16th Century Pottage recipes wanted
Edward Jannoo
I'm soon to be a peasant in a recreation of Tudor life in 1535 and the pottage
served currently is infamously diabolical! If anybody knows any recipes for
tastier pottage that they would be willing to post to the net, please do!
Thanks,
Gil Blacke the Potter (Ed Jannoo the computer sadcase)
Rick Twyman
interesting 'Fenkel in Soppes' which might meet your need.
Otherwise if you don't mind going a little anachronistic and you are
firmly carnivore try the 'Broth for sick and convalescent persons' from
the definitive 'The CLOSET of Sir Kenelme Digbie OPENED' London 1669.
Outside your period I know but people are still using recipts from
seventy years ago no so I suppose that not all his will have been novel
when they were written. What is the degree of scholarship of your
interpretaion?
Another reference is the 'Gourd Soup' also from Richard II's book of
feasts and recipes.
My own experience of authentic 15th 16th century pottages is that yes
they are fairly horrid being brown and having too many onions in them.
Could it be that we have just been spoilt by having potatoes and we
should just accept them for what they are.
By the way there is a whole chapter/chunk in 'The Good Man of Paris'
(fifth article of the second section) but that is as far anachronistic
the other way as sir K D is too late.
Do you know of 'The Medieval Cookbook' from the British Museum Press 1992?
Hope that this helps.
Rick Twyman rtw...@cix.compulink.co.uk
Stephen Bloch
>Does anybody have any recipes for 16th Century English pottage?
Hieatt & Butler's _An Ordinance of Pottage_ is based on a 15th-century
source, so this may be a little too early, but it's hard to believe such a
basic dish would have disappeared entirely or changed radically in 100
years. Anyway, H&B give two recipes:
11. Blaunche porre.
Take thyke melke of almondys; do yt in a potte. Perboyle the white of
lekys tendour; presse out the watyr. Hew hem smalle, grynd hem; temper
hem with the same mylke. Do togedyr with sygure and salt; boyle hit up.
Yf thu wilte, thu mayste alay with payndemayn othir with cromys of white
brede; draw hem with the same mylke, and serve hit forth with salte ele,
yf thu have hit.
12. Pome porre.
Boyle white pesyn; hool hem. Take hem fro the fyre when they have restyd
a whyle, then take the cleryst into anothir pott. Then have mylke of
almondes drawyn up with white wyn, figes of amely, sigure and salte, and,
yf thou wylte, reysons fryed a lytyll, & do togedyr. Boyle hit; kepe hit,
and serve hit forth.
Their redaction of the former is as follows:
Pottage of leeks
9 medium or 12 thinner leeks
1/2 cup (2 oz/60 g) ground almonds
4 cups boiling water
2 slices white bread, crusts removed
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
Steep the almonds in the boiling water while you prepare the leeks, paring
them and slicing the white parts into a colander, to be washed in cold
water. Cook the leeks, drain and press out excess water, as in recipe 1
[which says "e.g. with a potato masher"].
Make your almond milk, then process or blend it with the bread. Add the
leeks and seasonings and continue processing until the leeks are finely
chopped. Cook the result over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for
about 5 minutes more, adding more water if the soup seems too thick.
H&B also give a recipe for an acorn pottage, which they don't bother
redacting, merely pointing out that acorns were traditionally food for
the poverty-stricken, and that the "great portion of sugar" and other
expensive ingredients in this recipe would be beyond the reach of such
a person anyway. But you can try it.
71. Chikeney.
Do almond mylke yn a pott. Take cornels of okekornes rostyd; grynd hem,
draw hem with wyn or ale. Do therto a grete porcyon of sigure, saundres,
& safron & othri poudris, & seson hit up with poudres; & take the schelles
& set abovyn.
