Finally finished sorting out the menu for the next cookery weekend 26th-28th May:
as usual I expect that the above image is a little too wide to fit comfortably here on the screen, but you get the idea I'm sure.
The more observant of you will notice a fair few similarities between this menu and the last weekends one, no you aren't mistaken it's all part of the grand plan so to speak.
The repetitions are recipes that we want to try again but with subtle variations to see what, if any differences those variations may make. So with the arbolettys for example we shall be trying it with a different cheese to last time, when we used Cheshire. Here is the recipe for you to have a look at:
¶Arbolettys.
¶Take Milke, Boter an Chese, & boyle in fere; þen take eyroun, & cast þer-to; þan take Percely & Sawge & hacke it smal, & take pouder Gyngere & Galyngale, and caste it þer-to, and þan serue it forth.
The poumes:
¶Poumes.
¶Take fayre buttys of Vele & hewe hem, and grynd hem in a morter, & wyth þe olkys of eyroun, & with þe whyte of eyroun; an caste þer-to powder Pepyr, Canel, Gyngere, Clowys powþer, & datys y-mynced, Safroun, & raysonys of Coraunce, an sethe in a panne wyth fayre water, an let it boyle; þan wete þin handys in Raw eyroun, þan take it an rolle it in þin hondys, smaller or gretter, as þow wolt haue it, an caste it in-to boyling water, an let boyle y-now; þan putte it on a Spete round, an lete hem rosty; þen take flowre an olkys of eyroun, an þe whyte, an draw hem þorwe a straynowre, an caste þer-to pouder Gyngere, an make þin bature grene with þe Ius of Percely, or Malwys, in tyme of ere Whete, an caste on þe pommys as þey turne a-boute, & serue forth.
were so successful last time that we are trying them again to make sure that our success wasn't just a fluke of luck!! I'll post some pictures of them later on (yes I know I'm a tease) but in the mean time I've sent a small number of other pictures to flikr for you to see.
The repetitions in the dinner menus are there not just to try variations but because those recipes are quite easy to prepare the day before and finish quickly before the meal time of 10.00 a.m. - bear in mind that we don't start work 'till 9.00 a.m. so there isn't enough time to cook a meal from scratch, yes I know that we could serve the meal later but you'll just have to read the earlier posts to find out why we don't!
Milke rostys is the one I'm looking forward to trying again the most:
¶Milke Rostys.
¶Take swete Mylke, an do it in a panne; take Eyroun with alle þe whyte, & swenge hem, & caste þer-to; colour it with Safroun, & boyle it so þat it wexe þikke; þan draw it þorw a straynoure, & nym that leuyth, & presse it: & whan it is cold, larde it, & schere on schevres, & roste it on a Gredelle, & serue forth.
It really isn't much of a dish to eat but I'm pretty sure that the hunch Robin had about how to cook it will prove to give good results and it's the technique in this case that is the more fascinating part of the dish.........well I think so at least. In the past we have had plenty of attempts at this recipe but it's always gone awry at the last stage:
larde it, & schere on schevres, & roste it on a Gredelle, & serue forth.
Robin now thinks that rather than cooking it on the gridiron over the fire as you normally might with the iron, you should use it to support the curd next to the fire and roast it ie: by using radiant heat. It really seems quite obvious in retrospect, but that's always the way with hindsight eh? That at least would reduce the chances of it sticking to the iron like crazy glue and then burning....well that's his theory anyway. Stay tuned to find out more in a week and half's time!
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Later Than Planned.....
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5 comments:
Regardless of the repetition, it sounds lovely. If only there weren't this pesky big pond between us.
What is the source of the recipe? Which cookery book, please?
Elise,
which recipe? Essentially all of the recipest that we are currently using can be found in 'Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks' so Harleian 279 and 4016, Ashmole 1439, Laud 553 or Douce 55; although these recipes also appear in various other books across Europe from the late 15th century onwards.
The use of these recipes has been very much a 'stopgap' measure whilst the search for truly 16th century recipes took place. Hopefully by this time next year we will be using recipes from a different source, but that very much depends on how the transcription work goes.
It was the milke rostys. For the problem of sticking to the "Gredelle," I don't suppose that one could assume that the cook knew to add a little grease or fat to prevent sticking?
I recall seeing the curd/milk hanging in a cloth. Was it ever pressed as the recipe says to do? Would the type of milk (unhomogenized, cream included vs homogenized milk from the store) make a difference?
Yep, tried greased and not greased....pressed and not pressed as well as all sorts of types of milk- although a lot of that part is negated by the curdling process, fuller fat milk generates more curds as would seem to be obvious.
The problem with sticking to the iron is very much linked to the heat of the metal itself which is again directly related (obviously) to how far over the heat the iron is placed. With normal use of the gridiron we would place it over the coals and this is how we have done this recipe in the past, with some success I have to add, but still a LOT of failure. It just seemed obvious to Robin looking at the recipe for the first time in a while that the 'roast' part is the important bit, not the gridiron part and that it should therefore be cooked with radiant heat using the iron to support the curd rather than using it as an integral part of the cooking technique as it would normally be.
Only time can tell though and you can be sure that you'll all know how it goes.
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