Dance the Cold Winter Away Feast Part 1 first course

 The feast for the event for Dance the Cold Winter Away has come and gone. Was it a success? YES, ABSOLUTELY! 

My staff was on target, and got food made in a timely fashion.

Were there bumps in the road, that could be fixed for next time, yes. For the most part every recipe/dish came out as expected or better.

FIRST COURSE

 Original Recipe:

Salat

Take parsel, sawge, garlec, chybollus, oynons, lek, borage, myntes, porrettes, fenels and towne cressis rewe rosmarye, purslary, lauen and waische hem clene pyke hem  pluk hem small wiþ þyne hond and mynge hem wel wiþ rawe oyle. lay on vyneger and salt and surve hem forth.

Source: This recipe taken from Forme of Curye, ab. 1390 A.D. (Pages 40v & 41r). The images below are from the original manuscript as digitized by the John Rylands University Library and the 1780 printing edited by Samuel Pegge.

Herb Salad

Take parsley, sage, garlic, chives, onions, leek, borage, mint, scallion, fennel and nasturtium, rue, rosemary, purslane, rinse and wash them clean pick them pluck them small with thine hand and mingle them well with raw oil lay on vinegar and salt and serve them forth.

Herb Salad

 

 1 pound spring mix

1 package chives

1 leek (greens)

1 fennel- greens and bulb chopped

1 package fresh mint

1 package edible flowers, if available

1 green onion

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. vinegar

½  tsp. kosher salt

 This salad was easy. Plain & simple. But, it was complex in flavors. from the fresh fennel, to the mint, to the leek. This salad had it all flavor, crunch and color.

Gourdes in Pottage

14th C England

Forme of Cury:

Take young Gowrdes; pare hem and kerue hem on pecys. Cast hem in gode broth, and do þerto a gode pertye of

oynouns mynced. Take pork soden; grynde it and alye it þerwith and wiþ yolkes of ayren.

Do þerto safroun and salt, and messe it forth with powdour douce. 

• Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). 

• New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

• 
  

Translation

Stewed Gourds. Take young gourds; pare them and cut them in pieces.

Put in good broth, and add a large amount of minced onions.

Take boiled pork; grind it and add it along with egg yolks.

Add saffron, salt, and powder douce.

Redaction

 2 lbs. squash roasted and peeled

 3 onions, minced

 2 cup broth (made without bread crumbs)

 1/2 cup pork, boiled then minced or ground

 2 egg yolks, beaten

 1 tsp. salt

 2 tbs. of sugar and 1 tbs. each of cinnamon & ginger, mixed together

Bring to a boil the broth, squash, and onions. Reduce heat and cook until the squash just becomes tender. 

Stir in the pork, egg yolks, saffron, and salt. Stir allow to cook for a few minutes, then remove from heat.

This was one of the first recipes I redacted in the SCA. It's one of my favorites, and is easy to make. I cooked it in an electric roaster to save stovetop space for other dishes. I cooked the squash in vegetable broth in the electric roaster, and then blended the squash and eggs, then added the cooked ground pork, and spices.

This dish was a WINNER! I had many compliments, including, "This was the best Gourdes in Pottage, I have ever had in the SCA!"

It turned out great! Flavors were good, and the soup was creamy, thick and tasty.

To finish out this course, I served bread, a selection of English cheeses, and cinnamon butter.

Feast menu for Dance the Cold Winter Away

Dance the Cold Winter Away

feast menu

First course -English

Bread/butter

English cheeses

Herb salat- Forme of Curry

Gourdes in pottage- Forme of curry

Second course- French

Gauffres- Waffles- cheese stuffed with Brie- Le Menagier de Paris

Saumon- Salmon Le Menagier de Paris

Aulx camelins pour Raye- garlic cinnamon sauce- Le Menagier de Paris

Ove Plene- stuffed eggs- Libra di cucina/Libro per cuoco anonymous Venetian manuscript

Third course- Italian

Roast turkey cock or hen- The Opera of Bartolommeo Scappi

To prepare a thick soup with macaroni called “Gnocchi” The Opera of Bartolommeo Scappi

To cook dry broccoli- The Opera of Bartolommeo Scappi

Fourth course-Spanish

Xochtl- chocolate drink

Spanish almond milk Rice pudding- Anonymous Andalusian

Gourdes in pottage

 Gourdes in Pottage was the very first recipe I ever redacted back in the early years of my cooking in the SCA. Throughout the years, I have updated and changed he recipe. Trying different squash. Here is my most recent redaction, and one I'm contemplating using at my next feast in the English course.

