Sunday, December 11, 2011
Roast Chicken or Guniea Fowl
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Venyson Y-Bake, Mushroom Pasty, Paest Royall
Venyson Y - bake: Country of Orgin England 15th century
2 lbs of ground vension - due to cost of vension been in the 20.00 plus range per KG, I cut this down to 1 lb pound of ground vension and added 1 pound of ground lean beef.
1/2 lb bacon - because of the meat pie been so dry because of the vension and lean dry beef, it may be advisable to increase this amount to 1 lb, and use ground beef, not the lean beef version.
pepper, salt, ginger, grains of paradise (this is a spice that comes from the ginder plant, and has a tendency to be a pepper favor - to find one may have to go to a speciality spice store).
pie crust. It is list below for the recipt under Paest royal. However you may use the other crust provided just below.
Notation; To improve the favor of this meat pie, one may add garlic (crusted garlic - a couple of cloves, and as an option 1/8 cup of finely chopped onions)
200 gms flour
1 tsp of salt
100 grams of unsalted butter
pinch of saffron - this is optional as it is used more so to act as a coloring agent. If using buckwheat flour, the color will not be shown as buckwheel is a natural dark flour.
1 egg yolk, and ice water to add.
Sift flour, salt into bowl. Cut and chilled butter into flour choping into small pieces. With figures rub butter into flour, shaking bowl in intervals to bring up the lumps to the top. When completed the misture should look meanly, (breadcrumbs). Drop in eggyolks after making well in mixture, and add a few tablespoons of ice water. Mix together with butterknife. Mixture should start to form lumps, if it does not add ice water a little at a time until mixture does. Form into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap, refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour before using. Roll out on a flour board (you may use wax paper or parchment paper as this makes cleanup easier). Note use a chilled rolling pin. Mixture should make on small pie.
To make the coloring - place saffron in a glass measuring cup, and add a tablespoon of hot water to steep the saffron for a 1/2 hour. This will give you a yellow coloring agent.
In searching for the recipe over the web, I have found sources for the mentioning of this recipe used in courses removed (2nd course). web link http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/texts.cooks
The course removed is listed in "The Good Huswifes Jewell - Serving Courses; and is listed in the second removed which includes roasted lambe, roasted Capons, Roasted Coines, Chickens, Pehennes, Lart and Baked Vensison.
Mushroom pasty. In making of this pasty use commerical raised mushrooms as harvesting mushrooms in the wild can be the poisonous type, and some made even be deadly. The orginal main recipe comes from the Menagier de Paris, a French text from the end of the 14th century which is more than a cookbook. Menagier wasn't printed in its own time but several manuscripts were produced; the first been printed by Baron Hierome Pichon in 1846/47.
Modern adaptation:
2.5 cups of white mushrooms (fairly mushrooms) can use other mushrooms as a substitute which may enhance the favor. Please note: If you do not know which mushrooms are posionous do not go out a pick your own mushrooms, buy them from a reliable source.
3.5 ozs of firm Brie de Meaus or fresh goat cheese. As to where I live this cheese is very limited in supply and I used old chedder cheeze instead.
3.5 ozs of Gruyere (French not Swiss) or parmesan, Pecoring or Manchego. In my case I used parmesan.
2 Tsp of each - ginger, cinnamon, cloves, grains of paradise sugar and a
Pinch of salt.
2 slices of white bread, less crust and crumbled.
Dash of olive oil
Pastry pie crust - options on pie crust may vary from a full pie, to a open pie to closed pasty. If using pasties, use butter or grease for the mold be a release agent. In presenting this pie I used the Paest Royal. See below this recipe for recipe.
Peel and wash mushrooms if the hide of mushroom is tough and old, otherwise rinse under water to remove an foreign particals of matter. Cut off the end stalk and then halve, and keep cutting till chopped. A blender works really good for this task. Use a blender to crumble bread although it is optional, but helps to remove any excessive mositure from the mushrooms. Covering dough on bottom of pan with bread crumbs. If using Brie fopr the pasty, cut of the white crust before dicing the cheeze and if using goat cheese crumble it. Grate the gruyere, parmesan or manchego cheese.
