Greetings, all!
Want an alternative to those traditional holiday recipes? Want some medieval "zip" in your holiday celebrations? Why not medieval-ize your menu? Below are some great examples of foodstuffs you can serve instead of your traditional fare----just in case you were hankering to serve a "real" feast to your family and friends!
I haven't tried all these recipes, but I have tried many of them, and they are from reputable internet resources. So enjoy!
Cheers
Aoife
Gode Cookery's Chaucerian Cookery Book
http://www.godecookery.com/chaucer/chauc3.htm
(Site Excerpt) Despite few references to feasts and only a handful of
descriptive passages detailing the foods of his period, it is still possible
to gather a rather lengthy list of the foods, dishes, livestock, & game that
Chaucer mentions in his writings. From The Book of the Duchess to The
Canterbury Tales, from drinks to desserts, from Ale to Ypocras, this list
represents the broad range of foodstuffs and prepared dishes that fed the
average 14th c. Englishman.
SEE ALSO: Gode Cookery Recipe Index Page:
http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/goderec.htm
SEE ALSO Gode Cookery's list of FOODS NEVER TO USE in medieval cooking, esp.
Turkey:
http://www.godecookery.com/how2cook/howto04.htm
SEE ALSO Goce or Capon Farced:
http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec52.htm
SEE ALSO Gourdes in POttage, a Gourd Soup that's terrific!
http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec25.htm
SEE ALSO: Poullaille farcie (Chickens stuffed with meat, nuts, spices, etc.)
http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec63.htm
SEE ALSO the whole dang site. Tons of ideas for the holidays!
Liber Cure Cocorum: Frumenty
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/lcc/parallel.html#r7
(Site Excerpt) Boil it till it bursts, then
Let it down, as I teach you.
Take cow's milk20, and boil it up
Till it is thickened [enough] to sup.
Mix it up with yolks of eggs,
And keep it well, lest it burn.
Stefan's Florilegium: Medieval Gingerbread
(be sure to look up other foodstuffs here as well!)
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-SWEETS/gingerbread-msg.html
(Site Excerpt from one message, dated 1977)The dark gingerbread (see below)
is the one I made for fra nic's
feast. I also entered 2 types of gingerbread in the most recent Kingdom A&S
competition. The documentation appears below. As nic said, the dark
gingerbread is wonderful (if I do say so myself :-). The fine gingerbread
was a disappointment. I made it several times before I came up with
something edible. I tried both wax paper and foil, and it stuck to both of
them, to the point that I couldn't pull it off. What should I have used
instead? The redaction says "kitchen parchment". What is it?- -Margritte
Coquinaria.nl Recipe November/December 2003
Medieval Christmas Goose
http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/03.6histrecept.htm
A well-documented and redacted recipe from Forme of Curye
Exploring Tourtiere
by Lady Eleanor of Huntingdon
http://www.ealdormere.sca.org/vestyorvik/tortiere.html
(Site Excerpt) With all of the eating and cooking that goes on at Christmas,
I came to be looking through my recipe collection at one point last month
for a recipe for tourtiere (a French Canadian pork pie traditionally served
during the Reveillons after midnight mass on Christmas eve.) While I knew
that there were many variations, I was not prepared for quite the breadth
which I found. (Note a recipe from The Medieval Kitchen and several others
appear on this page)
Food Down Under's Traditional English recipe index
http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=english&start=2233&page=8
Torta Bianca (Medieval Italian Cheesecake)
As adapted by Sabrina de la Bere
http://www.bayrose.org/recipes/Torta_Bianca.html
(Site Excerpt) Background: The Torta Bianca was prepared as a special dish
to celebrate purity and in particular the Virgin Mary. Thus, it is white, as
white symbolized goodness and purity. All efforts to make this dish as white
as possible were considered when choosing the ingredients.
Cariadoc's Miscellany: Torta from Gourds
Platina Book 8 (Ed note: A possible substitute for pumpkin pie?)
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/desserts.html
Scroll down the page half way to see what is a terrific (savory) pumpkin pie
substitution.
