SC - Roast beef

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Ron Rispoli wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 
> Take fayre bef of the quyschons, or motoun of  the bottes,& kytte in the
> maner of stekys:  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,& 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: 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.
> 
> This is from "A Fifteenth Century Cookry Boke" by John L. Anderson

I've made this, although starting from the recipe in Taillevent, which
calls for a much more basic stuffing of marrow or suet, which this
includes as a moistener for a more typical stuffing. "Aloes" appears to
be a corruption of the Old French "aloyeaulx", or larks, as this little
spitted morsel of stuffed meat was intended to resemble a small bird,
either one stuffed or perhaps undrawn like an ortolan or bunting. Still
later recipes for the same dish (sometimes ending up as a filling for
pies) refer to the basic stuffed meat roll as "olives".

Taillevent has you roll marrow or suet into the rolls (in his case, veal
slices from the leg, rather like scallopine only cut along the grain, as
I recall) and then roast them on spits, brushing them with an egg-yolk-y
crepe batter as a glaze before serving.

When I did this dish I wasn't aware of the above recipe, and due to
supply problems on the day of the event I did end up a stuffing very
similar to the above, simply because I had to fill them with something,
and didn't have enough marrow to do the job. So, I made a stuffing from
minced green herbs, hard-boiled egg yolks, a bit of grated cheese, and
the marrow, minced, because that was pretty much what Taillevent
recommended as a poultry stuffing. And these were, after all, birds.

As I recall this was a sort of illusion feast, so in addition to the
birds made of veal we also served flounders made out of chicken (grilled
spatchcocked or butterflied chickens in a sauce intended for flounder),
and sausages made out of fish.

Adamantius 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com