An electronic version of the notebook in my haversack
So, yeah. Last year, I fell into a rabbit hole involving a medieval method of chemically cooking using calcium carbonate. Here’s an article I wrote about it…I need to revisit it one day, and expand on the article. Medieval Fireless Cooking
Spring Coronet Feast 2015 Documentation Oh, yeah, this feast. A couple friends of mine, Bjorn and Hilarie, were at the time Prince and Princess of Cynagua in the West Kingdom (if you don’t know where that is, don’t worry, it’s not crucial). In any …
Like many SCA Cooks, at some point you have to tackle a feast. This is one I did in 2014…with a handout about the food that was there for the guests to read. Now, I grant you, all my successes with feasts are because I work with an awesome team of likeminded Cooks. The ap Daffyd’s non-profession stunt cooking team is…well, it’s awesome.
Kitchen Chemistry Class 1 This might be the very first class handouts I wrote…a basic look at making cheese. May have to update it someday…
No, not leaving. It’s just that, many years ago, I took a class in pewter casting at the Estrella War. And, as one does, I came home, wrote my own class handout, and taught the local group how to do it. It’s basically, how to …
So, this is one of the oldest classes I taught where I wrote a handout. Basic definitions on meadmaking terms, and the basics on how to make it yourself.
So, after the boost to my cooking mojo from last week’s Culinary Symposium, I thought I needed to capitalize on that and play with the Transylvanian cookbook this weekend. The two recipes for “vetrece” caught my eye just now. Tenth. BEEF VETRECE WITH BREAD Salt …
I did say I’d post other classes I’ve taught. This is from last year’s Symposium, and was about the evolution of kitchens in the SCA’s period. The Origin Story
So, supposing you have gone to the trouble of making a batch of túró (not that it’s hard or all that troublesome). What to do with it?
Túró cake
Crush the túró, whip some eggs, then add some dill, sour cream and butter.
and
Dish with túró and sour cream.
If cooking for a prince or a lord, do it like this. Crush some túró into a pot, add some dill and whip some eggs; if you’re making this for a smaller plate, five eggs will do, then add some sour cream. Don’t add water, put it on coal and stir it while cooking.
Cook it, but serve it immediately once cooked, for it’s no good otherwise.
If you don’t have enough sour cream, add a bit of water if your lord wants. Cook the túró, whip some eggs and pass the sour cream through a strainer onto it.
I took a few liberties with these. I added black pepper, because the dish came out -really- mild. Bland even. I also would add salt. And instead of putting it in a pipkin, I poured the mixture into a pan and baked it for about 40 minutes. It is better warm, but not bad tepid or cool, either.
So, my interpretation:
1 batch túró (see the recipe previously posted—1 gal whole milk, 1 pint cultured buttermilk
4 tablespoons dill (I used the minced greens, not the seed)
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 tablespoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
5 eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus a little more to coat the inside of the pan
Instructions:
Prejeat oven to 325F. Alternately, and more historically accurate, you could cook it in a ceramic pipkin over coals, but when you add the mixture, you will need to keep stirring until the mixture is cooked.
Coat the pan with a little butter to keep things from sticking. Then mix all remaining together. Beat with a spoon until there are no lumps much larger than a pea. Pour into your prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes until the mixture is set, but not browned, except a little at the edges. Serve and eat while warm. Per the fellorium recipe already posted, you could top this with the eggs poached in whey if you wanted.
The only cheese actually specified in The Science of Cooking is “túró”. After hunting around for a description, I finally was able to get one from one of my translation checkers, who describes it as a very mild, unaged cheese with no real curd formation, …
So, if you know the story of how the Transylvanian Cookbook came to be in English, you’ll know the recipe title “Grim Reaper Cow Beef Juice” figured prominently in my decision to make it happen. I mean, I WANTED to know what that was. (Proper, …
So yeah, don’t try to pronounce that. Stands for West Coast Culinary Symposium Ten, and that’s where I was this weekend, fighting against this mighty cold, and having a great time anyway.
Womderful friends, food, learning, and teaching. A whole medieval event dedicated to the idea that medieval food is delicious, we should learn about it, and if you happen to already know something, you should teach it. I taught one class, took several others.
Set at lovely Camp Bothin this year (I was in charge of the one here three years ago). It was chilly at night (but not too cold), greenery everywhere, and you can hear the chuckling sound of the Hirschwassser burbling alongside the site (if you were there 9 years ago, you get the joke. Sorry, Hirsch).
Here are my class notes, from the class I taught on an introduction on the Transylvanian Cookbook (The Science of Cooking). More on that in many, many future posts.
Time to grab some more cough drops and do laundry. Real life will be here tomorrow.