SC - Cheese and soup (long)

[Stefan li Rous]

Cait asked:> 
>         (1) I have had an offer of fresh, locally-made mozzerella cheeses,
> perhaps with flavorings, to be served at an upcoming feast.  Does anybody
> know the period (or not) nature of mozzerella?

You might check the cheese-msg file in the FOOD section of my Florilegium.

>         (2) Similarly, I received a suggestion that we serve a chilled sour
> cherry soup.  The recipe in question, which I haven't seen yet (don't laugh)
> came out of a Time-Life book on French cooking and there is no reason to
> think it has anything at all in common with period cooking.  Now, a cold
> soup would be nice, given that it's going to be May and sticky, but I'd
> rather have a period recipe.  Does anyone have a direction to point me in
> for (a) a cold soup and (b) a cold fruit soup?  I'd like to give a little on
> this suggestion, for local reasons, if possible.

The following two recipes are from the soups-msg file, also in the FOOD
section. My appologies for this being so long, but I haven't seen too many
recipes here lately, so I thought I would post these rather than just
refer to the files. there may be more in these files also, depending upon
how broadly you define "soup" and which fruits you are willing to use.

Stefan

> Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 20:49:44 -0400
> From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - Mustard Soup:  Finis!
> 
> James and/or Nancy Gilly wrote:
> 
> > >His Immensity, Salaamallah, said he located this in a now out of print
> > >book called 'The Delectable Past'.  The mustard soup therein was taken
> > >from a period reference which was compiled by the cook to Richard II of
> > >England, who claimed this was a favorite repast of the King.
> > >
> > >Salaamallah says his redaction is reasonably close to the original's
> > >contents.  Yeah, he uses Guildon's prepared mustard, but what the hey.
> 
> Hmmm...
> 
> From "The Delectable Past", copyright 1964 by Esther B. Aresty, Award
> Books, New York City, 1968. LoC # 64-22415, pp. 23-24:
> 
> "While Richard Plantagenet's cooks were smiting and hewing their way
> through royal menus, a more gently phrased cookery manuscript had been
> prepared in the kingdom across the Channel. Le Viandier was compiled by
> Guillaume Tirel (Taillevent) about 1375 for the cooks of Charles V, also
> a monarch with a taste for the better things. A 'viandier' is a meat
> cook, and the manuscript had a special section on roasts which included
> - -- along with mutton, kid, and venison -- pigeons roasted with their
> heads intact.
> 
> Among the potages (soups-stews), one recipe employed mustard as a
> seasoning for the broth. Using Taillevent's ingredients, a delicious
> soup emerges that may be served hot or cold. Either way, its lovely
> green color is as refreshing as its taste.
> 
> Mustard Soup
> 
> 2 tablespoons butter
> 3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
> 2 tablespoons flour
> 2 1/2 cups thoroughly skimmed chicken stock, heated
> 1 1/4 cups rich milk, heated
> 1/2 teaspoon salt and a dash of white pepper
> 1/2 teaspoon onion juice
> 2 egg yolks
> 2 to 3 tablespoons sweet cream
> 
> Melt the butter, stir in the flour and blend smoothly. Add the hot
> chicken stock and milk, and whisk until smooth. Add salt, pepper, and
> onion juice. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool slightly. Combine egg
> yolks and cream and add to the soup, custard style -- that is, temper
> first with a few spoonfuls of the warm broth. Last, add the mustard.
> 
> If served cold, garnish with a dab of whipped cream. If hot, garnish
> with pancake shreds or green peas."
> 
> So, this appears to be the primary source, more or less. Taillevent's
> soup is rather different, but appears to have been the inspiration for
> this original recipe. For those of you who may feel inclined to sneer at
> the liberties taken with Taillevent, I can only say that it beats the
> recipes in "Fabulous Feasts" for edible quality, at least, and in 1968
> there wasn't a heck of a lot else available for those who had no access
> to the original manuscripts. "The Delectable Past", BTW, still has the
> best Daryol recipe I've ever seen, albeit that it appears to be more
> reflective of eighteenth-century "Richmond Maids of Honor" Darioles. 
> 
> Adamantius
> 
> 
> Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 19:14:22 EDT
> From: LrdRas at aol.com
> Subject: SC - Will's- more recipes
> 
> Here are the few recipes my co-feastocrat at Will's Revenge, His Lordship
> Thorstein,  was willing to share. :-) Sorry for the lack of documentation but
> this isn't my work. Enjoy. They are wonderful. :-)
> 
> Green almond soup
> ca 2 cups spinach (tightly packed down whole leaves about * lb. raw)
> 3-4 scallions, cut in pieces
> 2-3 sprigs parsley
> 6 cups water
> 1 * teaspoon salt
> 1 tsp. sugar
> 8 oz ground almonds
> 
> Bring the water to a boil, adding salt;  put in spinach and scallions and boil
> about 4 minutes;  then add parsley, boil for a few more seconds, them
> remove from the heat.  Drain, reserving the cooking water.  Chop the
> vegetables very fine or put in a blender with the almonds and a little of the
> reserved water, and blend.  Stir together the greens, almonds, and all of the
> reserved water, adding the sugar, in the saucepan, and return to the stove.
> Simmer together gently for about five minutes.  Serve hot or cold.
> 
> <snip of other recipes>

And possibly this one from the fruits-msg file:

> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 15:22:57 -0400
> From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - cherries
> 
> Mark Harris wrote:
> 
> > Is this Russian Cherry Soup period? Sounds like it probably isn't. Could
> > you please post this recipe anyway? Or send to me by email? It sounds
> > interesting.
> 
> I suspect that it probably is period, or derived from some earlier
> version that is. An earlier version of the "Syrosye" recipe calls for
> the inclusion of "vlehs gret", or great flesh, which is probably chunks
> or slices of a large joint cooked (or partly cooked) whole and
> separately, either by boiling or roasting. The thickening of bread
> crumbs suggests it is quite early, too. Actually the Russian Cherry Soup
> sounds like borscht made with cherries. (Doesn't borscht just mean soup
> anyway? But you know what I mean.)
>  
> > I've only occasionaaly found fresh cherries in the grocery and they were
> > probably the sweet kind. Anyone know how/where to get these sour cherries?
> 
> They can be bought at Middle Eastern, Eastern European (and Russian ; 
> )  ) markets. Usually packed in jars of sour cherry juice. Sometimes
> pitted, sometimes not. 
>  
> > What kind(s) of cherries were known in medieval europe?
> 
> I believe Montmorenceys are period. They were brought to the New World
> early on. Bing cherries, probably the most common American variety, are
> quite late indeed (like late 19th, early 20th century). Other than that
> I don't know. 
> 
> Adamantius
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:
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