4 or 5 slices of stale bread, grated into breadcrumbs
Method
Chop all of the vegetables, place in a large pan or cauldron with the beef.
Add all of the beef stock and enough of the vegetable stock to cover.
Add the spices and herbs.
Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 3.5 hours, adding more stock as necessary.
Add the grated breadcrumbs to thicken, simmer for another 10 minutes and serve.
Venison Pottage
Ingredients
1kg diced venison
Red wine
1 large onion
I leek
Handful of currants or raisins
5-6 tablespoons Honey
2-3 tablespoons Red wine vinegar
Long Pepper
Mace
Dried ground galangal
Juniper berries
Salt
Method
Put the venison in a bowl.
Grind the spices together, add the salt and add all the seasoning to the venison.
Thinly slice the onion and leek and add with the currants to the meat.
Pour over enough red wine to cover the meat and add the honey and vinegar. Stir well.
Ideally leave to marinade over night.
Transfer the meat and the marinade to a fire proof pot and cook over a moderate fire for about 2 hours.
Grape stuffed Chicken
Ingredients
1 medium chicken
200g of white/green grapes
2 tablespoons of rough chopped sage
2 tablespoons of rough chopped parsley
1 tablespoon of oil
2 pints of vegetable stock
Poudre et douce
Method
Chop the grapes in half, place into a bowl, add the herbs and oil and mix.
Use the mixture to stuff the chicken, tying the legs in order to ensure the mixture doesn't fall out.
Place into a pan, cover with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
Simmer for just under an hour or until cooked.
Drain off the stock, sprinkle with Poudre et Douce and serve.
Sweet and Sour Fish
Ingredients
1kg fish fillets (any firm fish will do)
5 tablespoons flour
1 medium onion, finely chopped
175 ml white wine
150 ml cider vinegar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
Pinch of mace
Teaspoon of cubebs (ground)
Salt
Handful of each currants and raisins.
Method
Cut the fish into chunks and coat in flour.
Heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion and the fish and brown it.
Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over the fish. Remove from the heat and allow to marinade for a while.
Return to the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the fish flakes and the sauce is reduced.
Pease Pottage
Ingredients
750g of green peas (frozen are fine)
2 large onions
2 leeks
1 pint of vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of chopped coriander
1 teaspoon of mace
1 tablespoon of oil
4 or 5 slices of stale bread grated into breadcrumbs
Method
Chop the onions and leeks finely, place into a pan with the herbs, spices and stock.
Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 2.5 hours.
Add the oil, grated breadcrumbs and stir.
Simmer for 10 minutes then serve.
Beans and bacon
Ingredients
750g of broad beans (frozen are fine)
1 leek
5 rashers of unsmoked bacon
1 pint of vegetable stock
Poudre et douce
Method
Chop the leek finely, slice the bacon into small strips and place in a pan with the broad beans,
Add the vegetable stock.
Bring to the boil and simmer for approx 1.5 hours
Add the Poudre et douce and serve.
Edible Medieval Pastry
Ingredients
500g Strong white flour
250g Butter
Hot water
Method
Rub the butter into the flour.
Add hot water and mix to form a dough.
If too sticky add more flour.
Use as required
Cook at 160˚C Fan. 180˚C electric Gas Mark 4
Lamb Pie Filling
Ingredients
500g minced lamb
Finely chopped onion
Salt
Pepper
Coriander
Method
Mix ingredients together and fill pastry case.
Add a pastry top.
Brush with beaten egg and bake
Sage sauce for Pork
Ingredients
Fresh sage and parsley
Pinch of salt
Cooked egg yolk
White wine vinegar
Method
Grind together equal quantities of sage and parsley with a pinch of salt.
Add one cooked egg yolk and continue grinding.
Gradually add wine vinegar until the required consistency is achieved. It should be quite thick.
Salad
Ingredients
A selection of green herbs: Parsley, sage, mint, borage, watercress, rosemary, purslane, fennel,
Also: leek, onion, garlic
Olive oil
Wine vinegar
Salt
Method
Wash the herbs and discard any that are damaged.
Finely chop the leek, onion, and garlic.
Mix the oil and vinegar in the proportion 3:1 and add the salt.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and serve.
Raspberry Cream
Ingredients
1 1/2 pints of double cream
3 egg whites
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons of ground mace
300g of raspberries
250g of brown sugar
Method
Whisk the egg whites with a little of the cream, then put the rest of the cream in a pan. Heat the pan gently till the cream comes to the boil, then take off the heat. Add the lemon juice, mace and egg mixture. Stir. Put back on the heat, simmer until the mixture thickens. Take off the heat, leave to cool (at home you may want to put in a fridge).
Place the raspberries and sugar in a pan, heat gently until it as all melted together into a big pan. Take off the heat and cool.
After an hour or so of cooling, place the cream custard into a bowl, and spread evenly. Then spoon the raspberry mixture on top and serve.
Gingerbread
Ingredients
1 jar honey
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of saffron (optional)
About 500g white bread crumbs
Gold leaf (optional)
Method
Heat the honey in a large saucepan until just at boiling point. Add the spices and stir.
Remove the pan from the heat and start to stir in breadcrumbs. Continue adding crumbs until the mixture absorb no more.
Turn the gingerbread out onto greaseproof paper. Cover with another sheet of greaseproof and roll flat until about 5mm thick.
Cut into shapes. Diamonds are good but rectangular lozenge shapes work too. If desired, decorate with gold leaf.
Alternatively, for a higher status dish, line an 18cm round cake tine with greaseproof and press the mixture in to it, pressing it flat. Turn out and decorate with gold leaf.
This recipe make quite a lot, but it will keep for quite a long time and can be frozen.
Pears in syrup
Ingredients
1kg of pears peeled, cored and quartered
1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
8 tablespoons of red wine
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of mace
2 ground cloves
3 tablespoons of currants
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
50g of chopped dates
Method
Dissolve the cinnamon in the red wine, put the mix into a pan, add the sugar, mace and cloves.
Bring to the boil until all the ingredients are dissolved.
Add the currants, dates and pears and poach until the pears are softened.
Add the ginger, then more cinnamon or sugar to taste. Serve.
Hippocras
Ingredients
I bottle red wine
100g sugar
4 cinnamon sticks
Long peppers
Mace
Dried ginger root
Method
Take a cup of wine and put it in a saucepan, add the sugar and heat gently to dissolve.
Grind the spices together and add to the hot wine. Heat gently for about an hour. Taste and adjust spices to taste.
Strain the liquid to remove the spices.
Add the rest of the bottle to the spiced wine and heat gently. Serve.
This can be made with grape juice, in which case reduce the sugar.
Claret
Ingredients
2l White wine
175g Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Ginger
1 Tablespoon Grains of Paradise
1 Tablespoon Long Pepper
1 Tablespoon Galangal
Method
Take ¼l wine and put in a sauce pan with the sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
Meanwhile, grind the spices. Add the ground spices to the warmed wine and leave to infuse.
Strain the infused liquid through a cloth and add to the rest of the wine.
The original recipe has iris root which can induce labour so has been omitted.
Grape juice can be used instead of wine, in which case adjust the sugar to taste.