David’s Food Blog

How To Eat Historically!

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:00:30 -0700

How to Eat Historically!
A Primer on Medieval and Renaissance Food

Class taught at May Crown 2010 by David S. Walddon

In this 2 hour class we will briefly explore the kinds of foods and food stuffs that were prepared and consumed during the Medieval and Renaissance time period in Europe. We will explore reference works and cookbooks from the time period that will help with further study and we will also eat some food made from the recipes of the time period that are easy to make and tasty for the modern palate.

Please return here for updates on the class. Reference material and recipes.

David

Cervelatte: a Sausage Making Adventure

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:11:24 -0700

Cervelatte is called for in several Scappi recipes and hidden in the second part of the mortadella recipe there is an actual recipe for this sausage. There is also a recipe for cervelatte in Martino. A group of us are going to have a sausage making day and my two sausages are 100 years of cervelatte (since Martino and Scappi are approximately 100 years apart!)

July Coronation Dinner

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:31:57 -0700

Saturday night at July coronation we had a Scappi inspired meal. There were about 15 of us and the food, if I do say so myself, was really good.I say it was Scappi inspired because most of the recipes were not Scappi down to the letter. The dishes turned out very Scappiesque. And most were variations on a dish included in Scappi.

The first dish was Swiss Chard from our garden. It was prepared in much the same way as the spinach dish from the previous recipe except that I sautéed pancetta, prosciutto instead of the salami with a touch of olive oil to get them started. I used garlic instead of green onions or onions. And the raisins and spices stayed the same. Once the soffritto was completed I add the coarsely chopped chard (instead of spinach) and fried until wilted. Once plated I finished it with some Saba (musto, Grape syrup) over top and served it hot. This dish was the hit of the dinner and was gone before you could say Italian Renaissance! I liked the rice better but who is to argue with your guests? I could have easily made half adain as much as I had and I made two large cast iron frying pans full. I must have had 12 to 15 cups of chopped chard (before wilting).

For some reason I did not get a picture of greens so here is a picture of two of the diners who both ate up their greens like good little children! Notice Elise’s face! She is a handful!

The second dish was a take on Lombard rice but made on the stove top. I did not layer it and I didn’t put the cheese or the poultry breast in it. There was already enough of both in the other dishes. I sautéed garlic (I had no onions with me this weekend, very strange), sausage (a polish smoked sausage with no new world spices in them. The brand was “Falls Brand” and they ROCKED and I have already bought another package for Clinton War),Walddon assorted herbs from the backyard, and the rice in butter and some olive oil. I then added just a bit more than double the rice quantity in liquid which included chicken stock, white wine and some water. All was brought to a boil and then simmered, VERY CARFULLY so as not to scorch, for approximately 30 minutes. The rice was plated and then garnished with small chunks of salted lemons and saffron over top. This was my favorite dish! Very interesting flavors. Not as “jump off your plate” as the chard and certainly not as PORK FAT flavored but definetly my favorite. This recipe served more than the 15 people we had at dinner. It was probably more like 20. I used 4 cups of rice. And next time I think I will use an Italian rice instead of Basmati.

The final dish for dinner was Scappi’s Chicken and Tortellini Bk II Recipe 121 Per alessare ogni sote di capponi, e servirli con diverse compositioni sopra (To boil all sorts of capons and served with diverse compositions over them). This one I followed the directions, mostly. This entry has several recipes included in it or at least several variations. This is the one that I tried.

I boiled three very small chickens as well as some chicken thighs (because I thought we needed more meat) in chicken broth and water spiced with some cinnamon. I left out the sausage that was supposed to be included in the broth because I had already included some in the rice and I didn’t really have the right sausage - thanks to Helewyse I might be able to make some from the Scappi recipe. Once these were cooked through I removed them and kept them warm. I boiled pre-made cheese tortellini in the remaining chicken broth. The hot chicken was then layered in a serving dish with grated cheese (I left out the sugar since I forgot it at home) and cinnamon. I used two types of cheese, fresh mozzarella and asiago, and layered it among the chicken. Then the cooked, HOT, tortellini were placed on top. More cinnamon and more cheese to finish and garnish. I only have one thing to say YUMMY! This served about 20 as well. I would not use whole chickens next time but I bet the necks and giblets and fatty bits made the dish that much more rich. It was just really hard to serve this way so next time chicken pieces. Or maybe pre-cut the chickens. Also the broth served in dishes with a few tortellini would have been a great soup.

I am going to try these again at Clinton War, but this time I will measure the ingredients.

