Eulalia Hath A Blogge

Pears in Confit (Original, Translation, and Recreation Notes)

2012-01-29T20:19:00.001-08:00

Original is from Curye on Inglysch, ed. Hieatt & Butler. Translation into modern English is my own.

Peeres in Confyt, Forme of Curye #136: "Take peeres and pare hem clene. Take gode rede wyne & mulberies, oþer saundres, and seeþ þe peeres þerin, & whan þei buth ysode, take hem vp. Make a syryp of wyne greke, oþer vernage, with blaunche powdur, oþer white sugur and powdour gynger, & do the peres þerin. Seeþ it a lytel & messe it forth."

Translation: Pears in Confit [Poached Pears]. Take pears and peel them ["pare them clean," I'm taking liberties a little by calling that "peeling"]. Take good red wine and mulberries or saunders [red sandalwood, a food coloring agent], and seethe [boil/simmer] the pears therein, and when they are seethed, [take the pears out of the liquid]. Make a syrup of Greek wine or "a strong, sweet Italian wine" [translation for "vernage" from the CoI glossary], with white powder, or sugar and powdered ginger, and do [put] the pears therein. Seethe it a little and mess it forth [serve it].

Recreation:

I peeled two bosc pears and cored them, but left the stems on because I think that makes for a nice presentation. I put them in a pot with a bottle of red wine and simmered them gently for 20 minutes, then turned them over (so they would be red all over) and poached them for another 20 minutes. At this point I removed the pears from the wine, strained the wine, and returned the wine to the pot. I added 1/4 cup of sugar and quite a lot of powdered ginger. I started by adding "just a little" and then decided that wasn't enough, so I kept adding "just a little more" until I had really lost track. For the quantities given, if you want to make this I would recommend using about a teaspoon of ginger (if you like ginger, less if you don't). I simmered the wine until the sugar was dissolved, put the pears back in, and simmered about 5 minutes. I served the pears in the wine.

Interpretive notes:

I took some liberties with this one. I omitted the saunders/mulberry completely, and I only used one type of wine for both the seething and the syrup that they are served in because I'm a cheapskate. I also think that I should have cooked the wine down (like a reduction) to get the "syrup" stated by the recipe. In fact, I still have half a pear and a lot of gingery, sweet wine left, so maybe I'll just do that. I used way to much ginger.

ETA: I boiled down the remaining sauce and it did make a lovely syrup, however this made the ginger predictably unbearable. I would recommend using maybe a half teaspoon of ginger for this recipe.

Verdict:

Did I mention how much to much ginger I used? BECAUSE THIS TASTED LIKE BURNING. But it was still really good. Better Half liked it, too, although she did comment that it needed vanilla (!)

Photos:

Pears ready to be poached.

Served -- notice that the sauce is thin. This is a mistake, and made hard to eat.

Cormarye (Original, Translation, and Notes on Recreation)

2012-01-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

Original is from Curye on Inglysch, ed. Hieatt & Butler. Translation into modern English is my own.

Cormarye, Forme of Cury #54: "Take colyaundre, caraway smale grounden, powdour of peper and garlec ygrounde, in rede wyne; medle alle þise togyder and salt it. Take loynes of pork rawe and fle of the skyn, and pryk it wel with a knyf, and lay it in the sawse. Roost it whan þou wilt, & kepe þat þat fallith þerfro in the rostyng and seeþ it in a possynet with faire broth, & serue it forth witþ þe roost anoon."

Translation: Cormarye [Pork Loin Roasted in Spiced Wine]. Take ground coriander and caraway, powder of pepper, and ground garlic, [and] red wine. Mix all these together and salt it. Take raw pork loins and flay off the skin, and prick it well with a knife, and lay it in the sauce. Roast it when you will, and keep that which falls off during the roasting and seethe [boil] it in a [pot] with fair [good] broth, and serve it [the sauce] with the roast.

Recreation:

I took a 1.5 lb pork loin roast and stabbed it all over with a carving fork. Then I ground equal parts (about 1/2 tsp each, perhaps a little more) cubebs (I still have no regular pepper), coriander, and caraway, and mixed this with a miniature bottle of red wine, about half a teaspoon of salt, and 3 minced garlic cloves. I put the pork and the sauce into a ceramic baking dish and into a 350 degree oven until the internal temperature measured 160 degrees (pork doesn't really need to be this hot). Removed the pork from the sauce, sliced it, boiled the sauce briefly (I didn't add any broth), poured the sauce over the pork, and served.

Interpretive notes:

Mostly noted above. The garlic really ought to be ground in a mortar, I assume garlic paste is more what the recipe intends than the small pieces I used.

Verdict:

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

Photos:

Pork after being stabbed repeatedly.

Sauce ingredients. Note adorable tiny wine -- I don't drink wine, so I buy these little bottles for cooking because then I don't have to waste an entire bottle of wine when all I need is 4 ounces. They're great!

Pork and sauce before roasting.

Pork and sauce after roasting.

Pork with boiled sauce, served. I smited hem unto gobbets.

Rapes in Pottage (Original, Translation, and Notes on Recreation)

2012-01-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

Original is from Curye on Inglysch, ed. Hieatt & Butler. Translation into modern English is my own.

Rapes in Pottage, Forme of Cury #7: Take rapus and make hem clene and waissh hem clene; quarter hem; parboile hem, take hem vp. Cast hem in a gode broth and seeþ hem; mynce oynouns and cast þerto safroun and salt, and messe it forth with powdour douce. In the self wise make of pasturnakes and skyrwittes."

Translation: Turnips in Pottage [stewed turnips]: Take turnips and make them clean [perhaps meaning peel them] and wash them clean; parboil them, then take them up [i.e. remove from the water used to parboil]. Cast [put] them in a good broth and seethe [boil] them; mince onions and cast thereto [add] saffron and salt, and mess it forth [serve it] with powder douce [sweet spice mixture]. In the same way make with parsnips/carrots* and ... [another root vegetable resembling parsnips*]. *Based on the glossary in CoI.

Recreation:

I washed and peeled two giant parsnips, then cut each into manageable pieces. I put them in a pot with just enough water to cover, and simmered them until tender (about 15 minutes). Taking liberties, I turned the cooking liquid into broth by adding beef bouillon base, then added one chopped onion, a generous pinch of saffron, and a generous pinch of salt. I simmered the mix another 15 minutes, until the onions were soft and most of the liquid had been absorbed. Just before serving, I sprinkled on a mix of sugar, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg.

Interpretive notes:

The only place where I really deviated from the original was on the broth. I used concentrated "soup base" where a medieval cook would have used freshly prepared broth. Meats were typically boiled (or simmered) in period, resulting in a constant supply of fresh broth (not stock) that may or may not have had any ingredients other than meat and water. Additionally, since most salted meats are simmered in several changes of water before being eaten, some of this liquid might have been used as broth. Basically, I don't think there's any such thing as a standard medieval broth. There are a few (a very few) recipes for broth, but in general it seems to me that broth was a byproduct of common cooking methods, and so was used in a variety of dishes as a matter of frugality (and because meat makes everything tasty). Sometimes broth is specified as being "rich" or even "fat." I don't know if this means most broth still included fat and you should always use rich broth or if when rich or fatty broth is not called for it means the broth being used was lean. For the modern medievalist, rich broth tastes better but lean broth is easier to come by.

Although the recipe implies the onions are added just before serving, I made the choice to cook them. Also, the recipe does not specify if the dish is to be served with intact pieces of parsnip in a broth, but in general pottage means glop. The liquid was basically gone by the end of cooking, and the parsnips were soft enough that they fell apart. I hastened their demise a little by stirring vigorously just prior to serving.

Verdict: Very tasty. This would be a perfect camping dish, it would be a simple thing to cook over the fire, and the ingredients don't have to be in the cooler (if you use shelf-stable broth).

Photos:

The peeled and chopped parsnips in water.

Flavoring agents: Onion, "broth," salt, saffron, and powder douce.

After adding flavoring agents.

Finished product. As you can see, I "smooshed" the parsnips a little to serve, which isn't necessarily stated in the recipe but doesn't seem counter-indicated, either.

This week's recipe Translations: Rapes in Pottage, Cormarye, and Peeres in Confyt

2012-01-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

All original recipes given (in italics) are out of Curye on Inglysch, ed. Hieatt & Butler. Translations into modern English are my own.

Rapes in Pottage, Forme of Cury #7: Take rapus and make hem clene and waissh hem clene; quarter hem; parboile hem, take hem vp. Cast hem in a gode broth and seeþ hem; mynce oynouns and cast þerto safroun and salt, and messe it forth with powdour douce. In the self wise make of pasturnakes and skyrwittes."

Translation: Turnips in Pottage [stewed turnips]: Take turnips and make them clean [perhaps meaning peel them] and wash them clean; parboil them, then take them up [i.e. remove from the water used to parboil]. Cast [put] them in a good broth and seethe [boil] them; mince onions and cast thereto [add] saffron and salt, and mess it forth [serve it] with powder douce [sweet spice mixture]. In the same way make with parsnips/carrots* and ... [another root vegetable resembling parsnips*].

*Based on the glossary in CoI.

Cormarye, Forme of Cury #54: "Take colyaundre, caraway smale grounden, powdour of peper and garlec ygrounde, in rede wyne; medle alle þise togyder and salt it. Take loynes of pork rawe and fle of the skyn, and pryk it wel with a knyf, and lay it in the sawse. Roost it whan þou wilt, & kepe þat þat fallith þerfro in the rostyng and seeþ it in a possynet with faire broth, & serue it forth witþ þe roost anoon."

Translation: Cormarye [Pork Loin Roasted in Spiced Wine]. Take ground coriander and caraway, powder of pepper, and ground garlic, [and] red wine. Mix all these together and salt it. Take raw pork loins and flay off the skin, and prick it well with a knife, and lay it in the sauce. Roast it when you will, and keep that which falls off during the roasting and seethe [boil] it in a [pot] with fair [good] broth, and serve it [the sauce] with the roast.

Peeres in Confyt, Forme of Curye #136: "Take peeres and pare hem clene. Take gode rede wyne & mulberies, oþer saundres, and seeþ þe peeres þerin, & whan þei buth ysode, take hem vp. Make a syryp of wyne greke, oþer vernage, with blaunche powdur, oþer white sugur and powdour gynger, & do the peres þerin. Seeþ it a lytel & messe it forth."

Translation: Pears in Confit [Poached Pears]. Take pears and peel them ["pare them clean," I'm taking liberties a little by calling that "peeling"]. Take good red wine and mulberries or saunders [red sandalwood, a food coloring agent], and seethe [boil/simmer] the pears therein, and when they are seethed, [take the pears out of the liquid]. Make a syrup of Greek wine or "a strong, sweet Italian wine" [translation for "vernage" from the CoI glossary], with white powder, or sugar and powdered ginger, and do [put] the pears therein. Seethe it a little and mess it forth [serve it].

END

Tomorrow I'll be preparing these. Look forward to one or more posts detailing my process and with some photos. I'll likely repeat the original recipes and the translations with each redaction so that I have everything all together, but I wanted to post these today to get myself thinking about them.

A simple dish: roasted pork loin with peach sauce

2012-01-26T21:11:00.001-08:00

At DMDT last summer, I made roasted pork loin with peach sauce; it was incredibly simple and incredibly tasty, and while not strictly 13th/14th century English, it works well as a tasty, crowd-pleasing, "justifiably period" dish.

To make it, I took whole pork loin (from Costco!) and par-boiled it at home for, IIRC, about 20 minutes or so. Once on site, I skewered the loin (now in two pieces for ease of maneuvering) using my gigantic iron skewers (pro tip: two skewers going through an object are better than one. If you put two skewers, parallel but spaced apart, you can FLIP the thing you are roasting and it won't flip itself to scorch one side and leave the other raw) and roasted it over a steady fire until the outside was nicely browned and the inside registered "safe."

While it roasted I prepared a basic peach sauce of peeled peaches, almond milk, sugar, and powdered ginger -- cook all ingredients in a pipkin, stirring periodically, until they form a thick "glop."

To serve, carve the pork into chops, salt it, and dress with the peach sauce. The parboiling technique is more historical, and will save you fuel and time over the fire (especially if you do it at home) and yields a much more moist end-product. The pork had a great crisp exterior (courtesy of the delicious fat on its outside!) and smoky flavor, which contrasts really well with the tart/sweet/spicy peach sauce.

I ate the leftovers on a long car trip that came just after this event and I have very fond memories of it -- it was even good cold!

A dysch yclepped cheseburgers

2012-01-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

I think there need to be some addenda to recipe 57 from the "anonymous 14th century collection" that I previously blogged about, namely "Yf you wysche to have cheseburgers, put thereto gode aged chese," and "Item: they are gode wyth baconne."

Of course, I firmly the believe that latter statement applies to all foods ever.

Peiouns Ystewed

2012-01-26T20:35:00.000-08:00

Translated from Curye on Inglysch MS IV (Forme of Cury) #49:

"Pigeons stewed. Take pigeons and stop (or stuff) them with peeled garlic and with hewed (minced/chopped) good herbs, and cook them in an earthen pot; cast thereto good broth and white grease, powder fort, saffron, verjuice & salt."

This is my new favorite recipe from last summer's event season. If you cannot get squab, I have used this technique to cook Cornish "game hens" (not a medieval food) and chickens, both of which were excellent. This yields tender, moist, and pleasantly flavored birds, and is easy to do over the fire for dinner. I just discovered that Whole Paycheck would be happy to sell me squabs, so I'll be doing this again next summer with the proper birds. This works either in a pipkin (as implied by the original) or a cast iron pot if you lack an earthen pot. I interpret the "ystewed" of the title to imply that the liquids are added at the beginning of cooking, but I suppose you could also interpret the recipe to imply that the birds are baked in the pot and the liquids added toward the end as almost a sauce. I recommend serving this with green sauce.

Technique notes:

Peel quite a number of garlic cloves (1-2 roses for 2 chickens), and chop parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, etc. (any poultry herbs). Stuff the cavities of your birds with the herbs and garlic, then put them into a pot. Add just enough broth to cover the bottom of the pot to a depth of maybe 1" or so, then a bit of vinegar. Add saffron, salt, and spices to taste (remember powder fort is strong spices, usually containing pepper, clove, cinnamon, ginger, cubeb, etc.). Cover and cook over a low fire for several hours, until the birds are tender.

To serve: remove from pot, carve, dress with the cooking liquid.

Got impatient and tasted the rowan mead

2012-01-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

I opened a bottle of rowan mead around Christmas, when my dad was here, and it's shaping up to be really, really tasty. It's pleasantly bitter, and very light and drinkable. I think it will get even better with further aging, as it will mellow more. I can taste the oak notes, too, which is kind of fun.

Goals

2012-01-16T20:12:00.001-08:00

Posting these here to remind myself:

-Finish a draft of the persona appropriate food project (PAFP) by Grand Thing
-Plan to teach a class based on PAFP at July Coronation
-Cook and blog about one period food each week (could be part of PAFP but doesn't have to be)
-Continue to get better at introducing myself to people who do neat things
-Do some demos
-Demand rematch with wilderness, ie Viking Trekking Round Two

A dysch yclepped hamburgers

2011-12-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

57. A dysch which is yclepped hamburgers. Take good beef & mince hem fine, then temper yt up with the hondes & yf you wish add yolkes of eroun to the flysche & a lytyl powdre pepir. Form the flysche into patys the size of a boy's hand & the thickness of a finger & do hem on an eren in the fire as for fysch. Take a manchet & split yt & toast yt on the same eren but see that yt does not burn. Take leues of letuys & washe hem & pike hem clene & cut an oygnion into slices. Then tak a paty when yt be done and put yt on the lower parte of the manchet & put thereto fair sauces & the leues & oygnion & pickled cowcumbers yf you have some & messe yt forthe with the toppe of the manchet etc.

Roo Broth

2011-12-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

From Curye on Inglysch, Part II, Diuersa Servisa (MS Bodleian Douce 257 (D) ff. 86-96):

"54. For to make a roo broth, tak persile & ysop & sauge, & hak yt smal. Boil | it in wyn & in water & a lytyl powdre of peper & messe yt forth."

This fall, Refr and I (and another friend) went in on the purchase of a farmed Eurasian Fallow Deer from Kookoolan Farms. I have been itching to make something medieval with some of the meat, and so I decided that I would find a suitable recipe for an event I'm attending tonight. I searched through Curye on Inglysch and settled on this elegantly simple recipe.

