Quick update…the flu has struck in redaction land. While I do have several projects with pictures to post…things will have to wait a few more days. Sorry for the delays!
I don’t do Elizabethan much. There are many many books and commentary on a great many varieties of recipes from this period. Stuffed Boar’s Head is a bit different. The recipes in both the redaction books and websites give pictures of finished/cooked pig’s heads and a brief over view of how the recipe was redacted. This is a full blown, step by step (mostly) from raw pig to Stuffed Boars Head presentation ready for the High Table.
Christmas Royal Fare
Boar’s Head
“The Boar’s Head in hand bring I
With garlands gay and rosemary,
I pray you all sing merrily.”
So sang the procession when presenting the Christmas Boar’s Head to the King (or Queen) of England. Boar’s Head. A boar’s head was skinned then re-stuffed with meats, spices and fruits and cooked till golden. This dish was the crown jewel of the King and his baron’s feast held during Christmas with large amounts masques and pageantry. (Craig, pp. 154) However this tradition of Boar’s Head has fallen out of favor since James the 1st that was rumored to have started the tradition of turkey instead of boar for the high table.
I have several recipes for Boar’s head. Each one has a slight variation.
The first recipe is:
The boar’s head, always called “the noblest dish on board,” is as good as it sounds. Here is the way my family’s old chef dressed, cooked and garnished it:
Bone the head, leaving only the jawbones (for shape) and tusks. Make a small quantity of stuffing composed of minced pig’s liver, chopped apples, a little onion, sage and rosemary. Arrange this stuffing all around the inside of the head about half an inch in thickness. Now stuff the rest of the inside of the head with a second stuffing made of sausage meat, squares of ox tongue, chopped truffles, chopped apples, chopped mushrooms, chopped pistachio nuts and minced rosemary. Add one wineglass of Calvados (or sherry) and an equal quantity of cream.
When the head is filled tight with this, stitch a very strong cloth over the stuffing, then bind the whole head in another strong cloth, and put it in a large pot of boiling water to boil slowly for about eight to nine hours, during which time you add more boiling water as evaporation requires. When the head is cooked and is still warm reshape in cloth, remove the wrapping and let it get cold.
The ears, which have been cut off and boiled separately, are then replaced on the head with a skewer. Place the head on an oblong dish, surround it with slices of truffles, slices of apples, and strew with rosemary.
–from The Viscomte in the Kitchen by Vicomte de Mauduit with introductions by Francis, Countess of Warwick and Elizabeth Craig, M.C.A., M.I.H., published in 1934 by Covici-Friede Publishers, New York. (Castlearcana)
The second recipe is:
From: The Cookbook of Sabina Welserin; 1553; version by David Friedman
How to cook a wild boar’s head, also how to prepare a sauce for it.
A wild boar’s head should be boiled well in water and, when it is done, laid on a grate and basted with wine, then it will be thought to have been cooked in wine. Afterward make a black or yellow sauce with it. First, when you would make a black sauce, you should heat up a little fat and brown a small spoonful of wheat flour in the fat and after that put good wine into it and good cherry syrup, so that it becomes black, and sugar, ginger, pepper, cloves and cinnamon, grapes, raisins and finely chopped almonds. And taste it, however it seems good to you, make it so.
If you would make a yellow sauce.
Then make it in the same way as the black sauce, only take saffron instead of the syrup and put no cloves therein, so you will also have a good sauce. (Theoldfoodie)
A third recipe:
Boar’s Head
“Christmas, then as now, had a variety of dishes associated with it. The first was the boar’s head, which formed the centerpiece of the Christmas Day meal. It was garnished with rosemary and bay and evidently was presented to the diners with some style, as told by the many boar’s head carols which still exist…Thomas Tusser in Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry suggests a number of dishes, that, lower down society, the housewife should provide for her guests at Christmas. He mentions mutton, pork, veal souse (pickled pig’s feet and ears), brawn, cheese and apples, although none of these items was connected especially with Christmas; they were all associated with feasting generally. He also talks of serving turkey, but only as a part of a list of other luxurious items that the housewife should provide. It does not seem to be the centrepiece in the way that the boar’s head was in grander circles.”
—Food and Feast in Tudor England, Alison Sim [Sutton Publishing:Phoenix Mill] 1997 (p. 113-115)
“Another British specialty was brawn made of the head and foreparts of a boar or pig. Richer and fattier than the hams, it was regarded as a delicacy for the medieval feast, and by Tudor times it have become fare for the twelve days of Christmas. In the thirteenth century it appeared in the last course of the meats, along with the game birds and spicery. It was also sometimes incorporated with vinegar, pepper, and other spices in a rich pottage called ‘brawn en perverde’; or was sliced and served in a thick spiced syrup of wine with honey or sugar…By the end of the fourteenth century ‘brawn en peverade’ or cimple brawn with mustard had become first-course dishes…The details of brawn preparation were first made public in Elizabeth’s reign by William Harrison. He decribed brawn as ‘a great piece of service at the table from November untl Frebruary be ended, but chiefly in the Christmas time…It is made commonly of the forepart of a tame boar….”
—Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 88-89) (Foodtimeline)
A fourth recipe:
To make a re-dressed boar’s head – from And Thus You Have a Lordly Dish:
Take a head, large or small. Boil it in water and wine, and when it is boiled make sure that the bones all stay together next to one another. And remove all the meat from the bones of the head. Strip the skin carefully, the white part from the meat and chop the other meat from the boar’s head very small. Put it in a pan. Spice it well with pepper, ginger, and a little cloves, nutmeg, saffron, and let it get very hot over the fire in the broth in which the head was boiled. Next take the boiled head and lay it in a white cloth and lay the skin under it on the cloth. Then spread the chopped meat all around on the head and cover it with the flayed skin. And if you have too little meat from one head, then take it from two and cover the head entirely as if it were whole. Next, pull the snout and the ears out through the cloth. Also, pull the teeth together again with the cloth, so the head is held together while it is still warm, and let it lie overnight. In the morning cut the cloth from around the head. In that way it will stay whole. Then serve it with a cold farce made with apples, almonds, raisins. Thus you have a lordly dish.
Hansen, Marianne. “And Thus You Have a Lordly Dish: Fancy and Showpiece Cookery in an Augsberg Patrician Kitchen.” Medieval Food and Drink, Acta, vol. xxi. Binghamton University: State University of New York Press, 1995. (godecookery)
A fifth recipe:
“…Procure a pig’s head, specially cut with a large piece of the neck attached. Singe the head well. Wipe it very carefully with a cloth, then scrape all over with a knife with out scratching the skin. …open it with a knife from the point of the under-jaw to the cut part of the neck, then strip off the flesh clean from its bones, with out piercing the skin. Remove bones of the neck in the same way, and cut flesh into long strips, two inches thick and two inches broad. Now place head and strips of flesh in a huge crock and rube will with a half a pound of moist brown sugar, a quarter pound of saltpeter, half an ounce of dried juniper berries, one teaspoonful of cloves, two cloves of garlic, five pounds of course kitchen salt. Then add to pickle four bay leaves, four laurel leaves, a handful of thyme, a small pinch of sage, basil, marjoram and lavender, and six blades of mace. Turn head in this pickle every day for a week, keeping it in a cool place meanwhile. When about to dress head, remove from brine, wash it well with cold water, wipe it dry with a clean cloth, then pare of all uneven parts, and line head with the following forcemeat: One and a half pounds of feel and half a pound each of fat bacon and sausage meat, all chopped into mince, and mixed with a teaspoonful each of salt and black pepper, two tablespoonfuls of parsley, finely chopped, a pinch of ground mace and a handful of peeled, chopped mushrooms…” (Craig, pp. 154-155)
This tells me that each time a Boar’s Head was cooked that the head cook or chef might decide to try some thing new each time and that there was no one way to do a stuffed Boar’s Head.
The elements in common:
Each recipe has several elements in common. The first is that a boar’s head or a pig’s head is used as the main ingredient and show piece. At some point boar became a rarity so pig’s heads were substituted. This works out well for the modern day re-creationist, as pigs heads are more easily found then boars, but only just. My personal experience has been that modern and upscale markets do not have heads on hand however markets that have marrow or tripe will probably have a head or two tucked away in the back for the medieval shopper.
Another element is that out of the four recipes, two mention the actual cooking technique of boiling the head to loosen the skin from the bones. One says water to boil while the other says wine and water. I can only theorize that the water and wine combination is either for taste or to mask the smell of boiling pig’s heads, possibly a combination of both.
Another element is the facial structure of the pig. One recipe says to leave the jaw bones attached to the skin. A second recipe states that the skin should be carefully detached from all bones.
The next element is on how to cook the boar’s head. Two of the four recipes say to use a cloth for covering the face while cooking for shape retention. Another recipe says to baste on a grate so that the head looks to have been cooked in wine.
The stuffing of the head seems to be up for debate. Each recipe has the common element of using the pork pulled from the head. Other meats used are tongue, liver, sausage, more pork as well as apples, pistachios, almonds and raisins. The spices used in the various recipes call for sage, saffron, ginger, pepper, salt, cloves, nutmeg, sugar and rosemary. From the various recipes the head could be either sweet or savory depending on the taste of the cook or the request of the king.
There are a couple side sauces mentioned in one recipe, either black or yellow sauce, possibly both were served on the side. The other three recipes do not mention a sauce per say other then sliced and served with apples, raisins and walnuts. One article mentioned that mustard was served on the side as well.
Several of the recipes are out of date by a hundred or so years. Several recipes are in period. The range of dates may vary, as do the recipes, but they all have the most basic of elements in common. A boar’s head (or pig’s) is dressed for the Christmas celebration as this is a most noble of dishes.
Ingredients:
1 pig’s head (skin and meat)
1 beef tongue
2 apples
1 cup walnuts
1 cup almonds
1 cup raisins
1 tsp ea of ground ginger, clove, nutmeg, pepper, mace
1 pinch saffron.
½ gallon mead/wine
Brine:
2 cups vinegar
2 cups water
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup salt
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp mace, cloves, ginger
My redaction:
Prepping:
Starting with the first element, the pig’s head is thoroughly washed on the outside with soap and water, well rinsed then cleaned of all viscera on the interior part of the skull.
If you look closely at the picture above you can see that the skin around the eyes has been removed. If possible pick a head that has minimal skin removal from around the eyes or cuts under the chin.
The pig’s head was not sold in tact the one grocery store. I believe the back of the head was removed to extract the brains for sale. (In some parts of the country eggs and brains are considered a delicacy so there for a sell able commodity.) This leaves me with the frontal facial bones with meat and skin as well as ears of a pig.
After the viscera has been cleaned, the head is placed in a large pot with water and wine. Several recipes suggest that the head boil for 1-2 hours or until soft and loosened from the meat of the face. I had to add lib this part as I had no pots big enough to accommodate even ½ a pig head with snout. I had to remove the facial skin (including upper nasal bone). This is a picture showing the removal of the facial skin starting from the outer edges of the head bones.
