Stierbach Cooks Guild

Dutch Theme – Stew Jacobin – from a Drachenwald cooks site.

Nr. 22 Te maicken soppijn Jacopijn

Neemt een gebraden hoen ende doet al die beenen uuijt ende nemen vleckier of anderen goeden kaes ende snijtes al dun ende in een pateel geleit dat die bodem gedect is ende vanden hoen dair op geleijt ende daer zuker op gestroeyt ende dan weder kaes dae r op geleijt ende dan hoenre vleijs daer op gelet ende kaes daer op geleijt ende dan neemt nat van verschen runtvleijs ende doet daer in ende op tvier geseth ende gesoden ende soe heet ter tafele gedient, mer eer ghij alle dese substantie in die pateel l egt soe suldy nemen wittebroot ende snijdent viercant ende legget op die bodem vander pateel ende dat dese substantie niet aenbarnen en sal.

Translation and notes

To make stew Jacobijn

Take a roast chicken and take all the bones out, and take “vleckier” or other good cheese, and cut it thin and put in a bowl so that the bottom is covered and put on there of the chicken and sprinkle sugar on it and then put cheese on it again, and then chicken meat and cheese on it and then take stock of fresh beef and put that in and put it on the fire and let it boil and serve it hot, but before you put all these things in the bowl you should take white bread and cut it square and put it on t he bottom of the bowl so that it will not burn.

Ingredients (for about 4 people):

1 chicken (about 1 kg)

white bread

500 g cheese

4 tablespoons of sugar

beef stock

(optional) salt and pepper
My take:
Used rotisserie chicken, with meat pulled in large chunks.  The cheese I chose was Gouda, on the suggestion of the original redactors.  I used regular white table sugar.  My choice of bread was a thick country white from the grocery bakery.  I followed the recipe as above.

It was a fairly popular dish!

MEADHBH

Young Chicken with raisins from http://www.coquinaria.nl/kooktekst/Edelikespijse1.htm – Good and noble food, english translation of Wel ende edelike spijse Hoofdstuk, a Dutch manuscript circa 1500.

1.1.       Young chickens with raisins (?) in the summer.
Broil them in a pot in pieces (?). When they are halfway done, add enough wine and some water, and add raisins, pig fat and enough egg yolks.

ALESIA’S VERSION

10 pieces of chicken

1 cup white wine

½ cup of water

½ cup raisins

¼ cup of bacon broken to bits

2 hard cooked egg yolkes

Brown the bacon until crisp and set a side.  In the bacon grease, brown the chicken.  Take out the chicken and degrease the pan or start a clean pan.  Add the chicken to the clean pan with ½ cup of wine and ½ cup of water and cover allowing it to simmer for ½ hour.  Then add another ½ cup of wine, raisins and bacon, allow to simmer another ½ hour.  Remove the chicken and keep warm.  Add mashed hard boiled egg yolks to the bottom of the pan and simmer gently until thickens.  Pour over the chicken and serve.

HELOISE’S VERSION

Coming soon.

SEPTEMBER 2010

In September it was suggested to do Dutch.  A web site was found for Wel ende edelike spijse which translates as Good and Noble Food.  Both Alesia and Heloise did the same young chicken with raisins that came out totally different.  Meadhbh did a yummy layered cheese and chicken dish.  Iustinos and Sophia went Roman with Iustinos doing an asparagus pie and Sophia doing an egg fritata.

‘ADASIYA
‘You cook the meat with chopped onion in oil and when the pot has been brought to the boil, and the scum removed, husked lentils are thrown in and cooked thoroughly. Then you pour in vinegar and spice it with coriander and cumin: throw in garlic (as well). Whosoever wishes may throw in ground cheese; whosoever wishes may colour it yellow with saffron. Throw in beet root without the cheese and garlic. Whosoever wishes may throw in something sweet.”

‘Adasiya. This dish is found in the earliest culinary manual compiled, by al-Warraq. Named for its chief ingredient, the lentil (‘adas), which is probably the oldest cultivated legume and is native to southwest Asia, possibly northern Syria and Iraq. The original recipe calls for the inclusion of meat, but it can be prepared as well without for those with vegetarian preferences. A variation of this recipe suggests using beet root which could be subsituted for the fresh coriander. In a Caliph’s kitchen by David Waines, London: Riad el Rayyes Books P.108-109

REDACTION
8 oz brown or green lentils, soaked an hour in hot water
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 tablsppoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 TBS ground coriander
1 TBS ground cumin
4 oz feta cheese chopped fine
4fl oz wine or cider vinegar

Drain the water from the lentils and put into a heavy casserole, together with the onion and garlic, adding just enough fresh water to cover the contents. Bring back to the boil, partially cover the casserole and cook for half an hour or until the lentils are tender. Allow the water to reduce somewhat while being careful not to let the contents burn.
Add to the spices to the casserole along with the vinegar and the cheese. Stir the mixture thoroughly and simmer gently for a further 30 minutes. This dish can either be served hot or enjoyed cold.

