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The Æthelmearc Gazette

~ Covering the Kingdom of Æthelmearc of the SCA

The Æthelmearc Gazette

Tag Archives: Harvest Raids

Peach Ginger Conserve

28 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by aethgazette in Arts & Sciences, Cooking, Food

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cooking, cooking competition, food, Harvest Raids, jam, marmalade, recipes

By THL Elska á Fjárfelli
Dominion of Myrkfaelinn

Inspired by Harvest Raid’s A&S Competition theme, “The Harvest,” I decided to make something to enter in the competition with a fruit harvested from our own homestead orchard. As we were blessed with many peaches this year, I chose to make a peach ginger conserve, modernly called a jam.

Image 1

But what I found when researching jams was something I did not expect. While preserving fruits has always been a staple of the medieval kitchen, looking deeper into the subject I found that preserving fruit as a jam was not. The word “jam” began to creep into manuscript cookery books in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and into the printed ones early in the eighteenth. It might have had a Middle Eastern origin, as there is an Arabic word—jam—which means “close-packed” or “all together.” From its more general usage in English for things that were jammed against one another, the word passed into the realm of confectionery to indicate those preserves where soft fruits cooked with sugar were crushed together, rather than sieved, and could thus be described as “jammed” or “in a jam.”

In period, fruits were preserved in sweet, spiced syrups of wine and sugar or honey, or in the form of solid marmalades. Syrup preserves are found in sources starting with Apicius, a collection of 4th to 5th century Roman cookery recipes, and solid marmalade recipes have been found as early as the 14th century. The spreadable, soft-fruit preserve we currently know as jams and jellies are usually sealed up in preserving jars or cans of some kind, which is necessary to avoid spoilage like mold. Recipes for soft jams and jellies are mostly found from the eighteenth century up, when canning also became a possibility. A storage technique that could have been used in period, and has been used post period, is using some kind of vessel like a ceramic jar that is topped with a brandy-soaked disk of parchment and then covered with melted tallow or beeswax.

An interesting nugget is the idea that the word “marmalade” originally came from “Marie malade,” or sick Mary, because marmalade was regularly made for Mary Queen of Scots to keep her healthy. “Marmalade” actually comes via French from the Portuguese marmelada and means quince jelly. The earliest reference to marmalade is from 1524—18 years before the birth of Queen Mary—when one box of marmalade was presented to the king (it was an expensive delicacy). The French condoignac and chardequynce are antecedents of the marmalade we know today and are themselves descendants from the cidonitum of 4th-century Palladius. The medieval malomellus was a term used both for the fruit quince and for the conserve; the modern Portuguese for the fruit is still marmelo.

My recipe was a mix of “Old Fashioned Peach Preserves” and “Ginger Jam” from The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest. Because this conserve is meant to be preserved, as advised by the FDA I used a modern conserving recipe to make sure it canned safely. All ingredients, taken separately, were available in period, including the lemon juice, but due to the lack of canning technology not necessarily used in this manner. The quinces in the period recipe are used to thicken the marmalade so it is solid, as it is very high in pectin.

Even though the conserve in this form is technically not period, it was well received in the competition and many samples were tasted. Spiced peach preserves and peach ginger conserves are favorites in our household, and I was happy to be able to share our bountiful harvest with the many gentles visiting the Harvest Raid A&S Display and Competition.


PERIOD INSPIRATION RECIPES:

This 15th century Portuguese recipe indicates peaches were used in conserves:

60 – Pessegada. Cortem ao meio duas partes de pêssego e uma de marmelo, e levem-nas a cozer, em separado. Depois que estiverem cozidas, passem tudo por uma peneira fina. A seguir, ajuntem tanto açúcar quanto for o peso da massa, e levem o tacho ao fogobrando. Deixem atingir o ponto de marmelada, e coloquem o doce em caixetas.

Peach Marmalade. Cut in half two parts of peach and one of quince, and cook them separately. After they are cooked, put everything through a fine sieve. Next, add a like amount of sugar to the weight of the paste, and take the pot to a low heat. Allow it to reach the point of marmalade, and place the confection in little boxes.

From A Treatise of Portuguese Cuisine from the 15th Century.

 

This 16th – 17th century recipe indicates boiling to candy height (interpreted as sheeting):

#S112 TO MAKE A PASTE OF PEACHES

Take peaches & boyle them tender, as you did your apricocks, & strayne them.  then take as much sugar as they weigh & boyle it to candy height.  mix ym together, & make it up into paste as you doe yr other fruit.  soe dry them and use it at your pleasure. Peel and slice peaches. Bring them to a boil over medium heat in a thick pan.  Cover pan, stirring occasionally.  Add a little rosewater if desired.

