Wednesday 25 February 2009

Come on, you must be hungry!

At least after you read your way through the recipes listed on Medieval Cookery. And there's even a blog to go with the site.

If you are at all interested in medieval cooking, go check it out (but have something to snack on ready). There's even a forum, so you can connect to other cooking enthusiasts, should you be one. (Yes, kuechenmeyster. I know where you will spend the next hours. Like they said over at phd comics, in the now defunct blog: "We're not working, so why should you?")

4 comments:

Dr. Richard Scott Nokes said...

Have you tried any of those recipes? I've been thinking of trying one or two of the easy ones.

a stitch in time said...

No, not yet - and probably not during the next few days, since I have beetroots and potatoes in the larder, and the only recipes I could find for beetroots are pickles. Not the thing I prefer for wintry cold weather.
I'm really intrigued by the candied horseradish, and I definitely want to try some of the pie recipes. I need to do some shopping before that, however, since a lot of the easy recipes seem to call for saffron, and I never got around to buying that...

Doc said...

You can leave out the saffron, but it adds a distinctive flavor that (along with the use of cinnamon and ginger) I've come to associate with medieval European cuisine.

One of the odd things about the medieval use of beets is that most beet recipes call for the leaves and not the root. I don't have ready access to the relevant horticultural information, but I suspect that beet roots were not as well developed back then.

Nowadays people only eat the roots, so the leaves of beets at all the local grocery stores are in a state that is unfit for human consumption (read: nearly rotting) - which is why I have so few beet recipes.

Let me know if I can help you guys out with recipes or sources.

a stitch in time said...

Yes, I've heard a lot about the distinctive flavor of saffron. I haven't dared to buy some yet because I have also heard a lot about saffron being diluted or substituted and I would not know how to tell the real thing from the not-so-real saffron. If you have a foolproof way of telling - that would help me a lot!

And by the way, I've had a "oh I'm so medieval" moment when reading the recipe for pickled beets with horseradish, since I'm quite fond of beetroot (and potato) soup with crème fraiche, seasoned with ginger, oregano and horseradish.