Cooking in Europe 1250-1650 by Ken Albala.pdf

Cooking In EUROPE,

1250-1650

Ken Albala

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GLOSSARY

•

SERIES FOREWORD

•

PREFACE

•

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

•

INTRODUCTION

•

THE MIDDLE AGES, 1300–1450

•

THE RENAISSANCE

•

LATE RENAISSANCE AND ELIZABETHAN ERA

•

NOTES

•

BIBLIOGRAPHY

•

Glossary

ALKANET:

The powdered root of a plant (Alkanna tinctoria) used as a reddish-purple dye in medieval

cuisine.

ALMOND MILK:

Substitute for regular milk used during Lent or any time of year. Made by pounding

blanched almonds with a few drops of water to prevent the oil separating, then soaking in

hot water overnight, lastly straining.

AMBERGRIS:

Perfume coughed up from the intestines of whales and found washed up on beaches. It is

very difficult to find today and unbelievably expensive, as in the past, which was precisely

why it was used in cooking.

BARBERRIES:

Wild sour red oblong berry (Berberis vulgaris) native to Europe often cooked with savory

dishes, in conserves, or used as a garnish.

BLANCMANGE:

Literally, “white food,” originally made of pounded capon breast, sugar, rosewater, and

almond milk. In later centuries it becomes a sweet almond dessert without chicken.

BORAGE:

Fresh green herb (Borrago officinalis) with a light cucumber-like taste and sweet, edible

purple flowers, thought to enliven the heart and drive away sorrow in the past.

BOTARGO:

Dried salted mullet roe (egg sack) eaten as an appetizer thinly sliced.

BRAZIER:

Little iron container with a grate that holds hot coals, on which pots or pans can be placed

to gently simmer.

BREAD CRUMBS:

Rather than dry commercial bread crumbs, keep good stale bread on hand and grate or

crush as needed for a thickening agent, or to make stuffing and dumplings. Sometimes

fresh bread crumb is called for, in which case remove crust or pull the interior from a loaf

of bread.

CANELLA:

See Cinnamon.

CAPON:

Castrated male chicken. The procedure makes the bird grow fatter, as did feeding in

coops. The preferred form of chicken.

CASSIA:

See Cinnamon.

CASSIA BUDS:

Dried bud of the cassia tree, resembling small cloves, but tasting like cinnamon.

CASSOLA:

Round ceramic dish used to cook directly over a low flame or placed in the coals or in the

oven. Normally glazed only on the inside. A modern casserole will work for most recipes

but not those cooked over direct flames. Sold in Spanish and Italian cookware shops.

CAUL:

Fatty visceral lining of the pig. Used to wrap around dry meats during roasting to keep

them moist and also formed around chopped meat to create little meatballs or sausages.

CHAFING DISH:

Metal pan set over hot coals to keep food warm. Normally used for serving rather than

cooking.

CINNAMON:

True cinnamon, native to Sri Lanka, is the delicate aromatic bark of a tree in the laurel

family rolled into quills and dried. In most vernacular languages, the word canella refers to

either cinnamon or cassia, which is closely related and brasher tasting. What is sold in the

United States preground as cinnamon is actually cassia. Confusingly, canella today refers

to a New World species (Canella winterana). Unless cassia is specifically called for in a

recipe, the word cinnamon has been used here for the sake of familiarity.

CITRON:

Relative of the lemon, used primarily for its aromatic peel, which was often candied.

CLOVES:

Spike-like bud of a plant native to the Moluccas in present-day Indonesia, used

decoratively stuck into foods or finely ground.

COMFITS:

Candy-coated spices such as aniseed, or other confections, used to sweeten the breath

after a meal. Sometimes used as a garnish on savory dishes.

CUBEBS:

Small, pepper-like spice from Asia with a short spike or “tail” on one end. Used both in

pharmacy and cuisine.

CURRANTS:

Small, tart berry, red, black or white (Ribes). The name was also applied to Raisins of

Corinth—tiny dried grapes that are still sold as currants.

CURY:

Old English for “cookery.”

DUTCH OVEN:

Extremely versatile cast-iron pot with lid, three legs, and usually a wire handle. Hot coals

can be placed on the concave lid to cook from all sides.

ENTREMETS:

French for “between dishes,” referring to small courses that appear between large courses

with multiple dishes.

FLAN:

Egg-based custard usually incorporating milk or cream and today usually gently baked, set

in a bainmarie, or water bath.

FRY:

This word referred to cooking in a shallow layer of fat in a pan and includes what we

would call today sautéing. Deep-fat frying was fairly rare, though it could have been used

for fritters and the like.

GALINGALE (GALANGAL):

Fiery, slightly tougher relative of ginger, used dried and powdered in the Middle Ages but

rarely thereafter. Available fresh or dried (preferable for medieval cooking) in Southeast

Asian groceries.

GRAINS OF PARADISE:

Meleguetta pepper, a small pungent seed from West Africa, vaguely similar to black

pepper, used in a variety of medieval spice mixtures. It became almost completely

unknown in European cookery by the late seventeenth century.

HYSSOP:

Fresh evergreen herb (Hyssopus officinalis) used as a seasoning since Biblical times.

Inexplicably absent from North American cookery.

ISINGLASS:

Gelatin made from the air bladder of fish such as sturgeon and cod.

LAMPREY:

Long, eel-like fish (Petromyzon marinus) with sharp teeth arranged in a circle, with which

it latches onto its prey and drains it of blood. Popular in medieval cookery, especially

baked into pies.

LARDO:

Cured strips of pork fat, unsmoked. Not to be confused with lard, which is rendered and

spreadable, though both were used in the past.

LEACH:

To slice, and any food served in solid form sliced and cold.

LENT:

Period of fasting in spring between Christian Advent and Ash Wednesday when no meat,

eggs, or dairy products could be eaten. Towns and individuals could purchase

dispensations from this rule, however, and by the sixteenth century, the rules were

relaxed or abolished in some Protestant countries.

LONG PEPPER:

Close relative to black pepper, but in form a small, finger-like catkin, and a little hotter.

Once the most highly sought-after form of the spice. Available in Indian groceries.

MACE:

See Nutmeg.

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