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I attended a "May Day" fair and feast at my local medieval restaurant (yes, I am lucky enough to have one in my vicinity) last weekend. Here are a few of the standout dishes (the most delicous ones, in my opinion):
* A FRITOR of HERBES (fried herb fritter, vegetarian but rich and decadent)
* A TART IN YMBRE DAY ("Tart for an Ember Day"--a vegetarian onion and current pie, thus appropriate for medieval fast days)
* ROSTE LAMB IN FRESEYES (perfectly cooked lamb in a subtle strawberry sauce that would work well on a number of meat dishes)
* APULMOS (apple sauce with almond milk--surprisingly not vegetarian, as the recipe includes beef broth, but damn tasty)
* CHECONES IN CRITONE (chicken thighs in a sublime almond and pine nut sauce--this one could work for veggie dishes as well)
* PYMENTE (herb-honey wine, heavily spiced and much more interesting than your average mead)
I have recipes for all of these, from a cookbook the restaurant sells (all recipes are from 14th- and 15th-century England), so if anyone is interested in any particular recipe, just let me know and I will post it.
* A FRITOR of HERBES (fried herb fritter, vegetarian but rich and decadent)
* A TART IN YMBRE DAY ("Tart for an Ember Day"--a vegetarian onion and current pie, thus appropriate for medieval fast days)
* ROSTE LAMB IN FRESEYES (perfectly cooked lamb in a subtle strawberry sauce that would work well on a number of meat dishes)
* APULMOS (apple sauce with almond milk--surprisingly not vegetarian, as the recipe includes beef broth, but damn tasty)
* CHECONES IN CRITONE (chicken thighs in a sublime almond and pine nut sauce--this one could work for veggie dishes as well)
* PYMENTE (herb-honey wine, heavily spiced and much more interesting than your average mead)
I have recipes for all of these, from a cookbook the restaurant sells (all recipes are from 14th- and 15th-century England), so if anyone is interested in any particular recipe, just let me know and I will post it.
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Re: Medieval May Day Feast
Fri, June 29, 2007 - 9:39 AMwhat an awesome menu.
How about the recipe for the onion and currant pie. Are the onions caramelized? what kind of crust?
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Re: Medieval May Day Feast
Tue, July 10, 2007 - 8:03 PMSorry for the late response. Here is the recipe, starting with the original Middle English (translated into modern English--I can't reproduce the diacritical marks from the actual original text).
I don't think the onions are caramelized, based on the recipe below. As the recipe states, you can do it with a standard pie crust or without any crust, but at the restaurant they did it with a pie crust. There is a good chance I'll be trying this recipe this weekend with some friends, and if I do, I'll post the results.
Enjoy!
TART FOR AN EMBER DAY ("Tart in Ymber Day")
Translation of orginal ("The Forme of Cury," a Middle English text): "Take and parboil onions; press out the water and chop them small; take bread and grind it in a mortar, and mix it with eggs; add butter to this, and saffron, salt, currents and a little sugar with sweet powder; bake it in a pie shell [original text says "bake it in a trap"], and serve it forth."
Working recipe from Bors Hede Restaurant, Carnation, Washington:
pastry for a single crust 9-inch pie
4 1/2 cups (3 medium) chopped onions
1/4 cup soft breadcrumbs
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
pinch saffron, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup currants
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
Line pie pan with pastry. In a large saucepan, cover onions with water; bring to a boil. Remove from heat and drain well, pressing out excess water. Mix onions with remaining ingredients and pour into prepared pie shell. Bake in a preheated 350 degree (F) oven for about 50 minutes, or until crust is browned and eggs are set.
Note from restaurant: We are unsure whether this recipe was intended to be baked in a pie shell. The original does not specifically refer to a crust. The word "trap" means a baking dish, and, although a "tart" generally referred to a crusted pie, as it does today, evidently that was not always the case. If you wish to make a crustless version, grease the baking dish well, as the eggs tend to stick.
Source: "The Bors Hede Boke of Cookry: Food and Cooking in 14th & 15th Century England," by Roger Shell & Sally Charles (Camlann Enterprises, Carnation, WA, 1998)
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