[Sca-cooks] Armored Turnips, was OT: Frying Cheese

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Katira wrote:
>Armored turnips are a regular feature at the annual Boar Hunt and Feast in
>December here in the West and I love them!  I make them at home too.  So
>simple, so tasty and easy to make for 1!

I joined the SCA in 1999. The first feast i attended, at Spring 
Collegium 1999, i had not planned to attend - but i didn't have a car 
at the time and my ride left without me. So i was sitting off to the 
side, waiting for the feast to end, when i would have a replacement 
ride. I ended up helping to serve and clean (and being fed)...

I was intentionally a kitchen assistant at my second feast, the 1999 
Boar Hunt. I've attended every Boar Hunt since, except 2002 and i 
head cooked 2000 and 2001. 1999 was, to the best of my knowledge, the 
last time Armored Turnips were served at a Boar Hunt. And the 1999 
Armored Turnips were not very good... OK, they were pretty bad... OK, 
they were *really* bad.

The turnips were not properly cooked - IIRC, the head cook didn't 
bother to have the turnips precooked, just had them sliced and put 
raw in the baking pans - they never cooked and were hard lumps. The 
cheeses used were OOP and not period tasting or textured - Jack and 
Cheddar - i grated the cheese in a Cuisinart. Because the cheeses the 
cook bought were cheap and of low-quality, they were rubbery (not 
much better than (shudder) "American cheese, a cheese food product"). 
And the dish was not properly spiced.

In fact, people came up to me when they heard i was head cooking the 
next Boar Hunt and specifically asked that there be NO Armored 
Turnips because they were so tired of them. I did serve turnips in 
both the Boar Hunts i head cooked, since they're a very seasonal 
vegetable - a mid-17th c. recipe with butter and mustard at my first 
feast and a German root tart at my second Boar Hunt.

So why do people use Cheddar? I happen to be very fond of Cheddar, 
especially a sharp well-aged one. But it is far from appropriate for 
the Armored Turnip recipes i've read:

Platina in De Honesta Voluptate (1475)
>Rapum Armatum - Armored Turnips
>Book 8
>
>Cut up turnips that have been either boiled or cooked under the 
>ashes. Likewise do the same with rich cheese, not too ripe. These 
>should be smaller morsels than the turnips, though. In a pan greased 
>with butter or liquamen, make a layer of cheese first, then a layer 
>of turnips, and so on, all the while pouring in spice and some 
>butter, from time to time. This dish is quickly cooked and should be 
>eaten quickly, too.

OK - Platina calls for a rich, not-too-ripe cheese - so a fatty young cheese...

Ingredients: turnips either boiled or baked - rich cheese - butter - 
spice (which spices?)

But Maestro Martino is more forthcoming...
>Rape Armate
>
>Cook the turnips in the hot cinders or boil them whole and uncut, 
>and slice them as thickly as the blade of a knife, and have good 
>moist cacio [type of cheese] cut in slices as big as the turnip 
>slices, but thinner, and take sugar, pepper and sweet spices and mix 
>these together, and arrange in a pan in this order starting at the 
>bottom, slices of cheese to make a crust, and on top a layer of 
>turnips with the said spices and much good fresh butter; and so on 
>in this way arrange the turnip, and the cheese until the pan is 
>full, and cook this for a quarter of an hour or more, like a tart. 
>And this dish should be served after the others.

Martino calls for a moist cheese - i.e., not a dry cheese like most 
aged Parmesans in the US - but something younger and softer

Ingredients: turnips baked or boiled - good moist cacio cheese - 
butter - sugar, pepper, and sweet spices

The Anonymous Venetian has:
>LXV Armored turnips
>To make armored turnips, put the turnips to cook in the fire 
>(embers) and when they are cooked peel them and cut into thin 
>slices.  Take sweet cheese and make thin slices.  Between each slice 
>of turnip put one (slice) of cheese and let them melt well together. 
>If you want you can put them with a hot lid above and they will be 
>done, then powder them with sugar, etc.

Since "douce" in French can mean "sweet", "mild", and "soft", i 
wonder if the reference here is to a fresh cheese, which will be 
soft, mild, and sweeter than aged cheese. (yes, i realize this was 
written in Italian, but there are some close relationships between it 
and French)

Ingredients: turnips baked - sweet [soft?] cheese - sugar, etc. [i 
suppose this would include sweet spices]

-----

So, nothing like Cheddar or aged Parmesan is mentioned (unless one 
uses a young Parmesan - and i don't know if we can get that here in 
the US). Rather, soft, fatty, possibly young cheeses are called for.

I'm sure that if properly made, Armored Turnips can be delicious - if 
the turnips are precooked and period-type cheeses are used. I guess 
i'll have to experiment. I'd think a bit of Brie or such-like would 
be good, along with some full-cream fresh cheese. And the spices can 
be played with... since Martino calls for sweet spices, a little 
cinnamon and ginger. Nutmeg sounds like it would be good here, too. 
And I wonder how galangal would be in this...
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita