Cooking and cooking and cooking this week. Recipes and ingredients earlier and then finished dishes from Wednesday on. There are lots more class links this week and the Collegium schedule is up. …and other links, too. This has been a week for research!
All meetings are on hold for the moment, although Project Day and the Monthly Potluck are being held in the Virtual Realm. We’re also doing mini-potlucks, just Anja & Loren and one other “pod” at a time. Let us know if you’re interested!
- Herb Bunch – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 11am-1pm
- Sewing Time – At Ancient Light, Saturdays, 3-5pm
- Project Day – At Ancient Light, Sundays, Noon to 6pm
- Cheese and Wine happens irregularly, usually announced with little notice on our Facebook group.
- Next Virtual Potluck – 10/18
- Next Winter Feast tentative Date is 2/15/21, Probably not being held….
Here is the direct Portfolio link which has all the past Project Day reports and various projects, original here: https://housecapuchin.wordpress.com/portfolio/ and new one here: https://housecapuchin2.wordpress.com/portfolio/ and number three is here: https://housecapuchin3.wordpress.com/portfolio/
Misc – Everyone ought to know how to dance a pavane. It’s actually a really simple dance.
https://etnmarchand.wordpress.com/2020/06/04/how-to-dance-the-pavane/?
Educational Events
The Collegium Schedule is up! – https://collegium.antir.org/collegium-v-schedule/
A Master List for finding classes, webinars and other things – https://moas.eastkingdom.org/list-of-online-webinars/?fbclid=IwAR20OE8b6vvYKvmwrqwpule27szarZ7EPV-8R72F1eV2CxcdmOXQhZf9ayk
Dance Vids – Jenny Pluck Pears Step by Step Dance Tutorial | 17th Century English Country Dancing
Classes –
Interview with a Raven | The Tower of London
Rebuilding Your Local Group
Online Class: Guide for Newcomers to Retinue with Dame Gorandookht Mamigonian
Medieval Mayhem – How to make a Hedeby Bag (Viking DIY)
Early Week – The report got done earlier than usual, so the monthly pointer post started being put together and was published on Monday.
Cookery – Early in the week Anja was working on recipes. On Wednesday she and Loren did a trial run on carrot pudding, which turned out to be a very soupy batter, but tender and tasty once baked.
On Thursday they did the pork pasties and had them with some of the pickled onions and cukes from the last two weeks. Those were good, but the pie dough that we used had an odd, bitter, oily flavor that Anja didn’t care for. It’s a generic that we won’t buy again. The pickled onion was delicious, but the cukes were already getting soft. Still very tasty!
Friday was the mortar chickens. These were pretty easy, but the batter was a little disappointing since it tended to slide off. Again, quite tasty, and we had them with more of the pickles, barley and oat girdle cakes and finished up with Apple Muse. …and when I posted it in one of the culinary groups? <sigh> I was supposed to pound the chicken in a mortar, not stick it together! <head smack> Although several people posted that I was pretty brave to show how stupid I can be in public. <urple>
Saturday was some additions to the apple muse and then serving it with fresh raspberries. Later we worked on the precedella. The first batch was really yum, just a hint of anise. The 2nd batch got left too long when we got distracted. <sigh>
On Sunday first up was the hard-boiled eggs for the “spoon dish of egg”, then Loren made bread, then Anja got some chicken cooked for a 2nd run at the mortar chickens. The egg ribbons were more like egg rice…. but good. Last thing of the night, we pulled out one of the cherry melomels and had that. One is going flat in the fridge, but the other we drank warm. Not quite enough cherry for me, but tasty!
Photos are all below under Potluck and Recipes…..
Historical Italian Cooking – Emperor’s Fritters – Medieval Recipe
Today we prepare medieval sweet fritters, called by the author frittelle da imperadore magnifici, magnificent fritters for an emperor.
Ingredients:
white wheat flour
eggs
cheese
lard
sugar
pine nuts
Tasting History – Scappi’s Renaissance Torte
Fogones en la Historia – Harina, agua, sal y una sartén – Receta del Siglo XVI de pan Batbût, una delicia mozárabe. (Stoves in History – Flour, water, salt and a frying pan – 16th century recipe for Batbût bread, a Mozarabic delicacy.)
Online Class: Food History Resources With Maestro Eduardo Francesco Maria Lucrezia
Preservation 101: Pickling
Sewing, etc – Still working on the table runner edging.
