pork fat
Salmon with a little Italian Sauce from Soupers de la Cour (1755)
Soupers de la Cour, by Menon, is the last major pre-revolutionary cookbook, and though it doesn’t have the over the top, debauched, pyrotechnics of Le Cuisinier Gascon, its solid, well thought out recipes are more indicative of the state of haute cuisine (Menon wasn’t himself a snob though, he had already written La Cuisiniere bourgeoise [...]
Chevreaux Nouveaux
The Viandier of Taillevent (see bibliography for details) is a collection of manuscript cookbooks spanning the 13th to 15th centuries grouped by convention under the banner of Tirel de Taillevent, a 14th century cook to Charles V. It’s a classic of medieval cookery, less famous but more cookable than The Forme of Cury. Chevreaux, metez [...]
Crudifest, March 2010
Images from crudifest 2010 – in the excitement we seem to have missed taking any pictures of some lovely 1654 apple pyes, but so be it. I’ll give a blow by blow of the recipes and methods soon – the “wild yeast bread” was left overnight to attract wild yeasts to leaven it, but was [...]
Ancient pasta month continues with ravioli [and rauioles and rafioules]
Ravioli appears to pre-date most of its close relatives – the dumplings, perogis and other stuffed pastas that are found all over Europe. This delicious morsel makes a somewhat surprising early appearance in the late 14th century English cookbook, Forme of Cury, written by “the chief Master Cooks of King Richard II”. Although channels were [...]
Poulet à L’Allemand – German Chicken from Le Cuisiner Gascon, 1747
Le Cuisinier Gascon, Amsterdam (probably a false imprint for Paris), 1740 is famous for its important early treatment of foie gras, and for the outlandish names of many of its recipes. My copy of Gascon is the 1747 Nouvelle edition with the added letter to an English Pastry chef. This recipe isn’t outlandish though (if [...]
Christmas Goose
I’d never cooked a goose before, but figured it would be a lot like cooking a duck – it is, but with a couple of caveats: Duck is fatty enough – and the fat is well distributed enough – that it’s pretty hard to dry it out. Goose probably produces more fat when you cook [...]
Thanksgiving: Wherein a chicken rides a turkey to dinner and a pumpkin pie is filled with cheese
I have a very understanding family: To make various mixtures with which to stuff every sort of commonly eaten animal, quadraped and fowl. Get four pounds of pork fat that is not rancid and with knives beat it finely together with two pounds of liver of a goat kid…adding in beaten mint, sweet marjoran, burnet [...]
Roux, Making Sauce Saucy Since 1651
Before the roux – now a flour butter`mixture, originally a pork fat and flour mixture – sauces were thickened by the addition of bread crumbs, bread, or, famously (and regrettably) macaroons. In 1651 La Varenne gave us the first recipe for a roux, and sauce has never been the same. Roux tips: Hervé This (in [...]
Spit Roasting a Pheasant is Time Consuming
Bartolomeo Scappi is the second, after Maestro Martino di Como, of the great Italian Renaissance cooks (though it can be argued that Scappi was the first to make a break with medieval cookery dogma). He was the personal chef for two popes, and assembled his Opera to instruct his apprentices in their work. His cookbook [...]
Bird Turnovers and Asparagus from Sent Soví
Written sometime in the middle of the 14th century, The Book of Sent Soví is one of the earliest records of Catalan cuisine. Bird Turnovers: Si vols fer panades d’aucells o de perdius ab ceba, pren una ceba, la pus gran que tròpies, e mit-la dins, segons que vijares te serà; e mit-hi los ocells [...]
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