NOTES:
Usually done as vegetarian dish with no meat. Have put in half the feta in for 30 minute simmer and adding rest at last minute to ‘dress’ the dish.

285. To prepare a thick soup popularly called vivarole.
Get ten eggs and beat them. Have a broth ready, made of butter, salt, water, pepper, cinnamon and saffron, and in it spinach, chard, mint and marjoram, all finely chopped up as for a tourte. When that broth has boiled a little while with the herbs, mix a little grated bread and cheese into the beaten eggs and pour that into the broth, giving it a stir with a spoon. When it comes to the surface, serve it hot.

Scappi, Bartolomeo, and Terence Scully. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): l’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008, p. 379.

FIRST REDACTION
SPINACH EGG DROP SOUP

2 cups beef bullion
1 TBS butter
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp pepper
1 bag baby spinach (9 oz) chopped small
2 TBS fresh mint, chopped and heaping
1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram
1 egg
1 tsp bread crumbs
1 tsp parmesan cheese

Bring the meat broth to a boil, add butter, cinnamon, and pepper. Add spinach and herbs and cover, at low heat for 5 minutes. Beat egg with bread crumbs and cheese. For one portion pour through a fork into soup.

NOTE: Interesting. The flavors of the mint and marjoram came out but not pepper or cinnamon. I would increase the pepper and cinnamon because it was a little bland. I was worried one egg per bowl would be too much but it was almost too little.

SECOND REDACTION
SPINACH SOUP WITH DUMPLINGS

1 pkg of chopped frozen spinach
6 cups of beef bullion
2 TBS of chopped mint
1 TBS of chopped marjoram
1 egg
1 heaping TBS of grated parmesan cheese, more if necessary
2 heaping TBS of grated plain bread crumbs, more if necessary

Bring the meat broth to a boil, add spinach and herbs. Heat through about 1 minute.
Have prepared a dough made of egg, bread crumbs, and cheese, very thick about the consistency of pancake batter. Drop rounded teaspoons of dough into the soup from the about the height of 12-18 inches so that they sink below the surface and cook, five to ten minutes until done. Serve.

June Challenge – Heloise knows what cookbook this is from.

Brasaola of Veal

1.25 C Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Clove
1/8 tsp Nutmeg

3 Veal Cutlets – cut to size, about 3 pieces each
Balsamic vinegar – a few splashes
White Wine infused with crushed garlic – a few splashes
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tsp Ground Coriander

Flour
4 Tbsp lard
Season the veal with wine, vinegar, coriander, salt and pepper.
Press the cutlets between heavy plates for approx. 1 hour.

Mix the vinegar with the seasonings – sugar through nutmeg.
Simmer on stove until reduced by half.
Dredge cutlets in flour.
(I used bacon grease for lard – by cooking down pancetta)
Fry the cutlets quickly on each side until done.
Serve with sauce.

(Original Recipe:

To make bresaola of lean veal, fried or grilled

When bresaola are cut up the same as croquettes (get the leanest part
of the loin and cut it up into slices a hand in length, four fingers
wide and a knife’s spice think) and beaten on both sides with the
spine of  knife, they are splashed with a little vinegar and Greek
wine containing crushed garlic, and sprinkled with fennel flow or
ground coriander, pepper and salt, and then set in a press for an hour
on top of the other.  To fry them in rendered fat or lard, first flour
them, then fry them so they brown a little and they will soft rather
than dry out.  You serve them hot with sugar, cinnamon and orange
juice over them; Or else dress them with a sauce made of vinegar,
sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

But if you want them done on a grill, after they have been sprinkled
and been in the press put them on the grill with a thin strip of pork
fat for each one, so that the bresaola stay softer, cooking them over
a low fire and turning them frequently.  The smoke that forms beneath
the grill because of the grease that is dripping will give them an
excellent flavour and the very best taste. When they are done, they
should be served with one of the above-mentionned sauces with which
the fried ones are served.