Recreation notes:

I skipped the hyssop, it's not easy to track down and I just wasn't up for the effort. To approximately a pound of venison stew meat, I added a small handful of parsley leaves (chopped fine) and the same amount of sage leaves (also chopped fine), a tiny bottle of red wine, the same quantity of water, and about a teaspoon (maybe more) of finely ground cubebs. I don't really like pepper, but Better Half does, so we usually have some on hand, but apparently the last time we ran out of pepper she replaced it with one of those festive mixes of black pepper, pink peppercorns, coriander, and... allspice. Unwilling to add a post-medieval spice, I decided that cubebs were a better option. (Feel free to have a chuckle at the fact that I have a grinder full of cubebs but not one full of black pepper.)

All ingredients when in a pot on a stove and were cooked at a gentle simmer until the broth had reduced and the venison was tender. For a modern palate, this would want salt.

Rowan mead started

2011-10-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Thoroughly boiled:

3 lbs honey
4.5 liters of water (approximately)

Added:
3.5 lbs sorbs (stems/leaves removed, thoroughly cleaned, ugly ones picked out)

Simmered very briefly, then turned off the heat, covered the pot, and let it all stand 24 hours.

Strained out the sorbs and transferred the must to a glass jar that I'm using as a primary fermenter. Dissolved half a packet of Cotes des Blancs (Red Star, dry) yeast in warm water, then added to the must. Covered loosely with a cloth, set it aside.

I'll check on it again this weekend; planning to rack it, let it sit, rack it again, barrel it, let it sit, then bottle it and let it sit. EXCITED!

Pears rampant

2011-10-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Prepared for TRM as a subtlety at Boar's Head Hunt, DM's baronial investiture feast:

Recipe source: Hieatt, Constance B. and Robin F. Jones. "Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii." Speculum vol. 61, issue 4 (Oct. 1986): 859-882.

Pear sauce: pears peeled, cooked in water, and mashed. Thickened with whole eggs and rice flour (original calls for wheat starch). The texture was, if I do say so myself, PERFECTLY smooth. I was so proud! This represented a serious achievement -- it was a difficult technique, and I pulled it off.

Pastry: did something similar to paest royall, using AP flour, WW pastry flour, butter, egg yolks, and saffron. Printed out stencils for the lions then cut them out basically free-hand using a paring knife. Small pieces of prune for the eyes (somehow didn't have currants on hand). Baked them.

Serving: would have been better on a more flat dish, but this is what I had. Reheated the pear sauce, put the lions on top. One lost his legs, so I made him "swimming."

Reception: Her Majesty seemed to find it quite charming!

Rowan Sorbs!

2011-10-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

I picked a giant pile of rowan sorbs over the weekend:

I'm super excited. I'm going to brew some mead with them, using a bit more honey than usual and planning to actually age it. The bitterness of the sorbs (and OH BABY they are bitter!) should age and mellow into something quite amazing. As an added bonus, I think I'll oak the brew for part of its life.

This combines everything great: foraging, persona-appropriate ingredients, fun projects, and BOOZE!

Cooking techniques in Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections, by frequency

2011-08-28T19:01:00.001-07:00

Count	Technique
37	Grind in a mortar
25	Color it
12	Mix together
11	Fry in grease or oil
10	Cut (into pieces)
9	Boil in water
8	Thicken (bread/wheat starch/eggs/almond milk/egg yolk)
7	Chop finely/mince/dice
6	Pastry or pasta dough (prepare)
6	Pastry cases
5	Scald or parboil
5	Sprinkle with sugar
4	Boil (or cook) in wine
4	Roast or bake
4	Strain or wring through a cloth
3	Allow to cool and/or set
3	Coat with egg
2	Blanch
2	Boil in broth
2	Brown on a griddle
2	Cook or "put it/them to cook"
2	Cover with grated cheese
2	Dry (for storage)
2	Hardboiled eggs
2	Peel or skin
2	Pour through a hole in a bowl ie funnel cake
2	Prepare sugar syrup
2	Put on a spit (for roasting)
2	Reheat or heat
2	Roll it out
1	Boil in almond milk
1	Cook using unslaked lime
1	Fry in a pan without oil (using egg yolk)
1	Juice (using a mortar)
1	Lard
1	Make a batter
1	Soak in water
1	Sprinkle with salt
1	Stuff
1	Stuff into a casing (a pig's stomach)
1	Soaked in almond milk
1	Cooked in wine and water

Persona-Appropriate Plants

2011-08-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

Plant remains (predominately seeds) found at six sites (Leicester, Chester, Upwich, Beverley, Newcastle, and Bristol) dating from the 11^th through 15^th centuries (after Moffett, “Archeology of Medieval Plant Food” in Food in England: Diet and Nutrition):

Grains/Legumes

Vegetables

Fruits

Other

Rivet wheat

Bread wheat

Wheat (type unspecified)

Barley

Rye

Common oat

Bean (fava/broad bean)

Pea

Leek

Onion

Brassicas

Fennel

Carrot

Garlic

Parsley

Dill

Celery

Mint

Beet

Garden orache

Sloe

Damson plum

Primitive plum

Sour/morello cherry

Wild cherry

Peach

Olive*

Fig

Grape

Bramble

Rosehip

Whitebeam

Hawthorn

Rowan

Pear

Apple

Quince

Bilberry

Gooseberry

Bramble

Strawberry

Wild service

Black mulberry

Dewberry

Raspberry

Opium poppy

Flax

Hazelnut

Walnut

Note: Newcastle assemblage is 13^th-15^th centuries; no other assemblage dated later than 14^th century. Many plants are found across multiple sites.

*Only found at Newcastle

Medieval Artistic Conventions

2011-08-28T07:56:00.001-07:00

I'm poking through digitized manuscripts looking for images related to food from the 13th century, and I happened across this image of God and the devil discussing job:

I feel like I could write a whole art history thesis on this. Notice how God is inside the initial and the devil is outside of it. There's marginalia for you! God is literally of the word while the devil is outside of the text. This was obviously intentional, they didn't add Satan as an afterthought. If you look at marginal art generally, it's typical for the "in text" illuminations to be sacred and the marginalia to be worldly; this image is kind of the epitome of that.

Anyway, I thought it was neat so I'm sharing.

Sectioned Shoes!

2011-08-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

Absolutely incredible resource for the would-be shoemaker! William de Wyke cut some of the shoes he's made in half and scanned them, allowing you to see construction details that would otherwise be invisible. Beautiful and educational! Wow!

What I made at and for An Tir / West War (an extremely overdue post!)

2011-08-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

I realized I never did a rundown of AWW! How sad! Since I've waited so long, this is now being reconstructed as best I can from memory. The Cooks' Playdate was, as always, magical. I spent every day cooking, nibbling on and making "play food" throughout the day and preparing things for the shared dinner.

Things I made in advance (mostly already described):

Salted lamb, following the process for Venison in CoI (wet brine followed by packing in salt)
Salted and smoked tongue, following process outlined in the Menagier
Dry-salted pork
Pickled mushrooms, following recipe in Digby. Shared these as "play food" and they were met with much approval.
Hedgehog springerle, not really following a documentable recipe. Given as "party favors" to the other cooks.
Brined and smoked beef tongue, using basically a modern brine. This was subsequently baked in a pie with dates, currants, spices, egg, and suet in a suet/hot water crust (that I couldn't get to fricking stand on it's own! rrr!), which was shared with all and sundry on Thursday night.
Small pies with a regular short-crust pastry and filling made of bacon, apples, onions, cheddar, and sage
Strawberry and rose petal mead. I took this with me to several parties and made a lot of friends!

What I made on site:

For fish Friday, I made "Solys in Bruet," sole grilled and served with a sauce of ale, bread, and spices. It was nom.
Gingerbrede. Turned out great cooked on the fire!
Cornish game hens (sooooo not period!) cooked following a recipe in CoI for pigeons. The birds are stuffed with peeled garlic and herbs then braised in broth. Really, really yummy.
Peach sauce loosely based on a recipe in De Nola.
My salted lamb, soaked and then cooked following the salted venison preparation in the Menagier (cooked in water and wine, liquid discarded, cooked again in wine with turnips and scallions).
Pine nut candy. I started out by following the instructions in CoI for pine nut taffy made from sugar, but my attempts failed miserably, likely due to a combination of technique (or lack thereof, ha!), not quite perfect equipment, and weather conditions. Eventually I gave up and cooked honey to the hard ball stage, added pine nuts, let the whole mess cool enough to handle, pulled it on an iron hook, rolled it into balls, and rolled the balls in sugar. It was delicious!
Bacon-wrapped dates, because I like them :)

I did not end up cooking either the salted tongue or my salted pork. Later when I got home, the salted pork smelled... stale. Not rotten, but like the fat had gone rancid. So I chucked it.

Everything I made was a big hit, which is always a humbling compliment when I'm with the serious foodie crowd! I was proud of myself and felt I did a nice job of representing for High Middle Ages English cuisine :) Doing more recipes from CoI was really fun, as was focusing on preservation. As always, I can't wait for next year...

VIKING TREKKING WOOO

2011-08-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, my friend Ref and I have been planning a "Viking Trek" for some months now. Using only historical gear (making exceptions for water purification and other safety considerations), we planned to hike in, camp one night, and hike out.

The preparations:

In addition to the kind of "normal" backpacking preparations like choosing a route and a destination, we also each prepared food and gear for ourselves. I was intending to do more of a "Celtic" trek, actually, since I've done more research into early Celtic food and I wanted to wear my adorable bog shoes and chiton. When it came down to it, I deferred to Ref on a lot of the gear research, and pretty much all of the practical how-to advice we found was geared toward black powder reenactment, so I don't know how confident I am that I actually did a Celtic trek, per se. At any rate, the things we needed fell into the basic categories of water, shelter, clothing, and food.

Water: I brought a modern bota bag as a substitute for an actual waterskin, and a SteriPen. I also tied a horn to my belt (it's like the Celtic Nalgene bottle!) and brought backup water purification tablets just in case.

Shelter: Ref made us two pieces of oilcloth by soaking cotton bedsheets in linseed oil and leaving them out to dry. Unfortunately, they didn't finish drying by the time the day of the trek came, so we didn't bring them with us. The weather was supposed to be fine and clear, so we just brought two wool blankets each and hoped for the best.

Clothing: I wore a linen underdress, a linen dress, and my bog shoes. I had meant to do some work on my shoes to make them a little less baggy in the toes, but didn't end up getting around to it. Just before setting off, I stuffed some pieces of rabbit fur into each shoe for extra cushioning/warmth. I also brought along both a wool tunic and a wool chiton/peplos for warmth at night. I also brought my Vibrams as emergency shoe backup, since they weigh very little.

Food: My goal here was lightweight, non-perishable, easy to pack and eat, plausibly authentic, and, because I am who I am, in line with my "primal" eating habits. My mom gave me some dried vegetables (cabbage and carrots), and I dried some kale and turnips, too. I purchased dried apples, blueberries, and prunes, and some hazelnuts. I also made beef jerky that was "cured" with honey and salt. I will admit I have not done much research into the history of jerky. The name is modern, however, and certainly in my medieval food research I have never come across a description of anything that sounds like jerky. More research is required. I packed all of my food in little linen bags, except for a bit of pasture butter that I wrapped in waxed paper and then in linen (since I didn't get around to making waxed linen like I'd wanted to). In terms of cooking/eating utensils, Ref brought a small cookpot and we each brought a spoon and a knife. Oh, and we brought our tinder kits, and Ref brought a hatchet for wood.

How it all turned out:

I spread out my blankets, laid my clothes on top of them, and put my supplies at one end. I folded the sides of the blankets in and rolled everything up. I secured it with rope, which turned out to be massively uncomfortable to carry and a leather strap is a necessity for next time.

The hike in went very well. My gear wasn't too heavy, my shoes worked out just fine, and it was a beautiful hike. The mosquitoes were a little annoying, though, but didn't bother us too much at first. There was actually quite a bit of snow still covering parts of the trail, but we crossed it with no problems. My little shoes worked admirably, although I was VERY glad for the rabbit fur. Hiking in, I felt mighty, and like I was accomplishing great things.

It turns out that Vikings and Celts are very tough, but can't handle vicious mosquitoes.

We reached our goal and found a great campsite, sat down to have snacks... and were instantly
blanketed in mosquitoes. They had been somewhat pesky while hiking in, but nothing compared to how bad they were at the lake. It was awful. We had to eat while walking around and using one hand to fend off the worst of them. I'm still certain I ate a few. Today I look like I have severe acne, or measles. Everything that was exposed is covered in bites, and I even discovered bites on my elbows, which were totally covered up.

After some discussion ("Aaaaaaa! Mosquitoes! AAAA!" "Do we really want to endure this for 9 more hours?"), we decided that discretion is the better part of valor and that staying with the bugs would be absolutely unbearable, so we hiked back to the car. Initially our plan was to go and find a regular campsite down at a lower elevation where the mosquitoes would be less prevalent, but the hike back took a lot out of both of us. Our feet hurt, Ref had tweaked his back, and I slowed to a snail's pace at the end and only made it out by sheer stubborn force of will. We were pretty well done in, so we called it a day. When I got back home, I lay face-down on the floor while the dog sniffed at me and Better Half offered limited sympathy.

But still, I actually had one of the best days ever. I learned a lot and really challenged myself mentally and physically, and totally want to do a primitive trek again.

The only thing that still seems totally weird to me is that not ONE single person that we encountered asked why we were in the woods dressed like Vikings. Keep Portland weird, I guess.

Salted Beef Tongue

2011-06-26T20:21:00.001-07:00

From the Menagier:

"To Salt Beef Tongues. In the right season for salting, take a quantity of beef tongues and parboil them a little, then take them out and skin them, then salt them one after another, and lay them in salt for eight days or ten, then hang them in the fireplace, leaving them there for the winter: then hang them in a dry place, for one year or two or three or four."

Process:

Cut gnarly parts off of one beef tongue and gave to dog. Parboiled tongue 20 minutes (at earlier stages, it was impossible to get the skin off; also, modern recipes gave this time), plunged into cold water, and peeled. The skin doesn't come off easily, used a knife to cut it off like peeling a potato. Covered completely in salt and left for 8 days. It was very, very dry, but still somewhat pliable. I don't really have a reasonable substitute for a long, slow smoke like this calls for, so I hot-smoked the tongue and am now letting it dry out.

This has been a really fun project so far, and I'm looking forward to cooking this at AWW (after soaking the salt back out, first, of course). Updates later!

Strawberry Rhodomel

2011-06-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

I knew I wanted to try some kind of variation on my favorite mead recipe (from Digby -- see earlier post here). I secured a half-flat of "jam grade" strawberries for a mere $5 today, so I decided to try my hand at flavoring a non-aged mead with fruit. I am likely courting disaster, but I don't think I care. I also "liberated" some wild rose petals, and decided to add those to the mix to make a perfectly seasonal brew. Here's the recipe and process so far:

Ingredients:
1 pint honey (pictured is one POUND of honey; you need between 1.5 and 2 lbs of honey to make a pint)
5 liters water (about 10.5 pints, original recipe is for 9 pints, I think Cariadoc's redaction calls for 11 pints)
3 pint-baskets strawberries, washed and trimmed
about a pint (maybe more?) of rose petals, washed well

Put honey and water into a large pot. Heat GENTLY and stir until honey is dissolved. Turn up heat and bring to a rolling boil (be careful not to let it boil over at this point). Skim off the foam that rises. Keep stirring, boiling, and skimming until the foam stops rising (anywhere from a few minutes to over half an hour depending on how raw and full of bee-goodies your honey is).

Mash the strawberries a little in a mortar, then add them to the pot. Simmer a few minutes. Add the rose petals and simmer a few minutes more, until the petals have lost most to all of their color. Let cool.

(I strained out the spent strawberries and petals at this point and transferred them to another pot with almond milk to turn them into pottage. I will either serve this as a sauce with baked chicken or actually cook some kind of meat in it. It still has a lot of strawberry and rose flavor, and is a lovely pink color.)

Next steps, not yet completed:

Transfer to whatever container you plan to ferment in (I use a 5 liter glass flip-top jar) straining out the chunks, let it cool to "blood heat" and add 1/2 tsp yeast.

Ferment 24 hours, then bottle. I will ferment 24 hours, oak for approximately 12 hours (maybe less), then bottle. Drinkable within a week after bottling. Serve chilled.

Updates as they come!

Projects for AWW: meat adventures continue and fun discoveries!

2011-06-22T21:47:00.000-07:00

My salted meats (lamb shank, beef tongue, and pork "country-style ribs") are proceeding well. Nothing smells bad, they are all somewhat leathery but not rock-hard, and enough liquid has leached out of them that the salt at the bottom of the containers is forming a liquid brine. As I discussed already, I think this is a difference between using a nonporous container and the barrels that would have been used historically. But my white oak barrel is a precious thing -- unless I find a ridiculously cheap yet still food-safe barrel, I'm going to have to substitute (like maybe making a simple oak box).

