Roasting is generally something that historic recipe sources assume as a given; You take a piece of meat, stick it on a spit, and put it by the fire. Everybody who has ever tried it knows that there is a good deal of skill and experience involved in even the simplest roast. References in various places show that people also understood this ion the sixteenth century. Temperature control, basting and marinating, larding and barding, all played a role in the process. Franz de Rontzier helpfully collected a number of recipes in his 1598 Kunstbuch in which he describes the process in slightly greater depth. I will begin today with the beef recipes:
Of Roast Beef
I. You place beef loin on a griddle and roast them a little. Next you leave then overnight in alegar. then you lard them, stick them on a spit, and when they are done, you drizzle them with the alegar they marinated in mixed with drippings (Bradfeist) and pepper. You also drizzle them with meat broth mixed with pepper etc.
2. Item you lard beef loin very finely, roast it on a spit, then you soak a sop (Supffe. a piece of toasted bread) with meat broth, cut the beef loin in slices, lay it on the sop, drizzle it with dripping, sprinkle it with ginger and salt, and serve it.
3. Item you place beef loin on a griddle to roast it a little, then stick it with cloves, stick it on a spit, roast it and baste it with meat broth. Then you boil bay leaves in vinegar, drizzle it over that when you are about to serve it, and sprinkle it with salt etc.
4. Item you lard beef loin with bacon and roast it on a spit. Then you pour beef broth over toasted white bread, sprinkle it with parmesan cheese, and let it boil Then you cut the beef roast apart, lay them (the slices) on the sops, drizzle them with drippings, and serve them warm.
5. Item you first roast a beef loin on the griddle, then on a spit, and you soak white bread in milk and cream in a silvered dish (in einem silber) and let it boil. You place the beef loin roast on it, sprinkle it with sugar, and serve it warm etc.
6. Item you beat beef with an axe to make it tender, steibet (?sear, to firm it up?) it over coals, then slowly roast it on a spit. Baste it with beef broth and drippings, but you must not use butter for this because it makes the beef dry. Sprinkle it with ginger and salt when you roast it and when you serve it etc.
7. Item you roast beef over coals after you have beaten it so it turns brown. Then you trim off the skin on top, roast it on a spit, and drizzle it with beef broth and drippings. Then you boil whole caraway, drippings, and grated bread together, pour that over the roast, and serve it etc.
8. Item you beat it, steibet (sear to stiffen?) it over coals, then roast it on a spit and drizzle it with beef broth and drippings. When it is almost done, you stick it with garlic, drizzle it with the same broth and dripping, and sprinkle it with salt. Then you serve it etc.
9. Item you beat it, steiffts (sear to firm up?) over the coals, stick it on a spit, and stick it with rosemary. Drizzle it with dripping and serve it etc.
10. Item after it has been beaten, gesteifft (seared?), and trimmed, you roast it on a spit. You boil wine, cherry puree, dripping, cloves, and sugar together, serve it over the roast, and sprinkle it with sugar etc.
Very little of what is described in here is new, but it is interesting to see it all in one place. The first thing that these descriptions should dispel is the idea that roasting meat was primitive. Clearly, the author envisions a good grasp of temperature and texture, an ability to gauge when meat was almost done, and a range of equipment for the purpose.
The starting material for many recipes is Moerbraten, beef loin, a prized piece that produces tender roasts. Where this is not specified, the meat is beaten to tenderise it. Either way, the cook is instructed to sear it over the coals before finishing it at a low temperature on a spit. Modern recipes often follow a similar pattern, especially for Schmorbraten pot roasts, and Germans are deeply convinced that this will ‘close the pores’ and lock the juices inside the meat, preventing it from drying out.
Dryness was clearly a concern here, and it is counteracted by larding and basting. Roasts are drizzled with dripping, broth, or alegar and larded with bacon, much as we still do. The instruction in #6 not to use butter is interesting as an Ulenspiegel tale suggests this was the most common method, but here the joke depends on using a sold fat, and it is not surprising to see cooks, of all people, disagreeing on technique.
The condiments also suggest the familiar distinction of medieval recipes: Sauces that meat is served in (cooking sauces), those that are served over it (glazes, in modern terms), and those served alongside (dipping sauces). The latter are not featured here because they are not made with the juice or broth of the meat and thus usually have separate recipes.
The flavours vary widely, from vinegary sharpness in #1 and 3 and all-garlic in #8 through the tart fruitiness of #10 and the creamy sweetness of #5. To modern tastes, some of it looks quite strange. We can easily see rosemary, pepper, or garlic with beef, and ginger, bay leaves, and caraway, while unusual, still fit the profile. The cherry sauce in #10, while familiar from medieval antecedents, is already off, fruit generally going with game rather than beef today. The cream and sugar, almost bread pudding base in #5 is completely alien to modern German habits, but probably not actually bad. The proliferation of honey glazes, ketchups, and brioche buns in supermarkets suggests that mixing meat and sweetness is much more taboo in theory than in practice.
Some recipes here include instructions for serving the meat sliced, on top of bread sops. This is another thing we find in medieval recipes, though I am not sure whether these instructions mean the servings would be individual portions or whether people would take slices of meat and bread from a common serving bowl. A firm, dense bread, softened in broth and soaked in meat juices, actually makes a very nice side dish for a roast.
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.