Sauce Class
Magistra Rosemounde of Mercia (copyright Micaela Burnham 2013)
Since there has been cooking, there have been sauces; perhaps as simple as meat juices or melted butter, but sauces none the less. Within the framework of SCA periods, all the cultures we study and emulate used sauces to season their foods.
A sauce is a thickened liquid served with food to add flavor. (Encarta) This covers a wide variety of substances, including what we today call condiments. Using this definition there are three things that make a sauce: liquid, thickening, and flavor.
Reduce or reduction: You reduce a liquid by cooking until much of the liquid has boiled away leaving a sauce of the remaining liquid and solids. Reducing both thickens, if there are sufficient solids in the mixture, and intensifies flavors.
Straining: Straining sauce is done through a fine mesh sieve and two thicknesses of damp cheesecloth. The purpose is to strain out as much of the solid material as possible, while forcing the thickened liquid part through.
Verjuice: The juice of unripe grapes or crabapples; this was used extensively in SCA period cooking. If you are unable to obtain this, you can mix wine vinegar and grape, apple or lemon juice.
SCA period sauces: sauces used before the 17th century. Period sauces were generally thickened with bread crumbs, almond milk, or ground almonds, although eggs began to be used as a thickener by the 16th century, and rice flour was occasionally used. Reductions were used, but generally in conjunction with another thickener. Period sauces had bold, complex flavors. Many were wine, verjuice, or vinegar based, so they had an acidic bite.
Classic sauces: sauces developed by the classically trained French chefs of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as béchamel, hollandaise, mayonnaise, etc. These sauces generally are thickened with egg, butter, and/or cream and have complex, but delicate flavors. Sauces made from meat stocks are thickened by reducing, but also had delicate flavoring, so that the main flavor is the meat stock. Demi-glaze, though a paste rather than a sauce, is an example of this. Classic sauces tended to have both acid and fat, which combine to form a silky sauce with good mouth feel.
Modern sauces: condiments such as mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, honey mustard, and creamy salad dressings, etc. Modern sauces tend to be thick and have simple but strong flavors. There are exceptions of course—Worcestershire Sauce is thin and highly complex (if you get the original), but I the actual recipe is 19th century.
Common Period Sauces
Mustards: Legend has it that the Romans introduced mustard plants to England. The English are still grateful. Mustard seeds are used to make sauces in many cultures, and mustards were one of the most popular sauces in the middle-ages. Because of its low cost—the plant is nearly a weed—even the poor could season their meat with it. Barbe Robert is cooked mustard found in a number of period cookery books. Personally, I find that cooking gives the mustard a roasted flavor that I find unpleasant—almost a scorched taste. However, toasting the mustard seeds before grinding them to make the sauce is a good thing. You get a toasty flavor without the burnt taste.
Cameline Sauce: This is a red wine based sauce heavily spiced with cinnamon and other spices and thickened with toasted breadcrumbs. Many versions call for raisins as well. Hundreds of versions of Cameline sauce can be found in period cooking texts.
Pepper Sauce: This was generally a vinegar based sauce with pepper and other spices, thickened with toasted bread crumbs.
Green Sauce: This was a fresh herb sauce with vinegar. The herbs are pounded in a mortar until they are rendered to a paste, and then vinegar is stirred in just enough to thin it into a sauce.
Black Sauce: Black sauces are so named because they always contain blood and/or liver, which become dark when cooked, as in “black pudding” a blood sausage popular in England. The other ingredients might vary, but wine and vinegar were usually included. These sauces were generally used with wild game meats, especially boar, which has a strong flavor or its own.
Other Sauces: Many other sauces were found in period cookery books; saffron sauces, sauces for particular meats or vegetables, fruit sauces both for meats and desserts, garlic sauces, and relishes. In the middle-east we find yogurt sauces, pomegranate sauces, and rosewater sauces to name but a few.