Introduction to Viking Wire Weaving
Sundials, etc. – Fascinating Animation! – 14th Century Bridge construction – https://www.facebook.com/groups/merryrose/permalink/10157385529975918/
Herb Bunch – Mid-week we got seeds for alexanders, nettles and shallot starts. Small, inner cloves of garlic have been being collected up and planted for a month. The leeks that we got a couple of weeks back had their root ends re-planted. Ditto, spring onions. Watering and tending had to happen, too. …and a batch of garlic bulbs got processed for roasted garlic, for sauce and butter. Fall garlic, gah…. mold, rotten cloves, urgh….It peels easily, but ook… On Sunday shallots went in around the parsley.
Project Day – Most of the day went just into cookery. Anja was monitoring the Virtual Project Day links, but no one else showed. Loren got some bread made. After we got all the photos together, Anja started in on processing and adding links to this report.
Potluck – Our Virtual Potluck has been going on all week, which gives us room to do a lot more experiments. The mortar chicken is a good example. That got worked on from Wednesday through Sunday.
Potluck Menu
Beverages
Strawberry tea
Mead
Becherovka
Nibbles
pickles (onion, cucumber, squash, mushroom)
olives (black or green)
cheese
fig spread
bread
butter
roasted garlic butter
soup/pottage – Beef/pork/veg
Mains
Carrot pudding (Wed.)
Pasteís de Galinha (pork pasties) (Thurs)
Von mörser hüner die mach (chicken nuggets) (Fri)
Girdle cakes (fri)
Aber ein gemüß mach also – Spoon dish of eggs (Sun)
Roasted garlic sauce (Sun)
Sweets
Apple Muse (Friday and Saturday)
Precedella (Saturday)
comfits
The Apple Muse in two incarnations
Recipes
Carrot Pudding, 17th Century, England (adapted from queensmeal.blogspot.com) Divided by 4
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 cup frozen carrots.
- 2 eggs
- ¼ stick butter
- 1 TBSP white wine
- 1/4 cup? 1/2 cup? milk
- 1 TBSP sugar
- Grated nutmeg
Method
- Thaw carrots.
- Put breadcrumbs in food processor. Add carrots (drained, if necessary).
- Process until both are “crumbs”.
- Add eggs and process.
- Melt butter, add and process.
- Add milk and sugar and process.
- Put into a casserole dish that can be covered and bake at 350 until it reads over 165 in the center and is no longer liquid. (1 hour for the 4x.)
Take a twopenny lofe grated; and the same quantity of raw caret grated very small; mix them together; and put to it the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of 3 beat them well and put them in, then stir in a quarter of a pounde of butter being melted, and a little sack; and grated nutmeg; put in milk enough to make it of a good thickness, about a pinte I believe will be enough; sweeten it pretty sweet to yr tast, mingle all well together; and bake it in a dish, half an hour will do it; when you draw it, poure a little melted butter with Sack in it; one ye top of it. – Bibliography: Wood, Jacqui – Rebecca Price, The Compleat Cook, 1681
Pasteís de Galinha, Anja’s version (makes 8)
- 1 pound ground pork
- Bacon (didn’t have)
- scant sprinkle cloves
- 1 unit saffron
- sprinkle pepper (horseradish)
- sprinkle ginger
- sprinkle dried coriander
- ¼ cup broth
- ¼ cup Butter/bacon fat (use bacon fat since I had no bacon)
- 1 egg yolk (see optional for egg white)
- Two commercial roll-out pie dough
Method
- Chop or grind the bacon.
- Sauté the pork in butter with the bacon until it’s not clumping.
- Optional – to not waste the egg white, whip it into the broth before adding to the meat.
- Turn head down. Add spices and broth and let simmer until the meat is cooked through and then turn off and let stand 15 minutes.
- Drain and let stand until cool enough to handle.
- Optional – Reserve juices for soup.
- Take 1 pie crust and cut it into ¼’s.
- Add meat to each section and fold dough over.
- Pinch closed and set on baking parchment.
- Mess up the egg yolk and brush the pastries with it. Any left over can be added to the drained juices.
- Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes until crust is browned well, but not burning.
- Serve hot or cold. If serving cold, refrigerate immediately.