Speaking of my barrel, I'm going to try oaking a batch of mead for the war -- I'm doing the quick Digby recipe again. I'm excited!

Finally, I went through Cury on Inglysch tonight and found LOTS of recipes that I want to try for AWW. I think I'm going to focus on candy -- especially since there's a pynade recipe that is almost exactly a modern taffy recipe! Awesome! Tomorrow I think I'll post a rundown of all of the recipes I want to try.

Salted Lamb Update

2011-06-14T16:53:00.001-07:00

The wet brine is complete, and the pieces are now resting in a bowl and coated in salt. I was going to try to do the dry salting in the refrigerator, but it's too damp. So I'm taking the risk (ooooo) and doing it in my pantry.

They smell fine so far.

I'm not really sure what I want to do from here. The recipe implies put them in a barrel and leave them until you eat them. As previously mentioned, I don't have a barrel. Some modern salted meat instructions I've read recommend salting followed by hanging to dry, so I may try that. Or I may just put the lamb pieces and some pieces of pork in a large plastic food storage container, packed in salt, and store them that way until I take them to the War and eat them. That sounds like a pain to pack, though, so the idea of salting then drying (meaning I could transport just the meat in a cloth container and not a whole big thing of salt and meat) is very tempting.

Salted Lamb So Far

2011-06-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

Photos here.

Pickled Mushrooms: Photo-Essay

2011-06-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

See it here.

Food Preservation for An Tir / West War: In Progress!

2011-06-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

Pickled mushrooms -- both the mushrooms and the brine are cooked, now they are cooling. (Recipe says to combine them when both are cooled. Not sure why.)

Bought a lamb shank; have made first pass at brine. Egg test resulted in broken egg because brine was too hot. I am dumb. Luckily it just barely cracked and I fished it out right away so I didn't wreck the brine. Did taste-test the brine, it's VERY salty (much more so than the ocean :D), and I will wait until it cools then see if I can float an egg. If not... I guess I'll add more salt and try again.

Food Preservation for An Tir / West War, part 1

2011-06-09T09:09:00.001-07:00

For this year's foodie playdate, I want to reduce my reliance on the cooler. I think this is also a great excuse to try my hand at some period food preservation methods. For now, here's my brain dump of things I might want to try:

Various salted meat recipes, from the Menagier:

"Venison of Deer or Other Beast, If you wish to salt it in summer, it is appropriate to salt it in a wash-tub or bath, ground coarse salt, and after dry it in the sun. Haunch, that is the rump, which is salted, should be cooked first in water and wine for the first boiling to draw out the salt: and then throw out the water and wine, and after put to partly cook in a bouillon of meat and turnips, and serve in slices with some of the liquid in a dish and venison."

"In June and July, pieces of salted beef and mutton are good cooked in water and with scallions; salted from morning to evening or for a day or more."

"Item, at Besiers, from St. Andrew's day [November 30] which is before Christmas, sheep are salted in quarters, by rubbing well with salt, and rubbing again, and so on and so on, and then piling the quarters on top of each other for eight days and then putting in the fireplace."

"If you want to salt beef or sheep in winter, have coarse salt and dry it well in the pan, then grind it well, and salt."

"And note that in June and July mutton should be soaked, then salted."

"To Salt Beef Tongues. In the right season for salting, take a quantity of beef tongues and parboil them a little, then take them out and skin them, then salt them one after another, and lay them in salt for eight days or ten, then hang them in the fireplace, leaving them there for the winter: then hang them in a dry place, for one year or two or three or four."

Candied Orange Peels, which I've made before, but which are always fun (ibid):

"To Make Candied Orange Peel, divide the peel of one orange into five quarters and scrape with a knife to remove the white part inside, then put them to soak in good sweet water for nine days, and change the water every day; then cook them in good water just till boiling, and when this happens, spread them on a cloth and let them get thoroughly dry, then put them in a pot with enough honey to cover them, and boil on a low fire and skim, and when you believe the honey is cooked, (to test if it is cooked, have some water in a bowl, and let drip into this one drop of the honey, and if it spreads, it is not cooked; and if the drop of honey holds together in the water without spreading out, it is cooked;) and then you must remove your orange peel, and make one layer with it, and sprinkle with ginger powder, then another layer, and sprinkle etc., and so on; and leave it a month or more, then eat."

Selected bits from Hugh Plat's Delightes for Ladies:

"8. The most kindely way to preserve plums, cherries, gooseberries, &c.
You must first purchase some reasonable quantity of their owne juyce, with a gentle heat upon embers, in pewter dishes, dividing the juice still as it commeth in the strewing; then boile each fruit in his own juyce, with a convenient proportion of the best refined sugar. "

"29. To make gelly ouf Straw-berries, Mulberies, Raspberries, or any such tender fruit.
Take your berries, and grinde them in an Alabaster Mortar, with foure ounces of Sugar, and a quarter pint of faire water, and as much Rose-water: and so boil it in a posnet with a little peece of Isinglasse, and so let it run through a fine cloth into your boxes, and so you may keepe it all the yeere. "

"36. To preserve Cowcumbers all the yeere
You may take a gallon of faire water, and a pottle of verjuyce, and a pinte of bay salt, and a handfull of greene Fennel or Dill: boile it a little, and when it is cold put it into a barrell, and then put your Cowcumbers into that pickle, and you shall keepe them all the yeere. " (It's a dill pickle recipe! Awesome!)

Selected bits from Digby:

One of my favorite mead recipes, which I think I'll make to share at the war:

"WEAK HONEY-DRINK

Take nine pints of warm fountain water, and dissolve in it one pint of pure White-honey, by laving it therein, till it be dissolved. Then boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till all the scum be perfectly scummed off; and after that boil it a little longer, peradventure a quarter of an hour. In all it will require two or three hours boiling, so that at last one third part may be consumed. About a quarter of an hour before you cease boiling, and take it from the fire, put to it a little spoonful of cleansed and sliced Ginger; and almost half as much of the thin yellow rinde of Orange, when you are even ready to take it from the fire, so as the Orange boil only one walm in it. Then pour it into a well-glased strong deep great Gally-pot, and let it stand so, till it be almost cold, that it be scarce Luke-warm. Then put to it a little silver-spoonful of pure Ale-yest, and work it together with a Ladle to make it ferment: as soon as it beginneth to do so, cover it close with a fit cover, and put a thick dubbled woollen cloth about it. Cast all things so that this may be done when you are going to bed. Next morning when you rise, you will find the barm gathered all together in the middle; scum it clean off with a silver-spoon and a feather, and bottle up the Liquor, stopping it very close. It will be ready to drink in two or three days; but it will keep well a month or two. It will be from the first very quick and pleasant."

Quinces preserved in honey; it's not quince season, but maybe I'll try this in the fall:

"TO KEEP QUINCE ALL THE YEAR GOOD

Take all your least and worst Quinces, that are found, and cut them in pieces, with all the Corings and Parings you make; boil them more then an hour; then put the Quinces into this boiling liquor, and take them forth presently, not letting them boil, and lay them to cool one by one a part; then take the liquor and strain it; and put for every Gallon of liquor half a pint of honey; then boil it and scum it clean; let it be cold; and then put your Quinces into a pot or tub, that they be covered with the liquor, and stop it very close with your Paste."

"TO PICKLE CAPONS MY LADY PORTLAND'S WAY

Take two large fleshy Capons, not too fat; when you have draw'd and trussed them, lay them upon a Chafing-dish of Charcoal to singe them, turning them on all sides, till the hair and down be clean singed off. Then take three pounds of good Lard, and cut it into larding pieces, about the thickness of a two-peny cord, and Lard it well, but first season your bits of Lard, with half an Ounce of Pepper, and a handful of Salt, then bind each of them well over with Pack-thread, and have ready over the fire about two Gallons of Beef-broth, and put them in a little before it boileth; when Page 160they boil, and are clean skimmed, then put in some six Bay-leaves; a little bunch of Thyme; two ordinary Onions stuck full of Cloves, and Salt, if it be not Salt enough already for pickle; when it hath boiled about half an hour, put in another half Ounce of beaten White-Pepper, and a little after, put in a quart of White-wine; So let it boil, until it hath boiled in all an hour; and so let it lie in the pickle till you use it; which you may do the next day, or any time within a fortnight; in stead of broth you may use water, which is better; in case you do four or six, which of themselves will make the pickle strong enough. If you will keep them above four days, you must make the pickle sharp with Vinegar."

"TO BOIL SMOAKED FLESH

Mounsieur Overbec doth tell me, that when He boileth a Gambon of Bacon, or any salted flesh and hanged in the smoak (as Neats-tongues, Hung-beef, and Hogs-cheeks, &c.), He putteth into the Kettle of water to boil with them three or four handfuls of fleur de foin, (more or less according to the quantity of flesh and water,) tyed loosly in a bag of course-cloth. This maketh it much tenderer, shorter, mellower, and of a finer colour."

"PYES

I made good Pyes there with two Hares, a good Goose and (as much as the Goose is) the lean of fresh good Pork, all well hashed and seasoned; then larded with great Lardons well seasoned (first sprinkled with Vinegar and Wine) and covered with Bay-leaves, and sheets of Lard; then laid inpast, and baked.

I made also good Pyes of Red-Deer, larding well the lean, then laying under it a thick Plastron (or Cake of a Finger thick) of Beef-suet, first chapped small, and seasoned well with Pepper and Salt, then beaten into a Cake fit for the meat. And another such Cake upon the Deers-flesh, and so well baked in strong crust, and soaked two or three hours in the oven after it was baked enough, which required six good hours. If you use no Suet, put in Butter enough; as also, put in enough to fill the paste, after it is baked and half cold, by a hole made in the top, when it is near half baked."

This next one sounds like it's suggesting potted shrimp, which are wonderful little creatures:

"TO PREPARE SHRIMPS FOR DRESSING

When you will Butter Shrimps, first wash them well in warm Milk and Water equally mingled together, and let them soak a little in it; then wash them again in fresh Milk and Water warmed, letting them also soak therein a while. Do this twice or thrice with fresh Milk and Water. This will take away all the rankness and slimyness of them. Then Butter them, or prepare them for the table, as you think fit."

"PICKLED CHAMPIGNONS

Champignons are best, that grow upon gravelly dry rising Grounds. Gather them of the last nights growth; and to preserve them white, it is well to cast them into a pitcher of fair-water, as you gather them: But that is not absolutely necessary, if you will go about dressing them as soon as you come home. Cut the great ones into halves or quarters, seeing carefully there be no worms in them; and peel off their upper skin on the tops: the little ones, peel whole. As you peel them, throw them into a bason of fair-water, which preserves them white. Then put them into a pipkin or possnet of Copper (no Iron) and put a very little water to them, and a large proportion of Salt. If you have a pottle of Mushrooms, you may put to them ten or twelve spoonfuls of water, and two or three of Salt. Boil them with pretty quick-fire, and scum them well all the while, taking away a great deal of foulness, that will rise. They will shrink into a very little room. When they are sufficiently parboiled to be tender, and well cleansed of their scum, (which will be in about a quarter of an hour,) take them out, and put them into a Colander, that all the moisture may drain from them. In the mean time make your pickle thus: Take a quart of pure sharp white Wine Vinegar (elder-Vinegar is best) put two or three spoonfuls of whole Pepper to it, twenty or thirty Cloves, one Nutmeg quartered, two or three flakes of Mace, three Bay-leaves; (some like Limon-Thyme and Rose-mary; but then it must be a very little of each) boil all these together, till the Vinegar be well impregnated with the Ingredients, which will be in about half an hour. Then take it from the fire, and let it cool. When the pickle is quite cold, and the Mushrooms also quite cold, and drained from all moisture: put them into the Liquor (with all the Ingredients in it) which you must be sure, be enough to cover them. In ten or twelve days, they will have taken into them the full taste of the pickle, and will keep very good half a year. If you have much supernatant Liquor, you may parboil more Mushrooms next day, and put them to the first. If you have not gathered at once enough for a dressing, you may keep them all night in water to preserve them white, and gather more the next day, to joyn to them." (YESSSSSSSS)

"TO BAKE VENISON TO KEEP

After you have boned it, and cut away all the sinews, then season it with Pepper and Salt pretty high, and divide a Stag into four pots; then put about a pound of Butter upon the top of each pot, and cover it with Rye-past pretty thick. Your oven must be so hot, that after a whole night it maybe baked very tender, which is a great help to the keeping of it. And when you draw it, drain all the Liquor from it, and turn your pot upon a pie plate, with the bottom upwards, and so let it stand, until it is cold; Then wipe your pot, that no gravy remain therein, and then put your Venison into the same pot again; then have your Butter very well clarified, that there be no dross remaining; Then fill up your pot about two Inches above the meat with Butter, or else it will mould. And so the next day binde it up very close, with a piece of sheeps Leather so that no air can get in. After which you may keep it as long as you please.

Master Adrian May put's up His Venison in pots, to keep long, thus: Immediately as soon as He hath killed it, he seasoneth and baketh it as soon as He can, so that the flesh may never be cold. And this maketh that the fat runneth in among the lean, and is like calvered Salmon, and eats much more mellow and tender. But before the Deer be killed, he ought to be hunted and chafed as much as may be. Then seasoned and put in the oven before it be cold. Be sure to pour out all the gravy, that settleth to the bottom, under the flesh after the baking, before you put the Butter to it, that is to lie very thick upon the meat, to keep it all the year."

"TO PICKLE AN OLD FAT GOOSE

Cut it down the back, and take out all the bones; Lard it very well with green Bacon, and season it well with three quarters of an Ounce of Pepper; half an Ounce of Ginger; a quarter of an Ounce of Cloves, and Salt as you judge proportionable; a pint of white wine and some Butter. Put three or four Bay-leaves under the meat, and bake it with Brown-bread in an earthen pot close covered, and the edges of the cover closed with Paste. Let it stand three or four days in the pickle; then eat it cold with Vinegar."

Images of Street Vendors and Food Sellers

2011-04-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

I have begun the hunt for images of cookshops in medieval cities. I'd like to find English images, but that so far has not proven rewarding. More hunting is required. I also have so far not really found anything that I would classify as an image of an actual cookshop. I've found taverns, I've found butchers, I've found bakers, I've found hucksters with vegetables, I've even found some roving pie-sellers, but no other "fast food" images. This lack intrigues me, and makes me even more interested in finding something.

Here are the images of food sellers I have found:

Pie bakers (obviously my favorite category):

15th century German image of a movable oven -- roving pie-sellers!

15th (?) century German (?) bakers

Same source as previous, roving pie-bakers.

15th Century Italian pie-baker

Taverns:

13th century English image of a tavern

15th century tavern

Other food sellers (showing what shops looked like):

Baker, Tacuinum Sanitatis

Baker, Decameron

Cheese shop, Tacuinum Sanitatis

Wine merchant, Tacuinum Sanitatis

Pear seller, 15th century French

Vegetable seller, France, ca 1500

Fishwife, France, ca 1500

As noted, this is a work in progress, but I see a serious catalog of medieval images growing out of this...

As a Leo, I approve of this image

2011-04-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Check out this fantastic lion from a 12th century manuscript:

There is a 100% chance that I'm going to copy this and use it on something. Greeting card for my own personal use? Largesse? I don't know... but dang! I love this lion!

Street Food Handout

2011-04-17T18:34:00.001-07:00

Culinary symposium went well, and I've come back inspired to keep working on the street food research. I'd like to web my handout, but since I let my website disappear I don't know how exactly I plan to do that.

The current continuation of this project is hunting for images of commercial cooks and cookshops, with a special eye toward -- what else? -- pie sellers.

Culinary Symposium is almost here! Aaaa!

2011-04-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

Research for class is done. Handout is... not even started. Shhh, don't judge.

The question I'm wrestling with today is finalizing what food to make. I've planned all along to serve samples that are representative of the genre. My plan was to choose some things mentioned in my research (mostly things from contemporary literature) then find a contemporary recipe for same. I'd like to focus on things that are relatively easy to make and that are basically finger-food so I can minimize how much stuff I have to schlep and make it easier for my students to sample.

I am 100% making pie. That's a given! I have suet in the freezer still from another project, so I'm thinking standing-crust meat pies. Maybe chewets again? They are so flippin' cute!

Other foods mentioned in contemporary literature or that specifically had guilds active in London that I'm considering: mortreux, blankmanger, pescods/peascods, "risshes" (same as rissoles), and wafers. Here are my thoughts on each option...