Recipes
Camelline Sauce, serves about 8
Adapted from Platina
2 thick slices baguette type bread, toasted
1 cups red wine
1/2 cup raisins
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch cloves
Soak the raisins and bread slices in the wine until the bread is completely soaked, about 30 minutes. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve, mashing to extract as much juice as possible. Heat it over medium-low heat until just thickened. Store in an airtight container chilled. Then reheat over low heat.This sauce is good on all meats and on fatty fish such as salmon.
Yellow Pepper Sauce, serves about 6
adapted from the Vivendier and Fetes Gourmandes
1 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground grains of paradise
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground saffron
1/4 teaspoon ground long pepper
5 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
5 Tablespoons white wine
10 grams toasted bread crumbs
salt to taste
In a small saucepan, mix all the spices, wine, and vinegar. Heat over medium heat until steaming. Stir in the bread crumbs and cook and stir until it is thick enough. Store in an airtight container, chilled. Bring to room temperature before using.
Sauce au Moust (Must Sauce), serves about 8
adapted from Fetes Gourmandes
1 pound black raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
15 grams toasted breadcrumbs
brown sugar and salt to taste
Simmer the raisins in water to cover until plumped and soft, about 15 minutes. Drain off some of the water, reserving it, and place the raisins in a food processor. Add some of the water and pulse until smooth, adding water as necessary for consistency. Add the cinnamon and ginger and pulse to mix. Remove to a bowl. Stir in the breadcrumbs. Add more of the raisin liquid if needed for the proper consistency. Taste and add salt and brown sugar as needed. Store chilled in an airtight container until needed. Bring to room temperature before using. Good on sausages and other spicy meats.
Green Sauce, serves about 6
adapted from Fêtes Gourmandes
1 cups white wine vinegar
10 grams Italian parsley
3 grams sage
1 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger
10 grams toasted bread crumbs, pulverized in food processor
Finely chop the parsley and sage then put in a mortar and pound to a paste. Add the fresh ginger and pound together. Stir this into the bread crumbs and mix thoroughly. Stir in the vinegar, a little at a time, mixing well with each addition until it be thick enough. Store in an airtight container, chilled.
Honey-Mustard, serves about 10
Adapted from An Early Northern Cookery Book
4 oz yellow mustard seeds
1 1/3 oz (by weight) raw honey
2/5 oz (by weight) whole anise seed
1 heaping Tbsp ground cinnamon
Apple cider vinegar, as much as needed to achieve desired thickness
Put the mustard seed and anise seed in an iron skillet over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the mustard seeds start to jump. Cook and stir until seeds are toasted. Remove from heat, stirring until seeds cease to pop, and cool. Put these in a spice grinder and grind to desired consistency. Put in a bowl and stir in the cinnamon until well mixed. Add apple cider vinegar until a thick consistency is reached. Stir in the honey until well mixed. Add more vinegar if needed to achieve desired consistency. Store in an air tight container and keep cool.
Bibliography
Fêtes Gourmandes au Moyen Age, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Carole Lambert (1998), ISBN 2-7433-0268-2, Micaela Burnham, translator for purpose of this class
The Vivendier, Terrance Scully, trans. (1997), ISBN 0-907-325-81-5
Two Fifteenth Century Cookery-Books, Thomas Austin, ed. (1888), self-published
The Original Mediterranean Cuisine, Barbara Santich (1995), ISBN 0-907325-59-9
On Right Pleasure and Good Health, Platina, aka Bartolomeo Sacci (1471), Mary Ella Milham, trans. (1998); ISBN 0-86698-208-6
Take a Thousand Eggs or More, vols 1 & 2, Cindy Renfrow (1998 ed.), self published
Sabina Welserin book of Cookery, 1553, translation by Valoise Armstrong (1998) found at http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html
Libellus de arte coquinaria : An Early Northern Cookery Book, Rudolf Grewe and Constance B. Hieatt, eds. and trans., 2001, ISBN0-86698-264-7
Magistra Rosemounde of Mercia (copyright Micaela Burnham 2013)
Since there has been cooking, there have been sauces; perhaps as simple as meat juices or melted butter, but sauces none the less. Within the framework of SCA periods, all the cultures we study and emulate used sauces to season their foods.
