Dayboard: Push for Pennsic - 16th & Early 17th Century Italian Dishes

 Served July 9, 2022, for Aveline de Ceresbroch

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to cook for a dear friend and prepare a dayboard for the Push for Pennsic event held in my hometown of Troy, Ohio. The event was hosted by the Marche of Havenhold. This was a fun meal to put together and I am grateful for the opportunity to have done it. Thank you Aveline for asking :-) I was able to work with a few recipes that I did not think I would be able to do on a much larger scale. I learned quite a few new things, and, several recipes will be making an appearance again!

Most of the recipes can be found in "The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi". However, two of the recipes are found in Bartolomeo Stefani's "L' Arte di ben cucinare", available for free on Google Books at the link in the title. I had to translate from the original language into English, and then construct the recipe. Lastly, Project Gutenberg's "A Book Of Fruits And Flowers" by Anonymous supplied another recipe.

The menu is below:

Uva Fresca di Piu sorti - grapes of all manners - Scappi

Mandorle e noci fresche -Fresh walnuts and almonds -Scappi

Mostaccioli a la Romana - sweet cake - Del Turco

Ingredient list - sugar, flour, almond flour, egg yolk, cinnamon powder, opt: dried fruit

Biscottini di zuccaro - Sugar Biscuits - Stefani

Ingredient list - egg white, sugar

Preparare una gattafura di cipolle alla genovese. - To prepare Genevese Onion gattafura (tart) Scappi

Ingredient list - pastry dough (whole wheat and white flour mix, oil, salt & water), fresh mozzarella balls, onions, vinegar, salt and pepper

Vaccina salpresa alessata, servito con petrosemolo Salted pressed beef, boiled served with parsley - Scappi

Ingredient list: Beef, salt, pink salt, coriander, black pepper, garlic powder, fenne

Per cuocere Broccoli asciutti. - to cook dry broccoli - Scappi

Ingredient list - broccoli, olive oil, garlic, orange juice, salt, and pepper

Per far minestra di Lenti secche - To prepare a thick soup of dried lentils - Scappi

Ingredient list - lentils, garlic, pepper, salt, olive oil, lemon, fresh herbs

Insalata di arance tagliate a fette, servite con zucchero e acqua di rose - Sliced orange salad with orange flower water and sugar - Scappi

Ingredient list - oranges, orange flower water, lemon juice, dates, mint

Cascio - A Selection of Cheese - Manchego, White Cheddar & Gouda

Per preparare un twist ripieno. - To prepare a filled twist. - fruit stuffed pastry - Scappi

Ingredient list - currants (or raisins), dates, red wine, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, rosewater, flour, yeast, eggs, butter, salt

Conditi, & confettioni a beneplacito Comfits and candies to one's taste - Scappi

• Spanish Wedges

• Marzipan flavored with Quince

• Quince Paste

• Candied Angelica, Orange, Ginger, and Lemon Peels

• Figs in the French Fashion

Sources

"L' Arte Di Ben Cucinare". Google Books, 2022, https://www.google.com/books/edition/L_arte_di_ben_cucinare/J6M_AAAAcAAJ?q=&gbpv=1#f=false. Accessed 18 July 2022.

"The Opera Of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570)". Google Books, 2022, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Opera_of_Bartolomeo_Scappi_1570/oF2jsqrWtEkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover. Accessed 18 July 2022.

"The Project Gutenberg Ebook Of A Book Of Fruits And Flowers". Gutenberg.Org, 2022, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13265/13265-h/13265-h.htm. Accessed 18 July 2022.

GTOD Vigil Recipe - Pressmetzen zu Ostern

Pressmetzen Zu Ostern, Precedella, Torten von Epffel and Sugared Mint Leaves

I'd like to send thanks to Volker Bach for the inspiration for the festive centerpiece of the Vigil Feast.  Shortly after I was asked to do the Vigil daybard, he shared a memory for an Easter Feast from 2021.  I knew that I needed to make this pastry and the Dockenmilch.  If you have not visited culina vetus you are doing yourself a disservice. The breadth of the material found there is staggering. 


The cookbook of Balthasar Staindl from Dillingen in 1544 entitled “How to bake the Pressmetzen at Easter”.

