HERB - Advice PLEASE!!! (LONG)

[DianaFiona@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/9/99 7:56:48 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
alineswynbrook at yahoo.com writes:

<< 
 I am also cooking Medieval food, kind of a sampler
 thing, and would love recipe suggestions. 
  >>
    I can handle this part easier than the class organization end of your 
query! ;-) I'm assuming that recipes that include herbs would be preferred, 
yes? That being the case, may I suggest considering a few of the following? 
All are from Cariadoc's Miscellany, since it's easily accessible online--and 
I don't have to type it in, just cut and paste......... Aren't I the lazy 
one? ;-) The address for the Miscellany is: 
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html

Funges
Forme of Cury p. 14/A15

Take Funges and pare hem clene and dyce hem. take leke and shred hym small 
and do hym to see+ in gode broth. color it with safron and do + 'inne powdo 
fort.

1/2 lb mushrooms
1 leek
1 c beef or chicken broth
6 threads saffron
1/4 t powder fort (see introduction p.5)
1/4 t salt

Wash the vegetables; slice the leek finely and dice the mushrooms. Add 
saffron to the broth and bring it to a boil. Add the leek, mushrooms, and 
powder fort to the broth, simmer 3-4 minutes, remove from the heat, and serve.

Icelandic Chicken
Icelandic p. 218/D1 (GOOD)

One shall cut a young chicken in two and wrap about it whole leaves of 
salvia, and cut up in it bacon and add salt to suit the taste. Then cover 
that with dough and bake like bread in the oven.

5 c flour
1/2 lb bacon
3 T dried sage (or sufficient fresh sage leaves to cover)
about 1 3/4 c water
3 lb chicken, cut in half

Make a stiff dough by kneading together flour and water. Roll it out. Cover 
the dough with sage leaves and the sage leaves with strips of bacon. Wrap 
each half chicken in the dough, sealing it. You now have two packages which 
contain, starting at the outside, dough, sage, bacon, chicken. Put them in 
the oven and bake like bread (325deg. for 2 hours). We find the bacon adds 
salt enough. (Not for me--I salt the whole thing lightly--Diana)

The part of the bread at the bottom is particularly good, because of the 
bacon fat and chicken fat. You may want to turn the loaves once or twice, or 
baste the top with the drippings.

Chykens in Hocchee
Curye on Inglysch p. 105 (Forme of Cury no. 36)

Take chykens and scald hem. Take persel and sawge, with o+ er erbes; take 
garlec & grapes, and stoppe the chikenus ful, and see+ hem in gode broth, so 
+ at + ey may esely be boyled + erinne. Messe hem & cast + erto powdour dowce.

3 1/2 lb chicken
4 T parsley
1 1/2 t sage
1 t marjoram
1 3/4 t thyme
3/4 oz = ~10 cloves garlic
1/2 lb red grapes
2 10.5 oz cans conc. chicken broth + 2 cans water

powder douce: 1 t sugar, 1/4 t mace, 1/4 t cinnamon

Note that all herbs are fresh.

Clean the chicken, chop parsley and sage fine then mix with herbs in a bowl. 
Herbs are fresh, measured chopped and packed down. Take leaves off the fresh 
marjoram and thyme and throw out the stems, remove as much stem from parsley 
as practical. Add garlic cloves whole, if very large halve. Add grapes, and 
thoroughly but gently mix with the herbs. Stuff the chicken with the herbs, 
garlic and grapes. Close the bird with a few toothpicks. Place chicken in pot 
with broth and cook on stove top over moderate heat 1/2 hour, turn over, 
another 1/4 hour (in covered pot). Serve on platter with powder douce 
sprinkled over it.

Torta of Herbs in the Month of May
Platina book 8

Cut up and grind the same amount of cheese as I said in the first and second 
tortae ["a pound and a half of best fresh cheese"]. When you have ground this 
up, add juice from bleta, a little marjoram, a little more sage, a bit of 
mint, and a good bit of parsley; when all this has been ground in a mortar, 
add the beaten whites of 15 or 16 eggs and half a pound of liquamen or fresh 
butter, and mix. There are those who put in some leaves of parsley and 
marjoram that have been cut up but not ground, and half a pound [surely a 
typo for half an ounce, as in the previous recipes] of white ginger and eight 
ounces of sugar. When all of these have been mixed together, put this in a 
pot or deep dish that has been well greased on the coals at a distance from 
the flame so that it does not absorb the smoke; and stir it continually and 
let it boil until it thickens. When it is nearly done transfer it into 
another pot with the crust and cover it with your lid until it is all cooked 
with a gentle flame. When it is done and put on a plate, sprinkle it with 
best sugar and rose water.

[Note: earlier torta recipes refer to a pastry crust rolled thin and both top 
and bottom crusts. "Blette-Name given in some parts of France to white beet 
or chard." Larousse Gastronomique.]

3/4 lb Monterey Jack cheese

herbs ground in mortar:
1/4 t marjoram (dry or fresh)
1/2 t sage (dry or fresh)
1 t fresh mint
1/2 c fresh parsley, stems off

3/8 c spinach + 1 T water
5 egg whites
1 stick melted butter (1/4 lb)
(1/4 c chopped parsley)
(2 t fresh marjoram)
(1/4 oz finely chopped ginger)
(1/2 c sugar)
double 9" pie crust

sprinkled on crust after baking: about 1/4 t rosewater, about 1 T sugar

Spinach is measured unchopped, then chopped and ground in a mortar with the 
water to provide spinach juice in place of bleta juice. Mix this with other 
herbs and grind in mortar or food processor; mix with grated cheese. Beat egg 
whites lightly, melt butter and add; put in pie crust and cover with top 
crust. Unground herbs are an option; sugar and ginger, for a dessert pie, are 
another option (ginger seems to mean fresh ginger root). Bake at 400deg. for 
10 minutes, then at 350deg. for about another 40 minutes, then sprinkle with 
mixed sugar and rosewater.

A Garlic Sauce with Walnuts or Almonds
Platina book 8

To almonds or walnuts that have been coarsely ground add as much cleaned 
garlic as you like and likewise, as need be, grind them up well, sprinkling 
them all the while so they do not make oil. When they are ground up put in 
white breadcrumbs softened in juice of meat or fish, and grind again. And if 
it seems too stiff it can be softened easily in the same juice. (See next 
recipe.) (Very good--Royalty Approved! ;-) Worked well as a dip for veggies, 
thogh in period it would have accompnied a meat dish.--Diana)


A More Colored Garlic Sauce
Platina book 8

Prepare this in the same way as above. But do not moisten it in water or 
juice, but in must of dark grapes, squeezed by hand and cooked down for half 
an hour. The same can be done with juice of cherries.
>>>
    This is just a quick selection--check the Miscellany for lots more. And, 
if you have access to a copy of Platina or The Original Mediteranian Cusine 
(? Might be slightly off on the title), there are a number of green sauces 
that are good, too--obviously ancestors of pesto! ;-)

                    Ldy Diana





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