We Created A Monster!!!.....

Well two actually, but that's what happens when you create the culinary equivalent of a cut 'n shut, you get 4 halves so you're gonna end up with two 'animals'.

As all of this took place in the dim and distant past (Christmas 2002) there isn't a great deal of pictorial evidence to hand....the height of technology that we had access to was a Sony Mavica, woo hoo, although you will also notice Robert taking pictures in some of the shots, whether he can find those slides and scan them I'm not sure, but I digress.

All of the pictures I have are now up on Flickr for you to see, they include this selection:

along with a few others....ahh that evening just flew by....or perhaps it was the beer?
The only other notable fact about that night of creation was that the custody warders learnt not to rifle through our fridges for snacks when we aren't about as those two staring back at them by torchlight were apparently NOT what they were expecting to find.

As to the finished results, well I have no pictures to show (Robert?) but it went really well. The beast was placed on the spit and a wire 'frame' added to keep the head, wings and feet in their correct positions, it was then roasted in front of the fire, with a batter applied half way through which hid all of the stitches, in fact it did such a good job that we had a devil of a time convincing people that it wasn't a real animal....I kid you not, they wanted to know what it was, why they'd not heard of one before and how it flew with those small wings as it couldn't possibly walk having no front legs!!! Even telling the truth they didn't believe us...amazing really.

We tried to shield the feathers by placing wet parchment sleeves over the wings, but that just shrank like heat shrink tubing so we took it off...with hindsight it was obvious that it would, but hey, we were young, I believe that they survived in some shape or form to the table in spite of this! If I remember correctly it stank to high heaven on the table but that was because of the turkey having its head still on and that was never intended by the supplier (we chose a turkey as it was the only bird that we could match girth with to the sucking pig) and boy was it bad....not enough to put us off, but bad none the less! Why I'm not sure as it was washed and cleaned, possibly just the smell of the brain over cooking, I really couldn't say and it didn't matter that much as it was the overall impression that we were aiming for.

Would we do it again? Possibly, but with a lot more planning that we did that time.....and having learnt so much about the roasting of meat I think it would be a great success....who knows, probably not this year, but never say never......even with all the fuss that meat and certain animals seems to generate, still at least it wasn't fluffy bunnies eh?

As for the peacock, grief that was even further back in time, possibly 1996, but that's just a very wild guess. I only have one picture of this:

There are possibly more, but not currently in digital form.

This was done in the 'good old days' when we weren't running the show and there were different team members involved, as you may notice....his name's Andy and he was a demon when it came to working with the dead animals.....a bit like Pick, but somehow more 'natural', although I think it was mostly down to practice with road kill!
The choice to cook the peacock wasn't ours, it was Peter Brears who ran things, we sort of just did as we were shown back then (my how things have evolved). Peter, bless him, knows a phenomenal amount about food and its history, he was just never too hot on telling us, or in fact anybody the references used, so Lois, to answer your question, it was sort of a generic peacock recipe that was used.....gut it, peel it, roast it, put the skin back on.
You will notice the candles in the shot, they aren't just for show, they were the light we were working too!! All of the prep' work was done after hours on the Christmas event we did this, as it was felt that it may generate complaints, so working by candle light Andy deftly removed the skin and gutted the animal. The next day it was placed on the spit with wire to hold the wings and legs in place as well as a long wire down the neck to hold it upright, it was then roasted until done and left to cool before the head was plopped onto the protruding wire and the skin dressed back onto the body. Again all of this dressing was done after hours for fear of offending the public....in hindsight it was a stupid PR panic lead decision that should never have been allowed to dictate the state of play because so many interested people never got to see the finished dish...still live and learn eh?!

It looked absolutely amazing, just like you see in the manuscript illustrations, especially as this was by candle light and the feathers simply shone with colour as it was processed to the table for our assembled guests to try (which would have made it New Years Eve)....tasted just like chicken though!
We needn't have worried about the public comments, they ranged from "it's some kind of raptor" (meaning bird of prey, because of the claws) to "it's a velociraptor?? coool", but all were positive and all could see the reasons for trying the recipe out, they just couldn't see why they weren't allowed to have seen the whole process....in fact the comments for this were almost repeated when we came to the cockentryce, but again the same squeamishness descended from above and the preparation work was to be done away from the public gaze.....shame really as I thing on the whole apart from those who are out specifically to be offended (and they are certainly out there) the vast majority would appreciate seeing the whole process behind such a bonkers recipe.

