Medieval and Elizabethan Savoury Dishes.
See also Medieval and Elizabethan sweet dishes
1. Lese Fryes - Medieval Cheese Tart Recipe
Ingredients
1 9-inch pie shell
1/2 pound gouda cheese
3 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400-degrees F.
2. Crisp the pie shell for 10 minutes and remove it from the oven.
3. Remove any wax, hard rind or mouldy spots from the cheese.
4. Put the cheese, eggs, salt, sugar and butter into a blender and blend until smooth.
5. Pour this mixture into the crisped pie shell and bake at 400 for 10 minutes.
6. Reduce the oven temperature to 325-degrees F., and bake for 30 to 35 minutes more, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean.
7. Remove the pie from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.
8. Serve hot.
2. Cheese Custard Tarte Recipe
Ingredients:
1 lb. Fromage Blanc (or sour cream)
2 cups Crème Fraîche (or heavy cream)
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 cup Flour
Butter and flour for Pie dish
1 Pie or Tarte Crust (see bottom of page for a delicious and easy crust recipe!)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well, until homogenous.
2. Butter and flour a pie or tarte dish. Roll out crust and place in dish. Pour custard into crust and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool before serving.
Voilà!
Tip: You can make this tarte earlier in the day and let stand at room temperature.
Variations: If you would like to add any of the typical medieval desserts spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, saffron, cloves) go right ahead and experiment! Just don't add too many in one tarte, it will overpower the natural and delicate taste.
You can also substitute the sour cream with cottage cheese. French fromage blanc is actually a beat version of our textured cottage cheese.
3. Ember Day Tart.
Ingredients.
6 eggs
1/2 medium onion, coarsley chopped
1/2 lb. soft cheese, grated
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup zante raisins (a.k.a. "Dried Currants-Zante")
1 Tbsp. sugar
sage
parsley
hyssop
powder douce
salt
saffron
Directions.
Grind saffron, mix with butter and set aside. Parboil onions and fresh herbs and drain. Finely chop herbs. Beat eggs and combine with saffron-butter, onions, and remaining ingredients, pour into pastry shell, and bake at 350°F for one hour.
4. Mylates of Pork.
One of many variations on medieval pork pies, this recipe is perfect for using up left over roast or braised pork. The combination of flavors of the spices makes it stand out from the other recipes, but it still is simple and modern enough in taste to appeal to almost anyone.
Ingredients.
2 - 3 lbs. cooked pork
4 eggs
1 cup mozzarella, grated
1 1/2 tsp. powder fort
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch saffron
pastry for a double-crust pie
Directions.
Cut pork into approximately 1 inch pieces. Combine with eggs, cheese, pine nuts and spices in a large bowl. Mix well and place into bottom crust. Cover with top crust and bake at 350° until goldern brown - about 30 minutes. Serve either hot or cold.
5. Medieval Herb Bread
Ingredients.
2 pkgs. yeast
2 c. warm water
6 eggs
1 1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. oil
1 1/2 tsp. rosemary
2/3 c. parsley
8 c. flour
1 egg for top
Directions.
Dissolve yeast in water. Combine eggs, salt, oil, herbs and 3 cups flour. Add yeast and mix well. Add more flour to make dough and knead on floured board for 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl and cover. Let rise for 1 1/2 hours in warm place. Shape into two loaves on cookie sheet. Cover loosely and let rise for 45 minutes. Brush with egg and bake for 50 minutes at 375 degrees.
6. Oatcakes
Ingredients.
1-1/3 cups oatmeal
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. bacon drippings
6 Tbsp. hot water
Directions.
Place oatmeal, salt, and baking soda in a blender or food processor fitted with metal blades. Blend until meal is smooth. With the motor still running, drizzle in bacon drippings, blending slightly. Remove mixture and place in a mixing bowl. Stir in just enough hot water to make a stiff dough. Turn dough out onto a surface well-coated with oatmeal. Knead quickly but thoroughly. Roll out dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out rounds of oatcakes.
Traditionally, oatcakes are prepared on an ungreased griddle over medium heat. They should take about 3 or 4 minutes on each side, and then can be crisped under the broiler if desired.
Another option: Bake oatcakes in a pre-heated 325 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
7. Lammas Soda Bread
Ingredients.
1 lb. all-purpose flour
( or a mix of white and wheat flour )
salt to taste
1/2 tsp. cream or tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 pint milk
1 Tbsp. vinegar
Directions
Place the flour in a large bowl and add a pinch of salt, plus the cream of tartar and the baking soda. Pour the milk into another bowl, and stir in the vinegar. Then add the milk-vinegar to the flour mixture a little bit at a time to make your dough. Knead this a bit and then shape into a fine, round lump. Score a cross on the top of the loaf and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 for about 35 to 40 minutes. ( For those wishing a sweet bread, you can add in sugar to taste and some raisins or other dried fruit )
8. Waffres (Waffles)
Ingredients:
10 large eggs, beaten
700g flour
75g sugar
1 tbsp ginger
350g grated Cheddar cheese
½ tsp salt
Directions:
Add the solid ingredients (except the cheese) to a bowl and mix together, lightly beat the eggs and add them to the flour mixture. Finally add the cheese and mix thoroughly. The resultant mixture should resemble a thick batter.
