Cameline Sauce

From http://www.medievalcookery.com/recipes/cameline.html and following the directions, excepting that I chose to use an immersion blender rather than forcing the sauce through a sieve. Flavor is good, but the consistency is very thick to the point that it could be turned out in a mold. Had to dilute with additional red wine.

Cucummern - German Cucumber Salad

 

Cucummern (Cucumber Salad)

Found on the most excellent site Medieval Cuisine.
Source: Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt, a 16th century collection of German recipes

Original Recipes:

Schel die Murcken/ vnd schneidt sie breit vnnd duͤnn/ mach sie an mit Oel/ Pfeffer vnd Saltz. Seind sie aber eyngesaltzen/ so seind sie auch nit boͤß/ seind besser als roh/ deñ man kans eynsaltzen mit Fenchel vñ mit Kuͤmmel/ daß man sie vber ein Jar kan behalten. Vnnd am Rheinstrom nennet man es Cucummern.

Translation: (Translated by M. Grasse)

Peel the Cucumbers/ and cut them broad and thin/ season them with oil/ pepper and salt. But if they are salt-preserved/ they are also not bad/ are better than raw/ because one can salt it with Fennel and with caraway/ that both can be kept over one year. And near the Rhine-stream one calls it Cucummern.

Hünre und Lahs in Teyge - Salmon & Chicken Pastries

Hünre und Lahs in Teyge

Salmon & Chicken Pastries (Salmon Pie)

Source: Daz bůch von gůter spise, 14th century collection of German recipes.

Original Recipe: (transcribe by Hans Hajek)

Diz ist ein gůt spise von eime lahs

Nim einen lahs, schabe im abe die schůpen, spalde in vnd snit in an stuͤcke. hacke peterlin, selbey, Nim gestoͤzzen yngeber, pfeffer, enys, saltz zvͦ mazzen, mache eynen derben teyk noch der groͤzze der stucke vnd wirf daz krut vf die stuͤcke vnd bewirke sie mit dem teyge. kanst du sie gestemphen in ein forme, daz tů. so mahtu machen hechde, foͤrheln, brasmen, vnd backe ieglichez besunder in sime teyge. ist ez aber eins fleischtages, so mahtu machen huͤnre, rephuͤnre, tuben vnd vasande mahtu machen, ab du hast die formen, vnd backe sie in smaltze oder suͤt sie in den formen. nim von den bruͤsten der huͤnre oder ander gůt fleisch, so wirt die kunst deste bezzer vnd versaltzez niht.

Translation: (by Alia Atlas)

This is a good food of a salmon

Take a salmon. Scrape off the scales. Split it and cut it into pieces. Cut parsley (and) sage. Take ground ginger, pepper, anise. Salt to mass. Make a dough (possibly freshly made as opposed to sourdough) also the size of the piece (of salmon). And throw the herb on the piece. And surround it with the dough. Stamp it in a form if you can. Thus you may make pike (and) trout. And bake individually in a dough. However, if it is a meat day, then you may make hens, partridge, pigeon and pheasant. If you have the forms, and bake them in fat or boil in the forms. Take from the breasts of the hens or other good meat. So will the art be the better and do not over salt.

Chopped the salmon into small pieces to better fit in the smallish pastry crusts I was using, and mixed in the spices:

1 tsp. parsley
1/4 tsp. sage
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. fennel (didn't have anise at hand)

Gebraten Milch - Roasted Milk (Grilled Cheese)

Gebraten Milch

Roasted Milk (Grilled Cheese)

Recipe found on Medieval Cuisine

Source: Daz bůch von gůter spise, 14th century collection of German recipes.

Original Recipe: (transcribe by Hans Hajek)

Wiltu machen ein gebraten milch

Wilt du machen ein gebraten milich. so nim die do niht veiztes zu si kummen und die gelebt si. den hafen zuslahe daz sie sanfte heruz glite uf ein biutel tuch. dor in bewint sie und beswer sie sanfte von erst. und dor noch laz sie ligen fon dem morgen biz hin zu abend. so snit sie dünne und spizze sie. besprenge sie mit saltze. und lege sie uf ein hültzinen rost. und la sie wol roesten. und wirf ein wenic pfeffers dor uf und betreyfe sie mit butern oder mit smaltze. obe ez fleischtac si. und gib sie hin.

Translation: (by Alia Atlas)

How you want to make roasted milk

How you want to make a roasted milk. So then take it (milk), not (too) fat to be thin, and which is curdled. Cover the pot so that it glides out easily onto a bag fabric. Bind it there in and beswer (lit. entreat, but press seems more logical) it, lightly from first, and there after that, let it lie from morning until the evening. So cut it thin and stick on a roasting spit. Sprinkle it with salt and lay it on a wooden grill and let it roast well. And throw a little pepper thereon and sprinkle it with butter or with fat, if it is a meat day, and give it out.

