Tag Archives: medieval cooking

Faux Fruit for the Queen

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=stilllife+with+lemons+organs+and+a+pomegranate&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fobrazarna.cz%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fpictures%2F3AA2723.JPG

By

Honorable Lady Sosha Lyon’s O’Rourke

Contents

History of Subtleties………………………………………….. Pg. 3

Ingredients ……………………………………………………….. Pg. 5-6

Creating a display ……………………………………………… Pg. 7-8

Subtleties: The Making of Food Art………………….….. Pg. 9-12

Recipes ……………………………………………………………… Pg. 13-15

Food Coloring ……………………………………………………. Pg. 16-17

Conclusion ………………………………………………………… Pg. 18

Works Cited………………………………………………………. Pg. 19-20

Subtlety – A short overview of food as Art:

What is a Subtlety?  For me, this is creating a period dish or set of dishes to resemble something else. In this instance, I am showing fruit as a subtlety playing on the rarity of Lemons and while regaling the senses with rare spices and the conspicuous consumption of sugar.

A subtlety should be, per Hunter, an intermission within a meal between courses that entertains while heavily disguising the origins of the main ingredients.  Fooling, or tricking the eye into seeing the unusual and mythical, while using every day food items in unique ways, that promoted thought and goodwill towards the host.  Per Martins:

Hunter notes the coinciding of the change of venue for the banquet course (to another room) to promote conversation in the fifteenth century with the publication in the vernacular of Platos Symposium (defined as a meeting to exchange ideas after a meal… The qualities of wit and wisdom associated with the literary…appear to metamorphose sotil into the more modern sense of subtle through association with the sweetmeat course (Hunter 1986:38,39). Witty conversation was to work with the sweetmeats or confectionery subtleties to help the diner digest physically and mentally. Once the effects of wonder wear off, the need for quick wit, humor and subtle sayings represent the transfer of ingenuity from the chef to the guests. The subtlety is creative and prompts creativity; if the chef can make it, the guest should be able to comment on it. Unlike with many other performance genres, the subtlety relies on ingenuity from both the audience and the director in order to be successful. It also depends on a unique form of ingenuity: playing with nature. (Martins)

There were early notations of subtleties occurring, from the book Satyricon, by Petronius, who wrote that at a Roman feast dinner included a rabbit that had been made to look like the mythological winged horse Pegasus. Another earlier example, written by an Egyptian caliph in the eleventh century describes from one Islamic feast day a hundred and fifty-seven figures and seven table sized palaces made of sugar. (Martins). 

Another example: Philip the Fair, at the Feast of the Pheasant, showcased a giant Saracen entering the feasting hall leading an elephant (there is a question about the edibility of said pachyderm), with a knight (Oliver de La Marche) playing the role of the captive Eastern church. (Wheaton, pg. 8/Martins).  Another example: Henry VIII.  George Cavendish wrote about a feast sponsored by the great Tudor king in such waxing enthusiasm for the feast “…I do both lack wit in my gross old head and cunning in my bowels to declare the wondrous and curious imaginations in the same invented and devised.” (Henisch, pp. 236/Martins) The feasting was a display to move men and women into wondrous thoughts, glossing over the harsh reality of court life or a grand and compelling gesture.

“Such subtle creations could be comprised of just the edible, or as the more elaborate a set up became, a combination of paper mache and lumber to support a larger and even grander display.  These decorative subtleties were for powerful displays and less about eating, with the production being undertaken by carpenters, metals smiths and painters and very little with chefs.” (www.reference.com/browse/subtlety)

A subtlety could be simple items.  A redressed peacock on proud display or stuffed fowl riding roast piglets; or as elaborate as a full pastry castle with trees containing candied fruit, glazed and stuffed mythical beasts, and musicians.  Allegorical scenes were not uncommon, with themes like “Castle of Love” or “Lady of the Unicorn”. 

These second types of decorative subtleties where there was little to be eaten but a display of wealth was shown in excess.  “Such subtle creations could be comprised of just the edible, or as the more elaborate a set up became, a combination of paper mache and lumber to support a larger and even grander display.  These decorative subtleties were for powerful displays and less about eating, with the production being undertaken by carpenters, metals smiths and painters and very little with chefs.” (www.reference.com/browse/subtlety

Ingredients:

Almond meal – Blanched ground almonds.  Almonds originated in southwestern Asia as an edible seed and pressed into oil, eaten raw or ground into a flour type consistency.  This versatile seed is used as a drink, a flour base for desserts or sugar coated. The almond is grown in Asia, US, Marcona, Spain and Greece. (https://www.britannica.com/plant/almond)

Cardamom – Comes in two varieties.  Green, E. caramomum or the dried black ripe seeds. One of the world’s most expensive spices after saffron and vanilla.  Used for foods and pharmaceuticals worldwide. (Preedy, Pp 295-301)

