Recipes for
Debatable Lands Barony Birthday, AS 35

 

An Italian Feast from De Honesta Voluptate, by Bartolomeo de Platina

 

Prepared and redacted by Margaret Makafee

Lunch prepared by Gregory of the Debatable Lands

Candied Nuts by Filip of the Marches

 

Translations from PLATINA (i.e. Bartolomeo de Sacchi di Piadena) De Honesta Voluptate, The first dated cookery book, Volume V from the Mallinckrodt Collection of Food Classics, Elizabeth Buerman Andrews translator

 

The Menu

Lunch

Ham

Reddish mustard sauce

Torta Bourbonnaise

Bread

Fruit

Frictellae from apples

Frictella from egg whites, fine flour and fresh cheese

 

A mid-afternoon refreshment

Ham

Bread

Cheese

Oranges

 

 

Dinner

1st course

Cucumbers

Onions

Carrots

Asparagus

Bread and olive oil

Grapes and figs

 

2nd course

Chicken wings

Cinnamon sauce

Calimari

Macaroni and cheese

Mushrooms in green salsa

Meat in the Roman style

Garlic and walnut sauce

Rice in rich broth

Salad

 

3rd course

Peaches with honey

Radishes

Candied walnuts and almonds

Pistachios

Cheese

Cherries and blueberries

Orange slices

Ham

.It is good cooked in white wine or vinegar. There are those who say that one ought to add as much water, indeed especially Publius, who does not drink wine; but doubtless they are in error. it is more flavorful cooked either in wine or vinegar and lasts longer. Ham should not be eaten, nor should its juice be drawn out, unless it has cooled.

 

4 lb. ham

White win)

 

Place ham in pot, and cover with wine (or mix wine and water 50/50 and cover). Bring to boil, simmer for 45 minutes. Let cool. Slice and serve.

 

Reddish mustard sauce

Grind up mustard, raisins, white corn meal and toasted bread crumbs and a little cinnamon, either separately or all together, when they are ground up, dissolve them in verjuice or vinegar and a little must. And pass this into dishes through a strainer. This is less warming than the above and stimulates the thirst and is agreeably nourishing

 

5 Tbsp mustard seed

1 Tbsp raisins

1-2 tsp flour

1/2 - 3/4 piece toast

Sprinkle of cinnamon

Red wine vinegar to desired consistency (about 3-5 Tbsp)

 

Grind mustard seeds. Grind in flour, raisins, and bread crumbs. Add sprinkle of cinnamon.Add wine vinegar in small amounts and blend until mustard is desired consistency. If you want a smooth mustard, strain. If you like course grain, it tastes just fine without straining.

 

Torta Bourbonnaise

Cut up and grind as much rich cheese as I said for the White Torta. Add add bleta, parsley, marjoram rinsed and cut up, four eggs well beaten, ground pepper, a little saffron, a quantity of liquamen or better, and mix with your hands, so that it nearly forms one mass. In the same way, put it into a pan with a bottom crust, and place it on the hearth. When it is half cooked, to make it seem more colorful, pour over it an egg beaten with saffron. It should be done when the upper crust rises.

Makes 1 pie

 

1 commercial pie shell bottom

4 eggs

2 cup shredded mozzarella

1 cup cottage cheese

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tsp fresh chopped marjoram

1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped broad leaf parsley

2-4 leaves Romaine lettuce, or 1 leaf white chard, chopped (green only if chard is used)

several threads saffron

1/4 tsp pepper

 

Wash and chop greens and herbs. Mix the cheese in a food processor or with electric beaters. Mix all ingredients together until has the consistency of thick, lumpy cake dough.

 

Bake pie shell in 450F oven for 10 minutes. Remove and reduce oven temperature to 400F. Pour mixture into shell and bake until the top puffs up (30-40 minutes). If you like, beat a couple threads of saffron into an egg and pour it over the top of the pie about 20 minutes into the process. Serve hot or cold.

 

Frictellae from Apples

Take apples that have been boiled or cooked under the ashes and mash them after you have peeled and cored them. Mix in a little yeast, flour, and sugar, and fry the frictellae in oil.

