SC - Platina in Florence

[Richard Kappler]

This is from Bonne of Traquair

Hello guys,

In January I taught a class at a collegium type event, it's the first
teaching I'd done outside of canton meetings.  The idea behind my class
was
that medieval food is not weird but in fact can be quite familiar. I got
the
idea becauce in my first reading on the subject, which was
"Two-Fifteenth
Century Cookbooks" I kept encountering recipes that sounded like "down
home"
cooking to me!

In researching this, I basically skimmed quickly through every book
UNC-CH
library had to offer, and bookmarked the familiar seeming recipes.  Then
I
went back and culled through only those I thought might appeal to a
broad
audience of people unfamiliar with medieval cooking.  I jotted down some

notes on what I might do when I tried them, but I have not yet cooked
them.

Here's my handout, I hope it's length is not modem-threatening. The
formatting has been removed.  I await useful advice in response.

Thanks,

Bonne
______


THIS is $B!)(Jeriod$B!)(JCooking?

by Lady Bonne de Traquair for Elveghast Community College
January 1999
Windmasters$B!)(JHill, Atlantia

Cooking medievally is easier than you might think.  Reading  middle
english
is enough to make anyone dizzy, but often if you say the odd looking
words,
you$BCM(Jl hear a familiar word, and most editions of manuscripts have
a
glossary or footnotes to help with the rest.  Medieval cooking does
sometimes involve foods which we no longer enjoy or grow, but many
recipes
contain items we might already have in our kitchens.  In my first
attempts
at researching the subject, I came to this conclusion:   Medieval food
can
be startlingly familiar.   Many recipes are found with only slight
variations throughout the manuscripts available to us which have stood
the
test of time and are still eaten by Europeans and Americans daily.  Some
are
recognizable as $B!)(Jountry cooking$B!)(Jof the Southeastern U.S.,
having been
brought here by  English colonists in the 1600$BCT(J and taught parent
to child
for generations.

Here are some medieval recipes for which you might recognize modern
counterparts.  The purpose of this is not to demonstrate that modern
recipes
can be substituted for testing the original recipes, but to show
recognizable recipes that one might start with, or share with non-SCA
friends and relatives who aren$BCU(J sure what you are up to in those
strange
clothes!

Ut Carnem Salsam Dulcem Facias
You can make salt meats sweet by first boiling them in milk and then
finishing them in water.
(Vehling, Apicius , #12)

I learned to soak and then parboil country ham in a milk/water mixture.

Assaturam Simplicem
Simply put the meats to be roasted in the oven, generously sprinkled
with
salt, and serve with honey.
(Vehling, Apicius, #266)

And then you glaze the country ham with honey.

Ut Omne Holus Smaragdinum Fiat
All vegetables will remain green if boiled with cooking soda.
(Vehling, Apicius, #66)

That$BCT(J how I learned to cook collards and turnip greens.  Apicius
is
supposed to have been the writer of a manuscript on cooking originating
during the Imperial Roman period.  The earliest copies of copies are 9th

century, and the 1936 Vehling edition is made from later copies and
editions.  Knowing how changes and errors have crept into the
manuscripts we
do have, it should be assumed that such occured between any original and
the
9th century.  Still, these recipes are spiced and combined slightly
differently than the bulk of the recipes I have seen originating in the
1400$BCT(J to the early 1600$BCT(J.

Felets yn galentyne
Take  the ribbys of a breste of porke; fle of the skyn.  Do the flesche
on a
broche. Roste hit tyl hit be almost ynowghe; take hit of. Chop hit yn
pecys.
Do hit yn a potte with onyons cut grete, wyth  clowys hole, macyz,
quibibys;
do togedyr, & a quantyte of swete broth.  Draw a lyour of paryngys of
crustys of white bredde with good wyne and a lytyll blod, & alaye hit a
lytyll, & do therto poudyr of pepyr, a lytyll, & a good quantyte of
poudyr
of canell, & sette it on the fyre & styrr it. &when it is boyled inowgh,

loke hit be nott chargaunt, Sesyn hit up with poudry of gynger, veneger
&
salt.
Hieatt,  An Ordinance of Pottage , #24)

Pepyr is pepper, clowys are cloves, macyz are mace, quibebys are like
pepper, canell is cinnamon and gynger is ginger.  So we have roast pork,

chopped and seasoned with a heavy  sauce of the hottest spices available

that has been thinned with vinegar.    This is as close to barbecue as
you
can get without red pepper flakes!

