Recipes from a Baronial Investiture - Part 2

Recipes from a Baronial Investiture - Part 2 

By Lady Angharad Gam, Barony of Innilgard, A.S. XLVIII

Potage d'oignons

Unfortunately the original period versions of this recipe don't make a lot of sense out of context because they begin as a description of one thing and evolve into a description of something else, and so the texts tend to be quite muddled. They suggest cooking peas in the water in which onions have been parboiled, and later, adding cooked peas to cooked onions. Either way you end up with a pea and onion soup. The French in period often added a cooked puree of peas to a dish as a thickener, or a sort of vegetable stock. I have seen modern redactions of this recipe using new green peas, which are very nice, but probably not very true to period. Adding cooked dried peas would be more authentic, but I do not feel it would be as nice to modern palates, so I have left the peas out altogether.

Later versions of this onion (and maybe pea) soup add parsley and wine or verjuice. Then the meat day versions appear, adding meat stock and frying the onions in butter or 'lart' (pork fat or bacon). I have kept this soup as vegetarian/vegan as possible (although it works better with the 'beef' vegetable stock). This is a very simple recipe, but very nice.

3.6 kgs onions
10l ‘beef style’ vegetable stock
2 bunches fresh flat leaf parsley
750mls verjuice
Olive oil

Slice the onions fairly finely, and sauté in olive oil until soft. Add the vegetable stock, and simmer for 30mins. Stir in the verjuice and finely chopped parsley, and simmer for another ten minutes.
Serves 100


Brouet de Cannelle
BROUET DE CANELLE. Despeciez vostre poulaille ou autre char, puis la cuisiez en eaue et mettez du vin avec, et friolez: puis prenez des amandes crues et séchées à toute l'escorce et sans peler, et canelle grant foison, et si broyez très bien, et deffaites de vostre boullon ou de boullon de beuf, et faites boulir avec vostre grain: puis broyez gingembre, giroffle et graine, etc., et soit liant et for.
Cinnamon Soup. Cut up your poultry or other meat, then cook in water and add wine, and fry: then take raw almonds with the skin on unpeeled, and a great quantity of cinnamon, and grind up well, and mix with your stock or with beef stock, and put to boil with your meat: then grind ginger, clove and grain, etc., and let it be thick and yellow-brown.
Le Menagier de Paris (J. Hinson trans)

BROUET DE CANELLE. Cuissiez vostre poulaille en vin ou en eaue, ou tel grain comme vous vouldrez; et le despeciez par quartiers, et friolez, puis prenez amendes toutes seiches, et cuisez sans peler, et de canelle grant foison, et brayez, et coullez, et le deffaictes de vostre boullon de beuf, et faictez bien boullir avecques vostre grain, et du verjus, et prenez girofle et graine de paradiz, braiez, et mettez emsemble; et soit lyant et fort.

Cassia soup. Cook your chicken (or whatever meat you wish) in wine or water, quarter it, and brown it [in lard]. Take completely dry almonds cooked without peeling, plus plenty of cassia; crush, sieve, and steep in beef broth. Boil well with your meat and some verjuice. Take cloves and grains of paradise, crush, and add. It should be thick and strong.
Le Viandier de Taillevent (J. Prescott trans)

This is a fairly typical 15th century French dish. The original seems to suggest largish chunks of meat in a ground almond based sauce. I have chosen to grind the meat as well to make this more like a soup than a stew.

4.5kg chicken breast
5l chicken stock
3l white wine
800gms ground almonds (unblanched if you can get them)
3 tblsps ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground grains of paradise
½ tsp cloves
Olive oil

Dice the chicken fairly small. Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan and fry the chicken until it is cooked on the outside. Add the liquid ingredients and simmer for 30 mins. Remove from the heat and use a large blender or a bamix to blend the chicken and stock as finely as possible. Stir in the ground almonds and spices, mixing well. You may wish to adjust the spices to taste. It should have a distinct (but not too strong) flavour of cinnamon. Return to the stove over a low heat and cook for another 15 mins, stirring often.