A sauce is a thickened liquid served with food to add flavor. (Encarta) This covers a wide variety of substances, including what we today call condiments. Using this definition there are three things that make a sauce: liquid, thickening, and flavor.
Reduce or reduction: You reduce a liquid by cooking until much of the liquid has boiled away leaving a sauce of the remaining liquid and solids. Reducing both thickens, if there are sufficient solids in the mixture, and intensifies flavors.
Straining: Straining sauce is done through a fine mesh sieve and two thicknesses of damp cheesecloth. The purpose is to strain out as much of the solid material as possible, while forcing the thickened liquid part through.
Verjuice: The juice of unripe grapes or crabapples; this was used extensively in SCA period cooking. If you are unable to obtain this, you can mix wine vinegar and grape, apple or lemon juice.
SCA period sauces: sauces used before the 17th century. Period sauces were generally thickened with bread crumbs, almond milk, or ground almonds, although eggs began to be used as a thickener by the 16th century, and rice flour was occasionally used. Reductions were used, but generally in conjunction with another thickener. Period sauces had bold, complex flavors. Many were wine, verjuice, or vinegar based, so they had an acidic bite.
Classic sauces: sauces developed by the classically trained French chefs of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as béchamel, hollandaise, mayonnaise, etc. These sauces generally are thickened with egg, butter, and/or cream and have complex, but delicate flavors. Sauces made from meat stocks are thickened by reducing, but also had delicate flavoring, so that the main flavor is the meat stock. Demi-glaze, though a paste rather than a sauce, is an example of this. Classic sauces tended to have both acid and fat, which combine to form a silky sauce with good mouth feel.
Modern sauces: condiments such as mustard, ketchup, BBQ sauce, honey mustard, and creamy salad dressings, etc. Modern sauces tend to be thick and have simple but strong flavors. There are exceptions of course—Worcestershire Sauce is thin and highly complex (if you get the original), but I the actual recipe is 19th century.
Common Period Sauces
Mustards: Legend has it that the Romans introduced mustard plants to England. The English are still grateful. Mustard seeds are used to make sauces in many cultures, and mustards were one of the most popular sauces in the middle-ages. Because of its low cost—the plant is nearly a weed—even the poor could season their meat with it. Barbe Robert is cooked mustard found in a number of period cookery books. Personally, I find that cooking gives the mustard a roasted flavor that I find unpleasant—almost a scorched taste. However, toasting the mustard seeds before grinding them to make the sauce is a good thing. You get a toasty flavor without the burnt taste.
Cameline Sauce: This is a red wine based sauce heavily spiced with cinnamon and other spices and thickened with toasted breadcrumbs. Many versions call for raisins as well. Hundreds of versions of Cameline sauce can be found in period cooking texts.
Pepper Sauce: This was generally a vinegar based sauce with pepper and other spices, thickened with toasted bread crumbs.
Green Sauce: This was a fresh herb sauce with vinegar. The herbs are pounded in a mortar until they are rendered to a paste, and then vinegar is stirred in just enough to thin it into a sauce.
Black Sauce: Black sauces are so named because they always contain blood and/or liver, which become dark when cooked, as in “black pudding” a blood sausage popular in England. The other ingredients might vary, but wine and vinegar were usually included. These sauces were generally used with wild game meats, especially boar, which has a strong flavor or its own.
Other Sauces: Many other sauces were found in period cookery books; saffron sauces, sauces for particular meats or vegetables, fruit sauces both for meats and desserts, garlic sauces, and relishes. In the middle-east we find yogurt sauces, pomegranate sauces, and rosewater sauces to name but a few.
