What's For Dinner?

Tonight's dinner consisted of three period recipes: Sauerbraten, Spinach Dumplings and Carrots in Cream.

Sauerbraten

(Rumpolt 1581, 47)

47 Nim m ein Rindernbraten/ vnd beiß jn vber Nacht/ thu halb Wasser/ vnnd halb Essig/ auch gestossen Knobloch/ in die Bru:eh/ vnnd ein wenig Saltz/ laß den Braten vber Nacht darinnen ligen/ vnd deß Morgens fru:eh thu jn auß der Bru:eh/ vnd saltz jn ein/ steck jn an/ vnd laß jn braten. Nim m die Bru:eh/ da der Brat innen gelegen/ seig sie ab/ so bleibet das dick auff dem Boden/ thu es in ein kleinen Fischkessel/ mit ein wenig gestossen Pfeffer/ vnd frischer vnzerlassener Butter/ vnnd laß sieden/ setz es in einer vberzinten Bratpfann vnter den Braten/ vnd begeuß den Braten darmit/ so ist es ein gut Essen fu:er die Vngerischen vnd Polnischen Herrn.

Translation:

47. Take a beef roast/ and marinate it overnight / put half water and half vinegar/ also crushed garlic/ in the broth (brine)/ and a little salt/ let the roast lie therein over night/ the next morning early take it from the brine/ and salt it/ stick it on [a rotisserie or spit]/ and let it roast. Take the brine/ in which the roast was marinated/ pour it off/ so the thick bits remain on the bottom (of the marinating bowl)/ put it into a small Fishpot/ with a little crushed pepper/ and fresh unmelted butter/ and let it simmer/ set a tinned fryingpan under the roast and pour this over the roast/ so it is a good meal for Hungarian and Polish gentlemen.

My Redaction:

4 lbs Stew Beef (it is what I had in the freezer that I needed to use up)
2 Cups Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Cups Water
1 Tbsp Sea Salt
6-8 Garlic Cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp Black Pepper, or to taste
2 Tbsp Butter

Dumplings

(Welserin 1553)

119. Wiltú gesotten krepfflen machen. So nim ain mangoldt, als vill dú wilt, ain wenig ain salúa, ain maseron, ain rosmarin, hacks vnnderainander, thú ain geriben kesß aúch darein, schlag air darein, bis dú mainst, das es recht seý/ rerlach, negellach, pfeffer, weinber nim aúch darein vnnd machs jn den taig zú krapffen, lasß sieden, wie man herte air seudt, so send sý gemacht.

Translation: (Armstrong 1998, 119)

119. If you would make boiled dumplings. Then take chard, as much as you like, some sage, marjoram and rosemary, chop it together, also put grated cheese into it and beat eggs therein until you think that it is right. Take also cinnamon, cloves, pepper and raisins and put them into the dumpling batter. Let the dumplings cook, as one cooks a hard-boiled egg, then they are ready.

My Redaction:

10 Slices Bread or small rolls (Semmel)
1 lb Chard or Spinach, fresh
1 t Sage
1 t Marjoram
1 t Rosemary
½ cup Cheese, grated
3-5 Eggs
Pinch Cinnamon
Pinch Cloves
Pepper

Slice bread into small pieces and chop the greens finely.  Mix bread, greens, spices and cheese together.  Add eggs one at a time until moist enough to form into dumplings 1 inch in diameter.  Cook in salt water for 20 minutes.  Serve.

Note: I omitted the raisins due to my family's taste preferences.

[1] Bread is not listed in the recipe but I believe it was because any good hausfrau would know that to make bread dumplings you must add bread as was common at the time.

Carrots in Cream

(Rumpolt 1581), Vegetables 186

186. Nim{b} Ruben/ setz sie in einem Wasser zu/ vnnd lasz sie sieden/ bisz sie gar werden/ schu:et sie auff ein Durchschlag/ vnd ku:els ausz/ hack sie klein/ nim{b} butter in einen Fischkessel/ vnnd mach sie heisz/ thu die gahackte Ruben darein/ vnd ru:ers vmb. Dasz wolgeschweiszt wirt/ mach es mit gesottener Milch vnd Saltz ab/ gibs warm auff ein Tisch/ so ist es gut vnd wolgeschmack.

Translation:

186. Take roots/ put them in a water/ and let them simmer/ till they are done/ pour them onto a strainer/ and cool them/ chop them small/ take butter in a fishkettle/ and make it hot/ put the chopped roots therein/ and stir it. Sweat it well/ season it with scalded milk and salt/ give it warm to the table/ so it is good and welltasting.

My Redaction:

1 lb Carrots, sliced thick
2 tbls Butter
1 tsp Sea Salt, coarse
1/4 cup Heavy Cream

Cook carrots in water until just fork tender (not too soft).  Meanwhile heat heavy cream in a small saucepan, do not boil.  Strain carrots and saute in butter.  Season with salt and add cream to coat. Serve warm.

Sources:

Armstrong, Valoise tr. Das Kuchbuch der Sabina Welserin (1553). 1998. http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html.

