Juvenalia Feast Period Recipes December 2009
		A selection of sample period recipes provided by Duke Cariadoc of the Bow. Noted in red are recipes that should be served hot, requiring a crock pot or access to a microwave. Please check with the Autocrat about the availability of electric outlets and microwaves. Follow the links below to the period recipe (in italics) followed by measurements and a modern version of the recipe.   Bread / Pasta Losyns Forme of Cury (14th c. English) Salma Ibn al-Mabrad (15th c. Middle Eastern) Rishta al-Baghdadi (13th c. Middle Eastern) On Bread Platina (15th c. Italian) Loaf Kneaded with Butter Andalusian p. A-24 Cheese / Appetizers Tart on Ember Day Ancient Cookery (English 14th c.) Recipe for the Barmakiyya Andalusian (13th c. Western Islamic) Alows de Beef or de Motoun Two Fifteenth Century (English 15th c.) Chopped Liver Du Fait de Cuisine no. 61 Vegetables / Fruit Spinach Tart Goodman (French 14th c.) Funges Forme of Cury (14th c. English) Armored Turnips Platina (15th c. Italian) Caboges Two Fifteenth Century (English 15th c.) Desserts Gingerbrede Goud Kokery (14th c. English) Hais al-Baghdadi (13th c. Middle Eastern) Khushkananaj al-Baghdadi (13th c. Middle Eastern) A Tarte of Strawberries A Proper Newe Book (16th c. English) A Flaune of Almayne Ancient Cookery p. 452/39 (GOOD) On Pine Kernels Platina (15th c. Italian) Drinks *Dry site: non-alcoholic drink examples: cider, Sekanjabin (minty, sweet drink), or syrups to mix with water Sekanjabin

Sample Recipes

Bread / Pasta

Losyns Forme of Cury (14th c. English)
Take good broth and do in an erthen pot. Take flour of payndemayn and make therof past with water, and make therof thynne foyles as paper with a roller; drye it harde and seeth it in broth. Take chese ruayn grated and lay it in disshes with powder douce, and lay theron loseyns isode as hoole as thou myght, and above powdour and chese; and so twyse or thryse, & serue it forth.

2 c flour	powder douce:
1/2 to 3/4 c water	2 t sugar
2 10.5 oz cans beef broth + 2 cans water	1 t cinnamon
1 lb mozzarella cheese	1/2 t ginger

To make pasta: stir the water into the flour and knead 5-10 minutes until smooth. Divide in four portions, roll each out to about 12" radius. Cut in lozenges (diamonds), leave to dry. This produces 9 1/2 oz of dried pasta, which will keep at least three weeks.

Grate cheese and mix up powder douce. Bring broth to a boil, put in pasta, cook 10-12 minutes, and drain. Put 1/3 of the cheese in a dish, sprinkle about 1/3 of the powder douce over it, and layer 1/3 of the hot pasta on top; repeat this twice, reserving a little powder douce to sprinkle on top. Let sit a couple of minutes to melt cheese and serve.

Salma Ibn al-Mabrad (15th c. Middle Eastern)
Dough is taken and twisted and cut in small pieces and struck like a coin with a finger, and it is cooked in water until done. Then yoghurt is put with it and meat is fried with onion for it and mint and garlic are put with it.

Knead flour and water to a smooth dough. Divide it in about 8 equal portions. Take each one, roll it between your palms into a string about 1/2 inch in diameter, twist it a little, then cut it in about 1/4" slices. Dump slices in a little flour to keep them from sticking. Take each slice and squeeze it between your fingers into a flat, roughly round, coin shaped piece. Boil in 1 quart slightly salted water about 10 minutes.

About the same time you put the pasta on to boil, fry the onions and lamb, both cut small, in the tail (i.e. lamb fat) or other oil. Drain the pasta, combine all ingredients, and serve. Better served hot.

Rishta al-Baghdadi (13th c. Middle Eastern)

Cut fat meat into middling pieces and put into the saucepan, with a covering of water. Add cinnamon-bark, a little salt, a handful of peeled chickpeas, and half a handful of lentils. Boil until cooked: then add more water, and bring thoroughly to the boil. Now add spaghetti (which is made by kneading flour and water well, then rolling out fine and cutting into thin threads four fingers long). Put over the fire and cook until set to a smooth consistency. When it has settled over a gentle fire for an hour, remove.

