[Sca-cooks] Beets and backfiles was Beets

[Huette von Ahrens]

Although these are not English recipes, here are
some period German recipes that call for beet
roots of various types.

Huette

>From Sabina Welserin, 1553

202 To make smoked tongue, recipe from Herr Jörg
Fugger 

Take fresh tongues and cut the throat completely
from it. Then they should be well pounded or
beaten, lengthwise, over a block or a chair, not
too hard, so that they are not smashed or do not
become mangled. One must beat them until they
become soft underneath and also at the tip. They
do not, however, become as soft at the tip as at
the back on the thick end. When they are so
beaten, then put them into a trough with salt for
a good while. Then they should be salted like
other meat and a nice red raw beet cut into cubes
and also peas sprinkled under them and in between
them and over the top of them, but not all too
much, and let them stay thus for a day or
overnight in a warm place. Then lay a small board
over them and a good heavy stone and let it 
remain so for four weeks. If, after four or five
days, they should not be covered with brine,
finely chop some red beets and cook them in water
and drain the water off the beets and pour a
glassful of vinegar into the water. The water
should be cool enough that one could just bear to
dip a finger into it. One could also cook a few
peas with the beets, if the broth would otherwise
be too red, and put the red beets and the 
likewise red peas together with the salt on the
bottom and in between and on the top. They can 
lie for five weeks or longer, and when they are
hung, the thick ends should be turned to the top,
poke a hole through them with a baling needle and
hang them on a coarse thread in a kitchen, which
has no chimney, and not over the fire in the 
thick smoke, so that the outsides become nicely
brown, they become splendidly brown. 

>From Marx Rumpolt, 1581:

7. Green salad/ that is small and young/ red 
beets cut small/ and tossed thereover/ when the
salad is prepared/ and the red beets are 
cooked and cooled.

21. Take white beet (according to Hopf #378)
stems/ peel and poach then in water/ prepare it
with oil/ vinegar and salt. 

29. Red beet salad/ when they are cooked/ so cut
them small/ long or diced/ season it with oil/
vinegar and salt/ may make it sweet or sour.
 
39. Take sugar (sugar beet!)/ season it and 
scrape it/ so they turn white/ poach then 
in water/ and cool/ season it with vineger/ oil
and salt. You can also serve them raw/ if they 
are clean and well peeled or scraped. 

3. Red beets preserved with small cut 
horseradish/ anise/ coriander/ and a little
caraway/ special if the beets are cut/ marinated
in half wine and half vinegar. 






=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

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