So, we attempted to make a Red chicken from description only... well, that and recipes for other colours and available information on food colours of the time. In the end, the one thing that was safe and readily available to us, ended up being pomegranate which reduced into a lovely deep red syrup but quickly turned into a deep brown with any egg yolk, or even white, added it to it.
Why add the egg? Well, yolk is mentioned with the other colours and it was not unheard of for other savoury food glazes and this is likely because of the type of glaze it forms. The egg also helps glue the colour to the surface... it isn't quite paint but a thick syrup without that added protein, would just slip off of most foods.
In the end though, with some playing around, I grabbed some cherry syrup (that was made at an earlier date) and topped the reddish-brown hen with it which made it a bit more red in colour and also decided that we need to use as little yolk as possible as not to muddy the colour.
One issue to be aware of, however, do let let the bird sit in an oven too long (something very avoidable when working with a spit in plain sight) as the sugars in the glaze will burn easily and then you will have a black chicken!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Making a Pea into a Roast
This past month, while reading through several different German cookbooks written around the 16th century, I kept stumbling across this dish for roast peas. Though each recipe had it's differences, the main similarity was that they all began with the boiling of the peas and ended with the roasting of the peas.
Given that recipes that stated fresh peas were used as they came fresh from the pod, I image that these were dried from the storage. It makes sense too, that people would try to come up with something interesting to do with these peas that was just eating up a boiled mass!
The basic set of instructions are basically thus: Take you clean peas, boil and strain them, add many eggs to them, fry them in fat and then roast them on a spit. Only noticed one that skipped the frying part and suggested thickening them with grated bread before roasting them.
What I chose to do was to stick with the seemingly popular boil, strain, fry and roast version though even here, we had variances.
With my first batch, I used about the same weight in eggs and then fried them. What resulted was very fluffy pancake type things, much like the green ones in the picture.
In the second batch I used dried green peas for some variety, however they held more moisture which may have effect the end result after frying. In this batch, I used a more yolk heavy mixture in hopes of using less eggs since all of the of the recipes did not specify yolks. This too came out much like the first batch.
With the third batch, (yellow) I used about half of it's dry weight in yolks only and these came out nearly round and fluffy.
Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I did try these just fried and thought them not so bad so decided to bake some just as is, and it did improve them somewhat... for one, allowing more fat to drip out and allow it to crisp up. They may have, or might not have, done this in the period but it was worth a try.
In the end though, it is supposed to be a roasted item that can be put up on a spit and basted... some say with fat and others egg yolk. I chose egg yolk as there was fat enough and figured the egg yolk would also help contain and hold the 'roast' together. This was made from 'mostly cooked' fried peas I made while making up the ones above, and while making that, decided to give it a whirl with some fully cooked (green) peas to compare. Apart from how it looked and how badly the green loaf/roast held together, even with the addition of a yolk, the texture remained fairly equal to the yellow.
Of course, all is not perfect and there won't be access to a fire until the spring so it was baked in an oven instead of roasted by a fire, but was still pleased with the outcome of these mini-versions of the Roast Peas.
Given that recipes that stated fresh peas were used as they came fresh from the pod, I image that these were dried from the storage. It makes sense too, that people would try to come up with something interesting to do with these peas that was just eating up a boiled mass!
The basic set of instructions are basically thus: Take you clean peas, boil and strain them, add many eggs to them, fry them in fat and then roast them on a spit. Only noticed one that skipped the frying part and suggested thickening them with grated bread before roasting them.
What I chose to do was to stick with the seemingly popular boil, strain, fry and roast version though even here, we had variances.
With my first batch, I used about the same weight in eggs and then fried them. What resulted was very fluffy pancake type things, much like the green ones in the picture.
In the second batch I used dried green peas for some variety, however they held more moisture which may have effect the end result after frying. In this batch, I used a more yolk heavy mixture in hopes of using less eggs since all of the of the recipes did not specify yolks. This too came out much like the first batch.
