Stierbach Cooks Guild

1 pie crust
16 oz of grated hard cheese – parmesan or similar
3 eggs – beaten
1 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)
1/4 tsp white pepper

Press pie crust into pie pan, cut or turn edges down.
Mix all other ingredients and add to pie shell.
Bake at 375 for 15-2o minutes, until tart is set.

This is from the Hungarian site that Iustinos shared (as was my other recipe, which I can’t remember). It was a Cheese Torten. The directions were sketchy, so I combined this recipe with a 14th century cheese pie recipe from the Booke of Gode Cookery website.

The theme for April’s meeting was medieval Hungarian recipes.  We tossed around various sources but never quite found one that we regarded as a good fit.  Sources we considered were: “Food and Drink in Medieval Poland” by Maria Dembinska; Iustinos found this web site: Best source I’ve been able to find for pure hungarian is late for the period (published in 1581), but if you choose carefully could be useful. http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_Rumpolt1.htm Some of it is translated. Some isn’t. See what you can find and finally a Romanian source in Stefan’s Florilegium http://www.florilegium.org/ Romanian-ckbk-art translated by Lord Petru cel paros Voda and Hungarian Cuisine by George Lang.

From these various sources we served that night:

Pea Soup
Cheese tart
Marjoram Tokany
Eggplant
Young Dove (using precooked chicken)
and a delicious desert Orange omelet

This is an email from Iustinos who has been part of it from the beginning:
I had just been thinking the other day that the cooks guild was about 5 years old. As it turns out, the Guild turned 7 last month. Here’s my documentation: Pretty neat eh?

Don’t know if that inspires anyone to any thematic ideas, but share if the idea strikes you.

In any case, I look forward to seeing everyone back in our kitchen this coming Wednesday.

Iustinos

Mon Jan 19 12:17:08 PST 2004

Greetings fellow cooks and food lovers!

We had our first meeting last Sunday and had lots of fun making sugar paste
decorations for this Saturday.

We have decided to make the second Wednesday of the month to be our regular
meeting date. Our next meeting will be held at Lady Malyn’s home 7pm.

We have decide to cook two dishes that night and our theme will be “food for
lovers”. We will be gathering after the business meeting to look over cook
books and decide which recipes will be cooked. All are invited to bring your
favorite cookbooks and dish with us.

Anyone interested in joining us are welcome. Please contact Malyn or Grace
for information or inquires.

Yours in Service,

Grace

Fall Root Vegetable Theme: Roasted Turnips – from the Medieval Cookery site.

• 5 medium turnips
• 1 cup soft cheese, grated
• 3 eggs
• 4 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Trim and wash the turnips. Bake in a covered dish (or wrapped in foil) until soft – about an hour at 350°F. Let cool and then peel and cut into small strips. Add cheese and set aside.

Beat eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Pour over turnips and cheese. Add melted butter and mix well. Put into greased pan and bake at 350°F until set – about 35 minutes.

I loved roasting the turnips and did it the night before, taking them out of the refrigerator to peel.  I followed this recipe line by line.  I used a gruyere cheese because I didn’t know any better, but I don’t think it really detracted. It would be better with a simple mild farmers cheese.

I did not like the amount of butter listed and didn’t think it added much to the dish.  More salt can be sprinkled on top just prior to baking, a large pinch of sea salt would be best.

MEADHBH

1 cup of purreed butternut spuash – Squash was quartered, baked in 350 oven for hour and then purreed in food processor.

1 cup sugar

1 cup cream

3 eggs

½ cup of whipped cream cheese

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

Premade pie shell

Wisk all of the ingredients together and place in pie shell.  Bake at 400 for 10 minutes and then 350 for 50 to 60 minutes.

NOTES: This recipe also called for ginger and butter which I regret not adding.  The pie was very sweet and I would be inclined to use only ¾ cup sugar next time.  The pie was very light compared to a pumpkin pie.  I might substitute ½ cup of ricotta cheese instead of the cream cheese.

1 lb of beef cut small (1/2 inch or ¼ inch dice), browned and simmered in water  (about 2 cups) for 1 hour.  This was premade.

2 1 lb packages of frozen chopped spinach.

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 ½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp pepper

1 cup of currants

Reheat the beef in a large soup pot.  Add the spinach, currants, spices and 6 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Serve.

NOTES: The broth was very bland.  The spices came through but the not the beef taste.  Will need to add beef bullion.  The original recipe called for Italian sausage and beef was substituted.

This time we were trying to concentrate on vegetables.  Iustinos made a beef roast with carrots and turnips.  He got lucky and got some interesting white carrots from the local farmer’s market.  Sarah made a dish of onions and leeks.  Meadhbh made a casserole of turnips.  Alesia made a soup of spinach and beef and a gourd pie.  December 2010 meeting will be at Meadhbh and Jes’s house with a Yule theme.

Asparagus custard

This is based on Recipe 133 from Apicius.

1 can asparagus or 1.5 cups fresh asparagus tips pureed

1.5 cup diced onion or 1 large onion

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 tsp ground peppercorns

1 tsp lovage

0.5 tsp green corriander

0.5 tsp savory

2 eggs

1 deep dish pastry shell, 1 sheet puff pastry.

Blend all the above ingredients except for the eggs and pastry. Bring to a boil. While this mixture is warming to a boil, whip eggs separately.

Thaw or prepare 1 deep dish pastry shell

Pour mixture into a pastry shell. Stir in beaten eggs. There shouldn’t be a lot of room left over. The eggs will cause some rising and were considered optional in the original recipe. Cover with puff pastry shell and crinkle the edges. Cut holes in pastry to allow steam to escape.

Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake until golden brown (approximately 40 minutes).

IUSTINOS

Chicken Dumplings – From Sabrina Weslerin.  This is an excellent translation webpage with a lot of Germanic recipes.

193 How to make chicken dumplings

Take the meat from two chickens. After it is cooked chop it finely, mix grated Parmesan cheese in with it and color it yellow and stir it together. You should also put mace and pepper into it. After that prepare a dough. Make a thin flat cake and put the above described filling on it and form it into a dumpling and join the two ends together. Cook it in broth as long as for hard- boiled eggs and serve it warm.

I used to rotisserie chickens and took the meat and chopped it roughly.  Yellow food coloring was used for the “color it yellow”.  Due to time constraints I used pre-made pie dough for the “dumplings”.  They aren’t really dumplings in the modern sense, they were more potsticker style dumplings vs. the chicken and dumplings made with dropped dough that I expected when first reviewing this recipe.

MEADHBH

We again picked a country theme of Germany.  Alesia ran to the Heidelberg Deli and found Westphalian ham, Butterkasen cheese and black bread.  Heloise and Denis made a chicken dish.  Meadhbh made chicken stuffed pasta laced with mace and Sarah joined us by making vegetable pastries.