Pressmetzen zu Ostern (from Balthasar Staindl)

ccxxii Make a good gentle egg cheese (like a custard) and do not burn it. Put it on a draining board so that it sinks down (drains) well, then take the egg cheese and stir it apart with a spoon, add more eggs, a little sweet cream, also grate manchet bread into it, yellow it (with saffron), season it, add sufficient raisins. Then take manchet bread (semmel) dough from a baker, roll it out wide, put the above mentioned egg cheese on it, and wreath (kräntzel) it around and around (make a plaited edge). Bake it in an oven, but before you put it into the oven, add figs, put almonds on top. Anoint the wreath outside with yellowed (saffron-dyed) egg yolks and put it back into the oven briefly. These flecken (tarts) are blessed for Easter.

Pressmetzen zu Ostern (from Balthasar Staindl)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 packet or 2 tsp. yeast

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup lukewarm milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. salt 

1 egg

Stir together yeast, flour, sugar and salt.  Mix butter, milk and egg together. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. The dough will be very sticky and "shaggy" at this point. Work the dough until it is smooth and pliable ( about five minutes).  Place into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Ingredients: egg cheese ( Ayerschotten ):

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
6 egg yolks or 3 large eggs

Pinch salt

1 tbsp sugar

Whisk eggs with milk, sugar and salt. Put in a saucepan and heat slowly stirring constantly until the liquid starts to boil.  Continue to stir until the whey separates from the egg cheese allow to cool to room temperature. Place a cheesecloth in a strainer, add the egg cheese, weight with a plate and add some cans to the top in order to press the cheese.  You want it as dry as possible before you add the remaining ingredients. Note: this can be made a day ahead. 

Other filling ingredients:

2 eggs

~1/3 cup breadcrumbs

1-2 tbps. sweet cream 

Pinch of saffron

1 tbsp. sugar

3/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/4 cup chopped figs

1 egg yolk

Once the egg cheese is dry,  stir in remaining eggs,  breadcrumbs and sweet cream into the egg cheese. Fold in the raisins, color with saffron and sugar to taste.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle and spread the egg cheese filling on top. Fold the dough over and twist into a ring on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Let this rest for another 20 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped figs and almonds. Bake in the hot oven for 20 minutes. Brush with egg yolk. Bake again for about 15 minutes.

Lemon and Ginger Syrup

Tacuinum Sanitatis: Medieval Horticulture and Health

Drink syrups are an easy way to bring flavor to the feast. They are easily portable and do not require refrigeration. They can also be diluted "to taste". I am uncertain where I found the ginger syrup recipe but would like to give the attribution to the author. If someone knows where this is located, please let me know.

If you are interested in other kinds of drinks that have been served at past events, please consider visiting the following link:

What to Drink? Four Drink Syrups for Recreation Feasts 

Lemon Syrup courtesy of   David Friedman

Take lemon, after peeling its outer skin, press it and take a ratl of juice, and add as much of sugar. Cook it until it takes the form of a syrup. Its advantages are for the heat of bile; it cuts the thirst and binds the bowels. [Translation from the Miscellany:http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/drinks.html]

Ingredients:

1 quart lemon juice
4 1/2 cups sugar

Heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for about 15 minutes-half an hour. Refrigerate. To use, dilute about 8 to 1 with water.

Ginger Syrup:

Ingredients

Approximately 2/3 cup Ginger
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup lemon juice
4 cups sugar

Peel a big hunk of ginger and mince. (About 2/3 c. per batch) Mix 2.5 cups water with 4 cups sugar. Bring to a boil. Add 1 cup lemon juice and reduce heat. Add several spoonful's of the ginger. Simmer until reduced by 1/6. Add rest of ginger. Simmer until reduced by about 1/3 from start. Cool. Strain & bottle. To use, dilute about 8 to 1 with water.

Note: if you cut the ginger into chunks rather than mincing, you can use the strained out chunks, put them in sugar syrup at the soft ball stage, and roll them in sugar to candy them.