Grasse, M. (Gwen Catrin von Berlin) tr. Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt (1581). 1999-2002. http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_Rumpolt1.htm.

 Rumpolt, Marx. Ein New Kochbuch. 1581.

Pearl Necklace

I have been wanting to recreate this pearl necklace for some time.  It is simple, feminine and very "me".  It appears to me to be constructed of small pearls double strung in groups of eight separated by a black or dark green bi-cone.  Ten bi-cones can be seen in the portrait and it hangs to the top of her breastbone.

Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman by Albrecht Durer, 1505.

Many years ago, my husband surprised me with a bundle of stranded imitation pearls.  They are quite small, maybe 2-3 mm in diameter.  They have been stowed away in my beading supplies until now.  The bi-cone beads were the hard part... I couldn't seem to find a black glass or stone bi-cone of a size that matched well with the portrait.  I ended up having to settle for a black 7mm bead which was smaller then I wanted.

Stringing them was pretty easy.  I used two strands of nylon beading thread (not period but very strong and will prevent breakage from little toddler hands).  I threaded each strand onto it's own beading needle.  I began by passing both strands through a bi-cone bead.  Then strung four pearls onto each strand and then passed both threads through a bi-cone again.  I repeated this pattern until I felt it was the correct length when held up around my neck.  The final necklace has 29 bi-cone beads strung on it where the one in the portrait has somewhere around 14-16 I would guess.  The ends where tied to a simple pewter hook and eye clasp.

I am fairly pleased with the result.  I wish the black bi-cones were larger, I think it would match the inspiration piece better.  The completed necklace will be counted toward my A&S 50 Persona Challenge.

Backstrap Loom Construction

A simple loom which has its roots in ancient civilizations comprising two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver usually by means of a strap around the back.

"A Backstrap loom would suffice or any variation upon that to produce complex patterns of band. This would of course leave very little in the way of archaeological finds, and perhaps answer why nothing in the way of looms as described have been found. Ethnographic evidence from the Middle-East prior to WW2 shows ladies weaving bands with backstrap looms made from little more than sticks..."

First German Dinner

I have been working all week on collecting period German recipes for my A&S 50 Challenge cookbook. I have collated almost 100 recipes from several sources. Some are already redacted others are not. The plan is to work through the list cooking each of the recipes myself. So, tonight I cooked my first German redacted dishes for dinner.

I made Chicken & Pear Stew from Das Buch von Guter Spise (1350) translated by Alia Atlas.  I found a few redacted recipes for this dish online.  I ended up taking a little something from two different versions and then adjusting the spice to the taste of my family.

#30 A good food
Take hens. Roast them, not very well. Tear them apart, into morsels, and let them boil in only fat and water. And take a crust of bread and ginger and a little pepper and anise. Grind that with vinegar and with the same strength as it. And take four roasted quinces and the condiment thereto of the hens. Let it boil well therewith, so that it even becomes thick. If you do not have quinces, then take roasted pears and make it with them. And give out and do not oversalt.

My Redaction:
6 chicken breasts on the bone
4 pears
1 cup Breadcrumbs
½ tsp Ginger
¼ tsp Black Pepper
Sea Salt to taste
Pinch of Anise
3 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
3 cups Chicken Stock

Roast chicken pieces, covered, in a medium oven (375F) for about half an hour. Core pears and cut into quarters or eighths leaving the skin on for added flavor. Remove cover from roasting pan and add pear pieces to the pan, making sure they pick up the meat juices. Continue roasting uncovered until the chicken is brown and the pears are soft.

Remove from oven and allow chicken to cool slightly so you can cut it up and debone it without burning your fingers. Remove flesh from bones and cut into bite-sized pieces. Mash pears into a lumpy consistency and put chicken and pears into large pot.

Soak breadcrumbs in vinegar and 2 cups of stock. Grind the spices and add to breadcrumb mixture. Deglaze the roasting pan with stock – heat slightly to make sure you get all the juices off the bottom. Add bread mixture to the chicken and pears, adding enough stock to make sufficient gravy for the meat. Cook stew slowly until gravy has thickened slightly and meat has heated through again.

I served this over buttered egg noodles sprinkled with parsley.

I also made Sautéd Mushrooms from Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt and translated by Gwen Catrin von Berlin.

196. Mushrooms. White bitter Mushrooms wash off/ pepper and salt (them)/ then one lays them on a Grill/ roast (fry) and baste them with Butter. And when they are roasted (fried)/ then give them warm on a Plate/ strew them with Pepper and Salt/ thus are they all the more better.

I didn't find an existing redacted recipe for the mushrooms but it is pretty straight forward. This is my redaction:

1 lb White or Cremini Mushrooms
3 tbsp Butter
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

Cut mushrooms in half or quarters depending on size. Sauté in butter over medium-high heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Both dishes were very good and I look forward to cooking more for my future cookbook.

One other thing to note today is that the beeswax I ordered came in today.  I think tomorrow I will try to make my tablet weaving cards.

