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Shortbread

I’ll be honest.  I don’t know whether or not shortbread is period for Beathog or not.  I know there are LOTS of people who believe it to have originated at least to the 12th century, originally as a “biscuit bread”, on the order of a modern day Italian biscotti.  Those claim that the yeast in the bread was replaced by butter, and the biscuit bread developed into what we know as shortbread.

Many others attribute shortbread to Mary, Queen of Scots, who, in the mid-16th century was said to be very fond of Petticoat Tails, a thin, crisp, buttery shortbread originally flavored with caraway seeds (the preferred flavoring of seed cakes of this period, as well).

All I know is that shortbread is simply made, with ingredients commonly used in the 14th century in Scotland, and appears in some form in every recipe collection since the beginning of recipe publication in Scotland.  Good enough for me!

MY RECIPE:

  • 12 oz flour
  • 4 oz sugar
  • 8 oz butter

Mix flour and sugar together, and then rub in butter.  Use the tips of your fingers; it should resemble sand.

Knead to form a smooth dough.  Press into an 8″ well-greased tin.  Mark out “fingers” and prick the surface all over with a fork.

Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.  Do not brown!  Cool slightly on rack before cutting into fingers, then cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

 

Seedy Cakes

There are numerous recipes for sweet, round seed cakes from the 16th and early 17th centuries.  A similar cake was described in Chaucer’s 14th century Canterbury Tales, where it is compared to the shape of the medieval round shield, the Buckler.  I was happy to find the following recipe in the earliest published Scottish cookbook, because it’s ingredients mimic my favorite modern seed cake recipe, which contains only eggs, sugar, butter, milk, flour, ground almonds, caraway seed, orange peel and a splash of liquor.

To make a Seed-Cake. 

Take 3 Doz. Eggs, keep out 6 Whites for glazing, take 3 lib of fine Sugar, beat your Sugar and Eggs, till they be thick and white, take 2 lib. an a half of Sweet Butter, and half a Mutchkin of Cream warmed, pour it into the Butter, and heat them together, till the Butter be white and light; take half an Ounce of Cinnamon, half an Ounce of Nutmeg and Cloves, an Ounce of Carvey-seed, 3 lib. of Cordecidron, 3 lib. of Orange-peil, 2 lib. of Almonds blanched and cut, then put in 4 lib. of flour among the Eggs, and put in the beaten Butter, put in half a mutchkin of brandy, mix them well together; then put in the Fruits and Spices, and the all well together, and put it in the Frame, and send it to the Oven.

[One note on the above recipe:  Medieval eggs were MUCH smaller than our eggs are today, so we see an exaggerated number of eggs used in these types of recipes.]

I feel confident that the modern redaction that I used had just the right taste to mimic a period seed cake recipe.  My cake was very moist and stored very well in an airtight container.  The perfect sweet, Medieval bite!

Beef: Roasted & Stewed

We really wanted to demo a large cut of meat roasted on a spit, and beef had to be our choice.  Beef was a rather expensive meat choice in much of England, and possibly in the Lowlands of Scotland, as well, as raising cattle required a great land investment.  But, archaeological evidence suggests that beef was the most commonly eaten meat in the Scottish Highlands during the Middle Ages.  Sheep were grown almost everywhere for wool, and mutton was the second most popular source of meat, followed by pig, goat, horse and deer.  Fresh meat could be cured with dry salt, pickled, or smoked to preserve.  Chickens and geese were also kept for food, and people who lived near rivers or the sea ate fish and other seafood.

The main reason we wanted to demo spit-cooking was that we wanted to show this common method of preparing large amounts of meat (which were often rather tough cuts, due to either the location they were found on the animal, or due to them being from an older animal).  Tough cuts of meat were usually boiled, or stewed, a favorable method that also produced a tasty broth that could be saved and utilized later for, say, a pottage or a sauce.

I’m going to have to update this post, later, with better pictures.  But, this photo shows the spit setup we used, with a pan located directly under where the meat would be, to catch the drippings as the meat was cooking and basted.  The actual fire area would be located beside the meat, not under it (dripping fat into a fire is a big safety no-no).  The drippings would be saved and, after the meat was cooked and removed from the fire and allowed to rest (to keep the juices from running out and leaving the meat dry), the meat would be sliced and returned to a sauce made from the drippings.