My Interpretation

Now, this looks delicious, but I don't have time to let it lie from morning until evening.  Further, I am strongly reminded of Halloumi cheese, which predates this recipe by several hundred years. Halloumi is set with rennet, not acid, so I'm not sure how consistent this is with the recipe's unspecified curdling. (note to self: ask Nancy)

Anyhow, for this one I'm going to cheat and just use Idaho Golden Greek Grilling Cheese from a local cheesemaker Ballard Family Dairy & Cheese

Kirschen - Cherries Stewed in Wine

Kirschen

Cherries Stewed in Wine

Found on the most excellent site Medieval Cuisine
Source: Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt, a 16th century collection of German recipes

Original Recipe:

Kirschen/ die dürr seinn/ seß zu mit halb Wasser unnd halb Wein/ magst sie kalt oder warm geben.

Translation: (Translated by M. Grasse)

Cherries/ that are dried/ set to (cook? Or soak) with half water and half wine/ (you) may serve them cold or warm.

---

This seems a very basic recipe compared to a similar cherry dessert (Tarte of Cherries) from a slightly later period English cookbook: Thomas Dawson, The Good Huswifes Jewell that I found on Gode Cookery at http://www.godecookery.com/friends/frec09.htm. "To make a close Tarte of Cherries. Take out the stones and laye them as whole as you can in a Charger and put in synamon and ginger to them and laye them in a tart whole and close them and let them stand three quarters of an hour in the oven, then take a sirrope of Muscadine and damaske water and sugar and serve it." There's also a contemporary version I'd like to try eventually at Epicurous.



But I restrained myself, and (mostly) followed the recipe for Kirschen, using an inexpensive cab sav that I happened to have on hand. During the initial boil the wine smell was so pungent that I added a tablespoon of honey.

 [put photos here]

After I had already made this recipe, I found this one as well:

Das Kochbuch des Meisters Eberhard, South German, Mid-15th century or slightly later

http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah/GermanCookbooks/MeisterEberhard.html
To make a sauce of tart cherries.
If you wish to make a good sauce of tart cherries, put the cherries into a pot and place it on the embers and let them boil. Then cool down again and pass them through a cloth, put it back into the pot, place it on the embers and let it boil well until it thickens. Then add honey and grated bread and cloves and good spice powder and put it into a small cask. It will stay good three or four years.

Harte Eyer - Seasoned Hard Boiled Eggs

Harte Eyer

Seasoned Hard Boiled Eggs

Found on the most excellent site Medieval Cuisine
 
Source: Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt, a 16th century collection of German recipes

Original Recipes:

Nim̅ harte Eyer/ gib sie besonder neben dem Salat/ bestraͤw sie mit gruͤn Pettersilgen vnd Saltz/ vnd geuß Essig darvber.

Translation: (Translated by M. Grasse)

Take hard boiled eggs/ serve them especially beside the salad/ sprinkle them with green parsley and salt/ and pour vinegar over.

This recipe is an excellent accompaniment to the Gruen FeldtSalat.

Radish Salad

 

Radish Salad

Marx Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch, c. 1581, translated by M. Grasse

45. Or take a radish/ cut in small and thin/ or fine diced/ season it with vinegar/ oil and salt/ so it is good too. (Marx Rumpolt)

 

Goose with Sauce Madame

from To The King's Taste by Lorna J. Sass

"Take sawge, parsel, ysope and savray, quinces and peers, garlek and grapes, and fylle the gees therewith and sowe the hole that no greece come oute and roost hem wel, and kepe the grece that fallith thereof. Take galyntyne and grece and do in a possynet. When the gees buth rosted ynouh, take and smyte hem on pecys, and that, that is withinne, and do it in a possynet and put thereinne wyne, if it be to thyk.  Do thereto powdor of galyngale, powdor-douce and salt, and boyle the sawse and dresse the gees in disshes, and lay the sowe onoward."


1 goose
 salt
2 tart apples
2 cups diced pears
1 cup seedless grapes (I had none, and included a kiwi)
15 cloves garlic
1 tsp. dried sage
1/2 cup parsley
 1 tsp. dried savory (I also had no hyssop)

Salt the goose inside and out.
chop the fruits and peel the garlic, mix with the herbs and stuff the goose. Roast in a very hot oven, in a baking pan with some water in the bottom, turning occasionally, about 2 hours or until done.  Remove the stuffing and puree it with galantine (see below) and some of the drippings,  and thin it with wine if needed. Carve the goose meat and heat it in the sauce.