Another version you might try is from Gervase Markham's 1615 _The English
Huswife_, of which I don't have a copy, but I have the copy and redaction
in the _Miscellany_ of David Friedman & Betty Cook:
Take mutton, veal or kid, break the bones but do not cut up the flesh,
wash, put in a pot with water. When ready to boil and well skimmed, add a
handful or two of small oatmeal. Take whole lettuce, the best inner
leaves, whole spinach, whole endive, whole chiccory, whole leaves of
colaflorry [cauliflower?] or the inward parts of white cabbage, with two
or three onions. Put all into the pot until done. Season with salt and
as much verjuice as will only turn the taste of the pottage; serve up
covering meat with whole herbs and addorning the dish with sippets.
David-and-Betty's redaction:
1 lb veal
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
3 1/2 oz lettuce
generous handful spinach (c. 1.5 oz)
1 small endive (2 oz)
2 oz chiccory
5 flowerettes cauliflower
2 small onions
1/2 T sale
verjuice: 1 T wine vinegar
6 slices of toast (sippets)
Cook veal whole about 1/2 hour in enough water to cover. The vegetables
were added as soon as the water came to a boil and was skimmed.
I comment on this: the original recipe calls for LEAVES of colaflorry, not
flowerettes. I have used, many times in soups, the tough greenish things
that come attached to cauliflower heads in U.S. grocery stores; I have no
idea what the true leaves would be like, but Harold McGee says "Broccoli
leaves [which are the same species as cauliflower] contain much more vitamin
A than the buds and are worth eating." This may be irrelevant, since McGee
also says the cauliflower was introduced to England early in the 17th
century, past your time. As for the verjuice, if you can get real verjuice
you'll probably need about twice as much of it as you would vinegar.
--
Stephen Bloch
sbl...@s.ms.uky.edu
Dorothy J Heydt
>H&B also give a recipe for an acorn pottage, which they don't bother
>redacting, merely pointing out that acorns were traditionally food for
>the poverty-stricken, and that the "great portion of sugar" and other
>expensive ingredients in this recipe would be beyond the reach of such
>a person anyway. But you can try it.
But if you do, be sure to leach the acorns first. Grind them to
meal and pour boiling water over them; soak; drain; repeat until
the water no longer tastes of tannin. Human beings are not pigs
and untreated acorns contain enough tannin to do us in.
Dorothy J. Heydt
djh...@uclink.berkeley.edu
University of California
Berkeley
Roy R. Beatty
the edition that contains "every jot and tittle," has a Companion volume with recipes so
that you can eat your way through the volumes. The diary covers the first eight or nine
years of the Restoration period (1660-1668?). I recall that the recipes are more a
description of procedure, by no means a "Joye of Cookynge." Pepys held a solemn feast
every year on the anniversary of his being cut for stone, so there should be a good
selection of dishes.
CLIS library
It seems to me I recall something called
"broccoli rabe" which was a leafy vegtable
and may be even the leaves from broccoli.
Frankly I think I'll use cabbage.
;-)
Cathy
Edward Jannoo
By all means keep them coming :-)
Jane Beckman
>redacting, merely pointing out that acorns were traditionally food for
>the poverty-stricken, and that the "great portion of sugar" and other
>expensive ingredients in this recipe would be beyond the reach of such
>a person anyway. But you can try it.
One of the ways that the early medieval peoples of Western France,
who were still practicing pagan rites on the sly, escaped notice was
by making acorn cakes and claiming it was because of poverty.
Since the acorn cakes were festival food, this didn't hold a
whole lot of credence---but it kept the Church officials
placated, especially since they were inclined to look the
other way, anyway. Often, these cakes (which were ritually
consumed in oak groves) contained more expensive ingredients.
I've made them, from an early Victorian approximation of
ingredients (leaching the flour HEAVILY), and they're not bad.
--
Jilara [ja...@swdc.stratus.com]
That's how freedom will end: not with a bang, but with a rustle of file
folders. If you love any of your rights, defend all of them!
