No one size fits all rules, here, unfortunately. I suppose that’s a reason to cook more…

There are a fair number of things I want to make / organize the making of for the barony. Still working on plans for that – the problem with regalia is that it ought to be spiffy but persona (and gender, and size) neutral, which is somewhat difficult. While I’d like to make some Court livery for the Champions and Officers, I can’t think of anything other than baldrics, or perhaps hoods or cloaks, that would work. Though fancy embroidered or appliqued baldrics WOULD have some spiff factor.

Now that I have some space, with the house and all, I’d like to do some more silk painting. I still owe a few banners, and I’d like to do yet another one for WM as well – we have some gorgeous emnoidered ones, but one can never have too many banners…

I plan on fighting at war this year, so my armor needs help. So does Girard’s – I think his gambeson is held together by hope.

This, other random stuff, and… Oh! I am going to try to have a garden this year. We bought seeds, and I started the ones that needed starting, and I even identified the one eligible sunny spot in my yard. Next step – raised beds.

This sounds really cool, especially for when we get the herb garden started.

Tigers & Strawberries » Garam Masala Roasted New Potatoes.

(Honestly, you can do these with any combination of spices that sounds tasty to you. And the 1/3 of a cup of oil called for here? is *really* high – you could probably cut it in half and get the same effect. Still… the indian spices were a Very Nice Touch…yum.)

Or, well, not.

I have a subscription to a CSA that brings me tasty, mostly, veggies every week. Part of the reason the veggies are tasty is that I tell them which ones I want. Unfortunately, what with 12th night, last weekend I forgot to put my order in, and so I got the default “box o’veggies”. Unfortunately, at this time of year? That means, I got kale.

As many people know, veggies and I don’t normally exist on speaking terms, except with a rare few exceptions. Kale was not on that list. But there it was, taking up space in my fridge… so it was time to hit up google.

I figured I knew I didn’t like just “cooked greens”, as it were, and everyone swears brussel sprouts get better when you roast them, so when I found this recipe? well, I didn’t think it was going to be a winner, per se, but I was hoping for edible.

Not so much. To quote Nick: “There’s a reason “kale” rhymes with “fail”.

At least the potatoes were good (see next entry…)

• St. Catherine’s Tourney Documentation – A Light Evening Meal
• Feast Menus from Battle of the Oranges and Baronial Champions 2006 (recipes to follow)
• The Purple “Tacunium Sanitatis” dress
• And Girard has finally released his “Goat Scrotum Stout” recipe on the world. (NO goats were harmed in the production of this beverage).

Enjoy…

What do we mean by “redaction?” From the Oxford English Dictionary 1st edition in 2 volumes, vol 2, pg 293:

Redact - past participle
1. Brought together in a written form (1432)
2. Brought or reduced into (in), to a state, condition, etc, or under one’s power (1432)
3. Of material things: Reduced to or into ashes, dust, etc.

Redact - verb
1. transitive – a. to bring (matter of reasoning or discourse) into or to a certain form; to put together in writing (1432)  b. to bring or insert (a thing) into a scheme or body (1570)   c. to reduce (a subject) to a person’s understanding (1657)
2. to bring together into one body (1432)
3. To reduce (a person or thing) to, into a certain state, condition, or action. (1542)
b. To reduce (a material thing) to a certain form. (1634)
4. In modern use: a. to draw up, frame (a statement, decree, etc) (1837)   b. to put (matter) into proper literary form, to work up, arrange, or edit (1851)

In other words, we are editing a period recipe to make sense to a modern reader. Period recipes are more or less notes from one cook to another – great if you know what your end product is supposed to look like, but sometimes vague if you’re not sure.  Think about how you give a recipe to a friend – or how your grandmother passed on her recipes – “A bit of this, some of that…” – in fact, standardized volume measurements weren’t really popularized until the 18^th century, though some 16^th century cookbooks use weights or other measures.

The steps I use for redacting a period recipe are as follows:

1. Read the recipe. In cooking period food, the first thing to do is look at the period source.  Is it in English? If so, are all of the words familiar? If not, and you have a translation, how reliable is that translation? If necessary, rewrite the recipe in plain English, for instance:
   • Before: Bray ginger, yolks of eggs without the germ, and pass them through the strainer with cows’ milk; or in the case it should turn, let the yolks of cooked eggs be taken and then brayed and passed through the strainer; moisten with cows’ milk and boil well. This recipe is translated from Le Menagier de Paris, a 14^th century French source.
   • After: To bray means to grind, so this recipe is instructing us to grind ginger (note that it doesn’t specify fresh or dried) and egg yolks (without the embryo, as most eggs would have been fertile). Then mix with cows’ milk (note the lack of proportions) and pass through a strainer. Alternatively, grind cooked egg yolks with the ginger and force the mixture through a strainer, add milk and boil.

