine sugar for service.

The second course was one of my favorites!  I adore pork roast, and the bite of vinegar, so the Boulieber of Pork in Spiced Sauce was A-Ma-Zing!  The recipe came from the Vivender, and it’s one that will be making an appearance on my home menu:

Put it into boiling water, remove it very soon, roast it, and baste it with a sauce made of spices (to wit, ginger, cassia, cloves, grains of paradise and some grilled bread soaked with wine, verjuice and vinegar). When it is cooked, [cut it into bits and boil] everything together. It should be clearish and black.

The redaction from The Medieval Kitchen:

2 Lbs of Pork 

2 Cups Red Wine

1 Cup Red Wine Vinegar

2/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar*

1/2 Cup Water*

1 Tsp Ginger

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1 Tsp Grains of Paradise

1/8 Tsp of Cloves

1 Tbs Sea Salt

Basting Sauce: Mix the Wine, Vinegar, Cider Vinegar and Cornstarch.  Place the meat on a shallow roasting pan, and cook 20-25 min per lb (425).  Using a branch of Rosemary as a brush, baste the meat with the wine mixture.

We went ahead and skipped the Rosemary “brush” and just used a silicone basting brush, and we cooked down some of the glaze so it thickened for a more concentrated flavor.  

So the big protein dish for the first course was Grave of Small Birds.   The original recipe basically looked to me like a proto-version of Coq au VIn.  The original recipe came from Du Fait du Cuisine.

19. And again a gravy of small birds and poultry: to give understanding to him who makes it, let him take about a thousand small birds and let these small birds be well plucked and carefully cleaned so that there remains neither feathers nor refuse; and take a hundred large poultry which are fair and clean, and let them be cut in half and cut into pieces, and one should make four pieces from each quarter, and wash them very well and cleanly with the small birds; and, being washed, put them to dry on fair, white, and clean boards. And take a great deal of lard and melt it in fair, large, and clean frying pans; and arrange that you have a fair and clean cauldron and put your small birds and poultry therein and strain your melted lard well and cleanly, then put it into the said cauldron over the said small birds and poultry. And take a great deal of bread according to the quantity of your meat and slice it into rounds and put it to roast on the grill until it is well browned; and have beef and mutton broth - and let it not be too salty - put in a fair and clean small cask, and put therein a great deal of clear wine; and when your bread is roasted put it to soak in the said cask of broth and clear wine. And take your spices: cinnamon, ginger, grains of paradise, pepper; minor spices: nutmeg, cloves, mace, galingale, and all spices - and let the said master be advised not to put to much in of anything, but have a temperate and sure hand in putting in that which it seems to him is necessary. And while he is straining his bread and his spices, let him have his meat sautéd over a fair clear fire; and let him have a man who stirs it constantly with a big slotted spoon so that it does not stick to the bottom and that it does not burn; and the said master in straining his bread and his spices should put while straining either a third or a half or what he has strained with his meat, so that the said meat will neither be spoiled nor burn, until he has strained all of it and put it into the said broth. And, being strained and set to boil, the said master should check and taste if it needs spices, vinegar, salt or something else and that it has too much of nothing; and do not wait until your meat is overcooked but draw it back over a few coals, at least until it is time to take it to the sideboard, and there, at the sideboard, it should be arranged in serving dishes well and properly.

The modern redaction is as follows:

1 Lb Chicken Thighs

1/2 Cup Red Wine

1/2 Cup Water

1/4 Cup Cooked Bacon

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Pepper

1/4 Tsp Ginger

Place all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer until done - about 20 minutes

Now here’s the thing...What works well at home, for 3-4 people, is NOT going to necessarily translate to cooking for nearly 100!  I mean we were looking at 40 lbs of chicken here!  And finding enough pots to cook that was going to be damn near impossible.  So  alterations were made to the cooking method.  First we used Chicken quarters since my butcher had them at a great price.  Then we seared them on the flat top in the kitchen, laid them out in hotel pans with the liquid and spices, and finished off the birds in the oven.  A third of the sauce was held back, and reduced so we had the heavy glaze that we drizzled on top.  

The whole process worked beautifully.  The chicken was cooked though, and falling off the bone!

The other period dish we did for this course was a Spinach Tart.  

This recipe came from Le Mangier de Paris:

TO MAKE A TART, take four handfuls of beet-leaves, two handfuls of parsley, one handful of chervil, a bit of turnip-top and two handfuls of spinach, and clean them and wash them in cold water, then chop very small: then grate two kinds of cheese, that is one mild and one medium, and then put eggs with it, yolk and white, and grate them in with the cheese; then put the herbs in the mortar and grind them up together, and also add to that some powdered spices.

