Keep this crap off the list, please RE:SC - Butchering the Human Carcass for Human Consumption

[Bethany Public Library]

Lorix wrote:
> 
> 'Take finely ground coriander and caraway, pepper powder and ground
> garlic, in red wine; mix all this together and salt it.  Take raw pork
> loins, skin them and prick it well with a knife and lay it in the
> sauce.  Roast it when you wish, and save what falls from the meat as
> it roasts and boil it in a pot with good broth, and then serve it with
> the roast' (Forme of Curye).
> 
> Well, I basically read this as make a marinade of ground coriander &
> caraway seeds, crushed garlic, pepper & wine.  Now, I wasn't sure
> whether 'pepper powder' had any particular significance:  ie was this
> referring to white ground pepper for example (since other recipes I
> have seen specify black pepper).  After pondering, I thru some black
> peppercorns in my mortar as well as some white pepper & then ground
> the caraway & coriander all together.

I think the earliest English reference I've seen to white pepper is 17th
century; unless I'm mistaken, most of the references to [specifically]
black pepper that I've seen have been to distinguish between it and long
pepper, and that, usually in English translation. Usually, IIRC, it's
just "pepper" or "pouder of pepper".
> 
> Liking the faint sweet aftertaste that port gives to meet, I chose
> port as the red wine.  So I mixed the spices & garlic together in
> that.

As a friend of mine is fond of saying, there's nuthin' there that'll
kill ya.
> 
> I then read the recipe again & noticed that unlike a lot of recipes,
> this required the meat to be cooked in the wine.  Now, in the respect
> of the feast I am cooking for, the site is only a few minutes from my
> home & my programmable fan-forced oven . . .  I decided that I wanted
> the meat to cook in a manner that required minimal attention (as I
> wouldn't be there to baste), but would achieve reasonable results.  So
> I chose to bake the roast in a baking bag.  This kept much of the
> moisture in the bag, sort of self-basted & was fine to use it to
> marinade too.

I wonder about the interpretation to cook it in the wine. I always
interpreted the instructions to mean that you marinate the meat, then
roast it on a spit in front of a fire, over a drip pan, so you can save
that which droppeth ;  ). You then reduce the pan drippings with
additional broth as needed until you get a flavorful, but not
excessively spicy, pan liquor. Does meat brown in a baking bag, and
doesn't the baking bag defeat the purpose, to some extent, of your nifty
convection oven? I'm not sure how necessary it is to worry about
basting; unless pork loin is a different cut of meat in different
locations, the basic primary cut has a layer of fairly firm fat on the
back, and if you roast it fat side up, and don't overcook it, it
shouldn't require any basting, except perhaps with the marinade for
additional flavor as it roasts. I ask about whether the designation
"loin" is different where you are because in the US, pork loins also
tend to have a moderate amount of fat on the back, but no skin. By any
chance did you use what we call fresh ham, or was this a leaner hog with
the skin still on it?

> 
> The results were _really_ tasty.  The meat was cooked for a couple of
> hours on a slow heat (along with the crackling on a higher shelf ;-).
> The meat had a faint flavour of the marinade all the way thru, was
> very tender & had a texture similar to a smoked meat.

Yum. I've always loved cormarye...
> 
> My only problem was with the sauce.  Now, because I was cooking in the
> bake bag, I did not lose any of the red wine.  Infact, the meat juices
> drained out into the bag & so I had almost double the liquid I started
> with.  This meant there was no reason to add the 'good broth' as
> specified in the recipe <g>.


> But I felt I _did_ need to thicken the sauce since it was very liquidy
> I had managed to not 'lose' any of it in the cooking process.  Now, I
> chose to use dried breadcrumbs, but I did not have enough time to
> really cook them into the sauce as it needs to do to dissolve & be
> less lumpy.  I used breadcrumbs as I felt they would not change the
> taste of the sauce in any way, but _would_ thicken it (seeing as how
> there is no provision for thickening in the recipe. Thicken it they
> did quite satisfactorily.  However _I_ felt that the appearance &
> texture of the resulting sauce was too lumpy (faint sort of sandy
> texture), although very tasty (my guinea pigs said I was being to
> sensitive).  Now, as I was trying to imitate the time I would have
> available at the feast, I cooked the sauce as much as I would be able
> to at the feast, which means I won't have time to break the
> breadcrumbs down.

I suspect, given the flavors and colors involved, that your best bet
might be dry, toasted brown bread, if you're going that route. Not
toasted bread crumbs, but rather bread grilled fairly slowly until dry
throughout, and browned but not burned, similar to some of the croutons
used in things like French Onion Soup, or eaten with bouilliabaise.
However, I'm picturing the sauce made by roasting the meat on a spit,
with the marinade (and accompanying solids, crushed garlic and spices,
etc.) and don't see this producing an unattractively thin sauce. The
drippings, being a boiled semi-emulsion of fat, garlic, ground spices,
and what the English used to call "gravy", i.e. "jus", further reduced
with added stock, itself containing at least some gelatin, ought to be
pretty syrupy in consistency when done, even without bread crumbs. And
if you're worried about a sandy texture, well, I'm not sure that's
avoidable, given the ground spices and crushed garlic, unless you strain
it all out, which would be a shame.  
> 
> Now my question relates to how to improve this.  Would I have been
> better to use fresh pieces of bread to thicken this up?
> Alternatively, soak the breadcrumbs in a little wine for awhile, prior
> to adding the sauce?
> 
> The other option that I have, is not to add anything.  Basically, just
> slice the meat, then tip the sauce over it & give it a chance to soak
> up a little of the sauce prior to serving.  This will mean that the it
> will still be very liquidy (taste is fine) and i'll probably need to
> serve the meat in platters with lips to stop overflow, but is my
> preferred option.

I agree. As I say, the sauce should probably be a slightly syrupy gravy,
thickened with the ground spices and garlic. You might also add just
enough to moisten the meat, then pass additional sauce in a sauceboat of
some kind. This dish may well have been eaten on trenchers anyway, with
the uppermost layers of the gravy-soaked trencher spooned up with the
meat, "accidentally". Nothing so gross as actually eating the trencher,
of course ;  ) . 
> 
> So has anyone any other options for another period way of thickening
> the sauce that will not alter the taste, or has anyone seen any other
> recipes for Cormary that thickens the sauce.  The sauce itself is
> really very nice & the seasoning combination turns out very tasty.

Just out of curiosity, how much garlic did you use? If you use enough to
turn the marinade into a  thin puree, the amount that sticks to the meat
when roasting, and falls off in the cooking, should cook down into a
slightly thickened sauce. I've had stews thickened with nothing but
pureed garlic, which, when cooked enough, is mild and sublimely rich. 

HTH,

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com