I would love to try the peacock again and the sooner the better, the only problem at the moment is sourcing the birds. When we did it last time it was easy, odd meat was in vogue and the world and his wife was selling peacock along with kudu steaks and alligator....today, peacock seems to have vanished and I'm not too sure why. Still, always on the look out and when we can find a supplier then we'll be sure to have another go, but this time with more pictures for you all to see and with a more mature bird with bigger tail feathers that would allow us to display the tail all fanned out just like the manuscript pictures show...we can but dream.

So the weekend is nearly upon us, just a couple of days to go and fingers crossed with the new phone I'll be able to post or tweet almost as it happens (although you'd be right to believe it when you see it!!)

TTFN

A Blast From The Past!

A conversation with a friend (yes, I do actually know people that aren't connected with work....though not many) prompted me to look out some old pictures of a 'project' we did back at the Christmas event 2003/2003....when we were younger, thinner and had more hair.....in the right places!!

I don't think I've posted them here before, may have done on the now defunct original blog pages over at Yahoo, so for your delight and delectation, the good Baron (Frankenstein that is) is happy to present the Purkey and Tig....

Oh the fun we had! Well it kept the two of us busy for that New Years Eve anyway.

Not sure if we'll try it again or not, all of that 'creation' business takes it out of you, but this coming year could be a good time to try. I think though that I'd rather have another go at peacocks, it's been a loooong time since we cooked one of those at the Palace and it would be nice to give it a go again, especially as we now can afford cameras to record what we do. More things to add to the list then....still if it keeps us off the streets?

TTFN

Trouble At T' Mill

It's been a bit of a rocky road at work for the past couple of weeks, which is why there was no follow up post from the last weekend....and we'll give Robert the benefit of the same excuse too! I can't really say much about what the problems have been, just that they concerned our office space and its future usage, so that's kind of been all consuming for a little while, nothing to worry about though as it's all sorted now and it's on with the show for the coming new financial year.

I've still not had final confirmation that our budgets have been approved, but we're all working on the assumption that in general everything that has been planned for the year will come to pass, well at least as far as you, the viewing public are concerned...I fear that we could end the year looking very much like a swan...all calm and serenity on the surface, but paddling like mad below the waves....still, only time will tell.

One more weekend of cookery is left in this current financial year and that should see us playing around with more new recipes from the Propre New Booke of Cokery of 1545. We'll then plunge into the new fiscal year and all that it holds with the Easter event the following weekend, so if you're in the area you'll have two bites of the proverbial cherry to pop along and see us in action.

What does the new year hold for us? Well it's a return to cookery on the first weekend of the month along with high days and holidays, culminating in a 7 day event over the Christmas holidays; there's an extra weekend in July to add as well, but truth be told I can't remember the exact dates at the moment and need to have a look at the wall planner in the office before I can furnish you all with the details....rest assured that I'll let you all know in good time for this as it is one of the main events of the summer, with the Saturday seeing King Henry VIII and his queen arrive by boat once again to be received by entertainment on the riverside, splendour and pageantry in the Privy Garden and a small al fresco meal as well...I believe that the day will also culminate with foolery and shows in Base Court as well as the possibility of fireworks (but don't quote me on that at the moment).

What are we planning for these weekends? Can't tell you at the moment as we're still in the planning stages, but what I can say is that the aim is to go a little more experimental than this last year, although what that will actually involve we haven't sorted out yet but I can promise a departure from the hum drum repetition that we've fallen into with all the events melding into one 'samey', 'normal' affair.....well that's the idea anyway!
Easter though will be a see of dull 'normality' with us cooking a meal to be served at 4.00 each day....this is to fit in with the rest of the Palace and to establish a baseline for the year to show the difference with the experimental weekends...or so I'm assured by our manager.
Don't forget, for those who haven't been to see us for a while, we've altered our working times in the actual Historic Kitchens and our days in front of you lovely people now run from 11.00 a.m. until 30 minutes before close of the Kitchens...this now means that we can get all the little planning and preparation jobs done much more efficiently and devote much more of our time in public...to the public, rather than worrying about whether the bins were empty or the washing up liquid was in the right place.

Still, enough of this procrastination.....off to sort out shopping lists now. More news as and when it happens either here or for passing thoughts...Twitter!

The White Heat Of Technology!!

Eagle eyed observers may notice that there's a new widget in the left hand column.....a Twitter thingy!

Yes, I've come over all hip (for hip read several years behind the times, was reticent up until now, may well delete it in the near future, still not bothering with that Facebook malarkey) and got myself a Twitter thing. To be honest I've no idea what it does or how it works, but all the blah promises the ability to post short notes as and when, so it may just kick me up the backside into telling you all some more stuff without feeling the pressure in having to write a weighty tome each time.

