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Straight Outta Cairo: Valencia Pumpkin Pudding

30 Friday Oct 2020

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If you, like us, have a pile of gourds left from your farmshare, or if you just want an extra-autumnal treat for a chilly day, we know you’ll enjoy this redaction of a medieval gourd (pumpkin) pudding recipe from Maitre Gilles de Beauchamps!

It is entirely possible that future food historians will write about our present day cookery “at some point large numbers of people substituted pumpkin spice for every flavor value, but why this particular combination became the basis for a new, if somewhat unsustainable cuisine, no one knows.” All I know is that towards late summer large numbers of people begin to chatter enthusiastically about pumpkin spice flavor, and posting memes of this kind of food items on Facebook.

I’m not hostile to the idea, only a bit perplexed. A simple crème brulee trumps any latte with pumpkin spice, as would a berry tart. For me there is simply no contest, and apparently, for them, the obverse is equally true.

In the spirit of reconciliation and in the interest of spreading the joys of medieval desserts from the Middle East, let’s walk through the process of making a satisfying pudding that will delight everyone in the pumpkin spice fan club, and yet not horrify the others who find pumpkin spice a bit too cloying.
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Valencia Pumpkin Pudding neither originated in Valencia, Spain, nor was its main component initially the pumpkin we revere (or, admittedly, some loathe) today. This pudding is a cousin of a dessert covered earlier in this series, khabis, which take a number of forms and use a wide variety of ingredients. The pudding we are discussing presently was made from some type of gourd, although in medieval times the pumpkin we would recognize was evolving from the numerous hybrids cropping up in every garden from eastern Persia to western Spain.

What we know as a pumpkin today is the result of thousands of years of farming gourds, as are our cantaloupes, cucumbers and watermelons. One big, confused, watery family, some bitter, some unpalatable and only good when hollowed out and used for storage. Some which displayed wonderful capacity for sweetness.

Our pumpkin pudding was originally made from the flesh of mild fleshed gourd that was simmered in honey or a sugar syrup until the pulp was soft and sweet. Another method of doing this was cooking carrots in a sweet broth, sometimes with milk added. Its earliest iterations point to Persia or Syria.

Neither is it likely that the dish had its origins in Valencia, but was more probably named after that city by an anonymous scribe who added it to a collection of recipes. If so, he had probably enjoyed it there.

In order to enjoy it here and now, you will need the following ingredients:

  • one pound of canned pure pumpkin (16 oz can)
  • one large egg
  • zest of half of a lemon
  • ¼ teaspoon each of ground cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon
  • ½ cup of sugar
  • ½ cup of almonds, slipped and finely crushed
  • 20 additional almonds, slipped and set aside for garnish.

Begin by slipping the almond skins from the nuts. If you haven’t done this before, it’s a very easy process. Place the almonds in pan and cover them with water. Bring the water to a boil. As the water boils, pull the almonds from the heat, drain and let cool. You should be able to slip the almonds out of their skins quite easily.

Grind the almonds in a food processor until fine, or if you’re a purist, grind them by hand using a mortar and pestle. Remember to set aside your garnish almonds.

While the almonds are cooling, take a zester and remove the peel from half of a lemon.

Place the ground almonds and the lemon peel in a bowl. Mix in the dried spices and let this sit for an hour. This step is not absolutely necessary but it allows the almonds to absorb the other scents and flavors. It also makes your kitchen smell good.

Beat the egg and add it, along with the pumpkin to your dry mix. Mix it thoroughly, and then pour this into a well greased 8”x 1” round tin. A nine inch pie tin will serve.

Bake for an hour at 375 degrees F.
[ed. note: recipe continues below]

Now that the pudding is baking, let’s think about the relation of the spices used with our primary ingredient. All gourds, (qar in Arabic) are classified by the humoral system of medicine as being wet and cold in nature. Therefore cooking gourds is a necessity, even if one could eat a raw gourd, this would not be desirable from a medical standpoint. It would engender bad humors within the body. This means, among other things, that digestion would be poor. Your thinking would be hampered by the difficulties your system was having trying to digest the food. Finally, the undigested remnants of the food would clog your body. A lifetime of eating this way can lead, it was thought, to potentially fatal conditions.

