You may remember that I have posted about cooking some ancient and medieval dishes.
Today I discovered a blog dedicate to ancient cooking with a delightful name: Pass The Garum.
Garum, of course, is the ancient equivalent of ketchup. It is the fishy sauce Romans put on everything. A modern close equivalent is Vietnamese fish sauce. By itself, dreadful. On food, pretty good. Also, don’t count out the wonderful S. Italian colatura. A reader here sent me some colatura and I have been addicted to it ever since. Keep in mind that many modern sauces for meats developed from fermented fish concoctions.
The blog in question has great photos and worked out recipes along with comments on how successful they were.
My experience with cooking in an older style has been good and instructive. There are many different combinations of flavors. The techniques, usually slow, produce deeper layers of flavor.
Books I have worked with
One of the things I made HERE.
The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy
And there is the book of recipes of food mentioned in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series.
Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels
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Have any egg recipes? ;-) I raise chickens. Six eggs a day keeps the government away. :-)
Did you ever make that paella?
“Which I’m a comin’ ain’t I your honor?!”
There are plenty of medieval egg recipes. Coquinaria.nl has ones for stuffed eggs (aka “split nuns”) which are a sort of deviled eggs; eggs poached in oil and mustard; May eggs (a show recipe where you blow out the eggs’ innards); Ember Day tart (egg pie sorta like quiche); Pety Pernauntes (a dessert tart); etc.
I *love* Vietnamese fish sauce! It is great with a spring roll or crispy roll (next to a big bowl of Pho. :)
Old cookbooks are cool. My mom has her grandma’s cookbook which originated in the mid 1800’s. It includes a recipe for blackbird pie. My favorite instruction in the book refers to the making of head cheese and states first to find someone, other than yourself, to clean the head of a cow.
Hmm Fr, in St Paul’s footsteps of indifferently knowing how to live poor and how to live wealthy, as the Good Lord should send, at a gustatory level?
Translation: me mouth’s awatering!