If you imagine this pork dish may taste like something you would order
in a
middle eastern or Indian restaurant, you$BCE(J be close.  The
crusaders brought
a taste for eastern spicing with them when they returned home.  Closely
tied
to medieval medical beliefs, this sort of cooking remained the standard
in
noble houses until the end of the medieval period when falling spice and

sugar costs and the acceptance of new world foods caused a change in
food
preferences and cooking styles.

Sallet of Cold Capon Rosted
It is a good Sallet, to slice a cold Capon thin; mingle with it some
Sibbolds, Lettice, Rocket and Tarragon sliced small, Season all with
Pepper, Salt, Vinegar and Oyl, and sliced Limon.  A little Origanum doth

well with it.
(Digby, #___)

Even fast food places sell salad with chicken bits, though usually not
with
the fancier greenery mentioned here.  Sibbolds are a kind of onion,
rocket
is a kind of lettuce.  Origanum is oregano.  This recipe was published
in
the 1600$BCT(J.  By this time, the effects of new world foods and
cheaper sugar
are showing in English food, having influenced more southern European
cuisines a little sooner.

The variable dietary requirements of the church meant that a great many
vegetarian to vegan recipes are available.  Sometimes eggs and milk were

allowed on meatless days, in other times, no animal products were
allowed at
all.   Here are a few egg and dairy recipes.

Dish which is commonly called Cheese Omelette
Pound and at the same time mix seven eggs, a half pound of ground cheese
and
similarly ground bread, and put it into the pot where the saffron sauce
is
going to be made whenever it begins to boil.  Whenever you have stirred
it
two or three times with a spoon, prepare your dishes, for it is quickly
cooked.
(Platina, Book VI, #47)

Since he uses the verb $B!)(Jo grind$B!)(JI would experiment with a
hard cheese like
parmesan.   No amount is given for the bread, but having eaten modern
dish
which involves entire slices of bread soaked in egg then baked in a
casserole, I think it would take a lot of fresh bread crumbs to
significantly alter the texture from plain scrambled eggs.  I$BCN(J
assuming
fresh bread crumbs because it doesn$BCU(J mention that they should be
dry.  I
would try it with a handful  soft breadcrumbs and work up or down in
subsequent trials until reaching a texture I liked and that didn$BCU(J
lengthen
the cooking time beyond $B!)(Juickly$B!)(J  It might be informative
to find the
saffron sauce recipe and see if a particular sort of pot is described,
but
otherwise, I think that bit can be ignored as perhaps a scribal error.

Mylke Rostyd
Take swete mylke and put in panne,
Swyng eyren with alle, gryne safron
And do  (th)erto;  welle hit (th)enne;
Tylle hit wax thykke, as I (th)e kenne;
And sethe and sye hit thorowghe a cloth,
Presse hit, (th)at leves, withouten othe ;
When it is colde, leche hit with knyves;
Rost hit, and messe hit forthe on schyves
(Liber Cure Cocorum, #35)

Fun! A cookbook written in poetry using a northern England 15th century
dialect!  It is basically an unsweetened custard and could be served
like
that, or the additional steps of pressing the finished product into a
more
compact unit, cutting (leche)  and roasting the pieces before serving.
$B!)(Jchyves$B!)(Jare slices--of bread perhaps?   Or does he just
mean trencher
bread, which wouldn$B!)(J have rhymed with $B!)(Jnyves$B!)(J   I
think  his reaching for
rhyme results in an insult in line 4:  $B!)(Jin$B!)(Jstill means
$B!)(Jnderstand$B!)(Jin
some dialects.  So, is he saying  beat the mixture $BAU(Jill
it$BCT(J thick, as I
understand you are$B!)(J !

Canabens with Bacon  (follows instructions on how to clean and dry broad

(fava) beans)
Do suete brothe yn a potte.  Wesche the canabens clene and do therto,
and
boule ut up: put no other lykure thereto.  Loke thay be salte, & serve
them.
  Take ribbys of bacon boyled; do away the skyn and ley hem on a dysch,
and
serve hem forth as ye serve venson with formente un brothe.
(Hieatt,  An Ordinance of Pottage , #4)

The last line tells us boiled Pork goes with cooked beans as surely as
venison goes with frumenty, a custard and barley pudding.   Various
combinations of pork and beans are still more than common in the U.S.,
from
Boston Baked Beans, to pea soup with ham, to pinto beans flavored with
bacon
drippings.