I would like to make one or the other of the mortreux or the blankmange. Curye on Inglysch (which I like to abbreviate CoI) defines mortreux as "finely ground food in broth" and it's alternately interpreted as a stew or more like a pate. A few recipes in CoI, so a definite contender. The pate style lends itself to finger food. Disadvantage, I've never made it before. Blankmanger (many variant spellings) is rice cooked in almond milk with chicken. I've made it many times, it's yummy, it's easy, it's cheap, but it's not finger food and I've made it so many times that it bores me.

Two recipes for mortreux (#46 and #47) from Forme of Cury (in CoI) sound very interesting and imply pate rather than stew (this is my on the fly translation since I'm too lazy to try to type it using period spelling):

46: Mortrews. Take hens and pork and seethe them together. Take the liver of hens and of the pork and hew it small, and grind it all to dust; take grated bread and do thereto, and temper it with the same broth, and allay it with yolks of eggs and cast thereon powder fort. Boil it and do therein powder of ginger, sugar, saffron and salt, and look that it be standing, and flour it with powder ginger.

47: White mortrews. Take pork and hens and seethe them as before. Grind blanched almonds, and temper them up with the same broth, and allay the flesh with the [almond] milk and white rice flour; and boil it, and add powder of ginger, sugar and salt, and look that it be standing.

Sadly it's not the right season for pescods, however I suppose I could do frozen ones. They'd be simple, they'd be cheap... but I don't know how I'd serve them hot. Maybe bring something along to heat them up?

Rissoles are definitely finger food and are fairly straightforward, although I've actually never made them. I know there are recipes for them in CoI (and one is translated on Gode Cookery: http://www.godecookery.com/mtrans/mtrans13.htm). But frying things, especially in quantity, is the devil, and I would have to fry them in advance which would most likely make them nasty by the time I serve them.

Wafers have the advantage that I've made them before, but again, making them in advance might be gross. I could bring along the pizelle iron and make them hot during my class, which would have a wow factor and would be tasty, too. That's a serious consideration... They aren't really representative of the "poor people" food, but it could be fun. Hmm.

Well, so I'm not any closer to making a decision. Oh well!

Continuing street food research babbling

2011-03-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my street food project and I think I'm going to organize my handout by research strands: evidence from contemporary literature, archeological evidence, evidence from legal records / law, heraldic evidence (surnames -- like, for example, Piebakere :D), and evidence from cookery books (so, line up the types of prepared foods mentioned in these sources with the recipes available for evidence of what the foods may have been like). Maybe pictorial evidence, too -- I'm pretty sure there are some illuminations of cookshops and the like.

I may well end up expanding on these categories, but these seem to be where most of the stuff I'm finding naturally falls.

Sketching out research plans for street food class

2011-01-10T20:55:00.001-08:00

It's time to get serious about the research I want to do for Culinary Symposium. Here is a brain dump of where I am at now, modified from an email I just sent to my Laurel and to Ref:

I want to focus on prepared food in urban centers in
England during the High Middle Ages, so 12th-15th centuries: who ate
prepared food, why, and what kinds of foods were available. I have
found one great journal article covering basically exactly that, and
I'll try to track down its citations.

What I'm thinking in terms of research sources:

-Contemporary literature, although having never read either Piers
Plowman or Chaucer this might be biting off more than I can chew. I
suppose if I read modern translations I can rip through pretty
quickly, but does that diminish the value of this research?

-Archeological evidence. There seems to be some research into
prevalence of cooking / gardening space in urban centers, so I may be
reinventing the wheel here, but it seems promising.

-Census information or something similar. How do I demonstrate the
kinds of people living in towns?

-Maybe records of inherited goods? If people are passing down cooking
equipment, they are probably cooking. I think it would be interesting
to compare passing down goods in urban vs. rural communities.

Body to Goutte-y-licious ;)

2011-01-10T20:52:00.001-08:00

That's me being entered into the order of the Goutte de Sang on Saturday, An Tir's grant-level service award. I am stupidly proud of this :)

Photo stolen from Cara Dea da Fortuna.

12th night woo!

2011-01-06T20:35:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is 12th night!!!!!!!!!

I finished my shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sewing is done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Katrine helped me take in my cyclas, so I get to celebrate losing 35 pounds (okay, so I lost 40 and then gained back 5 -- boo face) this year by wearing the same outfit as last year! Wait... ha ha.

I made a shoe!

2010-11-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

It's definitely flawed, and it's just one, but I made it and I'm proud.

Pictures forthcoming when both are done :)

Uneventful milestone!

2010-11-24T22:49:00.000-08:00

The last post was number 300! WOW!

Clothing project rundown

2010-11-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

After the costume contest at 12th night last year I kind of took a break from serious costuming. In fact, I can think of only one thing that I've actually made since then. Part of this has stemmed from losing serious amounts of weight (36 pounds and counting) -- why make a bunch of stuff if I'm just going to ungrow it? But 12th night looms, I'm vain, the outfit I made for last year wasn't ever finished, I need better period shoes, and my lady needs new garb. So there you have it, I am once again doing some 12th night sewing. Here's what's on the menu:

For me:
-New shoes. These are cut out and tacked together, and I can't do the sewing until I get new thread (the waxed linen I have is huge and won't work), but I think they will be pretty straight forward. I've learned so much since I made that first pair! I'm excited to see if I can do better.
-Take in my cyclas. It was too big last year and it's WAY too big now. I might have to get some help on this project, but it will be nice to actually have this garment work. Since I only wore this once, it will feel like having brand new garb! :)

For Better Half:
-Brown apron dress (linen). This was sitting in the sewing closet cut out and pinned together already! I'm now almost done with it. I did French seams, simple embroidery on the top edge, and have finished the hem. All it needs are straps.
-Pink gown (linen). Not sure how I want to tackle this. I think she bought it intending to make an elbow-length, slightly short dress, but now wants a regular wrist-to-ankle dress. The cutting out step of sewing is also always the most overwhelming for me, so I'm procrastinating.

Better Half also needs some better hats, but I'm not sure how to tackle this. For a Manx persona, appropriate options include Viking caps (the coif-looking things) and huge drape-y veils in the Irish style. I'm tempted to just finish the edges on a big piece of lightweight linen-cotton I have and call it good. She also really wants one of those little six-panel hats -- that would be super easy, so I might go for that.

There you have it: sewing! whee!

Artsy Fartsy Photos

2010-11-13T07:32:00.000-08:00

Are here.

I'm not dead...

2010-11-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

But I started a new job (kind of suddenly - the whole situation reminds me of Tom's search for work in Pillars of the Earth: desperation leading to triumph!) and I've been swamped since the end of August. Here's what's happened since then, SCA-wise:

-Taught that Roman food class. Had a really good time teaching, thoroughly enjoyed the research, and found a few recipes that I liked enough to make again at home just for fun, namely almond-stuffed dates baked in honey and salt and a cucumber salad with mint. Both are Anne-tested and approved, too! :)

-Ran an event along with Geoffrey Albryght. We autocratted DM's "Artsy Fartsy" in mid-October, and it went quite well. Great entries in the A&S competition, great classes, yummy food, and good company. I genuinely enjoyed myself!

-Started sewing for 12th night. Anne is getting a new brown apron dress (which, thanks to the miracle of French seams and the fact that I cut it out a while ago is well on its way to being finished) and a pink gown. I will be re-wearing my outfit from last year (minus the hair net, which has died) but I need to take in the cyclas. It was too big when I made it AND I've lost 35 lbs since then (!!!).

Ongoing research: getting ready for medieval street food class at Culinary Symposium. This has been simmering on the back burner, but I think I'm going to get serious about it over Thanksgiving when I have some time off.

Next Food Class / Current Research Project

2010-08-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to step in and teach Roman food at Tryggvy's War. Ref was kind enough to lend me some books, so that's my evening reading for the week. For the class format I'm going to talk and hand out samples. I'd like to use the samples to illustrate not only Roman food specifically but some of the challenges of historical cooking. For example, working from secondary sources and translations, working with vague recipes, finding or substituting for bizarre ingredients, etc.

It should be a fun class!

The bookmarks I mentioned

2010-08-23T07:08:00.001-07:00

eulalia_bookmarks_dmdt2010
Originally uploaded by rafaella13

These are the illuminated bookmarks I made. The first three ("reading" from L-R) were made by me, the fourth by Janet Snowhill, and the last by my lady, Anne Midwinter. Photo by Rafaella.

DMDT Recap and Tonight's Oddball Project

2010-08-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

Back from DMDT, where I had a rather good time. I got some illuminated bookmarks finished and was able to present them to His Majesty for largesse (along with donations from other folks as well -- some very nice stuff!) and also finished a batch of hais that I provided for gate/parking volunteers. I think that period finger foods for volunteers is a cool idea, if I do say so myself, and one I want to repeat in the future.

In addition to being the supervising autocrat for the event, I also coordinated the A&S village. We had an informal all-day cooking demo staffed by Mestra Rafaella, Mestari Ref, still-somewhat-newbies Marcello and Cathy, Janet, a small gaggle of teens/kids, and my lady and myself. To be honest, I was in and out most of the day and only did a tiny bit of cooking (I made cheese gnocchi, which I thought were tasty). But while I was there I did get to answer some questions and talk to a few people, which is always good. Rafaella made yummy stuffed eggs, Marcello and Cathy made quite a number of tasty things mostly from Medieval Kitchen, Ref made waffles, Janet made bacon-dates and I think a few other things as well, and the teens/kids were mostly all-around helpful, pitching in with fire management, dog watching, prep, and cooking. Kudos to the youth of DM! The village got off to kind of a slow start, but by the afternoon we had a phenomenal turnout of people taking classes (kumihimo braiding taught by Mistress Arlys and Embellishment 101 by Geoffrey) and working on projects. Hooray! It seemed like people were really enjoying themselves, which makes me happy.

I also helped coordinate and judge the Dragon in any Medium contest. As always, this is basically impossible to judge, and there were lots of entries (all of them completely different from one another), making it even more challenging. We ended up awarding prizes for best youth entry (a gigantic poster drawn by two sisters), judges' choice (a noisemaker by Master Grendal), most period (Assisi stitch dragons by Mistress Arlys), and unique medium (a tattoo drawn by the entrant, whose name I am ashamed to admit I do not recall).

Now here I am home again, and I am reinvigorated for a couple of miscellaneous projects: I need to make a banner/flag that says A&S Village so that I can have better signage the next time I do this, and I want to have more period games to bring with me to events. So I'm making two very simple leather game boards (using permanent marker! so not medieval!), one for alquerque (my lady's favorite) and one for nine man's morris (which I am terrible at but want to learn). I think I'll also make myself a bag of some sort to hold all of my gaming stuff.

Result of Restlessness

2010-08-14T08:36:00.001-07:00

I made an illuminated bookmark. If I were thinking this through, I would have bought some simple paper and one of those Dover clip art collections and printed a bunch, charter-style. But I have no money and, as mentioned, don't feel like getting more supplies. So designing, drafting, drawing, and illuminating all from scratch, I produced only one bookmark. Hmm.

But it was fun and I think I'll make more!

Restlessness

2010-08-13T22:05:00.001-07:00

I want to make stuff, but I can't think of what to make. Not cooking, I want some handwork. But I'm not inspired. I think I'm in the mood for quick, easy, and utilitarian. Or something I can donate to largesse/prize cache/volunteer thank-yous. I've been incredibly self-critical lately, which I think is sucking the wind out of my sails; every time I start to make something, I convince myself it's going to be crap and I stop. I also don't have the money/motivation to buy materials, so it has to be something I can do with things around the house.

Any ideas? I was considering illuminated bookmarks or linen pouches.

Open Fire Cooking Class at Archery Academy

2010-08-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

It went very, very well! Master John Patten came along to co-teach with me (a last minute pleasant surprise), and I think we made a good team. All of the students were great, very into it, up for participating, and asking great questions. This is the third time I've taught this class, and I feel like I'm starting to get a good format down.

I started off the class by talking about why cooking with fire is awesome (it's authentic -- I've learned a lot about medieval food and cooking through fire cooking) and a basic overview (safety, charcoal vs wood, gear/equipment, cleanliness), with John chiming in throughout. Then he and I talked a lot about the mechanics of working with fire, like getting the fire going and keeping it going, etc. We also talked a lot about working with pottery.

The remainder of the class was audience participation cooking. John brought along some carrots for roasting and stuff to make wafers, and I led everyone in making these three recipes:

The first two are from Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks by Hieatt, Hosington, and Butler:

“77 Tartlettes Take pork ysode and grynd it small with safroun; medle it with ayren, and raisouns of courance, and powdour fort and salt, and make a foie of douwh(gh) and close the fars (th)erinne. Caste (th) tartletes in a panne with faire water boilyng and salt. Take of the clene flessh with out ayren and boile it in gode broth. Caste (th)er powdour douce and salt, adn messe teh tartletes in disshes and held the sewe (th)eronne.”

This is a recipe for pork dumplings with spices. You can make your own dough (ie a fresh pasta dough) or use pre-made dough, such as wonton wrappers.

My version:

1 lb boneless pork “country style” ribs, boiled and ground
1 egg
¼ cup currants
Spices: saffron, salt, powder fort (strong spices: generally a mix of pepper and cloves plus others, try a few mixes to see what you like)

Mix together ingredients and enclose in dough. Boil a few at a time and serve.

“36 Moserouns Florys In rost ysih hou gentiliche & sone. Veorst (th)ou schalt maken riht wel passen, & so(th)(th)en in water cold caste larde cold; make bringen & oneliche hewen; (th)enne nym sone (th)e musseruns, lardes coynteliche wi(th) larduns. Make as were vor to swerden & so(th)(th)en aske a god roste. Nou inoh is (th)e mes in rost, of ayren do awey (th)e qwyt. Sone on (th)e gredil riht veyre floris speces. Nym & caste gilofre & kanel; wi(th)ennen meddlen.”

This is a recipe for mushrooms grilled (or roasted) with “lardoons” and glazed with egg yolks and spices (clove and cinnamon). If you have a grill, prepare “kebabs” by alternating mushrooms and bacon on skewers. Grill until nearly done, brush with egg yolk, and sprinkle on spices. If you don’t have a grill, you can modify this recipe by wrapping a mushroom with bacon, putting it on the end of a skewer, and toasting like a marshmallow. Again, brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with spices.

This recipe translation comes from Redon et al's The Medieval Kitchen:

“2. Herb Soup Menestra of greens. Take Swiss chard leaves and a little borage; cook them in boiling clear water until the water comes back to the boil; then drain them and chop fine with a knife. And take a little parsley and raw mint and chop them along with the greens. Then pound everything in a mortar, and add to a pot with rich broth and boil briefly. If you like, you can add a little pepper.”

I tend the skip the parboiling step and have not yet managed to get my hands on borage. My recipe:

Chop the following finely:
1 bunch Swiss chard, ribs removed
1 bunch spinach, mustard, or other greens
Generous handful each mint and parsley

Put into a pot with:
32 ounces beef broth (I am partial to Pacific Foods brand)
2 slices bacon (optional, it makes the broth more rich)
Ground pepper to taste (I dislike pepper and often omit this)

Simmer until greens are soft. Optional: add a dash of vinegar before serving.

The mushrooms weren't quite perfect (wrapping in bacon didn't work, they would have been better as kebabs with alternating pieces of bacon and mushroom), but basically these were great recipes for the class -- quick, easy, and tasty. The tartlettes (really more like dumplings) were a particular hit. Anne really liked them, and I will definitely make them again.

After the class was officially over, John, Rafaella, Anne, and I kept on cooking.

All in all, a very good time.

Getting ready for open fire cooking class

2010-07-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching an open-fire cooking class at Archery Academy (not this weekend, but next), and I've been mulling over what I want to cook. I know I want to focus on working with period pottery, but I'd also like to highlight a few different techniques. What I'm thinking right now is something in the glop family cooked in a pipkin, spitted mushrooms, and... maybe something else, haven't decided if I want to do a 3rd dish. Maybe just the two. The glop is something simple for folks to recreate on their own, definitely the best way to get familiar with using pottery. The mushrooms will allow for audience participation, and will be somewhat modifiable (bacon per the original for the carnivorous, without for the meatless).

I'm going to try to go into detail about how to manage the fire, where to get equipment, and other logistic details. I'll have some information (mostly in the handout) about where to look for period recipes and how to learn more about historical cooking generally.

Yes, this is in a week and this is as far as I've gotten. Shh...

Even more about the salted beef

2010-07-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

I boiled the already-boiled beef another hour, this time in water with chopped up red onions (left over from the pasta salad my honey was making) and the texture was much improved -- much softer! It lost quite a bit of saltiness, though. I think that was from another change of water, and not from the further boiling.

