[Sca-cooks] Trude Ellert's Das Kochbuch des Mittelalters:

Thu Apr 14 22:39:27 PDT 2011

Which one?

The recipe disciussed here is from the Kuchenmaistrey which, to my knowledge, is unrelated to the Harpestreng tradition. There is a recipe collection that has links, the Mittelniederdeutsches Kochbuch aka Wolfenbüttel MS (the German editor, Hans Wiswe, called it by the first name, by which is is known in German scholarship todfay, while Grewe/Hieatt used the latter, which English researchers seem more familiar with). It is an interesting text and I've been trying to translate it on and off for a while now. 

YIS

Giano

--- Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> schrieb am Do, 14.4.2011:

> Hmmm. Appears to be another version
> of the Harpestrang. Anybody out
> there know more about this source?

> On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 3:18 PM, Susanne Mayer <susanne.mayer5 at chello.at>
> wrote:
> > The naked chicken or to be boney or no bone,... ;-)
> >
> > When we serve chicken (and we did so at all of our
> (four) big feasts, as it is esay and fun and can be
> pre-cooked and frozen) we used the recipe from Trude
> Ellert's Das Kochbuch des Mittelalters:
> >
> > The original seems to be from the Kuechenmeisterei
> (#15) (starting with: willst du ein gutes Huhn kochen oder
> braten oder fuellen....)
> >
> > filled Chicken (Poularde), cooked and roasted:
> >
> > for 100+ people with a calculation of about 8 per
> table and Chicken you will  need 12 to16 Chicken.
> >
> > This is a very rough account of what we did:
> >
> > take the chicken and clean out all innards save them
> clean them and cook in a pot (as you should do with the
> heart and stomach) or roast in a pan (liver). We did use the
> necks (chicken was headless and if you get cleaned out
> chickens, get some livver/heart/stommach extra) in the
> cooking broth.
> >
> > mince the cooked/roasted innards (or cut up very
> finley) and mix it with parsley, mix in raw eggs, add salt
> and spices to taste, cube speck (bacon) finely and  add
> either raisins or (what we used) sauted pears.
> >
> > This is your filling (make it not too runny so use
> only enough egg to bind all together).
> >
> > The REAL interesting part was this:
> >
> > debone the chicken (so that it keeps the form) and
> fill it.
> >
> > fortunately Ellert gives a description HOW to do
> that:
> >
> > *Cut off the wings and small drumsticks to faciliate
> deboning.
> > Place the chicken upside down on its breasts, and cut
> longitudinally along the backbone.
> > With the tip of the knife, cut evenly all around to
> separate the bones from the meat. Also cut the connections
> of the legs and wings to the carcass. Hold the cutting edge
> towards the carcass and not the meat
> >
> > Pull away the carcass in one piece. Lift the thigh and
> cut to separate the meat from the bone all around, pushing
> the meat back.
> > Some pieces will come out loose. Use them to patch the
> areas under the breasts where there is no meat on the skin
> in order to have the whole surface covered with meat. The
> bones and trimmings of the chicken can be used to in the
> cooking broth.*
> >
> > Fill it with green colour (Ellert adapts the filling,
> more later), close it and cook it in a mix of water, wine
> and vinegar (we did not use vinegar as the white wine we
> used was sour enough!) so it will get firm and the filling
> can thicken. After that push it on a spit and roast it from
> the side and bast as you turn it.
> > So far the rough translation of the source.
> >
> >
> > Here is a rough overview over the redaction Ellert
> gives and we used for the filling:
> >
> > she rubs the inside of the deboned chicken (about
> 1.5-8 kg with bones) with powdered saffron, salt and/or
> pepper
> >
> > additional to the bacon (150g) she uses pig shoulder
> meat (150g) and additional chicken breast (150g) (both very
> finely minced for a farce) to make more filling then you
> will get with the innards and bacon alone, spiced with
> thyme, salt, majoram first cubed then spiced cooled down so
> you can mince it make a farce with the eggs (2) easily.
> > heart and stomach cooked, liver roasted,(all about
> 150g)  cooled down and cubed. The pear (2) is not roasted
> but fresh peeled and cubed and not OR raisins but AND
> raisins (we did as the original suggested and used pears and
> no raisins)
> > the cubed innnards and pear mixed with the farce,
> chervil (was not in season) and parsley was sspread on the
> chicken, the chicken was closed with needle and thread. One
> year we left the chicken with the *feet* and *wings* still
> sticking out and looking like a chicken, the other year we
> made a *roll*.
> >
> > We did NOT wrap it in foil, Saran wrap or a towel but
> cooked them as the were. VERY BIG pots 2 chickens to a pot,
> simmer just below cooking point about 30 min/ kg at around
> 80°C.
> > We used water/wine (1:1, if necessary up to 200ml
> vinegar to 2 l wine water mix) some greenery (bouquet garni)
> and all the bones on the bottom of the pot.
> >
> > We had two pots and cooked all chicken in those two
> pots in the same stock just filled up with water and or wine
> as necessary.
> >
> > take out of broth cool and freeze. save a bit of the