For our recipe, we looked to the earliest recipes we could find for seasoning beef in Scotland.  We seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, clove, mace, thyme and savory.  As it cooked, we basted it with a combination of beef stock & ale, which we later used to make a sauce with the drippings, more stock & ale, additional vinegar and some more of the same spices.

 

 

Fish Sausage?

I’ve done several fish sausages over the years, and I’m always asked the same question: “Fish sausage?  Really??”

Yes.  I believe it was actually a commonly eaten dish (for folks with access to fresh fish, which includes a great deal of Scotland), prepared with or without some type of casing, just as it is today.  Sausages of all kinds were commonly eaten, for reasons already stated elsewhere in this study.  But, we find few actual recipes, which is not surprising, because they often contain bits of this and bits of that, combined into one dish.  One example, which I’ve seen in several sources, combines the liver of one species with the scraped neck meat of another.  Eat what you have, and eat all of it.

One of the recipes we redacted for an Upper Crust book project (12 or 15 years ago), a 14th century manuscript of a Neapolitan cookbook, was a recipe for fish sausage.  In the 14th century!!  We’ve done fish sausages, joyfully, ever since!

This is a photo of a salmon sausage that we first made at West/AnTir War, for the Cooks’ Play-date Camp and made several times since, that uses a combination of smoked and fresh fish.  I have seen that combination used, as well, and it makes a lot of sense to stretch small amounts of fresh fish with fish from your preserved stores.

Below are a few sausage recipes from a 1616 Danish cookbook that show fish sausage examples both with and without casings of any kind:

XLIV. Pike sausage.

Take some of the fish, the [milten] and the blood. Chope it with pepper, coriander, onion, thyme. Put it in the stomach and let it seethe with the fish.

LII. A different way.

If you want to make a good dish of big fish, then take the back off the pike, carp, bream or another big fish. Chop it in pieces, salt it and put it on a griddle and make it nicely brown. Make a broth over it as previously said in chapter 50 about the pike. Make then from the apples coriander as previously said and pour it over. In this way you can also make sausage and prepare the liver of Pike.

LV – To make sausage of chopped fish. If you want to make sausage of this fish then take cloves, nutmeg flowers, small raisins, saffron and mix it with each other. Make of it sausages each one finger long and put in seething water and let well seethe. When they are well cooked take them up and put over them a brown sauce. Take thin ale, vinegar and gingerbread, let this well seethe and throw in herbs to taste. If you want it quite good take good wine and small raisins (called corinths).

For my sausage recipe, I took a suggestion from the Danish source, above.  I used a combination of fish that were found in medieval Scotland (mainly salmon and pollock), my own poudre forte (which contains cloves and nutmeg, among other 14th century spices) and added currants, as above.  Likewise, I made a sauce of ale & vinegar, some of the poudre forte along with some additional cinnamon and a small amount of honey, which I then thickened with bread crumbs.

Delicious!  It tasted like Scotland, and it tasted like the 14th century, to me, which was the purpose of this project in the first place.  This recipe will remain in Beathog’s own Receipt Book, certainly.

To Cook a Sausage

There are many examples of sausages being made, all over Europe, during the 14th century, so I must assume they were eaten in Scotland, as well.  Tough cuts of meat can easily be chopped fine, seasoned, stuffed into hog casings, and smoked for longer storage.  My husband entered such a sausage (redacted for an Upper Crust book project of a 14th century manuscript of a Neapolitan cookbook)  in the 2005 Pentathlon, — and we have used the recipe, faithfully, since.  It is a good basic formula, and adapts to variations in seasoning choices quite well.   For this version, we chose seasonings found in a recipe from Lady Castlehill’s Receipt Book,

To Make my Lady Cartrets Sausages:

TAKE THE BELLY OF AN HOGG FAT AND LEAN, and cut it small with a knife, and when you have such a quantity as you desire, season it with some Salt Pepper, Nutemegs, Cloves and Mace, and so fill them into little Guts, thin scraped.  You must put in a Pretty dale of Sage finely Chopt.