 

3 cup flour

2 cup applesauce

1/4 Tbsp yeast

1/4 cup sugar or to taste

 

Start the yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Mix together dry ingredients. Make a well and pour in the yeast, mix in. Mix in applesauce until mixture is desired consistency. Drop by spoonful in 1/4 to 1/2" hot vegetable oil. Fry until golden on each side. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately, or sprinkle with sugar and serve.

 

Frictella from egg whites, fine flour and fresh cheese

[Frictella from Elderberry Flowers] To grated cheese, aged as well as fresh, add a little meal, some egg whites, some milk and a bit more sugar, and grind all this together in the same mortar. When it is ground, take it from the mortar and put it in a bowl and sprinkle in whole elderberry blooms and blend. When this has been prepared, either with your hand or a spoon or any other fashion put it in a dish where you cook it either with boiling best liquamen or better oil. [Frictella from egg whites, fine flour, and fresh cheese follows thus] You will observe all that I said before, but leave out the milk and elderberry blooms.

 

8 eggs whites

2/3 cup shredded cheese (parmesan, romano, mozzarella, asiago, whatever you like)

1/3 cup cottage cheese

1 cup flour or as needed

1/8 to 1/4 cup sugar (to taste)

 

Mix together dry ingredients. Add cheese and egg whites and blend thoroughly. Drop into 1-2" hot oil (olive oil or vegetable oil depending on the flavor you're looking for)

 

Cucumbers

...The first two varieties are eaten with the rind and seeds removed, cut up, dressed in salt and oil and vinegar...

 

1 cucumber

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp red wine vinegar or to taste

salt

 

Peel a cucumber. Slice in half across the circular edge. Slice each half in half along the long edge. Divide each quarter in to quarters. Remove seeds if desired. Put a Tbsp olive oil on a plate and roll the cucumber in it. Sprinkle on salt and vinegar. Serve.

 

Onions

The onion is also cooked under the ashes and coals until all the rawness is steamed out of it; when it has cooled it is chopped finely and put in a dish with salt and oil and defrutum, or rolled in must....

1 large white or red onion

1 Tbsp olive oil or to taste

1 Tbsp concentrated 100% grape juice or unfermented wine grape juice

salt

 

Roast onion in its skin until done (outside is golden on a white onion). Let cool. Remove peel and chop into pieces of desired size. Toss in bowl with other ingredients serve.

 

Carrots

4 carrots

1 Tbsp olive oil or to taste

2 Tbsp concentrated 100% grape juice or unfermented wine grape juice

1 Tsp balsamic vinegar

A little each chopped parsley, mint, tarragon (or whatever you like)

 

Carrot...is considered more pleasant when cooked under warm ashes and coals. When it has been taken out and cooled a little, it should be peeled thoroughly, cleaned of ashes, cut up in little pieces, and put in a dish; salt should be added, and oil and vinegar, and a little defrutum or must, and then a few mild herbs sprinkled over.

 

Peel carrots and roast them for 30 minutes wrapped in tin foil. Let cool. Chop to desired size. Toss in dish with oil so that all pieces are coated. Toss with all other ingredients. Serve.

 

Asparagus

...Boiled asparagus is laid out on a platter and salt oil and vinegar are added.

 

1lb asparagus

1 Tbsp olive oil or to taste

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar or to taste

salt

 

Boil asparagus in salted water for about 5 minutes or until it is al dente but tastes cooked. Place on platter. Add olive oil, toss asparagus until it is well coated. Add balsamic vinegar and salt and toss. Serve immediately.

 

Roasted chicken wings

...The wings of birds, taken as food, are very wholesome nourishment, especially hens wings...

You will roast a chicken after it has been well plucked, cleaned and washed, and after roasting it, put it into a dish before it cools off and pour over it either orange juice or verjuice with rosewater, sugar, and well-ground cinnamon, and serve it to your guests.