-Joe Chew, on the net
Sean Mallory
In article <2osv40$k...@s.ms.uky.edu>, Stephen Bloch <sbl...@ms.uky.edu> wrote:
>I comment on this: the original recipe calls for LEAVES of colaflorry, not
>flowerettes. I have used, many times in soups, the tough greenish things
>that come attached to cauliflower heads in U.S. grocery stores; I have no
>idea what the true leaves would be like, but Harold McGee says "Broccoli
>leaves [which are the same species as cauliflower] contain much more vitamin
>A than the buds and are worth eating." This may be irrelevant, since McGee
>also says the cauliflower was introduced to England early in the 17th
>century, past your time. As for the verjuice, if you can get real verjuice
>you'll probably need about twice as much of it as you would vinegar.
>
It seems to me I recall something called
"broccoli rabe" which was a leafy vegtable
and may be even the leaves from broccoli.
Frankly I think I'll use cabbage. ;-)
Cathy
May i suggest the use of kale instead? I beleive that it is a closer
relative of cauliflower than cabbage. The leaves of cauliflower are
_not_ something that i have seen in grocers, even attached to cauliflower
heads, best bet if you want to be authentic is to find someone who
grows cauliflower in their garden, though broccoli or brussles sprouts
should work as well since they are in the same species of plant.
I would also suggest using younger leaves, as they have much improved
flavor over the older ones. The leaflike things attached to the sides of
the head are OK if used as stem, but trying to use them other than as
stem will only frustrate the cook.
Now for a few questions:
What is this 'verjuice' and how is it made?
Is a pottage of oats and greens boiled together authentic for any
particular time period? The greens that i am thinking of are mustard,
dandelion, spinich, and beet, but i would be interested in hearing of
other that were user at particular times.
Sean Mallory (smal...@ouray.denver.colorado.edu)
I had a snappy quote, but it bit my neighbor and had to be put to sleep.
N.M. Wierda
>From: smal...@ouray.denver.colorado.edu (Sean Mallory)
>Subject: Re: 16th Century Pottage recipes wanted
>Date: 20 Apr 94 17:22:48 GMT
form a kind of sharp vinegar, used in cookery and pickling. it could also be
made of crab apples. (C. Anne Wilson. Food and Drink in Britain. 1991. ISBN
0 09 470760 X). There is lots on pottages as well, but I don't have the time
to copy it all.
Nynke Wierda
Nancy B.
says:
>
>In article <SMALLORY.94...@ouray.denver.colorado.edu>
>smal...@ouray.denver.colorado.edu (Sean Mallory) writes:
>>From: smal...@ouray.denver.colorado.edu (Sean Mallory)
>>Subject: Re: 16th Century Pottage recipes wanted
>>Date: 20 Apr 94 17:22:48 GMT
>>lec...@wam.umd.edu (CLIS library) writes:
>> In article <2osv40$k...@s.ms.uky.edu>, Stephen Bloch <sbl...@ms.uky.edu>
>wrote:
>> >
>> "broccoli rabe" which was a leafy vegtable
>> and may be even the leaves from broccoli.
Hmmm, there is an italian broccoli called 'rabe' I believe... If this
is what you are thinking of, it is very tastey but with a bit of
a 'bite' to it. On the bitter side. It is, however, excellent
with shrimp, loads of garlic and some shell pasta:)
David Friedman
> form a kind of sharp vinegar, used in cookery and pickling. it could also be
> made of crab apples. (C. Anne Wilson. Food and Drink in Britain. 1991. ISBN
> 0 09 470760 X). There is lots on pottages as well, but I don't have the time
> to copy it all.
>
> Nynke Wierda
Does anyone know what C. Anne Wilson's source is for this information? She
is generally very reliable, but I am not aware of any period descriptions
of how verjuice was made and had assumed that it was simply unripe grape
juice or other sour fruit juices. Green verjuice was made from sorrel.
There is a 17th century recipe, using crab apples, in Herbert May's
cookbook--I have lent out my copy so cannot check whether they are
fermented.
--
David Friedman
DD...@Cornell.Edu