Who knows, it may even catch on in my little brain and you might hear some more from me....even if it's only in 140 characters or less.

As is the usual way of things, there will now be a flurry of posts bringing you up to date and promising more in the future, here's hoping I can keep that promise eh?

TTFN

Well Hello Stranger!

Yes, we're back the kitchen and thanks to the wonder of modern technology (a new phone) I am able to post to the blog from the comfort of a palace once again.
Quite a lot has happened since the last post here, but most of that has been concerning the new financial year and the mysteries that is the deciding of budgets! Still no concrete decisions or answers, but at the moment the plan is to revert to cooking on the first weekend of the month as well as high days and holidays....more information will come your way in the event that this should change.

So far this weekend it's been the best event for a long while, cracking people to chat with and interesting new things to cook....I'm not going to say too much as Robert has grand plans for a post for you all that will tell you what we have been up to...I'll warn you now that there are no pictures but the text and the nitty gritty will be worth the wait I think (DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible in any way should Robert's post not be worth the wait!!!)

That's all for now as I can hear my bed calling....catch you all soon

Lightweight!!

....was the simple message I got from Robert after telling you all that I didn't take any pictures of the change that we made to the table layout......cheeky so & so!

Anyway, attached to the message, short and sweet though it was were these two images. The first shows how we moved the tables forward at one end creating a sloping arrangement to try to keep the visitors away from all the ash that the charcoal was making.....which seemed to do the trick

The second shows Dave trying to get some feeling back into his toes during a quick tea break....thank heavens for central heating eh?

As for this last one, this is one I took.....shows you what happens when you take 2 tired interpreters, then add a long cold day, a bottle of booze and a box of chocolates with clear wrappers....

.....trust me, there is no "why" to this picture, just don't ask OK!!

Another One Bites The Dust.

Well, in case you hadn't guessed by now, that's another Christmas event done and dusted.....and to be honest there's a big part of me that says 'thank God that's over!'

Why? Simply because it was too long at too low temperatures....yes we can take breaks, yes we keep warm by drinking tea in our office at regular intervals, but after a while it really drags working in temperatures in single figures.....having to warm up after processing the cold meat, having to warm up after rubbing butter in, having to warm up.....well you get the idea. On top of that, the cold seeps into you and I swear that it slows the brain down, thinking gets harder and answering the demanding level of questions that we are now accustomed to can really push your faculties to the limit....or was it just slow old me?

On reflection we should have changed the format of the days, not eaten a meal sitting in the cold but changed the display into something else, but that's always the thing with hindsight....20/20 eh! Still, all our visitors seemed to go away happy and apart from a few tetchy spats after hours, I think we got away with it fairly unscathed.......my apologies to the team for my short temper towards the end of the week....I'd simply had enough and struggled to get to the last day....sorry.

I never did get to take the picture of the revised layout for you....sorry, in fact I hardly took any, still got to take the few I did take off of the camera, if there are any worth showing you all I will, but don't hold your breath folks.

I believe Robert has been asking Marc H and Robin for some stuff for his next posting and he has been working feverishly on comparing recipes from different books and manuscripts so I expect to see something from him soon.

I'm still waiting for details of the coming years events so nothing to tell about the future yet, as soon as I know I'll pop some dates and details up for all to see.

TTFN

It’s C C C C Cold…..

Cripes it's been cold over the last few days standing in the kitchen! Not cold enough for ice or snow, but the bitter piercing cold that we get that creeps in through your feet and saps you're spirit….still, a nice excuse for a warm cuppa and a nip at the end of the day eh?

Not a massive amount to report to you all out there, as has been the case for most of the year…..we've broken some pots (sort of intentionally, hopefully more to tell you when the official report is written on that), we've tried the odd new recipe (which I would expect Robert to write about in the New Year), we've eaten some good food and we've talked to some very nice visitors who have asked some very taxing questions…..which has helped to take our minds off the temperature.

A subtle problem has arisen with our charcoal though which has meant we have had to slightly re arrange the kitchen layout to try to keep the excessive ash that it is producing away from our visitors so they don't leave the building as filthy as we now seem to be…..if I get the chance I'll take some pictures of the changes to the layout so that you can see…..technology has defeated me though, so I won't be able to post the pictures until I get back to the real world next week.

I'm not expecting to post tomorrow as I think we will be fairly busy in the evening, so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a happy new year and to say thanks for sticking with us over 2009, here's to more posting throughout 2010.

