December winds up another year of this column, and will give you the last recipe in our tour of the wider culinary world. I am going to wrap up this experience with a recipe realized by someone else, just to highlight a remarkable book about a culture which does not usually break the English Language barrier....
Beginnings are a bit hard, and new concentrations for this column are difficult to choose from. I have given the Barony three years of medieval recipes. I thought this year to give a bit better idea of how to serve and present the tasty things we cook....
November is slaughter season, and what better way to celebrate it than to see how the Italian culture treated its “senior citizen” sheep?...
This is the simplest of simple dishes, and drives home how important the quality of ingredients is to any dish. Buy as many sweet onions as you choose for the meal. If the onions have a fairly thick, firm, papery skin, you can just bake them uncovered in z shallow pan in a 450º oven for about an hour, checking frequently during the last 15 minutes or so, to prevent the skins from catching fire as they bake....
Then Serve It Forth… By Lady Rosemary Willowwood de Ste. Anne Summer harvest is upon us with all its sweat and bounty. I thought I’d go back to the recipes common to sunnier climes, since the season for dishes like eggplant is in full swing. This dish would do well using either the huge football-sized eggplant, the long oriental one, or the more medieval egg-sized eggplant, in any color. “Alberginies a la morisca” (Moorish Eggplant) From Libre del Coch (1529, Barcelona) Text and translation by Robin Carroll-Mann [1] Les alberginies pendras e fer nas quartes e mundales dla escorxa: e apres met les a bullir: e com seran be ceytes leuar les has del foch e prem les entre dosd talladors: e apres capola les e vajen ala olla e sien molt ben çoffregides ab bona carn salada: o ab oli que sia dolç q los moros no mengen carn salada: quant sien be çoffregides met...
With the warmth of summer comes grilling season, and in the middle ages as well as today, people looked for sauces to spice up what they ate. But as I explored last month, one of the uses of food was to regulate the health of the eater, depending on the ingredients used. You will also get two recipes for the price of one....
I seem to be lapsing into the "several things" habit – this month it's a recipe, a history tour, and a recommendation for a very informative book on historical cooking and health. The book is called Anthimus - On the Observance of Foods, translated and edited by Mark Grant [1] . Mr. Grant offers both an Latin/English dual language translation format, and a superb exposition of the author's place in the surrounding history, as well as a very affordable price-tag....
This month’s column will be several things – a recipe, a language lesson, and a recommendation for an outstanding source of information on medieval cookery. The source is a journal called Petits Propos Culinaires, which, despite its French title, is written in English, and is a superb source for modern research on medieval food....
From Germany, where we have spent the last few months, let us go to a warmer climate and to the subject which lies near and dear to the hearts of all – that is, “sweets”. The Arabs and Persians were past masters at using sugar, which is probably due to the fact that they have been raising it on the Indian subcontinent since about 800 b.c.e.; it was mentioned in at least three books of the Old Testament (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) as a precious purchased gift to royalty....
Now that Terra Pomaria has a new Arts and Sciences Champion, I would like to publicly congratulate Lord Rafe Neuton for his interpretation of “Chireseye” (Cherry Pudding) from Forme of Cury. Since I have requested that he write up that recipe for the column as soon as he can, I will not presume to upstage his efforts. I will instead offer a somewhat similar German recipe with elderberries, to show that cooks adapt similar techniques to different resources, depending on local tastes and availability....