SC - Roast beef

[Christine A Seelye-King]

> This recipe confused me a bit the title says ribs of beef
> (Alows de beef or de mutton) but the recipe calls for rump
> (quyschons).  I'd be interested to hear what others can do with 
> this.

	Ok, recipe redaction challenge time?  I'll give it a go.  

Alows de beef or de mutton
Short Ribs of Beef or Mutton
 
> Take fayre bef of the quyschons, or motoun of  the bottes, & kytte in
the maner of stekys:
	Take fair beef of the [?cushions/buttocks/short ribs?  I can't quite
feature what part of the ribs we would do this with, the loin, perhaps?],
or mutton of the butt, and cut into (?thick) steaks:

 >Than take raw Percely, & Oynonys smal y-scredde,& yolkys of eyroun
sothe hard, & Marow or swette, & hew alle thes to-gedder smal; than caste
ther-on poudere of gyngere & saffroun,

	Then take raw parsley, onions - shredded small, hard boiled egg yolks,
bone marrow or suet, chop them all together small; add powdered ginger
and saffron,

>& tolle them to-gederys with thin hond, & lay them on the stekys al
a-brode,& caste salt ther-to; then rolle to-gederys, & putte hem on a
round spete, & roste hem til they ben y-now: 
	
	rub them all together with your hand,  pat the mixture all over the
steak, 
and add salt,
	
	From here I guess it depends on your definition of 'steak'.  I could
easily see rouladen out of this, with 'rolle to-gederys' meaning roll the
mixture-covered steak up and put it on a spit (round spit = wire-type?)
OR it could be taking a larger chunk of meat (a chunk of tenderloin?),
patting the mixture on it and rolling the meat around to get it evenly
covered, then salting it and putting the larger piece of meat on a
multiple pronged spit to get it stuck 'in the round'.   Then again, maybe
we're talking about a rack of short ribs!

>than lay hem in a dysshe, & pore ther-on vynegre & a lityl verious, &
> pouder pepir ther-on y-now, & gyngere, & canelle, & a fewe yolkys of 
> hard eyroun y-kremyd ther-on; & serue forth.

	When cooked to desired doneness, place in a dish, and treat with a
little vinger and verjuice.  Sprinkle with powdered pepper, ginger, &
cinnamon, and the 'creamed' hard boiled egg yolks. OR - A sauce made with
vingegar, verjuice, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and thickened with the
creamed hard boiled egg yolks.  
> 
> This is from "A Fifteenth Century Cookry Boke" by John L. Anderson

	  I'm more inclined to believe flat pieces of meat covered with a paste,
rolled & skewered, then sauced at the end than any other definition. In
Cindy's book, "Allowes de Mutton" is very similar to this recipe, and she
interprets "Take faire Mutton of the Buttes," as "Short Ribs of Mutton. 
Take fair Mutton off the Butts,"  Anderson's glossary definitely defines
Allows as short ribs. It says buttys = butts or buttocks, and quyschons =
cushions, (buttocks, the cushions you, but rarely cows, sit on).  So you
are right, the recipe seems to be using two different cuts of meat here,
and it is confusing.  Unless we're talking about the tenderloin from the
butt end of the ribs, but that's reaching.  
	Sounds good either way though, and I know we've done similar recipes at
many feasts I've seen and done myself, where we used bottom round IIRC. 
We added the step of pounding the meat flat (with jokes about squires
beating the meat for the entire event ;) which made rolling easier and
the meat tenderer.  I don't see anything in this recipe that would lead
me to believe flattening the meat was done, though.  
	Thanks, that was fun.   It's nice to do something more than read and
delete emails, but work has been monopolizing my time. :p I have to go to
bed now, though. 
Christianna
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