TTFN and please remember to drink responsibly tomorrow night!!

As Noddy Holder Is Known To Say....

..It's Christmas!

So here we are, at the start of an 'old school' 8 day long Christmas cookery event....leaving aside the why and wherefore of my lack of posting (and to be frank my lack of interest), what's the s.p.?

Well, today was nice and busy...just the right number of people to keep us talking all day but still let us cook the planned meal, all of which was pretty good, especially the perre which was outstanding....and the roast beef was to die for.
No great adventure or surprises for the first day....keeping it simple to ween us into the work....but we will be cooking some new (to us) recipes a bit later in the week....fingers crossed I'll let you know more about them when we get to them.

I'm keeping this short and sweet as it's cold and posting involves:
1) Eating into valuable drinking time.
2) Standing in the cold garden in order to get a mobile phone signal!!!

So, as the younger generation used to say......Laters.

Vyande de Cipres

A veritable essay from Robert ;-) ........there are accompanying images to this now over at Flickr.....enjoy!

For four days, spread over three cookery events, we devoted rather a long time making rather ordinary looking, rather gooey sticky sweet things. Next to the great roasts, vyande de cipres may look a bit underwhelming; but making it became one of the most interesting, and perhaps important experiments we have undertaken.

It's one of those recipes that occurs early on; it is mentioned in the first english menu, thirteenth century, and can be followed up through the years, changing a bit each time. It seems to be an anglo-norman innovation; Hieatt and Butler couldn't find a french source version, despite its name. 'Vyande'; meat, food, and 'cipres', meaning sweet, as Cyprus was known as a supplier of sugar. Sweetmeat. Although the oldest recipe has almond milk, rice flour, ginger and, bizarrely, pistachio nuts; but no sugar. The sweetness is provided by gingerbread, made from breadcrumbs and honey, although as it is strewn over the unspecified combination of the other ingredients, it wouldn't strike us as being overly sweet. Or would it?

Ever since food history has been taken seriously, the big question has been how these dishes tasted to the diners of the past? For example, the recipe above says to add ginger so 'that hit smacche wel of the gynger'. When spice was rare and expensive, what does that mean? It also states that it is the colour yellow, without saying how.

The other versions of this become more complicated, introducing meat and more spices. In the Forme of Cury it's dates, mead or sweetened wine, unspecified spice powder, then thickened so that it is 'stondyng'. If you are in the mood, and it is out of lent, add boiled chicken and pork... Not bad, but the thing to remember about the Forme of Cury, is that it's not just one book, but a group of manuscripts. The chosen version in 'Cury on Inglysch' is the one above, with dates. However in other manuscripts, which are all 'Forme of Cury', the dates are missing, instead we have; 'ootmele', 'mele', melis', 'me dates', 'damasines'. We are still asked to pike out the stones though; works for the damsons or plums, not so useful for the oatmeal. Pegge's in 1780 had 'oot mele', and the excellent online version posted by John Rylands University Library has 'mele'.

Our usual one, from 'Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks', in it's turn, a bit more detail, Wine, suger, ginger, galengale, canel, parsely juice, rice flour, ground chicken and egg yolkes. And coloured with saffron and sandlewood. Even this one is a bit unformed, there is an instruction to make it 'chargeant', but is is unclear whether the rice or the eggs are responsible.

Recipes like this are are so frustrating, they are obviously meant to be special and expensive, but the absence of quantities and method makes it difficult to do them justice.

So when we realised that we had a measured recipe for the 'Vyande', would this mean that we had a clue at last to how sweet and spicy these dishes really were?

The collection that it is part of was published in London by Richard Pynson in 1500, and is obscure enough to have earned itself a rather legendary status. It is not, however, quite the missing link between the mid 15^th Century manuscripts, and the popular Elizabethan cooking books, that we thought it may have been.

It's a printed version of an existing manuscript, and is almost identical to the manuscript edited by Robina Napier in 1882. First pointed, out I think, in the introduction to the Austin 'Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books, 1888, and by Hazlitt, but unremembered since, perhaps. The 'Napier' as we have named it among ourselves, is now available to study on the excellent 'Medieval Cookery' website.

The 'Napier', and the 'Pynson' both start by describing themselves as a 'noble' book, for a princes household, and then list the dishes at a feast by Henry the Forth. The 'Pynson' then does the same for a few more impressive feasts, including an enthronement of a Bishop of London in 1407. Very much like the late medieval cookbooks. Then the books come together with the enthronement of the Archbishop of York, named as Neville by 'Napier', dated to 1465 by 'Pynson'. This is the feast explored at some length in Warner's 'Antiquitates Culinariea', 1791, or it should be; the dishes don't seem to match...