Galantine
1 slice dry bread, crumbled (gluten free works fine)
1 tsp.  powdered galangal
1/4 tsp. each cinnamon and ginger
1 cup broth or bouillon
2-3 Tbsp. wine vinegar

heat and whisk all this in a saucepan until smooth.

Sauce for Crane or Duck

The ducks went to the processor last week. And though I will sell most of them, I had to hang on to a few to enjoy. I found a number of applicable recipes in Apicius' De Re Coquinaria, translated as Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Joseph Vehling. This is number 215. Like many of Apicius' recipes, it is a mere list of ingredients; proportions and technique are for the redactor to discover.

"Pepper, lovage, cumin, dry coriander, mint, origany, pine nuts, dates, broth, oil, honey, mustard, and wine."

What I did this time:
Put the duck to roast, covered, with a little water in the pan, at 325 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.


1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp fresh minced lovage leaf
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
2 Tbsp fresh minced mint
3 Tbsp fresh oregano
2 Tbsp pine nuts
8 dates or figs
1/4 c red wine



1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 c bouillon
1/2 c renderings from the roasting pan
2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp salt or to taste ( I am assuming that Roman "broth" was a salty condiment, as it appears in almost every recipe. Possibly it simply means dissolved salt, since Roman salt came in big dusty chunks from the mines, and dissolving it and letting it settle would be the preferred method of getting rid of the dirt.)


I put the spices and fresh herbs through a food processor (much faster than the historic mortar and pestle!) with the pine nuts and dry fruit.  What I had on hand turned out to be figs, not dates, so the resulting sauce was slightly different than intended, but whatever. I added the wine to moisten it so it would process better. I then sauteed this paste in the oil so the flavors mellowed, and dissolved it in the broth and honey before returning it to the blender for a final smooth finish.

Now, in true medieval fashion, cut bite-sized strips of hot duck meat, dip the end in the sauce, and enjoy! (Like Chaucer's Prioress, never wet your fingers in the sauce too deep.)

Rummaniyya (stew soured with pomegranite) by 'Ajib al-Mutawakkili
Pg 279 in Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's 10th century Baghdadi cookbook

Funges (mushrooms and leeks)

"Take funges, and pare hem clene and dyce hem. Take leke, and shred hym small and do hym to seeth in gode broth. Color it with safron, and do there-inne powder fort."

Wash and chop about 1 1/2 pounds of mushrooms (crimini, portabella, or simiar) and 1 large leek, the white and light green parts. Simmer them tender in a cup or less of chicken broth.  Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper or less, and 1/4 tsp. ginger.  The saffron is superfluous, and expensive. A sprinkle of sugar is nice too.

I'm sure any other member of the onion family would be good here  in lieu of leeks.

Perrey of Peson (fresh pea soup)

"Take peas and boil them until they are soft. Cover them until they burst.  Then take them out and strain them through a cloth. Take onions and mince them and boil them in the same stew, adding oil. Cast on sugar, salt, and saffron, and boil them well after that and serve them forth."  from an Anglo-Norman recipe collection.

2 lbs. frozen peas
1 quart chicken broth
1 large onion
2 Tablespoons sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
tiny pinch saffron
drizzle of oil or butter is optional. The broth probably contained some fat.

boil the peas and minced onion in the broth until very soft, puree in a blender, then season to taste with the remaining ingredients or more if you like.
This is very tasty as it stands, but other possible seasonings might include a bit of mint, tarragon, or basil, pepper,  coriander....

Quince Pottage

From The Art of Cooking  by Maestro Martino of Como


"Cook the quinces in lean meat broth. Then crush and thin with some almond milk made with meat broth or good fatty pullet broth, if the season  permits; and pass through a stamine and put into a pot with sugar, ginger, and cinnamon, and a bit of saffron; and set it to boil away from the flame on hot coals so that it will not burn, and stir often with a spoon. And it would be best to add a little butter or fresh rendered lard. Then, when it appears to be done, serve in bowls, topped with sweet spices and sugar."

Hurray for modern blenders! This is simpler than pestles and stamines (a sort of strainer). 

Cook 1 large or two small quinces in 5 cups of broth with sea salt to taste( I used chicken) until quite soft. Use another cup of broth to blend a cup of  peeled, slivered almonds to a smooth paste. Combine with the quinces and add 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1/2 tsp. ginger and 1 tsp. cinnamon, with a tiny pinch of saffron.  Blend in batches (there will be too much probably for one blender) and return to the pot to simmer a little while, stirring very frequently. Add 2 Tbsp. of butter.  The garnish of cinnamon sugar in the bowls is superfluous but pretty.

This was popular at my work Christmas party.

Chickpeas in almond milk

from Libre de Sent Sovi

"If you want to prepare tender chick peas with almond milk, do it thus: Take the chick peas and clean them well. And take almond milk and set them to cook with the milk and with oil and salt; and add onion scalded in boiling water. And when they should be cooked, add parsley and basil and marjoram and other good herbs and a little ginger and verjuice And when you add the chick peas, they should be washed in hot water and they will cook more quickly."

