culina vetus

From the Kuenstlichs und Fuertrefflichs Kochbuch again:

73 To Boil Fresh Lampreys

Take them and scald them in warm water. Then cut off their heads but do not cut off the tails. If you scald them well, you can draw out fine veins from the tail if they are veiny once the heads are cut off. Wash them as nicely as possible in warm water. Then take a pan, pour water into it and boil them. Let them boil long and then salt them slowly, otherwise they become tough (zech). They must boil longer than a carp. Then arrange them on a plate, thus you eat them with ginger. If you would boil fresh salmon, you must boil it like a carp, in vinegar and water.

74 To Boil Trout

If you wish to boil trout well, you must boil them in pure vinegar.

75 To Boil Tench

Cut them open and take out the innards. Take boiling water and scald them, thus the slime comes off. Then they have small scales, also remove those. When they are cleaned well, cut them apart like a carp, wash them nicely inside like other fish, and boil them in water until they are half done (biß auff halben theyl). Then remove the water and pour on wine. Let it boil and add add breadcrumbs (semelmeel), thus they develop a thick sauce (brüe). Afterwards add sugar as well, colour it yellow, and season it. You may also boil an eel this way.

Fashionable lampreys, trout, salmon, and large tench were all expensive fish and worth paying considerable attention to when they were prepared. These recipes very likely are shorthand versions of what was likely a complex and skilled operation.

The short Kuenstlichs und Fuertrefflichs Kochbuch was first printed in Augsburg in 1559 and reprinted in Nuremberg in 1560 and subsequently. Despite its brevity, it is interesting especially as it contains many recipes for küchlein, baked or deep-fried confections, that apparently played a significant role in displaying status. We do not know who the famous cook referenced in the title may have been or if he ever existed.

I am done with the translation and two online classes on culinary history and just stumbled over this gem from de Rontzier:

Raised (auffgehobenen) galantine of turkey

1 Item you leave a turkey whole and cool it in water (after slaughter). Then you cook it until it is done in water and wine, salt it, and lay it in a bowl. Take a ring that is two or three fingers tall and as wide as the bowl. Set it on the bowl and smear (seal) it with dough on the outside. Lay the turkey in it. Then prepare a galantine broth of wine, water, and Bestand that is called isinglass (haußbletter), sugar, if you wish to have that with it, cardamom, so that it becomes strong of it, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a little salt. Bring it to the fire and let it come to a boil. Then pour it over the turkey through a haircloth so that it stands level with the ring (dem ring gleich stehe). When it has gelled, take off the ring and stick the galantine with whole almonds every second one (ein umb die ander) of which should be gilded. You also gild the feet and the the body above and stick it with slivered almonds. Serve it cold.

2 Item you carve up turkeys, boil them in water, prepare them in a cauldron coloured brown or yellow (macht sie in einem Kessel gelb oder braun ab) or leave them white. Prepare a galantine over them as it described here and stick it with almonds or small and large raisins etc.

This is not a very artful use of clear jelly, but certainly creative. Having it stand higher than the edge of the serving bowl and stuck all over with almonds would make for an interesting effect, though it must have been difficult to eat this without making a mess. Basically, this is a larger version of the fashionable stacks of mousse and jelly we build with steel tart rings. It is interesting that a word for isinglass was Bestand, related to stehen and suggestive of stability and permanence.

Franz de Rontzier, head cook to the bishop of Halberstadt and duke of Braunschweig, published his encyclopaedic Kunstbuch von mancherley Essen in 1598. He clearly looks to Marx Rumpolt’s New Kochbuch as the new gold standard, but fails to match it in engaging style or depth. He is thus overshadowed by the twin peaks of Marx Rumpolt and Anna Wecker. What makes his work interesting is the way in which he systematically lists versions of a class of dishes, illustrating the breadth or a court cook’s repertoire. He is also more modernly fashionable than Rumpolt. Looking to France rather than Italy and Spain for inspiration, and some of the dishes he first describes may be genuine innovations.

Apologies for being very busy, I am leaving you another short recipe from the Kuenstlichs und Fuertrefflichs Kochbuch today. These may be the ‘bruete kuechlein’ referenced yesterday’s recipe.