Comments welcome from the diners and others.

Sunday Cooking - Crostini, Spinach and Frittata

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 23:42:33 -0700

As I said in the last post this is TOTALLY out of order. I am trying to group the recipes together rather than report on when each thing happened.

The herbs in all the recipes we cooked on Sunday were described as “common herbs” by Scappi. So I took my herb basket into the garden and collected some “common” herbs. I need herbs for two of the recipes, the first for the cheese and walnut stuffed eggplant recipe (discussed in the last post) and also for the frittata recipe. Below is an AutoCollage I made of all the herbs I picked. It looks like all the herbs are growing together but it is actually a collage of 16 different pictures. AutoCollage is a program from Microsoft research that is available for 30 day free download HERE! or FREE for educators HERE if you teach in the United Kingdom and HERE if you teach in the US. In both cases you have to register on the Innovative Teachers Network to get AutoCollage. Included in the collage are thyme, rosemary, sage, two types of oregano and marjoram.

The herbs were de-stemmed, mixed together and chopped. I used most of them in the recipes, but I dried some for later use. This herb mix is great to use in pasta, on chicken and even in stews. I harvest all summer and then use them as needed the rest of the year.

The crostini recipe was one of the best of the lot. This would make an exceptional appetizer to serve at a cocktail party. The sweet, salty, sour flavor with the crispy texture of the fried bread ROCKED! It would be easy to serve at a feast in the first course, although the prosciutto might put it out of reach from a cost standpoint. For this recipe I used 1/3 pound of Prosciutto ends diced. I did add a tablespoon of lard to the pan because the ends I had were REALLY lean and there was little to no fat to assist in the sauté. This might vary depending on the fat in the prosciutto. I used 4 green onions, chopped. The size of the onions and the ham were similar and I was happy with the onion to ham ratio.

Once the ingredients had sautéed until the ham was slightly caramelized and the onions were soft the heat was turned up and and 2/3 cup vinegar and 1/3 cup saba was added to the pan. This was seasoned with a 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. I would season this a bit more highly, but by this point the pepper and cinnamon flavor seemed to be overwhelming our dinner so I cut back on it a bit in this recipe. Scappi really seems to like the pepper and cinnamon combination. The mixture was reduced until the it was a bit syrupy and glossy.

The last step in the recipe is to fry the bread in butter (or pork fat). I chose butter, since the second flavor that was overwhelming our dinner was PORK FAT! Now I love pork fat as much as the next person (actually probably more), but a little variety was needed. The bread was fried until they were crispy, golden and delicious. Then the mixture, along with the liquid, was spooned over each piece of fried bread. Approximately one tablespoon of the mixture on each bread slice made 16 crostini.

Some greens were needed to round out the meal and the I thought spinach would be a good choice. Of course there was more PORK FAT in this recipe! In some pork fat I sauteed 8 green onions and 1/2 pound of italian salami. This is probably not the correct sausage to use but it is what I was able to get at the grocery store.Scully translates the sausage as yellow saveloy. In the original Italian it is “cervellato gialle”. There is a recipe for cervellato in Martino that is colored yellow with saffron and is made with “lean meat from the leg, without sinews, and good pork or veal fat” (trans. Riley). It also includes two types of cheese, spices, eggs and salt. I have not been able to find a recipe for this sausage in Scappi. Anyone else? Ideally the sausage would be made from scratch.

After the onions and sausage had sautéed in the pan for a few minutes I added 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 cup of broth and 3/4 cup raisins. Bringing this up to a boil I then added a VERY large bag of spinach. Covering the pot the spinach steamed until tender (about 5 minutes) and then was plated and finished with musto. The sausage, onion and raisins to spinach ration was to high. I would reduce the amounts on this next time I prepared it.

The final recipe recipe on my list was a Frittata. Scully translates this into omlette. It is clearly a frittata. Once again I think I went overboard on the meat to egg ration. I would cut back. I used cheaper prosciutto in this recipe. It was almost ham like and it worked really well. 1/2 pounded of prosciutto was diced and sautéed with one small onion diced in 2 tablespoons pork fat.

10 eggs were blended with 1/2 cup marscapone (the recipe says creamy cheese) and 2 tablespoons of chopped common herbs. Once the onions were hot and the ham was slightly golden on the edges the eggs were added to the pan. This could be finished on the top of the stove (covered), but I finished it in a hot oven for 15 minutes. It was then turned out onto a serving dish (amazing that it came out entirely whole!) and was dressed with the juice of one HUGE orange, one small lemon and one lime to simulate a bitter Seville orange. This frittata was YUMMY! I would happily serve it to any of my friends even if they were not into 16th century Italian food. This was also great as leftovers. It made an excellent breakfast!

