Shakespeare's Kitchen (4 page)

THE ACCOMPLISHT COOK,
1660

In this original recipe the sauce is thickened with “beaten butter” until emulsified. The Elizabethans also thickened their sauces with egg yolks or ground almonds. A curious fact surfaces in reading these Elizabethan cookbooks. The English did not thicken their sauces with flour. According to some scholars, it was actually a French chef, François Pierre de la Varenne, who first used that method in his 1661 cookbook,
Le Cuisinier François.
The English chefs of the time clearly shunned La Varenne’s method of thickening, and it does not enter into English cookery books for at least fifty years. Similarly, the French rejected the Elizabethan technique of thickening a stock or sauce at the end by whisking in cold butter, a practice that today is highly associated with French cuisine. After visiting France in 1617, travel writer Frayn Moryson noted that the French used very little butter, commenting further, “nor have I tasted there any good Butter.”

Herb Tart

SERVES 6

We may pick a thousand sallets ere we light
on such another herb.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL,
4.5

 I
N ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
the word
herb
meant any edible leafy vegetables, herbs, root vegetable tops, or salad lettuces. It is this assortment of baby greens that adds distinctive flavor and texture to this lovely tart. The author calls for the top crust to be “cut with pretie worke” or decorative cutout designs, but I like the way the pie looks without a top crust.

½ recipe of
Renaissance Dough

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1½ tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, minced

1½ pounds assorted baby greens, finely chopped (such as beet leaves, spinach, and endive)

1 cup finely chopped assorted herbs (such as flat-leaf parsley, mint, thyme, and basil)

1 cup grated semisoft cheese

1 large egg, beaten

½ cup currants

1 teaspoon sugar

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

1.
    Roll out the Renaissance Dough ⅛ inch thick on a floured work surface. Press the dough into a 9-inch pie pan. Refrigerate the piecrust for 20 minutes.

2.
    Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake the crust for 5 minutes.

3.
    Place the onions and olive oil in a large sauté pan and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Raise the burner to high heat, add the greens and herbs, and cook for 1 minute, or until just wilted. Remove the pan from the heat, add the cheese, egg, currants, and sugar, and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the pie shell and bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

This recipe was for “fish days,” one of more than 153 days per year when meat consumption was prohibited. The Church of England initially imposed fast days for spiritual and moral discipline because meat was thought to provoke carnal thoughts and incite passions. However, fish consumption was also encouraged to spark the shipbuilding industry and provide England with trained sailors for possible future military defense, as a good navy was clearly an essential defense for an island nation.

Oysters on Spinach with Capers

SERVES 4

‘Good friend,’ quoth he,
‘Say, the firm Roman to great Egypt sends
This treasure of an oyster …’

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,
1.5

 T
HIS LINE FROM
Antony and Cleopatra
suggests that Shakespeare was familiar with food history. It was indeed the Romans who first cultivated oysters near Naples in 100
B.C.
and introduced them into Egypt and other areas.

The “faggot of sweet herbs” referred to in the original is a tied bundle of herbs, or bouquet garni. According to English dietary books, bouquet garni was much healthier than minced herbs, “the grose binding together and seething of herbes in brothes and pottage, be more holesomer then the fyne choppynge of them.”

Mace, the outer husk of nutmeg, often called for in Elizabethan recipes, is available in most supermarkets. Mace adds a lovely touch to this oyster dish and, in fact, has become one of my favorite new spices. I use it in recipes that call for nutmeg, but I especially like it with fish.

1 loaf French baguette bread, cut in ½-inch-thick slices

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley

2 endive leaves

3 sprigs of mint

2 tablespoons butter

12 large oysters, shelled, liquid reserved

2 tablespoons small capers, rinsed and drained

¼ teaspoon ground mace

¼ teaspoon ground marjoram

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon salt

8 ounces baby spinach

2 lemons, thinly sliced

1.
    Preheat the broiler. Brush the bread slices with the olive oil and broil for 2 to 3 minutes, or until lightly browned.

2.
    Tie together the parsley, endive, and mint with kitchen string. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the oysters, the reserved oyster liquid, the capers, mace, marjoram, thyme, salt, and the herb bundle to the pan. Cover and cook for 1 minute. Turn over the oysters and cook for 1 minute. Remove the oysters from the pan with a slotted spoon and place in a warm dish. Add the spinach to the pan, cover, and cook for 1 minute, or until just wilted. Remove and discard the herb bundle.