GTOD Vigil Recipe - Rindfleisch Knödel (Rumpolt, 1581)

One of the things I wanted to do when requested to put together the vigil table was to make sure that there was a little something for everyone from the savory to the sweet.  For the carnivores I planned on offering a selection of meats; smoked pork, sausages made of pork, and pork and beef, chicken and meatballs of beef.  I wanted to make sure that everything was bite size.  In the past I have used meatballs to "round out" a course.  They are inexpensive and easy to make and if you use a tablespoon measure, you can get approximately 30 meatballs for a pound of meat. In this case, I was able to get more meatballs because of the addition of the bread.  My original intention was to roll them out into a log shape, but I served them up as balls instead.  They were delicious with the spicy brown mustard, cherry sauce and Käeßsuppen. 

Original German (Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt)

Ochsen 67. Knödel zu kochen auff ein andere manier von Rindtfleisch. Nim~ Rindtfleisch/ schneidt es klein/ vn~ klaub das Fett darvon/ hack es klein durcheinder/ nim~ ein wenig gestossen Pfeffer/ gerieben Saffran/ vnd ein wenig Saltz/ auch drey oder vier Eyer/ weich ein beschnitte~ Weck oder Sem~el eyn/ druck sie wol mit den Händen auß/ vnd hacks vnter das Fleisch/ thu saubere groß vnd kleine schwartze Rosein darvnter/ mach runde oder lenglichte Knödel darauß/ wie es dir wirt gefallen/ mach Butter heiß/ vnd rößt die Knödel darinnen fein langsam/ daß sie fein braun/ vnd nicht schwartz werden. Vnd wenn du sie hast außgerößt/ so thu sie in einen gekochten Pfeffer/ der wol


English Translation: (by M. Grasse)

Beef #67: Meatballs of beef to cook in another manner. Take beef/ and cut it small/ and trim the fat away/ hack (mix) it small and together/ take a little pounded pepper/ rubbed saffron/ and a little salt (salz in German)/ also three or four eggs/ soak a trimmed loaf or roll/ press (the liquid) out well with the hands/ and hack (mix) under the meat/ put clean large and small black raisins thereunder/ make (form) round or longish dumplings (meatballs) therefrom/ as it pleases you/ heat butter/ and slowly fry the meatballs therein/ that they become fine brown/ and not black. And when you have cooked them through/ put them in a cooked pepper/ that well testing and fixed is/ let them come to a boil again in the pepper/ so it is well tasting/ a good meal for poor and rich.

RECIPE:

1 pound ground beef (80/20)
1 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1 c. bread crumbs soaked in water or milk 
¾ c raisins (you can vary this to taste)

Please Note: I deviated from the recipe by boiling the meatballs in broth instead of frying. 

Mix all ingredients together adding water until the meat forms a paste.  Divide meat into portions and roll into shape (balls or logs as you desire).  If you are following the recipe, you will want to brown the meatballs in some fat in a pan.  

If you want to follow my shortcut, season some broth with the seasonings below (vinegar, black pepper, ginger), drop the meatballs in and cook a small batch at a time until they float.  Once they float, they can be removed, cooled and frozen until needed. 

I cannot claim the black pepper sauce recipe.  This is hosted on "The Inn at the Crossroads" website.  Another resource I like to use.  Their recipe is below:

Poivre Noir : Black Pepper Sauce

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

165. Poivre noir: Black Pepper Sauce. Grind ginger, round pepper and burnt toast, infuse this in vinegar (var.: and a little verjuice) and boil it. – Le Viandier de Taillevent, 14th century


Ingredients

1 slice bread, toasted until black
1/3 cup verjuice, or equal parts cider vinegar and water
1 Tbs. wine vinegar
1 Tbs. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Soak the burned bread in the liquid until it has fallen apart; mash with a fork. Stir in the spices and slowly bring to a boil. For a thinner sauce, add more liquid; for a smoother version, press through a sieve.

GTOD Vigil Recipe - Mosterdsaus- Sweet mustard & Spicy mustard (Rumpolt, 1581)

To accompany the meats there was a choice of condiments which included two separate mustards.  I enjoy it when I discover a receipt online and it can create two separate things. This set of instructions from "Ein new Kochbuch" is one such example. 

