Medieval Feast

I invited friends for a Medieval "feast". Among the friends who came were six others who are involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and three friends who have been somewhat interested in the SCA.The feast was on Sunday December 16, 2018.

I started by selecting recipes from The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (1993) by O. Redon, F. Sabban, and S.Serventi.As the book numbers the recipes, I include the numbers and titles here: #3 Winter Squash or Pumpkin Soup; #19 Little Leaves /Hashed chard and spinach, #21 Sautéed Mushrooms and spices, #61 Innkeeper's Escabéche, #62Sweet and Sour Fish, #133 Rice Pudding with Almond Milk, #142 Spiced Plum Mousse with Honey, #143 Poached Pears in Spiced Syrup. The only thing I did not make for this feast was the Plum Mousse: I had left-over Plum Mousse from a test feast (see below), but I have made it in the past and my student (see below) followed my suggestion of only making half the recipe.

In addition to the above was an Apple Onion Pie.

Before the feast I actually "tested" all the recipes by having a group of students make them and we ate them together. The only recipe I made at that "pre-taste", was the onion apple pie - and I had pre-pretested it on family and friends two weeks before! I deliberately planned which dishes to prepare on which days prior to the Feast, so that I would not be too overwhelmed with just intensive cooking on the day of the feast. I also considered how to make do within the limits of my pots, pans and serving dishes.

I did my shopping on the Thursday before the feast and prepared both fish recipes (#61 and #62) immediately upon returning home with the fresh fish. For recipe 61 I used pike (because that's what my student had used the week before and I had really enjoyed it (and I do NOT normally like fish). I chose salmon for recipe #62 which calls for a firmly fleshed fish. I discovered the salmon was not as firmly fleshed as I'd thought when I began frying it.  According to Redon et. al. both fish recipes should "gel" upon cooling. Neither did, either for me or my students. After preparation, and cooling, both dishes went into the refrigerator as both could be served either cold or at room temperature.

On the Friday, I prepared the Onion Apple Pie. I prepared the dough first and put it to cool in the Refrigerator while I chopped the onions and then peeled, cored, and chopped the apples. I prepared the spice mix which called for sugar, salt, cinnamon and cardamom, having decided from my first testing that a tablespoon of sugar, a half tea spoon of salt and a teaspoon on cardamom and two teaspoons of cinnamon had appealed to people. I also mixed the heavy cream and eggs. All the dairy products were labeled "lactose free" just in case someone had a lactose problem (One person informed me the day before the feast that they have a lactose intolerance, so I was relieved that I had, because the pie was already made!) When the onions had fried - or softened I added the apples and cooked them a bit before removing from the heat and adding the spices. Then I could roll out the dough, by which time the onions and apples had cooled so I could assemble the pie add the egg and cream and top the mix with sharp cheese and then the top pie crust. After baking and cooling it also went into the refrigerator.

On the Saturday, I prepared the mushrooms - except for giving them their last frying to make them "golden" and to be able to serve them warm. Recipe 21 asks for the mushrooms to be boiled before frying. I have done this recipe with and without boiling the mushrooms, but this time I boiled them and think that it helps keep the mushrooms from whithering to almost nothing when frying. When that was done and cooled it went into the refrigerator. I was using Kale in place of the Chard and Spinach which recipe 19 calls for, I cut off the stems and chopped it then rebagged it and returned it to the refrigerator to cook on Sunday. Then I began the Squash Soup. The recipe asks for seeded and peeled squash to be boiled in chunks until just tender. I cut the squash in half and seeded it, but decided to peel it after it had boiled. I sliced it into large pieces and boiled it until done. I allowed it to cool before removing the skins, which were much easier to remove after cooking.  I made a decision to reuse the cooking water for the almond milk. I am not sure if this was a poor decision, perhaps some bitterness from the skins effected the resulting soup. I mashed the squash with a potato masher and mixed it with the almond milk. When it was cool, it went into the refrigerator. I washed, quartered and cored the pears, but did not peel them. I prepared the spiced syrup and let the pears soak in that overnight.

On the Sunday the Pumpkin Soup was the first thing out of the refrigerator and as it neared room temperature it went into my crock pot to cook until an hour before the feast. I had nothing more to think about it until I served it! Around mid morning I cooked the kale until it was just tender and a little wilted. then I uncovered it, and had it off the heat to cool. I wanted the bright green color to remain and that meant cooking just until tender and then getting it off the heat and not keeping a lid on.  While the kale got underway, I began the Rice Pudding. First I made the almond milk and rinsed the rice. I read the recipe, and read the rice cooking directions on the bag of pearl rice I was using, and decided to cook the rice in the almond milk (bag of rice), versus adding a bit of almond milk a little at a time as the rice cooks (recipe). I stirred the rice almost constantly as it cooked to ensure it wasn't burning. I took the rice off the heat when it was done, covered it and left it to wait for the feast. I cooked the spiced pears. One pear had obviously been too ripe as it turned to mush, which didn't look very nice. At noon I took the two fish dishes, the pie, and the mushrooms out of the refrigerator to allow them to reach room temperature. About a quarter of an hour before guests were to arrive, I finished frying the mushrooms. Then I fried the onions for the chard, added the spices and mixed in the chard and placed it in a serving bowl. Everything was ready and set out to be served.

The soup and the pie were the starters.  The two fish dishes the mushrooms and the chard were the second course. The third course began with the rice pudding and plum mousse and ended with the Spiced Pears. Water and "mulled wine" (Glöggi) was served as beverages. The meal was bright and colorful with a varied selection of textures and flavours.

Pumpkin Soup. It may be worth trying this again using fresh hot water to make the almond milk. It may also be worth peeling the squash prior to cooking. I cannot say where the - to me - slightly unpleasant or bitter taste came from.

Onion Apple Pie. To me this is a success. I think in the future I will not put decorations on the top crust. they do look cute and I have done it with the two test pies in the past, but if one needs to cut more pieces of pie, it is easier without them.

Innkeeper's Escabéche. Looking at the translation of the original recipe I do not see anything to suggest that this is to gel, and neither mine nor my student's rendition of the recipe gelled. I really like this dish.

Sweet and Sour Fish. This seems to have been everyone elses' favorite. I'm glad. I didn't really like it, perhaps with a different fish. The recipe also suggests this will gel. Mine didn't. Neither did my test student's version.

Hashed Chard. This seems to have been a fairly popular dish. I love it and make it frequently just for me.

Sautéed Mushrooms. I noticed I'd only purchased half the mushrooms the recipe calls for, oops! and my own notes from first making this says "double this recipe, there can never be too many mushrooms". It worked well and was popular but we needed more mushrooms to really have it be a hit.

Rice Pudding. This was an outstanding success. They fell on it as if it were chocolate. I had to remind everyone to try it with the Plum Mousse. It seemed even more popular then.

Spiced Pears. I make this regularly. I leave the pear skins on so the color of the syrup doesn't fully penetrate the pear slices and gives an interesting color spectrum to the pears as well as adding textural nuances.

The Pumpkin Soup cooking, Onions for the chard and bowl for the Musshrooms

Cooking the Rice Pudding while the Kale begins to steam

Kale has steamed and cooked down is still a bright green, time to remove it from the heat.

The Sweet and Sour Fish in the white bowl, the Pumpkin Soup to the right, and the cooked kale to the left.

The Onion Apple pie and the Innkeeper's Escabéche find a place to wait in the cold oven (I have a small kitchen)

The chopped herbs (dill and parsley) onion, and spices for the Chard (Kale in this case)

Book cover and all that is left of the Pumpkin Soup