SC - boiled garlic

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius answered my questions about garnishing the boiled garlic
dish with:
> Stefan li Rous wrote:
> > But would the garnishes of a dish be mentioned? Are there a number of
> > recipes that say something like "and garnish as you wish with good herbs"
> > or whatever? Are there really that many modern recipes that specify
> > garnishes, particularly at the "professional" level?
> 
> If I understand what you mean by the "professional" level, I'd say not
> all, but many, specify at least a recommended garnish. Recipes written
> by professionals for professionals (those for use in restaurants, not
> for cookbooks) will often contain very specific instructions as to where
> to put everything on the plate, as well as the type and quantity of
> garnish. 

Interesting. Not what I expected at all. I expected such recipe books to
be similar to the early medieval cookbooks, where the specifics were left
unstated since the audience would presumably know these basics or have
their own way of doing things. It was the books for the beginning cook
that I expected would have the most detail.

> As I recall, the
> aquapatys recipe just says to boil the garlic in this stuff with powders
> of these spices, and serve it forth hot. To me, this suggests it was the
> intent of the cooks to serve it more or less ungarnished in its
> saffron-y yellow sauce. (Again, I'm going from memory here; I _think_ it
> contains saffron.)

Oh! I had only what had been posted on this list. I didn't even consider
keeping the thin sauce as there was a fair amount of it. I could have
simply kept a small amount rather than just scooping out the garlic
cloves and just keeping what which clung to the cloves. It did seem
such a waste to put so much saffron and spices into the boiling water
and then throw most of it out. For the six cloves in the recipe, I now 
think the cup of water might have been excessive. I actually a little
over doubled the amount of ingredients but used approx. one and a half
cups of water. And yes, it contains a fair amount of saffron. The redaction
called for 1/4 teaspoon.
 
> > It really isn't a very impressive dish by itself, just a few garlic
> > cloves coated in a light covering of sauce sitting in a bowl. I get
> > the impression that the upper class medieval folks preferred decorated
> > foods vs. simple ones. How would they have dressed such a dish up?
> > Served it with something else? What would you suggest to fancy this
> > dish up a little?
> 
> Hmmm. The evidence suggests such people certainly enjoyed decorative
> foods, but wouldn't necessarily mean it was a necessity or even a
> universal preference.

Possibly. I'm thinking of grand feasts. I've not read that many recipes.
I've mostly read the teritiary materials.
 
> > This dish was for a pot luck/sideboard. I think it did very well this
> > way. With the addition of some non-period wooden toothpicks, it could
> > serve as a finger food.
> 
> Quite possibly. Most of the cooked garlic dishes I've seen involve
> spreading it on bread or croutons of some kind. Did you cook the garlic
> until soft, or somewhat firm? It sounds as if it was pretty firm, if it
> could hold on a toothpick. My major concern in such a case would be that
> you'd lose a lot of your sauce.

I guess you would say somewhat firm. They were easily pierced with a
fork and would fall apart if you twisted the fork when it was in the
clove. The redaction said "boil until garlic is easily pierced
with a fork". The period recipe does say "dress it forth hool" which
the redaction translates as "Serve it forth whole".

Yes, I think you lose a lot of the sauce. But as mentioned earlier,
I didn't keep most of the sauce. :-(
- -- 
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:
         http://lg_photo.home.texas.net/florilegium/index.html ****
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