Feast of St Sylvester 2019

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15th Century, Dutch, feast, food, Persona, recipe, research

On the 12th of January I cooked my fourth feast for my local canton’s event, the Feast of St Sylvester. This one though was extra special. The menu for this feast was almost two and a half years in the making. Back in the summer of 2016 I found a website that sparked this idea. This site contained the text of two Dutch manuscripts from the mid – late 15th century which had been translated from Middle Dutch, to Modern Dutch, and then into English by Christianne Muusers. They were 15th century Dutch recipe books (my SCA persona is 14th-15th century Dutch) and I couldn’t find more than a handful of the recipes that had been recreated and published online anywhere else.

The first manuscript, Wel ende edelike spijse, contains 62 recipes. The second, The convolute Gent KANTL 15, contains 92 recipes in the first volume and 150 in the second volume. A total of 304 recipes to choose from! Some had ingredients that were impossible or extremely difficult to get, some had unclear cooking instructions, and some were repetitive. There were three recipe variations just for wafers. Of the eleven recipes that I ended up choosing only three had recreations that I could find online: wafers, onions with cumin sauce, and the fried gouda.

My favorite dish was definitely the stewed quince although the stuffed apples come in a firm second. Everything seemed to go over really well and some of the dishes surprised me, like the onions of which hardly any came back to the kitchen during cleanup. If you would like to learn more about my menu and try some of the recipes yourself please take a look at my Netherlands Feast documentation.

I want to thank my kitchen staff and servers again as well. Many of them stepped in to volunteer when my mom ended up in the hospital the weekend before. Putting together so much food is a production and every willing hand helps to lighten the load for all.

 

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Stuffed Eggs – Netherlands, 16th Century

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16th Century, Cooking, Dutch, eggs, food, recipe

Sometimes you are hungry and there’s nothing in the fridge to cook except eggs. There was nothing to put in an omlet, I’m tired of scrambled, and plain boiled just sounded boring on it’s own but perhaps as a base to something else … I know there are other egg options but those are the ones I know how to make. So what does one do when they are out of food ideas? To the cookbook!

Of course, this being me I grab my compilation of pre-1600 recipes first. Why be normal? I had three choices that were based on hard boiled eggs. The first was a stuffed egg recipe from 15th C Lombardy with cheese added to the stuffing, second was a 16th C Dutch recipe with apple, third was a 15th C Dutch recipe that was far more complex than I wanted to deal with and used ingredients I didn’t have. I’ve made the Lombardy eggs before so I decided to try out the Dutch recipe with apple. It can be found at Medieval Cookery.

12 Eggs
Pinch Saffron, ground
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon, ground
1/2 tsp. Ginger, ground
1/4 tsp. Pepper, ground
1/4 tsp. Sage, finely chopped
1 tsp. Parsley, finely chopped
1 Apple, peeled and finely chopped

Boil eggs, allow to cool, peel and cut in half. Remove yolks and place in a bowl with spices, herbs and apple, mix well and stuff egg whites. Fry in pan with butter.

One change I made is that I used apple sauce instead of chopping a whole apple. It’s a good substitution if you are working on a time limit (an empty stomach counts as a time limit methinks) but I do think that a fresh apple, finely diced and warmed enough to soften it up, would definitely break up the smoother texture of the mashed egg yolk. An apple variety with more tart than sweet would be best. I think it also needed a bit more pepper and fresh parsley and sage instead of dried and ground. Unfortunately March in Maine is not a good time for fresh herbs. Despite those shortcomings they turned out pretty well, I even got compliments from a couple non-SCAdians. They should definitely be served warm, as close to just-out-of-the-pan as you can get, the texture of the pan-fried eggs  is rather odd after cooling.

 

Tarts of Dreid Apricot

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17th century, Cooking, food, fruit, pies and tarts, recipe, Spanish

Otherwise known as Tarts of why-the-heck-did-I-trust-the-redaction. One day I will learn this lesson.

Recipe from A Brief Overview of Early Spanish Cuisine (Vol. 6, The Feudal Gourmet).

Chap 83 On a pie of dry apricot or peach halves

A large & good pie of dry apricots, bring a pound of them, those which are washed with hot water, & after they are well washed, cast them in a pot, with a pound of sugar; leave a little for on top & cast to them white wine, & cinnamon, & season it, & set it on the fire; be sure that it does not burn, because they are delicate, & being conserved, remove them & put them in the pie, & cast to them sugar & cinnamon on top; after they are well conserved you also may cast honey in place on the sugar; but let it be good, & put the pie cooking on a small fire, because all the sweet dishes burn easily.

From Hernandez, 1607. Translation copywrite Dan Gillespie.

RECONSTRUCTION:
16 3″ pie crust tartlettes
3/4 lb dried apricots
3/4 lb sugar
3/4 cup sweet white wine
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pinch salt
4 pinches cinnamon sugar

DIRECTIONS:
Pre-bake tartlette shells for 8-10 minutes at 350F.Dice apricots into 1/4 inch pieces.
Cook apricots, wine, and sugar on medium heat for 15-20 minutes (till sugar is completely dissolved).
Add salt and spices cook for a few more minutes to blend flavors.
Fill tartletts and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes
Let cool before serving

Ok, so the ginger makes sense but what is with salt and pepper in a fruit tart? Someone also has a love affair with the fraction 3/4, especially since the original recipe called for a full pound. But since I just happened to have 3/4 pound of dried apricots I went with it. I decided to ditch the salt and pepper however. I also did not pre-cook my pie crust. Especially since I wanted to make these as individual, half-circle pasties and you just cannot fold over a cooked crust.

And here is where people who do redactions without giving all the needed information in them can really mess things up. I am also very irritated with myself since I have cooked with dried apricots before and I should have known better. The original recipe states “…bring a pound of them, those which are washed with hot water, & after they are well washed, cast them in a pot…” When I made Mishmishiya from Pleyn Delit the original recipe stated “Take dry apricots, soak in hot water, then wash and put in a separate saucepan, and boil lightly…” Doing this re-hydrates the apricots so that they are not tough and overly chewy. This recipe DEFINITELY requires this step. I didn’t do it. I went with the redaction.

Next up, the wine. 3/4 cup is such a random amount. I also suspect it is way too much liquid. Not having soaked and strained the apricots however I cannot, at this time, estimate how much wine should be used but I suspect not much more than 1/4 cup. Or it could be that this really would be better as a full-sized pie with more liquid. I may try this out again . . . someday . . . when I’m less depressed about everything that went wrong.

I’m also pretty certain I cooked the mixture too long. Or rather that if I had soaked the apricots first that they would have ended up less chewy than they did without the soaking.

Ok, so all of my issues stem from being impatient, not paying heed to the original recipe, and trusting the redaction to give me all the information which I have proved through experience happens less often than I would like.

At least they taste good. Even if the texture is a bit off.