As for boiling the facial skin, the first time I did this I realized that this was a mistake. Don’t boil the skin.
Separate the skin from the head with a good serrated knife.
The boiling of the head is to cook the meat from the bones. When the facial skin is cooked, the skin and underlying tissue (fat and meat) is rendered butter soft. What this means is that the skin will not take any stitching required to repair the rents left from the butcher.
A close up of the skin being stitched. This is using a regular needle and quilting thread. I broke two regular needles, because the skin is extremely tough, so suggest the use of a heavy duty embroider needle instead. Linen thread was probably the most used in period; however quilting thread will do in a pinch.
My second attempt, the facial skin was brined as suggested in the English Royal Cookbook, instead of cooked. Now this brining only happened for 36 hours. It is recommended that the skin rest in a brine for 4-5 days. The 36 hours brining worked really well for me. I will leave this to the cook’s discretion on how much time to leave a face in brine for.
This softens the skin (only a little), more importantly though the brine imparts a nice flavor to the skin, which is then imparted to the inner layers when cooked.
The head bones were boiled in wine and water for 2 hours then allowed to cool for another 3 hours rendering the meat extremely tender and flavorful.
Once the meat on the head bones had been thoroughly cooked, the meat was cleaned and placed in a separate bowl. A beef tongue was also cooked during this time as both Castlearcana and Craig’s recipes call for tongue, though Castlearcana’s recipe states ox tongue so a small compromise had to be done.
The beef tongue is boiled for 2 hours then the outer skin is peeled and the attaching tongue ligaments are removed. The tongue is cut into small cubes and put with the pork meat.
The pieces should be about the size of a woman’s pinky tip. The pieces of meat from the head, should be cut small as well. the reason for the small diced pieces of meat is that a person taking a bit should get a variety of flavors, not just pork or tongue or fruit.
Walnuts, almonds and apples are chopped into small pieces then combined with raisins and spices as well as almonds and walnuts. (Apricots and plums can be added to the mix as well) The fruits and nuts are placed together in a separate bowl from the meat.
I chose to do the sweet as opposed to the savory. The savory recipes listed sausages and sage as ingredients, both of which are on hand, however I prefer the sweet for pork. What the variety in recipes tells me, between the sweet and the savory, that the cook was either instructed or decided upon himself which type of stuffed boars head he was going to present.
Cooking:
The fruit, nuts and spices are all combined into one large bowl, the meat from the head and tongue being held in another dish. The brined face of the pig was rinsed thoroughly before using.
For cooking the pig head, either a large flat cooking pan (cookie sheet) or a large round baking dish can be used. What ever choice is made, remember that the dish, once cooked can not be easily moved to a different serving medium. I choose to use a large round baking dish. This was lined with foil to reduce scorching to the dish. In period, the head would have been cooked either by boiling after being trussed up in muslin, or on cooked on a flat tile/sheet depending on which recipe is used as a reference.
I layered the meat then the fruit/nut mixture about half way in the backing dish. Once the layers were mounded into the center of the dish, I then carefully arranged the skin over the mound tucking the neck flap down the sides then stuffing meat and fruit into the lower jaw skin, eyes, and cheeks so that the face was completely filled.
The ears were covered in foil to keep from burning.
In period, a couple of recipes note that the ears were covered in linen “bandages” then removed towards the end when baked.
A pear was placed in the mouth, after the head is stuffed, to help retain the shape of the lower jaw which has no bone, while cooking. An apple would work just as well.
For a period boars head the skin at the back of the head would have been split after cooking with the bones being removed. The back seam would have been re-stitched together then stuffed to be presented. This is not available as complete pig heads are not readily acquired. Allowances have been made to work with half heads and beef tongue opposed to a complete boar’s head and the tongue of an ox.
Cooking can be from 45 minutes. The display needs to have a nice golden crispness while not being burnt.
The first time I cooked this, the skin came out dark brown as having been cooked for to long. Keep an eye on the skin at all times so as to not over cook. 15-20 minutes before the head is to be removed from the oven, take off the foil covers on the ears to allow browning, though some browning will have occurred even with the foil “bandages”.
Display:
The eyes were covered with apricots while the open ear section was covered in walnuts. I lined the side with alternating apricots and prunes for both decoration and to cover up the aluminum foil underneath.
The ears were propped up with skewers and the mouth stuffed with a pear. (The skewers can be removed after cooking as the ears will stay upright more or less on their own at this point). The pear is in the mouth to keep the shape. The snot bones keep the upper snout in the correct shape, the bottom is boneless and needs some thing to keep the lower lip looking like a lower lip.
Around the head the recipes vary on displaying some suggested more meat and fruit, I choose to use rosemary sprigs which would have been available during winter time to complement the colors of the roasted head.
Conclusion:
This dish requires a large amount of time and skill to do properly. There can be no faint of heart when attempting this. The sheer magnitude of removing both skin and meat in tact then replacing and then cooking is a feat worthy of the best chefs in period. This dish could not be whipped up on the spur of the moment, but required at least a weeks worth of preparation for cooking, skinning, brining, re-sewing then the actual stuffing and cooking to present a worthy dish to the sovereign.
I did not enjoy doing this dish the first time. I learned a lot from my first round of mistakes. The second time was much easier, as I know knew the proportions required and the “cheat” of using a large cooking dish to help prop the head instead of relying on just the head shaped skin. While the second time around was much easier, I do not plan on doing this dish again any time soon!
