Baronial 12th Night - Brawn with Mustard- Pork with Mustard The good husvvifes ievvell, 1587

Brawn with Mustard- pork with mustard The good husvvifes ievvell, 1587

To sowce a Pigge. TAke white Wine and a litle sweete broth, and halfe a score Nutmegs cut in quarters, then take Rosemarie, Baies,Time, and sweete margerum, and let them boyle altogether, skum them verie cleane, and when they be boyled, put them into an earthen pan, and the syrop also, and when yee serue them, a quarter in a dish, and the Bayes, and nutmegs on the top.

To Souse (pickle) a Pig. - Take white wine and a little sweet broth, and half a score nutmegs cut in quarters, then take rosemary, bay, thyme and sweet marjoram, and let them boil together, and skim them verie clean, and when they are boiled, put them into an earthen pan, and the syrup also, and when you serve them, a quarter in a dish, and the bay and nutmeg on the top. 

Interesting note: A score is 20, so the recipe above called for ten quartered nutmegs!

To Pickle Pork

2 cups water
1 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tbsp. sugar

I combined a couple of different recipes to create the pork dish that I served. Because I knew I wasn't going to use the wine I prepared a brine to pickle the pork before cooking it. I created a very basic brine by heating all of the ingredients below, adding about a cup full of ice to quickly cool it and then putting it and the pork which I had sliced into pieces into ziplock bags and placing them in the fridge for about 24 hours. This created a very light pickle on the pork. I have also done this in the past using a combination of the spices called for David Friedman's "Lord's Salt" recipe (it's delicious).

Brawn with Mustard

1 ½ to 2 pounds pork (I used shoulder roast with bone in)
2 cups dry white wine (I subbed chicken stock and ginger ale)
Fresh Rosemary, thyme and marjoram (ok, another confession--I used a 3/4 ounce package of thyme, rosemary and parsley mix, putting the parsley in the beef, and the rosemary and thyme in the pork and then added about 2 tsp. dried marjoram)
4 fresh bay leaves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 ½ tsp. salt

Rinse the pork very well after you have brined it. Place the pork in the pot with the remainder of the ingredients. You may even wish to forego the salt because the pork should be plenty salty already, and cook until tender. I froze this and then thawed and warmed it the day of the event, and serve it with my favorite mustard (slightly out of period).

To Make Mustard of Dijon The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May

The seed being cleansed, stamp it in a mortar, with vinegar and honey, then take eight ounces of seed, two ounces of cinnamon, two of hone, and vinegar as much will serve, good mustard not too think, and keep it close covered in little oyster barrels.

To Make Mustard

1 cup mustard seeds
1 ½ cups mustard powder
¼ cup cinnamon
¼ cup honey
½ cup vinegar
1 ½ cups water

Grind the mustard seeds for a few seconds in a spice or coffee grinder, or by hand if you wish using a mortar and pestle just enough to crack. Pour the seeds, mustard powder, honey and cinnamon into a bowl and then add cold vinegar and water. Wait at least 12 hours before using.

What I have learned with this particular mustard is that you really need to make it long before you plan to serve it. The longer it sits, the better it gets, so this is one of the first things I made for the event after I made the sugar candies. It sat for about two weeks prior to the event in my fridge with a post-it note advising anyone who thought about using it they would be in trouble. To be honest, I've made it once and have since purchased stone ground mustard and a whole grain mustard and mixed them together, adding the honey and the cinnamon to them.