Cinnamon – Indigenous to the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and successfully replanted to grow in Northern India, East Java and the Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles.  The word Cinnamon started from the Greek word for spices with the prefix Chinese.  This spice traveled over various routes passing through the hands of Phoenicians and Arabs on its lengthy journey to become a dominant spice in the spice trade wars. (Czarra, pp. 10-12)

Cloves – Native to Moluccas in Indonesia, while successfully growing in Madagascar, Zanzibar and Pemba.  Harvested by hand when the clover flower buds turn pink at their base.  (Czarra, Pp 12-13)

Dates – Originating in the Near East and North Africa, a short distance from Rome, making them easily transported.  Aristotle compared the dates to daktylos (fingers) giving them their name.  High and sugar, eaten fresh or dried, sometimes ground into a meal or made into a syrup. (Toussant-Sumat, pp. 675-676)

Ginger – Zingiber Officnale, a meter tall tropical plant with large leaves with spikes studded with yellow and red rimmed flowers.  The rhizome is used for food, flavoring and medicinal.  The rhizome can be used fresh, dried, grated, ground, preserved in syrup/vinegar and crystalized. (Toussant-Samat, p. 496)

Nutmeg – Native to the Banda Islands of Indonesia, nutmeg is the actual kernel of the fruit.  Nutmeg can be stored for a long time in airtight containers.  The outer fruit/lace of the nutmeg fruit is called mace.  (Czarre, pp. 16)

Black Pepper – Piper Nigun.  A tropical vine that can grow up to 18 feet with large thick leaves and small white flowers grown on spikes.  Pepper has been known as Peperi Greek, piper Latin, pep, Italian, Pfeffer German, poivre French.  Originally exported from the Indian subcontinent. Toussant-Samat, pp. 490-491)

Powdered sugar – Finely ground Sugar.

Rosewater – Scappi mentions rose water as a matter of course for dishes.  (Scappi, pp. 42) I have made rosewater before, and it was the most astringent tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth.  Lovely color but useless for food in my opinion.  I went with store-bought for edibility.

Sugar – I used organic sugar.  Compared to the normal cane sugar, the difference is pretty startling.  Organic sugar has just enough molasses to make the sugar seem tinged with gold.  Compared to actual dark brown sugar, with heavy molasses it seems almost pure white. 

Saccharum officinarum “…considered a spice even rarer and more expensive than any other…pharmaceutical use…gives its species name of officinarum.”   Considered very expensive till the late 1500.  Loaf sugar given the name due to the conical shape derived from refining into a hard and very white refined form. Caffetin or Couffin (English equivalent of “coffer” or “coffin”) named for the form, packed in plaited leaves palm and from the city shipped from called Caffa in the Crimea.    Casson a very fragile sugar also considered the ancestor to Castor sugar.  Muscarrat considered the best of all sugars, reported to be made in Egypt for the Sultan of Babylon. The Italian name mucchera denotes that it had been refined twice. (Toussaint-Samat, pg. 553-555)

Creating a display:

Creating a display seemed to rely heavily on allegorical content from myth, fantasy or biblical content, such as the Pegasus from myth at the Roman table (Scully, pp. 107) or Lady of the Unicorn. The thought process that goes behind making a display was how each animal was viewed in allegorical terms.

“…the horns of an antelope might get caught in a bush in the same way humans might get caught in a life of sin. The nightingale represented love, the elephant implied chastity, the ape, lewdness and lust and the peacock, the purity of someone who never turns to sin.” (Martins).

The main display item, according to these views should play upon the strength of the subjects or as humorous jokes on the subject matter presented.

I chose citrus as a way to display a scarcity rescourse, imported by the rich for display’s of wealth.

There are several potraits of the rich with subtel depictions of their wealth with the inclusion of citrus in paintings. The picture below, while not Tudorian, is from 1434 showing a wealthy couple’s marriage and a the subtle inclusion of citrus.   

https://www.academia.edu/83658318/Appealing_Unpeeled_The_layers_of_meaning_of_lemons_as_portrayed_in_Dutch_Golden_Age_Paintings

This is the Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife.  Here we see oranges in the windowsill and on the side table. 

Henry Courtenay, Earl of Devaon, is reported to have given a rare and expensive gift of oranges to Henry VIII, secured from an exporter in Exeter who shipped from Iberia. (https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/medievalstudies/2020/01/05/new-years-gifts/) Per Hampton Court, records for dining included citrus and almonds from the Mediterranean areas with imports from Cyprus (sugar) and spices from the Indies.  (https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/tudor-food-and-eating/#gs.4c4dud). 