Simmer the meat etc. about half an hour to an hour. To make the noodles, mix the flour with about 1/2 c cold water (just enough to make an unsticky dough). Knead thoroughly, roll out, cut into thin strips. Add to pot, simmer another 1/2 hour being careful not to let it stick to the bottom and scorch, serve. Should be served hot.

On Bread

Platina (15th c. Italian)
... Therefore I recommend to anyone who is a baker that he use flour from wheat meal, well ground and then passed through a fine seive to sift it; then put it in a bread pan with warm water, to which has been added salt, after the manner of the people of Ferrari in Italy. After adding the right amount of leaven, keep it in a damp place if you can and let it rise. ... The bread should be well baked in an oven, and not on the same day; bread from fresh flour is most nourishing of all, and should be baked slowly.

Put sourdough in a bowl. Add warm (not hot!) water and salt, mix. Add whole wheat flour, then white, 1 or 2 c at a time, first stirring in with a wooden spoon and then kneading it in. Cover with a wet towel, set aside. Let rise overnight (16-20 hours). Turn out on a floured board, shape into two or three round loaves, working in another 1/2 c or so of flour. Let rise again in a warm place for an hour. Bake at 350° about 50 minutes. Makes 2 loaves, about 8" across, 3"-4" thick, about 1.5 lb, or three smaller loaves.

Loaf Kneaded with Butter Andalusian p. A-24
Take three ratls of white flour and knead it with a ratl of butter and when the mixing is complete, leave it to rise and make bread from it; send it to the oven in a dish and when it has cooked, turn it on the other side in another dish and return it to the oven. When it is thoroughly cooked, take it out of the oven, then cover it a while and present it.

[We assume that “make bread from it” requires water and leavening.]

Melt butter and mix into flour. Mix lukewarm water with sourdough starter and stir into flour mixture; knead until smooth. Cover bowl with damp cloth and let rise about 15 hours, it will rise somewhat faster in a warm place. Shape into single round loaf about 1 1/2 " thick and 8" in diameter. Heat oven to 350°. Bake bread about 45 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet; flip onto second cookie sheet and bake another 15 minutes. Remove from oven, put on wooden board and cover with cloth for 10 minutes, then serve.

Note: Sourdough starter is available from Cariadoc, along with instructions on keeping it and reviving it before use. ddfr@daviddfriedman.com. 408 244-3330.

Cheese / Appetizers

Tart on Ember Day Ancient Cookery (English 14th c.)
Parboil onions, and sage, and parsley and hew them small, then take good fat cheese, and bray it, and do thereto eggs, and temper it up therewith, and do thereto butter and sugar, and raisyngs of corince, and powder of ginger, and of canel, medel all this well together, and do it in a coffin, and bake it uncovered, and serve it forth.

Chop the onions and boil 10 minutes, drain. Grate cheese. Mix everything and put in pie crust. Bake at 350° for about 40 minutes.

Recipe for the Barmakiyya Andalusian (13th c. Western Islamic)
It is made with hens, pigeons, ring doves, small birds, or lamb. Take what you have of it, then clean it and cut it and put it in a pot with salt and onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqi, and oil. Put it over a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is dried. Take it out and fry it with mild oil without overdoing it, and leave it aside. Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with yeast, and if it has some oil it will be more flavorful. Then stretch this out into a thin loaf and inside this put the fried and cooked meat of these birds, cover it with another thin loaf, press the ends together and place it in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it out. It is very good for journeying; make it with fish and that can be used for journeying too.

[The Barmecides were a family of Persian viziers who served some of the early Abbasid Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were famed for their generosity.]

Cut the meat fairly fine (approximately 1/4" slices, then cut them up), combine in a 3 quart pot with chopped onion, 1 t salt, spices, murri, and 3 T oil. Cook over a medium low to medium heat about an hour. Cover it at the beginning so it all gets hot, at which point the onion and meat release their juices; remove the cover and cook until the liquid is gone, about 30 minutes. Then heat 3 T oil in a large frying pan on a medium high burner, add the contents of the pot, fry over medium high heat about five minutes.