My final take is that while it is pretty tasty, and fun as a lark, day in and day out it would get very depressing very fast. But! I will not let that stop me from continuing this project. See previous post for more of my thoughts on where to go from here.

Salted beef: success!

2010-07-29T20:00:00.001-07:00

Salted beef: cooked!
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

I survived! As Viking Food Guy pointed out, I kinda left y'all hanging after that last post ;)

I took the beef out of the dehydrator after between 2 and 3 hours, when it felt much stiffer than previously. The steaks also developed a lovely visible crust of salt on the outside, which you can see here. I cut one of the steaks up (see photo here) and noted that there was still visible moisture inside. So, I cut that one into small pieces (approximately 1" square), put half the pieces back into salt, and cooked the other half. More on that in a moment. The other steak went back into the dehydrator for another hour until it felt even harder, then I left it on the counter on a wire rack overnight. In the morning, it was rock hard and had developed even more of a crust of salt. (Note to self: photos of this one needed!)

For the parts I cooked, I put the pieces into a pot with a mix of water and wine (ration of about 2:1). The embarrassing part is the only wine I had in the house was a bottle of cheap white zin that I opened several weeks ago. Shaaaame! (I actually hate wine, except for one brand of white zin, which, the purist would counter, doesn't count because it isn't really wine. I digress.) I brought it to a low boil and then simmered it for 20 minutes. I tasted the liquid at this point, which was extremely salty. I drained the meat and rinsed it, then put it back in the pot with fresh water and wine (same quantity). I brought it back to a simmer and cooked for an hour.

The flavor was good, still pleasantly salty (I like salty food) and extra beef-y -- it was like the flavorgot more intense, more concentrated. I liked it. However, it was pretty tough; I think longer cooking might have been better.

BUT! I ate it and I'm alive! BOOYAH! MEAT WIN!

Next steps:

-I only ate two of the little pieces, I would like to cook the others another hour and see if they get more tender.
-Period recipes calling for salted meat or that would be yummy with salted meat. Will require some hunting.
-Because I like pirates, I'd like to try my hand at some plausible sea-rations (boiled peas with beef, etc.).

All of this has caused me to have one of those "Oh, duh." revelations: you know how period recipes almost never call for salt? Well, given the prevalence of salted meat in the medieval diet, it's likely that 1) salt wasn't really a necessary additive in many recipes and 2) there was actually something to be said for salt-free dishes, both for a change of pace and (possibly, now I'm speculating) to showcase the fact that fresh ingredients were used.

Salted meat update

2010-07-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

I decided that the meat has been in the salt way longer than long enough -- it's no longer undergoing any visible changes. However, it still isn't really dry enough, I think. There's support in the text for salting followed by drying (in the sun), so I pulled the steaks out of the salt, rubbed some more in just for good measure, and put them on a rack in my food dehydrator, which is now whirring away.

I don't think they will take long at all, and plan to check them about every hour this evening. I anticipate being able to take after photos soon!

Changed out the salt

2010-07-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

I decided the salt the meat was in was moist enough that changing it would probably be a good idea. It was about like wet sand. The meat is more leathery than before, dark all over. There's no smell at all, in fact it smells kind of nice. The old salt went down the drain and was replaced with new, the meat remains fully buried.

That was this morning. Already the new salt seems somewhat damp -- this makes me wonder if at this point it's drawing moisture from the air and not the meat... which kind of makes sense, I guess. Damn.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Thinking about cooler-free camping

2010-07-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

I just got a new beautiful wood cooler, but I also have just come back from a long event (An Tir / West War) where the burden of keeping the cooler cold was deeply frustrating. It's got me thinking about reducing my dependence on my cooler at events.

This is part of what got me interested in making salted meat -- I want to learn some more period preservation techniques. I can't imagine that my lady is ever going to go for this, though, so I think a more realistic approach is going to be to prepare more meals that rely on foods that don't really need refrigeration. I'm thinking this will mean more meals based on grains and dried peas/beans, dried fruit, maybe dried veggies, possibly pasta. Round this out with period flavors like almond milk, rose water, verjuice, and spices, plus onions/garlic, root vegetables, and hard cheeses, and it sounds like quite a yummy, and authentic, spread.

My thought right now is that I'll pick an event where I commit to trying this out, then report on how it goes.

There are quite a number of articles by SCAdians on the topic, here are a few of my favorites:

Camp Cooking Without a Cooler

More Cooler-Free Camp Cooking

Camping Without a Cooler

Cooking at War (without ice)

Camping Without a Cooler

Checked the salted beef

2010-07-20T17:15:00.001-07:00

It is much darker and feels somewhat leathery but still pliable. The salt feels slightly moist, but is definitely not saturated with liquid. I will probably not replace the salt, and I'll keep checking this every day or so.

Experiment: Salted Beef

2010-07-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

Janet Hinson's translation of the Menagier de Paris includes the following recipes for making salted meat:

"Venison of Deer or Other Beast, If you wish to salt it in summer, it is appropriate to salt it in a wash-tub or bath [footnote: There seem to be several words missing here, perhaps: with water and... This recipe is repeated further on in the chapter on Stews with Spices. (JP)], ground coarse salt, and after dry it in the sun. Haunch, that is the rump, which is salted, should be cooked first in water and wine for the first boiling to draw out the salt: and then throw out the water and wine, and after put to partly cook in a bouillon of meat and turnips, and serve in slices with some of the liquid in a dish and venison."

"In June and July, pieces of salted beef and mutton are good cooked in water and with scallions; salted from morning to evening or for a day or more."

"Item, at Besiers, from St. Andrew's day [November 30] which is before Christmas, sheep are salted in quarters, by rubbing well with salt, and rubbing again, and so on and so on, and then piling the quarters on top of each other for eight days and then putting in the fireplace."

"If you want to salt beef or sheep in winter, have coarse salt and dry it well in the pan, then grind it well, and salt."

"And note that in June and July mutton should be soaked, then salted."

"To Salt Beef Tongues. In the right season for salting, take a quantity of beef tongues and parboil them a little, then take them out and skin them, then salt them one after another, and lay them in salt for eight days or ten, then hang them in the fireplace, leaving them there for the winter: then hang them in a dry place, for one year or two or three or four."

"Item, if you want to salt mutton in hot weather, moisten beforehand, and sprinkle with coarse ground salt."

"And if you want to salt it [venison] in summer, you should put coarse salt to dissolve in water, then soak the venison in it, and after dry it in the sun."

Daniel Myers of Medieval Cookery has a nice page on making salted venison using the first of these recipes.

I have decided to try something similar using beef, as it is far easier for me to lay my hands on than either venison or mutton.

Process thus far:

I purchased a little over a pound of London broil (a cheap and uniform cut), rinsed and dried it, trimmed it, and cut it into steaks a little over 1/2" thick. I opted to use a "dry salting" technique, ie completely covering the meat in salt, rather than brining, as I decided it seemed simpler than trying to figure out the proportions of water to salt in a brine. So, I'm essentially following the instructions for salting mutton in hot weather.

Next I prepared a dish with a thick layer of salt. I am using Kosher salt -- sea salt would be the more authentic choice, but it is slightly more expensive and I needed serious quantities of salt. I laid the steaks on top of this layer of salt and then completely covered them with more salt. I put a cloth over the top of the dish and will let it sit for a day.

My plan is to change out the salt tomorrow night, monitor for several days, and then possibly dry in the dehydrator as a final precautionary measure.

Updates tomorrow.

Pictures are on my Flickr.

Persona Appropriate Food: Emeles

2010-07-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Original recipe:

"27. Emeles [almond cakes]. Here is a fritter which is called emeles. Take sugar, salt, almonds, and white bread, and grind them together; then add eggs; then grease or oil or butter, and take a spoon and brush them [i.e., the emeles, while they are frying] and then remove them and sprinkle them with dry sugar, etc."

Source: Hieatt and Jones, “Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii” in Speculum vol 61 #4 (Oct 1986)

What I did:

I interpreted this as a deep fried fritter, and as such made it with a gooey (rather than stiff) batter. I combined ground almonds (almond meal from Bob's Red Mill), a bit of salt, a bit more sugar, white bread (more on that), and an egg. I was in a hurry so I didn't stop for my favorite bread for period recipes which is the sourdough bread New Seasons makes. It's white flour / whole wheat flour mixed and leavened with sourdough but doesn't have the overly sour taste that most sourdough breads have. Instead I used grocery store French bread. I regret this choice: the bread was very soft, too soft to work with, really. I used my hands to mash up the bread with the almonds, sugar, and salt, then added an egg and kneaded the whole mix together. I added more bread when I thought the batter was too runny.

I formed the batter into small balls and deep fried them until just browned (actually I burned quite a few of them), then sprinkled them with sugar.

These were yummy, just sweet enough and with a mild nutty flavor.

What I'd like to do next time:

-Use better bread! More period and less unpleasant to work with.
-Blanch the almonds myself and grind them when fresh, with the bread, sugar, and salt. I think this would give almost a marzipan quality. It occurs to me that the recipe doesn't actually specify blanched almonds and I'm just adding that detail myself, but I think that with the skins would be weird.
-Maybe experiment with pan-frying (with a stiffer dough) in butter rather than deep frying in lard. The original recipe (or rather this translation of it) implies deep frying to me as I think that "brushing" with a spoon is about moving them around in the fat to ensure even frying, and sprinkling with more sugar works so well on foods that are hot and fresh out of the fat.

There you have it, my first post in what I hope will be a regular series: research, recipes, and notes in my continuing quest for persona-appropriate dishes.

Stupid things I intend to try, part one

2010-07-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Great description of making salted meat. I love the introductory notes, it reads exactly like my internal monologue.

Cooking party: Success!

2010-07-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here follows a report on a wondrous day of cooking, done by the hand of Lady Eulalia Piebakere. Today at the home of Mestra Rafaella d'Allemtejo a small band of intrepid cooks gathered to cook over the fire and generally cause minor mayhem. In addition to the two ladies already noted, also in attendance were Anne Midwinter, Master John Patten, and Mistress Sarrah Peller.

The main focus of the day was deep frying, as I had brought lard and an iron cauldron for the occasion. I prepared emeles, fritters of almonds, bread, sugar, salt, and egg. Master Patten used this batter to wrap a piece of plum, which was spectacular. We also made a kind of pipefarce by dipping pieces of cheese in egg and then rolling them in bread crumbs (to one batch we added fresh oregano) and deep frying them. These were marked as tasty by all in attendance, especially with the addition of some mustard sauce. Master Patten also deep fried some turnip I had brought, which met with mixed reviews (many in attendance have a low opinion of turnips generally, although one such did remark that as far as turnips went, it was better than most). We also roasted onions and made onion salad by slicing them and dressing with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and Rafaella's Duke's Powder II.

A fun day with good company and good food -- what could be better?

Menu for the day

2010-07-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

Here's what I'm cooking at Mestra Rafaella's house today:

-Emeles (see last post)
-Roasted mushrooms (from Pleyn Delit, I'll post the original recipe later today)
-An experiment: Lamb heart rolled in fat and spices. I stretched out a piece of leaf lard to make a nice netting, which I then covered in sugar, salt, mace, ginger, and cinnamon. I cut a lamb heart so that it could be flattened out, and I rolled it up in the fat and pinned it with toothpicks. I don't have any kind of a grill, so I'm going to have to punt on how to actually cook this.

A good quantity of lard has been rendered and is ready to go, and I've got my little bitty cauldron to fry in. Unfortunately, I don't have a slotted spoon of the right size to fit into said cauldron, so I'm not sure how I'll take out the fried goodies as I finish them.

I also made another loaf of maslin bread. This time I added more flour (so I had a stiffer dough) and kneaded the bejesus out of it. I let it work from yesterday afternoon to this morning, then baked it for 15 minutes at 400 and 30 minutes at 350. It puffed up a bit and the outside is quite brown. I'll cut into it today at the party, try to get some pictures, and post more later.

Deep fried goodness from "Two Anglo-Norman Cookbooks"

2010-07-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

This is all quoted directly from Hiett and Butler's translation, even the stuff in [brackets].

From MS A:

"2. White pancakes. Here is another dish, which is called white pancakes. Take best white flour and egg white and make batter, not too thick, and put in some wine; then take a bowl and make a hole in it; and then take butter, or oil, or grease; then put your four fingers in the batter to stir (?) it; take the batter and put it in the bowl [the improvised funnel] and pour it through the hole into the (hot) grease; make one pancake and then another, putting your finger int he opening of the bowl [to stop the flow of batter when enough has been poured for one pancake]; then sprinkle the pancakes with sugar, and serve with the 'oranges.'

"4. Mincebek [fritters]. Here is another dish, which is called mincebek. Take wheat starch and crumble it in a mortar; if you do not have any, take best white flour; and blend (the starch of flour) with almond milk or tepid water, and a little yeast or sourdough take a bowl and make a hole in it, and pour the mincebek through the hole into (hot) oil or grease; and then take sugar and boil up a syrup; immerse the mincebek in this, and sprinkle with salt, and then serve.

"14. Crosterole [parti-colored pastry cake]. Here is another dish, called crosterole. Take best white flour, eggs, and saffron, and make pastry, coloring half of the pastry and leaving the other half white; then roll it our on a table, until it is as thin as parchment and as round as a cake; make it in Lent, as well as in other times of the year, using almond milk [instead of eggs]; fry (the cakes) in oil.

"27. Emeles [almond cakes]. Here is a fritter which is called emeles. Take sugar, salt, almonds, and white bread, and grind them together; then add eggs; then grease or oil or butter, and take a spoon and brush them [i.e., the emeles, while they are frying] and then remove them and sprinkle them with dry sugar, etc."

I picked up several pounds of leaf lard from the farmers' market today so that I can do some deep frying tomorrow at my Laurel's "Not Going to Coronation Cooking Pity-Party." In the interest of cooking more things from this source (persona-contemporary!), I looked these up. Right now I'm leaning toward the emeles -- deep fried almond goodness? Nom nom nom!

Maslin loaf

2010-07-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

I got a wheat/rye starter going and baked a loaf with it tonight that, miraculously, turned out quite yummy. From my research, maslin bread (rye/wheat mixed) was very widely consumed in England during my period of interest (High Middle Ages). I didn't knead it much, let it work probably way too long, and didn't pay much attention to the process, but was still rewarded with an unbelievably tasty loaf of pleasantly tangy, moist, chewy bread with a crumb that was simultaneously dense and open. I took some pictures, too.

Process:

Combined equal parts of whole wheat and whole rye flour, added enough filtered water to get a runny "pancake batter" consistency. Let this sit until bubbly.

Added more flour and water to make a sponge, let it work overnight.

Reserved some sponge for starter. Kneaded in flour, added salt, until I had a slightly sticky dough. Let "rise".

Didn't attend to dough in timely fashion, too lazy to bake last night.

Decided to experiment: added more water and a little flour to make a new sponge, let work overnight. Kneaded in flour for a very wet dough. Let rise all day. Didn't rise much, decided to go with it anyway. (Note to self: rye doughs won't rise as much, genius.)

Heated oven to 450 degrees, with a pan of water and a terracotta flower pot tray inside. Transferred dough to tray (with parchment paper), baked for 10 minutes, turned heat down to 350, baked for 30 minutes.

Bread was very dark brown on top, pleasant knocking sound when tapped.

Let cool, got impatient, cut into it and ate some with butter.

Yum!

I think it's time to get scientific about bread baking again. I'd like to both master the process of baking bread and learn more about period bread.

Nice Resource

2010-07-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Early English Cookbooks.

Medieval Market Day 2010: Recipes

2010-06-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hedgehogs, 15th century English, by Eulalia Piebakere

Original recipe, translated by Kay the Innocent of Bel Anjou: “Take pigs stomachs and parboil them well; take ground pork and knead it with spicery [spices], with powdered ginger, and salt and sugar; put it in the stomach, but fill it not to full, then sew them with a fair thread and put them in a spit as men do pigs. Take blanched almonds and cut them long, small and sharp [sliver them], and fry them in grease and sugar. Take a little skewer and pierce the hedgehogs. And put in the hole the almonds, every hole half, & slice from other [every other hole??]. Lay them then to the fire, when they are roasted, glaze them, some with wheat flour and almond milk, some green, some black with blood, and let them not brown too much; & serve them forth.”

Medieval people loved decorative food such as the above recipe for a stuffed sausage that looks like a hedgehog. This is a modification of the original recipe that does not require a pig’s stomach.