We also show:

“…new fruits from southern Europe were introduced into the gardens of the wealthy.  These included quinces, apricots, raspberries, red and black currents, melon and even pomegranates, oranges and lemons.  The last…citrus fruits continued to be imported from Portugal, the bitter Seville type of orange now being imported by improved sweet oranges carried from Ceylon into Europe by the Portugues.” (https://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2010/04/question-from-jacob-oranges-in-tudor.html?m=1)

With the understanding that lemons and organs were considered a delicacy, along with sugar, almonds, dates and spices.  We move onto the making of a Subtlety.

Subtleties: The Making of Food Art

The pictures below are the steps taken to make the final outcome of my entry. 

Almonds from Jordan, coated in sugar from Cyprus and flavored with spices from the Indies, to form sugared almonds. We start with coating almonds with a sweet 1:1 ratio of sugar and water.  Then bring gently to boil.  After every boil.  We turn off the stove and allow the mixture and almonds to cool.

After a few, many heating and cooling episodes, the sugar crystalizes onto the almonds forming an amazing flavor.

In period, the almonds would have been added to a large cylendrical and suspended pot, to which a teaspoon of the sugar water mixture would be added.  This would form a slight coating over each almond at a time. Taste of History by Max Miller did an amazing job of showing how this was technically done.  He also pointed out that it was several hours of hard work to get just a few nuts covered and several batches destroyed from burning.  We are attemtping flavor not looks for the enterior of this subtelty.

Once the almonds have been candied, take a medjool date and remove the seed and cap.  Stuff two or three almonds inside.

Next we make period ginger bread with imported expensive spices from the spice islands and the Middle East.

Period ginger bread has a variety of recipes, much like everyone’s favorite Italian grandmother’s one true lasagna recipe.  There can be more than one.  Here I take spices, add them to plain bread crumbs.  The bread crumbs would be saved from all the bread sliced on the cutting board for just such a dish and tossed into simmering honey. Nothing is wasted.

The almond stuffed dates are then wrapped in the still hot spiced bread crumb mixture to form the shape of the faux fruit to be.

Please note the second mistake for today’s recipe, the very white marzipan.  Marzipan is supposed to be made with powdered sugar, ground almonds (almond flour), one egg white and a touch of rose water.  Here in this picture, marzipan is made without ground almond flour.  It has amazing stiffness but is incredibly fragile to work with and hardens in seconds.  The taste is like an overly sweet rose sugar.  I did not like the taste after the first round of wrapping was completed.  Instead of breaking the sugar shells open to rescue the gingerbread inside, I made a second batch so everyone would be able to taste why no almond flour to marzipan is a really bad idea.

Almond flour gives the sugar an elasticity and subtle flavor that is needed.  Drying time is a little slower however this outweighs with better flavor and elasticity needed to cover gingerbread and to make really cute leaves that aren’t going to break if you breathe on them.

The marzipan forms are then painted with coloring that reflects the represented citrus.  Now I could have used period ingredients for the paints.  Saffron, cochineal and spinach water.  2 out of 3 of these ingredients were NOT cost effective (saffron and cochineal), and two I wouldn’t put on a sweet (cochineal and spinach).  One, I just won’t eat because I can’t guarantee that the cochineal is food grade or food safe.  Cochineal is the ground up shells of a beetle imported from Mexico that make a really lovely red dye.  If I won’t eat this, then I won’t ask others to eat it either.  I used modern day food dyes with vodka to help the cohesion and watering down of said food dyes. 

The mistakes made for this subtlety: Marzipan without almond flour and I forgot to stuff the candied almonds into the luxury item of dates.  While the just sugar marzipan was tasty, it was hard to work with and hardened in minutes instead of hours. 

Candied almonds not placed inside of a date, when wrapped with the gingerbread, felt more like marbles rolling around while forming the gingerbread instead of a solid item that was being gently wrapped in gingerbread then marzipan.  It was very disconcerting to feel!

Recipes:

Marzipan:

Original Recipe:

And if you will make any images of any other thing in sugar that is cat in molds make them in the same maner that the plate is and pour it into the molds in the same manner that the plate is poured, but let your mold be anointed before with a little almond oil. (Heiatt, pp. 142)

Ingredients:

1 C ground almonds     2 C powdered sugar     1 egg white

2 tsp Rosewater                 

Redaction:

Marzipan is an almond thick paste that can be formed into flowers, trees, birds etc.  In period the marzipan would be colored with saffron, cinnamon etc. to produce colors that would sometimes over ride the flavor of the candy.

I will note that my original ground almonds could have been ground more finely, and my powdered sugar was bought instead of taking regular table sugar and grinding finer in a mortar and pestle.  I have since upgraded to peeled ground almond meal and the powdered sugar is still bought.  I don’t use vanilla as the modern recipes will suggest but I do use the period rosewater instead.

