Cooked by: Master Stefano, Lady
Elaine, Lord Mynjon, m’lord Guz, m’lady Nellie.
Bread
Watered wine
Lemon cordial
Salad (after Platina, Italy
c.1470)
Wash and dry a lettuce and
bunches of Italian parsley, basil, mint and dill. Toss salad vegetables in a
dressing made of 2 tbsp best balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp best olive oil, and salt
and pepper to taste.
Fried Cheese (after Platina)
Fry 400g of best brie cheese
cut into pieces the size of three fingers in butter. Sprinkle with a sweet
spice mixture made of white sugar, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Pasta (after “Sicilian
Macaroni” from Platina)
Boil 300g of dried large
macaroni tubes or other pasta in 750ml chicken stock until well cooked. Drain and
then arrange cooked pasta in a serving bowl, add thereto several small knobs of
butter and sprinkle with a sweet spice mixture made of white sugar, ginger,
cinnamon and nutmeg.
Chicken Crowned with Eggs
(after “Chicken in Chaucy” from Cury on Inglish, England c.1400)
A mortrews, or breadcrumb
thickened stew. Roast a whole chicken. Removing the skin and bones, break the
chicken flesh up into bite sized pieces by hand. Bring the chicken flesh to the
boil in a pan with 750ml chicken stock. Hard-poach or hard-boil six eggs.
Separate the whites from the yolks having a care to leave the yolks whole. Dice
the whites very small with a knife. Remove the chicken in stock from the fire,
take 2 tbsp of stock from the pan and mix with 2 large pinches of saffron. Take
4 handfuls of breadcrumbs and add a little salt and plenty of ground pepper,
ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Gradually add the saffron and chicken stock, and
enough chicken stock from the pan to make the breadcrumb and spice mixture to
the consistency of pancake batter, then thoroughly mix in the chicken flesh and
the rest of the chicken stock and the diced egg whites. Arrange all this
mixture in a serving bowl, place the egg yolks on top and sprinkle with a
little more salt and pepper decoratively.
Strawberry Pie (after “Cherry
Pie” from Das Book Von Guter Spise, Germany c.1400) with Cream
Make a 9” sweet pie crust. Fill
it with 750g washed and hulled strawberries. Sprinkle liberally with a sweet
spice mixture made of white sugar, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook in an oven
until the pie crust is cooked. Arrange for a small bowl or jug of fresh cream
to be served alongside the pie.
Comments: Total cost $56.20. This would make a good meal for eight
people. As it was it was rather extravagant for five. I think it would be
better to boil rather than poach the eggs for “Chicken in Chaucy”. Also, The
strawberry pie ended up very liquid; it might be worthwhile blind baking the
crust as Lady Elaine suggested. It also might be worthwhile adding a light
layer of breadcrumbs or sweet biscuit crumbs before filling the pie with
strawberries to soak up some of the juice during cooking.