The redaction came from Daniel Meyers at Medieval Cookery

1/2 pound spinach, washed and chopped 1/2 cup parsley 6 eggs 2 cups mozzarella, grated 1/2 cup parmesan, grated 1 tsp. chervil 1 tsp. fennel 1 tsp. powder fine

Wash spinach and parsley, and chop them well. Beat eggs in a large bowl, add greens and remaining ingredients, and mix well. Pour into pie crust and bake at 350°F until firm - about an hour.

Spinach Tart is crazy popular in our neck of the Woods (Kingdom of Atlantia FYI...)  so I really did not change too much around, and I like to have vegetarian options for folks (as long as they can do ovo/lacto dishes.)  Sadly I made 2 slight errors, so there were some changes.  In my haste, I forgot to pack the ground fennel, so we added more of the Powder Fine, and i miscalculated the amount of Parmesan I needed, so we only used a third of the what the redaction called for, and upped the Mozzarella to compensate.   

For the Pie Crust, I used a Pate Brisee recipe from the Medieval Kitchen.  I love this recipe as I have very *little* luck with pie crusts, and this one comes out beautifully,

9 Tbs Butter

1 3/4 Cups of Flour

1/3 Cup Water

1 Tsp Salt

Cut the butter into small pieces, and rub or cut it into the flour until it resembles sawdust.  Dissolve the salt into half of the water and add to the flour mixture.  Combine quickly with your fingertips, without overworking, until the dough comes together.  If neccesary add more water as required.  Form into a thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and leave to rest in the refrigerator at least 2 hours before using

Since I have a food processor available, we went ahead, and mixed the dough with that.  If you do go the Food Pro route, you really have to be sure that the butter is *VERY* cold.  The food processor will warm it up, and instead of nice sawdust texture when you add the flour, you will get paste, and the crust will not be flaky!  Also with this crust, it shrinks slightly when cooked, so make sure you have a slight overhang on the edges...

As a palate cleanser at the end of this course, we did an amazingly simple dish.  Lemons, sliced very thinly, sprinkled with sugar.  We did these fairly early in the day, and set the sugared lemon in the refrigerator to rest.  The results were amazing..  To quote a dear friend, it was like eating Lemonade.  

I figured I’d go ahead and run the recipes for the feast in order, so in the first course we had a “palate challenger” of Rique-Manger, 

The Rique-Manger was a dish I was truly excited about!  It is a sweet/savory combination of Apples and Eggs with a spice mix.  When I first found the recipe on Medieval Cookery I knew I wanted to try it in a feast, since it really embodied the interesting food combinations typical in period.  So the original recipe was from Le Manger de Paris:

Rique-Manger. Take two apples as big as two eggs or a little more and peel them, and take out the seeds, then chop in small pieces, then parboil in an iron skillet, then pour off the water, and let the rique-manger dry: then add butter for frying, and while frying and stirring, drip in two eggs; and when it is all cooked, throw on powdered spices, and saffron, and eat with bread during September. 

Redaction, kindly provided by Daniel Meyers was thus:

Peel, core, and slice apples, and Parboil them in water until just tender. Drain off the water and then fry them in butter. Remove from pan and set aside. Beat eggs and fry, adding apples back to the pan just before they're finished. Sprinkle with fine spice powder and saffron. Serve hot.

So I went ahead and ran the recipe as redacted.  I *wanted* to like it, but to me the ingredients were not blending together.  So I went back to the original recipe, and took note of a few things.  First off was the direction to chop the apples, not slice, which gives the dish a slightly different texture.  The original recipe also calls for the egg to be added to the apples, NOT adding the apple to the almost fully cooked eggs.  

On a second test, I went ahead, and corrected these things.  I also changed the apple type to a Granny Smith, which provided more flavor, and added the spice to the apples while frying.  The dish was better, but still not where I wanted it.  We ran a third test, and added some milk to the eggs, and it was much better.  

We decided this iteration would be how we ran the dish for feast, however in the bustle of the day, I made an accidental change to the preparation.  The morning of the feast, we peeled and cored all the apples for the dishes, and held them in lemon water until we were ready to cook.  The Rique-Manger were cooked at the very last minute to keep the eggs fresh, and in the rush, I forgot to parboil the apples.   I also added the spice to the eggs when frying.  Folks that had tried the third test stated that this was the best of all the changes...

So the final recipe becomes:

2 Apples

8 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1.5 tsp Powder Fine

Peel, core, and chop apples, and fry them in butter, adding a tsp of Fine Spices.  Beat eggs with the milk and Fine Spice, and pour into the pan with the apples.  Fry eggs until nearly dry. Sprinkle with fine spice powder and saffron. Serve hot.