Gingerbread

Original Recipe:

First Recipe:

Take a quart of honey & seethe it, skim it clean; take saffron, powdered pepper, * throw thereon; take grated bread, make it so stiff that it will be cut; then take powdered cinnamon, & strew thereon enough; then make it square, like as thou would cut it; take when thou cut it, and caste box leaves above, stuck thereon, and cloves.  And if thou will have it red color it with sandalwood enough. (Renfrow, pp. 230)

Second Recipe:

Take a quart of honey clarified, and seethe it till it be brown, and if it be thick put to it a sih of water: then take fine crumbs of white bread grated, and put to it, and stir it well, and when it is almost cold, put to it the powder of ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and a little liquorice and aniseeds; then knead it, and put it into moulds and print it: some use to put to it also a little pepper, but that is according unto taste and pleasure. (Markahm, pp. 120)

Ingredients:

1 C honey        2 C breadcrumbs (white bread preferred)

1/8 tsp ground black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves

whole cloves and cinnamon powder for display

Redaction:

I actually played around with the flavor a little bit and added a few more spices.  1/8 cinnamon, cardamon, ginger and nutmeg. (I’m a spicy type of cook you know!)

If you will notice the breadcrumbs are from a whole wheat bread I had.  In period if this dish were to be served to nobility or royalty, the probability that the bread was made from good white flour without a lot of whole wheat is much higher than a whole wheat or grain-based bread.  I would suggest a good bread made from white flour, water, either ale or water, and yeast can actually be the must from the bottom of the ale barrel or ale yeast if you wanted a more purist type of bread.  (That will be in another post later.)

Place the honey in a pot and boil.  Skim the foam as it appears, add the pepper and the saffron and stir in the breadcrumbs. After the breadcrumbs were added…in went the spices. Continue stirring until the mixture starts to stiffen up. Place mixture in a mold or use your hands to form the desired shape.

Dragee and Spices in Confit – Candied Fruit

Original Recipe:

This recipe has been condensed by the authors as being extremely long and convoluted.  Here is their shortened version.

To clarifie suger, and to mak anneys in counfite, which directs us to make caraway, coriander, fennel and ginger into confit the same way…

1 cup sugar                   ½ cup water                 6 oz anise seeds

Combine sugar and water in a heavy pan for 5 minutes, add seeds and stir until the syrup begins to look white; set aside for 10 minutes.  Then put back over low heat, preferably over a protective mat or heat diffuser, and stir until the sugar coating softens enough to be poured.  Pour onto a cookie sheet or a piece of clean screening over a cake rack. Spread the seeds out with a paring knife separate them as much as possible as they harden…

(Hieatt, 135)

Ingredients:

1 C sugar         ½ C water        2 C almonds

Redaction:

I did this with almonds so as to stuff dates for the center of a marzipan/gingerbread subtlety.

Food Coloring – Period but not always edible:

Cinnamon – Produces a lovely red coloring, though this does imparts a strong cinnamon flavor to the marzipan.

Cochineal – Spanish Conquistadors conquering Mexico discovered that the Mesoamericans had found the perfect red dye coloring. Dye comes from of a small bug found on cacti.  50,000 to 70,000 bugs are needed per pound of dye.  The dye is produced when pouring boiling water over the dead bugs.  (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/bug-had-world-seeing-red-180961590/) This produces a strong red coloring.  In other words, bug juice.  I draw the line at knowingly eating this.  Because I won’t eat this, I won’t put this in my edible artwork.  Replaced with edible paint and cinnamon.

Lapis Lazuli – A mineral used as an expensive pigment in period paintings such as Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian.  Considered expensive and used only by accomplished painters with rich patrons. (https://geology.com/gemstones/lapis-lazuli/)   Produces lovely blue coloring. Not food grade.  Because I could not verify if this was cut with something toxic I replaced the dye with blue edible paint. 

Lead – Lead White used for paintings along with gypsum and chalk.(http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/artist-paints/renaissance-colour-palette.htm) Seen in “Miracle of the Slave”, 1548 by Tintoretto.  Produces a fine white coloring. Toxic to poisonous.  Replaced with white edible paint.

Malachite – A green mineral, found as early as 618 AD for paintings.  (https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/5/201/htm).  Seen in “Garden of Earthly Delights”, 1504 by Hieronymus Bosch.  Produces an amazing green coloration.  Not food grade.  Because I could not verify if this was cut with something toxic I replaced the dye with spinach juice.

Parsley –  Native to the mediterranean from the Apiaceaa family.  Attempted use as a green coloring agent.  Failure on dying sugar art green but makes a lovely, if interesting, sugar art display.  (https://www.britannica.com/plant/parsley)

Pearl – Natural formed when a grain of sand (or other irritant) invades an oyster soft interior.  The oyster coats the irritant with fluid called nacre.  Many coats are used to smooth out the rough edges. (https://pearls.com/pages/how-pearls-are-formed) Used as early as Roman times for heart disease by grinding pearls.  For black bile, ground pearls were mixed with musk. (King, pp. 314).  Produces lovely pearlescent shimmer.  Attempted to hand grind pearls in my pestle.  This did not go well.  Could not get a consistent sand like quality.  Rough and gritty.  Replaced with edible paint to replace gritty chunks.

