Province of the Mists Boar Hunt 2001
German Feast Third Course

• Pork Roast - with garlic
  
• SAUCES
  • Swallenberg Sauce - white wine, honey, ginger, pepper, garlic, egg whites - Guter Spise
  • Bitter Seville Orange Sauce with cinnamon, sugar, rosewater - Marx Rumpolt
  • Horseradish Sauce with ground almonds and white wine - Das Kochbuch des Meisters Eberhard, 15th C.
  • A Sauce for Venison or Pig - white wine, cherry syrup, Lebkuchen, apples, almonds, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, currants, raisins, vinegar - Ein Kochbuch von Sabina Welserin, c. 1553
  
  
• Spinach with bacon, sugar, currants, pepper, ginger - Marx Rumpolt
• Beef Tongue - sliced and simmered in a sauce of apples, onion, pepper, saffron, raisins, beef broth, vinegar - Ein Kochbuch von Sabina Welserin, c. 1553
• Char de wardon - Pears (wardons) cooked in white wine, pureed with sugar, honey, cinnamon, egg yolks, ginger - 15th C. English
• Lentils with vegetable broth, onion, garlic, green herbs, bacon - Marx Rumpolt
• Hot Faulx Ypocras - Medieval spiced grape and other juices

Spinach

Marx Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch

194. Wash the spinach nice (and) clean/ and press the water well out/ throw (it) in hot butter in a pan/ and fry it well therein/ pour a little pea broth/ and a little bacon thereunder/ put also a little sugar and small raisins therein/ a little pepper and ginger/ let it come to a boil/ so a little broth develops/ so it becomes good and welltasting. If you have no sugar, so pour sweet wine, that has boiled/ therein/ and let it simmer with that/ so it is good also.

9 bunches fresh spinach
2 sticks butter
2 cups pea broth from pea soup or vegetable broth
12 slices bacon, cut up into small pieces
3 TB sugar or boiled sweet wine instead of sugar
1-1/2 cups currants
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp ginger

1. Wash spinach well making sure to remove all sand, drain, then pat leaves dry with paper towels.
2. Melt butter in a pan.
3. When melted, add spinach, and cook stirring until well wilted.
4. Add pea broth set aside for this purpose earlier in the day or vegetable broth, sugar, currants, pepper, and ginger to cooked spinach.
5. Set aside one serving dish worth without bacon at this point for vegetarian and Kosher diners.
6. Add bacon to remainder of spinach in cooking pan.
7. Bring it to a boil so a little broth develops and bacon is cooked through.
8. Dish, being sure to keep bowl without bacon clearly separate from those with bacon.

NOTE: This didn't make very much spinach - i like spinach! - and it was all devoured - the feasters liked spinach, too! I had a number of compliments on the dish. People wandered into the kitchen asking for more.

Tongue

Marx Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch

19. Put the tongue into a water/ and let it simmer till done/ clean it out/ and pull the skin off/ peel apple and onion thereto/ and chop them small. Take clear (lauter = clear) butter in a kettle/ and make it warm/ and put the apple and onion therein/ sweat them rather/ and take a little flour/ crushed pepper/ rubbed saffron/ small and large raisins thereto. Take beef broth and vinegar/ so it becomes nice and tart/ Cut the Tongue apart/ lay it on a rack/ and brown it on both sides/ Put that into the mixture/ and let it simmer therewith/ so it becomes good and Well tasting.

-- First Part - Preparing Tongues

1 eight lb cow tongue
water to cover
Optional Aromatics:

1 large onion
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp salt
2 bay leaves

1. Rinse tongue and cut off any obvious bits of fat and gristle.
2. Place in pot with water to cover, add optional aromatics, as desired. Simmer 3-4 hours, until a sharp knife can be inserted easily.
3. Pull off the tough skin while tongue is still very hot (it will peel off easily now, not at all if you let it cool). If tongue should get too cool, put it back into simmering broth for a few minutes.
4. Let peeled tongue cool.

I didn't use the aromatics - i think it might have been better with them...

-- Second Part - Making the Dish

20 apples, peeled and diced
10 onions, peeled and diced
2 sticks butter
white wheat flour as needed - begin with 1/2 cup.
1 TB. pepper
1/2 tsp. saffron, crumbled
2 cups white raisins
2 cups currants
beef broth, from concentrate - also use water left from boiling tongues, with stuff skimmed off
2-1/2 cups vinegar

1. In deep heavy pan melt the butter, add the apples and onion, and cook until onion is translucent but not brown.
2. Mix flour, pepper, and saffron.
3. Add flour to apples and onions, stirring to prevent lumps.
4. Let cook for a few moments to remove raw taste from flour.
5. Add raisins, currants, broth and vinegar: should be tart and a little sweet.
6. Simmer briefly to blend.
7. Cut tongue into 1/4" slices, trimming gristle and fat as necessary.
8. Brown tongue slices on grill.
9. Return tongue to sauce and let simmer until sauce reduced by half.

