The Lord's Kitchen

Current Location:	home test kitchen
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Subject:	Playing with my food...
Time:	12:49 pm
Current Mood:	accomplished

***Warning...a very long post, with piccies... I'll try really hard to put this behind a cut, but I don't always have luck with it!

Pondering my contribution to the Friday night recipe exchange and pot luck at the upcoming Culinary Symposium, I played with some receipts yesterday to see how I like the results, and gauge their appropriateness for the event. The recipes were taken from "Dining With William Shakespeare", by Madge Lorwin. I like her redactions as a starting off point, because she doesn't stray far from the originals, and seems to have a fairly balanced quantity reduction, to make the recipes workable for a dinner-sized group. I did this as a bit of a shortcut, to give me a starting point on quantities, but I freely altered things to suit my own taste, and made minor additions and adjustments that I like...such as adding thyme and wine to the onion soup recipe.

All of them turned out well, but I especially like the sausages! Making sausage is one thing I really enjoy doing, and this is a good receipt without having to go to the trouble to stuff them! It's very mild, so it should serve well for those who are delicate about seasoning, and prefer mild flavors. It would be delicious for breakfast, and would also be good on bread, I think.

First up, "To Make Most Rare Sausages Without Skins", from The Accomplisht Cook, or the Art and Mystery of Cookery, by Robert May, Printed by N. Brooke for T. Archer, 1660.

To Make Most Rare Sausages Without Skins
Take a leg of young pork, cut off all the lean, and mince it very small, but leave none of the strings or skin amongst it; then take two pound of beef sue shred small, two handfuls of red sage, a little pepper, salt, and nutmeg with a small piece of an onion; mince them together with the flesh and suet, and being finely minced, put the yolks of two or three eggs, and mix all together, make it into a paste, and when you will use it, roul out as many piece as you please in the form of an ordinary sausage, and fry them, this paste will keep a fortnight upon occasion.

And here are mine! These are raw, but frozen, and ready to be fried.

The redaction:
2 pounds of lean pork shoulder
1/4 pound beef suet, chopped
1 small onion, grated
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg yolk

Remove all gristle, silver skin, or any tough bits from the pork. Dice the pork in to 1 inch cubes or a convenient size that will fit your grinder. Add diced suet, and stir well together. Ensure both are well chilled before grinding. Grind the pork and suet with a medium blade on your grinder, or mince very fine, with two knives. Season the mixture well with salt, pepper, thyme, and egg yolk. Stir vigorously to mix well. Heat a small skillet, and fry a small amount in a patty in a little olive oil. Drain and taste for seasoning. Correct seasoning as needed. Cover closely, and refrigerate 6 hours, or overnight to allow flavors to combine. Form the sausage mixture into 8 to 10 small sausage-shaped rolls about four inches long and one inch in diameter. Pan-fry over medium heat in a little olive oil, turning the rolls so that they brown evenly on all sides, for about ten minutes. Serve immediately.

Then, started working on some bread. Have been playing with various Manchet receipts for many years, and it is not my favorite sort of bread. But it is appropriate to my persona, and I want to find a way to make it that so that I will like eating it. This is due to the fact that it is coarser and grainier than more modern breads because of the whole wheat flour, which again, is not my favorite texture. But, this receipt yields a very tasty loaf with a very nice crumb, though the crust is quite crisp. If you do not care for the crust, simply cut it away, for as Thomas Cogan warned, "...hard crustes do engender ill, adjust choler, and melancholy. Wherefore the upper cruste above and beneath should be chipped away." I quite agree and I believe it was served to the nobility in that fashion. I think this bread, if made into a large loaf would be perfect for a trencher, as it has a firm and solid body to it. And really, I do like the nutty flavor of the whole wheat, so am getting closely to incorporating this bread.

"Manchets", from The English Hus-wife, by Gervase Markham, Printed by J. B., for R. Jackson, 1615, Part 2 of Countrey Contentments.