61 Briere küchlein

Take water, add fat, not much, and salt it like a water soup (wassersuppen). When it boils, add the flour so that it becomes thick from the flour and beat it in a bowl so that no lump (putz) is in it. Then break one egg after another into it and beat it well. Do not make it too thin and lay it nicely into the hot fat with a spoon. The dough is always cooked (man bruet) in a pan.

The cursory instructions suggest the author assumes any reader would be familiar with the preparation. It is possible that the title is a typographical error and these care indeed the briete/bruete kuechlein I was missing yesterday.

The short Kuenstlichs und Fuertrefflichs Kochbuch was first printed in Augsburg in 1559 and reprinted in Nuremberg in 1560 and subsequently. Despite its brevity, it is interesting especially as it contains many recipes for küchlein, baked or deep-fried confections, that apparently played a significant role in displaying status. We do not know who the famous cook referenced in the title may have been or if he ever existed.

I’m in the process of preparing for an online teaching event and thus busier than usual, so again I will be limiting you to a short recipe from the Kuenstlichs und Fuertreffliche Kochbuch:

67 To make Milk Fritters (Milchküchlein)

Take milk in a pan, as much as you wish to have, and do not let it boil fully, but let it become quite warm. Take flour in a bowl, and once the milk it hot, pour it into the bowl and stir it well. Do not pour in too much, let iut be nicely thick as for gebruete kuechlein, bake (make) it a little thicker. Then take eggs and stir them well in a small pot (heffelein). Salt them as much as they require and pour them in (to the bowl). Beat it well, and take many eggs, that way they rise well. The dough should be like Bruetekuechel dough. Above all fry them while the dough is warm from the milk, that way they rise nicely. Do not use too much milk, but all the more eggs, that way they turn out good. Make the dough much thicker than streublein batter and lay it in (to the hot fat) with a spoon. Do not make the fat too hot, otherwise they become brown, and fry them slowly. Give them a good heat at the end, that way they do not collapse (fallen sie nit ein) and turn out good and not greasy (schmaltzig). They look just like Bruetekuechlein.

Milk, flour, salt, lots of eggs, and the whole should come out looking a lot like Mutzen (similar to what North Americans know as donut holes) or small Berliner, I assume. What makes this recipe interesting is the attention to technique. Clearly, this is dish whose success or failure hinges on getting the proportion of egg to milk, the consistency of the dough, and the cooking temperature right. In the absence of either precise measurements or a universal terminology for describing such things, the author is struggling to explain what would surely be absolutely clear to an observer.

The short Kuenstlichs und Fuertrefflichs Kochbuch was first printed in Augsburg in 1559 and reprinted in Nuremberg in 1560 and subsequently. Despite its brevity, it is interesting especially as it contains many recipes for küchlein, baked or deep-fried confections, that apparently played a significant role in displaying status. We do not know who the famous cook referenced in the title may have been or if he ever existed.

Another one from the Kuenstlichs und Fuertrefflichs Kochbuch:

58 To make small pastries (Bastecklein)

Take blanched almond kernels. Pound them and grind them as finely as you can. Make milk with them that is to be thick, so take all the more almonds. Let it stand in a pot for a day or two so it separates out a little (ein wenig schottet werd) or hang it up in a bag. But it should stand a day and a night before it is dried or poured off. Take this and grind fine white sugar into it. Let it be thick. Take a pastry base (blatz) as though for gewolne küchlein and make a deep bowl (degelein). Put milk into this and bake it in the dough like a May Cake. You must not use fat for this but bake it like bread.

This is an interesting recipe and I suspect it is an iteration of something usually done with regular milk. Compared to some of the complex and refined recipes for almond tarts found about the same time in documents from the same region, they are surprisingly simple, just almond milk and sugar. I am not sure the taste will be much to write home about, but playing with almond milk this way does tempt me.

The short Kuenstlichs und Fuertrefflichs Kochbuch was first printed in Augsburg in 1559 and reprinted in Nuremberg in 1560 and subsequently. Despite its brevity, it is interesting especially as it contains many recipes for küchlein, baked or deep-fried confections, that apparently played a significant role in displaying status. We do not know who the famous cook referenced in the title may have been or if he ever existed.