[Sca-cooks] Favorite Healthy period dishes

Johnna Holloway johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu
Mon Aug 14 16:32:13 PDT 2006


I can see flavor and moisture and richness all combining, but
then I had the opportunity to watch Ivan Day lard a roast for
lunch and then spit roast it in April using a spit jack.
Roasts of this type are illustrated here-- (We were exploring Gervase 
Markham
and his recipes in April.)
http://www.historicfood.com/Roast%20Fillet%20of%20Beef%20Recipe.htm
See also http://www.historicfood.com/Venison.htm

His website has the pretty pie pictures for those that would like
their cookery and pastry well illustrated.
[The 18th century lamb pasty is very nice.
http://www.historicfood.com/Edward%20Kidders%20Lamb%20Pasty.htm]
The earlier pastry recipes for meat are at--
 http://www.historicfood.com/Pie%20recipe.htm
http://www.historicfood.com/Pie%20recipe2.htm
He includes this explanation for lumber pies:
"Robert May's Lumber Pie before being covered with a 'cut lid'.
This is one of the great 'sweet-sour' pies of the early modern period.
The name is a corruption of Lombard Pie. The little balls of lumber meat,
usually made from veal, sometimes enclosed a little nugget of bone marrow
and would have had a soft centre like a Chicken Kiev. Other forgotten 
English
pies in this ancient sweet-sour tradition were dowlett pie, spring pie 
and stump pie."

So here we have bone marrow in veal balls that are then baked
within a crust.

Johnnae


Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
Ah. I see. Well, okay. I guess there can be reasoned idea flow anyway...
> The possibilities I see are that they're there for flavor, in which  
> case reducing them somewhat would probably not change the character  
> of the dish in a really significant way. snipped
> Or, they're there for moisture and richness; beef and many of the  
> fowl listed are probably somewhat leaner and dryer than we're used to  
> today, with the exception of the capons. snipped
> Or maybe they're there simply to give modern cooks with an eye on the  
> cholesterol count a hard time, but I sincerely doubt it.
> Air exclusion/preservation? Maybe, but more likely in the later  
> recipes with butter...
> Anybody else?
>
> Adamantius
>



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