Old King Cole Was a Merry Old Stew
Oct. 29th, 2017 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: For kole.
1 bunch kale (8 oz)
1 bunch parsley (4 oz)
4 cups meat broth
1/2 cup wheat berries, steel-cut oats, or farro
2 oz salt pork
1 1/4 tsp powder fort (cinnamon, ginger, pepper, mace, cloves)
Place salt pork in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat, covered, for 15 minutes. Remove the meat and mince; reserve the liquid.
Wash, stem, and coarsely chop the greens. Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot. Add greens, groats, and cooked salt pork, as well as powder fort if desired. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for one to two hours, until the groats are cooked and the pottage is thick. Stir occasionally. Before serving, stir in some of the reserved salt pork liquid to taste.
"Coleworts" refer to any member of the cabbage family. I chose kale but any leaf cabbage works as well. Groats can refer to any hulled cereal kernel. The grains mentioned are reasonably easy to find, although any groat can be used (e.g. millet, barley, rye...)
I added in powder fort to give more flavor. The spice mixture is common in this cookery work as well as 14th and 15th century English cooking in general.
Sources
Renfrow, Cindy. Liber cure Cocorum. Self-published, 2002.
What worked: This came out pretty much exactly as I expected: a thick pottage full of greens and grains, with just a little bit of meat for flavor and salt. This is the sort of thing that English people - of every class - would have eaten all the time. Peasants more often, and with less meat of course. It was basically the 15th c. equivalent of bubble and squeak.
The kale broke down but kept a bitter bite that gave some flavor. We used oats on the first pass and farro a week later. It cooked nicely and thickened; the oats took about an hour, the farro closer to two. I actually liked the oats version better.
Oh, and how can you not like a recipe that's written in rhyme?
What didn't: It wasn't exciting, although I didn't expect it to be.
Will I make it again? It won't be a "I must make this for many events!" but it, and a few others of its ilk as I test them, will go into the regular tourney rotation. Partly because it's such an integral type of dish that we should be eating it.
I do want to try this with different greens (maybe a combination of spinach and beet). I also picked up some wheat berries and rye berries from our farmer's market flour guy. I'm quite curious to find out if the rye will give it a different flavor.
Take fresshe brothe of motene clene, Of vele and porke al by dene; Hakke smalle þy wortis and persyl, þo When þat hit boylys, cast hom þerto, Do a lite grotes þy wortis amang And sethe hom forthe I undurstande. 3if þou have salt flesshe sethand I wot, Take a fresshe pece oute of þo pot, And sethe by þo self, as I þe kenne; Take up, put in þy wortis þenne, In þe mene whyle gode gravé þou gete To florisshe þy wortis at þo last hete.For coleworts. Take fresh broth of mutton clean, Of veal and pork all anon; Hack small your coleworts and parsley, then When that it boils, cast them thereto, Add a few groats among your coleworts And seethe them forth I understand. If you have salt flesh [cooking] I know, Take a fresh piece out of the pot, And seethe by itself, as I teach you; Take up, put [it] in your coleworts then, In the meanwhile you get good gravy To garnish your coleworts at the last heat. (Liber cure Cocorum, 1420s)
1 bunch kale (8 oz)
1 bunch parsley (4 oz)
4 cups meat broth
1/2 cup wheat berries, steel-cut oats, or farro
2 oz salt pork
1 1/4 tsp powder fort (cinnamon, ginger, pepper, mace, cloves)
Place salt pork in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat, covered, for 15 minutes. Remove the meat and mince; reserve the liquid.
Wash, stem, and coarsely chop the greens. Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot. Add greens, groats, and cooked salt pork, as well as powder fort if desired. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for one to two hours, until the groats are cooked and the pottage is thick. Stir occasionally. Before serving, stir in some of the reserved salt pork liquid to taste.
"Coleworts" refer to any member of the cabbage family. I chose kale but any leaf cabbage works as well. Groats can refer to any hulled cereal kernel. The grains mentioned are reasonably easy to find, although any groat can be used (e.g. millet, barley, rye...)
I added in powder fort to give more flavor. The spice mixture is common in this cookery work as well as 14th and 15th century English cooking in general.
Sources
Renfrow, Cindy. Liber cure Cocorum. Self-published, 2002.
What worked: This came out pretty much exactly as I expected: a thick pottage full of greens and grains, with just a little bit of meat for flavor and salt. This is the sort of thing that English people - of every class - would have eaten all the time. Peasants more often, and with less meat of course. It was basically the 15th c. equivalent of bubble and squeak.
The kale broke down but kept a bitter bite that gave some flavor. We used oats on the first pass and farro a week later. It cooked nicely and thickened; the oats took about an hour, the farro closer to two. I actually liked the oats version better.
Oh, and how can you not like a recipe that's written in rhyme?
What didn't: It wasn't exciting, although I didn't expect it to be.
Will I make it again? It won't be a "I must make this for many events!" but it, and a few others of its ilk as I test them, will go into the regular tourney rotation. Partly because it's such an integral type of dish that we should be eating it.
I do want to try this with different greens (maybe a combination of spinach and beet). I also picked up some wheat berries and rye berries from our farmer's market flour guy. I'm quite curious to find out if the rye will give it a different flavor.