1. Ask questions: For this recipe, I would ask the following questions:
   • What is the end product of this recipe supposed to be? I interpreted this as a thin, custard like sauce dish. Others may interpret it as a thicker sauce, and other recipes may have even more interpretations.
   • Are any of the procedures unfamiliar? There are many sources for terminology such as “bray”, including Pleyn Delight and Take a Thousand Eggs. (While these sources also include the authors’ redactions, it’s more fun to do your own!)
   • Does equipment used make a difference? While one often uses modern equipment to substitute for large amounts of labor (I love my Cuisinart) it can change the end product.  For instance, in redacting a recipe for a “Bread Tart”, the author specifies that bread should be grated, and bread crumbs made using a grater gave the final product a fluffier, more consistant texture than those using a food processor.  For this recipe, the difference between grinding the ginger and egg yolks in a mortar and pestle may be significant, though I haven’t tested that yet.
   • Are there any other similar recipes? Sometimes, other sources can help inform your redaction.  For instance, one might check other jance sauce recipes from 14^th century French sources to see if there are other cooking tips or ratios included.  I also check modern sources for similar recipes, both completely modern ones (custard sauces, in this instance) and others’ redactions of period recipes, just to get an idea of possible ingredient ratios and cooking times.  There is a fine line to walk when doing this – if you rely too heavily on modern sources, your end product will be very modern, but attempting to cook completely unfamiliar dishes with no outside references can lead to, well, fairly inedible dishes.
   • How would period ingredients and modern ingredients differ? What ingredient choices can I make to achieve a more period product? For instance, for this recipe I would check how ginger would be acquired by residents of Paris in the late 1400s, and make sure to use whole milk, preferably not homogenized.
2. Make a stab at creating the dish. My redaction for this dish was as follows:
   • For this sauce, I pureed 2.5 oz peeled ginger with 3 large egg yolks.  I then mixed the puree with approximately 1 cup of milk, and brought to a boil, then strained the mixture and adjusted the seasoning with salt and additional ginger.
3. Evaluate your redaction:
   • Does it taste good? I’m still working on this one – it’s gingery, but it’s thinner than I would like. If you play with it and get a better result, please let me know.
   • Does it closely match the instructions given? It’s very easy to fall into modern cooking habits while doing redactions – it would be so much easier to thicken this sauce with a roux, for instance, but that technique wasn’t recorded as being used until the late 15^th/early 16^th century.
   • Is the result plausible?

A more difficult example: Cuskynoles

A mete þat is icleped cuskynoles. Make a past tempred wiþ ayren, &

soþþen nim peoren & applen, figes & reysins, alemaundes & dates; bet

am togedere & do god poudre of gode speces wiþinnen. & in leynten make

þi past wiþ milke of alemaundes, & rolle þi past on a bord, & soþþen hew hit on moni perties, & vche an pertie beo of þe leynþe of a paume & an half & of þreo vyngres of brede. & smeor þy past al of one dole, & soþþen do þi fassure wiþinnen. | Vchan kake is portiooun. & soþþen veld togedere oþe 3eolue manere, ase

þeos fugurre is imad:

______________________________________
|  .   |   .   |   .  |   .  |   .   |
|______|_______|______|______|_______|
|  .   |   .   |   .  |   .  |   .   |
|______|_______|______|______|_______|
|  .   |   .   |   .  |   .  |   .   |
|______|_______|______|______|_______|

& soþþ boille in veir water, & soþþ en rost on an greudil: & soþþen adresse.

The first thing to know about this recipe is that the letter “þ”, or thorn, represents “th”. Rewritten with modern spelling in mind:

“A meat that is (called) cuskynoles.  Make a paste tempered with eggs, and so then take pears and apples, figs and raisins, almonds and dates, beat them together and do good powder of good spices within, and in lent make the past with milk of almonds, and rolle the paste on a board, and so then hew it in many parts, and each part be of the length of a palm and a half and of three fingers of bredth.  And smear the paste all of one half, and so then do the mixture within. Each cake is one portion, and so then meld together of the below manner, as this figure is made: (see figure above) and so boil in fair water, and so then roast on a griddle, and so then dresse.

The question? Are they ravioli, or are they a single, many “celled” cake?

See http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/cuskynoles-msg.html for more debate.

1^st Course:

• A platter of greens, lightly dressed with oil , vinegar and herbs and ornamented with fresh fruits – Platina
• Hand-made ravioli stuffed with cheese – Martino
• Cold roast chicken with a variety of savory sauces – Martino
• “Stuffed” eggs, lightly fried – Martino
• An assortment of candied nuts – Platina

2^nd course:

• Roasted pork with a savory herb-and-dried-plum filling – Martino
• Catalan “Mirause” (Chicken in cinnamon-almond sauce) – Martino
• Tagliarini (Pasta with arugula) – Martino
• Genoese Onion Tart – Martino
• Eggplants a la Neopolitan – Neopolitan Collection
• Fennel buns – Savory yeast rolls with fennel seeds – Platina

3^rd course:

• Fritters of apple and sage leaves – Martino
• Candied spices – Platina
• Quince paste and cheese – Platina

German Course:

Based on Ein Boke von Guter Spise.

• A Platter of Assorted Tarts:
  • Heidenische kuchen (Heathen Cakes) – Small tarts filled with duck and apples.
  • Ein gut gebackenz (Good Pastries) – Morsels of egg and cheese wrapped in pastry and baked (vegetarian)
  • Eine kluge spise von pflumen (Clever Food of Plums) – Plum Pastries (vegetarian)

• Ein gut spise der hüenren (A good food of hens) – Chicken with pear and quince sauce

• Ein gut spise von eime lahs (A good food of salmon) – Salmon cooked in pastry with herbs

• Bern und clein compost (Pickled vegetables) – Assorted vegetables pickled with caraway and honey (vegetarian)

• Ein morchen mus (A carrot puree) – Carrots with almond milk (vegetarian)

Italian Course:

Based on Libro per cuoco.

• Panicata con agresta e de l’ ocha (Millet with Verjuice and Goose) Millet Polenta with roast goose and verjuice sauce
• Porchetta rosta e cervellade bressane (Roast Pork and Yellow Sausage) – Roast pork and homemade sausages, served with an assortment of sauces, including garlic sauce, carmeline sauce, and mustard.
• Fongi (Mushrooms) – Mushrooms sautéed with onions and herbs (vegetarian)
• Torta de herbe (Herb Tart) – Spinach Tart with cheese and eggs (vegetarian)
• Assorted sweets – Candied ginger, candied horseradish, and candied caraway seeds.