With the third batch, (yellow) I used about half of it's dry weight in yolks only and these came out nearly round and fluffy.
Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I did try these just fried and thought them not so bad so decided to bake some just as is, and it did improve them somewhat... for one, allowing more fat to drip out and allow it to crisp up. They may have, or might not have, done this in the period but it was worth a try.
In the end though, it is supposed to be a roasted item that can be put up on a spit and basted... some say with fat and others egg yolk. I chose egg yolk as there was fat enough and figured the egg yolk would also help contain and hold the 'roast' together. This was made from 'mostly cooked' fried peas I made while making up the ones above, and while making that, decided to give it a whirl with some fully cooked (green) peas to compare. Apart from how it looked and how badly the green loaf/roast held together, even with the addition of a yolk, the texture remained fairly equal to the yellow.
Of course, all is not perfect and there won't be access to a fire until the spring so it was baked in an oven instead of roasted by a fire, but was still pleased with the outcome of these mini-versions of the Roast Peas.
Monday, February 4, 2008
The Many shades of Violet
Last summer I decided that we just needed to have Violet Syrup due to a minor addiction I developed toward violet creams while I was staying in Edinburgh. Sadly, something that seems to be non existent in these parts.
The original recipe came from a book printed around the Elizabethan era, but there are far earlier mentions of violets being used in cookery.
The thing that interested me the most, however, is the chemistry behind the colour and how it reacts to different environments... think of it as a sort of litmus test.
The first picture, shows the violet juice after the petals were soaked in it for a day and then strained. Here it makes quite a strong purple colour... not bad considering the mix of violets from the garden that was used.
The next picture shows the cloth I used to strain the liquid with, the exact same stuff came out nearly blue which gives promising ideas for blue dyes on the right substance!
The last picture (because I really didn't take that many) show the liquid after making it into syrup shows just what happens when you add a little lemon juice. The amount was not very much but the recipe suggested it so it got added.
I was kind of sad to see just how much it lightened the syrup but it at least made for an interesting show and tell.
Oh, BTW... when you do go about to make colours, wines, syrups or flavours with your flower petals, do be sure to remove the whites! These would be the little white part at the base of each flower. Many many years ago, during the production of my first batch of dandelion wine, I thought to take a few short cuts and not worry about the few whites that slipped in... oh, but was I ever sorry when their very bitter flavour imparted itself in every nasty slip of that wine. A mistake never repeated!
The original recipe came from a book printed around the Elizabethan era, but there are far earlier mentions of violets being used in cookery.
The thing that interested me the most, however, is the chemistry behind the colour and how it reacts to different environments... think of it as a sort of litmus test.
The first picture, shows the violet juice after the petals were soaked in it for a day and then strained. Here it makes quite a strong purple colour... not bad considering the mix of violets from the garden that was used.
The next picture shows the cloth I used to strain the liquid with, the exact same stuff came out nearly blue which gives promising ideas for blue dyes on the right substance!
The last picture (because I really didn't take that many) show the liquid after making it into syrup shows just what happens when you add a little lemon juice. The amount was not very much but the recipe suggested it so it got added.
I was kind of sad to see just how much it lightened the syrup but it at least made for an interesting show and tell.
Oh, BTW... when you do go about to make colours, wines, syrups or flavours with your flower petals, do be sure to remove the whites! These would be the little white part at the base of each flower. Many many years ago, during the production of my first batch of dandelion wine, I thought to take a few short cuts and not worry about the few whites that slipped in... oh, but was I ever sorry when their very bitter flavour imparted itself in every nasty slip of that wine. A mistake never repeated!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
and so it begins...
Hi! "The Compendium" has been undergoing all sorts of changes as I sort things out and add both new, and old, content. Hopefully things will be easier to find and new galleries will come in in force!
The newest gallery being the historic kitchen gallery, though many of the photos are old and have not been properly categorized so information is missing on them.
The newest gallery being the historic kitchen gallery, though many of the photos are old and have not been properly categorized so information is missing on them.
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