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As promised: Recipe #1 Erbowle
Jul. 1st, 2003 01:24 pmThis recipe for Plum Pudding comes from a cookbook called "Forme of Cury" (the Form of Cookery) that survives from the court of King Richard II. It's available on the web here. This is a very tasty cuisine and a cookbook with lots of real gems of dishes in it if you don't mind wading through the old English. There are also some translations into modern recipes available in Cariadoc's Miscellany.
Erbowle [Plum Pudding]
Forme of Cury #97
Original text: Take bolas [plums] and scald hem with wyne, and drawe hem thorow a straynor; do hem in a pot. Clarify hony, and do therto with powdour fort and flour of rys. Salt it & florissh it with whyte aneys, & serue it forth.
450g ripe fresh plums
200 ml red wine
200 ml of water
50 ml of Clear Honey
1/4 tsp. of Salt (fine ground)
1/4 tsp. of powder forte (see below for details)
50 ml of rice flour (also called ground rice)
50 ml of cold water.
For 8:
1. Put plums in the saucepan and cover with wine and water
2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stir occasionally to stop the plums burning on the bottom.
3. Using a metal sieve strain the mixture into a bowl (or blend in a food processor!). Put the sieved mixture back in the pan and discard what is left in the sieve.
4. Mix the honey and spices into the pan.
5. Stir the water into the rice flour and blend carefully back into the plum mixture.
6. Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes or until it is quite thick. If there are any lumps put them back through a clean strainer.
Powder forte
or 'strong spice' was a generic spice-mix, commonly used by cooks in medieval and renaissance cuisine for seasoning food. It is rather like today's curry powder or five-spice powder, which are blends of several different herbs and spices.
The components of powder forte varied from country to country and kitchen to kitchen, but were basically strong spices such as black pepper, long pepper, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, ginger, etc. There could be as few as two or three ingredients or as many as a half dozen or more. My favorite and the basic mixture I use in my kitchen, is:
1 part cloves
1 part fresh nutmeg
1 part mace blade
1 part black pepper
1 part grains of paradise
3 parts long pepper
All ingredients are freshly ground. If you can't find any of the more exotic spices, it doesn't really matter.
Erbowle [Plum Pudding]
Forme of Cury #97
Original text: Take bolas [plums] and scald hem with wyne, and drawe hem thorow a straynor; do hem in a pot. Clarify hony, and do therto with powdour fort and flour of rys. Salt it & florissh it with whyte aneys, & serue it forth.
450g ripe fresh plums
200 ml red wine
200 ml of water
50 ml of Clear Honey
1/4 tsp. of Salt (fine ground)
1/4 tsp. of powder forte (see below for details)
50 ml of rice flour (also called ground rice)
50 ml of cold water.
For 8:
1. Put plums in the saucepan and cover with wine and water
2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stir occasionally to stop the plums burning on the bottom.
3. Using a metal sieve strain the mixture into a bowl (or blend in a food processor!). Put the sieved mixture back in the pan and discard what is left in the sieve.
4. Mix the honey and spices into the pan.
5. Stir the water into the rice flour and blend carefully back into the plum mixture.
6. Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes or until it is quite thick. If there are any lumps put them back through a clean strainer.
Powder forte
or 'strong spice' was a generic spice-mix, commonly used by cooks in medieval and renaissance cuisine for seasoning food. It is rather like today's curry powder or five-spice powder, which are blends of several different herbs and spices.
The components of powder forte varied from country to country and kitchen to kitchen, but were basically strong spices such as black pepper, long pepper, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, ginger, etc. There could be as few as two or three ingredients or as many as a half dozen or more. My favorite and the basic mixture I use in my kitchen, is:
1 part cloves
1 part fresh nutmeg
1 part mace blade
1 part black pepper
1 part grains of paradise
3 parts long pepper
All ingredients are freshly ground. If you can't find any of the more exotic spices, it doesn't really matter.