SEE ALSO the other appetizer recipes on this page.
Elizabethan Geek: Finally, Food for Vegetarians!
Copyright (C) 2003 Kirrily Robert
"Feast" food for vegetarians, with lot sof great vegetable suggestions
http://elizabethangeek.com/katrowberd/articles/veg-cooking.mhtml
A great many terrific vegetable suggestions. Don't skimp on the Mushroom
Tarte!
"Navot" or "Navet" means "Turnip"
By Juliana L'Heureux
http://www.mainewriter.com/articles/Le-Navot2.htm
Scalloped mashed Rutabaga or Turnip with Apple.While the recipe isn't
medieval, it doesn't contain anything out of place. For those who must have
something like mashed potatoes!
The Foody: Medieval Salad
http://thefoody.com/hvegetable/salat.html
(Site Excerpt) Take persel, sawge, grene garlec, chibolles, letys, leek,
spinoches, borage, myntes, prymos, violettes, porrettes, fenel, and toun
cressis, rew, rosemarye, purslarye, laue and waishe hem clene.
Pike hem. Pluk hem small with thyn honde, and myng hem wel with rawe oile,
lay on vyneger and salt, and serue it forth. from Forme of Cury
Gourd in Juice
(an uncredited recipe under the URL that contains a name:
lemur from Cornell)
http://lemur.cit.cornell.edu/~jules/gourd.html
(Site Excerpt--quote from Platina) Cook a gourd in juice or in water with a
few little onions and
after it is cut up, pass it through a perforated spoon into a
kettle in which there is rich juice, a little verjuice and saffron.
Take it from the hearth when it has boiled a little. After it
has been set aside and cooled a little, put in a little aged
cheese ground up and softened with two egg yolks; or keep
stirring it with a spoon so that lumps do not spoil it. After
you have put it into saucers, sprinkle with spices.
Cariadoc's Miscellany: Digby's Savory Toasted or Melted Cheese
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/sauces.html#1
(Site Excerpt--Digby) Cut pieces of quick, fat, rich, well tasted cheese,
(as the best of Brye, Cheshire, &c. or sharp thick Cream-Cheese) into a dish
of thick beaten melted Butter, that hath served for Sparages or the like, or
pease, or other boiled Sallet, or ragout of meat, or gravy of Mutton: and,
if you will, Chop some of the Asparages among it, or slices of Gambon of
Bacon, or fresh-collops, or Onions, or Sibboulets,....
SEE ALSO: Hen Roasted in a Pot at Home:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian1.htm
TO BOILE A CAPON WITH ORENGES AND LEMMONS
The Good Huswife's Handmaide For the Kitchen, 1594
http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/medrcp03.htm
(Site Excerpt) Take Orenges or Lemmons pilled, and cutte them the long way,
and if you can keepe your cloves whole and put them into your best broth of
Mutton or Capon with prunes and currants and three or fowre dates....
Apple Moy (medieval Apple Sauce)
http://members.tripod.com/~BlackTauna/applemoye.html
(Site Excerpt) I have taken winesaps, jonathans, granny smiths and
macintoshes for this. I dislike delicious apples as they have no flavor.
Core and quarter the apples and boil until soft. Run them through a food
mill, skin and all. That's where the taste hides.
The Making of an Apple and Orange Tarte
by Gretchen Miller (Margaret MacDuibhShithe)
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/org/Medieval/www/src/docs/app...
(Site Excerpt) The original recipe for this pastry is from The Good Huswifes
Handmaid for Cookerie in her kitchen (1588): For a tarte of apples and
orange pilles. Take your orenges and lay them in water a day and a night,
then seeth them in faire water and honey and let seeth till they be soft;
then let them soak in the sirrop a day and a night: then take forth and cut
them small and then make your tart and season your apples with suger,
synamon and ginger and put in a piece of butter and lay a course of apples
and between the same course of apples a course of orenges, and so,....
Editor's note: Many thanks to Viscountess Katharina (Midrealm) for alerting us that this had been overlooked during the holiday week. —Justin
