Medieval Cooking, part 2
No, Gentle Reader, you didn't miss part 1. That, the longer and more involved part will come later when I'm less tired.
Yesterday ladysprite allowed me to append Cooks' Guild onto her apple picking party and hosted the meeting at her house. Generally I don't get cook at meetings, since I'm managing traffic and answering questions in my kitchen, so it was a real treat when jducoeur decided to make apple fritters and I got swept up in the process.
We ended up doing the cooking that makes me crazy when other people do it at meetings, since I try to keep records -- some of this and enough of that. It was so much fun. Since we didn't write anything down, here's what I remember while it's relatively fresh.
From The English Huswife
To make the best Fritters, take a pint of Cream and warm it; then take eight Eggs, only abate four of the Whites, and beat them well in a dish, and so mix them with the Cream; then put in a little Cloves, Mace, Nutmeg and Saffron, and stir them well together: then put in two spoonfuls of the best Ale barm, and a little Salt, and stir it again, then make it thick according unto your pleasure with Wheat flower; which done, set it within the air of the fire, that it may rise and swell; which when it doth, you shall beat it in once or twice, then put it into a penny pot of Sack: All this being done, you shall take a pound or two of very sweet seam, and put it into a pan, and set it over the fire, and when it is moulten, and begins to bubble, you shall take the Fritters-batter, and setting it by you, put thick slices of well pared Apples into the Batter, and then taking the Apples and Batter out together with a spoon, put it into the boyling seam, and boyl your Fritters crisp and brown: And when you find the strength of your seam consume or decay, you shall renew it with more seam: and of all sorts of seam, that which is made of the Beef-suet is the best and strongest: when your Fritters are made, strow good store of Sugar and Cinnamon upon them, being fair disht, and serve them up.
We took about half a pint of cream, didn't warm it, and added 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks and beat it all together. Mixed in about 1/16 of a teaspoon of cloves and 3 shakes of nutmeg, no mace, and a few threads of saffron. Went out to the market for yeast and frying fat.
Back into the kitchen, added the yeast [EDIT: one packet active dry yeast] and a large pinch of salt, then stirred in enough flour to make it about pancake batter thick and left the bowl on the stove (quite warm from the apples baking in the oven beneath) for about 20-25 minutes.
Not knowing how much a penny pot holds, we added enough sherry to thin, but not too much. Maybe 3 tablespoons, probably not as much as a quarter cup. Then two apples were peeled and cut into thickish wedges. Thinner than you'd get with an apple wedger, thicker than the peeler-corer-slicer gizmo.
Although the butcher at the Whole Foods understood suet (your average supermarket worker usually has no clue), he had none, so we picked up some vegetable shortening as a substitute for "very sweet seam". We used about half the tub, but I don't remember how much it held.
The batter clung very well to the apple slices and puffed up quite nicely. I experimented a little with letting it drain until just lightly coated, but that tended to bare the fruit in patches once it went into the fat.
jducoeur has a fine hand with frying. All the fritters came out beautifully golden. That's a lot easier to do when you're cooking half a dozen at a time which get eaten immediately (or once they're cool enough to pick up) -- see part one for feast fritter madness. The fritters turned out crispy and tasty, best when the apple was on the slightly thinner side so it was hot and melting all the way through. And sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.
Two apples only used about half the batter. Fine pancakes could probably be made with the rest, but I had to run. Next time I think I might up the spicing a touch. The batter was pretty mild, although perfectly pleasant. Good dish for a dinner party or a feast with a continuously replenished sideboard. Too labor intensive for a traditional sit down feast.
Yesterday ladysprite allowed me to append Cooks' Guild onto her apple picking party and hosted the meeting at her house. Generally I don't get cook at meetings, since I'm managing traffic and answering questions in my kitchen, so it was a real treat when jducoeur decided to make apple fritters and I got swept up in the process.
We ended up doing the cooking that makes me crazy when other people do it at meetings, since I try to keep records -- some of this and enough of that. It was so much fun. Since we didn't write anything down, here's what I remember while it's relatively fresh.
From The English Huswife
To make the best Fritters, take a pint of Cream and warm it; then take eight Eggs, only abate four of the Whites, and beat them well in a dish, and so mix them with the Cream; then put in a little Cloves, Mace, Nutmeg and Saffron, and stir them well together: then put in two spoonfuls of the best Ale barm, and a little Salt, and stir it again, then make it thick according unto your pleasure with Wheat flower; which done, set it within the air of the fire, that it may rise and swell; which when it doth, you shall beat it in once or twice, then put it into a penny pot of Sack: All this being done, you shall take a pound or two of very sweet seam, and put it into a pan, and set it over the fire, and when it is moulten, and begins to bubble, you shall take the Fritters-batter, and setting it by you, put thick slices of well pared Apples into the Batter, and then taking the Apples and Batter out together with a spoon, put it into the boyling seam, and boyl your Fritters crisp and brown: And when you find the strength of your seam consume or decay, you shall renew it with more seam: and of all sorts of seam, that which is made of the Beef-suet is the best and strongest: when your Fritters are made, strow good store of Sugar and Cinnamon upon them, being fair disht, and serve them up.
We took about half a pint of cream, didn't warm it, and added 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks and beat it all together. Mixed in about 1/16 of a teaspoon of cloves and 3 shakes of nutmeg, no mace, and a few threads of saffron. Went out to the market for yeast and frying fat.
Back into the kitchen, added the yeast [EDIT: one packet active dry yeast] and a large pinch of salt, then stirred in enough flour to make it about pancake batter thick and left the bowl on the stove (quite warm from the apples baking in the oven beneath) for about 20-25 minutes.
Not knowing how much a penny pot holds, we added enough sherry to thin, but not too much. Maybe 3 tablespoons, probably not as much as a quarter cup. Then two apples were peeled and cut into thickish wedges. Thinner than you'd get with an apple wedger, thicker than the peeler-corer-slicer gizmo.
Although the butcher at the Whole Foods understood suet (your average supermarket worker usually has no clue), he had none, so we picked up some vegetable shortening as a substitute for "very sweet seam". We used about half the tub, but I don't remember how much it held.
The batter clung very well to the apple slices and puffed up quite nicely. I experimented a little with letting it drain until just lightly coated, but that tended to bare the fruit in patches once it went into the fat.
jducoeur has a fine hand with frying. All the fritters came out beautifully golden. That's a lot easier to do when you're cooking half a dozen at a time which get eaten immediately (or once they're cool enough to pick up) -- see part one for feast fritter madness. The fritters turned out crispy and tasty, best when the apple was on the slightly thinner side so it was hot and melting all the way through. And sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.
Two apples only used about half the batter. Fine pancakes could probably be made with the rest, but I had to run. Next time I think I might up the spicing a touch. The batter was pretty mild, although perfectly pleasant. Good dish for a dinner party or a feast with a continuously replenished sideboard. Too labor intensive for a traditional sit down feast.