Haedus in Alio

Piglia un quarto di capretto et concialo molto bene como vole essere arrosto, et inlardalo et ponevi per dentro assai aglio in spichi mondate a modo se volesci impilottare o inlardare. Dapoi togli de bono agresto, doi rosci d'ova, doi spichi d'aglio ben piste, un pocho di zafrano, un pocho di pepe, et un pocho di brodo grasso, et mescola tutte queste cose inseme et ponile in un baso sotto il capretto quando s'arroste, et bagnalo qualche volta con questo tal sapore. Et quando è cotto poni il quarto del capretto in un piatto et ponivi di sopra il ditto sapore et un pocho di petrosillo battuto menuto. Et questo quarto di capretto vole essere ben cotto e magnato caldo caldo.
Take a quarter of kid and dress well for roasting, lard and fill with a generous amount of peeled cloves of garlic, the same way you would as if you wished to baste or lard it. Then take some good verjuice, two egg yolks, two crushed garlic cloves, a little saffron and pepper, and a bit of fatty broth, and mix all these things together and put this mixture in a pot beneath the kid while it is roasting, and baste it every so often with this sauce. When it is done cooking put the kid on a platter, top with the sauce, and a bit of chopped parsley. The kid should be well done and served very hot.
Libro de arte coquinaria (J. Parzen trans)

Grease a kid or a quarter of one with lard and cleaned garlic cloves; put it on a spit and turn it by the fire. Baste it often with sprigs of bay or rosemary and the sauce I shall now describe. Take verjuice and the juice of the meat, the yolks of two eggs well beaten, two cloves of garlic well pounded, a pinch of saffron and a little pepper, and mix this and pour into a dish. With this (as I said) you baste what you are cooking. When it is done put it n a dish and pour some of the sauce over it and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. Caeculus should not eat this because it dulls the eyesight and arouses dormant passions.
De Honesta Voluptate

Platina, who normally shamelessly plagiarises Maestro Martino, makes a useful addition here – the rosemary, and following his tradition I introduce a little more. You will die for this, and people will mob the kitchen demanding more.
1 leg of lamb
8 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 egg yolks
½ cup verjuice
olive oil
pinch saffron
salt, pepper
1 handful fresh parsley

You can try this with kid if you like, but lamb has a lot more flavour. If you want to ‘lard’ it with garlic as Martino suggests, make little holes all over and stuff garlic in them.

Put four of the garlic cloves (peeled) into a mortar with the leaves from two sprigs of rosemary, and some coarse salt. Grind these up as much as you can, and moisten into a sludge with olive oil.
Take the leg of lamb. If it is very fatty cut off some of the fat, slicing it off right down to the flesh in some places. With a narrow, sharp knife make a hole alongside the bone, passing the whole length of the leg. Stuff the mixture from the mortar in the hole. Take the green and garlicky juices from the mortar adding a little more olive oil if necessary, and smear over the outside of the leg.

Put the leg into a covered roasting dish, preferably one with a nice heavy base. If you don’t have a covered roasting dish, wrap the leg in foil. Put in the oven at 200C (180C fan forced). Roast it for 20 mins for every 0.5kg plus an extra 20 mins (this is for well-done).

Smash up the remaining cloves of garlic and put them in a small saucepan with the other ingredients except for the parsley and the remaining rosemary. Mix up well. Every half an hour throughout the cooking process take the lamb out the oven. Tip the juices that have come out into the saucepan, and turn the lamb over. Mix the sauce and baste the lamb with it using the remaining rosemary sprig. Return to the oven.

When the lamb is done remove it from the oven and tip any remaining juices into the sauce. Let the lamb rest for a little while then carve it into small pieces and put it on a platter. Put the saucepan with the sauce on the stove and heat until it is hot but not boiling. If you like you can add some breadcrumbs to thicken it up a bit. Pour over the lamb, sprinkle with finely chopped fresh parsley, and resist the urge to secrete yourself in a cupboard and eat it all.