Robina Napier is of the opinion that the handwriting of her manuscript would, 'but for the mention of this feast, point to an earlier date.'

Anyway, back to the Vyande de Cipres, there are two recipes in the 'Pynson', and one is common to both books, and is of the 'meaty' variety, in this case capon or chicken. Boiled and ground, cooked with almond milk and starch or rice flour, coloured with saffron, seasoned with sugar and 'florysshed' with almonds.

So, we still don't know exactly how this is supposed to be, sweet and chickeny presumably. At least the yellow colour is explained this time.

Right at the end of her book Mrs. Napier informs us that according to a contents list there are 'twenty-seven recipes unfortunately wanting in the manuscript'. Luckily, these twenty-seven are not missing from Pynson's version.

Which is brilliant; there are some very interesting recipes in these twenty-seven, I got rather excited about 'Potage of Ynde', surely not a fifteenth-century curry! Not I'm afraid, it's indigo... mmm...

But the one that all this is leading up to is... 'For to make vyande de cypres for xl messe'.

So it's the Vyande again, but this one has quantities, not for all the ingredients, but useful enough; so will we at last have an indication to how sweet and spicy something is? Here it is in full...

'To make viande de cipres for fourty messe / take viii. pounde of pruynes & ii. galons of vernage and make therof a thicke mylke / than take iii. pounde of dates & bete them in a morter but perboule them fyrst with vernage & drawe it up with a wide streyner & put the mylke in a potte & sette it on the fyre to boyle & caste therto iiii. pounde of suger cipres & a quart of pouder ginger half a quarter of canell drawen through a cloth wt wyne than take floure of rise drawen with wyne & put al in the pot & stire it togeder and colour it lightly wyth saffron & salt it & dresse v. or vi. leskes in a disshe for a lorde and take suger plat Rosenyg / and pouder og gynger medled with sugar & serue it'

Wow, measures! For the first time our tudor cooks have a chance to make something with a clue to how sweet and spicy a dish is supposed to be. Robin and Marc were getting rather excited about this and couldn't wait to have a go.

First the calculations had to be done... We used the american gallon of eight sixteen ounce pints, 3.78 litres, although 3.67 may be closer to the fifteenth century gallon; when we do it again we'll find out a bit more about this. And how many people is forty messes, a mess could be four or six people; we took it to be four, this of course will only affect the amount of sugar and spice per person, not the overall sweetness, etc.

So, per mess;

Prunes 3.2oz 90g

Vernage 6.4floz 181ml

Dates 1.2oz 34g

Sugar 1.6oz 45g

Ginger 0.1oz 2.8g

Canel 0.05oz 1.4g

That is 11.3g of sugar per diner; which is a heaped dessert spoon, already we can tell this is going to be rather sweet! Especially as vernage is sweet wine anyway. Very roughly, using the prices of goods from the time of Henry the Eighth quoted by Pegge, the price per mess is about 2 ½ d.

Incidently, this is the only version that calls for 'suger cipres', was this really a commodity of the time, since the the thirteenth century when these 'Vyande de Cipres' recipes first appeared? Was it added as part of the revision process as these recipes were 'updated'? This raises the question of what these recipes actually are, even whether they were meant to be made at all... A question for another time, perhaps...

Saturday 24^th October, Robin had a go. We weighed out the ingredients, enough for two messes. The first part looks quite straightforward, at first make a milk of the prunes and wine. Then beat the dates in a mortar, but by the way, boil them first, does this mean the prunes too? Why the wide strainer; as in coarse, for texture, or very wide as a quick way to remove the stones, could save time when making a dish for 120 people. Added ginger and cinnamon, and the rice flour with some extra wine, and heated to cook the rice flour. As usual, just when things are looking well, something crops up, in this case the saffron to 'colour it lightly'. But this is a mush of prunes and dates, how can this be coloured in any meaningful way with saffron?

Turned out very interesting, it was too sticky to make convincing slices, but it was very sweet, and very gingery. Not very impressive looking, but it was our first taste of how sweet a sweet dish was supposed to be. We thought that if people in the past hadn't had a diet heavy in sugar since they were born, like us, their sweets would seem to us rather insipid; not so!

Next day, having seen the first version, both Robin and Marc rolled their sleeves up, and made separate dishes, trying different techniques from their years as historic cooks. As the details are rather important, and my notes don't really do them justice, I'll get in touch with them first, and get their methods properly recorded, as things got a bit complicated!