Shakespeare's Kitchen (20 page)

4.
    Place a slice of cake in the center of each plate and spoon some of the warm purée on the side.

Sweet Beets in Puff Pastry with Crème Fraîche and Ginger

SERVES 6

 A
LTHOUGH THIS RECIPE
from Lombardy, Italy, was originally intended as a sweet side dish for savory roasted meats, I thought it might make an unusual dessert. Instead of mixing the cheese and ginger with the beets as suggested in the original, I use them in the toppings as crème fraîche and crystallized ginger.

6 small golden or red beets, peeled and finely grated

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons butter, melted

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 package frozen puff-pastry shells (6 per package)

½ cup crème fraîche

2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger

1.
    Preheat the oven to 425°F. Combine the beets, honey, butter, and cinnamon in an oven-safe container. Mix well and let stand for 5 minutes. Bake, covered with aluminum foil, for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and drain any excess liquid from the pan.

2.
    Bake the puff-pastry shells according to package directions.

3.
    Spoon the beet mixture into the puff-pastry shells and top with a dollop of crème fraîche. Sprinkle the crystallized ginger over the beets and crème fraîche and serve immediately.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To make Lumdardy tarts

Take Beets, chop them small, and put to them grated bread and cheese, and mingle them wel in the chopping, take a few Currans, and a dish of sweet Butter, & melt it then stir al these in the Butter, together with three yolks of Egs, Synamon, ginger, and sugar, and make your Tart as large as you will, and fill it with the stuffe, bake it, and serve it in.

THE GOOD HUSWIVES HANDMAIDE FOR THE KITCHIN,
1594

In Shakespeare’s time, sugar was considered an aphrodisiac and the banquet was specifically designed to “moveth pleasure and lust of the body.”

Sweets were often served on plates called “roundels” or “banqueting dishes,” which had an image or poem on them. Often these poems contained sexual innuendos and double entendres.

Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough
Cleopatra’s health to drink.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,
1.2

“Courage” Tart

SERVES 8

 I
WAS INTRIGUED
by the recipe title “To make a Tarte that is a courage to a man or woman,” found in a 1587 cookbook. The courage referred to is sexual prowess. Several of the ingredients, including sweet potatoes and wine, were considered aphrodisiacs back then. You will notice, however, that another aphrodisiac ingredient, sparrow brains, was purposely omitted in this modern version!

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced

2 cups white dessert wine (such as Muscat)

2 quinces or apples, peeled, cored, and diced

3 dates, pitted and chopped

½ recipe of
Renaissance Dough

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch of ground cloves

⅛ teaspoon ground mace

2 tablespoons butter, softened

4 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon rose water

2 large egg whites

1.
    Place the sweet potato and wine in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the quinces and dates and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the quinces are tender. (If the mixture becomes too dry, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of wine.) Purée until smooth.

2.
    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll out the Renaissance Dough to ⅛ inch thick on a floured work surface. Press the dough into a pie pan and trim off any excess.

3.
    Place the sweet potato mixture in a large bowl. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace, and butter and stir until well combined. Beat the egg yolks and rose water in a small bowl, add to the filling, and mix well. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold into the filling. Pour the filling into the piecrust and bake for 1 hour, or until the center springs back when lightly pressed.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To make a Tarte that is a courage to a man or woman

Take two Quinces and two or three Burre rootes, and a potaton, and pare your Potaton and scrape your rootes and put them into a quart of wine, and let them boyle till they be tender, and put in an ounce of Dates, and when they be boyled tender, draw them through a Strainer, Wine and all, and then putte in the yolkes of eight Egges, and the brains of three or foure cocke Sparrowes, and Straine them into the other and a little Rose water, and seeth them all with Sugar, Synamon and Ginger, and Cloves and Mace, and put in a little Sweete butter, and set it upon a chafingdishe of coles, betweene two platter, and so let it boyle till it be something bigge.

THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587

In the quote below, Shakespeare mentions three of the most popular aphrodisiacs of the time: sweet potatoes, musk-flavored candy called kissing-comfits, and candied eringo root. The audience would have surely laughed at the line’s bawdy suggestiveness.

One in five Elizabethan brides was already pregnant on her wedding day. Shakespeare’s own bride, Anne Hathaway, gave birth to their daughter Susanna only six months after the wedding. Apparently neither Anne nor Shakespeare needed this pie!

Let the sky rain potatoes; … hail kissing-
comfits, and snow eringoes …

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,
5.5

Apple Tarts with Candied Orange Crust

SERVES 4

What, up and down, carv’d like an apple-tart?

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW,
4.3

 A
PPLE PIE,
and even apples, are an English contribution to the American table. The first British settlers brought apple seeds and apple pie recipes with them to America. This original recipe was for apple pie mixed with candied orange slices. Instead, I incorporated candied peel into a free-form crust and topped the apples with an orange glaze for a slight twist on an old favorite.

¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tablespoon rose water

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup
Candied Citrus Peel

2 cooking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced ¼ inch thick

2 tablespoons honey

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon butter, melted

½ recipe of
Renaissance Dough

1 large egg, beaten

1.
    Bring the orange juice, rose water, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and 1 tablespoon of the citrus peel to a boil. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

2.
    Toss the apples with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, the honey, cinnamon, ginger, and butter.

3.
    Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll out the Renaissance Dough into an 8 by 10-inch rectangle on a floured work surface. Press the remaining citrus peel into the dough. Cut the dough into four 4 by 5-inch rectangles and place on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Lay the apple slices in a tight row in the center of the dough and pinch up the sides of the dough to form the edge crust. Brush the dough with the egg. Brush the apples with the glaze and bake for 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender.

The word
dessert
comes from the Middle French
desservir,
meaning to remove the table. The following lines from
Romeo and Juliet
refer to the dancing and entertainment that were to take place after the feast tables were removed.

Come, musicians, play.
A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls.
More light, you knaves; and turn
the tables up …

ROMEO AND JULIET,
1.5

Baked Apples with Cinnamon “Stems”

SERVES 6

 T
HE CINNAMON STICKS
peeking out of the center of the apples look like little stems, making this an especially beautiful dessert. Many recipes from Shakespeare’s day call for butter. Considered beneficial to health, it was even rubbed on a baby’s gums to ease teething. An old English proverb, “Butter is Gold in the morning, and silver at noon, and lead at night,” refers to when butter is freshest and best digested.

24 whole cloves

12 very small, sweet apples, peeled and cored

12 dates, pitted and quartered

¼ cup
Candied Citrus Peel
, minced

2 tablespoons orange liqueur (such as Cointreau)

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup butter

Twelve 2-inch-long cinnamon sticks

Zest of 1 orange

1.
    Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8- or 9-inch round baking pan. Press 2 whole cloves into the outside of each apple and place the apples upright in the baking pan.

2.
    Combine the dates, citrus peel, liqueur, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Spoon some of the date mixture into the center of each apple. Place a thin pat of butter on the top of each apple and press a cinnamon stick into the center, leaving a ½-inch “stem” exposed. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, or until the apples are tender. Top with long strips of orange zest before serving.

Fruit such as apples, cherries, figs, apricots, and berries were served both fresh and dried at the end of a meal. Blackberries were apparently so abundant in England that Shakespeare used them to denote something of little worth, as in the lines “if reasons were as plentiful as blackberries” (
King Henry IV,
Part I, 2.4) and “is not proved worth a blackberry” (
Troilus and Cressida,
5.4).