My  comments and redaction:
If you really want them to cook more quickly, it is better to soak them overnight, not just wash them.

You can make the almond milk by putting about equal parts almonds and water in a blender and pureeing the heck out of them.  Then thin a measured amount of the resulting paste to the consistency you want.  If you put all the water in at first, they don't puree as well.

If you like dairy or can't tolerate nuts, this will work with cream.  Cook the garbanzos most of the way in water before adding heavy cream.


Put 1 cup garbanzos to soak in warm water overnight. Drain and place in large pan with 4 cups thin almond milk and 1 medium onion, chopped.  Add salt to your preference. (I can't picture what the oil would be for.) Cook until tender. Add 1 Tbsp. parsley, 1 tsp. basil, 1/2 tsp. each marjoram, ginger, and savory, 1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Serve warm.

Chicken in Sage Sauce

from Le Menagier de Paris

"Take your chicken and quarter it and set it to cook in salt and water, then set it to get cold.  Then bray ginger, cinnamon powder, grain of paradise, and cloves and bray them well without straining, then bray bread dipped in chicken broth, parsley (the most), sage, and a little saffron in the leaf to color it green and run it through a strainer (and some there be that run therewith yolk of egg) and moisten with good vinegar, and when it is moistened set it on your chicken, and with and on the top of the aforesaid chicken set hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters and pour your sauce over it all."

For one whole cooked chicken I mixed 1/4 tsp. of ginger and cloves, 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon and grain of paradise, then mixed about a cup of bread crumbs with 1/2 cup of the chicken broth, a tablespoon of dry parsley and a teaspoon of chopped fresh sage.  Fresh parsley would have been better. I added a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, but it took at least 2 or 3 more tablespoons plus some water to thin it after it was cold. More broth would have worked well.

I have no idea what "saffron in the leaf" could mean.  It appears that one species of crocus sativa does have edible leaves, but it isn't the saffron crocus.  To color the sauce greener, I could have added more parsley, or some chard or spinach.

The spices could have been stronger and it would have been good but it was good like this.

This recipe is directly descended from an earlier Anglo-Norman one called Saugee:
"Take good spices, that is, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and galingale, and grind them in a mortar; than take a handful of sage and grind well in the same mortar with the spices; then take eggs and hardboil them, remove the yolk and grind with the sage; blend with wine vinegar, cider vinegar, or malt vinegar; take the egg white and chop finely and add to the sage mixture; put in pig's trotters or other cold meat and serve."

medieval hummus

Puree of Chickpeas with Cinnamon and Ginger

from Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World by Lilia Zaouali

"Cook the chickpeas in water then mash them in a mortar to make a puree. Push the puree through a sieve for wheat, unless it is already fine enough, in which case this step is not necessary. Mix it then with wine vinegar, the pulp of pickled lemons, and cinnamon, pepper, ginger, parsley of the best quality, mint, and rue that have all been chopped and placed on the surface of the serving dish.  Finally, pour over a generous amount of oil of good quality."

Puree together:
2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp pulp of pickled lemons
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. powdered rue (optional, hard to find)
adjust seasoning to taste.

chop 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, 2 Tbsp. fresh mint and sprinkle over the mixture in the serving dish. Drizzle with 2 Tbsp. olive oil or sesame oil.

ancient vs. modern sauce or pudding

I enjoy finding medieval equivalents to my modern favorites, and vice versa.  I understand a medieval recipe better when I have spotted its approximate type in modern terms.  For instance, Ein Buch von Guter Speise has an entry it calls a "lattwerk" of cherries.  After reading it carefully, I said, "oh, fruit leather!"  and it made perfect sense.

I very much enjoy Warm Lemon Curd over Strawberries from Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast. I serve it at the group home where I work and the clients love it too.  So I was intrigued to find How to Make a Verjuice Pottage in The Art of Cooking by Maestro Martino of Como.

There is no verjuice in the recipe.  The orange juice listed would have been bitter (Seville) orange, so today we use half orange and half lemon.
"Pottage" normally  means soup, but this would hardly be eaten by itself in any quantity.  It is more of a sauce, possibly a pudding for dessert.

    "Take four fresh egg yolks, a half ounce of cinnamon, four ounces of sugar, two ounces of rose water, and four ounces of orange juice, and beat together, and cook as you would a sauce, and this pottage should be made yellow with some saffron. This pottage is best during summer."

I treated the "half ounce" as fluid ounce measure, i.e., a tablespoon.