1 pound ground meat (any combination of pork, beef, and/or lamb)
Spices: ¼ tsp each ground mace, ground ginger, ground pepper
½ tsp each salt and sugar
Blanched slivered almonds
Currants

Mix together meat and spices and form into approximately 2-inch-long “teardrop” shapes. Add almond spines and currant eyes. Bake at 350 degrees until brown, about 20 minutes. Best served hot.

Une Tourte (Greens Tart), 14th century French, by Eulalia Piebakere

Original recipe (translated by Janet Hinson): “To Make A Tart: take four handfuls of beet-leaves, two handfuls of parsley, one handful of chervil, a bit of turnip-top [note: I looked at the original and I think the word is fennel, not turnip] 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. Or in place of this have first ground up in the mortar two pieces of ginger, and over this grate your cheeses, eggs and herbs, and then throw in some grated old pressed cheese or some other such on to the herbs, and carry to the oven, and then make it into a tart and eat it hot.”

Crust for one 10” quiche pan
1 bunch beet greens or chard
1 bunch spinach
½ cup fresh parsley
¼ cup fresh chervil (if you can find it)
¼ cup fresh fennel leaves
5 eggs, well beaten
8 oz ricotta cheese
4 oz medium cheese (such as Comté), grated
2 tsp mixed powdered spices, I recommend a mix of pepper, ginger, and cinnamon
1 tsp salt
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (or other aged hard cheese)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash the greens and herbs, dry well, remove all stems, and chop very finely. Mix with eggs, first two cheeses, spices, and salt, and pour into your crust. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. Bake approximately 45 minutes. Serve warm.

Strawberry Pudding (or Strawberry Sauce), 13th century English, by Eulalia Piebakere

From “Manuscript A” (dating to the end of the 13th century) in Hieatt and Jones' “Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii,” in Speculum, vol. 61 #4 (Oct 1986): “17. Strawberry Pottage. Here is another dish, which is called strawberry pottage. Gather strawberries cleanly and grind them; then take almond or cow's milk and mix thoroughly; then add a little wastel [white] bread and some eggs, and thicken the mixture well; color it with saffron, and put whole strawberries on top.”

Fruit pottages like this one are quite common in medieval recipe collections, and typically take the form of fruit cooked in almond milk and thickened with bread, sometimes sweetened and spiced. The version below has been simplified and has honey; you might experiment with omitting the honey as suggested by the original.

3 pints strawberries, washed and with tops removed
1 pint unsweetened almond milk (store-bought or homemade)
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
½ cup honey

Put strawberries and almond milk into a large pot and cook gently for ~30 minutes or until berries are soft. Blend thoroughly with a stick blender. Add bread crumbs and blend again until consistency is uniform and smooth. Add honey and stir well, cooking a little more until mixture thickens.

Serve warm or cool as a dessert, or hot as a sauce for meat.

Sekanjabin

The Islamic world was a powerful force in the medieval era, producing numerous scholars and written works. Western cooks emulated the foods of the Islamic world, and medieval Islamic food is still delicious in its own right. This refreshing, non-alcoholic drink was enjoyed in medieval Persia and is still popular in modern Iran. Written reference for sekanjabin can be found from the 10th century, and a recipe (without the mint) appears in a 13th century recipe collection. This recipe is for the syrup – dilute with cold water to taste (typically 1 part syrup to 5-10 parts water).

4 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 cup red wine vinegar
2 large handfuls of fresh spearmint

Over high heat, dissolve the sugar in the water, stirring constantly, then boil for 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and boil for another 30 minutes. Add the mint, turn down the heat, and let simmer for approximately 3 minutes. Adapted from a recipe at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/drinks.html

Shrewsbury Cakes, 17th century English, by Elisabeth de Rossignol

Original recipe: “Take a quart of very fine flower, eight ounces of fine sugar beten and cersed, twelve ounces of sweete butter, a Nutmegge grated, two or three spoonefuls of damaske rose water, work all these together with your hands as hard as you can or the space of halfe an houre, then roule it in little round Cakes, about the thicknesse of three shillings one upon another, then take a silver Cup or glasse some four or three inches over, and cut the cakes in them, then stow some flower upon white papers & lay them upon them, and bake them in an Oven as hotte as for Manchet, set up your lid till you may tell a hundreth, then you shall see the white, if any of them rise up clap them downe with some cleane thing, and if your Oven be not too hot set up your lid againe, and in a quarter of an houre they will be baked enough, but in any case take heede your Oven be not too hot, for they must not looke browne but white, and so draw them foorth & lay them one upon another till they bee could, and you may keep them halfe a yeare the new baked are best.” (A Delightfull Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen by John Murrell, 1623)

This makes about two dozen small (2") round cookies. You may prefer to add a little salt. They are crispy and not very sweet.

2 cups flour
1/4 pound salted butter
4 ounces sugar
1 tsp rosewater
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350. Using mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the flour slowly with the mixer on low speed. Add the rose water and nutmeg. Add water by drops if the mixture seems too dry. Line baking sheets with baking parchment. Roll out the dough about 1/4" thick and cut into shapes. Place on lined baking sheets and bake for about 15 minutes. Watch them carefully the last few minutes to make sure they do not brown.

Strawberry Pudding

2010-06-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

See this entry for the source recipes.

I'm making this for the Beaverton Farmers Market demo this Saturday, and so I have tweaked the final recipe somewhat in an attempt to make it more palatable and more approachable for the thoroughly modern cook. (Horrifying and against everything I stand for, I know!)

1/2 flat local strawberries -- washed and tops cut off
1 quart unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze brand)
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup honey

Put strawberries and almond milk into a large pot and cook gently for ~30 minutes or until berries are soft. Blend thoroughly with a stick blender. Add bread crumbs and blend again until consistency is uniform and smooth. Add honey and stir well, cooking a little more until mixture thickens.

Decent as a stand-alone dessert, but would really sing as a sauce for meat (I think it would be extra nice with pork or maybe lamb).

Pretzels!

2010-06-06T17:42:00.001-07:00

I love pretzels, and have decided I totally want to do more research and experimentation with medieval pretzels. For a start, here's a 12th century picture of a pretzel:

Found on Wikipedia.

A bold plan: persona appropriate food weekly

2010-06-06T17:37:00.000-07:00

I've decided to try something out: every week, I'm going to research and prepare something "persona appropriate." This might take the form of cooking out of the late 13th/early 14th century recipe collection I keep referencing, or doing something a little more archeological/reconstructive (we know they had this, here's how I think it might have been). The idea is that I'll make something, take a picture of it, and do a brief writeup about it. This is kind of like an A&S 50 for AS 50 sort of project, I think, and a way for me to flex my research and cooking muscles formally.

Stay tuned.

Cooking play day!

2010-05-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful time at Mestra Rafaella's today cooking! We set up her dayshade over her back patio and got a fire going in my little fire pit. I made greens soup in my pipkin, which was a big hit. I used Swiss chard, red mustard, lots and lots of mint, flat-leaf parsley, Pacific Foods beef broth, a slice of bacon, and a bit of pepper. I really want to make this recipe again, it is most pleasing. I also put a lamb heart on the end of my cast iron fork and roasted it -- it was amazing! Once the fire was most of the way out I cooked some eggs in the ashes. They were a mixed success, but I think I'll keep experimenting as the idea is pretty cool.

We also did a bit of cooking indoors -- specifically I made pretzels. I've had a long stretch of bad luck with making bread which I'm trying to break. I made the dough from a mix of barley, rye, and spelt flours. Pretzels seem very likely as a medieval street food (note to self: do more pretzel research), and as such would most likely have been made from less expensive blends of flours. Also, I had a bunch of little bits of all of these types of flour on hand.

Last night I started the dough with a little bit of each type of flour, a small amount (1/2 tsp) of yeast, and enough water to make a sponge of approximately pancake batter consistency. I let this work until bubbly, then added more flour and kneaded a good long time to get a smooth dough. I let this rise overnight, then punched it down and brought it to Rafaella's where it sat around for many hours before I did anything to it. I shaped the pretzels by hand, let them rise a bit, then boiled them for about a minute or two ("a miserere"!) each. I baked them on top of my flower pot tray (that I use instead of a pizza stone) at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. I coated them in melted butter and sprinkled on salt, and served them with mustard sauce.

They got rave reviews from the other attendees, and this is definitely something I want to keep experimenting with. I think the key for me to have success with baking is to keep the house warmer, not be afraid to use commercial yeast rather than a starter (using a small amount and letting it work a long time like I did is fairly similar to a starter and more fool-proof), and be patient with myself. Many people spend years obsessing over perfect artisan bread at home, and what I'm trying to do (whole grain sourdough leavened loaves) is considered to be fairly advanced. It's okay if I don't get it worked out right away!

I'm just in a really happy place with my food research and experimentation right now, and it feels really good.

Source I have to track down

2010-05-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

Poking around the 'tubes today and found this blog post, my heart went a-patterin' when I read the reference to "Martha Carlin’s article, Fast Food and Urban Living Standards in Medieval England"

OMG, I so need to read this!

ETA: Hmm, I think I just found the full text online. BAM.

E(again)TA: Ooh! Ooh! Just found another related and very interesting article online.

Back on the air!!!!

2010-05-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

Recorded episode 2 of season 2 of The Lion's Road tonight! Further bulletins as they come, but for now... stay tuned! We're on iTunes (you can listen to old episodes now) and the new season goes on the air like any minute now.

Website: http://sonnetoptics.net/lionsroad

SO! EXCITED!

Lard!

2010-04-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

In the continuing saga of how much I love the meat manager at my New Seasons, I have 20 pounds of leaf lard in my refrigerator for the demo this weekend.

FOR. THE. WIN.

Mead: delicious!

2010-04-10T18:49:00.001-07:00

The mead from the last post was wonderful! We had it on Easter. It was sparkling, light, sweet, and tasty. I'd like to try some variants on the spices / flavoring agents, but overall, a wonderful treat. Better Half, who normally shuns the results of my brewing experiments, declared it awesome.

Now to keep experimenting with this base recipe, with the intent to work something up specifically for my class at Grand Thing.

Digby's mead

2010-04-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

I finally tried my hand at one of the classic mead recipes circulating amongst SCAdians, the Weak Honey Drink / Small Mead of Digby last weekend.

Ingredients:

1 pint of honey (I think I used raspberry honey)
9 pints of water (actually I think I lost count and did 10)
A little bit of fresh orange peel, orange part only
A bit of dried chipped ginger
1/2 tsp of baker's yeast

What I did:

I heated the honey and water together gently, stirring constantly, until the honey was fully dissolved. Then I brought it to a gentle boil and skimmed off the scum, continuing this process for a while (but not nearly as long as Digby suggests), basically until I started to get impatient and figured the liquid had reduced enough to fit into my 5-liter primary fermenter (a big glass jar). Then I added the orange peel and ginger and let it go a little longer.

I let the must cool down a bit and then transferred it to said large jar, straining out the bits as I did. I let it cool to "blood heat" (I actually even measured with a thermometer and everything, unusual for me), then added the yeast and gave it a stir.

I covered it with a cloth and put the lid over the cloth loosely and let it work for 24 hours. Then I siphoned the clear liquid into glass pint bottles, leaving behind the yeast sediment. This should have filled 6 pints easily but I could only find 5 clean bottles (fail!). Another alternative that I made use of a great deal in college would be 2 liter soda bottles, well cleaned with soap and warm water and then sanitized with a very light bleach solution.

I started it on Sunday, bottled it on Monday, and last night I transferred it to the refrigerator. I had meant to open a bottle today but kind of forgot, so I'll open one tomorrow. Updates to follow.

Cranberry mead bottled at last

2010-03-29T21:24:00.001-07:00

After much dithering and procrastination, I actually bottled the cranberry mead tonight. The final take was 5 pint bottles -- a very small amount, I suppose, but just right for me. It will be opened at Grand Thing. The bit that was left over is tasty though! Very sweet but not cloying.

At last: pictures of the pies!

2010-03-27T15:19:00.001-07:00

Two pies, baked
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

A complete set of the pie baking is now posted on my Flickr. Behold, the glory of chewets!

Best glop ever: now with photo!

2010-03-27T09:51:00.001-07:00

Best glop ever
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

You may remember reading a few posts back about the pottage I made in the slow cooker. Here is a photo of said, complete with wooden bowl and spoon and nifty tablecloth I just picked up (at Goodwill! FTW!)

Pies are in process!

2010-03-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

I'm taking lots of pictures! This is so exciting!

Recipe:

Crust:
Working from the suet pastry recipe in Beard's American Cookery, I separated the icky bits and as much of the connective stuff as I could from some suet, then chopped it as fine as I could. In the food processor I mixed 1 cup of suet with 1 cup of AP flour and 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour and a teaspoon of salt until utterly blended. I then added cold water a bit at a time, pulsing, until I had a fairly wet dough. I chilled it and let it rest.

Filling:

Lamb (I think an arm chop) and beef (stew meat), ~1/2 lb each

Chop fine or mince (I used the food processor on the beef and chopped the lamb; the food processor yielded too fine a mince even with only short processing). Put in a small pan with just a bit of water and cook on moderate heat, covered, until the meat is thoroughly cooked. (Add more water if necessary.)

Transfer the meat and the cooking liquid to a large bowl and stir in:
1/4 cup dried cherries -- chopped up
1/8 cup currants (the raisin kind)
About a tablespoon suet, marrow, or both (I used the marrow from the lamb bone and the rest suet)
Salt and spices to taste -- I used about 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp each ginger and mace, 1 pod of long pepper (grated), and a pinch of saffron

Raise cases, fill.

Haven't baked them yet but will do 350 for 45 minutes and see how they look. Am baking them on a ceramic baking dish (pizza stone might be a better choice).

New Seasons: Best Grocery Store Ever!

2010-03-06T18:27:00.000-08:00

In my weekly trip to purchase extravagant meat products for the dog, I had a wonderful conversation with the assistant meat manager at my local New Seasons Market. Let me start by saying that this is not some kind of paid advertisement, but I absolutely LOVE this store, and this trip today is exactly why. I wanted to order some leaf lard, which the "meat dude" (as I call him) had never heard of; this is a rare occurrence, normally they are not only knowledgeable but down to order me just about anything (see for example Gertrude, the Ill-Fated Pig Head). We talked about what I was going to do with the lard (make medieval pies!) and he said that he thought normally the crust for that kind of raised-crust pie is made with suet.

"Oh!" I said, "Well, can I order suet?"

To which he replied, "I have some in the freezer, let me go get it."

So I brought home some suet to experiment with. Apparently, you don't even render it, you just grate it up and mix it into a crust. Further bulletins as I experiment (I may try both hot water and cold water as I am not sure which is proper; I'll also be consulting both Clarissa Dickson Wright and James Beard).

But that wasn't all! In the course of this conversation, he also told me that if I call ahead they can do coarse-ground beef for me, which he thinks (and I agree!) would be a very appropriate "mince" texture without me having to do all the knife-work! This is fantastic!

I expressed my gratitude, and also told him that I always talk up New Seasons when I teach medieval food classes. They really do rock my world, especially the meat department. They've made my foodie-ism possible, and for that I think they deserve praise. They also reflect my values, and make shopping for food in line with my beliefs easy. I'm happy they exist. If you're in the Portland area and haven't already, give them a look some time.

Inspired

2010-03-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

I just have to make a raised-crust pie or I'm going to explode with longing, having been inspired by the Hampton Court lads.

Okay, probably no pie today

2010-02-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

I'm quite tired after a long day of adventures, and have a lot of things to finish for work. However, I did pull the fatback out of the freezer with the hopes of rendering it later in the week.

The only question now is, dry render or wet render?

Mmm... faaaat...

This Piebakere disagrees!

2010-02-21T09:02:00.001-08:00

I'm reading Cooking & Dining in Medieval England by Peter Brears, and it's AMAZING. I love this book, and I have to scrape together the funds to buy a copy for myself (this one is courtesy of inter-library loan).

The pie chapter in particular made me squeal with girlish glee. Some great recipes that I'm dying to try, and the kind of supporting information that gets me really excited, like how pastry production was set up in a castle kitchen.

But I think I might disagree with one of Brears's assertions. On page 129, he says "Most other pastry items were made with self-supporting crusts. Where the ingredients are mentioned, they are usually just flour and water, with no indication of any fats, such as we now use in shortcrust and hot-water crust pastries."

I'm thinking about the (admittedly limited) reading I've done on the subject, and I don't think I agree. In fact, the only pastry recipes I can think of off the top of my head do include some kind of fat. On the one hand, you could argue that this means they were only written down because they represented a deviation from the usual, but I don't think so.