From A Booke of Sweetmeats, Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery, 1550-1650.

 

This 1608 recipe indicates ginger was used in spicing conserves:

  1. To make rough-red Marmelade of Quinces, commonly called lump-Marmelade, that shall looke as red as any rubie.

Pare ripe and well coloured Peare-quinces, and cut them in pieces like dice, parboile them very tender, or rather reasonably tender in faire water, then powre them into a Colender, and let the water runne from them into a cleane Bason, then straine that water through a strainer into a Posnet [skillet], for if there be any grauell in the Quinces, it will be in that water : Then take the weight of the Quinces in double refined Sugar very fine, put halfe thereof into the Posnet, into the water with a graine of Muske, a slice or two of Ginger tied in a thrid, and let it boile couered close, vntill you see your sugar come to the colour of Claret wine, then vncouer it and take out your Ginger, and so let it boile vntill your sirupe being to consume away, then take it off the fire, and pomice it with a ladle, and so stirre it and coole it, and it will looke thick like tart-stuffe, then put in your other halfe of your Sugar, and so let it boile, always stirring it vntill it come from the bottome of the Posnet, then box it, and it will looke red like a Rubie, the putting of the last Sugar brings it to an orient colour.

A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1608.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Costenbader, Carol W. The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest. Storey Publishing, 1997.

Gomes, Fernanda (trans.). A Treatise of Portuguese Cuisine from the 15th Century.
https://web.archive.org/…/Faerisa/portuguese15thC.html

Hess, Karen (transcriber). Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery. Columbia University Press, New York, 1981.

Holloway, Johnna. A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen (1608). 2011.
http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/1608closet.pdf

Stefan’s Florilegium:
http://www.florilegium.org/…/FOOD…/jams-jellies-msg.html
http://www.florilegium.org/…/FOOD…/marmalades-msg.html

Wilson, C. Anne. The Book of Marmalade. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

And the cooks at the SCA Cooks Facebook group. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/604657969575143/

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Harvest Raids, the Making of Knights, and the Bonds We Share

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by aethgazette in Awards, Æthelmearc History, Event Reports, Heavy List

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Chivalry, Harvest Raids, knighting

By Lord Christian Goldenlok

Sir Thorsol is knighted. Photos by Baron Steffan.

In relation to each other, the rubber band of geographical life is made from unequal parts time and distance. When it stretches, all too often we have too much distance between us and not enough time to spend when we are together.

The opposite is also true. While it’s nice to visit with old friends around the fire, hearts become restless to look out to the horizon and build bonds away from home. In a perfect world, we could all live within walking distance. Until then, we have to use our time effectively. I am terrible at time management, mostly because I spent half my raids hugging people. It’s a rough life.

At Court at Harvest Raids, an Æthelmearc event in Western New York, my King and Queen made the first set of knights of their reign. Two men were presented, two men with whom I have very different relationships.

The first man to be brought forth was His Lordship Thorsol Solinauga. The Thorsol and I have been friends for years. He sought me out from the VERY beginning of my journey and has never once not made me feel welcomed at an event. He is either a saint or an incredible actor.  We have fought against and beside one another, and we have shared laughter, a love for this society, and many good conversations and will continue to do so. Thorsol is a popular man and inspired me to strive to build up people outside of the household and shire that I could love.

I have always measured my goodness based on his example. He is the gauge of inclusiveness to which I try to measure up. I have never heard him raise his voice in anger. Besides his deeds on the battlefield, I am sure that his diplomacy is something others should emulate. He can and will out-humble you. He is a dirty hippie. Sir Thorsol was the first man my King knighted. He is absolutely worthy of the station.

If he lived in Pittsburgh, we would throw pottery together, sing and play guitar together, or play boardgames together. He would be a part of my life because I would make him do so whether he wanted to or not. I love The Thorsol, and the beauty of the words spoken for him by friends I also know told me what I already knew for years: that many people are joined with me in sharing in my love for him. Thorsol spoke words of fealty on the Sword of State, he received his last unanswered blow from King Gareth, and he made his way, humbly and happily, to be with his new Chivalric brothers.

His ceremony was fantastic, and I wept happy, ugly tears for my friend, a man I wish I had more time with and less space away from. My house is a Bon Jovi-free zone.