> broth to use as basting liquid for the roasting.
> >
> > At the event we thawed the chickens and to warm them,
> we used the *roast* part of the cooking procedure.
> >
> > At one time we had not enough time and space in the
> oven to roast them whole, so we had to portion the stuffed
> *rolls*  in the kitchen and rost the posrtions (even had to
> warm some in an Microwave with grill function).
> >
> > At the preparing day (month befor the actual feast)
> the kitchen crew (5 people) had a lot of fun and clearly
> defined jobs: two played dissectors, two made the filling
> and the last started the post with the broth, and kept us
> happy (we did taste the wine,...) wile up to the elbows in
> chicken or filling ;-)´
> >
> > So I prefer one hard day of work deboning 16 chicken
> to a lot of waste and the need to carve up the chicken.
> >
> > -------
> >
> > The *hen on a nest* version we used was not period but
> moled as closely to all the pomegranate chicken stuff in the
> florillegium I could find:
> >
> > Minced Indian Chicken Orientale style
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > 1kg turkey breast
> >
> > 2 rolls or 4 pieces of toasts or other white bread
> >
> > Some milk to soak the cubed rolls in
> >
> > 90g onions finely chopped
> >
> > 4 Tbs oil
> >
> > 2 Eggs
> >
> > salt, Pepper and Oriental spices (we use a mix: ras al
> hanut)
> >
> > 60g breadcrumbs
> >
> > Parsley
> >
> >
> >
> > Chop the rolls/bread into small cubes and pour over
> only enough heated milk to wet the cubes, and weight down.
> >
> > Mince the turkey.
> >
> >
> >
> > Roast the finely chopped onions golden add chopped
> parsley, put aside and let cool.
> >
> > Mix the minced meat with the soaked  bread cubes, the
> onions and mince again.
> >
> > add the spices and the eggs and put into a baking
> dish. If the meat dough is to dry add a little cold water.
> >
> >
> >
> > bake in a medium oven for about 30'. We used Easter
> baking forms so the dough is about 7-10cm at the thickest
> part. Put a small pot with water on the bottom of th oven to
> add a little moisture (the Easter forms are closed forms
> filled through an open bottom around).
> >
> >
> >
> > Pomegranate sauce:
> >
> >
> >
> > sauté a finely minced onion golden, add Pomegranate
> molasses/syrup (you will have to experiment with what ever
> is available in your area) and freshly squeezed juice. You
> will have to try out the ratio as each syrup or Molasses
> available tastes different so start by adding small amounts
> of each part. Add spices (we use the same combination as
> above) to taste and a little lemon juice also. Cook to a
> saucy consistency, use rice flour to thicken and add some
> whole seeds also for effect.
> >
> >
> >
> > Couscous
> >
> >
> >
> > Prepare according to package.
> >
> >
> > Serve the *Hen* on a *nest* of couscous drizzeld with
> pommegranate sauce one on each table.
> >
> > Again  no waste,....
> >
> >  Kind regards
> >
> > Katharina
> > Drachenwald
> >
> > btw we will be in trimaris at TMT!!!!! really looking
> forward to it!
> >
> >>
> >> Message: 2
> >> Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 01:29:11 -0500
> >> From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
> >> To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> >> Subject: [Sca-cooks] the undead chicken  and
> eggs
> >> Message-ID: <94D9B040-7927-4987-A474-8308DB108B41 at austin.rr.com>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >>
> >> <<< The last time I had whole chicken
> served to my table, I pointed out the
> >> problem to the cook (who is now our Baron).  He
> was attempting to present
> >> the chicken sitting on a nest with eggs.  It was
> an interesting
> >> presentation, but it would have been better done
> had the chicken been
> >> prepared for disjointing.
> >>
> >> Carving in the kitchen cuts waste, so I'm all in
> favor.
> >>
> >> Bear >>>
> >>
> >> How would you pre-carve a chicken yet be able to
> present it as a (whole) chicken sitting on a next of eggs?
> Do you pre-cut the chicken into separate pieces and then
> piece them together with wires or wooden sticks to create
> the looks of a complete chicken? Or are you talking about
> just partially cutting through the pieces so that they can
> be easily cut or torn apart?
> >>
> >> Stefan
> >> for some reason a roast chicken using medieval
> spices suddenly is sounding real good...
> >>
> >> --------
> >> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad  
>  Kingdom of Ansteorra
> >>   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas  
>        StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> >> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> > http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Saint Phlip
> 
> So, you think your data is safe?
> http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/23/schneier.google.hacking/index.html?hpt=T2
> 
> Heat it up
> Hit it hard
> Repent as necessary.
> 
> Priorities:
> 
> It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which
> make the smith.
> 
> .I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few
> obituary
> notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow
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