Medieval Food Cooking Recipes
Medieval food recipes turn out some great platters with the least effort. Most of the medieval cooking involves the tossing of salads and a lot of use of stock or broth. There are some of the favorite recipes from the period now making their rounds on the tables of the crme de la crme. The interesting fact is that one look at the original 'handed-down' recipes unfolds a communication style quite unique to the era (e.g., Hearbes for herbs, lemmans for lemons, oyle for oil, suger for sugar, and egges for eggs)! The original text needs to be deciphered and then applied and that is just what the gourmets have already done.
Another interesting fact is that in Medieval cooking there are few if any measurements of ingredients at all. This gives the modern home or commercial chef to play with the quantities according to each family's or individual's specific taste. The amounts of the ingredients could be adjusted to suit a particular taste without undue worry about staying authentic. Either ways, what needs to be celebrated is the fact that what's in the pot belongs to the Middle Ages anyway! Medieval food is a great way to get the whole family involved in the preparation and indulge in some genuine fun-time!
Tasty Herb and Flower Salad:
Ingredients:
1 small head of butter lettuce
1 cup watercress
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh tarragon leaves
1/2 cup flower petals (roses, primroses, chive blossoms, calendulas, nasturtiums and violets)
1 cucumber, sliced
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp brown sugar
Method:
For this nutritious and very unusual salad, you need to take herbs like butter lettuce, watercress, mint and tarragon and wash and dry them. Then, it's the turn of getting your flower petals into the bowl. You could consider the petals of roses, primroses, chive blossoms, calendulas, nasturtiums and violets. However, you need to be sure that they haven't been sprayed with insecticides and if they have, wash them thoroughly. The cut herbs and petals need to be tossed in a salad bowl with cut cucumber. The oil, vinegar, sugar and salt and lemon juice need to be thrown in, in the proportions desired and voila! Your salad from the medieval world is ready! The sliced boiled eggs add to the nutritional value of the salad and make an excellent garnish.
Chicken or Capon with Oranges and Lemons:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs chicken or capon, cut into pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp rosewater
1 cup white wine
2 oranges, peeled and cut into eighths
2 lemons, peeled and cut into eighths
4 prunes, coarsely chopped
4 dates, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup currants
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp whole peppercorns
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp mace
Method:
You need to heat the oil and butter together in a Dutch oven. Then season the chicken or capon pieces with salt and pepper and place the pieces in a frying pan and brown the pieces well on all sides. Once done, add the chicken stock, rosewater and wine and simmer the mixture for a good 20 minutes. Then add the fruit, salt and mace and place the peppercorns. The peppercorns need to be first placed in a cheesecloth bag and then added to the stock if you want to avoid unnecessary biting into a peppercorn, which could be an unsettling experience especially for a child or an elderly family member. Continue to simmer the mixture for another 15 minutes, till the chicken is tender. Chicken or Capon with Oranges and Lemons can be served with strips of fried bread.
The hardy medieval people sure knew their supper's worth. Now it is ours to adopt and no secret at all. It is quite an experience to read the original recipes and decipher the ingredients and preparation methods.
