MAKKE (c. 1390)
Time for a peasant-style, medieval, midweek dish, because I'm no royal, and this is probably closer to what I'd be eating if I actually did go back in time. The historical dish from Tasting History I tried this past Thursday evening after work was Makke, a medieval peasant-style dish from England. While we don't know for sure that peasants ate this, because the recipe, c. 1390, is also sourced from the Forme of Cury (recipes used to feed the court of Richard II of England), it is one of the few dishes therein that doesn't use expensive herbs or spices and contains only a few easily-accessible ingredients for the average peasant. See Max’s video on how to make it here or see the ingredients and process at the end of this post, sourced from the Youtube description of the video.
My experience making it:
I made a change or two from the modern recipe below: I used white gigante/corona beans (Weiße Riesenbohnen, where I live) instead of fava or broad beans, because I couldn't find fava or broad beans readily, and the white beans would hopefully end up white, like the original recipe describes. Max mentions that the red wine listed in the original recipe would likely not have been used by peasants, as beer was closer to hand, so I also decided to use beer instead of red wine - specifically Gaffel Wiess. Gaffel Wiess is a top-fermented beer from the Cologne region of Germany; it is light, unfiltered, and naturally cloudy, much how I imagine a peasant's beer might be due to lack of modern filtration equipment. Until the mid-20th century, Wiess was the main drink of the people of Cologne, the forefather of the modern and popular Kölsch beer.
The process of making Makke was marvelously simple, making it perfect for a quick midweek meal. The recipe took me only 20 minutes (or less!) to make. Like Max mentioned, I added only half a cup of beer to the mashed beans at first, and added more until it was more of the consistency I was after - similar to mashed potatoes. I also needed to mix in a decent amount of salt in order to add a bit of flavour to the mixture (no fancy royal herbs allowed!). The onions fried up perfectly and added a much-needed colour dimension to the plain-looking dish. I was content that despite using a different type of bean, my Makke looked nearly identical to Max’s!
My experience tasting it:
Serving the Makke forth along with a garden salad, a bit of bread and butter, and the rest of the Gaffel Wiess beer, my husband and I tried the first bite with a bit of the onion, and we were quite happy with the flavour! I'm not sure if it was the mashed consistency (which reminded me of my favourite dish, mashed potatoes) or the crisp and sweet onions, but this dish was easy to inhale and spoon down pretty quick. Makke is in no way out of place in a modern diet, in my opinion. Sure, after a couple spoonfuls I may have added a little black pepper to give it some more bite, but the foundation of this dish is good. I will definitely make this dish again, although perhaps with the powers of a modern pantry, including all of the delightful herbs and spices that only a 16th century royal would have possessed. The fact that this dish is tasty and quick to prepare means that it is a great addition to our midweek meal repertoire. If you end up making it, if you liked it, or if you changed anything from the original recipe, do let me know!
Links to harder-to-find ingredients:
Fava/Broad beans
Makke original recipe (c. 1390)
Sourced from The Forme of Cury
How to make Makke Take drawen benes and seeth them well. Take them up of the water and cast them in a morter grynde them all to doust till thei be white as eny mylk. Chawf a little rede wyne, cast thereamong in the gryndyng, do therto salt, leshe it in disshes. Thenne take Oynouns and mynce them smale and seeth them in oile til they be al broun, and florissh the dishes therwith. And serve it forth.
Modern Recipe
Based on The Forme of Cury and Max Miller’s version in his Tasting History video.
Ingredients:
3 cups (450g) fava/broad beans (or any other bean)
1/2 cup - 1 cup (118 ml - 236 ml) red wine or ale
salt to taste
1 onion minced (white or yellow)
oil or butter for frying
water for boiling
Method:
Wash and boil the beans over a medium heat until soft.
Remove the beans from the water and mash them until smooth.
Warm the wine or ale over a low heat and mix with the beans. Start with 1/2 cup and add more to achieve desired consistency.
Mix in salt to bean mixture to taste.
Place a large pan over medium heat and add the butter or oil.
Add the minced onion and fry until golden brown, about 7-10 minutes.
When onions looking sufficiently brown, garnish onions on top of the beans.
Serve it forth.
