[Sca-cooks] Steam was Sweating meat

Daniel Myers dmyers at medievalcookery.com
Mon Apr 15 09:54:13 PDT 2013


> -------- Original Message --------
> From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
> Date: Mon, April 15, 2013 9:08 am
> 
> In fact, the first reference I know (in France) is from the eighteenth  
> century, and that is from a specialized work. I was actually surprised to see  
> the references in Anthimus, especially since they are often secondary (i.e., 
> "as  if steamed").


How about one from the late 14th century?

Green Eel Stew. Steam and skin, or simply skin the eels and put them to
cook in water with wine in very small pieces, then grind parsley and
darkly toasted bread, and put through the sieve: and have ground
beforehand prepared ginger and saffron, and put it all on to boil
together, and when almost done add small squares of cheese. [Menagier de
Paris (France, 1393)]


There's also a couple from English cookbooks where the meat was placed
on splints to keep it up off the bottom of the pot and out of direct
contact with the liquid - these being from a time where there was so
much contact between the English and the French that the English
cookbooks were almost half French.

A drye stewe for beefs. Take a grete glasse, and do thi beef therin, and
do therto onyons mynced, and hole clowes, and maces, and raisinges of
corance, and wyn; then stop hit welle, and scthe it in a pot with watur,
or in a cawdron, but take gode care that no watur goe in; or take a
faire urthen pot, and lay hit well with lplentes (smail pieces of wood)
in the bothum, that the flessh neigh hit not; then take rybbes of beef
or faire leches, and couche hom above the splentes, and do therto onyons
mynced, and clowes, and maces, and pouder of pepur and wyn, and stop hit
well that no eyre (steam) goo oute, and fethe hit wyth efy fyre.
[Ancient Cookery [Arundel 334], (England, 1425)]

Capons stewed. Take percelly Isope sage Rosemary And tyme breke hit
betwene thy hands and stoppe thy capons ther with and color them with
saferon And put them yn A erthyn pot or els in brasse for erth is
better. And lay splentys underneth and all a boute the sydes so that the
capons tuche not the sydes nother the bottom and cast of the same herbys
in to þe pot A mong the capons And put a quart or A pynte of the best
wyne that thow cansye gette and no other licour And set A lydde ther A
pon that wyll ly with yn the brym. And make batur of white of eggys &
floure And put betwene the brym A paper lefe or els lyncloth that the
batur may stop hit sowrely þat no eyre com owte loke þat hit be thyke
of bature And set thy pot on A charecole fyre to the myd syde & se þat
the lydde ryse not with the hette and let hit stew esely and long and
whan þow supposyth hit is enowgh take hit fro the fyre yf hit be A pot
of erth set hit upon a wyspe of ftraw that hit toche not the cold
grownde And when the hete is well drawn and over past take of the lydde
And take owte thy capons with a stycke And ley them in A noþer vessell
and make A syrryp of Wyne And mynct datys and Cannell drawn with the
same wyne do ther to rasyns of corance sugur safferon And salt boyle hit
A litill And cast yn powder of gynger with a litell of the same wyne do
the sew to the syrryppe a bove upon the capons And serue hem furth with
A rybbe of beffe ever more a capon on a dysche. [Gentyll manly Cokere
(MS Pepys 1047), (England, ca. 1500)]


> On grilling, it seems that it was used for fish and small  game, and 
> toasting bread, in our period. Barring further information....

... and pig heads and liver and oranges (as indicated by the recipes in
my earlier post on the subject).

... and (at least in late period Germany) sausages, which were then
served in split rolls, as shown in the woodcut I posted to my blog a few
years ago.

http://medievalcookery.blogspot.com/2010/01/medieval-hot-dog-stand.html


- Doc




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