The exceptions to the cooking rule for gourds are the sweet ones, such as cantaloupe and watermelons, and the sweet melons of Persia. This is not explained by the wise ancient physicians, but for whatever reason, everyone came to their senses and decided not to cook these wonderful types of gourds.

Happily, the pumpkin is not only cooked to pulp, but is also being baked. In addition, the spices used – cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon – all are noted by physicians to have heating properties. That they happen to combine well with squashes when baked is a delicious coincidence, but now you have an insight into the baking of the first pumpkin pies. That combination has not changed in nearly a thousand years, and it remains satisfying.

The use of qar medicinally makes use of its cold properties. It is recommended for lowering a fever. The seeds and oil of qar were thought make people sleepy and ingesting this makes it a good treatment for insomnia. This, undoubtedly, is why people fall asleep after dessert at Thanksgiving dinner. It’s not the tryptophan in the turkey – it’s the cold humors of the pumpkin at work.
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An Arabic gentleman worthy of the name was expected to be able to compose poems on specific topics. Food was very much one of these topics. In the case of Abu I-Fath Kushajim, a tenth century scribe and astrologer, gourds provoked these lines from his pen:

You, who plucks the melon from its vine,
You harvest the fruit of praise.
Before you brought it to me
I’d never smelled fragrances purer than ambergris.
With a skin coarser than a hedgehog’s
And flesh softer than butter
It’s as though the knife reveals it to be
Saffron mixed with honey.

We still have the better part of an hour before the baking is done, and you could busy yourself by working on your own poem.

After removing the dish from the oven, let it cool slightly. Take your reserved slipped almonds and push them into the surface of the pudding. I prefer the mild sweetness already provided with no further additions, but some people sprinkle the top with confectioner’s sugar.

Then refrigerate your dish for another hour or so. It’s best served chilled, but unlike revenge, it should prove agreeable when presented.

Maitre Gilles de Beauchamps OC,OP, OL
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Sources:

Annals of the Caliph’s Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq’s Tenth Century Baghdadi Cookbook; Nawal Nasrarallah Brill 2010.

Scents and Flowers: A Syrian Cookbook; Charles Perry; New York University
Press 2017

Sweet Delights From a Thousand and One Nights: The Story of Traditional
Arab Sweets ; Habeeb Salloum, Muna Salloum, Leila Salloum Elias; I.B. Tauris 2013

The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition ; Shihab al-din al-Nuwayri;
Penguin Classics 2016

Dagonell’s Frumenty and Roo

03 Tuesday Mar 2020

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 by THFool Dagonell the Juggler

“Forme of Cury” is a manuscript “Compiled, about 1390, by the Master Cooks of King Richard II” The title translates into modern English as “Method of Cooking”. These are two complementary recipes from the manuscript.
Original: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/FoC132small.html (scan of original manuscript)

FOR TO MAKE FURMENTY. Nym clene Wete and bray it in a morter wel that the holys gon al of and seyt yt til it breste and nym yt up. and lat it kele and nym fayre fresch broth and swete mylk of Almandys or swete mylk of kyne and temper yt al. and nym the yolkys of eyryn. boyle it a lityl and set yt adoun and messe yt forthe wyth fat venyson and fresh moton.

Translation:

For to Make Frumenty. Take clean wheat and break it in a mortar well, that the hulls gone all off, and seeth it till it bursts and take it up, and let it cool and take fair fresh broth and sweet milk of almonds or sweet milk of cows and temper it all, and take yolks of eggs, boil it a little and set it down and serve it forth with fat venison and fresh mutton.