Saffron – The usable part of the saffron plant are the three stamen.  The saffron is part of the Iridaceae family, growing wild from Italy to Kurdistan.  Produces a lovely red color and very expensive due to the quantity needed for dying.  (ToussaInt-Samat, pp. 518) 

Snapdragons – A flowering plant native to the Mediterranean and North America from the Pantaginacea family.  Attempted use as a red dye for sugar art.  A failure for coloring.   (https://www.britannica.com/plant/snapdragon)

Spinach Juice – Spinach is chopped then boiled.  The water reserved for coloring of sugar and painting onto pastry crust.

Note on Subtlety:

A subtlety could be made of just the edible, such as a re-skinned peacock, or as a combination of paper mâché and lumber to accent the food in the display.  These decorative subtleties were for powerful displays and less about eating, with the production being done by carpenters, metal smiths and painters and very little with chefs. Horace Warpole describes a banquet given in honor of the birth of Duke of Burgundy, where the centerpiece was of wax figures moved by clock work at the end of the feast to represent the labor of the Dauphiness and the happy birth of the heir to the monarchy. (Martins/Craig, pp. 17)

Paint brushes:

            Per Cennini, paint brushes should be made from the middle hairs of cooked vair tails, trimmed then tied with thread or waxed silk thread before tucking them into a feather shaft.  After this is complete find a twig/wooden handle to fit into the other end of the feather shaft.  His preference for feather shafts was vulture, goose, chicken hen or dove. (https://www.medievalists.net/2016/08/how-to-make-medieval-artists-tools/)  I went with store bought brushes as I am fresh out of vair tails, cat hairs, squirrel hairs and the dog hair available is to curly.

Conclusion:

I love making candied almonds.  Fun, sweet and amazing to the tongue.  Gingerbread in the period style is ok.  It is a pain in the butt to work with when it is still warm, but if you don’t’ work the gingerbread while warm, the mixture will freeze in the pan. 

The marzipan was a dream to work with, but there were issues with the coloring of the fruit and leaves.

The marzipan was painted with food grade coloring.  I wanted to attempt to paint the “fruit” and “leaves” however there were a few issues with using period paints.  Some weren’t food grade, and some aren’t something I’d willingly put in my mouth.  Spinach, that was grown in my garden, died. 

After working with the paints, I concluded that I should have used finely grated lemon peel and just a drop of yellow food coloring mixed in with the “Lemon” marzipans instead of painting.  The “orange” marzipan should have been mixed with grated orange peels and maybe a hint of cinnamon. 

References:

Craig, E., (1953). English Royal Cookbook, Favorite Court Recipes. Hippocrene books.

Czarra, Fred. Spices, A Global History. (2009). Reaktion Books Ltd.

David, Elizabeth. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. (1977). Grub Street Cookery

Hansen, Marianne.  And Thus You Have  a Lordly Dish: Fancy and Showpiece Cookery in an Augsberg Patrician Kitchen. Medieval Food and Drink.  (1995). St. University of NY Press.

Henisch, Bridget Ann. Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society. (1976). Pennsylvania State University Press.

Hunter, Lynette. Sweet Secrets from Occasional Receipts to Specialized:  The Growth of a Genre; as cited in Banquetting Stuffe. (1986) Edited by C. Anne Wilson. Edinburgh University Press.

Hieatt, Constance, Hosington, Brenda, Butler, Sharon. Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks. (1979) University of Toronto Press.

Martins, P. (1998). Subtleties, Power and Consumption: A Study of French and English cuisine from 1300-1500). Nyu.edu

Renfrow, C., (1998). Take a Thousand Eggs, A collection of 15th century recipes. 2nd edition.

Rodinson, Maxime., Arberry, A.J. Medieval Arab Cookery. (2001) Prospect Books.

Scappi, Bartolomeo. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi. (1570).  (2008). Translated by Scully, Terence.  University of Toronto Press.

Scully, Terrence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. (1995). The Boydell Press, Woodbridge.

Tirel, Guillaume. The Viandier of Taillevent: and edition of all extant manuscripts. (1988). Translated by

Scully, Terence.  University of Ottawa Press.

Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne. A History of Food. (2009). Blackwell Publishing, LTD.

Wheaton, Barbara. Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789. (1996).  Simon & Schuster Inc.