References:
Craig, E., (1953). English Royal Cookbook. New York
http://www.castlearcana.com/christmas/day13.html : Mauduit, V., (1934). The Viscomte in the Kitchen. Covici-Friede Publishers, NY.
http://www.theoldfoodie.com/ : Friedman, D., From: The Cookbook of Sabina Welserin; 1553;
http://www.foodtimeline.org/food1.html : Wilson, A., (1991)., Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 88-89) (Foodtimeline)
http://www.godecookery.com/ : Hansen, M., (1995). And Thus You Have a Lordly Dish: Fancy and Showpiece Cookery in an Augsberg Patrician Kitchen. Medieval Food and Drink. Bringhamton University: St. University of NY Press.
Lozenges
There is a bit of confusion when it comes to the term lozenges for Medieval Middle Eastern cooking. Per Rodinson
“: A dish found in every cookery book of the middle ages, called lozenges, losinges, lesynges etc. These different names ended up meaning, in French or neighboring languages, the geometric term losange or lozenge which displaced the word rhombus in Franc, England and, to a varying extent, other countries…It seems…that the origin of the word was the name of a widely consumed Arab dessert called Lawzinaj, a dish made with almonds, called lawz in Arabic….found the recipe translate in Latin and Italian cookery books from the end of the thirteenth and fourteenth century….round plates of sweets cut into rhomboids, which is easier then cutting into rounds. One of the most famous is Baklava. In modern Turkish, the word Baklava is used for rhombus as a geometrical shape. This shows that the name of a dessert can give its name to a shape…” (p. 210)
Lozenge can also mean a throat soother or even a type of breath freshener which is where this recipe is going. Another term for breath freshener is Pastille. However we are going to stick to the term lozenges.
Lozenges were used “…at the end of a meal, it was customary to clean the teeth with a toothpick and lozenges made from musk, sandalwood, amber, spikenard, cloves, aloe wood, roses, cinnamon, and the like were sucked in order to guard against bad breath.” (Zaouali, pp. 57)
There are no actual recipes listed for lozenges on how to make. This proved to be a small quandary until I came across a modern day recipe on how to make small hard cinnamon candies. The recipe was modified to what would have been on hand and probably used (spice wise) for taste.
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup sugar 2Tbs honey
¼ tsp ground cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, black pepper
¼ tsp whole anise seeds and whole lavender flowers
1 sheet wax paper
1 dull knife OR Pizza Cutter
12X12 pan
Redaction:
The recipe for a breath freshener has intrigued me for some time, however there was not a recipe listed in A Baghdad Cookery, Medieval Arab Cookery, or Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, I had to improvise slightly. The cookery books merely made mention that recipes were present at one point in some cookbooks listed under perfumes and were used at the end of meals to fresh the breath.
I found in a modern day cooking magazine (Savuor) the recipe for making cinnamon hard candies. The modern day recipe listed light corn syrup which is not period in any way shape or form. I substituted honey and came out with excellent results for a hard but flavorful lozenge. The spicing was a little different then that listed in Zaouali’s book. Several of the spices suggested were either cost prohibitive or not readily available. So I made a slight change in spicing to reflect ingredients on hand.
The 12X12 pan is a guess on my part. I do know that they had small pan or could have even used a small frying pan as a cooling tray. While wax paper is not period, a small rectangle of material could have been used as a lining. This lining is necessary so that the lozenges do not stick to the bottom of what ever dish is used for cooling the mixture.
Prepping:
Timing is critical. From start to finish the dish is roughly about 10 minutes. The final 3 when the honey mixture is cooling is the most important if lozenge shaped candies are to be formed. Prep the 12X12 pan first, by lining with wax paper and setting next to where the stove is.
Take all the spices and mix them up into a small bowl or ramekin and keep with in easy reach from where you will be cooking.
Next measure the sugar into a bowl. Finally get the honey.
To make the lozenges:
The honey is poured into a small cooking pot and heated. The sugar is then added to the honey and combined with a wooden spoon.
This mixture is heated till boiling.
No candy thermometer is used as they were not period. I tested the candy readiness of the honey/sugar mixture when stirring and by the boiling of the honey. When the honey and sugar started to boil furiously and small threads came from the wooden spoon after stirring, like so.
It’s time to turn off the stove, add the spice, stirring, then pouring the mixture onto a wax paper lined 12X12 pan.
The mixture will cool into candy hardness in about 4-5 minutes.
After two minutes start to test the hardness of the mixture.
When the knife can cut a line into the candy and the line does not immediately fill in, start to cut lines horizontal then vertically down to the wax paper. The candy will harden in a couple of minutes but still try to keep filling in the cuts. Don’t stop!!! Keep cutting the lines until the candy turns hard.
Once the candy hardens pull out the wax paper (or if you choose muslin cloth for the lining) and break of sections at a time.
Serve at the end of meals or for a uniquely spiced candy for yourself!
My theory on how pickling of eggs resulted, was that a chicken farmer with an overabundance of eggs tried various means to save eggs for future use, one of which was the farmer putting hard boiled eggs in vinegar. Vinegar being an acid and hostel to bacteria, made for the perfect holding liquid but not every one liked vinegar eggs. This means either the same farmer or some other enterprising soul decided to add spicing, making the eggs tastier, there for even yummier!
Pickling seems to cross many boundaries with the different regions having different spices for their pickling. So with out further ado…I present the historic Middle Eastern pickled egg, with out the chicken.
Baid Mukhallal
(Pickled Eggs)
Translation:
Take boiled eggs and peel and sprinkle with a little ground salt and Chinese cinnamon and dry coriander. Then arrange them in a glass jar and pour wine vinegar on them, and put it up.