For comparison, Berley's recipe uses whole eggs, not just yolks;  honey instead of rose water for the floral note, lemon juice and zest in lieu of bitter orange juice, no spices, a dash of salt, and 6 tablespoons of butter beaten in late in the cooking.  Proportions remain the same.

We tried both of these side by side at our  May meeting.  Martino's is very cinnamony, scarcely any other flavor detectable, and several members preferred it as to taste, but the texture is rather gummy.  Berley's is much more like a pudding or a dip.  Both were good on the strawberries, on toast, and Martino's was good on meat and sweet potatoes too.

  The next question is, which of Berley's tweaks is responsible for the improved texture?  The whole eggs, or the butter?  The honey?  To settle this, I will try Martino's recipe with each of these changes separately --  when I have a lot more eggs again.  The hens are really good at Hide the Egg.

February 18, 2015
Tried Martino's recipe with butter beaten in, this seems to be the key to texture.  Should be a great apple dip.

Isfunj al-Qulla: Sponge Cake Cooked in a Jar

I have a memory, more plausible than most from that time, that soon before my first stroke I ordered
cake to share with my husband on his birthday. I didn't get the cake, I don't even know if this is a real
memory or one of those confused hallucinations but I have decided that if I had to die I would like to
eat cake.

Isfunj al-Qulla

(Sponge Cake Cooked in a Jar)

I have learned in the last year or two that bread has been made for thousands of years and that some of that early bread was flat unleavened bread and some was raised by yeast.(1) But packaged yeast didn't come out until many centuries later. It could only be made in quantity after yeasts were discovered by Louis Pasteur who saw yeasts under the microscope for the first time.(2) Before that point wild yeasts developed in mixtures of flour and water (sourdough) which were kept going for centuries and passed down from generation to generation. Yeasts were also cultivated from the Lees which is a by product of making alcohol. Period recipes for some breads such as Manchet call for Beer or Ale Yeast or Barm.(3)
This is a medieval middle eastern cake made with sourdough. I have made this several times since
February and what I handed out at the Newcomers Event in May went over very well. It seems we all
like cake. This is a translation from Kitab Fadalat al-khiwan fi tayyibat al-ta'am wa-l-alwan (“Book of
the Excellent Table Composed of the Best Foods and the Best Dishes”) an Andalusian cookbook(4)
written by Ibn Rezinin in the 13th century.(5)

“Knead semolina or extra-fine flour, making a soft, light dough. Take a small new jar and pour into it
quite a lot of oil, enough to coat the walls and the bottom. When the dough has risen, fill up the jar
[with it], almost as far as the neck, and stick a palm rib inside, or a reed without knots that has been
soaked in oil, and take the jar to the oven. Leave it far from the fire until the cooking [is done]. At this
point, remove it from the oven and gently stake it to pull out the reed. Into the space occupied by the
reed pour some honey and samn or melted butter, let it sit for a moment, and then delicately break the
jar so that the contents remain perfectly intact. Sprinkle with cinnamon, moisten again with samn and
honey, and eat, may it please God.”

When I first tried redacting this recipe I followed the instructions as closely as I could. The first step was to make the sourdough. I've tried many recipes for making sourdough and I find this one works best for me:
½ cup whole wheat flour
mix ½ tsp honey in ½ cup unchlorinated water
(since I have city water I boil tap water for a couple of minutes and let it sit uncovered until only warm, that takes about an hour and releases the chlorine back into its gas form. It takes a lot less time to do that than to let it sit overnight.)
Mix the ingredients to make a batter. Cover with a cloth towel and leave in a warm dark place with
some air circulation.
Stir once a day and feed with more water and flour every 5 to 6 days.

When you make the sourdough starter you need to do it in a glass container (I use a jar) and stir it with a wooden spoon. The reason for this is that metal can give it an off taste and the sourdough doesn't develop well in plastic. Once it has started fermentation it can be transferred to a plastic container if you wish. You must use un-chlorinated water because chlorine will kill the yeast you are trying to develop. You must keep it out of direct sunlight because sunlight will also kill yeast.

Since at that time I didn't have semolina and the gluten content is so high in that type of flour that it would make the cake tough I used a combination of white and whole wheat all purpose flour figuring that was close to the “extra-fine flour” of the middle ages. I use about 1 part whole wheat flour to 3 parts white flour and then add a little wheat germ.

After 2 to 3 days you should find that it no longer smells like wet flour and has taken on a pleasantly
sour smell or may even smells like fresh baked bread. You should also see some good bubbles (that is
fermentation). If you get fermentation but the smell isn't pleasant that means that your local yeasts will probably not taste good either. (Different varieties of yeasts and bacterias which also live in sourdough live in different areas and they all taste different.) I thought I had photos at this step but they never get saved in the camera.

Continue stirring once a day until day 5 or 6. This is a photo of the dough at day 5. You can see that
fermentation has almost stopped. It is time to feed the yeasts.