Powder Fine Spice Blend

3 Tbs Ground Ginger

2 Tbs Sugar

1 1/2 Tbs Cinnamon

1 tsp Cloves

Well, in the spirit of keeping things handy...  I’ve decided to go ahead and post the recipes from Baronial Birthday, as well as some of my notes on the changes.  

The entire Menu is as follows: 

Starters: Bread* and Butters Salad Winter Squash Soup

First Course: Rique-Manger Grave of Small Birds Rice Buttered Peas

Second Course: Bourbelier of Pork in Spiced Sauce Parsnip Pye* Broccoli

Third Course: Rosated Beef with Leek Sauce Spinach Tart* Vermicelli*

Dessert Course Crepes* with Apple and Quince Crème Anglaise

So for full disclosure: I do NOT read French, Italian etc.  I did rely on translated recipes provided by The Medieval Cookery page, and the book The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi.  

The first recipe is the Winter Squash Soup.

This was originally included in : Maestro Martino’s book: Libro de arte coquinaria, and I had the translation from The Medieval Kitchen:

To Cook Squashes: Peel them as they should be, and then cook them with meat broth or water; add a little onion according to the quanity you want to make.  And when they seem cooked take them out and put them through a sieve or pound them very well; and cook them in a pot with rich broth and a little verjuice.  And they should be slightly yellow with saffron; and when they are cooked remove them from the fire and leave them a while to cool.  Then take egg yolks according to the quantity and beat them with a little aged cheese, and add them to the squash stirring constantly with the spoon so that they do not stick; dress your bowls and top with sweet spices.

The redaction from The Medieval Kitchen is as follows:

Peel and seed the pumpkin or squash, cut it into pieces and cook it together with the onion in a quart (liter) of salted water until very tender.  Drain and put through a food mill or puree in a food processor.  Return to the pan, add the broth and verjuice or vinegar, and bring to the boil. Crumble the saffron between your fingers and add it to the pan.  Beat the egg yolks together with the parmesan.  Remove the soup from the heat, then whisk in the egg yolk mixture.  Reheat over very low heat; be sure not to let the soup boil again at this point.  Sprinkle with the spice mixture and serve.      

We tested the recipe with a slight change to the instructions, using canned pumpkin puree, and honestly forgetting the onion.  I also made the conscious choice to omit the verjuice since we were using a LOT of vinegar and wine in other recipes and I did not want all the flavors running together.

 Needless to say, the soup tasted of very little.  Not even pumpkin!  We added more of the Sweet Spice mixture (Recipe at the end of the post.) and that seemed to help.  Previewing it for the rest of the guild at a cooking day, we decided we should try some slightly different spice, and looked for tarragon in my cupboard.  I did not have any, but I DID have Herbes de Provence, which added the needed zip.

The actual plan was to use Butternut squash for the soup, but during the shopping trip prior to the feast, I could not find sufficient quantities, so I went to the reliable, and used Canned Pumpkin.  We also made a decision to use a vegetarian broth base, with a chicken flavor, so we could increase the number of dishes available for vegetarian diners.

The soup was a HUGE hit, with one of my fellow cooks reporting her toddler granddaughter ate 3 bowls!  

So with the Changes the final recipe turns out like this:

1 can pumpkin puree

1 Cup Chicken Broth/Chicken flavored broth

1 Tsp Herbs de Provence

2 Tbs Parmesan Cheese

2 Egg Yolks

pinch of Saffron

1 Tsp Sweet Spices

In a saucepan, combine the Pumpkin Puree, Herbes de Provence and the broth  and bring to the boil. Crumble the saffron between your fingers and add it to the pan.  Beat the egg yolks together with the parmesan.  Remove the soup from the heat, then whisk in the egg yolk mixture.  Reheat over very low heat; be sure not to let the soup boil again at this point.  Sprinkle with the spice mixture and serve.      

Sweet Spices:

2 Rounded Tbs Ground Ginger

2 Rounded Tbs Ground Cinnamon

2 Heaping Tbs Powdered Bay Leaf

1 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves

Since the last post was getting photo heavy, I thought we’d break things up a little.

Bourbelier of Pork in a Spiced Sauce led off the second course.  I LOVED this, and it will probably go into my regular food rotation at home.  The pork loin is roasted and glazed with a Wine/Vinegar mix.  We added some pomegranate molasses for a kick, and it was a-ma-zing!!!  

The Parsnip Pye went out with this course, and it was really gorgeous.

We tried to do as much of the feast as Gluten friendly as possible, since we have a couple of folks that have issues.  (My rule for feast is if you call me ahead of time, I will make reasonable accommodations.)  For the Spinach Tart and Parsnip Pye, we pulled some ramekins, and used them to bake off the fillings.  The recipients were THRILLED that we could do something for them.