Also in 2005 Pentathlon, I entered two mustard recipes.  One, a 16th century Pear Mustard, was made with ground mustard seed, wine, and pear preserves, and was meant as a condiment for dried cod, of which I am anxious to try the combination!  But the second entry was a Lumbard Mustard, sweetened with honey, a 14th century recipe from France, but it was also made with wine — an expensive ingredient that would have to have been imported to Scotland.

I therefore turned, once again, to Lady Castlehill, to a recipe made with ale and apple cider vinegar, to accompany the (above) sausages:

To Make Mustard:

TAKE YOUR MUSTARD SEED, dry it, and pound it, then sift it through a fine sieve, then put to it some Beer, Vinegar and horseradish, a litle Pepper, & a litle salt put it in a stone bottle, and keep it close stopt.

And, just as the 2005 Pentathlon judges declared, my mustard and my husband’s sausage made the perfect marriage!  Delicious!

 

The Beloved Oatcake

Tolerant of cool, damp climates, oats became a staple in what is now Scotland prior to the Roman occupation of the British Isles. Oats were easily processed, requiring only hand milling in a rotary device called a quern.  Small cakes made of oats could easily be made with the addition of some water and fat.

Oatcakes have also been described as being the “mainstay of Scottish breads” for centuries.  Jean Le Bel, around AD 1357-60, describes the Beguine nuns making “little pancakes rather like communion wafers”. This is thought to be an early description of a Scottish oatcake.  Fourteenth century narratives related how solders would carry with them a bag of oats and an iron girdle (Scots equivalent of griddle) as their primary source of rations.  John Froissart, a fourteenth century chronicler, wrote this about the Scots:

“They neither care for pots or pans,
for they boil beasts in their own skins. They are
ever sure to find plenty of beasts in the country that they pass
through. Therefore they carry with them no other purveyance,
but on their horse: between the saddle and the pannel, they place
a broad plate of metal, and behind the saddle, they will have a
little sack full of oatmeal, to the intent that when they have eaten
of the sodden flesh, then they lay this plate on the fire, and
moisten a little of the oatmeal: and when the plate is hot, they
cast some of the thin paste thereon, and so make a little cake in
manner of a crak’nel, or biscuit, and that they eat to comfort their
stomachs. Wherefore it is no great wonder that they make
greater journies than other people do.”

Oatcakes remain a mainstay of the Scottish diet today, and are often enjoyed plain, or with butter, jam, or cheese.  The recipe I chose to use was one of the simplest form, and one easily baked on a hot griddle or stone.  I did bake mine in the oven, as I was preparing these for a large crowd and needed to make them ahead of time.  They were delicious!

MY RECIPE:

  • 1 cup+ rolled oats (cheaper, and were going to be processed anyway)
  • 1 Tbl melted butter (or fat, such as bacon grease)
  • 1/2 tsp salt (optional)
  • 1/2 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 375.  Process oats about 15 seconds to make less coarse.  Melt butter and add to oats with salt.  Mix well.  Add hot water and mix to form a stiff dough.  Push into a crumbly ball, adding more water of necessary.

Turn out on a lightly floured surface and roll dough out very thin (1/8 inch thick).  Using a round cookie cutter, cut into disks and place on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 15-20 minutes, turning over once for even color (do not brown).  Allow to cool on wire rack.  Store in airtight container.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Flatbread?

For most Highlanders of the 14th century, food varied very little from day to day, commonly including a pottage, bread and ale.  Cereals remained the most important dietary staple in Scotland, throughout the Middle Ages, specifically oats, barley, and rye, which all grew well in the cool climate.  Bread made from wheat would have been eaten only by people of rank or wealth, as it grew poorly in the north throughout most of the medieval period and would have to have been imported from the warmer climates to the south or from France.  Flours made from dried peas and beans, or nuts (such as acorns) were also consumed in small amounts, and seem to do best when mixed with other flours (see recipe, below).  Rice was a late arrival to Europe, and potatoes were not introduced until the mid-16th century,– and for centuries, were used almost exclusively as animal feed.