(Rodinson, pp. 397)
Ingredients:
6 hard boiled eggs ¼ tsp salt, cinnamon, and dry coriander
Glass Jar Vinegar to cover
My Redaction:
This dish is very simple. Hard boil 6-10 eggs (depending on the size of your glass container). Water, eggs and heat for about 30 minutes. After boiling for 30 minutes, I turn off my gas stove and let cool in the water till they are able to be handled easily, then peel.
The third spice next to the cinnamon and cumin is salt…a little hard to see in a white dish. Sorry about that.
After the eggs are peeled, the recipe says to sprinkle…now sprinkling can mean a light coat or a heavier coat of spicing. I choose to use a heavier coating of spicing for a stronger flavor that will off set the vinegar.
I mixed all the spices together then rolled the egg in the mixture. Once the egg was liberally coated I place the egg into a glass jar.
The amusing part was the eggs bounced slightly when dropped into the jar. It was funny at the time! So here we have 6 eggs in a jar with spicing. There should be just a little left over as 1/4 tsp of these 3 spices coats 6 eggs almost perfectly. I believe there wasonly 1/8 of spicing remaining. Put the remainder of the spicing into the jar then fill with vinegar.
I used apple cider vinegar, instead of wine vinegar. Apples were used in a variety of dishes and I believe that if the flesh of the apple was used then juice was made. If apple juice was made then apple vinegar was not far. That and wine vinegar was not on hand though procurement today would be fairly easy.
Depending on the size of the jar, the size of the eggs and the number of eggs used will determine how much vinegar you will need. Fill the jar with vinegar AFTER putting in the eggs. Make sure the eggs are covered completely. Covering the eggs completely lessens the chance of bacteria getting a foot hold into the boiled eggs, causing a loss of the entire batch.
A little light snack or a compliment to a spicy dish.
I have a few cups of baby carrots on hand and was going hmm….that and a real craving for some thing sweet. Voila! I have found this little gem of a recipe. A period way to turn a salty veggie (in my mind carrots need to be slathered in butter and salt to be yummy) into a sweet treat.
Historically speaking carrots could be preserved by either drying or turning into jam with out loosing to much nutritionally while still retaining a vitamin and caloric necessity, but this is probably one of the sweetest ways to preserve carrots…ever.
Jaawarish
(Carrot Jam)
Translation:
It is necessary to select fresh, red carrots, to wash them, clean them and cut them as thinly as possible. Put them in a ceramic pot, add a little bit of honey, and cover them with water. Cook them until they are soft, then strain off the water with a sieve and add a quantity of skimmed honey equal to that of the carrots. Mix in seasonings chosen from among pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cubeb, spikenard, mace, galangal, aloe wood (aquilaria aqullocha), saffron and musk. Cook to thicken the carrot jam…Pour into a glass Jar and consume as needed.
*Note: Wild carrots were considered very pungent and not particularly edible though good for medicinal purposes. (Staug, pp. 44). In the medieval Middle East, there were many varieties, the two main being distinguished by their color, either yellow or red (some times purple) (victoryseeds). The red were considered more edible as the yellow were woody in hardness of the main stalk. A similar but not completely the same type of red carrot can be found in today’s farmers market marked as “heirlooms”.
Zaouali, pp. 135.
Ingredients:
2 C carrots 1 C honey 1 pinch saffron
1/4 tsp ea of ground pepper corn, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, mace cinnamon
1/4 tsp anise seed
My redaction:
I have a couple of choices of carrot types in the summer when the farmers markets are open, giving me the choice between either a red or even a yellow variety of carrot, and not just the ubiquitous orange type. My choice is far more limited during the winter and due to my narrow choice in the winter when I did this recipe, I used what was on hand.
I took 2 cups of modern day baby carrots (or regular orange carrots if available) and sliced them in the “matchstick” style. I did matchstick as the carrots, in period, were quartered with the inner core removed to take out the woody taste, which leads me to believe that to cut them thin matchstick is an excellent choice. However slicing thinnly in 1/2 circles after the carrot was cored could have happened just as easily.
Here are the carrots, sliced with the multitude of spices and the first 2 Tbs of honey.
The next step after cutting the carrots into thin slices is to place them in a shallow casserole dish covering with water and adding 2 Tbs of honey. The recipe says to just add a little bit of honey and cover them with water. I figured 2 Tbs is enough to still give the carrots a little sweetness while cooking them in water.
Unfortunately the honey is lost in the picture. This is to just give an idea on the carrot:water ratio which is to put in just enough water to cover the carrots.
Cook until the carrots are soft.
Now I judge soft carrots to be when I can stick a fork in them easily. These were really tender after cooking for about 45 minutes at 400. Keep an eye on the carrots though, your oven may be hotter or cooler and either scorched or undercooked carrots are not good.
Once the carrots are soft, drain the water and honey.
Period honey was a bit more “raw”, with wax and bees parts so required cooking prior to using skimming of the foam which contained the extra unwanted bits. Modern honey is usually cleaned of inclusions so skimming is not necessary. With that not if the honey used is from the store pour the remaining cup of honey onto the carrots. If the honey is freshly drawn from a hive, start by cooking all of it in a large container, skimming off any froth that develops.
Once the carrots and honey have been combined in a pot add the ground spices and saffron.
The honey may not look like enough, you want just enough to cover with out submerging. The honey will thicken and reduce, so what was 2 cups of carrots and honey will coalesce into about a cup of jam.
Add the spices and start to cook the honey and carrots on the stove till thickened. I would suggest to stir the mixture together and taste how the spices flavor the honey and carrots. The fresher the spices the better the out come. The mixture of spices suggested by the original recipe is very good though I added a couple of extra myself and did not add a couple due to availability.
