madbaker | Two, *two* Resolution Recipes in one! Entry.

For dinner, my first attempt to redact a fairly easy medieval recipe.
Chicken in Onion Sauce

One should cut up a roasted hen. Add red onions, cut small and fried in lard, and add wine, pepper and egg yolks, and cook the hen in this. (Libellus de arte coquinaria, 1300s)

1 pound roasted chicken meat, chopped
4 ounces red onion, minced
2 teaspoons lard
1/2 cup red wine
3/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 medium egg yolks, beaten

Melt lard in a saucepan and fry onion for three to five minutes over medium-high heat, stirring to cook evenly. Mix in wine and pepper, cook for two minutes, and gently beat in egg a bit at a time. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for five minutes. Add chicken and cook three to five minutes longer, stirring as needed to mix and heat chicken. Serve warm.

Sources
Grewe, Rudolf, and Constance B. Hieatt, ed. and trans. Libellus de arte coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book. Tempe: Medieval & Renaissance Texts, 2001. ISBN 0-86698-264-7.

What worked: The chicken turned a nice purple. Okay flavor, if a little blah.

What didn't: Too much wine. Reduce to 1/4 or possibly 3/8 cup -- while I don't think this was supposed to be a chicken pottage glop, I would use less wine so that the eggs have at least a chance to thicken up the sauce.

Will I make it again? Yup. I have to get it right. Then it may go into the tourney cookbook; this would be an easy Friday night main dish.

And for dessert...
Peach Cobbler with Buttermilk Biscuit Crust

Filling:
3 pounds peaches
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp unsalted butter

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup buttermilk

Glaze:
1 Tbsp buttermilk
1 Tbsp turbinado sugar

Cut a cross in the blossom end of each peach and lower them into a pan of boiling water. Leave for 20-30 seconds, then fish them out and place them into a bowl of ice water. The skin should slip off easily, although a paring knife may still be needed. Cut peeled peaches into 8 or 10 wedges. Combine sugar and flour and fold into peaches. Scrape into baking dish and dot the surface with the butter.

Heat oven to 450. Combine dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Cut in butter. Stir in buttermilk gently. Turn dough onto a floured pastry board and fold dough over on itself 2 or 3 times, until smooth and less sticky. Lightly reflour board and roll the dough to 1/4 thick and about the size of the baking dish.

Transfer the dough to the top of the filling and trim any excess. Flute the edge of the dough at the dish rim. Slash 4 or 5 vest holes; paint the dough with buttermilk and sprinkle the sugar over.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling gently. Use a tray underneath to prevent spills. Cool on a rack and serve warm.

What worked: This is the best method for peeling peaches I've ever used. It wasn't perfect, but oh boy was it better. The cobbler was tasty. I added 3/4 tsp true cinnamon to the sugar/flour mixture, which gave a nice zing to the peaches.

What didn't: Okay, this is my own fault. I was lazy and didn't want to drag down the bread board, so I omitted the roll-out stage and just blopped the dough on top. The dough didn't cook all the way through, since it was too thick. Still tasty, but esthetically not pleasing.

Will I make it again? Eh. Probably not - it wasn't any better than a regular cobbler (which I do make semi-regularly in season). It was a good use for the buttermilk, though.