When speaking of early bread-making, the question of whether yeast,– or a sourdough starter method– was used as leavening, always comes up.  Yeast was available in Scotland, there is no doubt about that.  As a general note, in regard to the use of yeast vs. sourdough, it is important to know that the precondition to using yeast was, for centuries, the presence of brewers. One reason sourdough was the main method in France for so long is that beer there began as a regional specialty, whereas wine was, if not universal, far more widespread.  In general, beer-drinking cultures have been associated with bread made with barm (the yeast “foam” that forms on top of fermenting beer), while wine-drinking cultures have preferred sourdough.

But, even with the wide availability of yeast in Scotland, the low gluten content of the available cereal grains resulted in dense, flat loaves.  Even if the wheat flour (necessary to produce lighter, well-risen loaves) was available, people who had no bread ovens (or were far from the city, where central ovens would have been available to them) baked small, flat loaves, referred to as “bannock”.  Small loaves,–each serving one individual person, were cooked on an open fire, on a girdle, skillet, or hot stone, and eaten immediately.  Fresh bannocks would have been made each day.

My flatbread was made, simply, using a combination of barley and chickpea flours, salt and water.  I did add a small amount of yeast and allowed the dough to “rest” overnight.  I did not achieve a “rise” to speak of, but I believe the addition of the yeast produced a lighter product.

I have also experimented with using leftover whey (from cheese making) and buttermilk (which would have been available from making butter) in place of the water, with satisfactory results.  The barley and pea flour combination makes a delicious, nutty tasting bread!

MY RECIPE:

  • 2-1/2 c barley flour
  • 1/2 c chickpea flour
  • (1/2 tsp yeast)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1-1/2 c water (or other liquid)

Mix all ingredients and allow to rest overnight.  Form into walnut sized balls, and flatten with your hands (or a small rolling pin).  They should be rather thin.  Cook over med-high heat on an ungreased girdle pan (or skillet).

Buttermilk Cheese & Jam

Archaeological studies have found that people have been eating cheese for almost 8000 years.  It is believed that some not only made milk into cheese to preserve it, but also because much of the population was lactose intolerant. The gene that allows adults to digest lactose started to become more common about 5000 years ago, it is believed.  Interestingly, when they analyzed the DNA of a group of men from very early Celtic descent (4,200 years ago) they found they had the gene for lactose tolerance.

This passage, taken from an 11th century Middle Irish tale, The Vision of Mac Conglinne, shows the love early Celts had for milk and dairy products, and gives us a rare look at their eating habits.

A lake of new milk I beheld
In the midst of a fair plain.
I saw a well-appointed house
Thatched with butter.
As I went all around it
To view its arrangement
I saw that puddings fresh-boiled
Were its thatch-rods.
Its two soft door-posts of custard,
Its dais of curds and butter,
Beds of glorious lard,
Many shields of thin-pressed cheese.
Under the straps of those shields
Were men of soft sweet smooth cheese,
Men who knew not to wound a Gael,
Spears of old butter had each of them.
A huge cauldron full of meat
(Methought I’d try to tackle it)
Boiled, leafy kale, browny white,
A brimming vessel full of milk.
A bacon house of two-score ribs,
A wattling of tripe– support of clans–
Of every food pleasant to man,
Meseemed the whole was gathered there.

Cheese and dairy products seem to always have been a regular part of the Scottish diet.  Milk was an important source of animal protein for those who could not afford meat.  It would mostly come from cows, but milk from goats and sheep was also common.  There is evidence that buttermilk or whey was also drunk, but it was difficult to keep fresh, so was usually used in soups or pottage.  Cheese has been suggested to have been, during many periods, the chief supplier of animal protein among the lower classes.  Butter, another important dairy product, was in popular use in the regions of Northern Europe that specialized in cattle production in the latter half of the Middle Ages, which must include the Scottish Highlands.  While most other regions used oil or lard as cooking fats, butter was the dominant cooking medium in these areas. Its production also allowed for a lucrative butter export from the 12th century onward.

Cows don’t give milk nonstop year round. They give lots of milk after they have a calf, then milk production wanes when the cow is bred, again. In a few more months, the cow quits giving milk, because her body needs to focus nutrients on the gestating calf.  Making cheese is a way to preserve milk, which can be eaten when your cow is not producing fresh milk.