3.
    Place a heaping tablespoon of spinach in the center of each plate and top with 3 oysters. Spoon the caper sauce over the oysters and arrange the lemon slices around the plate. Serve the French bread slices on the side.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

Other ways [to make oyster pottage]

Take a quart of great oysters, parboil them in their own liquor, and stew them in a pipkin with some capers, large mace, a faggot of sweet herbs, salt, and butter, being finely stewed, serve them on slices of dried French bread, round the oysters slic’t lemon, and on the pottage boil’d spinach, minced, and buttered, but first pour on the broth.

THE ACCOMPLISHT COOK,
1660

Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench …

KING RICHARD II,
1.4

Oysters were inexpensive and plentiful in England during Shakespeare’s day. Mountains of oyster shells have been uncovered at excavation sites throughout London. Street vendors, such as Shakespeare’s “oyster-wench,” sold oysters to theatergoers as they entered the Globe to see a play. A typical food at taverns and inns, oysters were enjoyed pickled, roasted, broiled, fried, or raw with vinegar and onions.

Pâté with Dates and Homemade Nutmeg Mustard

SERVES 4

 P
ÂTÉ WAS DEVELOPED
in Ancient Greece after Sparta’s king received a gift of fattened geese from Egypt. It was the English, however, who created this delicious combination of liver, wine, and sweet dried currants. The original was simmered in a tied cloth similar to an English pudding, but this modern version is much simpler to prepare and more attractive. The nutmeg mustard can be adjusted to suit your taste by adding more or less honey.

8 ounces veal liver, thinly sliced

½ cup milk

2 ounces pancetta, finely chopped

3 large shallots, minced

¼ cup cream

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup currants

6 dates, pitted and diced

2 teaspoons dried mustard

½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon white wine

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 loaf French baguette bread, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1.
    Soak the liver in the milk overnight.

2.
    Cook the pancetta in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, or until some of the fat is released. Add the shallots and cook over low heat for 4 minutes. Add the drained liver and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the liver is still a little pink inside. Remove the pan from the heat and cool to room temperature.

3.
    Place the liver mixture in a food processor and purée until it forms a smooth paste. Add the cream, butter, salt, currants, and dates and purée until smooth. Place the mixture in individual ramekins and refrigerate until ready to serve.

4.
    Combine the mustard, nutmeg, honey, sugar, white wine, and vinegar in a small bowl.

5.
    Preheat the broiler. Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and brush with the olive oil. Toast the bread under the broiler for 3 to 5 minutes, or until light golden brown.

6.
    Place a ramekin of pâté on each plate. Place a dollop of mustard alongside the ramekin and arrange the toasted bread around the plate.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To make liver Puddings

Take a good hogs, calves, or lambs liver, and boil it: being cold, mince it very small, or grate it, and searce it through a meal-sieve or cullender, put to it some grated manchet [white bread rolls], two penny loaves, some three pints of cream, four eggs, cloves, mace, currans, salt, dates, sugar, cinamon, ginger, nutmegs, one pound of beef-suet minced very small: being mixt all together, fill a wet napkin, and bind it in fashion of a ball, and serve it with beaten butter and sugar being boil’d.

THE ACCOMPLISHT COOK,
1660

Renaissance Rice Balls

SERVES 10 (APPROXIMATELY 36 RICE BALLS)

 R
ICE BALLS
like these, today known as “arancine,” or little oranges, are still made in many parts of Italy. During the Renaissance these savory balls would have been colored purple or yellow with dried edible flower petals or saffron. This dish can be easily re-created using food coloring to produce the different colored balls. Of course, they are delicious without the coloring!

1 pound Italian rice (such as arborio)

⅓ cup cream

1 large egg, beaten

1 cup grated caciocavallo cheese

2 tablespoons sugar

Yellow food coloring (optional)

Purple food coloring (optional)

½ cup flour or dried bread crumbs

¾ cup vegetable oil

1.
    Cook the rice according to the package directions. Combine the cooked rice, cream, egg, cheese, and sugar in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, or up to 2 days.

2.
    If desired, divide the rice into 3 equal portions. Using the food coloring, color 1 portion bright yellow, 1 portion purple, and leave the remaining portion white.

3.
    Form each of the portions of rice into 1-inch-diameter balls.

4.
    Place the flour or bread crumbs on a flat plate. Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly roll 1 color of the rice balls in the flour or bread crumbs. Cook, turning occasionally, until completely browned on all sides. Remove the rice balls from the pan and drain on paper towels. Discard the oil in the pan, wipe it clean, and repeat the process with the remaining rice balls.

Veal with Glazed Grapes on Saffron Toast