Stir together flour, semolina, 1 t salt. Gradually stir in 3 T oil. Combine 3/4 c water, 1/2 c sourdough. Stir this into the flour mixture and knead to a smooth dough (which should only take a few minutes). If you do not have sourdough, omit it; since the recipes does not give the dough much time to rise, the sourdough probably does not have a large effect on the consistency of the dough.

Divide the dough in four equal parts. Take two parts, turn them out on a floured board, roll out to at least 12" by 5". Put half the filling on one, put the other on top, squeeze the edges together to seal. Repeat with the other two parts of the dough and the rest of the filling. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350° for 40 minutes. Can serve hot or cold.

Alows de Beef or de Motoun Two Fifteenth Century (English 15th c.)
Take fayre Bef of the quyschons, and motoun of the bottes, and kytte in the maner of Stekys; than take raw Percely, and Oynonys smal y-scredde, and yolkys of Eyroun sothe hard, and Marow or swette, and hew alle thes to-geder smal; than caste ther-on poudere of Gyngere and Saffroun, and tolle hem to-gederys with thin hond, and lay hem on the Stekys al a-brode, and caste Salt ther-to; then rolle to-gederys, and putte hem on a round spete, and roste hem til they ben y-now; than lay hem in a dysshe, and pore ther-on Vynegre and a lityl verious, and pouder Pepir ther-on y-now, and Gyngere, and Canelle, and a fewe yolkys of hard Eyroun y-kremyd ther-on; and serue forth.

Meat is sliced 1/4" thick; slices should be about 6" by 2". Spread with parsley, etc. mixture, roll up on skewers or toothpicks, broil about 10-12 minutes until brown. Mix sauce and pour over. Makes 6-8 rolls 2" long and 1" to 1 1/2" in diameter.

Chopped Liver Du Fait de Cuisine no. 61
For the chopped liver: he who has the charge of the chopped liver should take kids' livers–and if there are not enough of those of kids use those of veal–and clean and wash them very well, then put them to cook well and properly; and, being cooked, let him take them out onto fair and clean boards and, being drained, chop them very fine and, being well chopped, let him arrange that he has fair lard well and properly melted in fair and clean pans, then put in to fry the said chopped liver and sauté it well and properly. And then arrange that he has a great deal of eggs and break them into fair dishes and beat them all together; and put in spices, that is white ginger, grains of paradise, saffron, and salt in good proportion, then put all of this gently into the said pans with the said liver which is being fried while continually stirring and mixing with a good spoon in the pans until it is well cooked and dried out and beginning to brown. And then when this comes to the sideboard arrange the aforesaid heads [reference to preceding recipe in the original] on fair serving dishes, and on each dish next to the heads put and arrange the aforesaid chopped liver.

Simmer liver for about 5 minutes, drain, then chop very fine. Beat the eggs, add spices. Melt the lard, add liver and eggs, stir constantly until cooked.

Vegetables / Fruit

Spinach Tart Goodman (French 14th c.)
To make a tart, take four handfuls of beet leaves, two handfuls of parsley, a handful of chervil, a sprig of fennel and two handful of spinach, and pick them over and wash them in cold water, then cut them up very small; then bray with two sorts of cheese, to wit a hard and a medium, and then add eggs thereto, yolks and whites, and bray them in the cheese; then put the herbs into the mortar and bray all together and also put therein some fine powder. Or instead of this have ready brayed in the mortar two heads of ginger and onto this bray your cheese, eggs and herbs and then cast old cheese scraped or grated onto the herbs and take it to the oven and then have your tart made and eat it hot.

Chop or grate greens and cheese and mix filling in a bowl. Make pie crust and bake at 400° for about 10 minutes. Put filling in crust and bake about 40 minutes at 350°. We usually substitute spinach for beet leaves, dried chervil for fresh, and fennel seed for fresh fennel leaves because of availability.

Funges Forme of Cury (14th c. English)
Take funges and pare hem clene and dyce hem; take leke and shrede hym small and do hym to seeth in gode broth. Colour it with safroun, and do therinne powdour fort.

