In Which I do cook some pork or Making Cormarye

The other day with a nice pork roast in the freezer I gleefully decided it was time to take on a "bigger" medieval recipe!  There was a nice pork roast called Cormarye that called for red wine, garlic and coriander and caraway and I quickly decided on that.  

So I started with a pork roast, I can't remember what type of roast it was but it was a nice three pound chunk of pig flesshe. 

Here's the original recipe:
Take Colyaundre, caraway smale grounden, powdour of peper and garlec ygrounde, in rede wyne; medle alle thise togyder and salt it. Take loynes of pork rawe and fle of the skyn, and pryk it wel with a knyf, and lay it in the sawse. Roost it whan thou wilt, & kepe that that fallith therfro in the rostyng and seeth it in a possynet with faire broth, & serue it forth with the roost anoon.

Here's what I used
3 lb pork roast
one bottle merlot wine
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tsp salt
3 tsp fresh ground black pepper
5 cloves garlic finely minced
I used my crock pot because I love the crock pot for roasts.  I put the whole bottle of wine in and added the spices and put the pork roast in and I let it marinate overnight.   Then I cooked it till it was well cooked and almost falling apart. It was in the crock pot on low for 5 hours or so I think.    I took the meat out and let it set while I strained the cooking liquid and used it to make a gravy.  I used cornstarch so it wasn't truly "authentic" but flour would have worked well too.   I thought that was too strong for my tastes so I took two cups of chicken broth and added some of the stronger gravy to it to make a gravy with the red wine flavor but not so strong.  Hubby liked the strong gravy better though so it's just personal taste there.    Next time I'd use half chicken broth and half red wine for the cooking liquid instead of the whole bottle of wine.   

I liked the flavor of the meat itself quite well. The meat was tender and moist and had a nice pork and red wine flavor and the coriander and caraway added nice elements to the flavor as well. I would definitely make this again sometime with some changes.  

Here's a picture of the roast(on a chipped plate:P) after it was cooked and had set for fifteen minutes.

The color is from the wine inside it was a lighter more typical color for a pork roast.   Here's a pic of it shredded with gravy

You can see how it's darker on the outside and light on the inside.   I fixed non-medieval california mix veggies and mashed potatoes with it, because I'm too darn lazy to do three dishes at once!!  Maybe one day I'll do a mini-feast and document it but for now one dish at a time will do just fine thank-you-very-much!    Anyway, thank you again for reading!  And farewell till anon when I shall once again take to my kitchen and venture to make some recipes of days long long ago from original sources! 

In Which I am possessed of a Christmas Spirit or Making Medieval Gingerbrede

The Frog of Green house at this moment has been possessed of a holiday spirit of late.   The tree was erected in the living room and adorned with ornaments and tinsel and the smell of (non-medieval) cookies have been wafting from the kitchen.   The other night was a night for gingerbread! I made gingerbread cookies and my version of medieval gingerbread.  I love gingerbread cookies first of all.  I love the molasses and spices and how they are soft and chewy and not overly sweet.   I love making them in gingerbread children shapes and then biting off their limbs and their heads and dunk them in cocoa, I'm just a cookie sadist like that I guess!   But medieval gingerbread is much different then our modern cookie and cake versions.   It was a candy rather then a baked recipe.   And it didn't even always have ginger in it!

Here's the recipe:
Gyngerbrede. Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, & skeme it clene; take Safroun, pouder Pepir, & throw ther-on; take gratyd Brede, & make it so chargeaunt þat it wol be y-leched;then take pouder Canelle, & straw ther-on y-now; then make yt square, lyke as thou wolt leche it; take when thou lechyst hyt, an caste Box leaves a-bouyn, y-stkyd ther-on, on clowys. And if thou wolt haue it Red, coloure it with Saunderys y-now.

So to make this I took two slices of store bought bread and toasted them.  I toasted them first at a medium temp then at a low temp to get them really toasty without burning them.    Then I grated them with a cheese grater.   It sounds odd but it worked well to make them into bread crumbs.   Then I heated about 1/4 cup of honey(I eyeballed it and didn't measure it)on medium heat and watched it and let it boil and skimmed the foamy stuff off the top for several minutes then I added several good shakes of ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and pepper to the honey.   Then I added the breadcrumbs until it held together well and then I pressed it out to about about 1/4 inch think onto aluminum foil I'd greased. Then I let it cool and cut it into diamond shapes.   

I liked this, it was spicy and chewy had a nice flavor from the honey and it had kind of candyish quality about it.  I'll definitely make it again, and try some variations on it (like leaving out the cinnamon) and maybe adding some butter, but I really liked it. 