Tomem carneiro, alcatra, ou lombo de porco fresco, e uma fatia de toucinho de fumeiro, para dar gosto. Piquem tudo muito bem. Com cravo, açafrão, pimenta, gengibre, coentro seco, caldo de limão ou de agraço, e uma colher de manteiga faz-se o refogado, ao qual se deitam a carne e o toucinho picados. Cozinha-se em fogo brando. Depois de pronto deixa-se esfriar e fazem-se os pastéis, bem recheados; pincele-os com gema de ovo e leve-os a assar em forno quente. Do mesmo modo se fazem os pastéis de galinha. Os pastéis ficarão mais gostosos, se recheados com carne crua. – Um Tratado da Cozinha Portuguesa do Século XV in http://objdigital.bn.br/Acervo_Digital/livros_eletronicos/cozinhaportuguesa.pdf
Take lamb, rump, or fresh pork loin, and a slice of smoked bacon, for taste. Chop everything very well. With the cloves, saffron, pepper, ginger, dried coriander, lemon or sauce broth, and a spoon of butter, sauté the minced meat and bacon. Cook over low heat. Once ready, let it cool and make the pastries, well filled; brush with egg yolk and bake in a hot oven. In the same way, chicken pasties are made. The pastries will be more delicious, if filled with raw meat.
Mortar Chickens
- 1 Egg
- Small pinch Saffron
- 1/4 tsp Horseradish or pepper
- ¼ Aniseed
- 1 chicken breast
- Fat or oil (used bacon fat)
Method
- Cut the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces.
- Muddle the egg.
- Sprinkle ground saffron onto egg and let sit for a few minutes for the saffron to “color”.
- Mix egg and spices.
- Heat oil/grease. You need at least ½ an inch, up to an inch, for this to fry well, so use a small pan.
- Dredge chicken in batter and drop into hot fat.
- Fry until done (check inside temp with thermometer…. 165F-180)
- Leftover batter and grease can be added to girdle cakes.
Recipe #62 Von mörser hüner die mach also – Of mortar chickens, make them thus
Take a roasted chicken, dismember it small and take the sheer meat of it. And take a thin batter of eggs and of pepper, anise, pepper and saffron and pound it all together in a mortar. Fry it in a little fat, those are mortar chickens.
Precedella – (adapted from Tasting
history https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA98IonYvb4 )
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup wine
- 12/ tsp anise
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ tsp salt
Method
- Mix flour, salt, anise together
- Mix eggs and sugar together
- Mix wine in.
- Mix in dry in three parts, lightly.
- Divide into 8 parts (12 parts for dessert serving)
- Roll into ropes, adding flour if necessary, then twist into pretzel shape.
- Brush with egg wash.
- Put on silpat and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until cookies are browned and crisp.
A Spoon dish of Egg
- 16 eggs
- 1 tsp Flour + 1 tsp Flour
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt
- Pinch saffron
Method
- Hardboil eggs, let cool, then separate yolks and whites.
- Use a food processor to chop the whites very small.
- Add salt, sugar and flour to whites and process until you have a mush. You can add a tiny bit of milk or broth (1/4 tsp at a time) if it doesn’t mush.
- Load a potato ricer with the mush. Butter a plate (optional) and then use the ricer to make the “worms”, going back and forth across the plate until it’s all used up.
- Wash your ricer out.
- Repeat to make the yolk mush, and then reload the ricer and make the worms again going crossways to the whites’ mush.
- If you find this too bland, this can be served with gravy or mustard on the side.
Recipe #31 – Aber ein gemüß mach also – Another spoon dish make thus
Item (take) 32 eggs, boil them so they become hard. Take the whites of them, chop them small, grind white flour into it and pass it through a cloth. (Add) sugar and a little salt. You shall pound the yolks separately and add a little flour to it, and add a little saffron and sugar and pass it through a cloth.
For each mush you must have a cup-shaped bowl (becher schal) that has several holes. Put the white into one bowl. Put the yolks into another separately. You must have a lid for each bowl with which you can push it through (the holes). And you should push it so that the little worms become as long as the serving bowl. Draw it away from yourself a little, and the other one towards you, and end with (that) pull. And take a bowl and draw it across even more strongly, back and forth lengthwise. But take the white and after the white, the yolk, as long as you have of that.
Making the roast garlic sauce
The garlic was roasted earlier. It was spun in a food processor with 2 TBSP of butter. 1/2 cup of water went into the fry pan and then the butter/garlic mixed was melted into it and cooked. 1 TBSP of flour was added to thicken and stirred until it thickened.
Laurence O’Coileain of the Middle Ages – from Facebook, used with permission.
