SC - recipe for za'tar

[Stefan li Rous]

Greetings,
>
>"45. For to make bukkenade. Nym god fresch flesch, wat maner so yt be, &
>hew it in smale morselys, & seth yt wy(th) gode fresch buf; & cast
>(th)ereto gode myncyd onyons & gode spicerye, & alyth wy(th) eyryn, &
>boyle & dresse yt forth."
>
>"53. For to make a bukkenade, tak veel & boyle it. Tak (y)olkys of eggys
>& mak hem (th)ykke. Tak macis & powdre of gyngyuer & powdere of peper, &
>boyle it togedere & messe yt forth."

Okey doke. Not having yet been able to run to the store for meat, I went to my
various books and manuals to track down more info on this "bukkenade" also known
as "buknade" and "bokkenade" and so forth. Not having _Curye on Inglysch_ I
turned to _Forme of Cury_, _Ancient Cookery_, _Noble Boke Off Cookry_, and the
15th c cookery books all found in _the Miscellany_.

There's a variety of meats involved but the primary one seems to be veal. Also
two recipes say if it's too thin, to thicken with rice flour, and others say use
egg yolks. Some have onions, currants, and other green herbs while some use
saffron for color and one called for saunders.

All that being said, it would appear to be something like a pottage in all
places (in fact in appears in the pottage section of Two 15th c cookery books).
The meat is cut up rather small and it's boiled by itself in water or broth or
boiled with another meat (beef specifically) in water or broth. After all the
other ingredients are put in, the final part is thickening the liquid before
serving.

As to the typical spices used with veal, again another round with the afore
mentioned texts concluded that pepper, ginger, cloves, mace, salt, cinnamon, and
saffron were most likely used, cinnamon and saffron appearing less frequently
than the others.

After a jaunt to the market:

I've decided to try recipe 45. Oops! No beef to seeth and decide to use some of
the concentrated beef soup stock instead.

Bukkenade

1 3/4 cups veal in 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 cup minced onion
1/2 tsp beef soup stock
4 cups water
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp ground clove
3 egg yolks

Boil water, add soup stock, stir to dissolve. Add veal, boil for about five
minutes. Add onion and spices. Cook until onions go soft about 20-25 minutes.

Warmed up the eggs from the fridge by putting them in warm water for a few
minutes. Separate yolks from whites, beat eggs until they thicken a bit. Add a
tablespoon at a time of boiling broth to egg yolks,  continuously beating, until
mixture is warm. Slowly pour egg mixture into broth while beating. Serve.

Took this to a friend's open house and served it over noodles. Folks seemed to
like it a fair bit. My husband is happy to snarf the left overs.

Note: When I try this again, I'll have a chunk of beef instead of soup stock to
throw into the cooking water and use less water to begin with. The pepper made
itself known and the ginger was less obvious because of it; probably put in less
pepper. The cloves and mace were just right. I hadn't tried thickening a liquid
with egg yolks before; WOW! what an incredible difference that made. The whole
recipe got more delectable once the eggs were added.

Thanks Adamantius for posting this challenge!

Cedrin
Princess Oertha