First example, take this 16th century recipe for Meat Pyes which I have taken from MedievalCookery.com:

"Source [A Proper New Booke of Cookery, A. Veale]: To make Pyes. Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced and ceasoned wyth pepper and salte, and a lyttle saffron to coloure it, suet or marrow a good quantite, a lyttle vyneger, prumes, greate raysins, and dates, take the fattest of the broathe of powdred beyfe, and yf you wyll haue paest royall, take butter and yolkes of egges, and to tempre the flowre to make the paeste."

So there we have a pastry recipe calling for both butter and egg yolks. (And incidentally the most tender and delicious pastry crust I've ever encountered.) Could this really be completely unique, and not an indicator of general practice?

The second example, and the one that I think really clinches it, is the whole concept of pie crusts in Lent. I can think of a couple of recipes I've seen that call for making a crust from flour and almond milk during Lent. For example, this reenactor's beautiful writeup about a fake-fish apple pie includes a quote from An Ordinance of Pottage on the making of pie crust with almond milk during Lent.

My question is, why would you need to make crust with almond milk if the usual version of crust just had water? Water and flour is pretty dang "Lenten" -- no animal products, and fast-tastic. I think that this evidence alone makes the idea of flour and water crusts improbable.

By the way, there's a fantastic discussion of period pie crusts, complete with a whole bunch of period recipes to back it up, also at Medieval Cookery. Really good stuff.

Now, of course, I'm hungry for pie. Maybe today I'll try my hand at a hot-water raised crust... with fat in it, of course!

Oooh, or maybe I'll do a Lenten pie. I really liked my first version of Leche Frys in Lentoun, so maybe I'll try the same thing but using Coquinaria's almond milk crust.

Or... both :)

Reading a recipe: "Herb Soup"

2010-02-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

One of the stumbling blocks that stands in the way of the would-be historical cook is interpreting medieval recipes. And I don't just mean translating them from the original language (including from Middle English to "readable to modern eyes" English), but figuring out the real intent of the person who wrote down the recipe. Here's a great example:

2. Herb soup (from Redon et al's The Medieval Kitchen)
"Menestra of greens. Take Swiss chard leaves and a little borage; cook them in boiling clear water until the water comes back to the boil; then drain them and chop fine with a knife. And take a little parsley and raw mint and chop them along with the greens. Then pound everything in a mortar, and add to a pot with rich broth and boil briefly. If you like, you can add a little pepper."

This is a delicious recipe, and very simple. Now let's "unpack" it a bit to get a better idea of what's going on here and what kinds of decisions you as the cook will have to make.

The ingredients:

Swiss chard leaves -- Now me, I'd like to know what the original word is here. Are the authors translating or substituting? We also have the added wrinkle that I'm reading a translation of the translation, that is, this modern cookbook was originally published in French for French audiences. Do you take the book at face value or do you dig deeper? This is the big pitfall with working from this kind of medieval cookbook for modern audiences, even the well done ones (as Medieval Kitchen most certainly is).
Borage -- How does a modern American cook get a hold of borage? I know what it looks like and am fairly sure I could forage for it, but that's not an easy option, even for me, and it's out of reach for many of us. Do you substitute something else? Omit it? How would you be sure what to do without knowing what borage tastes like?
Parsley and mint -- Was parsley the same in period as now? Do you use curly parsley or flat-leaf? Does it matter? And mint -- there are billions of types of mint! Which is most appropriate here?
Rich broth -- What kind of broth? I almost always assume beef broth but this is really just based on conjecture. (I read -- somewhere, but where? -- that boiled beef and beef broth were nigh ubiquitous in medieval kitchens.) And is it more accurate to call this broth or stock? As for rich, well, to me that sounds like "fatty" but how can I be sure? Is packaged beef broth close enough for most purposes?
Pepper -- How much is "a little"?

The methods:

"cook them in boiling clear water until the water comes back to the boil; then drain them" -- Most medieval greens recipes call for this parboiling step. It significantly reduces the bitterness of greens, likely a greater concern in the pre-agribusiness world. I would interpret this step as bringing water to a boil, adding the greens, and cooking them until the water returns to a boil, then draining them and discarding the water.
"chop fine with a knife" -- How fine?
"Then pound everything in a mortar" -- That's probably the answer to how fine to chop... this is not so much a "soup" at this point as a glop. Which of course I am not saying is a bad thing! I do love me some glop. How do you accomplish this step as a modern cook? Do you go ahead and pound? Or do you get out the food processor? Or just skip it?
"boil briefly" -- How briefly?
"If you like, you can add a little pepper" -- When? Does the position of the note correlate with when you add the pepper?

To me, all those questions and choices are exhilarating. But I remember a time when I found them overwhelming: I knew that the questions existed, but didn't feel confident enough to answer them. That is part of what has driven my cooking research over the last few years; I wanted to know what the most authentic choice was for more situations. I quickly discovered, of course, that the answer depends on where and when and whom, exactly, you're talking about. Hence, my persona appropriate foods research was born.

By the way, I made this soup tonight. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

3 bunches rainbow chard
1 generous handful spearmint
Handful flatleaf parsley (it's what I had)
32oz Pacific Foods organic beef broth
1 very small and fatty beef short rib
1 very fatty slice of bacon
A bit of finely ground pepper

Process:

Put the rib and the bacon in a pot with about 2 pints of water. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn temperature down and let simmer for an hour or more.
Meanwhile, wash chard thoroughly and remove ribs.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop the chard in and stir. When water returns to a boil, remove from the heat and pour contents into a colander, draining off the water and leaving the chard, just as you would with pasta. Spread the chard on a cutting board to cool.
Once the beef rib is starting to fall apart a bit and the liquid with it has reduced significantly, pour the liquid into a container and remove the meat. Optional: chop up the bacon and fry it to render off any additional fat, adding both the bits and the fat to the broth. (I did this whole process, with making this additional broth rather than using just store bought, as I thought the broth would need more fat to qualify as "rich"; hence adding the bacon fat to the broth, too.)
When the chard has cooled sufficiently, chop it finely. Chop up the parsley and the mint as well.
Optional: puree with a stick blender. I haven't actually tried this, but it occurs to me that this might be an appropriate substitute for crushing everything in a mortar.
Put the greens, herbs, and all the broth (store bought and homemade) into a large pot. Bring to a boil. Add pepper and serve it forth! (You may wish to add more salt. I did.)

Best glop ever

2010-02-14T09:13:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I made a simple glop in the crock pot. I actually think that a crock pot is a justifiable substitute for cooking in a clay pot all day over a slow fire, although I admit I have not done any field testing with the aim of directly comparing the two.

This started out as a continued foray into Iron Age British cuisine, but as I was making it I realized that it works well as an attempt at persona-appropriate pottage, too.

The glop:

3 oz beef stew meat (pasture-raised), in chunks
1/2 slice Trader Joe's uncured applewood smoked bacon, cut into bits
1 pippen apple, well past its prime, cored and chopped
1/4 cup pearled barley
1 cup homemade hard apple cider (very dry!)

Cook in a crock pot on high heat for 3 hours (or thereabouts) until everything is tender and all of the liquid is absorbed. Careful not to let it burn!

This was very, very good. A great mix of flavors, and wonderfully filling. Salinophiles may wish to add more salt.

Planning for a new camp cooking class

2010-02-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to bring my camp cooking class back again this spring at our Shire's regular Friday gathering. This will be I think the 3rd year in a row that I've done the class (wow!) and I've been batting around what I think will be some really cool ideas:

Title the class "Feeding Yourself While Camping." Emphasize that no matter how decide to do so, everybody has to eat!
Talk about various styles briefly, then give more detail about how to eat more authentically.
Set up my fire cooking gear and talk about it, basically like at a demo.
Talk about where to get equipment (especially for fire cooking).
Make the handout more resource-based rather than content-based.
Give away stuff! This is still in the formative stages, but I'm envisioning having a small collection of low-cost items (most likely donated used things and a few cheaper ingredients) relevant to the theme. I think the way I'll do the giveaways is at the end of the class have people write down their name and a question they have on a slip of paper. Collect slips, draw names, give prizes, answer questions.
Bring some better, more participatory teaching strategies (even kind of corny ones) into play rather than just lecturing.

That's what I have so far. I'm excited about this, and definitely planning to put more work into it and try to come up with something truly fabulous.

IT'S A CANDLEMAS MIRACLE! THE MQC IS NOT LOST!

2010-02-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

I finally broke down tonight and took all my bottles of medlar-quince cyser into the shower to open them, let them pop, and dump them.

Bottle number one: BAM! fizzzzzzzzzzz...

Bottle number two: ...

NOTHING! IT DIDN'T POP!!!! All told two popped (neither as spectacularly as that one I opened before), but four didn't! I dumped the two that did back into a fermentation jar to see what happens after a week or so (perhaps racking and bottling again?), but just recapped the four that didn't and plan to save them for the summer!

I tasted the ones that popped, and OH MY STARS they are shaping up nicely. Really interesting mix of flavors! The mystery blob broke apart, which makes me more sure that it's pectin and not bacterial colony of death. If I'm dead by morning, though, you all know why.

So happy!

Cranberry Mead Update, again

2010-02-01T09:35:00.000-08:00

I racked the cranberry mead yesterday. It's still pretty sweet, but definitely more fermented than it was before, so I'm hopeful that I may have struck the right balance. I think that if it ferments to dryness, it's going to be really nasty and bitter as the cranberry will become overwhelming. I'm going to keep an eye on it for a week, maybe more, then I'll decide if I want to rack it again (likely) or bottle it.

More poking around with plausibly Iron Age British/Celtic food

2010-02-01T09:25:00.001-08:00

This subject has really excited me! I think I'm going to start looking for some better sources, ie books, on the subject, specifically on archeological evidence for foodstuffs and cooking methods. The more I learn the more interested I am!

I found another good article online, Life in an Iron Age Village from the BBC, that references a couple of books that I'm going to try to get a hold of. Also makes a nice mention of bread leavened with brewing by-products. I think I have both spelt and barley flour, and I have the dregs of my cider and that cranberry mead which I've mentioned here previously that I couldn't bring myself to throw out yesterday. Perhaps I'll try to keep them alive until the weekend and do some experimentation!

Neufchatel cheese after draining

2010-01-22T11:06:00.001-08:00

Neufchatel cheese after draining
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

A long overdue post!

I just realized I never posted a finished picture of the basic soft cheese I made a while back, so here it is.

It was pretty good, although it started to taste kind of bitter after just a few days (from the buttermilk culture continuing to work?) -- definitely inspired to keep working on cheese!

Cranberry Mead Update

2010-01-22T10:55:00.001-08:00

I started this cranberry mead back in November, then kept neglecting it and neglecting it. It's been in the primary fermenter since then (whoops). I finally found a spare moment, and took out a little bit to taste-test a few weeks ago. It was totally sweet, and clearly never really fermented all that much. This is most likely due to the pectin content of the cranberries and the fact that I only added a tiny bit of yeast (something I've wanted to test for a while, the differences between a large initial yeast inoculation and a small one).

I couldn't decide what to do about this, so I just let it sit. I actually bottled it this week (just a couple of days ago), but today I decided that this is really a terrible idea, so I decided to take a bit of a risk and transfer it from bottles back to a gallon jug. Most of the sediment is out (but not all, which is part of why I'm loth to leave this bottled until May after the MQC incident), so I think this is basically the equivalent of having racked the mead.

I am now adding another 1/4 tsp of yeast (which is currently rehydrating in a small amount of the must). We shall see what comes of this, possibly disaster or possibly awesomeness. I'm thinking another two weeks fermentation, then racking, letting it sit, and bottling.

As always, I will try to post updates as they happen.

BREW FAIL

2010-01-17T21:02:00.000-08:00

I opened a bottle of the "MQC" (medlar-quince cyser) to do some more testing on the mystery blob...

...and BAM! MEAD FOUNTAIN!

Whee!

I've never had a bottle pop like that, it was pretty awesome and also terrifying.

Now I'm stuck. The smart part of me says dump it all down the drain! But the science part of me says "COOOOOOOOOOL!"

My documentation from the 12th night costume contest

2010-01-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

This project represents my attempt at a complete court outfit that might have been worn by an English woman of status during the late 13th century. It consists of a linen shift (or smock), a linen gown (or cote), a brocade cyclas, cut wool hose with garters, headware (a hairnet, fillet, and barbette), and leather turnshoes.

Shift

A shift is an undyed linen garment commonly accepted to have been worn by women as an underwear layer. I used white linen fabric, in keeping with period illustrations (see for example illustration 1).

Illustration 1: Birth of Samuel from the Maciejowski Bible. Note the white sleeves of their shifts visible.

The cut of my shift is based on “Nockert Type 5” (a generalization based on several extant garments) – see illustration 2.

Illustration 2: "Nockert Type 5" by I. Marc Carlson.

I joined the pieces together by machine and then finished the seams by hand with linen thread. The seam finishing technique I used is shown in Crowfoot et al. in figure 126 on page 156.

The finishing of the neck, sleeves, and hem on this garment is identical to that used on the gown – see next section for more details.

Gown

The gown or cote is the main fashion layer worn by women during this period, and is typified by sleeves tight on the forearms and wide where they join the body, and a loose, flowing drape overall – see illustration 3 for a typical example from an English source.

Illustration 3: Gown style from an English source. Note especially the shape of the sleeves.

The cut of my gown is based on a surviving garment, St Claire of Asisi’s gown (see illustration 4).

Illustration 4: Gown of St Claire of Asisi, drawing by I. Marc Carlson.

I received help from Maitresse Katrine de Saint Brieuc in interpreting this garment and drafting a modified version of its pattern to fit me. My version deviates from the original slightly in the way everything comes together at the armpit.

My gown is made of blue linen. While this color would have been easily achievable on wool using period dyes, linen was rarely if ever dyed in period. Thus, the linen is essentially a substitute for a lightweight wool.

Again, the major joining seams on this garment were done by machine. Maitresse Katrine helped me serge the edges, and my intent was to hand finish all the seams. I ran out of time, though, and this part is still in process.

I finished the neckline using a narrow bias-cut facing held down with a double row of running stitch. This technique can be seen in Crowfoot et al figure 131 (p 159), and is practical, simple, and elegant. The hem and sleeve edges were finished with a simple hem stitch, which can be seen in Crowfoot et al figure 127 (page 157).

Cyclas

Women are often shown in illustrations from this time period wearing a sleeveless overgown made of decorated fabric. See for example illustration 5, and Crowfoot et al figure 159 (page 182).

Illustration 5: from the Codex Manesse (Zurich, ca 1304)

I believe that this garment may have been made from costly imported silks, and was intended as a display of wealth. Elaborately patterned silks, including brocades, were available in England during the late 13th century, and “[w]ealthy citizens of London…bought Italian cloths. These were made up into furnishings and clothing.” (Crowfoot et al 89).

I selected a modern brocade (content unknown, although I suspect cotton) with a relatively simple repeating motif to stand in for a silk brocade. The cut I used for this garment was based on that of Herjolfsnes 37 (see illustration 6).

Illustration 6: Herjolfsnes 37, Illustration 6: Herjolfsnes 37, a man’s garment dated to the mid-late 14th century. Drawing by I. Marc Carlson.

Although this is a man’s garment dated to a later time period (mid-late 14th century), it follows the conventions common to late 13th century garments in that it is composed of rectangular sections with triangular (or trapezoidal) gores, which would be simple to cut out without a pattern and tailor to the wearer.

Yet again, this garment was joined by machine. I finished the seams by hand using a simple felled seam. The neck was faced as in the gown, and I used the same technique to finish the arm holes (this is supported by Crowfoot et al on page 159). The hem was double folded and sewn with hem stitch.

I used linen thread for the hand finishing of this garment, although silk would be a more authentic choice per Crowfoot et al (p 152): “Silk thread is used for seams and hems on most surviving fragments of woven silk.” I used linen thread as I am more familiar with working with it, and given that the garment itself is not made of silk I decided a substitution was appropriate.

Hose

Little is known about women’s hose in period, although an illustration in the Maciejowski Bible shows a woman with her skirt hiked up to show her hose (see illustration 7).

Illustration 7: Ruth threshing (detail), from the Maciejowski Bible (France, ca. 1250).

The consensus among reenactors is that women wore knee-high hose held up with garters. As with men’s hose, these are assumed to have been made from bias-cut wool and tailored to the wearer. (hight Broom, “Chosen Hosen”)

Maitresse Katrine helped measure my legs and tailor my hose to fit. The pattern used differs from surviving period examples as they are made in three pieces with a sole on the foot rather than two pieces with a seam running along the underside of the foot; this is somewhat simpler to construct and a bit more comfortable to the modern wearer. On subsequent hose I would like to switch to the more period pattern.

The sewing and finishing on my hose was done by hand with linen thread. I used simple felled seams and a single-rolled hem on the top edge.

