(Medieval Cooking Basics) Make Your Own Cheese and Butter

 

Making your fresh cheese and butter is an easy way to start a project that would require whey, or, buttermilk to complete. The flatbreads that I made for the Harvest Day "Viking" lunch needed whey or buttermilk to create.

Making your cheese and butter is cost-effective as well, especially when feast planning, and is one of the tricks I used to stay within a tight budget. A gallon of milk is less costly than a pound of butter, or, a pint of ricotta.

Fresh cheese should be served at the beginning of the meal. This is based on the dietetics of the time, which likens the stomach to an oven, where the opening of the stomach in preparation for continuing to "cook" what you eat and keep you healthy begins with those things that are light, easily digestible, sugared, spiced, or oil and vinegared. This creates room in the budget to serve ripened cheese at the end of a meal of meat, or nuts, after a meal of fish or both as you choose. Diners are full and will eat less of the ripe more expensive cheese at the end of the meal. To be quite frank, I only plan about 2 ounces of ripe cheese at the end of a meal per table, which works out to a pound of cheese for eight tables. I do also plan two to three different cheeses cut into bite-sized pieces as well. Yes, it's a trick I use and nobody has complained (yet) that there wasn't enough cheese.

To learn more about the very basics of dietetics and how a modern cook can plan a meal around them, check out the Medieval Cooking Basics Class How to Arrange the Feast; The Application of Medieval Dietary Theory to Modern Day Feasts.

There is tons of available different recipes on how to make your own cheese and butter available through google. This is how I do it

"Fresh Cheese"

1 Gallon of Milk makes approximately 1 1/2 to 2 cups of cheese

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk + 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I prefer grass-fed organic milk or Fairlife whole milk, they produce the best flavor and curds)

Juice of a lemon (you can substitute vinegar)

Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Mix milk and cream together and place into a pot on the stove.

2. Heat until just below boiling. You will see steam rising from the milk and tiny bubbles forming all along the edge of the pot. Turn off the heat at this point

3. Squeeze in lemon juice, and add a pinch of salt. Allow setting on the stovetop until room temperature. The milk will curdle up and continue to curdle while it cools.

4. Strain off the whey by pouring the cheese into a cloth-lined strainer. Allow it to continue to drip for several hours or overnight depending on how firm you would like your cheese to be.

5. Add favorite add-ins and serve, or serve plain

NOTE: If you plan to bake the cheese, you will want a much dryer curd, you can add cream to it if it is too dry, but you can't take away too much moisture and nobody wants a soggy pie. If you want to serve the cheese as a "cream" cheese, leave it a little moister and blend in a blender.

"To Make Butter"

2 cups of heavy cream make approximately 1 cup of butter

Somewhere out there a real chef or old-time homesteader is probably going to gasp in horror at what I am about to disclose. This was a happy mistake on my part.

Ingredients

Heavy Whipping Cream

Pinch of Salt

Instructions

1. Pour heavy whipping cream into a blender and add the pinch of salt, with the idea that you are going to make whipped cream.

2. Pulse a few times, then set on "blend" and walk away for a few minutes to fold the laundry.

3. Lose track of time (ten minutes or so) and return too late to save the whipped cream, and voila, you have butter. What??

4. Remove butter from the blender, save what is left of the butter milk, curse the fates, and then press onward----

5. Using ice water to firm the butter and clean it. Using the back of a spoon or spatula press the water into the butter and rinse it a few times until the water runs clear. Pat or press the butter into shape, and store it to serve later.

Note: It is THAT easy. You can serve the butter right away if you wish without cleaning it, which will result in a very creamy spread. I prefer to clean the whey(?) out so that the butter lasts longer. One difference you will note right away, it is not yellow, it will be white. You can color it if you wish to serve it in a more familiar way. I choose not to.

The liquid that is strained off is a kind of "butter-milk" and you can drink it but it is much better if used right away to bake. If you need fermented buttermilk for baking, mix one part of the strained liquid with three parts of milk and allow to set overnight. Voila!

Gilding (Medieval Basics)

 Koekerye (1570)

33 Gilding Make a little honey water, brush the almonds with it, then put the gold or silver on them, and push it down with cottonwool where it does not lie straight. You can also gild gingerbread and other things this way. Prepare a broad stick to lift up the gold with. Do not touch it with the bare hand or it will spoil. Printed in Luebeck by Johan Balhorn, 1570

This is not a recipe. It is a how to gild items that you may wish to present with edible gold. This is something I learned how to do through trial and error. It was an expensive lesson and I hope to spare someone else the expense based on my experiences.

What is edible gold leaf?

Gold leaf is actual gold that is a high enough quality that it can be safely consumed. Make sure that when you are purchasing gold leaf that it is marked as "edible", otherwise, you are risking the consumption of things that can make you ill. Gold leaf will not enter your digestive system, but will pass through your body without being absorbed. It is tasteless, and for the most part, it goes unnoticed while eating.

Is gold leaf expensive?

Edible gold leaf is expensive. Edible gold leaf is made from 24 karat.

What is the best use for gold leaf?

The best usage for gold leaf is as an accent to your presentation, rather than using it to completely cover an item. Regardless of how you use it, the use of it will lend a very luxurious look to your presentations.

What does it look like?

Gold leaf can be purchased as either loose leaf sheets, or transfer sheets. It is usually found in small booklets that are approximately 2" x 4". My preference are loose leaf sheets.

What tools will I need?

• Gloves - to prevent the gold leaf from sticking to the oils on your skin and messing up your work

• At least two very fine bristled brushes- one to transfer the gold from the sheet to your presentation and one to dampen the surface of your presentation so the gold has something to stick to (I use a paintbrush)

• An area that is free of drafts - the sheets that you purchase are extremely thin and very sensitive to airflow.