This batch took 3 heating sessions. I didn’t want to scorch the honey or carrots, so I would heat the mixture till it boiled then allow to cool. The first two times the mixture was not thick enough which means either I didn’t heat the mixture enough, allow enough time to boil, or I added to much honey to my batch or a combination of the three. The flavor is not ruined if the jam has to be heated more then once, so don’t worry if the honey hasn’t condensed enough the first time.
Once the jam is cool, spoon into a glass jar, securing the lid tightly. As you can see the 2 cups of carrots have reduced to about one cup of jam here. I used a recycled jam jar with a screw on lid. Period containers would have been of glass but the lid would have been the type to fit onto the top and not a screw top.
I have to admit a little bread and a spoon to scoop the jam on to and you are in a spicy sweet carrot heaven!
It’s pronounced HHHHerbs…because there’s an H in it! Waaay to much Eddie Izzard. I just couldn’t resist. I know, I should probably try harder but it’s just sooo much fun! Any way, back to our regularly scheduled recipe addition. Today is more yogurt, or yoghurt, and a bit of herb spicing.
Shiraz Laban Bi-Buqul
(Thickened yoghurt with herbs)
Translation:
Take mint, celery leaves and vegetable leeks and strip them all from their stalks and cut them up finely with the knife. Throw them in the mortar, and, when they release liquid after pounding, dry them off. Then mix them well with shiraz (yoghurt drained of whey). Throw a little salt on it, as much as it will bear, and mustard pounded fine, and moderate its flavor with the mustard…If you like, put pounded walnuts on it.
Medieval Arab Cookery p. 398-399.
Ingredients:
1 C yogurt 1/3 C chopped mint
1 Leek salt to taste
1 ½ tsp ground brown mustard seed 1/8 tsp pepper
1/3 cup celery leaves chopped
My Redaction:
This recipe is extremely easy. A little care needs to be taken when washing the leek but other then that the dish is pretty much just chop, mix and eat.
Leeks are grown in sandy muddy soil which collects in the upright leaves. The dirt needs to be washed out of the leeks other wise you have a very gritty muddy dish. Not everyone’s favorite. When I chop a leek I cut of the roots and the dark green hard leaves, leaving me with the pale green and white sections. These are cut into halves then halved again. Then I slice the quarters into 1/8 inch pieces (roughly). These are put into a bowl and rinsed with running water till there are no more blotches or sandy bits to be seen or felt.
Using only the light green and white part doesn’t sound like a lot, however once the leek is sliced into smaller bits it sort of falls to pieces and fluffs up considerably. You should get roughly 1/2 to 1 cup worth of chopped (no compressed) leek pieces from that small bit left over.
If leeks are not available or in season I have made do with shallots or a mild onion in a pinch.
The mustard seeds are ground. I did use a mortar and pestle this time as only a little mustard seed was needed. The mint was actually store bought. For adding the mint I would suggest 1/2 of the called for recipe, taste, then add a bit at a time. I like the minty flavor as it compliments the yogurt’s depth and the leeks mild onion. The celery leaves were optional this time around; however I usually use the inner leaves found on a celery bunch’s heart. Definitely a nice inclusion though.
Once everything has been prepped mix into a bowl and you are ready to consume!
The name Salty Fish in Yogurt is a bit of a misnomer as the fish is dotted rather then covered, but that could just be a translation or an aesthetic point. No matter the naming the taste is very very aesthetically pleasing to the palate and easy on the cook! This is a 10 minute dish, including cooking and mix time while giving very full flavor for only a small bit of effort.
Samak Malih Bi-Laban
(Salty Fish in Yoghurt)
Translation:
Take salted fish, wash it, cut it up medium and fry it as we have mentioned. Then take it from the pan hot and put it in yoghurt and garlic. You throw nigella and finely milled Chinese cinnamon on its surface, and it is eaten hot or cold.
(Medieval Arab Cookery, pg. 390)
Ingredients:
Fish fillets (Talapia) 1 Tbs sesame oil 1 cup yogurt 6 cloves garlic
Salt to taste 1/8 tsb cinnamon
*The original recipe calls for salted fish. My thought that this is fish stored in salt so as not to spoil, a common way to store meats during the middle ages; however with today’s advent of modern miracles i.e. the refrigerator getting truly salted fish is almost impossible.
My Redaction:
We start with the fish and ingredients that go with this simplistic but very tasty dish. 
The fish of choice for the moment is Talapia.
A quick notation on fish for Middle Eastern cooking here: Fish are declared the best in the Baghdad Cookery courses as those that are river fish. Three types of fish are mentioned specifically; Zajar, sturgeon; bunni or banana, carp; and the most admired variety, shabbut; however no recipes listed call for a specific type of fish, nor recipes from the Iraqui book known as ‘al-Baghadadi, or in the Syrian Kitab al-Wusla ila al-Habib. (Rodinson, pg. 479-480). I have used the mild flavored fish tilapia as a substitute for fish found in today’s Middle Eastern rivers
When I make this dish, I mix the cup of yogurt with the well chopped garlic cloves first. This bowl of garlicky yogurt is set to the side while I get the fish going.
The next step is to take the sesame oil and pour it into the pan. Heat the pan then lay the fillets into the oil. (no picture here sorry was busy not splattering kitchen with the oil or burning the quickly cooking fish). Salt each fillet side. Don’t be worried about over doing the salt, don’t add teaspoons of salt but do add more then a few grains. Remember this was originally made for salted fish…fish packed in salt to retard spoilage.
