SC - The British Museum Cookbook

[Shari Burnham]

I have this book too, and Anne-marie is correct, there are no primary sources.
It is a really fun cookbook.  Being vegetarian, there are alot of dishes that I
have tried from this cookbook and have been very happy with the tastes.  Haven't
tried the meat dishes, anyone who has this book, any comments on the meat
dishes?

Elisabeth

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:

> Hey all from Anne-Marie
>
> we are asked about the British Museum Cookbook...
> > Can anyone tell me about this book?  Found a recipe on-line with this as
> > documentation but don't know time periods, etc. about it.
> >
> Its a little book from...the British Musuem! I have it, and while theres
> intriguing sections on all kinds of fun time periods, there's not a primary
> source to be found. Rats!
>
> we are also asked...
> > Also, we are hosting Crown Tourney in Oct. and I have someone who wants
> to
> > do an edible castle for the head table.  I would LOVE to hear
> > suggestions/comments on this.  I would appreciate any alternative ideas
> to
> > present to this lady.  She really wants to make a special contribution
> > food-wise to Their Majesties feast but she is new at this and I would
> like
> > to give her more than one option to try before hand.
> >
> THeres a recipe in Taillevent (14th century French) for something called a
> "parma tart". There's one in Chiquart too, but where Chiquart focuses on
> the filling, Taillevent says "you can put in chopped spice meat, or boiled
> or roasted meat or...". The neat part of the recipe is how he describes
> creating a pastry casing for the food, with high sides and crennallations.
> Then, you make little banners for the lords present, and stick them in the
> food in the dish.
>
> when we did "parma tarts" for a banquet, what we did was use a very sturdy
> pie dough and shape crennellated walls around regular pie pans. We baked
> them and decorated them with little banners showing the heraldry of various
> notables there present. Then we filled the pie dish with a dish of chicken
> quarters and sauce. To do it "right", we should have put a layer of spiced
> meatballs or patties, and then the chicken.
>
> Few people ate the "castle" part (though they could have), but it was
> flashy, not too hard, and oh-so-period. If you decide to use real pie
> dough, be careful as it tends to slump in the oven.
>
> here's the primary source quote...
> Parma Tarts (Taillevent #180):
> Take mutton, veal or pork meat, cook it, chop it appropriately, spice it
> extremely reasonably with fine powder, and fry it in lard. Afterwards, have
> large uncovered pies the size of little platters, with pastry sides higher
> than for other pies, and made in the manner of crenellations. The pastry
> should be strong so that it can hold the meat. If you wish, mix some pine
> nut paste and currants with the meat, and crumble some sugar on top. Take
> some boiled and quartered chicken, and in each pie put three or four
> chicken quarters in which to fix the banners of France and of the lords who
> will be in the [royal] presence. Gild them with sprinkled saffron to be
> more attractive.
>
> If you do not want to depend so much on chicken, you need only make some
> flat pieces of roasted or boiled pork or mutton. When the pies are full of
> their meat, glaze the top of the meat with a little egg yolk and egg white
> beaten together, so that the meat will more hold together more firmly for
> inserting the banners. Have some gold, silver, or tin leaf for gilding the
> pies in front of the banners.
>
> hope this helps! have fun!
>
> --AM
>
> !
>
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