SC - Herbolade

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hi all from Anne-Marie
Stephan asks about Herbolade:
"Was this dish mentioned in the period cookbooks as a breakfast dish? Or
do you just think it would make a good breakfast dish in the modern idea
of breakfast?"

It was most definately NOT mentioned as a breakfast dish, and in fact has
nothing to do with any of my reserach on appropriate breakfast foods. I was
feeding a campful of "but you gotta have sausage and eggs for breakfast!!!
(preferrably with a hashbrown thang)", and thught this would satisfy my
need for period cooking, plus make their little modnern palates happy. Me,
I do the medieval thing of breaking my fast on bread, small beer (when my
buddy makes it) and maybe some leftovers.


">mince an onion and clarify in good olive oil. Throw in a bag of that
>irradiated pre-washed spinach. Let sweat down. Break and beat a dozen
eggs.
Clarified butter has been mentioned here before. How do you clarify olive
oil? I believe clarified butter has the solids removed. But olive oil
doesn’t
have any solids that I’ve noted."

oops! I mean "mince an onion and sautee till clear in good olive oil".
What, you dont automatically understand my shorthand??? :)

"I’ve never seen irradiated spinach here in the U.S. What would you do to
use standard fresh spinach? Do you tear the leaves into small pieces or
use as whole leaves? What do you mean by “let sweat down”?"

Those yuppie salad in a bags that you get at the grocery stores around here
are often irradiated (egads! :)). Means they dont go all soggy and icky as
fast. If you were to use standard fresh spinach, wash well, and remove the
stems. Tear into pieces. "to sweat down" means (to me) to let cook gently
till the water is released and suddenly you have WAY less volume than you
did before. You know when this has happened cuz the greens arent raw
looking anymore.

re: references....

Here are two. There are more.
In one, its a simple mix of eggs, butter and herbs, baked in a shell. The
other is an omelet gizmo with cheese, with the addition of ginger. We chose
to omit the ginger (sometimes..its tasty too), and do it as a crustless pie
or egg bake thing, depending on your point of view. Considering our infant
level abilities with the fire we're attempting to learn to cook on, I think
we did pretty good :)

We have done it with a more complex mix of salad greens, fresh herbs, etc,
but you cant beat the already bagged greens for ease of use and hygeine
when camping in primitive conditions. Please note that while neither
mentiions onions, they  were classified as an herb in the garden lists and
like of the time. If it offends, you can certainly leave them out.

Herbolat: (Forme of Curye 180)
Take persel, myntes, saverey and sauge, tansey, vervayn, clarry, rewe,
ditayn, fenel, southernwode; hewe hem and grinde hem smale. Medle hem up
with aryen. Do buttur in a trap and do the fars thereto and bake it and
mess forth.

 One Herbolace Or Two of Eggs (Menagier de Paris, p. 274)

Take of dittany two leaves only, and of rue less than the half or naught,
for know that it is strong and bitter; of smallage, tansey, mint, and sage,
of each some four leaves or less, for each is strong; marjoram a little
more, fennel more, parsley more still, but of porray, beets, violet leaves,
spinach, lettuces and clary, as much of the one as of the others, until you
have two large handfuls.  Pick them over and wash them in cold water, then
dry them of all the water, and bray two heads of ginger, then put your
herbs into the mortar two or three times and bray them with the ginger. And

then have sixteen eggs well beaten together, yolks and whites, and bray
and mix them in the mortar with the things abovesaid, then divide it in two
and make two thick omelettes, which you shall fry as followeth.  First you
shall heat your frying pan very well with oil, butter or such other fat as
you will, and when it is very hot all over and especially towards the
handle, mingle and spread your eggs over the pan and turn them often over
and over with a flat palette, then cast good grated cheese on the top, and
know that it is so done, because if you grate cheese with the herbs and
eggs, when you come to fry your omelette, the cheese at the bottom will
stick to the pan, and thus it befals with an egg omelette if you mix the
eggs with the cheese.  Wherefore you should first put the eggs in the pan,
and put the cheese on the top, and then cover the edges with eggs, and
otherwise it will cling to the pan.  And when your herbs be cooked in the
pan, cut your herbolace into a round or square and eat it not too hot nor
too cold.


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