Recipe is from Harleian MS. 279- Dyuerse Bake Metis (15th Century)
Chawettys. take Porke y-sode, & mencyd Datys, and grynd hem smal to-gederys: take yolkys of Eyroun, & putte ¶er-to a gode hepe, & grene chese putte ¶er-to; & whan it ys smal y-now, take Gyngere, Canelle, & melle wyl ¶i commade ¶er-with, & put in ¶in cofyns; ¶an take yolkys of Eroun hard y-sothe, an kerue hem in two, & ley a-boue, & bake hem; & so nogt y-closyd, serue forth.
Redaction by Cindy Renfrow: Small Pies. Take Pork seethed, & minced Dates, and grind them small together; take yolks of Eggs, & put thereto a good heap, & green cheese put thereto; & when it is small enough, take Ginger, cinnamon, & mix well thy mixture therewith, & put in thine coffins; then take yolks of Eggs hard seethed, and cut them in two, & lay above, & bake them; & so not closed, serve forth.
Recipe: by Cindy Renfrow (slightly modified by Lady Oksana Goncharova)
Place the pork and ½ cup water in a small saucepan. (Optional: add ½ tsp. salt.) bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until all trace of pink is gone. Remove from heat. Drain excess water. Take up the pork and place it in a blender with the minced dates. grind to a paste. Add some of the water that the pork was seethed in, if necessary, to achieve a smooth texture. Spoon the mixture into bowl. Add the beaten egg yolk and mix thoroughly. Add the cheese and spices and stir. Roll out the pastry. Using a 5 inch round cutter, cut 5 circles of dough. Line 5 ramekins with the dough circles. (Alternately use pre-made small tarts shells and fill with mixture.) Fill them with the meat mixture. Garnish with the halved egg yolks. Bake at 425 degrees F. for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove ramekins from oven and allow to cool slightly. Remove the pies from the ramekins before serving, if desired. Serve hot. Makes 5 small pies.
*The recipe from Harleian MS calls for green cheese. Upon looking up the definition for green cheese in the O.E.D., it says green cheese is a soft cheese with whey, not hard cheeses as Cindy Renfrow suggests. The O.E.D. also says green cheese has nothing to do with color of the cheese.
Bibliography:
Renfrow, Cindy, Take a Thousand Eggs or More. Volume 1, Cindy Renfrow, 1990.
Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1971.
Recipe comes from Harleian MS. 279- Dyuerse Bake Metis (15th Century)
Doucetes. Take crème a gode cupfulle, & put it on a straynoure; ¶anne take yolkys of Eyroun & put ¶er-to, & a lytel mylke; ¶en strayne it ¶orw a straynoure in-to a bolle; ¶en take Sugre y-now, & put ¶er-to, or ellys hony forde faute of Sugre, ¶an coloure it with Safroun; ¶an take ¶in cofyns, & put in ¶e ovynne lere, & lat hem ben hardyd; ¶an take a dyssche y-fastenyd on ¶e pelys ende; & pore ¶in comade in-to ¶e dyssche, & fro ¶e dyssche in-to ¶e cofyns; & when ¶ey don a-ryse wel, take hem out, & serue hem forth.
Redaction by Cindy Renfrow: Doucetes. Take Cream a good cupful, & put it in a strainer; then take yolks of Eggs & put thereto, & a little milk; then strain it through a strainer into a bowl; then take Sugar enough, & put thereto, or else honey for default of Sugar, then color it with Saffron; then take thine coffins, & put in the oven empty, & let them be hardened; then take a dish fastened on the Baker’s peel’s* end; & pour thine mixture into the dish, & from the dish into coffins; & when they do rise well, take them out, & sreve them forth.
*a long-handled paddle, similar to a pizza paddle, but having a longer handle. It was used to put dough and pies into a large oven. Sometimes the paddles had a dish fastened to the end for filling pies which were baking in the oven.
Recipe for (Baked Custard Pie) by Cindy Renfrow, (slightly modified by Lady Oksana Goncharova)
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. Beat together all ingredients in a bowl until well mixed. (mix in saffron threads by taking a teaspoon of milk/egg mixture in a mortar and pestle and crush the saffron threads, then add the saffron liquid to the remaining mixture.) Pour the mixture into a pre-baked 8-inch pie shell. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 40-45 minutes, or until a fork inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove pie from oven and serve hot. Makes one 8-inch pie or 8 to 10 small tarts. (Small tarts take the same amount of time to cook)
Bibliography:
Renfrow, Cindy, Take a Thousand Eggs or More A Collection of 15th Century Recipes. Volume 1, Cindy Renfrow, 1990.
