Fried Spinach

33.

This month’s Montengarde Culinary Group night is themed “In the Bleak Midwinter”

 “In the Bleak Midwinter” theme – cook period dishes that remind you of warmer times or are from warmer places! No comfort food here – let’s see your vegetables, sallets, light desserts, and the like!

So with that in mind I was looking at spinach pie again, but then I got thinking – I wonder what other spinach recipes there are, maybe something simple, with a few ingredients, and something old, a base concept that gets reused later in other dishes.

So with that in mind it’s time for Fried Spinach.

Today’s recipe comes from Forme of Cury from 1390 England as reproduced in 1780.

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Spinach Tart

32.

I was doing the prep work on January’s Culinary Group and I realized I never posted the Spinach Tart. Now this is an easy dish we usually use for potlucks. It’s fast, takes very little time to make, and everyone loves it. We’ve done it as a big tart, we’ve done it as individual tarts, we’ve even done it gluten free.

We originally found the recipe at Medievalcookery.com and went back to the source then worked from there, but we have also made it the way Daniel Myers described and it’s just as good.

The recipe is from one of my go-to cook books Le Menagier de Paris as translated by Janet Hinson.

TO MAKE A TART, take four handfuls of beet-leaves, two handfuls of parsley, one handful of chervil, a bit of turnip-top and two handfuls of spinach, and clean them and wash them in cold water, then chop very small: then grate two kinds of cheese, that is one mild and one medium, and then put eggs with it, yolk and white, and grate them in with the cheese; then put the herbs in the mortar and grind them up together, and also add to that some powdered spices. Or in place of this have first ground up in the mortar two pieces of ginger, and over this grate your cheeses, eggs and herbs, and then throw in some grated old pressed cheese or some other such on to the herbs, and carry to the oven, and then make it into a tart and eat it hot.

 

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A Meal Onboard Ship in the 16th Century

Update April 2018: I went back and reworked the entirety of this entry for Kingdom A&S. You can see the documentation here:Stew on Ship and photos here.

 

28. 29.

At Lionsdale’s Winters Tourney this year I entered the Arts and Sciences competition and won.  The theme of

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the competition was the chorus of “The Ship Called Lionsdale” which is a filk some of our local members wrote a few years ago.  In that theme I decided to make a meal that could have been eaten on that ship.  For this I used naval regulations, food preservation, and other, journals, information on the recovered Mary Rose and cookbooks from the 16th century to work out a potential meal.

 

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Swetnam Ch. 12 The manners of a passage

This is part of an ongoing project to summarize and provide SCA focused commentary on The Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence by Joseph Swetnam, published in 1617.

For links to the other sections of the Swetnam Project please go here.

I am using this facsimile: http://tysonwright.com/sword/SwetnamSchooleOfDefence.pdf for the project.

Here is the third part of this section in Chapter 12.

The manners of a passage.

When making a passing lunge (Swetnam calls this a passage) you must be fast, nimble, and focused.  It is a dangerous attack as it brings you very close to your opponents weapon, and is more dangerous the more skilled your opponent is.  To counteract the innate danger in this lunge you must be skillful, have practiced, and have good judgement, especially in knowing where your opponents weapon is.  You must make your passing lunge as fast as possible, as soon as you see an opening with your opponents sword high you need to step forward with your left foot quickly, and parry your opponents weapon with your dagger, pushing it up and out of the way at the same time that you attack with your rapier.  Your parry and attack must happen at the same time rather than as two actions or it will be too slow.  The passing lunge is most effective if your opponent likes to stay in the same guard, but is more dangerous if he moves from guard to guard frequently.

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Swetnam Ch. 12 Three manner of waies for the holding of a Rapier

This is part of an ongoing project to summarize and provide SCA focused commentary on The Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence by Joseph Swetnam, published in 1617.

For links to the other sections of the Swetnam Project please go here.

I am using this facsimile: http://tysonwright.com/sword/SwetnamSchooleOfDefence.pdf for the project.

We just finished covering stance/guard and a few basic parries.  Now we move on to the next part of this section.  I’m not sure why this section of chapter 12 is so long.

Three mannor of waies for the holding of a Rapier.

Three mannor of waies for the holding of a RapierSwetnam tells us that there are three ways to hold a rapier.

  1. With the thumb upon the rapier blade (he calls this the natural fashion)
  2. With the whole hand in the pummell, I believe he means on the grip of the rapier, with the thumb locking on the forefinger.
  3. Gripping the pommel (button of the pummell) with your fingers and palm while your index and thumb are on the grip.

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Swetnam Ch. 12 first the true gard of rapier and dagger for the defence either of blow or thrust

This is part of an ongoing project to summarize and provide SCA focused commentary on The Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence by Joseph Swetnam, published in 1617.

For links to the other sections of the Swetnam Project please go here.

I am using this facsimile: http://tysonwright.com/sword/SwetnamSchooleOfDefence.pdf for the project.

This first subsection of chapter twelve introduces us to the basic guard for the Rapier and Dagger

The true guard for the defence, either of blowe, or thrust, with Rapier and Dagger, or Sword and Dagger.

Keep your rapier hand inline with the pocket of your hose, without bending the elbow, while your dagger hand should be inline with your left cheek, with your arm outstretched (not bowing the elbow), and with your rapier and dagger points within two or three inches of each other.  Make sure that you can see your opponent clearly, and that your left arm is high enough not to obscure your view – you should be able to see your opponent with both eyes.  Keep your opponent centered between your rapier and dagger.

An artists (poor) rendering of how you should stand

Have your head angled slightly toward the right shoulder, and have your shoulders square to your opponent, slightly tilted forward.  Keep your thumb on the nail of your fore finger, rather than upon the blade of your weapon (which was the current fashion) so that you have a more secure grip upon your sword.  The heel of your right foot should be in line with where your toes meet your foot.

Use the picture as an example, but if there is a discrepancy follow the words, not the picture.

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