SC - I CHALLENGE YOU...

[Par Leijonhufvud]

On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> ...to adapt this period recipe to a workable modern one! <sorry,
> couldn't resist.>

And I choose galliard variations at 50 paces or until one of us fatigues
as the form of combat (as if I could resist, either).
 
> "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."

I did this more or less by accident last night. I was leafing through
"Two 15th Century Cookbooks" looking for inspiration for dinner, came
uppon the bukkenade there and decided to rise to Adamantius bait. I went
mostly by the first recipie, but peeked a bit both at the second one and
at the one in Cindys book. I did not peek at her redaction, which turned
out to be quite different from mine when I checked afterwards. 

I had some beef (can't remember the english term for "högrev", basically
a stewing cut), perhaps 4-500 g after I had deboned it. I "hewed it in
small morselys", which I figured was about 1 cm or less. Then I placed
it in a pot with some beef stock (half a litre) and set it to simmer. As
it was comming to a boil I chopped a large onion (the volume of chopped
onion was approximately equal to the volume of the chopped beef) and
added it.

Then came the issue of "gode spicery", I decided to use ginger and
pepper, since they where listed in the second version. I was stumped by
"macis". I added these to taste, naturally not remembering to measure
anything. A number of turns of the pepper mill, and a goodly amount of
ginger, both to taste. I tend to strive for the "fill you your mouth
with flavour" end result when I cook, so I was working towards that.

After it had boiled for an hour or so (the meat was extremely tender) I
took two eggs, whisked them up in a bowl and tempered them with some of
the stock from the pot, and finally added the eggs to the pot while
whisking rapidly. 

The end result was quite nice, the only things I was slightly unhappy
with was that I should have let the stock boil down more (i.e left the
lif off the pot), and perhaps have used one more egg, to make the liquid
thicker. More onion would have been another thing that might have come
in handy.

The end result could have been served as a soup, or (as I did) with
rice. Anyone know what the original intent was?

- ---------------------------------
Bukkenade

4-500 g beef, chopped in 1 cm pieces
1 large onion, chopped
500 ml beef stock
ginger
pepper

2 eggs
- ---------------------------------
(this makes two dinners and one large lunchbox, if served with rice)

/UlfR

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                      parlei at algonet.se
Mediocre minds think alike.