Char de Wardons

Based on two recipes in "Two 15th Century English Cookbooks"
instead of Ein gute fülle = pears cooked in honey, German

Harleian Ms. 279. xxxiv. Chardewardon. Take Pere Wardonys, an sethe hem in wyne or in fayre water; [th]an take an grynd in a morter, an drawe hem [th]orwe a straynoure wyth-owte ony lycoure, an put hem in a potte with Sugre and clarifyd hony, an Canel y-now, an lete hem boyle; [th]an take it fro [th]e fyre, an let kele, an caste [th]er-to [z]olkys of Raw eyroun, tylle it be [th]ikke; & caste [th]er-to pouder Gyngere y-now, an serue it in manere of Fyshhe; an [z]if if it be in lente, lef [th]e [z]olkys of Eyroun, & lat the remenaunt boyle so longe tylle it be [th]ikke, as [th]ow it had be temperyd with [th]e [z]olkys, in [th]e manner of charde quynce; an so serue hem in manner of Rys.

Harleian Ms. 4016. Chare de Wardone. Take peer Wardons, and seth hem in wine or water; And then take hem uppe, and grinde hem in a morter, and draw hem thorgh a streynoure with the licour; And put hem in a potte with Sugur, or elle3 with clarefiede hony and canell ynowe, And lete hem boile; And then take hit from the fire, And lete kele, and caste there-to rawe yolkes of eyren, til hit be thik, and caste thereto powder of ginger ynow; And serue hit forth in maner of Ryse. And if hit be in lenton tyme, leve the yolkes of eyren, And lete the remnaunt boyle so longe, til it be so thikk as though hit were y-tempered with youlkes of eyren, in maner as A man setheth charge de quyns; And then serue hit forth in maner of Rys.

This is not a German recipe - at the time i did this feast, i could not find a recipe for late fall fruit. At least there would have been pears in Germany, and most of the other ingredients are not out of the question. I now have more access to German recipes than i did in 2001, and would prefer to use a German one.

24 winter pears, peeled and cored
1 quart + 2 cups dry white wine
additional water, as needed, to almost cover
3 TB sugar
3 TB honey
1 TB + 1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 egg yolks, beaten
1-3/4 tsp ginger

1. Boil pears in wine (with water added to almost cover, if necessary), until quite soft.
2. Drain and mash pears (see note below - it is better to mash by hand than to put in a machine).
3. Add sugar, honey, and cinnamon to pear puree.
4. Return to pan, bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.
5. Add beaten egg yolks, stirring until puree is thickened and eggs are cooked to custard.
6. Dish into serving bowls, sprinkle with ginger and sugar and serve.

NOTE: This was pureed in a food processor or blender and i thought that it was a bit too pureed. A few folks told me how much they like the "pear baby food". None the less, it was delicious. It might be better pureed with a potato masher so it retains more texture. This would be a good recipe to add to one's modern repertoire for seasonal holiday meals, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Lentils

Marx Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch

125. Take lentils/ wash them fine clean/ and soak them. Take also a good beef-broth/ let simmer/ cut onion and a little garlic into it/ so that it comes nice and thick/ and when it is cooked/ so put green well-tasting herbs/ that have been chopped fine/ thereto/ and cooked bacon/ let it simmer therewith/ so it becomes good and tasty. You can also cook lentils without onion/ how one likes to eat it/ so it may be prepared.

4 lb green lentils
4 lb. red lentils
4 medium onions, diced
20 cloves garlic, minced
2 quarts vegetable broth
1 cup each cup fresh herbs, chopped - parsley, celery leaves, fresh herbs 10 slices bacon, parboiled and coarsely diced
salt to taste

1. Put lentils in water to cover, bring to a boil, remove from fire, and soak for 1 hour.
2. Drain lentils, saving water.
3. Put lentils in vegetable broth and bring to a simmer.
4. Add onion and garlic and simmer until nice and thick (four hours?), adding soaking water as necessary.
5. Simmer bacon in a little soaking water until it is well cooked. Drain, saving water, and cut up fine.
6. Add fresh chopped green herbs to the lentils and simmer 5 minutes, stirring.
7. Then set aside one serving dish for the vegetarian and kosher diners.
8. Add cooked bacon to larger pot only and simmer another 5 minutes, stirring.

NOTE: This was not seasoned enough to my taste, and i like lentils. Perhaps the garlic got left out... Anyway, it needs some experimenting to make it tastier.

Hot Faulx Ypocras

Medieval spiced grape and other juices

For basic directions, see recipe in last year's Boar Hunt menu. This year, I used more white grape juice and less purple this year, and added verjus - actually "sour grape juice" from a Near Eastern food mart - along with the cranberry to make it a little more tart.