Gourdes in Potage

England, 14th century

Forme of Cury

Take young Gowrdes; pare hem and kerue hem on pecys.

Cast hem in gode broth, and do þerto a gode pertye of oynouns mynced.

Take pork soden; grynde it and alye

it þerwith and wiþ yolkes of ayren.

Do þerto safroun and salt, and messe it forth with

powdour douce. 

• Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. 

• Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century

• (Including the Forme of Cury). 

• New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

• 
  

Translation

Stewed Gourds. Take young gourds; pare them and cut them in pieces.

Put in good broth, and add a large amount of minced onions.

Take boiled pork; grind it and add it along with egg yolks. Add saffron, salt,

and powder douce.

Redaction

 2 lbs. squash roasted and peeled

 3 onions, minced

 2 cup broth (made without bread crumbs)

 1/2 cup pork, boiled then minced or ground

 2 egg yolks, beaten

 1 tsp. salt

 2 tbs. of sugar and 1 tbs. each of cinnamon & ginger, mixed together

Bring the broth to a boil, add squash, and onions.

Reduce heat and cook until the squash just becomes tender. 

Stir in the pork, egg yolks, saffron, and salt. Allow to cook for a few minutes,

then remove from heat.

Serve

Broth

England, 15th century

Noble Boke off Cookry

In making broth, I use the recipe for broth found in "Hens in bonet" from Napier's Noble Boke off Cookry, as translated in W.E. Mead's The English Medieval Feast, p. 71:

This is made by stewing hens and fresh pork together, grinding pepper, bread,

and cumin, seasoning it, tempering it with the hens' broth, colouring it with saffron,

adding salt, and serving it.

Mead, William Edward. The English Medieval Feast. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1967.

MODERN RECIPE:

• 3 cups chicken broth

• 1 cup pork broth

• ½ - 1 c. unseasoned bread crumbs

• ½ tsp. each pepper & cumin

• pinch saffron

• pinch of salt

Combine broths & bring to a low boil; add the bread crumbs & spices,

return to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to cook for a minute.

Remove from heat and use or refrigerate for later. Makes 4 cups.

The amount of bread crumbs used depends on the thickness of the sauce desired.

Less than ½ cup or more than 1 cup may be necessary, or none at all.

Use your best judgment. The same is true of the salt & other spices -

adjust them to your preferred taste.

My interest in making this recipe was a dayboard I was cooking in the Autumn of 2009.

I wanted a soup that was hearty, tasted good and was autumnal in theme.

The fact that this soup used gourdes(squash), was the main factor in my choosing it.

I have made this soup with several different types of squash.

Here are my tries with the different types of squash:

Pumpkin- had an amazing color, but the flavor was not exactly what I was aiming for.

Acorn squash- the consistency was stringy, the flavor too strong, and it overpowered the pork.

Hubbard squash- a very hard squash. I needed to use a hammer to just crack the squash open.

Flavor and color were good, just too much work to get to the flesh.

Butternut- an very nice squash, easy to work with, has excellent flavor, and texture.

This is the squash I have used in this recipe.

The types of gourde or squash that would probably have been used in period is the

bottle gourde or Calabash.

I realize the types of squash I have used here would not have been used in period.

A little bit about me

Me? What is there to say? I'm a 15+ year veteran to the SCA, I'm a gentle who loves to serve my kingdom(not as much as I'd like). I sew, to clothe my partner who wants to look like a million bucks and doesn't know the difference between a pleat and a facing. And I'm a cook. 

My specialty area is Medieval Spain, but cook everything from English to middle Eastern and beyond. I've decided to start this blog to get my vast amounts of research out to you. Why let it sit here gathering digital dust on my laptop.