How do you apply gold leaf?

For loose gold leaf:

To use gold leaf, the surface that you will be attaching it to must be moist. You can moisten the area with a brush that has been dipped in water and then pressed onto a bit of paper towel to remove excess moisture before painting the surface of the object you will be gilding. You can also use egg whites, or a solution of gum Arabic.

Carefully fold back the paper of the booklet before lifting the leaf from between the paper with a clean, dry, brush and then move it onto the area you want to apply it. The gold will want to adhere to *everything* so you will need to be very careful when handling it that you use only a small amount at a time.

The sheets of gold are ultra thin and will fold over on themselves as soon as they are lifted from the paper.

I prefer a more rustic look when gilding. The Spanish Wedges pictured above are an example of that. The gold leaf does not adhere to the entire surface of the item.

For transfer gold leaf:

Using transfer gold leaf is not always advisable. If your project is smaller, loose leaf gold leaf is the better option. For large areas (such as an entire cake), transfer may be best.

As above, the area that will be covered should be moist. Unlike above, you will want to lift the transfer sheet and place it face down on the surface. You will want to smooth the leaf down using very light pressure to ensure that the sheet is stuck to the surface. A large make up brush would be best.

Once you have gone over the whole of the backing sheet, gently pull the backing away from the object starting from one corner. It is not unusual to find that small pieces of gold leaf may remain attached to the backing sheet. Repeat the above steps to adhere it to the object you are gilding.

Note: Gold Leaf will never have a 100% smooth finish and that is it's beauty, it will always be imperfectly perfect, so don't stress if it you see imperfections--whatever you have gilded will be absolutely stunning!

Source

Culina-Vetus.De, 2022, https://www.culina-vetus.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Koekerye-1570.pdf. Accessed 21 Sept 2022.

The Importance of Color in the Middle Ages

A medieval banquet scene from an illuminated manuscript, where rich colors—red, blue, green, and gold—signaled wealth, virtue, and festal meaning.

The Importance of Color in the Medieval and Renaissance World

Color in the medieval and Renaissance world wasn’t decoration—it was language. Every hue carried meaning, from the virtues on a knight’s shield to the foods on a feast table. This article explores the rich symbolism of color across heraldry, religion, humoral medicine, and banqueting, with a case study of the tawny-hued drink Tannye from Harleian MS. 279. Discover how cooks used spices, herbs, blood, and even saffron to dye their dishes with purpose, and how diners read those colors as signs of faith, fortune, and health.

Kitchen Adventures – 17th Century Dessert (Spanish Wedges)

Spanish Candy Wedges from A Book of Fruits and Flowers, 1653

Originally published:  Jul 2, 2022

https://giveitforth.wixsite.com/giveitforth/post/medieval-desserts-spanish-wedges

To Preserve all kinde of Flowers in the Spanish Candy in Wedges.

Take Violets, Cowslips, or any other kinde of Flowers, pick them, and temper them with the pap of two roasted Apples, and a drop or two of Verjuice, and a graine of Muske, then take halfe a pound of fine hard Sugar, boyle it to the height of Manus Christi, then mix them together, and pour it on a wet Pye plate, then cut it it in Wedges before it be through cold, gild it, and so you may box it, and keep it all the year. It is a fine sort of Banquetting stuffe, and newly used, your Manus Christi must boyle a good while and be kept with good stirring.

Download Recipe Here

Ingredients

2 apples (I used granny smith)
1-2 drops white wine vinegar (to replace verjuice)
1 grain of musk *opt.
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup water
Pinch of dried edible flowers

Directions

1. Peel and core your apples, cut into wedges, and roast in a 400-degree oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until apples have started to brown.

2. While apples are roasting bring your sugar and water and boil it until it reaches 245 degrees.

3. Add sugar syrup, roasted apples, white wine vinegar, or verjuice to a blender and blend until smooth. Opt. Add a drop or two of food-grade musk flavoring at this point.

4. Prepare a mold by spraying it with a little bit of oil and lining it with parchment paper.

5. Sprinkle flowers on the bottom of the tin, add the apple mixture. Be sure to sprinkle more flowers on top.

6. Allow drying until no longer sticky to the touch, cut as desired.When completely dry this candy has the texture of maple sugar candy, otherwise, it is very similar to fruit leather. Store in air tight container

NOTES:

There are two different ways this recipe can be read. The first is the method that I used where the pureed apple is added to the boiled sugar syrup and allowed to dry. The second is that the pureed apple is added to the sugar and water and that mixture is then brought to a boil before being poured into your mold.

It took several days for this beauty to dry completely. When it had dried became a crystalized sugar candy. I did allow it to dry overnight in the oven before removing it from the mold. I veered from the recipe by using a 6" tart pan instead of an 8" pie pan, and I believe this made the candy thicker than originally intended.

I also believe that this very thick candy should have been allowed to dry two or three days before I removed it from the mold and cut it into wedges. The thing that I would do differently in the future would be to make a thinner candy by using a larger plate.

I believe this is a very luxurious treat, that would enhance any dessert course at an event. The taste is a very sweet apple, with just a touch of floral note at the end of the bite. I cut this 6" tart-shaped treat into 12 wedges and I would not want to make it any bigger. At this size, it creates a two to three-bite candy.

TOA Documentation

Source

"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?fbclid=IwAR1UD2bx6I7bO97kplgubSC10fQE05PsXq0GMT8gFpH9C-xvmtRwouCh_x8.