Ingredients:
2 cups Bulgar wheat
4 cups beef stock (1 quart)
2 cups cow’s milk
2 egg yolks

Comments: If you want to be a purist, you can get wheat berries from the bulk food section of a good neighborhood co-op and either mortar them or run it thru a blender then boil it in water. Bulgar wheat is already hulled and parboiled, so I simply bought a package and skipped all those steps. The beef broth was a store-bought package. Cow’s milk is a rarity in medieval recipes due to the lack of refrigeration. Usually, they simply made it into cheese and butter for a longer shelf life. Almond milk is common in medieval recipes because it has a long shelf life and since it isn’t a dairy product, can be used during Lenten fast days. You can buy almond pieces and pound them in a mortar or run them in a blender with a little water. You can buy almond milk in most co-ops, and in a pinch, you can just add some almond extract to cow’s milk. I buy my dairy products from the farmer down the road, so I used fresh cow’s milk.

Method: Combine the beef stock and milk in a pot, stir well and bring to a boil. Add the wheat, mix well, bring it back to a boil again, cover and reduce heat to a simmer for about twenty minutes. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the mixture. Stir it occasionally to keep it from scorching on the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and let cool. The original recipe says to serve it with venison. The following recipe was originally made from deer liver, I made it to accompany the frumenty, but I used beef liver because I had it to hand.

Original: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/FoC057small.html (scan of original manuscript)

Roo Broth. Take the lire of the Deer oþ of the Roo pboile it on smale peces. seeþ it wel half in wat and half in wyne. take brede and bray it wiþ the self broth and drawe blode þ to and lat it seeth to gedre w powdo fort of gynger oþ of canell. and macys. with a grete porcion of vineg with Raysons of Corante.

Translation: Roe Broth. Take the liver of the Deer other (meat) of the Roe parboil it in small pieces, seeth it well half in water and half in wine, take bread and break it with the same broth and draw blood thereto and let it seeth together with strong powder of ginger, other of cinnamon, and mace, and a great portion of vinegar with raisins of currants.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs. beef liver
2 cups water
2 cups red wine
3 slices bread
1 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground mace
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup currants
2 oz. olive oil

Comments: While I can occasionally get venison from my hunting friends, I buy my beef by the half cow from the farmer down the road that I buy my milk from. I have lots of frozen beef liver to hand. I also own a few shares of stock in a local vineyard, so when they have a sale on cheap wines, I use my 10% shareholder’s discount to pick up a few bottles. The bread is multi-grain from the organic section of the grocer. “Raisins of currants” are currants. Raisins are “Raisins of the sun” in medieval recipes. I know there’s no oil mentioned in the recipe, but I’m working on the idea that ‘obvious’ steps are not written down. Liver can be tough done wrong, so I’m going to marinade it overnight and then pan seer it before continuing with the recipe.

Method: Make a marinade of the water, wine, vinegar and spices. Marinate the beef overnight in the fridge. In the morning, brown the beef pieces in a frying pan with the oil. DO NOT THROW OUT THE MARINADE! Set on paper towels to drain. While the beef is draining, shred the bread into a bowl, pour in the rest of the marinade and mash everything into a paste. Dice the beef. In a stew pot, dump the beef, mash, and frying pan scrapings. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the currents. Simmer on a low heat for about an hour and a half. Add more water/wine if it looks like it’s going dry, but you want something thick. It’s not really a broth or even a stew, it’s a paste. Serve it forth over frumenty.

Evaluation: Frumenty is a medieval side-dish, much like rice or potatoes would be used today. It’s supposed to be bland. It was a near staple in Rhydderich Hael feasts years ago. As for the Roo, it’s lightly spiced liver. If you like liver, you might like this dish, if you don’t like liver, you’ll hate it. My wife likes liver, but she didn’t care for this dish. I could take it or leave it. Serves 4.

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Dyed Bake Metis: A Recipe for Meat Pies

02 Sunday Feb 2020

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by THFool Dagonell the Juggler

This recipe is from Harleian ms. 279, “Dyed Bake Metis” (“Various Baked Dishes”), which is commercially available as the second half of “Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books,” published by the University of Michigan Press.