Instead of putting those bresaola on the grill, they can be cooked in
a tourte pan greased with rendered fat, with the same thin slices of
pork fat on them.  They are served with their sauce and orange juice
over them.)

The sauce was very popular and went on other dishes at the meal as well.

MEADHBH

Our dinners seem to be getting better and better. This meeting was a redaction challenge between Heloise and Meadhbh for bresaola of lean veal. The meal started with a thick soup called vivarole made with spinach and cheese dumplings. This was followed by the two dishes of veal and two sides dishes: one of lentils and feta cheese and another of a whole head of cabbage stuffed with meats and seasonings. We finished off with some lovely cheeses.  Next month Iustinos has challenged us to traveling dishes or dishes for the campfire.

Originally Cherry Torte from Medieval Cookery.com

1 lb mixed berries
1 lb drained ricotta cheese – another soft cheese could work as well (goat cheese)
1/2 C sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
good pinch of black pepper
2 unbaked pie crusts
***
Thaw berries if frozen and drain.  Grind in with mortar and pestle (or in a food processor – don’t puree).

Mix berries with ricotta, sugar and eggs.

Add ginger, cinnamon and pepper.  Mix well and pour into pie crust. 

Top with second crust, press edges firmly for a good seal.

Bake at 350F until crust is golden brown – about 30 minutes.

Period recipe from Liber de coquina

To make limonia, fry chickens with fat and onions.  And crush some skinned almonds, moisten with meat broth, and strain.  Cook with the chickens and spices.  If you have no almonds, thicken the broth with egg yolks.  When the time to serve nears, add the juice of lemons, limes, or bitter oranges.

4 chicken breasts and 8 thighs, boned

 1 cup almond milk

1 cup chicken broth

2 onions, chopped

fresh pork fat back or salted pork with a good amount of fat

1 lemon

Spice mixture (start with 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon dry ginger and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg), add cayenne pepper to taste

Salt and ground black pepper

Italian style breadcrumbs

 Melt the pork fat until it is well rendered, but not burning.  Brown the chicken on all sides and remove to a plate.  Cook the onions in the rest of the fat, adding a bit of  olive oil if necessary.  When the onions are cooked, add the chicken back, the spices, the almond milk and the broth.  If there is not enough liquid to cover the chicken, add more almond milk and broth, keeping the same proportions.  Cover and cook the chicken in the liquid until completely cooked through.  Once the chicken is done, remove the meat, put in a serving dish and keep warm.  Reduce the liquid to make a sauce, adding breadcrumbs to thicken if necessary.  Add the lemon juice and adjust the spice mix to taste. read more »

210. To prepare a thick soup of garlic in meat broth with other ingredients.

When the cloves of garlic are clean there should be as many cloves as from fifty bulbs.  Parboil them, changing the water often so they lose their strenght, and finish cooking them in a good meat broth that is not too salty, along with slices of pork jowl and desalted sowbelly.  Just before you want to serve it, throw in a handful of herbs.  If there is no salted meat in it, you can belend in cheese and eggs, not failing to put the spices in the one and the other.  With them you can garnish and cook doves, cockrels and other fowl, serving them with grated cheese and cinnamon over the top.

Scappi, Bartolomeo, and Terence Scully. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): l’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008, p.243.

FIRST REDACTION

2 lb of clean garlic cloves

2 cups meat broth (bullion cubes)

1 slice of pork belly (thin slice about the amount and consistency of a slice of bacon)

1 TBS chopped herbs (basil, mint, thyme)

1 TBS cheese (parmesan)

Boil the garlic cloves for 30 minutes changing the water 3 times.  Then place in meat broth with chopped up pork belly and cook for a further 10 mintues.  Puree the garlic and stir in the cheese and fresh herbs at the last minute before serving.

SECOND REDACTION

2 lbs of clean garlic cloves

Olive oil

2 cups meat broth (bullion cubes)

1 heaping TBS chopped herbs (basil, mint, thyme)

3 heaping TBS of bread crumbs

3 heaping TBS of parmesan cheese

Roast the garlic cloves in aluminum foil for 20 minutes in 400 degree with olive oil until slightly browned.  Add garlic to meat broth and simmer for another 10 minutes.  Add herbs, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and serve.

NOTES: I was aiming for something like French onion soup but didn’t succeed.  The first redaction tasted too bitter for my taste, which was why I did the second redaction.  This was slightly milder but still too strong to my taste.  Others at the table liked it better than I did but found little or no difference between the two redactions.

Alesia la Sabia de Murcia