Pease porridge hot
Pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old.

For April I thought a few pea recipes might be interesting.  BTW As I
write this, pea sized hail is falling in my yard.

The pea is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables.  Peas have been
found at archealogical sites in the Middle east dated as early as
6-7,000 BC and at European sites as early as 3,000 BC.  Peas were well
known to the Greeks and Romans and several recipes for peas can be found
in de re coquinaria, the cookbook commonly attributed to Apicius.  Dried
Peas were a staple all over Europe and eaten both on fast days, (when
pea broth stood in for meat broths and other liquids) and on feast days
when they were often combined with meat, particularly bacon.

In this final week of Lent we will start with a couple of recipes for
White peas. Both are from English sources.

The first comes from Fourme of Curye, John Rylands University Library,
English MS 7 as transcribed by Daniel Myers available on MedievalCookery.com


3/.lxx. Pesoun of almayne.

Tak white pesoun, waysche
hem, seeth hem a grete while,
take hem & cole hem throw
a cloth, waische hem in colde
watur tyl the hulles go of
cast hem in a pot & cover hem that
no breth go out & boyle hem
ryght wel & cast therinne gode
mylke of almaundes, & a pertye
of flour of rys with poudour
ginger, safroun and salt.

The second hails from the end of our period and
The Second part of the good Hus-wiues Iewell.
AT LONDON
Printed by E. Allde for Edward
White, dwelling at the little North
doore of Paules Church at
the signe of the Gun,
1597.


For White pease pottage.
   4/ Take a quart of white Pease or more & seeth them in faire water
close, vntill they doe cast their huskes, the white cast away, as long
as any wil come vp to the topp, and when they be gon, then put into the
peaze two dishes of butter, and a little vergious, with pepper and salt,
and a little fine powder of March, and so let it stand till you will
occupy it, and thē serue it vpon sops. You may soe the Porpose and Seale
in your Pease, seruing it forth two peeces in a dish.

Good Cooking
Rycheza

This may or may not corroborate what is powder of march, but in the Bald's
Leechbook of the 9th century there is more than one remedy calling for
ground seeds of marche.  THE OED also has quite a few references to march
as
"Wild celery, Apium graveolens.
In some quots. perh. denoting other related plants of the family Apiaceae
( Umbelliferae), more usually referred to with distinguishing word, as
Stanmarch"

The link for the Leechbook is here.  I have never heard of it before (not
surprising), but it seems pretty fascinating - especially for an earlier
persona.

http://archive.org/details/leechdomswortcun02cock

Johnna probably will have a much better answer.

Katherine

> Thanks, Johnna.
>  
> Not to doubt my lady, is there any corraboration besides an article in the
> LA Times?
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae@...>
> To: Antir_culinary@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2012 4:38 PM
> Subject: Re: [Antir_culinary] Recipe of the Week, April 5th, 2012
>
>
>
>  
>
> See Charles Perry's explanation here:
>
>
> http://articles.latimes.com/2004/feb/18/food/fo-hampton18/2
>
> "Ground celery seed (if indeed that is what is meant by "fine powder of
> March" -- "march" is an old name for wild celery) adds a wild, herbal
> flavor that cuts the stodginess of split peas."
>
> Johnna
>
>
>
> On Apr 5, 2012, at 7:30 PM, Zachary Smith wrote:
>
> fine powder of March
>
>

yes, I know the 12th was last week. Sorry to be late.

Often our recipes for peas tell us the same can be done with beans as
these first two recipes indicate. Both beans and peas were generally of
the dried variety, but not always. Fresh peas are sometimes specifically
indicated in recipes and our Parisian Gentleman also mentions peas that
are to be eaten still in the pod, as we can see in some of the extensive
notes below from the Menagier de Paris as translated by Janet Hinson.

   But first From Martino as translated by Jeremy Parzen in /the art of
Cooking The First Modern Cookery Book

Fried Peas with Salt-cured Meat.
Take some unshelled peas and boil. Take some marbled salt-cured meat and
thinly slice into pieces half the size of your finger and lightly fry;
add the peas to the salt-cured meat. Add a little verjuice, some sodden
wine, or some sugar, and a bit of cinnamon, Beans can also be fried in a
similar fashion

Book of Cookrye, AT LONDON
Printed by Edward Allde. 1591.
1/ To boyle yong Peason or Beanes.
First shale them and seethe them in faire water, then take them out of
the water and put them into boyling milk, then take the yolks of Eggs
with crumbs of bread, and ginger, and straine them threw a strainer with
the said milk, then take chopped percely, Saffron and Salt, and serve it
forth for Pottage.