Original: (http://www.archive.org/stream/twofifteenthcent00aust/twofifteenthcent00aust_djvu.txt)
Chawettys. Take Porke y-sode, & mencyd dates, and grynd hem smal to-gederys; take yolkys of Eyroun, & putte þer-to a gode hepe, & grene chese putte þer-to; & whan it ys smal y-now, take Gyngere, Canelle, & melle wyl þi commade þer-with, & put in þin cofyns; þan take yolkys of Eyroun hard y-sothe, and kerue hem in two, & ley a-boue, & bake hem; & so noyt y-closyd, serue forth.

Translation:
Small pies. Take pork seethed & minced dates, and grind them small together; take yolks of eggs, & put thereto a good heap, & green cheese put thereto; & when it is small enough, take ginger, cinnamon, & mix well thy mixture therewith, & put in thine coffins (pie shells); then take yolks of eggs hard seethed, and carve them in two, & lay about, & bake them; & so not closed, serve forth.

Comments: My wife and I have a huge chest freezer in our basement. We literally buy our beef by the half cow from the farmer down the road. I didn’t have any pork, but I have lots of ground beef. The recipe calls for small pies. I keep frozen pie shells on hand, so I made full-sized pies and cooked them longer than I would for tarts. Professional food historian (now I know what I want to be when I grow up! :D) Cindy Renfrow speculates in “Take a Thousand Eggs or More” that green cheese was literally green cheese, what we now call blue cheese. (Wikipedia says, according to legend, blue cheese was discovered when a shepherd accidentally left his cheese behind in a cave and found it again three months or so later.) If green cheese is actually blue cheese, I’m wondering if the moon being made of green cheese wasn’t simply a way to describe the color.  ‘So not closed’ means it’s an open face pie, like a quiche.

Ingredients:
3 lbs. ground beef
1 cup minced dates
12 eggs
1/2 lb. blue cheese
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
2 commercial pie shells

Method:
Leave the pie shells and frozen beef in the fridge to thaw overnight. Pre-heat oven to 435°. Hard-boil six eggs. In a large mixing bowl, combine ground beef, minced dates, 6 egg yolks (reserve the whites for tomorrow’s breakfast), crumbled blue cheese, ginger, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly. Scoop the mixture into two pie shells, pushing it down to fill the crust evenly.

Shell the hard-boiled eggs, cut them in two, and ‘lay about’ six half egg yolks in a circle on the top of each pie. Save the whites for tomorrow’s breakfast. For tarts, I would put one on each tart. Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool. May be eaten hot or cold.

meat.pies.out.oven

Evaluation:
I took them to Heronter’s Twelfth Night. They were well received. This would make a good feast dish; combine, cook, serve. Serves 12.

meat.pies.at.feast

The Myrkfaelinn Redaction Challenge: 14th Century Tart de Bry and Rice Moulds

22 Wednesday Nov 2017

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By Meadbh ni Clerigh and Elska á Fjárfelli
Dominion of Myrkfaelinn

November 12 marked our first Sunday A&S practice: “Redaction Challenge,” organized by Lady Meadbh ni Clerigh for both adults and youth. She distributed the challenge recipes, at practice and online, two weeks prior. The basic idea: interpret a medieval recipe, then taste-test the result with all in attendance. We could participate at any level, from basic follow-the-instructions cook to freestyle chef.

Our challenge:

Tart de Bry, a 14th century English cheese quiche or pie

The challenge gives the original recipe transcription, a modern translation of the recipe, and then one cook’s modern interpretation. Your challenge is to make that same recipe, which we’ll then share with all attendees. Use the modern interpretation, or go to the original and make your own version! Write down the proportions you used, and the steps, to accompany your creation. We’ll taste and compare, and share recipes.

BUT WAIT! There’s more!

Our young chefs-in-training have an option to participate as well! I have a second, simpler, concoction for the younger cooks (Rice Mould, 15th century). Encourage your mini-mes to give it a try!

With those words, we all set down to do some serious cooking!