When the fish is thoroughly cooked on both sides place on a plate and dot (or smear) with a TBS or more of the garlic yogurt mixture.
Sprinkle with a little cinnamon and voila! I know, I know…the cinnamon sounds really weird to the modern palate to be adding to yogurt with salt and fish instead of yogurt and sugar. Try it this and you’ll be going “Oh wow!!!”. Yes the dish really is that awesomely awesome not to mention handsome with the garlicky yogurt and a dash of cinnamon.
Ever been to a pig roast? The kind where the meat of honor can take up the driver side of the car with both piggy feet touching the floor and still able to look over the dash, to tell the pedestrians to get the hell off of their piggy highway? (Don’t ask…it’s just safer that way.) The type of pig roast that the piggy is cooking all day long, till the fat has permeated the meat which is now falling off the bone? Where salt has been added to the cooking meat with the occasional round of sauce and spices? That’s what a full pig roast is about! /drool! Unfortunately we don’t have a full pig roasting, just a much smaller recipe of tasty piggy goodness.
We are bypassing the Romans today (and their wonderful piggy cooking) and going to Spain from the 14-15th century, for a taste of pork that is almost sublime. There is some discussion among Roman cook books that period pork was both leaner and tastier, due to the pigs being herded among the woods to forage among oaks and orchards for dropped nuts and fruits, thus lending a nuttier and superior flavor. This type of pig farming is still being utilized among Spanish pig farmers, centuries later, who raise of black Iberian pigs for specialty hams. (Hey at $200 a lb for jamón Ibérico de bellota – one type of ham…I’d call that an expensive specialty!) We aren’t going that rich though today.
Instead of a full sized pig roast, this recipe is on a slightly smaller scaled version, the kind where you can use a suckling pig (if you have a spit-roast in back) or just a really good pork loin on hand. Guess which one I had?
Porc en Ast
Roasted Pork Loin
Translation:
Spit-roasted suckling ought to be eaten with ayllada blanca or with salt and pepper.
*Ayllada blanca is not given a definition. My thoughts are this is either a white sauce or a spicing per the following of salt and pepper in the recipe.
*Bacon: This manual mentions that bacon of period was referred to as carn salada or “salted meat”. “In the 14th century , medical philosophy held that smoke and smoky food were unhealthy. meat was usually cured with a combination of salt and air drying.” (McDonald, pp. 10). This was not always held in every area of the Medieval world for cooking as smoking was a viable way to preserve a varieties of meat.
(Banquest del Quatre Barres, pp. 5)
Ingredients:
1 – 1.5 lb pork loin course ground salt
*5-8 strips of bacon
*Optional
My Redaction:
Now this recipe is the pared down essential of how to make pork loin taste divine (one of these day’s it’ll be the full sized version!). Not having a spit, I had to improvise a little.
I have a decent bit of pork loin here. I had originally taken a very large pork loin and cut the loin into 4 sections so as to maximize the different dishes I wished to cook while minimizing the cost. Always a good thing to keep in mind. The bacon is just a thick cut type and the salt a course ground sea salt.
The pork was salted on top and bottom then wrapped in bacon.
The bacon is held to the pork loin with the judicious use of toothpicks.
The bacon covers the slight layer of fat, leaving the leaner side covered with the bacon ends. Some cooks will argue that the lean side should be covered while the fat should be the pinned side. I preferred covering the fat as the fat side became the top of the roasting loin with all the fat drippings going down onto the lean meat and into the pan, keeping everything juicy and moist.
The original recipe does not suggest bacon or carna salada, yet modern pork needs a little extra help some times to retain flavor. I agree with the recipe that bacon should be added to help the flavor; however I salt prior to adding the bacon instead of after. My personal take is the bacon can be peeled off if desired (heresy I know!) but the salt is an intrinsic part of the taste for this recipe.
The meat is placed with the toothpicks down ward in a roasting pan.
I added a little bit of water at the bottom to keep the house from filling from smoking pork and bacon grease.
The loin was cooked for 30 + minutes (till done) at 350.
The cut in the middle was the first meat check to confirm well done. It wasn’t so back in the oven it went till thoroughly cooked!
After removing from the roasting pan slices were cut along the bacon for 1″ perfectly done, incredibly taste pork. This isn’t a spit-roasted pig by any means; however this is a pretty close 2nd or 3rd if a spit-roast or grill isn’t available!
This is a really good fish dish, that doesn’t have a strong fish taste (for those who really can’t stand the strong fishy taste of…fish). I also used tilapia, a rather mild flavored fish. The bite of the vinegar melds well with the tahini and both combine very nicely with the fish and spices. A warming bit of fishy goodness!
Samak Maqlu bil-Khal wal-Tahina
(Fried Fish with Vinegar and Tahini)
Translation:
Take salted or fresh fish, wash it well and dry it, then cut it up medium and fry in sesame oil Throw a little dry coriander on it. Then take as much vinegar and tahineh as needed and dissolve it until mixed; you moisten it with vinegar little by little until it has the desired consistency. Season it, and if you wish, put in a little ground mustard and nuts or nuts with out mustard. Then take it from the pan hot, and first put sesame oil in the pan, and coriander and milled Chinese cinnamon, and it is eaten.
Ingredients:
5 Tilapia fillets 3 Tbs sesame oil 1 ½ tsp coriander
½ cup tahini ¼ cup vinegar 3 Tbs pine nuts and pistachios
Salt to taste
My Redaction:
I laid out all the ingredients needed (except the coriander). This is for 5 fillets though the recipe can be expanded or cut as needed depending on the size of fillets being cooked.
