It has started to become a tradition that I take over the household kitchen and serve a traditional style feast.
But of course I was too busy cooking and serving to take pictures other than these!
This year the focus was less on following period recipes to the letter, and more about using period seasonal foods, tweaking previous recipes, and trying my hand at over the fire cooking. Because more of it was cooked on site, it was simplified from the
previous year.
The Menu
First Remove-
Fresh fruit- apricots, raspberries, dates.
Bread rolls- brown wheat bread and white rye
Garlic and herb butter
White wine
Second Remove-
A savoury vegetable egg tarte
Third Remove-
Blancmange
Fourth Remove-
A Beef Roast with a Root Vegetable Stew
Red wine
Fifth Remove-
Cheese platter with crackers
Sixth Remove-
Cherry Rose Ricotta Torte
Digestive
The Recipes
First Remove was purchased except for the butter.
The fruits are seasonal except for the dates, and all would be accessible in period.
Bread was a staple, and while white bread would have been considered more appropriate for a high table, I choose whole grain breads that better align with my diet.
The cheeses where also purchased, Smoked Gouda, Brie, and a goat cheese were chosen and served with store bought whole grain crackers. Both Brie and Gouda have history dating back to the middle ages, and soft fresh cheeses would have been common.
Garlic and Herb butter- while herbs butters are period, this is a personal recipe frequently used at home and I cannot vouch for it's historical accuracy.
Take 1/2 stick butter, melted or very soft, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning or Herbs de Provence. Let chill in the fridge for an hour and remix it so the Herbs are evenly distributed.
A Savoury Vegetable Egg Tarte- this is modified from a period
spinach tarte recipe. I substituted a variety of other leafy vegetables that would be easily available this time of year in period due to a spinach allergy, and used more eggs to fill my crusts.
Preheat oven to 350°. Chop leeks, dill, fennel, green onions, garlic and chard. Mix together and place in a deep dish pie crust. Scramble 10 extra large eggs, mix in 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, and slowly pour evenly over the vegetables in the pie crust. Tap the pie pan a few times to make sure the egg mixture settles. The cheese will remain on top.
Cook in the oven with a flat sheet under the pie pan until the center of the tarte is no wiggles and the edges are starting to brown. About 45 min to an hour. This was made ahead, refrigerated, and served cool.
Blancmange- This recipe I've made fairly frequently. I tend to add more ginger in addition to nutmeg, allspice, and sliced almonds to this recipe. I've had the best success with arborio rice.
My version
2.5 lbs chicken breast meat, cut into 1/2 cubes, toss in a 5 quart sauce pan with some olive oil and saute on low until no pink is visible. Add 4 cups water, 4 cups arborio rice, and enough unsweetened plain almond milk to cover the rice by an inch. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup sliced almonds, then ginger, nutmeg and allspice to taste. Simmer on the lowest setting, adding more almond milk as needed, (About 4 cups total) I cooked this until it was thick and the rice was almost done. When cooled, I froze it until the day of feast. It was then thawed, placed it in my 5 quart cast iron pot with 1 cup fresh almond milk and allowed to heat up and finish cooking on the highest hook over my fire, stirring frequently (whenever I turned my meat or spit). It was served hot.
A Beef Roast with Root Vegetable Stew- This was a combination of two different roast recipes. Found
here and
here.
My version-
Take 3 large sirloin roasts, in a 10 quart cast iron pot, marinate them in 4 cups red spiced wine (Cabernet, ginger, cloves, allspice, sanders, grains of paradise). Tie the roasts together to form one large roast, return to marinade, add 2 cups water and a teaspoon of beef broth powder. Place the cast iron in medium heat hook over the fire. Let the roast simmer for an hour turning every 15 minutes for even cooking.
Meanwhile chop parsnips, carrots, and turnips.
Take the roast out of the marinade (set aside for the stew) and mount it on the spit. Position the spit so it's just above the flames. And do a quarter rotation every 5 min, for about an hour and a half. Once cooked let rest 10-15 minutes covered, remove the strings, and slice to serve.
Once the roast is mounted, Take the chopped vegetables and 1 cup dried currants, throw them into the marinade, I probably added another cup of wine to make sure they were covered. I then let them simmer in a medium heat zone until the roast was done. Move to low heat, and while the roast is cooling, thicken the stew. I chose to thicken by melting a 1/2 stick of butter in the stew, and stirring in a 1/2 cup flour. *
*The period method would have been to strain it with bread crumbs, but I've never had luck with that.
Served hot
Cherry Rose Ricotta Torte- I followed
this recipe, except instead of Rose petals and rose water I used Rose syrup directly into the filling and I left it open faced as is common with custard based pies. I made ahead, and served cool.