The first Facebook post showed up Saturday evening, from Armegard: “Our interpretation of Tart de Bry is out of the oven. Can’t wait to try it tomorrow and see what everyone else comes up with!” That post was quickly followed the next day by a handful of delicious shots of sumptuous tarts, ready for the tasting. From Don Matteo Pesci: “Our Tart for the redaction challenge. Taste you soon!”

Image 1

Simon and Angelika’s Tart de Bry, as posted on Facebook. (photo by Simon) 

We brought six different Tarts de Bry (and two Rice Moulds) to practice in total. Big thanks to all who participated in our first redaction challenge! It was amazing to see, and taste, how one recipe turned into six very different tarts!

Each tart was delicious, in its own way. We loved having the two gluten-free options made by Angelika and Don Matteo Pesci. Elska loved the aged cheese version, which was by far the most savory interpretation. The bread cheese tart had a wonderful bouncy consistency, and the goat cheese version was the sweetest of all. Elska had assumed from the sugar ingredient that it was supposed to be more like cheesecake, and due to the freshness of the goat cheese it even had an otherwise unexpected delicate hint of lemon.

Same recipe, different cooks – six wonderful tarts, all wonderfully different!

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Left to right: Angelica, Armegard, Meadbh, Algirdas, Elska. (photo by Algirdas)

 

Notes on the challenge format

With the thought that not everyone in the Dominion has contemplated medieval cooking, the impetus behind the challenge is to get folks baking like a 14th century boss. To that end, Meadbh used the following rough guidelines:

  1. The recipe needs to be approachable for a medieval food newbie and average (or busy!) cook.
  2. The first few recipes shouldn’t contain too many exotic spices at one time (but those who participate will find themselves with many fancy spices to work with for future dishes).
  3. Since we lack kitchen facilities at the meeting hall, find recipes that don’t hinge on being served hot.
  4. When trying a meat-based recipe, offer a vegetarian challenge as well.
  5. Keep it economical.

For youth:

  1. Desserts (or foods) that …
  2. Don’t have too many steps/ingredients, with …
  3. Flavors that are kid-friendly.

The youth recipes are geared towards kids who are comfortable in the kitchen with no or little supervision, so as not to burden the parents with two work-intensive recipes to make. Medieval flavors can be challenging to a modern child’s palate, so our challenges might be dessert-heavy at first.

Myrkfaelinn’s challenge and results:

The original recipe

From Hieatt & Butlers’ 14th century Curye on Inglish:
174. Tart de Bry. Take a crust ynche depe in a trap. Take yolkes of ayren rawe & chese ruayn & medle it & þe yolkes togyder. Do þerto powdour gynger, sugur, safroun, and salt. Do it in a trap; bake it & serue it forth.

Gode Cookery translation: Tartee. Make a pie crust an inch deep in a pie pan. Take yolks of eggs raw & Autumn cheese & mix it & the yolks together. Do there-to powder ginger, sugar, saffron, and salt. Do it in a pie shell; bake it & serve it forth.

Ingredients suggested: One 9-inch pie shell, raw egg yolks, cheese (semi-soft, but not so soft that it can’t be grated), ginger (powder), sugar, saffron, and salt.

Learning opportunities: “Pie crust” and “cheese.” This recipe provided an opportunity for folks to research cheeses available to a 14th century cook, and to play with what “pie crust” meant and how to make it.

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Left to right: Meadbh, Marie’s rice mould, Matteo, Elska, Angelika, Simon’s rice mould, Armegard.

Myrkfaelinn variations:

 Algirdas and Aldanza Wolthus:

Filling: 6 yolks, 15 oz. basket cheese (fresh cheese made the previous morning from whole cow’s milk and cream), 1 Tbsp sugar, 8-10 strands powdered saffron, and 1 tsp salt.
Crust: butter, lard, einkorn flour, wheat flour, and water.

Result: between sweet and savory, with a smooth filling.

Angelika and Simon St. Laurent:

Filling: 6 yolks, 0.64 lb. Fontina and 0.32 lb. Bucherondin cheeses, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 cup sugar, 6 saffron threads, and 1/4 tsp salt, with the sugar sprinkled on top of the tart.
Crust: 2 cups oat flour, 1-1/2 sticks butter, 1/2 tsp salt, and 5 Tbsp cold water.