After the Pork, we sent out some Crystal Jellies as a palate cleanser

They are soooooo good.  The Jellies are made with spiced wine and gelatin.  Very firm, so it’s a finger jello.   E & T had redacted them some time ago, and the last time I had seen them was in 2005, at a Coronation, so I really wanted to do them again.  

The Third Course was a simple Beef Roast, with a Leek sauce, some sauteed Broccoli with Garlic, and Vermicelli.

Sadly we did make a bit a a mistake with the Vermicelli. The dish was supposed to have a beef broth, parmesan cheese and butter.  Well I miscalculated the amount of Base I needed for the Beef stock, and did not have enough, so I decided to just send out the noodles with  the butter and Cheese, not unlike Loyzens.  Becuase the dish was seriously last moment (so the pasta would not turn to paste) the parmesan did not get added, so all that was sent out were buttered noodles. :(

Luckily the dessert course made up for it!

Yes boys and girls, we did crepes!!!  We did rice crepes as a gluten friendly option, and regular crepes for everyone else.  We made 2/person, and made a few over, just in case we had tears, so 200 crepes.  

Yep.

200.

In one small pan.

Luckily I did do this in the week before the feast, so I had some time to complete and freeze them, but it was crazy.  Not as crazy as one of our guys that made crepes for 80 ONSITE, but yeah....

If you’ve read earlier entries, you’ll recall I found Quince in the grocery store back in November, and canned it.  I used the quince, along with apples for the filling of the crepes, and we made a custard sauce to finish it...

Oh. My. GOD.  The sauce...

Wow.  Tired, feet hurt, and worn right out, but totally thrilled with the Feast!  We did an amazing service.  Starters, soup, 3 protein courses and dessert...  It is so amazing how many medieval cookbook translations are out there on line!  I really want to start building up the library, so I can work on stuff before another feast!

So thanks to my dear friend Patrick, we have pics of the dishes we sent out!  First off came the Sugar Glass lanterns that our “Pretty/Pastry minion” put together.  For a first run, she broke up clear flavored candies, and melted them in the oven in a food grade putty mold.  The seams were held together with gum paste.

We did some basic bread, flavored butters, and salad.

The butters were Unsalted with Parsley or Dill.  (The Bunnies were a joke for our Baron, who spent an entire event teaching some of the little ones “Little Bunny Foo Foo....)

We went with a Winter Squash soup, which seemed to be *very* popular..  

We went used a commercial vegetable stock base for the broth, since we wanted the richness of chicken flavor, but we wanted more dishes available for vegetarians.  We also used Pumpkin, even though it’s a new world squash, since I had a hard time finding enough Butternut squash for 100 diners!

The surprise of the evening was the Rique Manger..  

  I was so unsure about adding this dish to the feast.  It was really a savory/sweet challenge, and I was afraid we’d end up with a TON of it sent back.  Amazingly, NO ONE sent any back!!  

The Grave of Small Birds was so good.  

My Protein Guy suggested we pull a third of the braising sauce and thicken it up to drizzle over the meat, and it really looks beautiful.  We did a simple rice in the oven with a little cinnamon for flavoring, and a Spinach Tart.

The Spinach tart is *really* popular around here, and I thought it was a good choice.  My Garnish Minion decided to float pie crust crowns on the tarts, and we made colored paints from Vodka and Luster Dust to gild the crowns.  

To clear everyone’s palates we did a simple Sugared Lemon.  Thin slices with sugar sprinkled over them.  One of the folks that has been playing in the Barony for many years said this was something they had done at feast many years ago, and it was like eating Lemonade.  Well I could not pass that up!!

Well friends, many apologies for my long absence.   The holidays had me running, and of COURSE I got a case of strep Christmas week... 

Feast is creeping up rapidly, and I am pretty excited for the menu!  I ran a test of the Wild Boar with Boulibier sauce.  I liked it a good deal.  It does have a hell of a vinegar tang, but that is one of my favorite flavor profiles...  Luckily Pork was on sale right after New Years, so I was able to stock up at a reasonable price.  

My butcher is running Chicken quarters at 0.99/lb, so the Chicken in Grave is a definite.  I think I’ll just be doing a simple beef roast for the final course, which is a bit pricey right now, but I’ve saved so much on the other proteins, I think I can afford it.

The interesting thing about cooking medieval recipes is doing things you never thought you’d do.  I was making a spice blend for a Winter Squash soup, and the blend in the original recipe called for a “leaf”.  In reading the notes, it seems that there is no sure consensus on what leaf is meant, so the authors decided to go with Bay Leaf.  So in order to make this edible, I had to grind bay leaves to a fine powder.  In my coffee grinder, since my spice grinder died...    Yeah.  New spice grinder will be purchased soon!  But I must say, the bay leaf had a very wonderful smell, and did not conflict with the Ginger, Cinnamon and clove, as I feared it would...