To Make Manchet
Your best and principal bread is Manchet, which you shall bake in this manner: First your meal being ground upon the black stones, if it be possible, which makes the whitest flower, and boulted through the finest boulting cloth, you shall put it into a clean Kimnel, and opening the flower hollow in the midst, put into it of the best ale-barme, the quantity of three pints to a bushel of meale, and some salt to season it with; then put in your liquor reasonable warme, and kneade it very well together, with your hands, and through the brake, or for want thereof, fould it in a cloth, and with your feete treade it a good space together, then letting it lie an houre or thereabouts to swel, take it foorth and mould it into Manchets, round and flat, scorcht them about the waist to give it leave to rise, and prick it with your knife in the top, and so put it in the oven, and bake with a gentle heat.

Mastering the art of slashing them takes a little practice. Admittedly, these are not completely uniform, but I think they look quite respectable, and they certainly did rise well.

And here is one with its top crust cut off, so that you can see the crumb.

The redaction:
450ml (about 2 cups) lukewarm water (110° F)
15g dry active yeast, or 2 cakes of fresh yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon sugar
500g plain (unbleached) white bread flour, stone ground if possible
200g whole wheat flour, stone ground, if possible with 100% of the wheat germ and bran
Additional white bread flour for dusting

Sift the two flours three times, to combine them well together. Put half of the warm water into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar and a tablespoon of the flour. Stir to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast over the top of the water, and stir well with a wooden spoon to combine. Allow to proof in a warm place for about 5 minutes. The surface should be foamy, and visibly active. Dissolve the salt in the other half of the water. When the yeast has proven, add to the yeast mixture. Stir the flour into the water mixture, one cup at a time, combining well after each addition. When all the flour has been added, turn the dough out onto your work surface and knead thoroughly for about 7 minutes, or until the texture is smooth, soft, and elastic. Shape dough into a large ball and place in a well-oiled bowl, turning to coat well on all sides. Cover with a damp cloth, and set to rise in a warm spot for 1 to 1 ½ hours, or until doubled in volume. Punch down, and flatten the ball on your work surface, to remove air bubbles. Fold in three. Press well together. Turn one quarter turn, flatten well and fold in three. Divide into eight equal portions. Working with one piece at a time, form into a round ball, pinching together the seams at the bottom to seal well. Place the ball on the work surface, and flatten with the palm of your hand until about ½ in height. With a sharp knife make a gash all the way around the bread at the waist, and stab a deep hole in the top. Set on a floured baking sheet to rise, and cover with a damp cloth. Do all the dough this way, and allow the loaves to rise for about 30 minutes, or until they have doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 400°F, with either a baking stone, or baking sheet in the oven. Place the loaves quickly and gently on the baking sheet, so that they are not touching. Or slide onto the baking stone. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until nicely browned, and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Wrap loaves in dry towels while still hot, and allow to cool completely on racks.

My thinking is that the sausages can be frozen and fried at the event, and the bread, frozen and perhaps rewarmed a little for the event, to freshen it. Also wanted to try the Potato Pie.. However, am certain that this is would have to be made fresh for the event, so we ate this for dinner.

To Make a Potato Pie
Boyle your Potatoes tender and blanch them; slice them but not very thin, and mix them with some apple pared and sliced: season them with Cynamon, Ginger, Sugar & Salt. Your pie being made, put in these meats with a good store of marrow on the top, being cut into lumps as big as a walnut: pour a little verjuice on the Pye and close it; being baked put to it verjuice, sugar butter, cynamon, and ginger, beat up thick together, cut up the lid, and fill it with it with the leare, raising it up with the knife to let in the liquor. You must put in Butter when you close up the Pie to bake it, otherwise it will burn in the oven, they being of very dry substance. Less than two houres will bake it. Scrape Sugar on it, and serve it up hot.

"To Make A Potato Pie", from The Art of Cookery Refin'd and Augmented, by Joseph Cooper. By F. G. for R. Lowndes, at the White-lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard, near the end, 1654

This pie looks very modern, and I would like to try it again in a period shaped coffin or pastry case. But that will require a slightly different pastry receipt.