Bone Nalebinding Needle

Well, with my new plan in place for the A&S competition I wanted to get started on the list right away.  It just so happened that I had all the items I needed to make a bone nalebinding needle here in the house so I started with that today.

From Viking age into late-medieval times needles were often made of bone or antler.  Hald's book says that wooden and bone needles may have used in Viking Age Denmark.  They would vary in size and shape depending on the intended use.  Nalebinding needles tend to be long and flat with a blunt tip as to not split the fibers as you work.

Ref: 002215 Needle-like objects from 16-22 Coppergate, 9th/10th century.

I stole some beef rib bones out of the dog's kennel that I had given him a few weeks ago.  Then following the directions for preparing the bone from this site I got to work.  I boiled the bones to soften them a bit.  I marked on the bone the basic shape I thought the needle should be.  Then using a Dremel, I cut the rough shape of the needle away from the rest of the bone.  Using a grinding bit, I then did more shaping and smoothing of the needle.  Once I was happy with shape and thinness of the needle I drilled an oval hole on one end and smoothed that over as well.  Finally, I buffed the needle until it felt smooth in the hand.

Sources:
Cadfan, E., How to Make Bone Needles, Fettered Cock Press. (Purchase here)
Hald, M., Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials. Aarhus University Press, 1980.
Ceara ni Neill, website "Past Times on the Web", http://housebarra.com/EP/ep02/18bone.html

Tablet Woven Garters - Finished!

I have been working on my first piece of tablet weaving in the evenings while watching TV with the family. It was probably not the best time to be working on a project that needed a bit of concentration in order to keep the pattern straight. I made more than one mistake along the way. I looked at it as a learning tool... having to turn back the cards and unweave.

The thing I really need to work on is getting my selvages smoother. I am just not sure if I am pulling too tight or not tight enough. It will come with practice I am sure.

The other major lesson I learned was to always allow for more warp then you think you will need for the project. My poor husband got recruited to hold the loose ends of my warp for my last eleven turns as I didn't have enough warp left to tie a knot and still turn the cards.

But, here they are... my first tablet woven item... garters! Now I just need to make stockings to go with them.


For the A&S 50 Challenge these will be one item under my Persona challege (linen garters) and also one item for my skills challenge (tablet weaving).

I have also started researching period German recipes for my third A&S 50 Challenge. I have found many that I can make and feed to my family to test them out. Once I have tested a recipe I will add to a cookbook doc which I will print out at the end of the challenge for display.

A&S 50 Challenge - My Personal Challenge(s)

Ok, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the A&S 50 Challenge and exactly what the challenge meant to me personally.  There are so many options (even within the three major options posted on the site) to choose from.  It seems that the mantra of the people involved in the challenge is, "It is what you make of it."  Which of course means that it is different for everyone and that the challenge is to challenge yourself.

So, all my thinking has got me to this end... I will be doing three sets of challenges!

The first will be to have 50 new things that I have personally made that my persona would have owned and used (under option 3 in the official challenge).  What this means is that the 50 things must have been created by my hand even if my persona, Elsbeth, would not have personally known how to create it herself but still would have owned the item.  This will include individual pieces of clothing, sewing tools, cooking equipment, household items, books, etc.
The second challenge will be 50 new skills that I learn along the way (under option 2).  So, these are not necessarily skills my persona would know how to do but things that I learned here in the mundane world to make her world more real.

Finally, my third challenge will be to research and make 50 new recipes that my persona would have routinely made in her home for her family.  I may stretch this a bit to include baked goods which were not often done by the home cook due to lack of ovens in the home.  Baking was usually done by the town baker.  Still if it was an item that my persona would have purchased to serve at a family meal I will be including it in the challenge.

So, that's it, my personal challenges.  I am so looking forward to getting my list started.  Look for additional pages to this blog to track my progress.

A&S 50 Challenge

While researching different areas related to my persona, Elsbeth, I kept seeing references to an "A&S 50 Challenge".  I wasn't sure what it was all about but after seeing it on many Scadian's sites I decided to look into it further.  I was very excited to learn about the ongoing challenge to create 50 new things by the 50th anniversary of the SCA in 2015.  You can learn more about it on the A&S 50 Challenge website.

There are Three Kinds of Challenges:
The Depth Challenge -
*50 of any one type of thing, in order to push your skills and knowledge to new levels (how broadly you define this is up to you)

The Breadth Challenge -
*do/make/learn 50 new and different things (how new, and how different is up to you/your group), or,

The Persona Challenge - 
*making/learning 50 different things that your persona would know, have, or know how to do

Since I am jumping back in the SCA with both feet and starting at square one with my persona I will be attempting the Persona Challenge for sure.  It should be pretty easy to think up 50 things that are new to me that my 15th/16th century persona would have known how to do.  Some broad categories will include clothing, embroidery, weaving, knitting, hygiene, cooking, etc.

Yeah!  I love a good challenge!

In future, when I complete a project that will be part of the A&S 50 Challenge I will add the tag "50 Challenge" to the post.