Feeding is just adding more flour and water in an equal amount to what is already in the batter, because I was in a hurry to get a decent amount of sourdough started I started with one cup each of flour and water and 1 tsp of honey. Here I am splitting it in half so that there is ½ cup of flour in each batch and then adding ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of water (remember to use un-chlorinated water). The honey only needs to be added to get fermentation, after that you don't need to add it.

10/23/12 This morning it didn't seem like there were many bubbles but in looking closer I realized that the dough was just kind of thin so it couldn't rise well. I added about ½ a cup of whole wheat flour and 1 ½ cups white flour with some wheat germ added to total 2 cups flour. I also added 1 cup of water and ½ tsp of kosher salt. I mixed the flour in a ½ cup at a time and added the water part way in so that I could keep the dough mixable. Below is showing the additions of flour, how full that made the glass jar which holds 5 to 5 ½ cups and the last photo showing how dark the batter ended up. The mix of whole wheat and white flour is because in order to make what they referred to as a “white flour” they “bolted” or sifted much of the bran out of it.

 The flour can be added to the sourdough starter all at once or over 2 or 3 days. This time I did it all at once. Since it was more than half full I put the jar in a bowel (non-reactive metal) because when it rises it often overflows and makes a big mess if the overflow is not contained and the overflow is needed to fill the baking dish. Since I did that in the morning I stirred it in the evening to work in more oxygen (yeasts breathe oxygen and need it to continue multiplying, it's the same reason for the final kneading of bread.)

10/24/12 I checked the sourdough this morning and it had only risen enough to touch the cloth cover

and not overflow. The other one I was running with the extra was only about half full and completely

overflowed. I figured out that it probably works better with my yeasts to feed them more slowly but I

am working on a deadline. It also still seems just a little thin so I added ½ cup of bread flour and another ½ tsp of kosher salt to help strengthen the gluten strands. I will let it rise till this evening and

then see if it is ready to bake. The other batch of sourdough I am hoping will be ready soon enough so

that I can make a second cake with ground candied orange peel (my modification of the original

recipe). Since there is a recipe in the same book for candied citron peel which I followed in making the candied orange peel I don't think it is too much of a stretch to think that it could have been ground and added to the cake.

The cake dough is ready to bake. I coated a glass bread pan with butter (the recipe said oil but I used

butter since the cake has melted butter and honey drizzled over it and more ingredients mean more

chance of allergy issues) The first cake I tried to make I tried baking it in a can with a wooden spoon

soaked in oil inserted into the center. I tried to do it that way because I didn't have a reed or palm rib to use and I didn't bake it in a jar because the only jars I have are glass and when it is broken to get the cake out it would leave small invisible shards that would kill anyone who tried to eat the cake. Using the can didn't work either. In the first couple of pictures on making the sourdough it shows a burnt wooden spoon lying in front of the glass jar. That's how the spoon got burnt. In order to get the cake cooked on the inside it had to become so overdone and burnt on the outside that the whole thing

including the can had to be thrown away. This is how I do it now.

Coat a glass bread pan with butter on nonstick cooking spray. Fill it about ¾ full with the sourdough

cake batter. Let it rise in a warm place for about 30 to 60 minutes, hopefully it will rise almost to the

top of the bread pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake on the middle rack until it separates

from the sides of the baking dish and a toothpick inserted in several places comes out clean. I thought

that takes about 30 minutes but I was checking it every 5 to 15 minutes for at least another half hour. I

think if I had not taken it out to check it as often it would probably have taken 50 to 70 minutes. The

second cake I made with ground orange peel was still slightly moist at 50 minutes so I gave it another

15 minutes.

After it is removed from the oven start heating ¼ cup of butter and 1/3 cup of honey over medium high heat. Bring it to a boil and remove from the heat until the bubbles die down, you can speed up this process by stirring. Do this 3 to 4 times then remove from the heat. Let the syrup cool a little while you take a skewer and poke holes all over the top of the cake (still in the bread pan) then carefully pour the melted honey-butter mixture over the cake and let it soak into the holes and fill the space between the bread pan and the cake. This works just as well as the reed inserted into the cake in the original recipe.

Let the cake sit until the syrup is soaked in, about 30 minutes. Carefully remove the cake from the pan and place on a platter. Dust the top and sides of the cake with ground cinnamon until it is well covered.

Boil another ¼ cup of butter and 1/3 cup honey just as before. After boiling the syrup it helps to let it

cool about 10 to15 minutes before you pour it over the top of the cake and let it drizzle over the sides.

Take a spoon and scoop up the syrup puddling around the cake and keep drizzling it over the cake until it has cooled enough where more of it stays on the cake than runs off. Let cool before eating or store in a covered container.