Portraits

Image 1:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=stilllife+with+lemons+organs+and+a+pomegranate&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fobrazarna.cz%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fpictures%2F3AA2723.JPG

https://www.academia.edu/83658318/Appealing_Unpeeled_The_layers_of_meaning_of_lemons_as_portrayed_in_Dutch_Golden_Age_Paintings

https://ag.umass.edu/sites/ag.umass.edu/files/fact-sheets/pdf/currants.pdf

https://www.americanbuttercupclub.org/about-the-breed.html

https://www.britannica.com/plant/almond

https://geology.com/gemstones/lapis-lazuli

http://www.godecookery.com/

https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/tudor-food-and-eating/#gs.4fjl4e

https://blog.kathrynmcgowan.com/tag/hampton-court-palace-tudor-kitchens

https://queryblog.tudorhistory.org/2010/04/question-from-jacob-oranges-in-tudor.html?m=1

http://www.medievalcookery.com/

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wedd/hd_wedd.htm

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/5/201/htm

https://pearls.com/pages/how-pearls-are-formed

http://www.reference.com/browse/subtlety/Patrick Martins/nyu

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/bug-had-world-seeing-red-180961590

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/artist-paints/renaissance-colour-palette.htm

 Anwar, Farooq; Abbas, Ali; Alkharfy, Khalid M. and Gilani, Anwar-ul-Hassan (2015). “Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton) Oils”. In Victor R. Preedy, (Ed.) Essential Oils in Food Preservation, Flavor and Safety Archived 30 June 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Amsterdam: Academic Press. Chapter 33. pp. 295–301

https://www.tastinghistory.com/episodes

Personal pictures for steps in making subtleties

Tannuriyya: Chicken Pot Pie

Tannuriyya: Chicken Pot Pie

Translation:

Boil one chicken, pullets (2 young fowl) in salt and water. Take a frying pan and pour tallow and oil into it.  Spread bread dough in it to line bottom and sides.  Now, take the (boiled) chicken, pullets or the two plump fowls and remove the cavity (wall).  Spread the birds flat on the dough in the pan.  Mix finely chopped cilantro and onion with spikenard, cloves, cassia and black pepper.  Pour on them wine vinegar and murri (liquid fermented sauce).  If you prefer, use juice of…raisins…and pomegranate seeds, instead.  Add ½ C. clarified butter or sweet olive oil and 5 eggs. Mix thoroughly all these ingredients and pour them all over the chicken.  Roll out another piece of dough into a disc (for a crust), cover the chicken with it, (and seal together the edges of the dough). Lower the pan into the (heated) tannur until it is cooked, God willing. (Ibn Sayyar Al-Warraq, pp. 372-373)

Ingredients:

1 boiled chicken, de-boned and shredded

2 rolled out rounds of circular dough

5 eggs

½ C. Murri

¼ C. wine vinegar

½ finely chopped large onion or one small onion

1 bunch cilantro (if fresh is not available use 1 tsp dried)

1 tsp spikenard, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves

½ C. melted butter.

Redaction:

Instead of doing one full bird, I used 4 chicken thighs, well boiled in salt water.  The meat and skin were left over from making chicken stock and no one in period would throw out good meat. 

Quick side note:  Period chickens were not the size of the chickens we find in the grocery store today.  They were a lot smaller.  For an idea of true chicken size, look up the chicken type called The Sultan.  Small chickens, incredibly cute! but not a lot of meat.  Another period Middle Eastern chicken would have been the Orloff.  A little bigger than the sultan in period and breed over time to be a much bigger bird by the Russian noble Orloff.  (He liked the birds so brought a bunch home to Russia…hence the name Russian Orloff even though the birds technically started in the Middle East.)  I wrote a research paper that can be found on Roxalana’s redactions under Research paper if you want to know waaaay more than anyone really wants to know about chickens in period.

You will notice a spice called Spikenard.  Is modernly grown as an ornamental these days instead of as a common spice, found in the ginseng family.  (https://www.britannica.com/plant/spikenard-plant-Nardostachys-genus / Dalby, Andrew, “Spikenard” in Alan DavidsonThe Oxford Companion to Food, 2nd ed. by Tom Jaine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-280681-5)

I just went without.  I also used dried cilantro instead of fresh.  It’s what I had on hand.

Remember the Murri recipe awhile back?  It’s here again.  When you make Murri, make several cups worth.  This will show up again and again in Middle Eastern recipes.  If you don’t have Murri on hand, use pomegranate juice and ground up raisins.  Pomegranate juice can be bought at some stores, lots of Middle Eastern and Oriental stores carry this, or it can be ordered online.  For raisin juice.  Soak them a little bit, then grind them well (use a Cuisinart if you have one or a pestle and mortar) and strain through a fine sieve or cloth covered sieve. 

I used a simple butter crust.  1 stick of butter, mixed with 2.5 C. of flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 C. of water added a Tbs. at a time until everything comes together.  Some days your kitchen is going to be so humid you won’t need all the water, but some days you will, hence the Tbs. at a time.