Heat oil, sautee the mushrooms for a couple of minutes until mushrooms release moisture. Drain and pat dry with a clean paper towel to remove excess oil; let to cool. Add cheeses to mushrooms with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 355 F. Grease mold and with a sheet of pastry dough. Fill the cavity with mushroom stuffing. By your choice you can leave the pie open, or cover it with another sheet of dough. Place in middle of oven. Small pasties are usually done in12 to 15 min while large ones can take 30 to 40 minutes. When ready remove from oven and let cool for five minutes before demolding if using molds.
In making this recipe, I prefer to serve mushroom pasties hot. Makes about 12 servings.
It should be noted the pasties were the medieval food take out, and bought at a pastry bakery and could be eaten while on the road, or served as an extra dish a home. Pasties are a form of a small tart that had lids of dough.
Pasteideeg van Lancelot de Casteau
& faictes de la pafte de fine farine auec des oeufs & du beurre, vn peu d'eau, & que la pafte ne foit pasdure, puis battez bien la pafte vn quart d'heure, puis, faites des couuertures bien tennes & delies, & mettez deux l'vne fur l'autre, qu'il foit frotte' de beurre fondu entre deux, puis mettez ce deux couuertes en vne tortiere.
Modern translation
2 cups flour
1 egg
1 Tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter + 2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup water
Combine flour, salt: melt butter but make sure it does not change color. Stir in melted butter with water and egg. Kneal with flour and cover with plastic or a towel for 1/2 hour room temperature. Divide dough into two portions and roll each out into a thin sheet. Spread melted butter (2 Tbsp) on one sheet, cover with the other sheet. Note: roll out together if necessary pending thickness you may want and dress pie mould r springform with it.
Le Menagier de Paris
Translated: Mushrooms of one might be the best and they be little and red within and closed at the top: and they must be peeled and then washed in hot wate and parboiled and if you wish to put them in a pasty add oil, cheese and spice powder,
Power Eileen. The Goodman of Paris (Le Menagier of Paris), a Treaties on Moral and Domestic Ecomony by A citzen of Paris 1395. Translation Harcout, Brace and company 1928
Source: Le Menagier de Paris: The Medieval Cookbook, by Maggie Black published by British Museum Press (ISBN 0-7141-0583-X)
To improve on flavor one may add crushed garlic cloves to the mushrooms before playing in pasties.
Source: www. gocookery.com/goderee
Monday, October 10, 2011
Pie Crust
(Sabina Welserin)
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/pies-msg.html - general discussion of medieval pastry, with several recipes.
---The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy, Odile Redon et al, [University of Chicago Press:Chicago] 1998 (p. 133-4)
Pie crusts are listed with their receipe respectively below in Apple Pear Pies.
<http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/flour-msg.html>
Apple Pear Fruit Pies
Medieval Fruit Pies – Apple, Pear
specifically, Medieval Fruit
The wealthy nobles of the Middle Ages ate little fresh fruit and unprepared food of this variety and was viewed with some suspicion. Fruit was usually served in pies or was preserved in honey and fresh fruit was traditionally eaten by the poor. Little was known on nutrition and the Medieval diet of the rich Nobles lacked Vitamin C and fiber which led to an assortment of health problems from bad teeth, to skin diseases, scurvy and rickets!
Medieval Fruit availability
Wild and Exotic Medieval Fruit
The Portuguese claimed the honor of having introduced oranges from China. Raspberries were still completely wild and wood strawberries have been introduced into gardens in Medieval times. Apples was the only cultivated fruit, but their are other varieties that grew wild. Some wild fruits like pears, quinces, and peaches were served on a few medieval tables. Wild strawberries, raspberries, and red currants could be found in the woods. It was only Nobility that could afford exotic fruits such as dates. It is about the same date melons begin to appear and were watered them with honeyed or sweetened water.