Result: savory – strong cheese flavor.

The mother and daughter team of Armegard and Emily:

Filling: 4 yolks, 32 oz. ricotta cheese, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 4 Tbsp white sugar, a few threads of saffron, and a dash of salt.
Crust: a store-bought shell.

Result: sweet – close to a modern cheesecake.

Elska á Fjárfelli:

Filling: 12 yolks, chevre (fresh goat’s cheese started Saturday and strained Sunday morning), 1 cup sugar, no saffron, and a pinch of salt.
Crust: 2 cups flour (wheat and all-purpose), 2 sticks butter, 3/4 cup sugar, and some cold water.

Result: sweet – close to a cheesecake, with notes of lemon.

Don Matteo and Alden:

Filling: 12 egg yolks, 8 oz. cheese (gouda-ish, grated); 2 tsp grated ginger; 2 Tbsp honey; 1/4 tsp saffron threads, crushed; and 1/4 tsp salt.
Crust: 1-1/2 cups oat flour, 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup water, and 1/2 tsp salt.

Result: savory – smooth texture.

And last but not least: Meadbh ni Clerigh

Filling: Wisconsin Bread cheese (grated), powder fine, and some ground saffron threads.
Crust (based on Paest Royall from A Proper New Booke of Cookery, 1545): 2 cups flour, 2 egg yolks, 2/3 cup butter, and 3-4 Tbsp cold water.

Result: savory – more spongy texture, with balance of saffron and powder fine spice notes.

Myrkfaelinn youth redaction challenge #1

 Rys (15th century), found in Seven Hundred Years of English Cooking:
Take a porcyoun of Rys & pyke hem clene, & seethe hem welle & late hem kele; then take gode Mylke of Almaundys & do ther-to, & seethe & stere hem wyle; & do ther-to sugne an hony, & seue forth.

Modern redaction: Pour the rice into the boiling water, stir, and then simmer until tender. Drain. Return the rice to a smaller saucepan, add the almond milk, sugar, and honey, and stir well. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently, stirring continually, for 10-12 minutes or until thick. Allow to cool. Pour into an oiled mold and chill. Turn out and serve.

Ingredients suggested: 1/2 cup rice, 2-1/2 cups water, 2-1⁄2 cups almond milk, 1⁄4 cup sugar, and 4 Tbsp honey.

Two of the youth participated in this challenge. Simon made his with red rice, sugar, honey, and almond milk; but the red rice would not set, so his mom ended up putting the stick blender in to get it to gel. It was yummy, but next time, no extra sugar: the honey is enough!

Mary of Harford made hers with basmati rice: double the rice and milk, but not the sugar and honey (which was a good call).

Both rice moulds were outstanding, but it was thought that maybe next time use a short-grain rice, like dessert rice, and see how much a difference that makes. They were, however, very nice dessert dishes. The mild rice flavor blended well with the sugar, honey, and almond milk flavors. These are strong contenders for economical dessert dishes at a feast. They are easy to prepare, can be made in advance, and are served cold.

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What’s next for the Dominion cooks?

Meadbh’s second challenge is dual: powder fine and powder forte. She advised us to think of these powders like curry—everyone has their own preferred blend of spices. So despite having a recipe to follow, we were encouraged to think of these recipes more as guidelines and come up with our own flavor profile! They won’t sit in our cupboards, either – Meadbh plans to bring more challenges this winter, which include using one or the other as an ingredient.

Since the adult challenge is less time intensive, she upped the youth challenge. This time, they’re charged to make a medieval mac and cheese: Makerouns from Forme of Cury (14th century).

Tart de Bry recipe can be found here at https://goo.gl/NU3v58
Rice Mould at https://goo.gl/ppS9ik
Powder fine and powder forte at https://drive.google.com/open…
Makerouns at https://drive.google.com/open…

Peach Ginger Conserve

28 Saturday Oct 2017

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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.

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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/