You can either use a waffle iron to make these or you can make them in a frying pan. Butter the pan, get it nice and hot and drop a ladle of the batter into the middle. Cook for about five minutes on a side then serve.
9. Cheese and Flour Cake
Knead the necessary quantity of flour, one time with water, another with oil, and to it add yeast and milk until it has the same consistency as the dough of fritters, and leave it until it has next risen. Next grease with oil a large earthen pot, stretch in it a piece of dough, and over it a bit of cheese, and over the cheese a bit of dough, and so a little of one, and a bit of the other until the last of the dough and cheese. Next cover it with dough as you did in the previous recipe and cook it in the same way in the oven. Afterwards, drizzle it with honey, sprinkle it with sugar and pepper and eat it.
Ingredients.
2 c flour (1/3 whole wheat)
1/2-3/4 c water
3 T oil
1 1/2 t yeast
3 T milk
12 oz cheese
6 T honey
1 T sugar
1/4 t pepper
Directions.
Knead flour and water to a very dry dough, mix warm milk and yeast, let sit five minutes, add oil to dough, knead in. Knead milk and yeast into the dough for about 5-10 minutes, until fairly uniform. Leave 45 minutes to rise in a warm place. Divide dough in about 8 equal portions, flour and pat, stretch, or roll out to size of pan (about 4"x7"); if you roll it out you can use 12 equal portions. Layer with sliced cheese. Bake 45 minutes at 350deg. . Drizzle the honey over it. Serve with mixed sugar and pepper for the guests to sprinkle over to taste. This should probably be done with sourdough instead of yeast, but we have not tried it that way yet.
10. Torta of Herbs in the Month of May
Cut up and grind the same amount of cheese as I said in the first and second tortae ["a pound and a half of best fresh cheese"]. When you have ground this up, add juice from bleta, a little marjoram, a little more sage, a bit of mint, and a good bit of parsley; when all this has been ground in a mortar, add the beaten whites of 15 or 16 eggs and half a pound of liquamen or fresh butter, and mix. There are those who put in some leaves of parsley and marjoram that have been cut up but not ground, and half a pound [surely a typo for half an ounce, as in the previous recipes] of white ginger and eight ounces of sugar. When all of these have been mixed together, put this in a pot or deep dish that has been well greased on the coals at a distance from the flame so that it does not absorb the smoke; and stir it continuallyand let it boil until it thickens. When it is nearly done transfer it into another pot with the crust and cover it with your lid until it is all cooked with a gentle flame. When it is done and put on a plate, sprinkle it with best sugar and rose water.
Ingredients.
3/4 lb Monterey Jack cheese
herbs ground in mortar:
1/4 t marjoram (dry or fresh)
1/2 t sage (dry or fresh)
1 t fresh mint
1/2 c fresh parsley, stems off
3/8 c spinach + 1 T water
5 egg whites
1 stick melted butter (1/4 lb)
(1/4 c chopped parsley)
(2 t fresh marjoram)
(1/4 oz finely chopped ginger)
(1/2 c sugar)
double 9" pie crust
sprinkled on crust after baking: about 1/4 t rosewater, about 1 T sugar
Directions.
Spinach is measured unchopped, then chopped and ground in a mortar with the water to provide spinach juice in place of bleta juice. Mix this with other herbs and grind in mortar or food processor; mix with grated cheese. Beat egg whites lightly, melt butter and add; put in pie crust and cover with top crust. Unground herbs are an option; sugar and ginger, for a dessert pie, are another option (ginger seems to mean fresh ginger root). Bake at 400deg. for 10 minutes, then at 350deg. for about another 40 minutes, then sprinkle with mixed sugar and rosewater.
11. Tart de Bry
Take a crust inch deep in a trap. Take yolks of ayren raw and cheese ruayn and medle it and the yolks together and do thereto powder ginger, sugar, saffron, and salt. Do it in a trap, bake it and serve it forth.
Note: according to the OED, ruen cheese is a kind of soft cheese.
Ingredients.
9" pie crust made with butter
6 egg yolks
1 1/5 lb Brie cheese
3/8 t ginger
3 T sugar
8 threads saffron
1 t water
1/16 t salt
Directions.
Mash cheese and egg yolks together. Crush saffron into water to draw out the color, then mix that and the sugar and spices with the cheese. Put in crust and bake 50 minutes at 350deg. Cool before eating.
12. Pipefarces
Take the yolks of eggs and flour and salt and a little wine and beat them well together and cheese cut into strips and then roll the strips of cheese in the paste and fry them in an iron pan with fat therein. One does likewise with beef marrow.
Ingredients.
8 egg yolks
2 T flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 T wine (to make thick paste)
about 1/2 pound cheese
Works better with hard cheese such as cheddar.