[Sca-cooks] Re:unusual plants

[Daniel Myers]

On Jun 26, 2004, at 11:34 PM, Devra at aol.com wrote:
>         I went to an herb farm with some other SCAdians today, and 
> bought
> sweet cecily and Good King Henry, as well as catnip (of course), 
> spearmint,
> winter savory, some scented geraniums, and anise hyssop. Any 
> suggestions about
> using the cecily, henry, and hyssop? (The cats have already told me 
> how we're
> using the catnip....)

Don't know about the others, but hyssop shows up in all sorts of 
recipes.  Here's a few:

[Liber cure cocorum]  Sawce madame. Take sawge, persoly, ysope, 
saveray, Onyons gode, peres, garlek, I say, And grapes. go fille þy 
gose þenne And sew þy hole, no grece oute renne. Lay hur to fyre and 
rost hyr browne, And kepe þo grece þat falles doune. Take galingale and 
þo grece þat renne, Do hit in posnet, as I þe kenne. Whenne þo gose is 
rostyd, take hir away, Smyte hir in pesys, I þe pray. Þat is within, 
þou schalle take oute, Kest in þy posnet with outene doute. 3if hit is 
thyke do þerto wyne, And powder of galingale þat is fyne, And powder 
dowce and salt also. Boyle alle togeder er þou fyr go, In a dysshe þy 
gose þou close Þe sawce abofe, as I suppose.

[Le Menagier de Paris (Janet Hinson, trans.)]  NEW BEANS. Boil till 
they split, then take plenty of parsley and a little sage and hyssop, 
and grind very fine; and after this grind up some bread, and a handful 
of these same beans which should be peeled and ground with the bread 
for thickening, then put through a sieve: then fry the rest of your 
beans in bacon fat, if this is a meat day, or in oil or butter, if this 
is a fish day; then put your beans in meat stock, if this is a meat 
day, or in the water from the beans, if this is a fish day.

[Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books]  Custarde. Take Vele, and smyte 
hit in litull peces, and wass it clene; put hit into a faire potte with 
faire water, and lete hit boyle togidre; then take parcelly, Sauge, 
Isoppe, Sauerey, wass hem, hewe hem, And cast hem into fless whan hit 
boileth; then take powder of peper, canel, Clowes, Maces, Saffron, 
salt, and lete hem boyle togidre, and a goode dele of wyne wit all, And 
whan the fless is boyled, take it vppe fro the brot, And lete the broth 
kele. Whan hit is colde, streyne yolkes and white of egges thorgh a 
streynour, and put hem to the brot, so many that the broth be styff 
ynowe, And make faire cofyns, and couche iij. or iiij. peces of the 
fless in the Coffyns; then take Dates, prunes, and kutte hem; cast 
thereto powder of Gynger and a litull Vergeous, and put to the brot, 
and salt; then lete the coffyn and the fless bake a litull; And then 
put the brot in the coffyns, And lete hem bake till they be ynog.   
[I've made this one and it's quite tasty - Doc]

[Le Viandier de Taillevent]  Mutton haricot. Take raw mutton, cut it 
into small pieces, and fry it lightly in lard with some finely chopped 
onions. Steep it in beef broth, add some wine, verjuice, mace, hyssop 
and sage, and boil well together.

If you want the rest, or are looking for something more specific, let 
me know and I'll see what I can dig up.

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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