Recipe comes from Laud MS. 553 (15th Century)
Ryschewys Close?. Nym flour and eyren, & kned to-gedere/ nym figus, resons, & dates, & do out ye stonys, & blanchid almandis, & goud poudur, & bray to-gedere/ make coffyns of ye lengthe of a spanne/ do thy farsour therynne, in euerych cake his porcion/plie hem & boille hem in water/ & suththe roste hem on a gridel & yif forth.
Redaction by Cindy Renfrow Rissoles Closed?. Take flour and eggs, & knead together/take figs, raisins, & dates, put out the stones, & blanched almonds, & good powder, & bray together/make coffins of the length of a span/put thy stuffing therein, in every cake his portion/fold them & boil them in water/ & afterward roast them on a griddle & give forth.
Recipe by Cindy Renfrow:(slightly modified by Lady Oksana Goncharova)
Filling: Take figs, raisins, dates and almonds and chop them finely. Then add spices and stir until well mixed. (I add all fruit, nuts and spices to food processor and mix until it forms a paste.) Pound all in a mortar until it forms a coarse paste. Set aside. (Filling may be made ahead of time and refrigerated for several days.)
Dough: Add eggs to flour in a bowl and stir. Turn out on a floured board and knead until smooth. Divide dough in half and roll out each half with a floured rolling pin to 1/16th” thickness. Cut the dough into rectangles approx. 6” long x 3” wide. Set aside each rectangle on a floured plate. (Optional: use commercially available wonton wrappers.) Rissoles: The dough will start to harden almost immediately, so working quickly, take one rectangle and fill it lengthwise with one heaping teaspoon of filling. Fold it up like an eggroll: fold the bottom flap up, the sides flaps in, and the top flap down. Moisten your fingers with water and seal the edges. Bring 1 ½ quarts of water to a boil in a 3 quart saucepan. Add the rissoles carefully to the boiling water and stir gently. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until dough is tender (al dente). Remove rissoles from the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside. Heat skillet or griddle over medium heat. Add ½ inch oil if desired. Fry the rissoles until they are brown on all sides. Remove from pan and serve hot or cold. Makes one dozen 6” inch rissoles. (if using wontons, you can skip the boiling faze, and just fry in oil until golden brown).
Bibliography:
Renfrow, Cindy, Take a Thousand Eggs or More A Collection of 15th Century Recipes. Volume 1, Cindy Renfrow, 1990.
Recipe comes from The Forme of Cury (14th Century)
Hirchones. Take ¶e mawe of ¶e grete swyne, and fyfe o¶er sex of pigges mawes. Fyll hem full of ¶e self fars & sowe hem fast. Perboile hem; take hem vp, & ,make smale prikkes of gode past, and frye hem. Take ¶ese prickes yfryed & set hem pickes in ¶e mawes on ¶e fars, made after an vrchoun withoute legges. Put hem on a spyt & roost hem, & colour hem with safroun, & mese hem forth.
Redaction by, Lady Oksana Goncharova: Urchins. (Hedgehogs). Take the stomach of the great swine, and five or six of small pigs’ stomachs. Fill them full of the self forcemeat and sew them fast. Parboil them; take them up,.and make small prickles of good paste, and fry them. Take these prickles that you fried and set those prickles on the stomach into the forcemeat, made after an urchin without legs. Put them on a spit and roast them, and color them with saffron, and serve them forth.
Recipe by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington and Sharon Butler (slightly modified by Lady Oksana Goncharova)
Mix pork/beef and seasonings and form into balls about 1 1/2- 2 inches in diameter; then elongate the balls a little, into ovals shaped like large walnuts (and about the same size). It is not absolutely necessary to fry the slivered almonds before using them- and may be dangerous, since they have tendency to get overdone and turn black in the later baking-but a few minutes of sauteing over low heat, with a sprinkling of sugar, can help to make them less brittle and thus easier to handle. Insert them into the “hedgehogs” in a pattern suggesting quills; you will need at least eight small spines for each ball to achieve the proper effect. Bake on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven 20 minutes, or until a good shade of medium brown. If you want to serve them hot, you can reheat in a hot oven for a few minutes (Or use a microwave). Drain on paper towel for a minute or two before serving. If you wish to add a coloring decoration, this should be done just before the last few minutes of cooking; if done earlier, it will, of course, discolor. (If using saffron to color, crush saffron threads in a couple of teaspoons of water using a mortar and pestle) Brush the saffron water onto the the hedgehogs.