This cake will have a slightly sour taste as if lemon was used in the batter. That taste is from the

sourdough being feed every day and not allowed to continue to a much more sour flavor. Because you

bring the honey-butter to a boil a couple of times it thickens a little bit and tastes more like

butterscotch. To make the orange version add 1/2 to 2/3 cup ground orange peel and into the last

feedings. You may need to reduce the flour just slightly, you want to end up with about 4 cups of cake

mix, adding the orange peel will cause the cake to rise higher and faster because of the extra sugar.

After the cake is made and the last coating of honey-butter is added garnish with candied orange peel.

Below are pictures of some of the cakes I have done before. They got taller as I practiced and learned

that a thicker batter makes a taller cake. I also learned that if you add sugar but not orange peel to the

batter you don't get that lemony flavor and it ends up a little bland.

1. “Artisan Breads” by Jan Hedh, 2011
originally published in Swedish as Brod by Prisma, 2004
2. http://www.exploreyeast.com/article/history-yeast
3. http:/ www.whirlwind-design.com/madbaker/breadfaq.html
4. “Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World” by Ailia Zaouali, English translation 2007 by the
Regents of California, University of California Press
5. http://medievalcookery.com/etexts.html

Lady Esther's impression of Rose Soda

Lady Esther's Impression of Rose Soda

I've added in some comments in red. These are answers to questions posed by the judges of A&S. I
learned several months ago that although people of the middle ages didn't commonly drink water
because it was often unsafe that they had other choices than alcoholic drinks. Among other listings for
non-alcoholic drinks I found Rose Soda. When I first tried to redact it I didn't realize that I had only
copied part of the information. This is what I went off of:

“Rose Soda (Water) and Lavender Drink were common among refined ladies of the
middle ages. This was usually petals of the flowers soaked in a mixture of very sweet water. While
thought to be a medicine, it found popularity at the dinner table and was thought to sooth a well fed
belly.”(1)

Thinking it needed to be redacted I guessed it would have the same amount of sugar as Kool-aid. To
make it I use 2 cups of sugar to 1 gallon of water and shake that together in a screw-top container. Then
I put ½ cup of dried rose buds I get at Kabul Market and shake that in. I started making this with dried
rose buds I got at the Herb Pantry but I found out that they were for decoration not taking internally.
Those were much stronger so I think they have something added to increase the scent/flavor. I feel
more comfortable with the ones I get from Kabul Market because they are for use in food. Because
they are not as strong I add 1 tsp of rosewater because it would take a lot more rosebuds to get enough
flavor. I leave it in a warm place for 24 to 48 hours. As long as it takes for the liquid to change from
clear to a tea color. If I had thought to take a picture at this step you would see the darker color actually

starting to fill the bottle from the top where the rose buds were floating.

I used to figure when the rosebuds had steeped in the liquid so that it turned into something like a rose
tea it was done but then I decided that in the middle ages if it wasn't used right away it would have
been stored in a container that was not air-tight. From when I learned to cultivate yeasts from organic
materials like raisins, apples and orange peels I knew that if such an item was exposed to the air even
partially for 2 to 3 days yeasts would grow in the sugar water and it would become carbonated. (2)
Some people like it more carbonated and some don't. What I have brought is the carbonated version. I
feel the results are best if you let air into it then shake it at least once a day for approximately 2 weeks
then leave it in cold storage (like the refrigerator) for up to 2 more weeks. The carbonated version is
less sweet than the fresh version because the yeasts use carbohydrates as food, in other words they

literally eat the sugar. I think it is still sweet enough and very refreshing as a carbonated beverage.

I later found the rest of the information on how to make it at that same web site:

Rose Soda / Lavender Drink

Adapted from _The 'Libre de Diversis Medicinis' in the Thornton Manuscript (MS. Lincoln Cathedral,

A.5.2)_. Edited by Margaret Sinclair Ogden. Published for the Early English Text Society by

Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press. Amen House, E.C. 4. England. 1938. Text circa early

1400 CE.

1 part rose/lavender petals

2 parts water

2 parts sugar/honey

Soak a number of petals in a pitcher of water holding twice as much water as petals for one night.

Press, but not squeeze, the water from the petals and reuse them as needed. Mix into the water enough honey or sugar as to taste, and serve cold. (3)

If I had used more rose buds instead of supplementing the taste with rose water I may have ended up

with a similar flavor but in my opinion it would have been too sweet for most of us to drink, with that

much sugar/honey it would have been a fairly thick syrup. It looks like the amounts listed are a modern

redaction and not part of the original recipe. I have mixed enough sugar for my taste and served cold.

