There might be a roasted peacock, its lustrous feathers painstakingly reattached and presented as if preening before the dazzled company. The centerpiece was often a cooked and reconstructed boar's head, apple in mouth, eyes glittering as if alive. There would be venison, beef, lamb, pork, hare, rabbit, chicken, goose and game and song birds. Swans were the exclusive property of the Crown, but anyone with a deep enough purse could - and would - seek to impress their guests with a veritable menagerie. The skills and ambition of a household's kitchen were also a measure of the host's status, so medieval cooks were engaged in a constant culinary arms race to find new ways to show off. According to the prevailing medical wisdom, all that flesh had to be paired with carefully matched sides to ensure that the hot, cold, wet and dry "humors" of the finished dish were properly balanced for human consumption. Soups and sauces played a big role in a medieval banquet, partly because they had to accompany the extravagant array of roasted and prepared meats that were the hallmark of a slap up feast. Stored in a cask, this made "a lordly sauce" that was "good for half a year." The recipe required grinding up cardamom, clove, nutmeg, pepper and ginger with five times as much cinnamon, twice as much toasted bread as everything else, and stirring the lot into some vinegar. It gives instructions to soak a loaf of bread in broth and vinegar, push it through a strainer, and then use this sourdough slurry to thicken a pot of simmering beef.įor something a little more piquant for the venison, the 14th century cook could make a batch of cinnamon sauce according to directions in the Forme of Cury, a manuscript roll of recipes attributed to the Master Cooks of King Richard II. Want a hearty stew? How about the recipe for Beef Soup ( Beef- y-Stywyd ), written in 1420. And in the Middle Ages, being able to whip up a wide variety of soups and sauces was an essential part of the culinary skill set. It offered a good tempered and flexible way to create a variety of consistencies. Ground almonds and other nuts were also used as thickeners, as were eggs and animal fat, but the availability - and versatility - of leftover bread made it a medieval kitchen staple. Where today we would reach for a bag of flour to thicken a stew or make a sauce, a medieval cook would throw in yesterday's loaf instead. So is the famous Tuscan soup, Ribollito, which includes leftover bread, cannellini beans and Lacinato kale. Spain's Romesco sauce - made with tomatoes, bread and ground almonds or hazelnuts - is another such culinary survivor. It's actually a culinary relic of the Middle Ages, one of the few remaining examples of the bread-thickened sauces, stews and soups that were once served at Christmas feasts, and other celebration dinners, across medieval Europe. And it turns out that the sauce has been passed down through the generations for a good 500 years. I learned my version of bread sauce from my mother. Medieval feasts like this 14th century wedding feast featured a range of different kinds of meat, accompanied by soups and sauces thickened with bread.īy the "Queen Mary Master", via Wikimedia Commons It perks up the Brussels sprouts, calms the bite of the cranberries and transforms every slice of turkey - however overcooked and dry - into a succulent, flavorsome mouthful. Not only does it transport me straight back to the Christmases of my childhood, its strange, sloppy texture and comforting spices have the magical ability to make everything on the Christmas dinner plate taste better. for nearly 20 years, it's the one Christmas dish I still can't live without. And as a British expat who has lived in the U.S. The sides will include sausage links wrapped in bacon - quaintly known as "pigs in blankets," carrots or parsnips, and in many households, a thick sauce made of stale breadcrumbs and milk, infused with the flavors of onion, bay, mace and cloves. We've crossed the Atlantic, and this is the traditional Christmas dinner that Brits will sit down to on Dec. There is no green bean casserole, no mac 'n cheese and not a yam in sight. There's a large dish of Brussels sprouts, shiny with butter stuffing flecked with sage and heaps of crispy roast potatoes. The cranberry sauce glows in its cut glass bowl. The turkey sits in golden splendor on the carving board. Bread sauce, a sauce made with milk, breadcrumbs and spices, is a staple at traditional Christmas dinners in England.
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