After Sir Thorsol got the hell out of the way (Thorsol, GIT!), the crown proceeded to its next point of business and called forth Baron Dominic I-don’t-even-know-his-last-SCAdian-name. (Editor’s Note: Morland)

Sir Dominic is knighted.

 

Down the isle processed a handsome man with his beautiful wife whom I can’t recall I’ve ever met. As he and his retinue processed I thought to myself, “I don’t know her, nope, don’t know that guy, nope not him, nope don’t know her.”

The stranger knelt before my King and Queen, the King and Queen I know better than ANY other SCAdians, are masters of the fighting house to which I belong, and with whom I have spent countless hours. As the seconds passed, dichotomies between Dominic and Thorsol and the differences in my familiarity with the Royals and my familiarity with Baron Dominic began shooting through my mind.

As the introductory words were spoken, I searched my memory and couldn’t remember a time I had ever interacted with this man save a handshake or two, maybe a pat on the back in passing. Dominic and I have NEVER had the opportunity to sit and talk together. Earlier, as I had passed his vigil tent, I actually couldn’t recall any of the people who were standing guard for him or in that general vicinity. I’m Christian (expletive) Goldenlok and I know everybody… yet an entire group of people were unintentionally foreign to me.

Dominic’s heraldry is stunning, however.

To my delight, as the moments went on, I started to become slowly, intensely connected to these people, the man being knighted, and the ceremony.

Other people I didn’t know stood before the crown and offered their endorsements of Dominic. I started to feel a connection between their love for this man in relation to my love for the people that I hold dear. Tears streamed down the faces of many friends of Dominic, the majority of whom I have never become acquainted.

I began to feel the spirit of reverence that emanated through the ceremony. Words like honor, mental toughness, and graciousness poured out of the mouths of his friends, and I began to see that the same kinship that exists between me and Sir Thorsol absolutely exists between these fine people and their fine friend and brother, Dominic.

He began to tremble while kneeling before Their Majesties. You could visually comprehend that all his sacrifice, all his time spent in harness, all his time serving his friends, family, and the kingdom he calls home were about to manifest into becoming a Knight of Æthelmearc. He was aware of all this and, I imagine, was reacting to it. I empathized with the weight he was feeling. You could see he was humbled at being exulted by his friends. His dream, and the dreams and hopes and expectations others had of him, seemed to turn into a heartfelt, tangible reality with every word that filled the hall of that great Court. With the mounting of spurs, the clasp of cloak, and the fitting of the belt, he was being reworked, remade.

And then I started freaking ugly crying.

 

With so much strife in the modern world, it isn’t surprising that we occasionally need to be reminded that there is so much positivity and so much commonality that transcends the boundaries of time and distance in the SCA. As we struggle, as we toil in the fields, we must be reminded that there will come a time for harvest because of our collective dedication. It was obvious to me that many placed stones for Sir Dominic to walk on in his path to knighthood, and it was truly inspiring to see the love his friends showed him.

 

In closing, we must learn to become even more inclusive, to become even more open and honest and caring, and to realize that there is so much love in this world to be seen if only we fix our collective eyes to see it. I felt that love for you, Sir Dominic, and I hope we have time in the future. I’m grateful for both of these men, their separate retinues, their relation to us all, and their example to me.

 

Harvest Raids was fantastic!

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Baron Dominic Receives Chiv Writ at Harvest Raids

30 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by aethgazette in Awards, Heavy List

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Chivalry, Harvest Raids, Writ

Baron Dominic is sent on vigil today.

Their Majesties Gareth and Juliana issued a writ this morning at Harvest Raids to Baron Dominic Morland to consider elevation to the Order of the Chivalry.

He is now on vigil, as is fellow vigilant THL Thorsol, and both will be elevated at tonight’s Court.

Vivant!

Reporting and photo by Baroness Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina (Chris Adler-France)

 

 

 

 

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Æthelmearc’s New Heavy Weapons Champion

28 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by Krista in Heavy List, Kingdom News

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Tags

Championships, Coronation, Harvest Raids

His Excellency, Sir Byron of Haverford, recently retired Champion of Æthelmearc, reports on the Champion’s Tournament, held at Coronation and Harvest Raids on Saturday:

Congratulations to Duke Duncan von Halstern, Champion of Æthelmearc. He emerged victorious from a field of 42 fighters. There were five fighters in the finals: Sir Duncan, Sir Otto, Sir Havoc, Sir Ariella, and THL Thorsol.  I extend my thanks and congratulations to all who fought for this honor today.

photo by Mistress Hilderun

photo by Mistress Hilderun

In Service,
Byron

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