A day late and a dollar short. Why did I think today was the 13th?
October 13th marks the feast day and translation in 1163 of Saxon king Edward The Confessor (1003-1066) by the catholic church. Saint holidays don't generally fit the profile of forgotten feasts, especially if the saint in question is royalty. For European royalty preferential treatment (sainthood, "Get out of Hell Free" cards) at the time was kind of a gimme, the religious equivalent of having an overpass named after you. Still, Edward the Confessor historically doesn't get a lot of respect (His dad was Æthælred the Unready who gets even less).
He's been considered an inert, putting it nicely, leader by some historians and his reputation wasn't helped by white washed hagiography he received well after his death. Married with a vow of celibacy?... Um... Sure. He died without children so there there was a war over the throne ending at the battle of Hastings Oct. 14, 1066. Normans 1 - Saxons 0. He was buried, then dug up almost 100 years later and re-buried (that's where the "translation" part comes in) in Westminster Abbey, which he helped to rebuild.
So what's the big deal about Oct 13th? As the eve of the Battle of Hastings, it was unofficially commemorated as the end of Saxon England.
A word about British eating in the 11th century before we get to any actual cooking. Saxons generally ate 1 large meal, dinner, every day. The chief would sit on a raised platform at one end of the hall with trestle tables set up along the sides. If you've been unfortunate enough to sit through the movie Beowulf, this is the historically accurate portion of the art direction.Dishes included: hearth baked bread out of stone ground flour, drinks made out of honey and herbs, herbed roasted mutton, pressed and smoke-dried beef (somewhere between jerky and bresaola), cress salads with dried fruit, wild strawberries, crayfish, pork chops and applesauce, honey, butter, cheese, puddings and, of course, ale. On a side note: sugar was expensive and used medicinally.What they were fond of were spices: aniseed, buckwheat, cardomom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cubebs, cumin seed, galingale, ginger, gromic and pepper.
These recipes courtesy The British Museum Cookbook by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson ©1987, Bristish Museum Publications
A Jellie of Fyshe
Serves 6
Ms. Berriedale-Johnson explains that elaborate and highly decorative
jellies were "the delight of the artistic medieval cook, often enhanced
with edible gold and silver."
225 g (8 oz) hake, cod, haddock, or other well-flavored white fish
3 scallops
75 g (3 oz) prawns (shrimp)
2 onions, roughly sliced
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
25g (1 oz) ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
1/3 teaspoon sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
450mL (15 fl oz, 2 cups) each white wine and water
20g (3/4 oz) gelatine
Put the white fish in a pan with the onions, vinegar, ginger root,
spices, wine and water. Bring it gently to the boil and simmer for 10
minutes. Add the scallops and prawns and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Remove the fish; bone and skin the white fish and set it all aside.
Strain the cooking juices and set aside to cool for several hours by
which time a lot of the sediment will have settled in the bottom of the
bowl. Carefully pour off the juices, leaving the sediment, and then
strain several times through a clean teacloth. You should have
appoximately 750mL (25 fl oz, 3 cups) of liquid left. Melt 20g (3/4 oz)
of gelatine in a little of the liquid, cool it to room temperature, then
mix it into the rest of the juices.
Pour a thin layer 1 cm (1/2 inch) of the juice into the bottom of a 1.2
liter (2 pint, 5 cup) souffle dish or fish mold and put it in the fridge
to set. Flake the white fish into smallish flakes; remove the coral from
the scallops and cut the white flesh into three of four pices. Once the
jelly is firm, arrange the most decorative of the fish in the bottom of
the dish-- some scallop coral in the middle, prawns around the outsides,
flakes of white fish in between or however you feel inspired. Spoon a
little more of the juice and return it to the fridge to set. Continue to
layer the fish in the mould, setting each layer with a covering of juice
until you have used up all the fish and juices. Leave the jelly to set
for at least 4 hours in a fridge. Unmold and decorate with fresh herbs; serve as a starter.
Griddled Trout With Herbs
Serves 6
The herbs below are what might have been used in Anglo-Saxon East
Anglia, but use whatever you might fancy. Try to use fresh, although
dried is acceptable.