Death of a Hiberno-Norse. A early 11th century Irishman who was raised by Norse was slain in battle during the Norman Conquest. His father was an Irishman who was enslaved as a thrall as a young boy. This young thrall protected his masters horse and belongings from Welsh during a raid. He was manumitted and thus released from slavery to be a freeman. He still owed allegiance and had to vote like his ex capture but he was able to own land and make a living and raid accordingly. It was on one of these raids that he was a part of that he took a woman to be his partner. She was a Norman of the Frankish territory given to Rolo. She however was Christian as he was still pagan. They made it work and had many children over the years.
This brings us to THL Laurence O’Coileain. He was the mating of a pagan and Christian. His mother’s patron saint was Laurence of Rome. Thus our man got his name from a Christian saint. He himself went plundering and found himself at a pivotal time in Britannia. He was a Norse man for all accounts living in Yorvik.
He however was a tradesman that made leather products in the town of Yorvik. He took a wife from Normandy as well. Like father like son. He built a nice life for him and his family.
Hand sewn tunic of wool with silk embroidery. Wool trousers with leg wraps and over wraps. Leather boots. Several woven belts from loved ones. Tarsoly pouch from the Magyar people of the Carpathian basin and seaux in a leather belt with fittings from Magyar people.
Amber necklace from the Baltic region.
Food for the journey and game of Hnefatafl.
His shield, sword, chainmaille and helm with his ax he broke in his final battle.
His tools of the leather trade that he made a living doing.
His hobby of sorts that he picked up when he was traveling. Illumination pigments and brushes made of feathers and hair.
Finally his personal banner. All laid upon the furs of hunts and trading.
He was a good man. His dog was buried with him to keep him company. Lastly he was known for his wolves that he wore as a cloak upon his back lay at his feet to keep the chill of the midnight breeze off him.
Miscellaneous pix – Some funny beasties!
More kid pix
Music – Ensemble: Clemencic Consort, Codex Buranus
Kings & Beggars – Tempus Est Iocundum (Totus Floreo)
Chinggis khaanii Magtaal – Batzorig Vaanchig
Links
Amazing pictures – Why did Paul Doll disappear into the mountains 50 years ago — taking his collection with him? – https://www.christies.com/features/Paul-W-Doll-collection-11026-1.aspx
History of Mead – https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/03/history-of-mead/126299
Lost Languages Discovered in One of the World’s Oldest Continuously Run Libraries – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-lost-languages-found-manuscripts-egyptian-monastery-180964698/?fbclid=IwAR3B5j5VnmutTjUdpX4F2CXn-cAQV2Ha8WhakcWIEDI1WbVwBAW5lthZAU8#.X4DJtVDEvAk.facebook
Chromium steel was first made a thousand years ago, researchers find – https://www.medievalists.net/2020/10/chromium-steel/
Murders in Medieval London – https://www.medievalists.net/2020/10/murders-medieval-london/
When Catherine of Aragon Led England’s Armies to Victory Over Scotland – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-catherine-aragon-led-englands-armies-victory-over-scotland-180975982/
Recreating the Skjoldehamn textile finds – https://ava-s-corner.com/2020/10/16/recreating-the-skjoldehamn-textile-finds/
Video Links
From Shetland to Faroe Islands – Draken Harald Hårfagre
Between Two Peers Episode 25- Giles and Giuseppe – (episode starts about 1 minute in)
How Harold Godwinson Became King (Anglo Saxon King)
Why did Harold Godwinson rush to Hastings (Anglo Saxon King)
A basic Historical Sewing Kit
Funnies
Largesse Item Count – (includes gifts, prizes, auction items, etc.)
- ASXLVII = 24
- ASXLVIII = 88
- ASXLIX = 794
- ASL = 2138
- ASLI = 731
- ASLII = 304
- ASLIII – 146
- ASLIV – 224 plus 4 puppets, 3 hippocras mix, 4 powder fort, 8 cheese spice and 9 powder douce packets, 1 kiss-lock pouch, 9 tiny bobs, 7 pincushions, 3 pins, 3 snip case w/snips, lucet cords, 25 pouches for block-printing, 1 medium pouch, 4 small pouches, 12 bookmarkers, 14 unfinished pincushions, 1 sewing kit (except for bone needle), varnished stuff (124), 2 emery strawberries,1 woolen spool-knit cord
Total as a Household = 4055 handed off
In ministerio autem Somnium! Anja, graeca doctrina servus to House Capuchin
Page Created 10/12/20 & published 10/19/20 (C)M. Bartlett
Last updated 10/19/20
House Capuchin 3 
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