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, non-Google translation of the title is “Beef with Garlic Harvest Sauce”). And that garlic harvest sauce shows up in a great many of the recipes in that cookbook. Good reason, it’s delicious! And so, here’s my interpretation of it:
Twelfth. Pork with harvest sauce.
Prepare the pig like I told you to. After the meat is tender, slice some onion and parsley leaves. When serving it, make harvest sauce. Don’t forget to add spices.
Which would help more if you knew the rest of the cookbook. This is more effective:
Veal with harvest sauce.
Do the same like I told you. Boil the meat, add some onion, parsley roots and when it’s done, slice some parsley leaves too, when it’s done and you’re about to serve it whip some eggs in vinegar, pass the broth through a strainer into a bowl, whip it so that the eggs won’t shrink the hot broth; put this vinegar egg sauce on the meat, serve at least three or four slices.
The instructions for the beef version( which is first in the cookbook) also talk about adding black pepper.
So, I roasted the shoulder of a pig in a Dutch oven, nothing special but some onions, salt and pepper with it. Left the lid on, because I wanted it to make broth. After about four hours at 325, it came out, and I simmered some chopped parsley roots and a celery root in the broth, puréed them there ,and then it was allowed to cool, and was refrigerated. The broth was cooled too, so that the next day I could easily peel off the fat and discard it.
When came time to serve at the Symposium Friday potluck, I sliced and reheated the roast, and made the sauce. First, I beat 6 large eggs with about a cup of white wine vinegar and a tablespoon or so of black pepper. Then I tempered it into the slowly reheating pork broth which was about 4 cups in volume. As a note, this would be much easier in a ceramic pipkin with its temperature control.
Once the broth and eggs were together, I continued heating, not allowing it to boil, and kept stirring until the sauce was creamy and thick. Then I poured it over the pork and served it. I admit, I forgot to add the chopped fresh parsley over top.
Wait, why the celery root? The roots add body and a small amount of flavor to the broth, the way a non-medieval russet potato might. But parsley roots are hard to come by, and the flavor after cooking isn’t all that strong, so I went with a similar effect with only a few parsley roots and a celery root. Parsnips would have worked too.
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How did the sauce turn out? I am very interested to know how, or if what sounds like scrambled eggs vinegar and broth changed consistency.
My first comment! Squee!
That’s the trick, the various recipes that call for this sauce advise you not to let it boil, so my take on it is that they were aiming for a creamy sauce. You can achieve that by tempering your egg mixture into the warm broth (ladle warm broth into the egg mixture while stirring constantly, and when the eggs are warm and doubled in volume, slowly pour the eggs+broth into the remaining broth, again, stirring constantly.
Actually, this is easier when your broth is starchy (the puréed celery/parsley root), and in a ceramic pipkin, which heats only very slowly. I’m looking forward to trying this with my medieval cookware, either here at home or (sound the trumpets) at the Cooks’ Playdate this July.
Done carefully on a modern stove in a heavy pot, though, the sauce comes out rich and creamy, not really sour, and has no dairy. The flavor is parsley and garlic, which is no bad thing at all.