The redaction
1 pound of sweet potatoes
1 pound tart cooking apples
1/3 cup brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
4 tablespoons butter, diced
¼ cup white wine vinegar (or verjuice, if you have it)
1 or 2 ounces fresh beef marrow, diced small

The Pastry
375g plain white, unbleached, bread flour, preferably stone ground
90g plain whole wheat flour, preferably whole meal, and stone ground, or
2 cups plain, unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup frozen butter, diced very small (about ¼ inch)
¼ cup chilled lard
½ cup ice
1 egg, separated

Bake the potatoes at 400°F for forty minutes. Peel off the skins immediately, and slice the potatoes into ½-inch slices. Cover and set aside. Combine the two flours, and salt, well together three times to combine thoroughly. Add the cold butter and lard, and cut in well with a pastry knife. Mix the egg yolk into the cold water and add this to the flour mixture. Mix until the dough just comes together. Gather into a ball on lightly floured work surface. Press flat into a disk, and place in a Ziploc bag, and chill for at least an hour or two. Divide the pastry dough into two parts, 2/3 of it for the bottom crust and 1/3 for the top crust. On a lightly floured board, roll out the larger piece to fit an eight-inch pie dish. Wrap and return the other 1/3 to the refrigerator while preparing the filling. Sift the sugar, salt, cinnamon, and ginger together. Stir the diced butter gently around in the mixture, being careful not to mash it together. Sprinkle the vinegar, or verjuice over the potatoes. Alternate layers of apples and potatoes in the pie dish, sprinkling each layer with some of the butter-sugar-spice mixture. Roll out the remaining pastry for the top crust. Dot with the diced beef marrow and fit the top crust over it. Moisten the edge of the bottom crust, and place the top crust over it. Seal the edges of the pie well, and made a decorative edge with the tines of a fork, or your fingers. Beat the egg white with teaspoon of water and brush over the entire top of the pie. With a small sharp knife poke a vent hole in the top, about ½ inch in diameter. Place pie dish on a baking sheet, in case pie boils over. Bake in a preheated 450° F oven for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 350°F and bake a additional 25 minutes longer, until the top is golden. Serve hot.

I thought the pie was tasty, and neither the apple, nor the potato is overly pronounced in flavor. Sof pronounced it "Delicious!". To me it is too reminiscent of an apple pie. I liked it, but probably not enough to make it again. To me, it loses the best features of both an apple pie, and of a sweet potato, and doesn't really play up either of them especially well. I am not sure that calling it a Potato Pie is the most accurate. The apple comes through so strongly that the potato is lost in translation. However, the crust is delicious! Crispy and flaky, but it was probably a little too soft to make a free-standing coffin, or pie case. So I used a pie plate, as I was concerned the pie would collapse, otherwise. I may try it again with a different pastry receipt, and I may use more potato and less apple.

After all this, I still had enough energy to make some soup. Onion soup is one of favorites, so am delighted to find it also quite period. This one is one that I will be making at camping events, because it is very good, and very easy! I think I'd serve it with Manchets, and some lovely cheese, and a glass of good red wine. Great for Friday night set-up, when you're too tired to do much else.

Onion Pottage
Fry good store of slic’t onions, then have a pipkin of boiling liquor over the fire, when the liquor boils put in the fryed onions, but and all, with pepper and salt: being well stewed together, serve in on sops of French bread.

Rober May, The Accomplisht Cook, or the Art and Mystery of Cookery. Printed by N. Brooke for T. Archer, 1660.

Nommy onion goodness! This soup is very tasty. What I am not showing here, is that I gratineed them, because I can not resist melted Gruyere cheese!

The redaction
3 or 4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound white onions, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
4 cups beef broth, fresh or canned
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼ to ½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
½ teaspoon thyme
1/3 cup red wine
4 slice French bread, toasted

Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet, or pot. Saute the sliced onions for about twenty minutes, or until they are golden brown. Onions should caramelize and brown, being careful not to burn them. Add salt, pepper and thyme.
Bring the broth to a boil, add it to the onions, and cook over medium heat for ten minutes. Taste for seasoning, and correct as needed. If using canned beef broth, taste before seasoning. Put a slice of toasted French bread in the bottom of each bowl. Fill the bowl with the hot onion soup, and serve immediately. Optional: Serve soup in oven safe dishes, top each generously with grated Gruyere or Swiss cheese, and bake in a 400° oven until the cheese is bubbly and golden. Serve immediately.

All in all, a really fun day for me in the kitchen! Have several more receipts that I am interested in trying, so stay tuned for more foody news in the coming weeks as I search for one that I really love.

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