Please note: I could have made mustard by soaking the mustard seeds overnight and then adding vinegar (per Rumpolt). I also wanted a similar flavor profile between the two mustards, and would have added the wine to the recipe below to make sure the mustards carried a similar flavor.  Maiille's already contained all of the items I was looking for and was less expensive then purchasing the individual ingredients. Hence the substitution in the following recipes. 

Braun Senff mit lauterm Essig angemacht / ist auch gut
Brown mustard made with clear vinegar is also good.

10. Seudt Birn in süssem Most/ thu sie auß auff ein saubers Bret/ vnd laß kalt werden/ laß den Most weiter sieden/ biß er dick wirt/ laß jn darnach kalt werden/ streichs mit braunem Senff durch/ thu alsdenn die gesottenen Birn darein/ so wirt es gut vnd wolgeschmack. Wiltu aber ein guten Senff haben/ so stoß Aniß vnnd Coriander durcheinander/ streichs durch mit braunem Senffmehl/ vnd süssen gesottenem Wein/ so wirt es gut vnnd wolgeschmack.

10. Seethe pears in sweet grape juice/ take them out on a clean board/ and let cool/ let the juice boil again/ until it becomes thick/ then let it become cold/ strain through with brown mustard/ and then put the boiled pears in it/ so it becomes good and well tasting. However if you want to have a good mustard/ then crush anise and coriander together/ strain through with brown mustard powder/ and sweet boiled wine/ so it becomes good and well tastin

Sweet Pear Mustard

2 pears

1 cup sweet grape juice

Maille Old Style Mustard (water, mustard seeds, distilled vinegar, salt, white wine, sugar, lactic acid & natural flavor) 

Clean, pare, quarter and core the pears.  Add to a pot with the grape juice in it.  Allow pears to cook until they become soft enough to make into a sauce. Mix with mustard to taste.  I found a 50/50 blend added the perfect amount of sweetness. 

Spicy Brown Mustard

Maille Old Style Mustard

1 tsp. Coriander

1 1/2 tsp. Anise

Mix together spices with mustard.

Both mustards should age at least three days.  The longer they age, the better they get. 

Sources

Deutsches Textarchiv – Rumpolt, Marx: Ein new Kochbuch. Frankfurt (Main), 1581.
"Deutsches Textarchiv – Rumpolt, Marx: Ein New Kochbuch. Frankfurt (Main), 1581.". Deutschestextarchiv.De, 2022, https://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/rumpolt_kochbuch_1581?p=419. Accessed 3 May 2022.

GTOD Vigil Recipe - Kirschen - Cherries Stewed in Wine

Original German (Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt)

Kirschen/ die dürr seinn/ seß zu mit halb Wasser unnd halb Wein/ magst sie kalt oder warm geben.

Cherries/ that are dried/ set to (cook? Or soak) with half water and half wine/ (you) may serve them cold or warm.

Recipe:

1 pound frozen cherries
1½ cups red wine
1½ cups water
½ c sugar

Dried cherries are a bit more expensive then the frozen cherries, s I opted to use frozen cherries for this particular recipe.  However, at some point in the future I would like to try this with cherries thtat have been dried. 

To make, simply combine all ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the sauce has reduced and cherries begin to break down.  

Sources: 

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Digitale Bibliothek, M. (2022). Rumpolt, Marx: Rumpolt, Marx:Ein new Kochbuch ( 1587) - Digitised Book from the copyright-free holdings of the Bavarian State Library Munich [Germany] 2007-2022 Image-based Similarity Search. Retrieved 20 April 2022, from https://bildsuche.digitale-sammlungen.de/index.html?c=viewer&bandnummer=bsb00090475&pimage=1&v=2p&nav=&l=en

DFG-Viewer: Ein new Kochbuch
"DFG-Viewer: Ein New Kochbuch". Dfg-Viewer.De, 2022, http://dfg-viewer.de/show?tx_dlf%5Bdouble%5D=0&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fdaten.digitale-sammlungen.de%2F~db%2Fmets%2Fbsb00090475_mets.xml&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=394&cHash=fe888b8427aa3211b8dbd29c1f6ded66. Accessed 25 Apr 2022.