Wash the vegetables; slice the leek finely and dice the mushrooms. Add saffron to the broth and bring it to a boil. Add the leek, mushrooms, and powder fort to the broth, simmer 3-4 minutes, remove from the heat, and serve.

[Note: Powder fort is a spice mixture mentioned in various period recipes; we have not yet been able to find a description of what spices it contains. What we use is a mixture containing, by weight: 1 part cloves, 1 part mace, 1 part cubebs, 7 parts cinnamon, 7 parts ginger, and 7 parts pepper, all ground. This is a guess, based on very limited evidence; it works well for the dishes in which we have tried it.] Better hot.

Armored Turnips Platina (15th c. Italian)
Cut up turnips that have been either boiled or cooked under the ashes. Likewise do the same with rich cheese, not too ripe. These should be smaller morsels than the turnips, though. In a pan greased with butter or liquamen, make a layer of cheese first, then a layer of turnips, and so on, all the while pouring in spice and some butter, from time to time. This dish is quickly cooked and should be eaten quickly, too.

Boil turnips about 30 minutes, peel and slice. Slice cheese thinner than turnips, with slices about the same size. Layer turnips, sliced cheese and spices in 9"x5" baking pan, and bake 20 minutes at 350°.

We have modified this recipe in accordance with the more detailed version in Martino’s cookbook, which calls for “some sugar, some pepper and some sweet spices”. Martino was the source for Platina’s recipes. Note: This needs to be served hot.

Caboges Two Fifteenth Century (English 15th c.)
Take fayre caboges, an cutte hem, an pike hem clene and clene washe hem, an parboyle hem in fayre water, an thanne presse hem on a fayre bord; an than choppe hem, and caste hem in a fayre pot with goode fresshe broth, an wyth mery-bonys, and let it boyle: thanne grate fayre brede and caste ther-to, an caste ther-to Safron an salt; or ellys take gode grwel y-mad of freys flesshe, y-draw thorw a straynour, and caste ther-to. An whan thou seruyst yt inne, knocke owt the marw of the bonys, an ley the marwe ij gobettys or iij in a dysshe, as the semyth best, and serue forth.

Wash cabbage. Cut it in fourths. Parboil it (i.e. dump into boiling water, leave there a few minutes). Drain. Chop. Squeeze out water. Put it in a pot with beef broth and marrow bones. Simmer until soft, stirring often enough to keep it from sticking (about 20 minutes). Add saffron, salt, enough bread crumbs to make it very thick. Simmer ten minutes more. Serve. Note: This needs to be served hot.

Desserts

Gingerbrede Goud Kokery (14th c. English)
To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie it on the fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into the boylenge hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse that it bren not to the vessell. & thanne take it doun and put therin ginger, longe pepper & saundres, & tempere it vp with thin handes; & than put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe theron suger, & pick therin clowes rounde aboute by the egge and in the mydes, yf it plece you, &c.

Bring honey to a boil, simmer two or three minute, stir in breadcrumbs with a spatula until uniformly mixed. Remove from heat, stir in ginger, pepper, and saunders. (If you can’t get long pepper, substitute ordinary black pepper.) When it is cool enough to handle, knead it to get spices thoroughly mixed. Put it in a box, cookie tin, or the like, squish it flat and thin, sprinkle with sugar and ornament with cloves stuck in it. Leave it to let the clove flavor sink in; do not eat the cloves.

An alternative way of doing it is to roll into small balls, roll in sugar mixed with a pinch of cloves, then flatten them a little to avoid confusion with hais. This is suitable if you are making them today and eating them tomorrow.

Hais al-Baghdadi (13th c. Middle Eastern)
Take fine dry bread, or biscuit, and grind up well. Take a ratl of this, and three quarters of a ratl of fresh or preserved dates with the stones removed, together with three uqiya of ground almonds and pistachios. Knead all together very well with the hands. Refine two uqiya of sesame-oil, and pour over, working with the hand until it is mixed in. Make into cabobs, and dust with fine-ground sugar. If desired, instead of sesame-oil use butter. This is excellent for travellers.

We usually grind the nuts separately in a food processor, then mix dates, bread crumbs, and nuts in the food processor, then stir in melted butter or oil. Dates vary in hardness; if it does not hold together, add a few tablespoons of water, one at a time. For “cabobs,” roll into one inch balls. Good as caravan food (or for taking to wars). They last forever if you do not eat them, but you do so they don't.