Etienne commented that I should have mentioned how, when, and what tools should be used for

straining. I strained the sample I had out for judging because I felt it would be easier for the judges to

sample and easier for me to clean out the decorative bottle if it didn't have rose petals in it. As for if you should strain it, in the words of many of the middle eastern cook book authors, “do as you wish”. If you were to make it using more rose petals and no rose water I would recommend straining at least most of them out. If you strain the roses out that should be done just before serving and using a strainer is period.

I am remembering in a recipe that I had read which called for rose water it said that different brands

have different strengths so the amount of rose water used (if you choose to go that way) will depend on the brand used and your personal taste.

If you use this as a sourdough starter instead of just a beverage you will probably want to strain it

unless you like the look of roses in your bread but the center and stem of the rose are woody and hard

to chew.

1 & 3 http://mbhp.forgottensea.org/noalcohol.html

2. “Artisan Breads” by Jan Hedh, 2011

originally published in Swedish as Brod by Prisma, 2004

chapter “Baking with Levain” pg 31

Roman Sourdough Bread

http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/Rombread.htm

Used for the May Cooks Guild Meeting and the May Newcomers Event

Roman Sourdough Bread

The Romans knew several kinds of bread. Mostly these breads were made with sourdough. The bread
could be made of wheat, spelt, barley, millet or rice. Even ground pulses were used. In the second
century before Christ bread started to displace pottages with pulses as basic food. Bread was eaten
every day, at every meal. This explains the "bread and circuses": both were considered essential to the
well-being of the plebs.
The bread in this recipe I have composed from the description; by Faas of several Roman kinds of
bread (P.C.P. Faas, Around the table of the Romans: Food and feasting in ancient Rome (Palgrave
McMillan 2002). This is not a historical recipe, but an 'impressionistic' recipe.
Faas mentions bread shaped like a ring with a laurel wreath, a flat bread like pizza, a long breadroll, a
mushroom shape, a square bread shaped like a dice, and a bread shaped like the breast of a young
woman.

Ingredients:
500 gram (4 1/4 cup) spelt flour
1/4 litre (1 cup) white grape juice
200 gram (7 fl.oz) sourdough on room temperature
75 gram (1/3 cup) fresh goat cheese (chevre) at room temperature
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. each of aniseed and cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
and also some yeast (15 gram/1/2 oz. fresh or 5 gram/1 tsp. dried)

Temper the sourdough with 1 deciliter of the grape juice, 100 gram spelt flour and honey (sponge). Let this stand for at least one to three hours on a warm spot until it has doubled in volume, then mix in the other ingredients. Knead well until you have an elastic dough. Let it rise on a warm spot under a damp cloth. If you use extra yeast, one or two hours will suffice, but when sourdough is the only rising-agent, you can also leave it an entire night. When the temperature goes down, rising will be slower. To prevent the dough from drying out, place it in a plastic box with lid, together with some glasses of hot water.
You can knead and let rise for a third time, but this is not mandatory. Now you can create your bread in any form you like. Use your fantasy, or create a simple loaf. When the bread is formed, let is again rise, this time for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 220 dg C/425 dg F. Bake the bread for 20 to 25 minutes.

I made two of these, one for the Cooks Guild May meeting and one for the May Newcomers Event
(that one I excluded the cheese and spices so that it could be used to sample any of the condiments
brought and to reduce the chance of allergy problems. Because I had left out some ingredients in that
one I needed to add some more of the other ingredients so that I would have enough bread to shape into a decorative loaf. I left out the suggested yeast because I was already using a wild yeast sourdough starter and there is no need to use both, even though some people do. I followed the recipe for each batch of bread, put them each on pizza pans and poking a hole through the center of the mound of dough formed them into rings. Then I covered them loosely with an oiled plastic wrap and left them in a warm place to rise over night.

The next morning I put them one at a time on a pizza peel and preheated the oven with a baking stone. I then snipped leaf shapes into them with kitchen scissors and stuck bay leaves into the wreaths so that they would have some bread leaves and some bay laurel leaves in the laurel rings. Then I sprinkled them with more spelt flour before sliding them onto the pizza stone, sprayed in some water water (to replicate baking in a stone oven) and baked them. When the first one was baked I could take it out of the oven then start the process on the second one.

The ingredients are almost identical to Mustachi or Must Rolls that I made the year before except each one of those small rolls are set on top of a bay leaf. Then I sprinkled more spelt flour on them and loosely covered them with plastic wrap and left them in a warm place over night to rise. The next
morning I baked the loaves one at a time. I liked the fact that these call for olive oil instead of the lard
the Must Rolls called for so they are better for you and are kosher for those who have that concern.
They are not a dry heavy bread and keep well in the freezer but because of the shape do need the
support of a pan under them when storing in the freezer. They went well at both things I served them at and this being the first time I tried to make decorative bread I will certainly be doing it again.