Roll out the dough and cover your pan.

Here you can use a Tagine if you have one, a cast iron skillet or a small pan that’s in your cabinet you use every day.  (If you’re entering this dish into an A&S please note on your documentation why or why not you used the pan you did while noting what would have been used in period).  Your judges will want to know if you actually know what was used in period, including what a Tannur is (https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AOaemvKOvUqMXtldMBzHAQNcMib1l3cUWQ:1632072312805&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=tannur&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwig086Tx4vzAhXSqpUCHbfeAnQQjJkEegQIBRAC&biw=1725&bih=1000&dpr=0.8) (basically a nice sized to mucking huge in ground oven you stick dough to the sides in or lower dishes into, made with various types of mud/tiles/clay etc….that’s another paper for another time).

Lay out your shredded chicken. Cover with the onion, spice, murri and egg mixture.

Cover with the second layer of dough and seal it up.  I used a simple squish the dough together then use fingers to form a semi nice looking edge found on apple pies.  You can use a fork, a spoon or even a dough crimper, as long as the edges are sealed together.

DO NOT forget to add small pricks to the dough so that pockets of hot air can escape and not rip your dough apart while drying to do so.

Bake until done.

I found this more like a chicken quiche then a chicken pot pie.  The flavors were a bit odd yet still enjoyable!

Mutawakkiliyya (Meat with Taro)

I haven’t worked with Taro root before so this was new. I love the almost potato like squish of the taro when I bit down. The spices can be…overwhelming. So keep that in mind when you go to cook this.

Mutawakkiliyya (The Caliph al-Mukatwakkil d. AD 861)
Meat with Taro


Translation:
A pound and a half of meat and a pound and a half of washed taro, caraway pepper Ceylon cinnamon, five bunches of green coriander, five green onions, five heads of garlic. The meat is
put in the pot and water to cover or less is put on it and you kindle (the fire) under it until it dries up. And when the water has evaporated, you throw the pepper and caraway , and you cut up
two bunches of green coriander and four green onions and pound the four heads (of garlic) mixed with three bunches of green coriander. You feed it with all the pepper and caraway and
throw everything into the pot with the meat. You can cut up the garlic. When it smells good, you put water on the pot as needed to cove the taro you have. Then you kindle (the fire) until
the taro smells good, and you make it settle and ladle it out. (Rodinson, pp. 340)


Ingredients:
1.5 lbs stew meat
1.5 cleaned taro root
2 tsp. ea. Long pepper (groud) and caraway
1 Tbs Chinese cinnamon
1 head of garlic
1 bunch cilantro (RINSED)
1 bunch green onions
Salt to taste


Redaction:
So reading through the recipe is a little bit confusing. The quantities change from 5 to 4 to 3 the further you go in. So I made a few judgement calls (after experiment). I tried 3 heads
of garlic with two full store bunches of cilantro and 4 green onions. WHOA! All I tasted was garlic. So I made a decision to embrace the right as a cook to change how much went into my
dish.


I used one (well rinsed) bunch of cilantro, 8 green onions (one store bought bunch), and one head of garlic. There is still a bite; however I can now taste the green onion and cilantro
instead of swearing I’ve turned into a vampire the garlic bit back so much.


I gathered all my items up. Per usual, I have cut the meat into bite sized pieces. I think that’s courteous to my quests to not have to chew one piece for ever while having the cheeks of a
chipmunk.


First thing to notice is that taro root looks like hairy roaches. I found when picking out the Taro, the box contained a lot of moldy roots. I went for the dense and firm roots without the
mold. I don’t need to rediscover penicillin. Rinse them well and peel off the outer layer.


The spices are some of the usual suspects. However, I am trying more long pepper than just regular pepper. I LOVE the smell of fresh long pepper. In the picture, you will see the long
pepper is whole. I ground mine up, so the full flavor could be enjoyed by all, not just the one person who bit down on a whole long pepper. However, I am trying more long pepper than just regular pepper. I LOVE the smell of fresh long pepper. In the picture, you will see the long pepper is whole. I ground mine up, so the full flavor could be enjoyed by all, not just the one person who bit down on a whole long pepper.

Put the meat into a pot with just enough water to cover.


Once the first round of water has evaporated, everything but the taro root goes into the pot.

Stir this around until fragrant. 2-3 minutes. Next add the taro root and enough water to cover. Cook until the taro root is tender. This is about 35-45 minutes.


Serve!


The taro root is nice. A good starch in place of potato for a beef stew. STRONG garlic taste even with the cinnamon. Not even the lovely fragrant long pepper could overcome so much garlic. When I do this dish again, I’ll probably go for ½ a head of garlic and maybe a smidge more cilantro and green onion. Otherwise pretty tasty.