Khushkananaj al-Baghdadi (13th c. Middle Eastern)
Take fine white flour, and with every ratl mix three uqiya of sesame-oil [one part oil to four of flour], kneading into a firm paste. Leave to rise; then make into long loaves. Put into the middle of each loaf a suitable quantity of ground almonds and scented sugar mixed with rose water, using half as much almonds as sugar. Press together as usual, bake in the oven, remove.

Without leavening: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Sprinkle the water onto the dough, stir in. Knead briefly together.

Sourdough: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Mix the water and the sour dough starter together. Add gradually to the flour/oil mixture, and knead briefly together. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise about 8 hours in a warm place, then knead a little more.

Divide in four parts. Roll each one out to about 8"x16" on a floured board. Grind almonds, combine with sugar and rose water. Spread the mixture over the rolled out dough and roll up like a jelly roll, sealing the ends and edges (use a wet finger if necessary).

Bake at 350° about 45-50 minutes.

Notes: At least some of the almonds should be only coarsely ground, for texture. The sesame oil is the Middle Eastern version, which is almost flavorless; you can get something similar at health food stores. Chinese sesame oil, made from toasted sesame seeds, is very strongly flavored and results in a nearly inedible pastry.

A Tarte of Strawberries A Proper Newe Book (16th c. English)
Take and strain them with the yolks of four eggs, and a little white bread grated, then season it up with sugar and sweet butter and so bake it.

Force strawberries through a strainer or run through a blender, then mix with everything else. Bake crust for 10 minutes, then put filling into the crust and bake at 375° for 20 minutes.

A Flaune of Almayne Ancient Cookery p. 452/39 (GOOD)
First take raisins of Courance, or else other fresh raisins, and good ripe pears, or else good apples, and pick out the cores of them, and pare them, and grind them, and the raisins in a mortar, and do then to them a little sweet cream of milk, and strain them through a clean strainer, and take ten eggs, or as many more as will suffice, and beat them well together, both the white and the yolk, and draw it through a strainer, and grate fair white bread, and do thereto a good quantity, and more sweet cream, and do thereto, and all this together; and take saffron, and powder of ginger, and canel, and do thereto, and a little salt, and a quantity of fair, sweet butter, and make a fair coffin or two, or as many as needs, and bake them a little in an oven, and do this batter in them, and bake them as you would bake flaunes, or crustades, and when they are baked enough, sprinkle with canel and white sugar. This is a good manner of Crustade.

A blender works well as a substitute for a mortar to mash the apples and raisins; mix the liquids in with the apples and raisins before blending. Bake at 375° for about an hour.

On Pine Kernels Platina (15th c. Italian)
They are often eaten with raisins and are thought to arouse hidden passions; and they have the same virtue when candied in sugar. Noble and rich persons often have this as a first or last course. Sugar is melted, and pine kernels, covered with it, are put into a pan and moulded in the shape of a roll. To make the confection even more magnificent and delightful, it is often covered with thin gold leaf.

Heat the sugar in a frying pan for about 10 minutes until it carmelizes to a light brown, stirring continuously. Stir in the pine nuts. Shape roughly into long, thin shapes with a spoon and/or spatula. When it is cool enough to touch but still soft, roll them between your hands to get cylinders. This is a guess at what he means by "the shape of a roll" and could easily be wrong.

Drinks

Sekanjabin
Dissolve 4 cups sugar in 2 1/2 cups of water; when it comes to a boil add 1 cup wine vinegar. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add a handful of mint, remove from fire, let cool. Dilute the resulting syrup to taste with ice water (5 to 10 parts water to 1 part syrup). The syrup stores without refrigeration.

Note: This recipe is based on a modern source: A Book of Middle Eastern Food, by Claudia Roden. Sekanjabin is a period drink; it is mentioned in the Fihrist of al-Nadim, which was written in the tenth century. The only period recipe I have found for it (in the Andalusian cookbook) is called “Simple Sekanjabin” and omits the mint.

Return to Home Page | Disclaimer | Feedback