 Here it is cut into diamonds

Here it is before I cut it out

Thanks much for reading, I hope there's happy holiday activities going on in your castle this festive season of the year!  Farewell till anon when I take to my kitchen to prepare another medieval recipe from scratch :)

Here's after I pressed it out

In Which I fry cottage cheese or Making Frytour of Mylk

So I was actually possessed to make these last week.  The Thanksgiving celebrations, one on the actual day with my in-laws and one two days later at my Mom's house three house away, were really fun, but really taxing.   It's hard to feel possessed to cook something medieval when, from the way your body feels, you were apparently mowed down by a holiday train!   I will be possessed once again to take to my kitchen and messe forth more dishes soon, I have a recipe for spynoches yfryed and one for benes yfryed that have been suggesting I make them.     But for the moment it will suffice to write about the recipe I did on last week a day or two before Thanksgiving,  Frytour of Mylk.

Frytour of Mylk
Take cruddes and presse out the wheyze. do thereto sum whytes of ayrenn. fry hem. do therto & lay on sugur & messe forth.

I used about a cup of cottage cheese, it being the closest thing I had to mylk cruddes (milk curds).  I think my main mistake was I didn't rinse the whitish liquidy stuff off of them.  I added an egg white and mixed it up then fryed it in a little butter.     Well, they didn't exactly fry, they more blobbed then anything else.  They just sort of spread and melted and blobbed when I tried to push them together.   Then after I removed them from the skillet I sprinkled a little sugar on top.    The taste was very interesting.  It tasted like cottage cheese, but warm and kind of melty-stringy and kind of soggy and a little sweet from the sugar on top.  They didn't have any crispiness to them at all.   For the last one I tossed in a little flour, even though the recipe didn't call for it as an ingredient.  I was curious.  I actually quite liked that one, it held together for frying and came out kind of golden and a little crispy and I liked the cheesy taste of that one quite well.  I'm definatly going to try play around with these, they have potential to be a nice little cheesy fritter. 

Here's some pics, first of the blobby version of frytour of mylk

Doesn't it look like some kind of regurgitated gelatinous blobby stuff?  It did not look particularly appetizing though the smell and taste wasn't bad.

Next here's a picture of the one I made with flour in it

It looks much nicer no?  It tasted good too.  

Next time I'm going to rinse the cottage cheese off and try to dry it a little and I'm going to try adding the whole egg instead of just the white and some of them I'll do the flour again.   

Anyway there's my adventure with frying cottage cheese!  Thanks for reading and I'll be back anon with more tales of culinary experimentation and cooking from original medieval sources!  

In Which I adventure poaching eggs or Making Pochee

So being possessed of an urge to cook another recipe from Forme of Cury I searched for something that looked somewhat easy and didn't call for a lot of ingredients.    After looking for a bit I settled on a dish called Pochee, as it called for eggs, milk ginger and saffron (and since I don't have saffron yet I'd just omit that) and seeing that it was poached egg with a egg yolk sauce I was looking forward to poaching my first egg ever!

Not only had I never poached an egg, I'd never come across a poached egg before in my life!  So it was bound to be interesting I thought.    And sure enough it was.   My first egg I boiled the water and just plopped it in.   The white broke up everywhere in the water instantaneously making what looked like a bland flavorless egg drop soup.   So I scrapped that one and turned to the interwebs to learn more about poaching eggs before sacrificing another chicken ova to the Medieval Cooking Gods.   

From there I thence learned that vinegar in the water helps the egg hold together and one should swirl the water around right before putting the egg in. I also learned fresh eggs are better but I just used our regular eggs. So I boiled the water, put a dash of vinegar in and stirred it around then dropped the egg in and let it cook for three minutes.   It came out marginally better then the first.   So with my egg poached I turned back to the recipe for Pochee

Pochee
Take ayrenn and breke hem in scaldyng hoot water. And whan thei bene sode ynowh take hem up and take yolks of ayrenn and rawe milk and swyng hem togydre, and do therto powder gyngur, safroun and salt. Set it ouere the fire and lat it not boile, and take ayrenn isode & cast the sew onoward and serve it forth.

Here's what I used
one poached egg
two egg yolks
1/4 cup 2 percent milk
couple of dashes powdered ginger
dash salt

I put the poached egg on a plate and  mixed the egg yolks and the milk in a bowl and added the ginger and salt and put it on low heat and cooked it while stirring till it thickened up nicely.  I put the sauce over the egg and served it forth!  

So it was interesting.  I liked the flavor of the sauce, naturally it tastes like a hollandaise sauce but a little less rich what with the milk instead of butter. I might have whisked it too much because it was a little frothy.  The poached egg was interesting.  I like eggs though so this is only a good dish for people who like eggs.    Here is a picture of the finished dish, Pochee

Thanks for reading and I shall be back anon to bring more tales of culinary adventuring cooking straight from Forme of Cury!