In the far right corner are the nuts, roughly 3 Tbs each un-chopped and unsalted. Any type of nut can be used from walnuts to hazelnuts, in multiple combination or singular i.e. just pine nuts. I just happened to like the idea of pistachio and the rich nuttiness of pine nuts.
Before adding the oil to the pan I combined the tahini and vinegar together.
The vinegar curdles the tahini a little bit, though the sesame seed paste absorbs the vinegar very quickly and makes a thick paste after the original curdling. You can add more vinegar . if you prefer a sharp bite however do not add so much that the flavor of the tahini or fish is over powered. Do not worry if the mixture still looks like peanut butter in thickness after combining.
Next, I heated up a pan with 1 ½ tsp sesame oil. I used lightly toasted sesame oil instead of dark though either could be used. Once the sesame oil was heated up I placed the tilapia into the oil then sprinkled coriander on top and allowed to brown on one side.
You may be asking why this is bubbling instead of frying and I can answer that question. The fillets were still a little frozen and the water is now frying out of the fish. This sort of worked out very well. With the water and the oil cooking very hot, I placed a lid over the fish to hep with the cooking time, which actually cooked the fish a little faster.
Once the bottom was browned I flipped the fillets over to brown on the other side, sprinkling with coriander. With the top now on the bottom browning I dotted the browned side of the fillets with the tahini and vinegar mixture, covering the side as thoroughly as possible with the generous dolloped teaspoon. By this time the other side should be browned and I flipped the fillets over again to warm up the tahini. This was a quick 1-2 minute browning before I removed the fish from the pan. Sorry no pictures of the tahini dotting as I was moving very fast to make sure nothing burnt.
Finally I added the last of the sesame oil to the frying pan and mixed the nuts with the oil till the nuts were sizzling. Roughly 2-3 minutes. I sprinkled the tilapia with salt then removed the nuts from the oil sprinkling those on top of the fillets.
Now the fillets do crumble on removing from the pan (or at least mine do). So don’t worry about the non symmetrical fillets. The fish will still taste excellent. Sprinkle with just a touch of coarsely ground salt or regular salt and enjoy this with sesame roasted carrots or garlic fried spinach!
This is the historic coleslaw version of cabbage from the Middle East. Usually I’m not a huge fan of cabbage. I like my cabbage with corned beef and this recipe, flavored cabbage. I have had people come up to me at events, when this dish was being displayed, asking for the redaction recipe. It’s just that good!
Flavored Cabbage
Translation:
Take walnut meats and blanched almonds and toasted hazelnuts. Pound everything, then take caraway which you toast and pound fine, and with it a little thyme and garlic seed. Then you perfume the cabbage with good oil. Then you take a little bit of vinegar; you dissolve the walnuts and ingredients with it. Then you throw on a sufficiency of tahineh, and let there be a little Syrian cheese with it. Add the spices to them and arrange them, then you throw the rest of the ingredients on the bowl. Then throw in some of the first spice enough to perfume their taste and aroma. It is not eaten until the next day.
Ingredients:
1/2 Cabbage ¼ C. ea. ground walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts
1 tbs. ground toasted caraway 1 ½ tsp thyme (ground or fresh chopped)
2 cloves garlic 4 Tbs . sesame oil
1/3 C. vinegar ½ C. Tahineh
1 C. Feta
My Redaction:
I had in my garden a few heads of cabbage. Now the cabbage I grew is not the tight packed cabbage head normally seen in the grocery store, nor was it any of the Chinese variations of cabbage. The cabbage I used was a loose leaf and not very tight packed head that survived one of the worst droughts of the SW seen in years. The flavor was good but mild with a crisp leaf and dark green color.
My suggestion for the type of cabbage to use, is one that you will eat. If you like a specific type try the cabbage in the recipe. In the past I’ve used both green and red with tight packed heads; however my favorite thus far is the type grown in the garden.
I used a coffee grinder for the walnuts (and hazelnuts when available) while buying almond meal, putting these in a bowl to the side.
The caraway can be toasted in the oven (keep a very close on the seeds if you choose to do this) or toasted on top of the stove using a hot pan. Once the seeds have been toasted, grind them up, either by hand in a mortar or in a cleaned coffee grinder. I used pre-ground thyme and regular garlic instead of seeds. (Seeds were unavailable.)
Here you can see the nuts (only walnuts and almonds), with dark sesame oil, vinegar, garlic, thyme, ground caraway seeds and the tahini.
I cut the cabbage heads ( I used 2 small cabbage heads the size of my fist since they were very loosely packed) in half and then sliced about a fingers width. Once the cabbage is sliced, flavor with the dark sesame oil.
Now here you can use either light (toasted) sesame oil or a dark sesame oil. I used the dark for a full body, richer taste. The dark sesame oil will not be over powered by the tahini and spices.
The next step is to stir the ground nuts into the vinegar.
Then incorporate the spices once the nuts are well mixed with the vinegar.
Then include the tahini into the mixture.
This looks a little bit like hummus just a bit more liquid. Once everything is well mixed toss with the cabbage, adding a 3/4 of the feta cheese.
Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese on top. Cover and let sit for a day for the flavors to blend together.
This is one of those dishes that is almost a meal. The nuts, cheese and oil add an excellent taste and heartiness to the dish. If there was nothing else in the house to eat then cabbage with bread was it. So the calories had to be packed in some how…and flavor incorporated enough to actually want to eat.
No really, even if you don’t like cabbage except in small amounts, try this one recipe!
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