The following fruits were available during the Medieval era, even though many were looked upon with sheer distain, especially by the Upper Classes. Below is a list of some of the fruit available during Medieval times of the Middle Ages:
PIES
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] (p. 602-3)
A fourteenth century apple pie
A. Redaction
From The Forme of Cury: XXVII For to make Tartys in Applis.
Tak gode Applys and gode Spycis and Figys and reysons and Perys and wan they are wel ybrayed colourd with Safron wel and do yt in a cofyn and yt forth to bake wel.
Modern Redaction:
Filling:
- 8 large Golden Delicious apples, if available Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and sliced
- 4 Bartlet pears peeled, cored and sliced
- ½ cup of raisins
- ½ cup of figs, sliced
- 2 tsp cinnamon,
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp cloves
- a pinch of saffron
- 2 cups of wheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup of butter
- ½ cup of milk
- egg yolks for glazing
Pinch off two thirds of the very warm dough. Reserve the remaining third for the lid, in a bowl with a cloth covering it. The amount that was made was used on and inch base, with sides approx. 2 to 3 inches high. Pat the dough into a circle. With knuckles, thumbs, palms, and any other means possible, mold the dough into a bowl shape or cylinder. Splay out the top edges slightly.
Roll the remaining dough into a circle. Flatten out into a ten inch circle. Cut a one-inch circle in the center. If you have any excess dough, use it to decorate the lid or sides with rosettes, leaves, vines, etc. Score the bottoms of these with a fork, and moisten, then attach to a scored section of the lid. When the pie has been filled, moisten the edges of the base. Put the lid on top. Pinch the edges together. Using a small knife or kitchen shears, cut small, inch deep cuts into the edges, making an even number, all around the edge. Fold every other "notch" down, to make a crenellated edge. Pinch the crenellations to ensure they stay down.
Mix all of the pie filing ingredients together. Pour into the pie shell and cover with the pie lid. Bake at 350º F for one hour. After one hour, glaze the pie shell with the egg yolk for a lovely golden brown color. Return to the oven for another twenty minutes.
A. Redaction
From A Propre new booke of Cokery: To make pies of grene apples.
Take your apples and pare them cleane and core theim as ye will a Quince then make your coffyne after this maner take a little faire water and halfe a disshe of butter and a little safron and set all this vpon a chafyngdisshe till it be hote then temper your flower with this vpon a chafyngdissh till it be hote then temper your floure with this said licour and the white of two egges and also make your coffyn and ceason your apples with Sinamon ginger and suger inough. Then put them into your coffyn and laie halfe a disshe of butter aboue them and close your coffyn and so bake them.
Modern Redaction:
Filling:
- 10 large Golden Delicious, peeled, cored and sliced
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- ½ cup of butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour – (or other types of flour)
- pinch of saffron (you may choose to leave out – as this is a coloring agent)
- 1 cup of water
- ½ cup of butter
- 2 egg whites
Mix all of the pie ingredients together, except the butter, and pour into the pie shell. Carefully place the butter on top of the apple mixture. Cover with the lid. Bake at 375º F for one hour.
<http://www2.gasou.edu/gsufl/sugar/sugar-b.htm>
Flandrin, Jean. “Seasoning, Cooking and Dietetics in the Late Middle Ages” from Food, a Culinary History, New York, 1999.
The Forme of Curye, facsimile. Friedman, David and Elizabeth Cook.
<http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/>
“Concerning Trees and Their Fruit”, 1988.
<http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/trees.html>
Gerard, John. Herball or generall historie of plants, 1594.
<http://rainweaver.com/Herbal_Guild/mandrake.html>
Herr-Gelatt, Lis, writing as Dame Aoife Finn. "Raising a Coffin or the Fine Art of Making Period Pies."
<http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/Period-Pies-art.html>
Hieatt, Constance and Butler, Sharon. editors and translators. Curye on Inglysch. England, 1985.
Matterer, James. “To make a Char de Crabb”, 1998.
<http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec77.html>
McDaniel, Amanda “Galen.” University of Virginia; 2003.
<http://hsc.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/antiqua/galen.htm>
A Propre new booke of Cokery, facsimile. James L. Matterer, trans.