Eden made an Elderflower pastry that did not turn out very well so all I will say is that the dough ROCKED the free world, but it needed WAY more butter and sugar and it was raw in the middle. THis had HUGE amounts of potential it just needs more work.

Sunday Cooking - Eggplants and Ribs

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 19:08:47 -0700

The day before the cooking started I marinated two racks of pork ribs (about 2 pounds a piece) in 1 cup vinegar, 1/2 musto, 2 teaspoons coriander, 8 cloves of coarsely chopped garlic. I decided to marinate these in a zip lock bag instead of a pan. This allows me to get more of the surface area in the marinate. With this method I also don’t have to baste them as often.

So just so no one can say that I had not fully disclosed my intentions I am writing this out of order from how it was prepared. I have joined all my notes for each recipe together so that each recipe is a complete entry rather than a disjointed mess.

After the pork had marinated for 24 hours I strapped it onto the rotisserie. Along with rosemary sprigs and slowly roasted it for approximately two hours.

The ribs were sprinkled with coriander and salt while they rotated over the flames. The remaining marinade went into a small sauce pan and simmered on the back of the stove while the pork cooked.

Once they were cooked through and at temperature I cut them in to one or two rib servings and slathered the sauce (which had thickened up quite nicely) over them. Weall agreed more sauce would be a good thing. And the verdict was DELICIOUS! Sweet and sour and garlicky all in one. No tomato overtones like modern BBQ, but delicious none the less. This recipe is a keeper!

I hesitate to post this next picture. But I cannot keep the deliciousness to myself, Jeff and Eden.

Now repeat after me -
I WILL NOT BRING STORE BOUGHT BBQ RIBS TO ANY RE-CREATION EVENTS!

Again -
I WILL NOT BRING STORE BOUGHT BBQ RIBS TO ANY RE-CREATION EVENTS!

Repeat as many times as you need until you are convinced you will never do it.

Now on to the eggplants.
Before Eden arrives I prepared the eggplants. The directions say to peel off the rind (it will be purple) and parboil them. In a VERY large pot I was able to get all six of the eggplants submerged in the water. Although the recipe does not say to I did salt the water.

For the stuffing for the first recipe I used the flesh that had been removed from three of the the parboiled eggplant, 1/3 pound pork fat, 1/2 cup loosely packed garden herbs, 4 large cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 cups grated parmagiano reggiano cheese, 1 cup walnuts, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup raisons and a pinch of saffron. All of this went into the food processor and was then stuffed into the eggplants.

A few problems. First the eggplants were over boiled. 10 minutes and they were absolutely soggy. Because of this and because of their size they were impossible to hollow out. Maybe bigger eggplants and less parboiling or the itty bitty Thai eggplants and just a small amount of time in the hot water. The second problem I encounter was that the eggplants were INCREDIBLE SEEDY! There was almost no flesh. To get around these problems I sliced the eggplants in half, scrapped some of the flesh out of them, rinsed their seedy bodies off (yuck) and wrapped eggplant around the stuffing. Not exactly the way he describes it, but I had to do something. They look almost exactly like stuffed peppers! The amount of stuffing I made was approximately 1/3 too much so the quantities should be reduced when the modern recipe is made up.

For the pork stuffed eggplants I used 1 pound of ground pork, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 eggs beaten. This was just enough to stuff the three eggplants, six half eggplants, that I had prepared.

Both the stuffed eggplants were covered with broth, spiced appropriately, more cinnamon, pepper and saffron. The walnut and cheese stuffed eggplants were simmered on top of the stove. The pork stuffed eggplants were braised in the oven. You are supposed to cook the eggplants with the walnuts and cheese stuffing until it is firm. OK there was something terribly wrong with this redaction because they never got firm. They got soupy and soggy and although they tasted good (not great, just good) they were quite a gross mess to look at. The pork filled ones stayed together much better, but the flavor was not as good as the walnut and cheese ones. No binding agent, other than the cheese was called for in the first recipe. The egg yolks from the second recipe would have helped the first.

It was the consensus of the dinners that if you mixed the two eggplant dishes together you had the perfect flavor and texture combination. I am not sure this one is worth trying to get right with a second or third go round. It would be almost impossible to serve at a feast of any size and the flavors, texture and appearance make it unappealing. These recipes are not standouts.

More on our sunday cooking tomorrow. Off to bed now.