In Which I first fail, and then succeed at making Letelorye

So being possessed once again with the urge to alye things togedre and such things I took once again to my trusty internets and upon searching Forme of Cury once again I decided to make a dish called Letelorye.  Upon reading it I saw it was an egg custard.  "Lovely!" my froggy brain exclaimed and I set to work with high spirits!

Letelorye
Take ayrenn and wryng hem thurgh a styunour and do there to cowes mylke with butter & safroun and seeth it wel.  Leshe it and loke that it be stondyng and serve it forth

Here are the ingredients I used
2 eggs
1 cup milk

dash salt
2 TBSP butter
couple dashes allspice
1 TBSP brown sugar

Okay so I have no saffron and I'm not likely to get any anytime soon so I decided to put a couple of dashes of nutmeg in for flavor and I wanted it slightly sweet so I put in a bit of brown sugar as well even though the recipe didn't call for it.    I started by beating the eggs and putting them through a mesh strainer.  I added the milk and stirred it well.  I added the salt and I put the heat on medium low and stirred it with a whisk as it heated up.   I added the butter one tablespoon at a time and kept whisking.  I added the dashes of allspice and whisked until it thickened up as it started boiling.   Well not the first time.  The first time I whisked until it was almost boiling then in my infinite wisdom stepped away to wash a couple of dishes.  That was not a good idea.   The first batch separated into solid stuff and watery stuff.  I strained it to get the solids.  It tasted okay but the texture and taste was more like super soft slightly sweet very buttery scrambled eggs.    I didn't let the failure phase me though I just washed up the dishes I'd used and set at it again and this time stood there whisking until it was done.  So before I knew it I had a lovely egg custard in front of me :)   I thought it was lovely. It was nice and custardy and rich.  It was nice and smooth and creamy.   Hubby liked it alright too even though he doesn't particularly care for custards in general.   It made two generous helpings, but it could have made three or four smaller servings easily.

First a picture of the failure

Now a picture of the success

Oh much better there!

That does it for tonight and the amphibian misadventures of medieval cooking.  Many thank for reading and I bid thee farewell till anon when I shall attempt another dish from the King's kitchen!

In Which I make the dish Jusshell

So then today I was looking at Forme of Cury and I came across this recipe that looked decidedly interesting.  It was called Jusshell.  It seemed an odd name for a dish but it seemed easy enough and I had the end of a bread loaf that needed using.  So I set to work whipping this up! Huzzah! 

Jushell
Take brede grated and ayrenn and swyge it togydre. Do therto safroun, sawge and salt.  And cast broth therto. Boile it. And when it is boiled alye it up with yolks of ayrenn and do therto salt and messe it forth and lay theron sugar and powdour gyngur.

So this is basically a bread pudding cooked over heat and topped with sugar and ginger.

Here's what I used
3 sliced bread, toasted
one egg
1 cup of chicken broth
couple of pinches of thyme
salt
two egg yolks
a mix of powdered ginger and sugar

I started by using a cheese grater and grating the toasted bread(sounds odd but it worked well). I added the thyme and a pinch of salt as I don't have any sage.   Then I mixed one egg with the bread crumbs and put it in a pan with the broth and stirred it with a whisk and cooked it on medium heat while I brought it up to the boil.   Then I added the egg yolks and stirred it over the heat for the next thirty seconds or so till it started boiling again then I took it off the heat and messed it forth!  I sprinkled it with the sugar and ginger mix and gave it a taste :)

The texture was nice, it was smooth and creamy.  The flavor was, like the name of the recipe, interesting.  I can't say I cared for the flavor.   It was like a savory bready pudding.  I did like the flavor that came from toasting the bread.   It had an oddish sort of aftertaste as well but that could be because the thyme I used expired three years ago.   I don't think I would ever make this for the flavor myself.  Maybe it would make a big difference using sage and the saffron as the recipe calls for (saffron is expensive!) but I don't think it would have made it into something I really raved over or anything.    It was great for the experience of making, but the eating it? Not so much, after hubby and I had a decent taste apiece the rest of the batch sits uneaten on the table and I'm planning on chucking it later when my achy butt gets to the dishes.   I didn't make this a part of a meal, it was an extracurricular recipe :)

Here's a pic of the finished product. It kind of looks like a dish a dish of blech.

Many thanks for reading my humble blog and farewell to thee till anon and I messe forth another medieval recipe!

In Which the Frog of Green starts upon her noble quest (and makes Blank Maunger)

So there I was, Tadpole, possessed of a strong urge to start a food blog.   I mulled to myself thoughtfully about what kind of food blog I would want to write.  My first instinct was COOKIES!!!  Oh my how I do love cookies.   But the issue with that is then the cookies would be sitting around the house whispering how tasty and lovely they would be with a nice cuppa something and that would not be a good thing.  A few more half-baked ideas flitted through my head before a small thought took hold and grew.   I would cook medieval recipes from original sources.   The more I thought about it the more brilliant it seemed.    Years ago my sister and I helped cook medieval feasts for the SCA in her area and it was loads of fun.    So it was settled then, I would cook recipes from medieval sources and document my efforts and results!  That brings us to here!  Huzzah!