<http://www.godecookery.com/trscript/trscript.html>
Redon, Odile, Francoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi. The Medieval Kitchen. Trans. Edward Schneider. Chicago, 1998.
Rumpolt, Marxen. Ein New Kochbuch, Germany, 1581. Grasse, M, translator.
<http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_ASappletart.htm>
Scully, D. Eleanor. Early French Cookery. Ann Arbor, 1995.
Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge, England. 1995.
Scully, Terence, trans. Cuoco Napoletano: The Neapolitan Recipe Collection. Ann Arbor, 2002.
Washington Apple Education Foundation, “Golden Delicious”
<http://www.bestapples.com/varieties/golden.html>
Various Authors. “Stefan’s Florilegium flour-msg”
<http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/flour-msg.html>
Valoise Armstrong (tr) Der Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin (1553). http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html
Luigi Ballerini (ed), Jeremy Parzen (tr) and Stefania Barzini (2005) The Eminent Maestro Martino of Como: The Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book. California Studies in Food and Culture, 14. Edited and with an Introduction by Luigi Ballerini, Translated and Annotated by Jeremy Parzen, and with Fifty Modernized Recipes by Stefania Barzini. http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9423.html
Catherine Francis Frere, ed. (1913) A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye (of the sixteenth century). In A collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks, 1991, Duke Cariadoc of the Bow.
Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, eds (1985). Curye on Inglysch: English culinary manuscripts of the fourteenth century (including the Form of Cury). London: Oxford UP.
Gervase Markham (1683) The English Housewife. Transcribed by Kirrily Robert, http://infotrope.net.sca/texts/english-housewife
Cindy Renfrow, 1991, Take a Thousand Eggs or More: A Collection of 15th Century Recipes, Volume 1, published privately
Terence Scully (1995) The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge: Boydell.
Comments in making the 14th century apple pie.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Farce Eggs (Deviled eggs)
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Glazed Carrots
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Two Roast a Kid (Goat)
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Boil Duck - Old Elizabethan Recipe
Ingredients
3 to 4 lb. duck (domestic will do fine)
dask of ginger, pepper, mace
Parley (fresh preferred but can be done with dry parsley)
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cup barberries - saskatoons can be used as a substitute if one cannot get barberries.
1 cup Merlot wine - substitute for Claret Wine which is a red wine from France used in the 16th century
2 medium cooking onions diced
1 Tbsp sugar - for period cookery use 1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp butter - do not substitute
salt to taste
Thickening agent (period - use breadcrumbs - otherwise a Tbsp of flour or cornstarch mixed in cold 1/4 cup cold water)
In preparing Boil duck I used the one for wild duck on a domestic duck and it works quite well. Place the duck on its back and parboil. Once water is boiling it should take about 1/2 hour to parboil - add with a dash of salt. Drain water and let stand in pot with opening down towards bottom of pot to remove any water. This method will remove any excess water from the cavity. At the same time in separate place diced onions and bring to boil till tender, than drain and let stand.
Place duck, back down with butter been applied to vent and neck hole in duck and place in roaster or in a stoneware clay pot with back down. Make sure there is a little water on bottom of rooster to prevent dry out. If you have a roosting rack that can be placed at the bottom of the roaster this will make it easier to remove the duck. Bake at 365 F until meat temperature is at least 70 C. Remove duck from roaster and carve into small bite size pieces and place into bowl and place aside.
Place juices from the roaster into a pot, add thickener to boiling juice ad wait till thicken. Place boil onions pieces, barberries, and spices within the gravy and simmer for a few minutes. Once gravy is cook add this sauce by pouring over the duck pieces in a serving bowl. Serve hot. Makes 6 servings.
For decorative serving, mix the gravy and the duck pieces together and serve in a traditional stoneware pipen dish, with cover lid. Stoneware will keep the heat, while one dines on this delightful dish. I will mention do not overcook, this dish, as it has a tendency to ruin the flavor.
This dish was used as an entry dish into the cookery selection for Golden Swan person development 2010 by Christiana Elizabeth Constable.