[Sca-cooks] Period German Recipes

[Volker Bach]

lilinah at earthlink.net schrieb:
>
> Volker Bach <bachv at paganet.de> wrote:

Here are the recipes. I'm afraid IO'm only
juststarting this hobby, so I lack many sources in
the original and am still largely working with
fairly deficient general interest books. Hence I
can not always give you original texts.

> >Also, there is a very nice almond tart in the cookbook of Sabina
> >Welserin that I can share a proven redaction for if you want it
> >(heavy and sweet, ideal for dark winter days).
>
> Yes, pretty please, share.

I lost my original, so all I can give you is a
translation of a translation, but Sabina Welserin
is abvailable online if you need the original
text. The translation (from Peschke/Feldmann: Das
Kochbuch der Renaissance) goes something like
this:

If you want to make almond tart first take a pound
of almonds and grind them. pour rosewater into it
and put it in a bowl. take the whites of give eggs
and cream and again rosewater and put it into the
almond mush. See that it is not toothin or too
thick and then put it into a tart shell and bake
it nicely in a dish. When it has become firm take
egg yolk and rosewater, mix it, and brush the top
and sides of the tart with it and bake it until
done

The redaction is to make a pie crust from butter,
flour, powdered sugar, egg yolks and lemon zest,
shape it into a tart shell, and fill it with a
mush made from

- 500 grammes blanched, ground almonds
- 120 grammes powdered sugar (this is a modern
addition I guess. It's also good without it iof
you serve it with something sweet like jam or
preserve)
- 5 egg whites
- 200 ml sweet cream
- 2 tsp rosewater

THe ingredients are mixed (the egg whites are not
beaten), then filled into the tart shell and baked
at 375°F for 25-30 minutes, then brushed with a
mix of one egg yolk and 1 tsp rosewater and baked
a further five minutes. It's good (I served it for
my birthday in the sweet version and for a Shire
meet in the unsugared, with homemade jam) and easy
to make. I want to try doing it in small
finger-tarts, and I also would like to see whether
Sabina Welserin always specifies whether egg
whites are to be beaten or not - I'd like to see
whether this comes out lighter with beaten whites.
It's a trifle heavy.

> >I can also recommend from tasting experience (not cooking) the
> >'filled eggs' presented in a low German cookbook c. 1500 that I have
> >an (untested) redaction for, again happy to share if you want it.
>
> Yes, please, again :-)

For this one unfortunately I have only a redaction
and a source which I have as yet been unable to
track down (Niederdeutsches Kochbuch ed. Hans
Wiswe in: Braunschweiger Jahrbuch 37 (1956)). It
goes like this:

boil hard four eggs. Shell, cut in half and remove
yolk. process it with sage, spearmint or fresh
coriander (there seems to be a dispute on the
spearmint bit), pepper, salt and saffron, and
blend in one raw egg. Fill the mass back into the
half eggs. Put the eggs ionto a greased oven dish
and prepare a sauce of:

2 eggs (raw)
2 tblsp wine vinegar
2 tblsp balsamic vinegar (the original apparently
specifies only 'vinegar')
1 tblsp honey
pepper, saffron and salt (be sparing with the
salt)

pour this over the eggs and bake them at 400° for
c. 10 minutes.

> >Try the sauce of tart cherries from Meister Eberhart. Recipe on
> >request (sorry, pressed for time right now). Very good, and
> >SCA-tested at this years Horseradish War.
>
> Mmmm, this sounds good. Ok, so please share a third time...

For this one I *can* give you the orioginal text,
courtesy of Mr. Gloning's website. It goes

Zum ein salsenn von weichselnn zu machen.
Item wiltu machen ein gutte salsenn von
weichselnn,
so thue die weichsell in einen hafen vnd
secz die auff ein glut vnd laß sie siedenn vnd
laß dann wider erkaltenn vnd streich sie durch ein
tuch vnd thue sie dann wider in den hafenn vnd
secz sie auff ein glut vnd laß sie wol sieden
vnd rurr sie, piß sie dick wirt, vnd thue dann
honig dar an vnd geribens prot vnd negellein vnd
gut gestu:ep vnd thue sie in ein feßlein. Sie
pleibt dir gut drew oder vier iar.

Free translation: To make a sauce of tart
cherries. Namely if you want to make a sauce of
tart cherries then purt the cherries into apot and
put that on the embers and let them boil and then
cool them and force them through a cloth, then put
it back into the pot and put them on the embers
and and let it boil well, and stir it, until it
thickens, and then add honey and breadcrumbs and
cloves and good spices (?) and put it in a small
cask. It will stay good three or four years.

A redaction I have calls for 300 grammes of
cherries to be boiled with 1/4 liter of water and
put through the food processor. THen you added 3
tblsp honey, 20 grammes of butter (I found it
better without), a slice of fresh white bread in
fine crumbs, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a pinch each of
ground cardamom, ground cloves, and salt and
boiled it till reduced by about a third. It goes
well with dark meat, but was also popular with
pancakes (French style) and bannocks.

> >Red cabbage? Very good, and very German. Cut up small and briefly
> >fried, then simmered with onions and apples...
>
> Is this method of cooking cabbage "period"? It sure sounds tasty...
> If it is, i can probably figure this out myself. What seasonings are
> likely, besides salt and pepper?

A fellow SCA-Cook of mine claims it is and points
to Sabina Welserin. I trust him enough not to have
checked, but probably ought to have done so. It
was definitely quite tasty when he served it.

> >If you're happy with fish, you might want to try the Jerusalem Spis
> >from gute spise:
>
> Thanks for this recipe. I've been mulling over fish. I think most
> folks around here would eat it...

Then you have more experimental-minded folks than
I have :-)

> Thanks for your suggestions. I look forward to the recipes... (can
> you include the original translated into English, also?)

Where I could I did. Sorry, I'm still lacking even
elementaries (I mean, I don't even have his Grace
Cariadoc's cookbooks yet, so what kind of a
SCAdian am I?!)

Giano