 

2 lbs or so chicken wings

Juice of 1 medium to large orange

1 Tbsp cinnamon or to taste

1 tsp sugar

A little rosewater (if you must, I leave it out because I'm allergic to it)

 

Roast chicken wings until done. Squeeze orange. Dissolve sugar in juice. Mix in other ingredients. When wings are done, put them in a bowl and pour sauce over them. Serve.

 

Cinnamon sauce

With raisins, grind up thoroughly three pieces of bread that have been toasted and softened in dark wine. And when they have been ground up, dissolve them in dark wine, must, verjuice or vinegar if you prefer. Put in a sufficient amount of ground cinnamon and clove. Pass this through a strainer into a bowl, serve it to your guests when you please. This is readily digested, nourishing and easily absorbed...

 

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1 cup Valpollicello (or 1/2 cup mixed with 1/2 cup cold water)

1/8 cup raisins

1 - 2 Tbsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cloves

 

In food processor or mortar, grind together raisins, bread crumbs, and 1/3 of the liquid until smooth. Mix in the rest of the liquid and spices. Blend thoroughly. Let sit a while. Strain.

 

Calimari

Those who call them calarmarii would better and more properly call them atramentarii, for they have a head in the shape of an inkwell and often pour out a black fluid like ink. When they have been cut in large pieces and boiled with finely chopped parsley and spices, they should be fried a little and eaten with orange juice.

 

1lb calimari chopped into 1" pieces, or into rounds

1 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley

Dill to taste

1 bay leaf

Juice of 1 orange or 1/4 cup orange juice

1 Tbsp olive oil

 

Clean calimari and cut into desired shapes and sizes. Bring to boil enough lightly salted water to cover by 1 or 2 fingers. Add calimari and herbs. Boil for 2 minutes. Drain. Heat olive oil in a skillet and fry calimari in olive oil for a few minutes. Remove to dish and sprinkle on orange juice.

 

Rice in rich broth

[On meal in juice]...Spelt meal is cleaned and rinsed, cooked in juice of a chicken for a long time; when it has cooked transfer part of it into a deep dish. To this, when it has cooled a little, add the yolks of three eggs with some saffron and return it to the pot and sprinkle with spices [Rice in whatever juice you please] Prepare the rice in the same manner as the meal. Some leave out the eggs. This is done according to your choice.

 

Rice

Chicken broth

 

Prepare rice according to the instructions on the package, substituting chicken broth or chicken bouillon for water.

 

Mushrooms in green salsa

On Mushrooms and Fungi

...It may be cooked as pleases the greedy to say in some ways, with the third part which clings to the earth, in its juice, first in water with white bread, and then with pears or sprouts and twigs. Some put in garlic, which is thought to counteract the poison. They are fried, after being boiled and salted, in oil or liquamen, when they are fried, they are suffused with green sauce which they call salsa, or in garlic sauce.

 

2 lbs whole mushrooms (white or crimini or combination)

3 cloves garlic, whole, peeled.

salt

olive oil

Bring salted water and garlic to a boil. Boil until mushrooms change color. Drain. Fry in olive oil. Salt. Add salsa. Serve

 

Green Salsa

A sauce made from vine tendrils, called salsa Take delicate vine tendrils and grind them up well, add, if you wish, the stalk of tender garlic and a small amount of bread crumbs. I say nothing of salt, for almost no dish is made without salt, then moisten all this in vinegar or verjuice and, when it is moistened, pass it through a strainer into a dish.

 

20 vine leaves (I'm using bottled vine leaves because I don't have a source for fresh or tendrils. Because the bottled leaves are in brine, I'm leaving out the salt.).

2-3 clove garlic

2 -3 tbsp red wine vinegar

3/4 slice of bread worth of bread crumbs

 

Rinse vine leaves in water. Grind in mortar (or food processor). Add 1 clove garlic, well mashed, and bread crumbs and grind some more. Add vinegar until the consistency is as desired, Strain through a sieve or food mill.

 

 

Meat in the Roman style

Cut the meat of a young bull into morsels not larger than the size of an egg, in such a way that none is completely severed from the other; right away, sprinkle them with salt and coriander or ground fennel; having sprinkled them, press them a little between two boards. Then pass a spit through them with pieces of lard interspersed so that the pieces of meat do not touch each other. Turn them over the fire, seeing that they do not become too dry until they are cooked.