Who am I you ask?  I am Tad, or Tadpole, or Green Frog and now in medieval fashion I am Frog of Green!   Pole of Tad just didn't cut the mustard.   I am a thirty something woman, married to the love of my life for a little over a year now.  I love to cook, bake and make lovely food to feed people.    The creation of dishes and meals is to me, at it's best, a form of art. 

I started by looking up medieval cookbooks. I found A Forme of Cury on Gutenburg online and I thought it would be a wonderful place to start.    One recipe was called Noumbles and upon researching I found it was a recipe for stewed deer intestines!  While I'm sure many medieval folk enjoyed many a bowl of steaming Noumbles I think I'll skip that one :)   I settled on a recipe called Blank Maunger.

Blank Maunger
Take capons and seeth hem, thenne take Almandes blauched. Grynd hem and alay hem up with the same broth. Cast the mylk in a pot. Waishe rys and do therto and lat it seeth. Thanne take brawn of capons teer it up smale and to therto.  Take white grece, sugur and salt and cast therinne. lat it seeth thenne messe it forth and florissh it with aneys in confyt rede other whyte and with almaundes fryed in oyle.  And serve it forth.

So here we have a recipe for chicken (capons) and rice (rys) in almond milk with sugar and salt and toasted almonds on top!  Lovely!  The anyes in confyt is candied anise and I would have no idea where to find that so I just omitted that ingredient.

Here is my version of Blank Maunger
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 chicken bullion cubes
1 1/2 cups white rice
3 TBSP butter
4 tablespoons brown sugar
 3/4 cup whole raw almonds
3-4 cups of water to blanch almonds
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 tbsp butter

Here's how I did it.  I started with two chicken breasts.  I cooked them in my crock pot with enough water to cover them and the bullion cubes. I chose crock pot because it was easier for me that way, I wanted to be able to forget about the chicken breasts and not have to keep a close eye on them on the stove top.  Boiling on the stove top would work just as well.    I blanched the almonds by bringing a pan of water to a full boil, removing it from the heat and putting the almonds in for a minute or so.  I used a slotted spoon to remove the almonds so the water is there to use in making the almond milk.   Then I removed the skins of the almonds.   I used two cups of the blanching water and between the food processor and the blender I pulverized the almonds.   I left the almond milk set then poured the liquid off the top   I left some of the pulpy stuff in there for extra fiber and flavor, but most people strain all that out.    I combined rice and the almond milk (there was two cups of liquid) and that wasn't nearly enough to cook rice in the end though and I ended up adding another two cups of chicken broth (I used the broth from the cooked chicken).  So if ya'll make it start out with two cups of almond milk and two cups of chicken broth from the start.   I cooked the rice like I usually do, by the directions on the package (I use a regular white rice, not instant) which for the rice I buy it's 1 cups rice to 2 cups water with a tablespoon of butter and a little salt and once it's boiling put a lid with a tight seal (we use a dinner plate that fits on the top of the pan) and turn the heat down to low and cook for fourteen minutes.     I took the chicken breasts after they were cooked and had a chance to sit and cool and I trimmed the funky bits off and sliced in into big slices and tore the slices into chunks.  I wanted to tear it because that's what the recipe said but I didn't want to tear it all up from a whole breast.   I did like the texture of the torn meat, it was nice.    Then once the rice was cooked I could see where there was a layer of stuff that had sort of separated from the rice milk so I stirred it up very well and I added some more chicken broth to make it creamy, but not soupy. I didn't have any lard(which is what I assume white grece is) and I didn't think shortening would be very nice in this dish so butter it was for our Blank Maunger.  I added three tablespoons of butter and four tablespoons of brown sugar and stirred them in well.   Then I added the chicken chunks and stirred them in.   I toasted the slivered almonds in a pan with a bit of butter, you have to watch these like a hawk and take them off when some of them start to pick up some color, they go from "barely done" to "burnt" in a hot second.     Then I sprinkled the toasted almonds on top of the rice and served it forth!

The end result was a creamy rice dish with tender chicken chunks.  The flavor was mild and nutty.   The toasted almonds on top added a nice flavor and a lovely crunch.  I enjoyed it but I can't say it will be a favorite.  This ended up being a pretty large recipe. Hubby and I ate maybe a third of it so it's probably six generous servings(or eight or nine smaller servings).  I served it with a salad and cooked broccoli for our meal tonight.


Here it is, Blank Maunger

Thank ye kindly for reading my humble blog. I will be back anon with another dish and another tale of tasty cookery!