SC - Tastes of Britain Class

Wed Aug 5 22:54:29 PDT 1998

I want to relate to you how my "Tastes of Britain" Class went over at the
Royal University of Meridies event.  I ended up with a 26 page handout
after I was done cutting and pasting, and had 11 people show up for the
class, which worked out quite nicely.  (I was prepared for 20 at a max,
so this was just wonderful).  I charged a class fee of 3.00 a head to
cover the handout and the food cost, which helped cover about half of my
expenses.  The sources I cited were:  "The Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food
Processing and Consumption"  by Ann Hagen;  "Early Period" Magazine; 
"The Ordinance of Potage" Constance B. Hieatt, ed.;  "Food in History" 
by Reay Tannahill; "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" by Cindy Renfrow; and
one lonely recipie from Cariadoc's "Miscellany".  
	The dishes I served were presented in a feast table setting, and
I encouraged the students to bring feast gear.  Luckily, we were in a
kitchen ante-room, and had all the extra stuff we needed.  I warned
everyone in advance if they were lactose intolerant or were watching
their cholesterol, they might be in trouble, for this was a dairy intense
and high fat content meal.  No one backed out, and so we went ahead.  

	Boiled Chicken with Leeks and Prunes - a dish from Early Period
magazine, from a "Norse Menu".  A whole chicken boiled in chicken stock
and water, with the addition of chopped leeks and cut up pitted prunes. 
Once the chicken was done, I removed it and boiled the stock down by 1/3,
then added cracked wheat to it and cooked it until done.  Served as a
side dish, it went very nicely with the chicken.  The comments on this
dish were all favorable, especially at my house where we gobbled up what
wasn't packed for the class.  

	Wheat and Hazelnut Pudding - Same Early Period article.  Rolled
wheat, cooked in almond milk. When the wheat was done, it was mixed with
ground hazelnuts, milk, eggs, sour cream, and honey.  Poured into a
baking dish, dotted with butter, and baked.  It came out like an egg
custard with loads of fiber, and was very good.  It was quite hearty, and
stood up to transportation and a couple of weeks (what was left at home)
of refrigeration.  

	Samit - Curds with Garlic - Early Period, "A Celtic Feast". 
Large curd cottage cheese was drained, and then mixed with butter, sour
cream, garlic, and chervil.  Used as a spread on Rye Bread. Very yummy
(and I hate cottage cheese), kind of a lumpy cheese spread.  

	'Gastel'-Honey Shortbread - From Anglo-Saxon Food.  I made this
with whole wheat pastry flour, ground hazelnuts, honey and butter.  It
came out way too short, very dry and crumbly.  I took a little mead and
honey and mixed it with some warm water, and poked holes into the stuff
and let it soak in.  This helped a lot, but not really enough.  It was my
one real failure, and it still was ok.  

	Egg Custards - mentioned in Anglo-Saxon Food, as well as others. 
I used small tart shells and a standard egg and milk quiche mix.  To
these I added the following ingredients individually:
	Saffron
	Safflower
	Nutmeg 
	Mace
	Galingale
	Elderflower
	Dried Blueberries and Cloves (I goofed and reached for the
	cloves, so I made this one with the dried fruit.  It was good.)
	I cut up the tarts and passed them around in pairs so that
everyone could taste the difference between saffron and safflower, nutmeg
and mace, etc.  

	Apples Marinated in Wine and Honey - Anglo-Saxon Food.  Oh, my
God, were these good.  I took Fiji apples (it was that or Red Delicious)
and marinated them in a mixture of Beaujolais Nuveaux (sp) and Merlot
with honey.  They were soooo good.  There were NO leftovers.  So simple
and easy to do, and absolutely stunning, as well as being refreshing with
all the grains and heavier foods.  I suspect this was a hold over from
Roman days, and could easily imagine garnishing it with a dash of ground
black pepper (Hello, Apicius, is that you?)

	Briw- Anglo-Saxon Food.  A savory Irish version of the
ever-popular frumenty.  I made it with Buckwheat Groats, cooked in
chicken stock.  When it was ready (very quickly), I added butter.  Then,
to substitute for venison, I cut up chunks of bacon and fried them, and
added the chunks and the grease to the mix.  It was great, and deemed a
worthy cold-weather breakfast by one and all.  Damn the cholesteral, full
speed ahead! (Really, with that much grain, the cholesterol didn't have a
fighting chance.  Especially if you were an Anglo-Saxon or Irish farmer!)

	Frumenty- A.S. Food, Food in History, Take a Thousand Eggs or
More, Miscellany, etc.  For this one I used Whole Wheat Pastry Berries,
which I cooked in Almond Milk, with rosewater, saffron, and honey.  I
took it that way to the event, and then heated it up right before the
class and added egg yolks and cream, and cooked that until it was heated
through.  It was wonderful, and very distincitve with the saffron and
rosewater flavors.  It was a good contrast to the savory Briw.  The
Pastry Berries (whole wheat kernels) took the longest of all the grains
to cook.  Even done (I think they were done, they cooked about 2 hours in
all) they were al dente?, as in the skins still retained their integrity,
but they were soft to chew.  

	Beverages and other things - Mead (a quick mead my lord had made,
just enough for a taste for everybody);  Whey - which had drained from
the Samit curds; Almond Milk (the boxed kind); Goat's milk yogurt, as
well as goat cheese;  Fresh cherries, and  rye bread.  In small cups I
had samples of :  Rolled Wheat, Rolled Oats, Rolled Rye, Cracked Wheat,
Buckwheat Groats (steel cut), Whole Oat Groats, Whole Wheat Pastry
Berries, Safflower, Elderflowers.  These got passed around to compare
types of grains, etc.  I also had my spice jars to show them saffron,
galingale, cardamom, mace, nutmeg (to compare colors and aromas).  

	I had a blast doing this class.  I loved researching it, and
cooking for a group of 12 was a delight.  I had folks from experienced
cooks to newcomers, and they all enjoyed it and learned a lot.  My
favorite comment was "I guess we all failed and so we have to take this
class again!".  

Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies

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