Shakespeare's Kitchen (16 page)

SERVES 8

 O
PEN-FIRE ROASTING
was a smoky affair that required almost constant turning and supervision. The more common method of cooking was to boil, as in this “hodge” or medley of ingredients. This parsley bread sauce is still made in many parts of Europe to serve with
bollito,
boiled or cold meats.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 beef rump roast (3½ to 4 pounds)

3 bay leaves

1 large yellow onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 carrot, cut into chunks

2 celery stalks, cut into chunks

1 large Vidalia onion, sliced

3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon coarsely milled black pepper

¾ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

½ cup edible flowers

6 slices dense whole-wheat or seedless rye bread, crusts removed, torn into small pieces

¼ cup verjuice (or 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar)

2 tablespoons sherry

Salt

1.
    Place 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot and brown the beef on all sides. Add the bay leaves, yellow onion, crushed garlic, carrot, celery, and enough water to cover three quarters of the beef. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 hour.

2.
    Remove 2 cups of the cooking liquid from the pot and set aside for the sauce. Cover the pot and let rest.

3.
    Simmer the reserved cooking liquid for 30 to 45 minutes, or until reduced to about 1 cup.

4.
    Sauté the Vidalia onion in the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over low heat for 10 minutes, or until soft. Add ½ cup of the reduced stock, the chopped garlic, sugar, and pepper and simmer for 4 minutes. Cool slightly and purée with the parsley until smooth. Add the marigolds, bread, verjuice, and sherry and stir until combined. Season to taste with salt. If the sauce is too thick, add more of the reduced stock until it reaches a creamy consistency.

5.
    Serve the sauce in a dish alongside the beef.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To make a Hodgepodge

Boyle the neck of mutton or a fat rump of Beef, and when it is well boyled take the best of the broth and put it into a Pipkin, and put a good many Onions to it, two handful of marigold flowers, and a handful of Percely fine picked, and groce shred and not to small, and so boyle them in the broth: and thick it with strained Bread: putting therein groce beaten pepper, and a spooneful of Vinagre: and let it boyle some what thick, and so lay it upon your meat.

A BOOK OF COOKRYE,
1587

Roasted meats were served with a variety of condiments, the recipes for which were often borrowed from other countries. The Englishman Dr. Henry Buttes wrote in
Dyets Dry Dinner,
“The Italians, as all the world knows, is most exquisite in the composition of all sorts of Condiments.” “Green sauce,” one of many Italian-influenced condiments, was made of a sweet herb such as mint or basil crushed in a mortar with garlic, rose vinegar, cloves, and tart orange juice.

Roasted Pork with Herbs and Grapes

SERVES 8 TO 10

The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit,
The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;
My mistress made it one upon my cheek:
She is so hot because the meat is cold …

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS,
1.2

 T
HE CRISP,
slightly salty pancetta adds perfect contrast to the grape-and-herb stuffing. This is one of my favorite recipes because it is simple to prepare yet impressive to serve. As suggested in the original recipe, for a variation, substitute gooseberries for the grapes.

Dash of freshly ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper

1 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 endive stalks, finely chopped

½ cup assorted finely chopped herbs (such as thyme, mint, rosemary, savory, or sage)

½ cup currants

½ cup red seedless grapes, quartered

½ cup green seedless grapes, quartered

1 pork loin, butterflied (about 4 pounds deboned)

12 thin slices pancetta (about 4 ounces)

15 whole cloves

4 rosemary sprigs, cut into 16 pieces

       Preheat the oven to 450°F. Combine the nutmeg, salt, pepper, parsley, endive, herbs, currants, and red and green grapes in a bowl. Spread the mixture in the center of the pork loin and tie with kitchen string. Place the pancetta slices over the pork loin and press in the cloves and rosemary tips to secure it. Roast for 15 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F, opening the oven door for a few minutes to reduce the heat quickly, and cook for 1 hour, or until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 140°F.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

Otherways [to bake a pig]

Take a pig being scalded, flayed, and quartered, season it with beaten nutmeg, pepper, salt, cloves, and mace, lay it in your pie with some chopped sweet herbs, hard eggs, currans (or none) put your herbs between every lay, with some gooseberries, grapes or barberries, and lay on the top slices of interlarded bacon and butter, close it up, and bake it in good fine crust, being baked, liquor it with butter, verjuyce, and sugar. If to be eaten cold, with butter only.