To Bake Chikins: Chicken Pie with Vinegar and Fruit

This was one of those recipes I was really not sure about.  It sounded interesting but adding a sauce towards the end and not at the start?!  How the hell does that make the dish flavorful let alone get to all parts of the pie?  So here I did a little experimenting.  It was a fun learning experiment and the pies were adored when served at a gathering of friends.

To Bake Chickins:

Translation:

Season them with cloves, mace sinamon ginger, and some pepper, so put them into your coffin, and put thereto corance dates prunes, and sweet butter, or els maro,and when they be half baked, put in some sirup of vergious, and some sugar, shake them togither and set them into the oven again…. (A Book of Cookrye: Very Necessary for all such as delight therin. 1591)

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. cut up chicken

1 Tsp ea. of ground cloves, mace, cinnamon, ginger and pepper

1 C. chopped currents, dates and prunes

1⁄2 C. cubed butter                                                                                 

1⁄2 C. Balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs. sugar

Crust:  Hot water crust

Redaction:

I took chicken thighs and cut into bite sized pieces.  Mixed them with all the spices and fruit.  If you don’t have currants added chopped up raisins.

Corances are currents for those wondering about this bit of English spelling

Here I used a butter crust. It won’t stand up on its own but has an amazing mouth feel/taste.

I put the crust into small molds normally used for cheese cakes with quick release at the sides.  The crust should be able to stand up on its own; however I wanted flavor not just a stiff upper crust.  Hence the hot water crust and mini tart pans. 

The tops have a circle at each center. This is to pour 2 Tbs. of the vinegar and sugar mixture when the pies are half cooked.  I used a knife to cut out the circle.  I would have preferred to use a small round punch of some sort instead.  These look a bit messy but get the job done.

Bake these for about 25 minutes before pulling the pies out to pour in the vinegar mixture.  I know you’re asking yourself how the hell do I get this in there?!  During the cooking the filling will shrink leaving a space between crust and interior.  

The process was a little messy as I used a spoon and not a spouted pouring device. This didn’t effect the flavor though the crusts were a bit discolored instead of being a toasty golden brown, more of a mottled colored where the vinegar spilled.

Return the pies for another 20 minutes, then pull out for serving.   

Personally, I wouldn’t do much larger even if I weren’t using the small molds.  These are very filling on their own.  A small one will fill most people up easily.  If you’re doing a feast then I can understand doing a pie sized, but cook one first to make sure the vinegar mixture actually mixes into all sections and not just partially.  This was the perfect size for the small amount of mixture per pie used.

Wasfat ‘Ukhraa Lilhawm fi Alkhali: Meat in Vinegar (Another Recipe For)

When I did this dish the first time, it was completely wrong.  I had to redo the marinade and the cooking.  I left the spicing the same and now the chicken isn’t all vinegar with a hint of spices.  You can now taste the spicing and a hint of vinegar now.

Meat inVinegar (Another Recipe For)

Translation:

Another recipe, for meat: wash the meat well and put it in vinegar, keep it and marinate it in ghee flavoured with asafetida.  Mix the meat with potherbs of all kinds and put it into a cooking pot.  When it is well-cooked, add lime juice, pepper and fresh ginger and serve it. (The Nimatnama Manuscript, pg. 13).

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken (or meat of your choice)

1 1/2 C. Vinegar

1/2 C. Ghee

1/2 tsp. Asafetida

1 tsp, ground cumin, coriander and dried parsley

1 1/2 tsp turmeric

1 Tbs. chopped ginger

1 Tbs. lime juice

1 tsp ground pepper

Redaction:

Normally you’d use a whole chicken (with skin and bones) or if you prefer red meat 2 lbs of your choice.  Here I used 4 chicken thighs with skin and bones roughly 1.5 lbs. 

The meat was put into a clay pottery pot.  Here I added the vinegar. 

The vinegar is both balsamic and generic white cider. 
I wanted a little sweet to the tart bite. You can go either way depending on what your taste is, as no particular type of vinegar is specified.  Marinade for 4 hours or overnight.

*Asafetida is very potent.  A little goes a long way and will make your hands and kitchen smell…unusual.  If you don’t have any on hand, use garlic. 


Spices shown are ground.  Don’t be afraid to play with whole spices if you have those on hand!

 Put the chicken into a baking dish. Next add the pot herbs.  Here I combined cumin, coriander, mint and turmeric together. 

I like the flavors and they go well with lime and ginger. Place in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 or until the meat is well cooked and tender.

I used a clay pot both times.  One more period than the other.  Add ghee (clarified butter) and the asafetida* (also known as the Devil’s Stink Weed) together.  Pour into the baking dish.

Once you pull the meat from the oven add the lime juice, ginger and ground pepper to taste.  Eat!