 

1lb beef or veal (stew chunks are ok, although roast parts may work better. At this feast, lamb is also included, although Platina does not describe it cooked this way)

A little beef suet

1 Tsp ground fennel seed

salt

skewers

 

Cut the meat as described above. Sprinkle on the spices. Put in a bag and press lightly with a plate--this works the spices into the meat. Remove meat and place slices/slivers of suet between each piece (this will keep it moist on the grill). Skewer the meat and cook on grill until desired doneness.

 

Garlic walnut sauce

Prepare this in the same way as above (To almonds or walnuts that have been coarsely ground, add as much cleaned garlic as you want and likewise, as need be, grind them up well, sprinkling them all the while so that they do not make oil. When they are ground up, put in white bread crumbs softened in juice of meat or fish, and grind again. And if it seems too stiff, it can be softened easily in the same juice.), but do not moisten it in water or juice, but in must of dark grapes, squeezed by hand and cooked down for half an hour. The same can be done with juice of cherries.

 

1/3 cup walnuts

5 cloves garlic

1/6 cup bread crumbs

1/3 + a bit more grape juice (I used concentrate mixed 1/1 with water, rather than 1/3)

 

Grind walnuts in food processor (not too fine). Sprinkle with a little water. Add garlic and grind. Stir liquid into the bread crumbs so that they are moistened all over. Add. Blend. Add as much more liquid as needed to get desired consistency (this should be a thick sauce, so not too much).

 

Macaroni

White flour, moistened with the white of an egg and rosewater, should be well ground. Roll this into slender bits like a straw, stretched to the length of half a floor. With a very thin iron stylus, scrape out the middle. Then, as you remove the iron, you leave them hollow. Then, spread out just so and dried in the sun, they will last for two or three years. Indeed, especially if they are made i the month of the August moon. They should be cooked in rich juice and poured into dishes and sprinkled with grated cheese, fresh butter, and mild herbs. This dish needs to be cooked for two hours.

 

1 1 lb. box macaroni or rotini (?)

beef bouillon (homemade, canned or good cubes. 5 cube per 1 lb. noodles)

1 cup fresh grated Italian cheese

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp each chopped Parsley, and basil

3 sage leaves

 

Bring pot of broth to a boil. Add macaroni. Boil until done. Drain most of the liquid. Return noodles to pot and add butter. Pour noodles and remaining broth in serving tray. Sprinkle on cheese. Mix herbs together and sprinkle on, dudes! Heat oven and put in noodles until cheese melts. Serve

Salad

A preparation of several greens is made with lettuce, bugloss, mint, catmint, fennel, parsley, sisymbrium, origan, chervil, cicerbita which doctors call Teraxicon, Plantain, Morrella, and several other fragrant greens, well washed and pressed and put in a large dish, sprinkle them with a good deal of salt and blend with oil, then pout vinegar over it all when it has sat a little; it should be eaten and well chewed because wild greens are touch. This sort of salad needs a little more oil than vinegar. It is more suitable in winter than in summer, because it requires much digestion and this is stronger in winter.

 

12-13 leaves of Romaine lettuce

handful of parsley leaves (1/8 to 1/4 cup)

1/4 fennel bulb

15 - 20 mint leaves

leaves from 3 sprigs tarragon.

 

Wash, dry greens. Add salt and oil, toss. Add vinegar. Toss.

 

Peaches with honey

...also one should not reject the opinion of those who say that peaches should be eaten after the meal, finely cut up and softened in best honey, because peaches cool the stomach opening and the upper orifices. This should be done when one has had roast for supper beforehand.

 

2 peaches

2 Tbsp honey

 

Slice peaches thin. Put honey on a plate. Arrange peach slices on it. Drizzle more honey on the peaches.

 

An alternative interpretation is slice several peaches. Fill the bottom of a bowl or wide jar with 1/8 - 1/4" honey. Add a layer of peaches, then a layer of honey until the jar bowl is full, ending with a layer of honey. Cover and refrigerate for several hours. Serve.