THE ACCOMPLISHT COOK,
1660

Fysshe

CHAPTER SEVEN

SALMON IN PASTRY

SALMON ROLLS “PRICKED WITH A FEATHER”

CRAB WITH CAPERS AND GARLIC

GRILLED BASS WITH FENNEL

RED SNAPPER WITH CAVIAR

SAUTéED TROUT WITH WINE AND HERBS

FLOUNDER WITH DRIED PLUMS

LOBSTER WITH PISTACHIO STUFFING AND SEVILLE ORANGE BUTTER

LOBSTER TAILS WITH WILDFLOWERS

SCALLOPS IN BERRY GLAZE

COD STEAKS WITH ONIONS AND CURRANTS

MUSSELS IN PASTRY

My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememb’rest Since once I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath That the rude sea grew civil at her song And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid’s music.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM,
2.1

 
A great variety
of all sorts of sea creatures were eaten in Shakespeare’s day, including porpoise, dolphin, otter, and seal. There was even a recipe entitled Mermaid’s Pie, a combination of eel, pork, and spices.

“Of all nacyons and countres, England is beste servd of Fysshe, not onely of al maner of see-fysshe, but also of fresshe-water fysshe, and of all maner of sortes of salt-fysshe,” wrote Dr. Andrewe Boorde of his seafaring nation.

Salmon in Pastry

SERVES 12

Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING,
2.3

 F
ISH PIES WERE
often made into the shape of the fish being eaten, such as lobster, crab, salmon, or carp, and the crust was embellished with elaborate pastry scales, fins, gills, and other details. This recipe comes from the beautifully illustrated cookbook by Robert May that includes several foldout pages of various designs for pies, including ones decorated with multicolored sugars to resemble stained-glass windows.

If you prefer a quicker version, wrap the ingredients in parchment or aluminum foil instead of the pastry dough.

1 recipe of
Renaissance Dough

3 artichoke bottoms, cooked and quartered

1 salmon fillet, cut into twelve 2 by 3-inch pieces (about 1½ pounds)

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon coarsely milled black pepper

½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1 dozen medium oysters

12 thin asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces

24 green seedless grapes or gooseberries

¼ cup coarsely chopped pistachio nuts

1 large egg, beaten

3 lemons, cut into wedges

1.
    Roll out slightly less than half of the Renaissance Dough into a 5 by 13-inch rectangle about ¼ inch thick and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

2.
    Place the artichokes in a long line down the center of the crust. Sprinkle the salmon with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg and place over the artichokes. Arrange the oysters, asparagus, grapes, and pistachios over the salmon.

3.
    Roll out the remaining dough into a 5 by 13-inch rectangle and place on top of the ingredients. Trim the dough into the shape of a fish and pinch the edges to seal. Using the excess dough, add fish details, such as an eye or fin. Using a teaspoon, imprint scale and tail marks on the dough, being careful not to cut through the dough. Brush with the egg and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

4.
    Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake the salmon for 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

5.
    Serve with lemon wedges.

This recipe includes artichokes and asparagus, both considered aphrodisiacs in Elizabethan England. Artichokes originated in Sicily and were introduced into England by the Dutch. King Henry VIII’s fondness for artichokes was legendary and he had them grown in his castle gardens. Artichokes, asparagus, and salmon were all expensive delicacies in Shakespeare’s day enjoyed only by the wealthy nobility.

Salmon Rolls “Pricked with a Feather”

SERVES 4

 T
HE CHARMING ORIGINAL
instructions suggest that the salmon slices be cut to “three fingers breadth” and “the length of a woman’s hand.” They were then rolled with a mouthwatering filling and “pricked with a feather, full closed.” I have to confess that I tried the quills as suggested in the original 1596 directions and they caught fire!

½ cup currants

2 ounces finely ground salmon

½ cup lemon liqueur (such as limoncello)

¼ teaspoon ground mace

Dash of ground cloves

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly milled black pepper

Four 3 by 5-inch salmon slices, ¼ inch thick

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1.
    Soak the currants and ground salmon in the lemon liqueur for 1 hour.

2.
    Preheat the broiler. Add the mace, cloves, salt, and pepper to the currant mixture and spread over the salmon slices. Roll up the slices and close with toothpicks that have been soaked in water. Brush the olive oil on the rolls and broil for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until just golden at the edges.

Elizabethan tables were set with only a spoon and knife, and often even the knife was omitted, as guests frequently brought their own. Forks, fashionable in Italy, did not come into use in England or most other European countries until many years after Shakespeare’s death.

An English travel writer, Thomas Coryat, first saw a fork in 1611 in Italy. Coryat speculated that “the Italian cannot by any means indure to have his dish touched with fingers.” Coryat so admired this new invention that he ate with it throughout his travels and back home in England, where a dear friend nicknamed him “furcifer.”