Le Menagier de Paris Translated by Janet Hinson

And first a SOUP of OLD PEAS. It is appropriate to shell them, and to
find out from the people the place the nature of the peas of the area
(for commonly peas do not cook well in well-water: and in other places
they cook well in spring-water and in river water, as in Paris, and in
other places, they do not cook at all in spring-water, as at Besiers)
and this known, it is appropriate to wash them in a pan with warm water,
then put in a pot with warm water on the fire, and boil them until they
burst. Then separate the liquid from the solid, and put the liquid
aside, then fill the pea-pot with warm water and put on the fire and
separate a second time, if you wish to have more liquid: and then put
back without water, for they will produce enough. and boil in it; and it
is not appropriate to put the spoon in the pot after the separating, but
shake the pot and the peas together, and little by little feed them with
warm water or a little more than warm but no cold, and boil and cook
completely before you add anything except hot water, be it meat or
anything else: do not add salt, nor bacon, nor absolutely anything
whatsoever until they are fully cooked. You can add bacon water or meat
stock, but you must not add any salt, nor even the tip of the spoon,
until they are well cooked; you can always stir them by moving the whole
pot.

On meat days, you should, after the separating, add water from bacon and
from meat, and when it is almost cooked, you can put bacon in; and when
you remove the bacon from these peas, you must wash it with meat-stock,
so that it looks nicer to put in slices on the meat and so that it does
not appear to have peas stuck to it.

On a fish day, when the peas are cooked, you should have onions which
have been cooked as long as the peas in a pot and like the bacon cooked
separately in another pot, and as with the bacon water you may nourish
and serve the peas, in the same way; on fish days, when you have put
your peas on the fire in a pot, you must put aside your minced onions in
another pot, and with onion water serve and nourish the peas; and when
all is cooked fry the onions and put half of them in the peas, and the
other half in the liquid from the peas of which I spoke above, and then
add salt, And if on this fish day or in Lent there is salted whale-meat,
you must do with the whale-meat as with the bacon on a meat day.

When you have NEW PEAS, sometimes they are cooked on a meat day both in
meat stock and with ground parsley, to make green soup, and this is on a
meat day; and on a fish day, you cook them in milk, with ginger and
saffron in them; and sometimes "a la cretonnee" of which I shall speak
later.

With all these peas, whether old or new, you can force them through a
sieve, or a fine or horsehair mesh; but the old peas must be yellowed
with ground saffron of which the water may be put to boil with the peas
and the saffron itself with the liquid from  the peas.

There are other peas which are left in the pod with bacon added.

Good Cooking Rycheza

Continuing with sojourn in the pea green boat....
   Our German Sources give us several versions of a roast made of peas.

EIN BUCH DE GUTTER SPISE  -Translation and notes by Alia Atlas

   Take boiled peas (Probably dried peas soaked before boiling.) and
pound them through a sieve. Beat as many eggs thereto, as there are
peas. And boil it in butter not all too fat. Let it cool. Cut it in
pieces. And put them on a spit. Roast them well. And cover them with
eggs and with herbs. Give them out.

Meister Eberhard,a text that belongs into a south German context, most
likely associated with the court of Bayern-Landshut, contibutes this
version

6/  Item a meal of roasted peas
Take boiled peas and pass them through a cloth or through a sieve. Stir
as much egg into it as there is peas and fry it in butter. Then place it
on a spit and roast it well, cover it with egg and greens and serve it
forth. Do not oversalt it.

Inntalkochbuch  An early 16th century recipe collection from Bavaria
translated by Giano Balestriere. Gives us two versions of the spit
roasted peas.

Roast peas on a spit
   8/ Pass peas through a cloth, break many eggs into them and fry them
with (in?) lard or butter. Cut them into pieces, roast them on a spit,
basting with eggs, and serve them.
Fried peas

9/ Take cold water and boil the peas in that, remove the skins and then
boil them till done. Pound in a mortar, season with honey, and add
grated bread with 6 egg yolks and lard. Take a wooden spit and shape a
roast. Place it by (the fire) and roast it till done. Baste it with hot
lard.

Good Cooking
Rycheza

--- In Antir_culinary@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Cauldwell <patrick.cauldwell@...>
wrote:
>
> I tried this one over the fire last year.  It was messy, but fun. :)
>
> Refr
>

I found the easiest one to cook, or keep together as a roast was when it was
basted with egg...