These next few recipes still serve as $B!)(Jomfort food$B!)(Jfor
many of us.

For to make cryspys
Nym flour &  wytys of  eyryron, sugur  [or] honey, & swyng togedre & mak
a
batour.  Nym wyte grees & do yt in a posnet, & cast (th)e batur
(th)ereyn &
styry  to (th)ou have many; & tak hem  vp & messe hem wy(th)
(th)frutours &
serue for(th)e.
(Hieatt and Butler, Curye on Inglysch, II:Diuersa Servicia, #26)

Flour and egg whites and sweetening to make a batter that is cooked in
hot
grease.  M-m-m-m, funnel cakes!

Long Fryturys
Make of the same (previous recipes ingredients: pressed curds, flour,
eggs,
cream ground well together), but lat no creme come theryn: loke hit be
more
styf.  After ley hit on a clene bord that ys no broddyr than theyn hand.

Take a bon of the ryb of a best; wete hym in grese that thy bature cleve

nought theron, & stryke of the batur ynto a pan that hit may fal into
smal
gobets, every freture of a hondfull longe, & serve hem forth hote, &
stew on
white sygure.

Thu may grynd tendyr chese  & make freturys in the same maner, and yf
thu
wilte, take sodyn porke, sodyn tendur, & grynd hit therwith; make pelets
as
grete as a negge, & that ys freture Lumbard.
(Hieatt,  An Ordinance of Pottage , #109)

The first paragraph:  fried dough, elephan ears, sopapillas, beignet.
Whatever you call them, you could sure sell a lot at the State Fair!
The
Wake County health inspector might prefer you use a knife to cut them
instead of the rib of a beast, but someone who has tried the recipe says

that a rib bone cuts the mass of dough into sripts of a nice lenght and
thickness.    The second paragraph is a Bonus Recipe:  is this for a
cheese
and/or pork  meatball that you fry, or is the cheese and pork wrapped in
the
dough like a dumpling, then fried?  Either sounds worth experimenting
with.

Payn Purdeuz
Take faire yolkes of eyren, and try hem from the white, and drawe hem
thorgh
a streynour; and then take salte, and caste threto; And then take maged
brede or paynman, and kutte hit in leches; and then take faire buttur,
and
clarefy hit, or elles take fressh grece and put hit yn  a faire pan, and

make hit hote; And then wete the brede  well there in the yolkes of
eyren,
and then ley hit on the batur in the pan, whan the buttur is al hote;
And
then whan hit is fried eyowe, take sugar yknow, and caste there-to whan
hit
is in the disshe, And so serve hit forth.
(Austin, Two  Fifteenth Century Cookbooks,  Harleian MS. 4016, #80)

French toast recipes crop up again and again in relevent manuscripts
from
several countries and centuries.  Stefan$BCT(J Florilegium has a large

collection of same, and is a good resource for those without easy access
to
a University library, or who want to compare their interpretation skills

with others, www.florilegium.org.


Bibliography

$B!)(Jpicius: Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome$B!)(J edited by
Joseph D. Vehling,
1936, reprinted by Dover Press, 1977, ISBN 0-486-23563-7

"The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened," edited by Jane Stevenson and
Peter
Davidson, Prospect Books, 1997, ISBN 0907325 769.

$B!)(Jurye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth
Century$B!)(J
edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, Oxford University
Press,
1985, ISBN 0-19-722409-1

$B!)(Jelightes for Ladies$B!)(J Sir Hugh Plat, reprinted by Crosby,
Lockwood & Sons
Ltd, London, 1948

$B!)(Jiber Cure Cocorum copied and edited from Sloane MS 1986$B!)(J
by Richard
Morris, A. Asher & Co., Berlin, 1862

$BE0(Jrdinance of Pottage, An edition of Fifteenth Century Recipes in
Yale
University$B!)(J MS Beineke 163$B!)(J edited by Constance B. Hieatt,
Prospect Books,
1988, ISBN 0-907325-38-6

$B!)(Jlatina: On Right Pleasure and Good Health$B!)(J edited by Mary
Ella Milham,
Medieval & Renaissance Text & Studies, Tempe, AZ, 1998, ISBN
0-86698-208-6

$B!)(Jwo Fifteenth Century Cookbooks$B!)(J edited by Thomas Austin,
Oxford
University Press, 1888$B!)(J Reprinted 1964 by Vivian Ridler