GToD Shoot for Your Breakfast Dishes - May Cake - Eggs with Parsley & Hanoney - Eggs with Onions

It came up in conversation recently that in my area, very few  "within period" breakfasts are offered at events.  It also came up that we also host very few winter events where outside garb is needed, mostly because we are located in Ohio, and that means snow spits at us and teases us until late January early February, and then it's just ugly.  One of these things I can help with, the other, not so much. 

In regards to breakfast, there are many, many, many egg dishes found in period that can be used for recreating period breakfasts.  Dining in the Middle ages was different then what we associate with breakfast today.  According to P. W. Hammond, author of  "Food & Feast in Medieval England"

Most commonly only two meals were eaten in a day. Normally the first meal of the day was the major meal. This was dinner. It must originally have been prepared to fit into a late-morning pause after the initial activities of one's daily routine. Because this meal required so much preparation, particularly in affluent households, it could not usually be available much before noon, the sixth hour of the day. By that time half of the day's work - or play - could very well be done. To conclude one's active day a second meal was more easily prepared and served some six or eight hours later, at or just after dusk. Because the original basis for this meal was soup, or sops, it became known as supper. This meal too was subject to elaboration at the hands of professional cooks, but universally it remained a somewhat simpler meal than the midday dinner. According to Platina in the second half of the fifteenth century, at supper 'we must eat food which our stomach can digest easily; however, we must eat rather sparingly, and especially those of melancholy humour whose ills usually are increased by nighttime dampness and food weighing them down with discomfort.

The first dish I chose was Hanoney from HARLEIAN MS. 4016 (ab. 1450 A.D). It is a very simple dish of eggs cooked with butter and onions that have been carmelized. 

Hanoney. ¶ Take eyren̄, and drawe the yolkes and white thorgℏ a  streynour; And take oynons, And Shrede hem smaƚƚ; And take faire butter or grece, and vnnetℏ ouere-couer the pan̄ therewitℏ; And fry the oynons togidre; then̄ late hem fry to-gidre a lite while; And take hem vppe, And serue hem forthe so, al to-broke yn̄ a dissℏ.

xlix - Hanoney. Take an draw the Whyte and the 3olkys of the Eyroun thorw a straynoure; than take Oynonys, and schrede hem smal; than take fayre Boter or grece, and vnnethe kyuer the panne ther-with, an frye the Oynonys, and than caste the Eyroun in the panne, and breke the Eyrouns and the Oynonys to-gederys; an than lat hem frye to-gederys a litel whyle; than take hem vp, an serue forth alle to-broke to-gederys on a fayre dyssche.

Interpretation  (serves 2)

1 small onion chopped

4 eggs

butter for frying

salt and pepper (opt. for modern taste)

Slowly cook onion in butter until translucent.  Add beaten eggs and season with salt and pepper.  For the event, I coated an aluminum pan with olive oil, placed the onions in the bottom and poured the beaten eggs over the top.  I baked it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.  

If using a pan, I imagine this would be similar to an omelette (for a lovely presentation), or a dish of scrambled eggs with onion in haste and need ;-)

The second recipe I chose to do was inspired by Volker Bach's translation from the original German.  This dish is equally simple, eggs flavored with parsley, salt and pepper. 

34 A dish of a cake

If you would make a good May cake for a lordly dish, take up ten eggs and beat them well and add parsley to it and stir it together. Set a mortar on the coals, put in a spoonful of fat and let it get hot. Pour in the eggs and let then cook at a low temperature (kwl packen). And serve it whole in a serving bowl. - Heidelberg Cod Pal Germ 551

18 A dish of infidel cake (heidenyschen kuchen)

Item if you would make an infidel cake for a lordly dish, take ten eggs and beat them well and take parsley with it and stir it in. Set a mortar on the coals, put in a spoonful of fat and let it get hot. Pour in the eggs and let it fry at a low temperature (kull pachen). Serve it whole on a serving dish. - Heidelberg Cod Pal Germ 551

Interpretation  (serves 2)

2 eggs

Butter or oil

Parsley, Salt and Pepper to taste

See above for instructions

Both of these dishes would make excellent appetizers or camp breakfast dishes. If you are feeling particularly cheeky, they could be made with powdered egg, powdered butter and seasonings to take with you on a hike.  I hope you enjoy.