Considered it for a German feast I did several years ago but yeah, the work and
the potential for mess ruled it out, that and I wasn't sure that it would be
enjoyed much (many people who don't like peas, go figure).
There was an interesting one where the pea mash was used as a batter for fruit,
believe it was German, so the fruit was most likely pears... can't remember
where I found it though

Mandy
(SCA: Mergriet)

The pear fritter in the pea batter is in the Sabina.  I was working with
it when I entered the fruit fritters  from Sabina at A&A a few years back.


Rycheza

On 4/21/2012 9:46 PM, Mandy wrote:
>
>
> --- In Antir_culinary@yahoogroups.com, Patrick
Cauldwell<patrick.cauldwell@...>  wrote:
>>
>> I tried this one over the fire last year.  It was messy, but fun. :)
>>
>> Refr
>>
>
> I found the easiest one to cook, or keep together as a roast was when it was
basted with egg...
>
> Considered it for a German feast I did several years ago but yeah, the work
and the potential for mess ruled it out, that and I wasn't sure that it would be
enjoyed much (many people who don't like peas, go figure).
> There was an interesting one where the pea mash was used as a batter for
fruit, believe it was German, so the fruit was most likely pears... can't
remember where I found it though
>
> Mandy
> (SCA: Mergriet)
>
>

Hi Alanus,

I can't seem to get this link to work...

Katrine

> Yes, I'd be interested.
>
> Refr
>
> On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 11:41 PM, Alanus <alanus@...> wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>>
>> I forgot to include their website****
>>
>>
>>
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2012/new-cookbook-from-stone\
-age-to-vikingsRecipes
>> based on archaeological soil samples. One of the authors, Sabine
>> Karg, archaeologist, botanist and guest researcher at the University of
>> Copenhagen’s Saxo Institute, explains how they managed to figure out
>> which raw materials people used in ancient times.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> -- Alanus ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *From:* Antir_culinary@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
>> Antir_culinary@yahoogroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Alanus
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, April 25, 2012 9:15 PM
>> *To:* Antir_culinary@yahoogroups.com
>> *Subject:* [Antir_culinary] Group Purchase of New Cookbook: from Stone
>> Age to Vikings****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>>   ****
>>
>> Is anyone interested in putting together a group order for this book and
>> share the shipping cost? While the book costs about $25 each, the
>> shipping
>> is another $25.****
>>
>> I�d be happy to coordinate the purchase. ****
>>
>>  ****
>>
>> -- Alanus/Alan Andrist****
>>
>> 206-391-4053****
>>
>> ****
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Patrick Cauldwell, KE7PDC
> patrick@...
> http://www.cauldwell.net/patrick/blog
>

Thanks Alan for bring this to our attention.  My name will probably be
on the list when we get some confirmation.

Rycheza

Everybody likes a little pie at the end of things. Here�s two intriguing
recipes for pies featuring peas.

The Good Huswifes Jewell, 1596

Transcription by Daniel Myers - December 20, 2008
(c) 2008  MedievalCookery.com
   downloaded August 2011, LJH

   6/  To make a close Tart of greene Pease.
Take halfe a peck of greene Pease, sheale
them and seeth them, and cast them into
a cullender, and let the water go from them
then put them into the Tart whole, & season
them with Pepper, saffron and salte, and a
dishe of sweet butter, close and bake him al-
most one houre, then drawe him, and put to
him a little Vergice, and shake them and set
them into the Ouen againe, and so serue it.

Martino as translated by Jeremy Parzen in The Art of Cooking, The First
Modern Cookery Book

How to make a vine shoot torte (This recipe does not specify peas
shoots, merely shoots of a vine, but why not? Peas grow on vines.)

Take the shoots produced by a vine and simmer them after first chopping
and crushing with a knife; the same can be done with red roses, take
some good fresh cheese, and a well-boiled veal udder, and chop together
well.  If you prefer, in place of the udder, you can use rendered lard
or butter, adding ginger and cinnamon and sugar as necessary. Place this
mixture in a pan, with a crust below and on top. When it is almost done,
pierce or make holes in the top crust, almost throughout. When it is
finished cooking, top with some sugar and roe water, in generous amounts
as needed.

Good Cooking
Rycheza

And for May; Flowers.

Count me in
Adeliza from Aquaterra
425-530-8823

Please count me in.
Adeliza from Aquaterra
425-530-8823
--- In Antir_culinary@yahoogroups.com, "Alanus" <alanus@...> wrote:
>
> Is anyone interested in putting together a group order for this book and
> share the shipping cost? While the book costs about $25 each, the shipping
> is another $25.
>
> I'd be happy to coordinate the purchase.
>
>
>
> -- Alanus/Alan Andrist
>
> 206-391-4053
>