Bibliography:
Hieatt, Constance and Sharon Butler, editors. Curye On Inglysch, English culinary manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including The Forme of Cury). Oxford university Press, 1985.
Hieatt, Constance B., Brenda Hosington and Sharon Butler, Pleyn Delit, Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks, Second edition. University of Toronto Press Inc. 1996.
Recipe by, Lady Oksana Goncharova
“Kosher” recipe for those who only eat fowl. The recipe came about because my Laurel does not eat pork or beef. I made the pork recipe (Hirchones) for years in my Shire, the hedgehogs were the first to go and everyone raved about them. My Laurel and her husband felt a little deprived at not being able to taste the hedgehogs, so I came up with a fowl only recipe.
Mix the ground chicken, spices and almonds together and form balls about 1-2 inches. (The chicken is very sticky and almost impossible to place the quills as in the pork recipe, hence the inside-out hedgehogs).The balls also have a tendency to stick together. As you form the balls place them in a sauce pot with boiling chicken broth. Remove the balls when they are no longer pink in color, using a slotted spoon. Continue cooking more balls in the same broth.(add more broth if necessary). These can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen. The broth can also be saved and frozen. To reheat cooked balls, place in the sauce pot with the chicken broth and heat until done. Serve with or without the broth. This can also be served using a cooking tray filled with broth and balls over a heat source, like a sterno.
Bibliography: (Base for ingredients comes from Hirchones recipe in this book)
Hieatt, Constance B., Brenda Hosington and Sharon Butler, Pleyn Delit, Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks, Second edition. University of Toronto Press Inc. 1996.
Recipe is from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century
Take a ratl of strong vinegar and mix it with two ratls of sugar and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink a uqiya of this with three of hot water when fasting: it is beneficial for fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst, since sikanjabin syrup is beneficial in phlebmatic fevers: make it with six uqiyas of sour vinegar for a ratl of honey and it is admirable.
Recipe by Cariadoc and Elizabeth in the Miscelleny
Sekanjabin. Dissolve 4 cups sugar in 2 1/2 cups of water; when it comes to a boil add 1 cup wine vinegar. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add a handful of mint, remove from fire, let cool. Dilute the resulting syrup to taste with ice water (5 parts water to 1 part syrup). The syrup stores without refrigeration. Note: This recipe is the only recipe in the Miscelleny that is based on a modern source: A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden. Sekanjabin is a period drink; it is mentioned in the Fihrist of al-Nadim, which was written in the tenth century. The only period recipe that I (Cariadoc and Elizabeth) have found for it (in the Andalusian cookbook) is called “Sekanjabin Simple” and omits the mint. It is one of a large variety of simple drinks described in that cookbook-flavored syrups intended to be diluted in either hot and cold water before drinking.
Sekanjabin (Persian Mint Drink) Recipe by Mistress Thora Sharptooth
(One batch)
(Flavorings for three batches)
Mix vinegar and water, dissolve sugar into this mixture slowly, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. As it cools, at room temperature, add mint that has been slightly torn (Or use combination fresh mint and tea bags). (Cinnamon sticks may also be added to mixture) Leave the mint in the syrup overnight and then remove the mint leaves by using a slotted spoon or colander. Store in jars in dark location or in fridge. Dilute syrup with iced water to taste. (1 Quart vinegar and proper amount of sugar yields syrup enough for 10 to 11 gallons of drink.)
Recipe for mint drink and ginger drink by Lady Oksana Goncharova
Use same recipe as Thora’s. I use white vinegar, instead of wine vinegar as I have some issues with sulfite in the wine vinegars. This is a good drink to bring to hot events, as it needs no refrigeration, because of the high sugar and vinegar content. It is also known as a medieval gatorade as it replaces fluids like the modern gatorade does. I store the finished syrup in gallon canning jars and add a cinnamon stick to each. For large events I use about 1/2 of the gallon syrup, mixed with water to fill a large 5 gallon drink cooler. The amount of syrup you use will depend on the flavor you want to achieve. If you want a stronger taste, use more syrup to water ratio. Ginger Drink: add shredded ginger root instead of mint. (I don’t use cinnamon sticks with the ginger) Leave the ginger in overnight and then remove the ginger and store the syrup. Dilute with iced water to taste. Note Experiment with different flavorings other than the mint and ginger, for example: strawberries or other fruits.
Bibliography:
Friedman, David and Betty Cook (Cariadoc and Elizabeth), A Miscelleny, 6th edition, 1988, 1990, 1992.
Mistress Thora Sharptooth (Carolyn Priest-Dorman)