[Sca-cooks] class postmortem

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

Hi. I taught a class on spices & savory seeds this past weekend. I brought
a bunch of spices for people to smell/taste, and samples of various spiced
foods. I'll probably teach it again, so suggestions are welcome.
The foods I brought were my own redactions of:

-The poached pears in spiced syrup recipe in the Medieval Kitchen by
Redon  et. all (from An Ordinance of Pottage, apparently)
(cook the pears, peel and cut them up, boil cinnamon in wine with sugar,
anise, cloves & mace, and [optional] chopped dates and currants; add the
pears and boil it together. Make sure it is brown with cinnamon and add a
great deal of powdered ginger...) I used white wine rather than red and
added dates but not currants. I thought it was too cinnamon-y.

- Tournai style cameline sauce, menagier de paris, but with white wine
rather than red and less sugar than my usual redaction (and noticing,
again, that it is imperative to strain before boiling, otherwise you get a
sort of cinnamon bread pudding)

- Black (pepper) sauce from le viander (burnt seeded rye bread, pepper,
ginger, apple cider vinegar & cider, wine vinegar)

- Green sauce from tractado modo (parsley with ginger, cinnamon, peper,
nutmeg, cloves, parsley, sage, garlic, white wine vinegar) -- yes, this is
just as good the 2nd day if not better

- Comfits of anise, dill, fennel and caraway (as recommended in Rumpolt)

- Gingerbrede (the version in Cariadoc's miscellany, though I couldn't
find my saunders in the middle of the recipe so I had to omit it!)

The handouts are here (if anyone is interested, and/or wants to
comment, correct, criticize 'em!):
http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/herbs/Easternspice.html
http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/herbs/seeds.html
http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/herbs/spiceaccounts.html

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"I used to be one of them. Now I rather think I'm one of me." -- Terry
Prachett, _Thief of Time_