I have come across several recipes for a type of cheese, typically made in the Highlands, that uses buttermilk and fresh milk only,– no rennet or added acid of any kind.

HATTED KIT

“Warm two quarts of buttermilk slightly at milking time.  Carry the vessel to the side of a cow and milk into it a pint of milk.  Stir well.  At the next milking, add another pint and stir again.  Let it stand till it firms and gathers a hat.  Remove the curd, place it on a hair sieve, and press the whey through till the curd is stiff.  Put into a mould and leave for half an hour. Turn out and strew with sugar and nutmeg, and serve with thick cream.”

I was able to make a very satisfactory adaption of this recipe, which was delicious both as a sweet and savory cheese:

  • 32 oz whole milk (1 quart)
  • 12 oz buttermilk (1-1/2 cups)
  • 2 tsp coarse salt (optional; do not use if serving with honey or jam
  • 1 tsp dried herbs — I used marjoram, mint, thyme (optional, as above)

Combine milk, buttermilk (also salt & herbs if using) over medium-high heat, until curds appear and whey is translucent (about 8 minutes).

Ladle into lined colander and allow to drain several minutes.  Lift and press out excess whey.  Allow to cool.

Both varieties were delicious!  I served the herb cheese with a barley flatbread and the plain version with oatcakes and honey or jam (recipe follows).

 

In all of the very earliest recipe collections from Scotland, there are procedures for preserving food and recipes for jellies, pickles, and fruit sauces.  A very basic recipe, To make Marmalade of Gooseberries, read:

Take a stone jugg and put your gooseberries therin, and set them in boileing water till they disolve; then poure them into a Callender, and lett the liquor and substance rune from them then take 2 or 3 of the greenest Apples you can gett, pare them and cut them into small pices, then straine them with the aforsaid Pap of Gooseberries; and take as much Sugar boiled to a Candie height, as usually to others.

I was very familiar with the idea of using green apples in place of modern pectin.  I also decided to use honey, in place of sugar, for sweetener, as honey would have been plentiful and sugar would have been expensive, although available, at this time.

My recipe:

Blackberry Jam

  • 3# fresh blackberries
  • 1-3/4 c. honey
  • 3 medium Granny Smith apples
  • 1 Tbl lemon juice

Wash berries and place in a large pot.  Slice apples into quarters; remove core, but do not peel.  Grate and add to pot.

Add honey and lemon juice.  Heat on high until mixture begins to boil; reduce and simmer, about 15 minutes.

Use a potato masher to make a uniform consistency of berry mixture.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer an additional 15-45 minutes.  The mixture will thicken as it cools.

 

On my Master’s garden wall

Singing BeathogThis is a song I wrote 5 years ago for Pentathlon, written in the style of Thomas Campion (1567-1620). He lived past Beathog’s period, but I really enjoy his work and wanted to try and emulate it.  While not known for his remarkable poetry, he did have the ability to marry just the right musical phrase to the lyric.  Garden subjects and the accompanying sexual puns were common during this period, as well.  I had to try my hand at that!

I have performed this piece, and the Cliar Cu Buidhe troupe has actually recorded it.  It has remained a favorite of ours!

Personally, I think Thomas Campion would have asked to perform it, as well!

————-<>————-

On my Master’s garden wall

an original song
written in the style of Thomas Campion (1567-1620)

On my Master’s garden wall,
Blossoms fare well for his hall;
Servant men stand at his hand,
Each to do the best that he can.
The Master shows his garden well
To each man there this tale would tell.
And who could fault a man his pride,
Or the comfort that he finds inside?

Thomas lays his fertile beds,
Grassy pillow for their heads;
Avery tends his youngest seeds,
Gentle hands are his offerings;
And Ambrose offers words of praise,
Every flow’r responds to his ways.
If this be the truth now to tell,
Each man there does his job well.

Lilies bloom and rosebuds swell
From this bower planted well;
Blossoms spring forth at his feet;
Beauty faded now smells so sweet;
And heavy-laden boughs stand tall,
Bearing forth the most fruit of all.
And servant men their Master praise
For their toiling in such pleasant wayes.