[Sca-cooks] Fyletts in Galentyne

[Laura C. Minnick]

Elise Fleming wrote:
> Doc's Medieval Cookery site says that it is a sauce for meat which is 
> thickened with bread crumbs.  Cindy Renfrew's site says that it is a 
> cold dish with meat in jelly, or something similar.  Modern 
> definitions include the idea of an aspic or jelly.  One site says that 
> "galentine" possibly comes from the Latin "gelata" meaning "jelly".  I 
> rather like what Hieatt and Butler say in their Glossary in "Curye on 
> Inglysch". They, too, mention "jellied juices of meat or fish..." but 
> note that the term was "transferred to the sauce...thickened with 
> bread crumbs and spices".  Some galentyne sauces were served cold, 
> some were served hot, according to Hieatt and Butler.  They continue 
> (down the long reference) that it could be the name for the "spice(s) 
> alone or with breadcrumbs".  So, in this recipe, it's meat in a sauce 
> thickened with breadcrumbs.
>
I made this in camp at September Crown (Labor Day weekend). I was 
feeding 10. It was very popular and there were no leftovers. I made the 
version in the _Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books_. I also concluded 
that is was meat in a thickish sauce.

Must note here- I did not add blood. The recipe reads "... and strayne 
it on blode,  with ale, or else saunders," by which I understood the 
blood to be generally a coloring agent, and that it was either blood 
~or~ saunders. I have saunders in my big spice box, so I used it.
> Is it a stew?  How do you define stew and how thick is it?  The recipe 
> I sent says not to make it too "chargeaunt" (thick).  It didn't need 
> to be served in a bowl the way some people's stews are.  (I like thick 
> stews with only a little "juice".)
My sauce came out roughly applesauce-thick. Thin enough to be sopped up 
with bread, thick enough to not be running all over (and into one's 
lap). And we were using plates.

'Lainie

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