Recipes
Camelline Sauce, serves about 8
Adapted from Platina
2 thick slices baguette type bread, toasted
1 cups red wine
1/2 cup raisins
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch cloves
Soak the raisins and bread slices in the wine until the bread is completely soaked, about 30 minutes. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve, mashing to extract as much juice as possible. Heat it over medium-low heat until just thickened. Store in an airtight container chilled. Then reheat over low heat.This sauce is good on all meats and on fatty fish such as salmon.
Yellow Pepper Sauce, serves about 6
adapted from the Vivendier and Fetes Gourmandes
1 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground grains of paradise
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground saffron
1/4 teaspoon ground long pepper
5 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
5 Tablespoons white wine
10 grams toasted bread crumbs
salt to taste
In a small saucepan, mix all the spices, wine, and vinegar. Heat over medium heat until steaming. Stir in the bread crumbs and cook and stir until it is thick enough. Store in an airtight container, chilled. Bring to room temperature before using.
Sauce au Moust (Must Sauce), serves about 8
adapted from Fetes Gourmandes
1 pound black raisins
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
15 grams toasted breadcrumbs
brown sugar and salt to taste
Simmer the raisins in water to cover until plumped and soft, about 15 minutes. Drain off some of the water, reserving it, and place the raisins in a food processor. Add some of the water and pulse until smooth, adding water as necessary for consistency. Add the cinnamon and ginger and pulse to mix. Remove to a bowl. Stir in the breadcrumbs. Add more of the raisin liquid if needed for the proper consistency. Taste and add salt and brown sugar as needed. Store chilled in an airtight container until needed. Bring to room temperature before using. Good on sausages and other spicy meats.
Green Sauce, serves about 6
adapted from Fêtes Gourmandes
1 cups white wine vinegar
10 grams Italian parsley
3 grams sage
1 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger
10 grams toasted bread crumbs, pulverized in food processor
Finely chop the parsley and sage then put in a mortar and pound to a paste. Add the fresh ginger and pound together. Stir this into the bread crumbs and mix thoroughly. Stir in the vinegar, a little at a time, mixing well with each addition until it be thick enough. Store in an airtight container, chilled.
Honey-Mustard, serves about 10
Adapted from An Early Northern Cookery Book
4 oz yellow mustard seeds
1 1/3 oz (by weight) raw honey
2/5 oz (by weight) whole anise seed
1 heaping Tbsp ground cinnamon
Apple cider vinegar, as much as needed to achieve desired thickness
Put the mustard seed and anise seed in an iron skillet over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the mustard seeds start to jump. Cook and stir until seeds are toasted. Remove from heat, stirring until seeds cease to pop, and cool. Put these in a spice grinder and grind to desired consistency. Put in a bowl and stir in the cinnamon until well mixed. Add apple cider vinegar until a thick consistency is reached. Stir in the honey until well mixed. Add more vinegar if needed to achieve desired consistency. Store in an air tight container and keep cool.
Bibliography
Fêtes Gourmandes au Moyen Age, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Carole Lambert (1998), ISBN 2-7433-0268-2, Micaela Burnham, translator for purpose of this class
The Vivendier, Terrance Scully, trans. (1997), ISBN 0-907-325-81-5
Two Fifteenth Century Cookery-Books, Thomas Austin, ed. (1888), self-published
The Original Mediterranean Cuisine, Barbara Santich (1995), ISBN 0-907325-59-9
On Right Pleasure and Good Health, Platina, aka Bartolomeo Sacci (1471), Mary Ella Milham, trans. (1998); ISBN 0-86698-208-6
Take a Thousand Eggs or More, vols 1 & 2, Cindy Renfrow (1998 ed.), self published
Sabina Welserin book of Cookery, 1553, translation by Valoise Armstrong (1998) found at http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Sabrina_Welserin.html
Libellus de arte coquinaria : An Early Northern Cookery Book, Rudolf Grewe and Constance B. Hieatt, eds. and trans., 2001, ISBN0-86698-264-7