6 fresh cleaned trout
6 sprigs fresh rosemary, or 1-2 tablespoons dried
75g (3 oz) soft butter
18 fresh mint leaves or 2 teaspoons dried
leaves from 6 sprigs fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried
6 fresh sage leaves or 1 scant teaspoon dried
1-2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
6-9 grinds black pepper
Put one sprig or generous shake of rosemary down the middle of each
fish. Chop all the other herbs and seasonings and mash them into the
soft butter. Use this to coat the fish generously on each side. Griddle,
barbeque or grill it for 4-5 minutes on each side or till the skin is
well browned and the flesh flaking off the bone. Baste now and then with
the butter which runs off. Serve at once with lot of fresh bread and a
salad or a simple green vegetable. 'Fenkel in Soppes' or Braised Fennel with Ginger Serves 6 The original version of this recipe comes from the "Forme of Cury," a collection of 196 "receipts" copied by Richard II's scribes at his cooks' directions. 750g (1 1/2 lb) trimmed, fresh fennel root; cleaned and cut in matchsticks 225g (8 oz) onions, thickly sliced 1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger 1 level teapsoon of powdered saffron 1/2 teaspoon of salt 2 tablespoon olive oil 150mL (5 fl oz, 2/3 cup) each dry white wine and water 6 thick slices of coarse wholewheat or wholemeal bread (optional) Put the fennel in a wide, lidded pan with the onions. Sprinkle over the spices and salt, then the oil and finally pour over the liquids. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes or till the fennel is cooked without being mushy. Stir once or twice during the cooking to make sure the spices get well distributed. Serve it alone with a roast meat or griddled fish or place one slice of bread on each warmed plate, cover it with the fennel and pour over the juices. Crustade of Chicken and Pigeon
Serves 6
225-350g (8-12oz) wholemeal or wholewheat pastry (depending on whether you want a lid on your crustade) 1 pigeon 2 chicken joints (2 breasts or 2 whole legs) 150mL (f fl oz, 2/3 cup) dry white wine several grinds of black pepper 4 cloves 15 g (1/2 oz) butter 50g (2oz) mushrooms, roughly chopped 25g (1oz) raisins 3 large eggs salt, pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger Roll out 225g (8 oz) of the pastry and line a 20cm (8 inch) flan dish; back the crust blind. Put the pigeon in a pot with the stock, wine, pepper and cloves and cook very slowly for an hour. Add the chicken and continue to cook for a further 45 minutes or till the meat of both birds is really tender. Meanwhile cook the mushrooms lightly in the butter. Remove the birds from the stock and bone them. Cut the flesh into quite small pieces, mix it with the mushrooms and the raisins and spread them over the base of the flan case. Beat the eggs with a fork and season with the salt, pepper, and ginger. Add 240mL (8floz, 1 cup) of the cooking juices and pour over the meat in the flan case. If you want to have a lid, roll out the rest of the pastry and cover the flan. Bake it in moderate oven (180C, 350F, Gas Mark4) for 25 minutes if uncovered, 35 minutes if covered.
This would be the part where I insert a recipe for some massive roasted beastie, but you'll be so worn out with the rest of the cooking that I'd just get some thickly sliced Bresaola, served on a little Salad Oxogarita. You won't feel cheated.
Salad Oxogarita
cos lettuce
chickory or endive
basil
cucumber
squill vinegar
garum (fish sauce)
Shred and mix lettuce, chickory and basil. Bathe cucumber in squill vinegar, then slice and
add to the salad. Lightly splash the salad in 2:1 mixture of vinegar and garum (well mixed).
Lozenges or Curd Cheese Pastries
Serves 6
225g (8oz) wholemeal or wholewheat shortcrust pastry
225g (8 oz) curd cheese
25g (1oz) very finely chopped stem or crystallized ginger or plump raisins
15g (1/2 oz) toasted and chopped pine nuts
sugar to taste
lemon juice to taste
Roll the pastry out very thin and cut it into small rectangles--
approximately 15x8 cm (6x3 inches). You should have at least 24. Bake
them in a moderately hot oven (190C, 375F, Gas Mark 5) for ten minutes
or till they are crisp and brown. Remove them and cool on a rack.
Meanwhile mix the curd cheese with the ginger or raisins, the pine nutes
and the sugar and lemon to taste. Set aside. When you are ready to
serve, sandwich together two pieces of pastry with the cheese mixture.
They can be used as a dessert or as a snack.
Summer Fruit, Honey and Hazelnut Crumble
Before the Norman Conquest far larger areas of the country were covered with lightly
forested scrubland than today – a wonderful home for brambles and berry-bearing bushes –
so, in the summer months, wild soft fruits would have been thyere for the picking. A baked
dessert like this would have been sunk in the embers of the
log fire with a cauldron or pot upturned over it to form a lid.
Serves six
------------------------------------------
1kg/2½lb mixed soft summer fruits (raspberries, loganberries, strawberries, currants,
bilberries or similar)
Honey or brown sugar (to taste)
75g/3oz toasted hazelnuts
75g/3oz wholemeal or whole wheat brown breadcrumbs
Put the fruits in a pan or microwave dish with about 20cm/1" water in the bottom and cook
gently for 10-15 minutes (4-6 minutes in microwave on high) or till the fruits are soft without
being totally mushy. Sweeten to taste with honey or brown sugar (Anglo-Saxons would have
used honey); how much you need will depend on
the fruits you used. Drain off excess juice and save to serve with the pudding. Chop the
hazelnuts in a
processor or liquidiser until they are almost as fine as the breadcrumbs but not quite, then mix
the two
together. Spoon the fruit into an ovenproof dish and cover with a thick layer of the hazelnuts
and crumbs. Bake in a moderate oven (180C/350F/Gas mark 4) for 20-30 minutes or till the
top is slightly crunchy and browned. Serve with lots of cream or plain yogurt and the warmed fruit juices.
Herbal drink
Herbal drinks can be made with many different plants. The drink is prepared by putting the
leaf or flower in boiling water and letting it cook for a few minutes
Good drinks can be gotten from the young leaves of
Stinging nettles
Mint
Hawthorn
Raspberries
Strawberries
... and the flowers of:
Elder
Linden
Yarrow
Chamomile
