A&S

Courses Vs. Removes 

This is an earlier version of an article I wrote which was published in Tournaments Illuminated Issue 202, Second Quarter 2017 p.35-36.

Serve It Forth, edited by Mistress Elaina de Sinistre, was a newsletter for those interested in culinary arts in the SCA, which ran until 2005.  In the April, 1996 issue, Dame Alys Katharine (Elise Fleming) first published “Of Course, It’s ‘Course’!” explaining that pre 1650 the word remove was not used to mean course in any English language culinary context.  The article since has been updated, and is available here. However, in the SCA, remove frequently continues to stand in for course, and so here is more information on the history of these terms.

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Pressganged Theatre Company

12th Night 2010I was thinking back to the Pressganged Theatre Company which put on an annual play at Bard and a Banquet in the Shire of Lionsdale. Headed up by Master Luther Magnus and Don Pierce O’Brien it was started in 2001 and hosted a play every year till 2011, including two in 2004. In 2015 Luther brought it back to put on a play at that year’s Winter’s Tourney.

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Mushroom Tart

This month the theme of Montengarde Culinary Night is “Italian Night”. I’ve been wanting to research mushrooms for a while and thought this was a good opportunity.

I love mushrooms, but there aren’t a lot of medieval recipes for them. In fact I’ve only found about a dozen recipes that call for mushrooms, only one English (to my sorrow), six Italian, four German, and two French.

I’ve seen what might possibly be mushrooms in period art, but on closer examination they are might just as easily be eggs:

Market Scene by Joachim Beuckelaer

Market Scene by Joachim Beuckelaer (baskets left and right)

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

English Coffee

Ok, this is 50+ years out of period. However, I thought I’d try it anyway.

Coffee comes to Europe through trade with the Ottoman Turks. Coffee first came from Ethiopia, sometime in the 15th century it was introduced to Yemen (The Ottomans and the Yemeni Coffee Trade, Hathaway, Jane, 163) and by the 16th century was also being grown in Egypt, Syria, and near Istanbul (Ibid.). If those places sound like they might be linked at the time it’s because they were all part of the Ottoman Empire. They loved their coffee, and the best coffee was grown in Yemen (164).

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Bagels / Pretzels

One great thing about being done the A&S 50 is that I don’t feel bad about doing a recipe where I didn’t do the recreation and the background research is shaky. So, with that said, here’s pretzels.

Ever since I made some modern soft pretzels I’ve been reading about the history of pretzels. Modernly we use boiling water with baking soda in it. Previously they used lye in the water to accomplish the same dark colour.  However, I can’t find any use of lye or ash in boiling water in the production of bread products in the SCA period. Some people have suggested that they used malt in the water but again there’s no proof of it. That of course doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Pretzels of course are a period shape

Konzil von Konstanz (ÖNB 3044, fol. 48v), c. 1465-1475

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

Sugar Cane Fun

I realized I hadn’t shared a lot of what I’ve done with sugar cane over the last while. This actually predates the sugar paste experiments. So here’s a huge update heavy on the photos. (Also a shameless test of the new photo plugin I’m using for enlarging photos on click)

First, my failed sugar cane juice crystallization experiments:

I started with a cane I got from the supermarket during Chineese New Year, one of the few times it’s available in Canada at standard grocery stores.

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago

White Ginger Bread

50.

A friend of mine is providing some treats for a meeting at an SCA event and asked me to contribute. Ever since I did the Sugar Paste work I’ve been wanting to try some of the more advanced versions. One of the ones I’ve thought was interesting was the “White Ginger Bread” recipe in ​A

I made a mini version at the same time to taste test before I send the large version to the meeting.

Book of Cookrye, by A. W. in 1591. Of course this is the 16th century use of the word so it’s referring to confection, not necessarily something with bread in it.

I’ve never made marzipan before but I thought that combining marzipan, sugar paste, and ginger seemed like a great combination and a way to try something new.

End result is delicious. A great combination of the sugar paste with marzipan and just enough ginger to offset the rosewater.

This also marks the end of A&S 50 for me which I started in 2010. There was a fairly substantial break when I stopped playing in the SCA for two years but I’ve now completed it. As part of the completion I began linking all of my recipes on the new Recipes page. Also as part of this I won’t be using the category or tag A&S 50 any more; however, each new recipe will be added to my recipes page which should make them easier to find.

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By Tomas de Courcy, ago