Purpose-woven garters are described in detail in Crowfoot et al (pages 142-144). These are narrow and may have been either tied or buckled. I have used some woven Central American belts (content unknown) that I happened to already have, as they are broadly similar to what I think period garters may have been like.

Headwear

My headwear consists of a fillet, barbette, and hairnet. The fillet and barbette can be seen in numerous contemporary images, see for example illustrations 8 and 9.

Illustration 8: Ruth praying.

Illustration 9: Detail from the Codex Manesse.

This same combination with something covering the hair is shown in illustration 10, and with a hairnet specifically in Crowfoot et al figure 116.

Illustration 10: Detail from the Murthly hours, England/France ca. 1280

There are many interpretations of the fillet by modern reenactors, generally falling into pleated and ruffled. I have previously made a pleated version (which I have with me for comparison), and decided to try the ruffled (which is what I believe the Manesse manuscript depicts). I used a plastic canvas support covered with white linen, with a pleated band of white linen for the ruffles. This hat was entirely hand sewn with linen thread.

My barbette is made of white linen, hand sewn with white linen thread. Period illustrations show a very specific arrangement of the barbette, which I have had a hard time replicating. I found the photos and notes of Wendi Dunlap, aka Winyeva in the SCA, extremely helpful in deciding on the cut to use for this version.

Surviving hairnets and a plausible construction method are shown in Crowfoot et al (pp 145-149). Using several sets of directions posted by other reenactors online, I was able to make what I am calling my “compromise” hairnet. I used a modern netting set (which is essentially identical to period tools) and a dowel tied between two chairs. The method I used was essentially the same as period examples but with some deviations. I used black perle cotton as a substitute for silk, and a ribbon for the band rather than a purpose-made tablet woven or fingerbraided band. As this is my first hairnet, I made the holes much larger than in the period examples, and I constructed it in a rectangle rather than spirally. I used the same thread to tie the looped ends together at the base of the hairnet and to close up the sides to form a tube.

Shoes

My shoes are simple pointed-toe turnshoes with a single piece for the upper. They are constructed of leather (the sole is elk hide, the uppers are type unknown) with waxed linen thread, and entirely hand sewn. They are based on manuscript images such as that shown in illustration 11, as well as surviving shoes detailed by Beatson and Carlson (see sources), such as those shown in illustrations 12 and 13.

Illustration 11, manuscript detail (original source unknown), http://www.gelfling.dds.nl/surcote.html

Illustration 12: Side lace shoe, dated 1200-1400. © I. Marc Carlson

Illustration 13: Pointed-toe shoe, listed under “1200-1300.” © I. Marc Carlson

Having never made shoes before, I relied on the directions by Beatson, Carlson, and William de Wyke (see sources), although I ended up deviating from period practice quite a bit. I used a thinner leather for the soles and so punched holes all the way through rather than using the edge-flesh stitch used in period. Lacking lasts, I figured out the basic pattern and sizing my making a tape mock-up of my foot and working from there.

Final Comments

This is the first time I have really tried to do a “skin out” outfit. The hose, shoes, and hairnet were all first-attempts, and the gown is the first time I have actually worked so closely from the pattern of a surviving period garment. I found all of this work to be extremely satisfying, and I am pleased with how the outfit turned out overall. I hope that I can build on what I have learned with this project to continue to develop more authentic clothing and accessories for myself.

Sources

Beatson, Peter. “A Simple Medieval Shoe.” http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/shoe/construction.html

hight Broom, Maistre Emrys Eustace. “Sherts, Trewes, &Hose iij: Chosen Hosen.” http://www.greydragon.org/library/underwear3.html

Carlson, I Marc. "Some Clothing of the Middle Ages"
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/bockhome.html

Carlson, I Marc. “Footwear of the Middle Ages.”
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/SHOEHOME.HTM

“Codex Manesse” on Wikimedia Commons: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Codex_Manesse_Die_Winsbekin.jpg

Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Pritchard, Frances, and Staniland, Kay: Medieval Finds from Excavations in London: Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450, ©1992, 2001 Museum of London

Dunlap, Wendi. “Circa 1275-1300 headwear experiment continues” http://www.flickr.com/photos/litlnemo/2777285013/

Hausherr, Reiner, Hg. Dei Zeit der Staufer, Geschichte -- Kunst -- Kulture. (Katalog der Ausstellung, 6., verb. Aufl. 4 bande) Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum, 1977

Maciejowski Bible, ca 1250, France. Reprinted online at http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/maciejowski_bible.htm

Magistra Nicolaa de Bracton. “Netting for Hairnets.” http://www.members.tripod.com/nicolaa5/articles/hairnet.htm

Morwenna. “Tunic with Sleeveless Surcote.” http://www.gelfling.dds.nl/surcote.html

Munson, Jennifer. “AnneLiese’s Fibers and Stuff – Netting – Hairnet.” http://fibers.destinyslobster.com/Netting/nethairnet.htm

Myers, Cindy. “Silkewerk – Hairnets.” http://www.silkewerk.com/hairnet_left.html

National Library of Scotland, “The Murthly Hours.” ca. 1280, France. (Full-page miniatures illustrated in England ca. 1260-1280.) http://www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/index.html

University of Heidelberg, “Codex Manesse.” ca 1304, Zurich.
http://diglit.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848/

William de Wyke. “Where Are the Elves?” http://wherearetheelves.blogspot.com/

The 12th Night Outfit!

2010-01-11T13:58:00.001-08:00

The 12th Night Outfit!
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

Here is my outfit that I entered in the Costumers Guild's full court garb contest, and my first attempt at "skin out" authentic clothing.

I took second place in the intermediate division, which is a huge deal for me. For someone who often feels like a failure at sewing, this was an incredible validation. I got high marks and lots of complements on my documentation, presentation, and having so many different elements present in my outfit (and learning many new techniques to include these elements).

I enjoyed the competition and I'm glad I pushed myself. I also learned quite a bit:
-Give myself more time! Rushing to finish is dumb. (Not actually finishing all that I wanted to finish was even dumber!)
-Practice makes pretty good. If I keep working on my techniques I can keep getting better.
-It's okay to take things incrementally. It's okay to make a "just okay" pair of shoes or hairnet or whatever when it's the first time I've done it, but I also need to then go on and make a second, third, etc. thing to improve on what I've learned rather than sticking with "good enough."
-It's okay for something to be done, then get pulled apart and fixed. That's how you learn and make things better.

On that last one, I will be pulling apart and redoing the cyclas. It's too wide, which I can only fix by making it shorter, which is okay because I think I'd prefer it shorter, too. The fabric is stiff so it doesn't drape all that well, so I think shorter will work better (and be easier to walk in).

I will probably try to post my documentation for this sometime this week, with pictures.

Update on the MQC mystery!

2010-01-11T08:29:00.000-08:00

Got this email from Arnorr Greybeard, who knows his stuff:

"Greetings,

"The wife forwarded your question on to me. I've been brewing for the last 28 or so years, both ale and the various forms of mead, but have not come across this specific problem. I talked with the owner of a brewing supply place in Oreogon City (who has a degree in fermentation) at some length about this. His opinion is that what you have is a pectin problem. Both the apples in the base cyser and the quince contain a fair amount of pectin. The pectin combined with the sugar in the base wort and any additional sugar you may may have added to literally form jelly, where the pectin causes the sugar to semi-solidify into a "blob" in the fermenter. This is exactly the same way the pectin solidifies sugars in the formation of jams and jellies. Maybe you should remove it from the fermenter and try it on toast!

"One way to test this is to use a hygrometer to determine the final alcohol content of the cyser. If the pectin has indeed solidified the sugars they would not have been available for fermentation and the alcohol content would be very low. Did you notice if fermentation was going as you would have expected by looking at the amount of CO2 bubbles escaping out of the fermentation lock? If the sugars were solidified the fermentation rate would have been very low to non-existent after a short while.

"Next time add pectin enzymes to the wort before adding the yeast. These enzymes ( available at any brewing supply store) inhibit the pectin from solidifying the sugars and removing them from the fermentation process.

"By the way, the cyser you have should be drinkable, but the alcohol content is minimal. It should give you an idea of what the next batch, with the enzyme, should taste like."

So... yeah. I think I will go ahead and decant a bottle of it, explore the blob, and taste a TINY bit of the mead. If I live, I'll declare it all okay and go on with my life. I worried that the huge amount of pectin in everything I was adding would do something bad, so I'm really hopeful that this is in fact the correct explanation. Learning!

Medlar-Quince Cyser May be Deadly

2010-01-08T12:21:00.001-08:00

I checked my bottles of the MQC today and noted that they have developed a creepy... something. It looks like a Kombucha baby at the bottom of each bottle. I have never seen this before and can't find any info about it online.

On the one hand, NO WAY am I drinking this with that in there. On the other hand, I can't quite motivate myself to dump it out until I find out for sure what's going on (that may be the scientist in me).

What caused this? Anyone experienced this before?

I'm really disappointed, I was super excited about this brew.

An experimental archeology failure

2010-01-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

I gathered buckets of acorns this fall and tried to process them to be able to eat them. I let them cure (dry out) for several days, then roasted them lightly in the oven, shelled them, and peeled the papery stuff off the nuts. Then I ground them in a food processor (so primitive of me!) and soaked them in many changes of water over several days.

Well, apparently I didn't soak them long enough, because when I cooked them into a mush, OH HOLY GOD was it bitter. I tasted a little tiny bit then promptly spit it into the sink and frantically tried to wash my mouth out.

I just felt like sharing this little tidbit. I only ever seem to blog about the experiments that work, but I try lots of things that fail utterly.

Reorganizing for the new year

2010-01-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

I have a very, VERY messy SCA closet. It's crammed with garb, and with all my sewing/crafting stuff. It's pretty bad.

Well, today we bought a shelf unit and some pretty new transparent colorful Rubbermaid totes so that I can organize everything. I'm also taking the fabric out of totes and folding it and stacking it neatly. Already this part has had a profound positive effect: seeing just how huge my fabric stash is has killed my desire to go buy more for a long time. Yay!

Honi soit qui mal y pense

2009-12-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about garters while walking the dog just now. Specifically women's garters. Garters to hold up a woman's hose were never meant to be seen, so I am willing to bet that women didn't have fancy garters. At least, modest women didn't. I bet a woman with really fancy garters was seen as either absurdly vain or a bit of a tart (or a lot of a tart).

I wonder if this is part of what underlies the weird, apocryphal account of the founding of the order of the garter. Was the Countess wearing fancy garters? Was this why it was a big deal?

Notes on the Murthly Hours

2009-12-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

I just learned about this source today and found it interesting. Will definitely require further study. I'm just putting some quick notes here so I can retrieve them later.

http://www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/page.cfm?folio=9

http://www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/page.cfm?folio=15

http://www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/page.cfm?folio=300

About the Murthly Hours:
(http://www.nls.uk/murthlyhours/story.html)

"Created in Paris
The Murthly Hours consists of two distinct sections: 23 full-page miniatures at the beginning of the manuscript and the devotional texts of the Book of Hours. The Book of Hours section was probably written and illuminated in Paris in the 1280s. It contains a Calendar, the Hours of the Virgin, the Hours of the Holy Spirit, the Penitential Psalms, a Litany of the Saints, the Gradual Psalms and the Office of the Dead. The textual contents show that the manuscript was written for the use of a woman who lived in England, perhaps somewhere in the region of Worcester. She is shown reading her Book of Hours in the initial to the Gradual Psalms on folio 149v. The illumination, which consists of very fine historiated initials introducing the principal texts and richly decorative borders, can be assigned to Parisian illuminators of the 'Cholet Group'. Animals, birds, human-headed dragons or scenes of hunting dominate the lively, amusing and sometimes enigmatic border decoration throughout the Book of Hours.

English artists
The 23 full-page miniatures (fols 1r - 23r) were painted by three English artists at about the same time, perhaps in two stages, some time between the 1260s and the 1280s. They represent scenes from Genesis, the Infancy of Christ and the Passion. Originally all the miniatures seem to have been identified for their secular viewers by short captions in French. They are survivors from a much more extensive set of miniatures and were probably originally painted to form part of another manuscript, although they were soon combined with the Book of Hours."

Hairnet win!!!!!!

2009-12-14T20:53:00.001-08:00

I made a hairnet!

I made a hairnet!

I made a hairnet!!!!

ME!!!!!

My excitement can only really be conveyed if you imagine that I'm running around in circles squee-ing.

New fillet!

2009-12-14T17:37:00.000-08:00

I did it! I made a new fillet! I didn't take process photos, because I was having such a hard time figuring out what I was doing as I did it, but I have gone back and taken some pictures of the basic steps so that I can describe what I did, sort of.

The overall idea is that you have a band with ruffles on top. The band should be made of some kind of supportive material (eg buckram) covered with fabric. These are universally white in the pictures, I have made mine out of linen.

There is no consensus on the construction of these things. This is my version, and I welcome feedback.

Step one is to make the support. I used the plastic stuff sold in the needlecrafts aisle of your big craft store:

I feel the need to justify this shockingly non-medieval choice. The long and short of it is, I wanted a hat that I could wash. My old fillet is absolutely disgusting after a couple of years of use, and I was really pleased when a friend of mine mentioned the solution she had found to this problem, namely the plastic canvas. The support is not visible, and while the plastic does perform differently than a more medieval option, the advantages to me are worth it.

You will need a strip about an inch and a half wide and long enough to go around your head loosely. You want quite a bit of give as all the fabric you're going to put on this support will make the ultimate interior diameter quite a bit smaller. If your piece of plastic canvas is not large enough to go around your head (mine wasn't), it's quite easy to piece two strips together. You can see here on the off-cut piece (I originally made my band too wide) how I sewed them together:

Next thing you'll need to do is cut a long band of fabric about 2" wide. Hem one edge of it (I used a self rolling hem). Make this 3 times longer than the circumference of your head (this is probably longer than you'll need it to be, but better too long than too short). If you can't get one strip this long, make two but don't sew them together yet.

Now, the ruffles. This I think seems harder than it actually is. Step one, with the back of the strip toward you, fold the end in 1".

Step two: Flip the fabric over and measure 2" up the strip.

Fold the hanging end to the back.

You now want to make a fold that will meet the end of your strip to make a nice little ruffle, like this:

Now secure everything with pins.

Now you're going to do basically the same thing over again to make another ruffle. Measure 2" from the last fold, and make a fold with the hanging end under.

Now bring this fold you've just made up so that it meets the last fold.

Once you have a whole strip of nice little ruffles, secure them in place with a line of running stitch about 1/4 inch from the unfinished edge, and take out all the pins.

Now you need to attach the ruffles to the support and cover the support with fabric. This requires some fiddling. Again, these aren't actual photos of what yours should actually look like, just a fudged version to give you the idea.

Start by securing your ruffles inside the band, sticking up about 1" above the top of it.

I found it helpful to pin the ruffles to the band at this point, as it helped me see if they were going to fit. By some freaky luck, my hat worked out so that an even number of ruffles fit inside the band. I cannot possibly help you recreate this, as I have no idea how that happened.

By the way, I had to piece together two pieces of ruffled fabric. I don't have good pictures of how I did it, but I do have pictures of the final result:

It's basically just a matter of strategically folding down the trailing ends to disguise them a little.

Once you have the ruffles where you want them, you'll start putting on the covering. This is just a strip of fabric long enough to go around the support (with overlap) and wide enough to go around it with the edges tucked under. The front part will need to have the top edge tucked under in between the support and the ruffles:

While the back will just need the edge tucked under. Once you have it in place, secure with pins.

Pretend that the ruffled piece isn't pinned here; at this point it would be sewn.

I worked this part by unpinning little sections of the ruffles, putting the covering fabric where I wanted it, and repinning everything. This left the rest of the ruffles securely where I wanted them (although it was also admittedly rather fussy). You may find it helpful, as I did, to iron your covering fabric strip into the shape you ultimately want it to be (folded in half with the ends tucked under).

Sew everything together using small stitches. I used a simple back stitch, with a small stitch on the visible side and a much larger stitch on the back.

This is shown in manuscripts worn rather high on the head, with a barbette (chin strap) and either with loose hair (ooh la la) or a hair net. Once I have my hair net and new barbette finished, I'll post some pictures of the complete look.

Cyser Dregs Bread, Post-Baking

2009-12-13T18:50:00.001-08:00

Cyser Dregs Bread: Interior 2
Originally uploaded by laurelfactorial

It tasted mostly all right (these barm-leavened loaves always taste bitter to me, even when there wasn't anything bitter in the brew), but you can see that the crumb is awful. Oven too hot, I think -- overdone on the outside and raw in the middle.