The Saucy Cook: SCA Period Style Sauces for the SCA Cook
Magistra Rosemounde of Mercia (copyright Micaela Burnham 2011)
Don Quixote said, “Hunger makes the best sauce.” But what did he know?
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 period, all the cultures we study and emulate used sauces to season their foods.
What makes a sauce? The definition 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.
Terms: Today I am going to use some terms that I want to define first, so that we all understand the meanings as I am using them.
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 sauce: 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 were thickened by reducing, but also had delicate flavoring, so that the main flavor was 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 would point out that 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
Roast Capon with Black Sauce, adapted from The Vivendier by Micaela Burnham
Serve 8
1 large capon or roasting chicken, cut into serving pieces
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 pound chicken livers
3 Tablespoons toasted bread crumbs
4 Tablespoons verjuice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon grains of paradise
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
2 Tablespoons or more of red wine vinegar to thin to correct consistency for sauce
Put the chicken broth into a large pot. Add chicken pieces and add water to cover at least one inch. Boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cook 15 minutes. Remove chicken from pot directly to hot coals (or alternatively to a large skillet with hot lard) to finish cooking. Turn as necessary to cook evenly until done, about 15 minutes. Reserve the broth.
Soak the bread crumbs in the verjuice for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine meshed strainer lined in two layers of damp cheesecloth, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Reserve juice, and discard bread crumbs. To the verjuice add all the spices except the parsley, stir and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Strain again and bottle. This may be kept in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Cut the chicken livers into 1/2" pieces and remove all membranes. Drop chicken livers and any blood into the hot broth and simmer until cooked completely, about 20 minutes. Remove from broth with a slotted spoon and mash thoroughly with a fork until smooth. Add the verjuice mixture and parsley, and whisk together with a fork until smooth. Add red wine vinegar until the sauce is thin enough to pour, but still thick and creamy. Keep sauce warm over low heat until ready to serve.
Sauce may be poured over chicken or served on the side.
Yellow Pepper Sauce, Adapted from The Vivendier and Fêtes Gourmands by Micaela Burnham
Serves about 12
2 teaspoons grated fresh grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground grains of paradise
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground saffron
1/2 teaspoon ground long pepper
10 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
10 Tablespoons white wine
20 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 be thick enough. Store in an airtight container, chilled.
Cameline Sauce, adapted from multiple sources by Micaela Burnham
Serves about 12
1/8 loaf baguette type French bread, cut into ¼ inch thick slices, toasted
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup raisins
2 pinches ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 dash of ground cloves
Soak the raisins and bread slices in the wine until the bread is completely soaked. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Strain, mashing to extract as much juice as possible. Heat over medium-low heat until just thickened. Store refrigerated in airtight container until ready to serve. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
Hot Mustard Sauce, adapted from Platina by Micaela Burnham
Serves about 12
4, 1/2 inch thick slices baguette white bread, crusts removed
1/2 cup verjuice, or a mixture of lemon juice and white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons ground yellow mustard powder
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons ground blanched almonds
Soak the bread in the verjuice until soft. Soak the mustard in the water until a smooth paste is formed. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add more water if needed to make a smooth thick sauce.
Green Sauce, adapted from Fêtes Gourmandes by Micaela Burnham
Serve about 12
2 cups white wine vinegar
20 grams Italian parsley
5 grams sage
2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger
20 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.
Bibliography
Apicius, Christopher Grocock & Sally Grainger, trans. (2006), ISBN 1-903018-13-7
Fêtes Gourmandes au Moyen Age, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Carole Lambert (1998), ISBN 2-7433-0268-2, Micaela Burnham, translator for purposes 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
To the King’s Taste, Lorna J. Sass (1975), ISBN 0-87099-133-7
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
Magistra Rosemounde of Mercia (copyright Micaela Burnham 2011)
Don Quixote said, “Hunger makes the best sauce.” But what did he know?
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 period, all the cultures we study and emulate used sauces to season their foods.
What makes a sauce? The definition 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.
Terms: Today I am going to use some terms that I want to define first, so that we all understand the meanings as I am using them.
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 sauce: 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 were thickened by reducing, but also had delicate flavoring, so that the main flavor was 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 would point out that 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
Roast Capon with Black Sauce, adapted from The Vivendier by Micaela Burnham
Serve 8
1 large capon or roasting chicken, cut into serving pieces
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 pound chicken livers
3 Tablespoons toasted bread crumbs
4 Tablespoons verjuice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon grains of paradise
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
2 Tablespoons or more of red wine vinegar to thin to correct consistency for sauce
Put the chicken broth into a large pot. Add chicken pieces and add water to cover at least one inch. Boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cook 15 minutes. Remove chicken from pot directly to hot coals (or alternatively to a large skillet with hot lard) to finish cooking. Turn as necessary to cook evenly until done, about 15 minutes. Reserve the broth.
Soak the bread crumbs in the verjuice for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine meshed strainer lined in two layers of damp cheesecloth, squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Reserve juice, and discard bread crumbs. To the verjuice add all the spices except the parsley, stir and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Strain again and bottle. This may be kept in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Cut the chicken livers into 1/2" pieces and remove all membranes. Drop chicken livers and any blood into the hot broth and simmer until cooked completely, about 20 minutes. Remove from broth with a slotted spoon and mash thoroughly with a fork until smooth. Add the verjuice mixture and parsley, and whisk together with a fork until smooth. Add red wine vinegar until the sauce is thin enough to pour, but still thick and creamy. Keep sauce warm over low heat until ready to serve.
Sauce may be poured over chicken or served on the side.
Yellow Pepper Sauce, Adapted from The Vivendier and Fêtes Gourmands by Micaela Burnham
Serves about 12
2 teaspoons grated fresh grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground grains of paradise
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground saffron
1/2 teaspoon ground long pepper
10 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
10 Tablespoons white wine
20 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 be thick enough. Store in an airtight container, chilled.
Cameline Sauce, adapted from multiple sources by Micaela Burnham
Serves about 12
1/8 loaf baguette type French bread, cut into ¼ inch thick slices, toasted
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup raisins
2 pinches ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 dash of ground cloves
Soak the raisins and bread slices in the wine until the bread is completely soaked. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Strain, mashing to extract as much juice as possible. Heat over medium-low heat until just thickened. Store refrigerated in airtight container until ready to serve. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
Hot Mustard Sauce, adapted from Platina by Micaela Burnham
Serves about 12
4, 1/2 inch thick slices baguette white bread, crusts removed
1/2 cup verjuice, or a mixture of lemon juice and white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons ground yellow mustard powder
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons ground blanched almonds
Soak the bread in the verjuice until soft. Soak the mustard in the water until a smooth paste is formed. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add more water if needed to make a smooth thick sauce.
Green Sauce, adapted from Fêtes Gourmandes by Micaela Burnham
Serve about 12
2 cups white wine vinegar
20 grams Italian parsley
5 grams sage
2 Tablespoons freshly grated ginger
20 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.
Bibliography
Apicius, Christopher Grocock & Sally Grainger, trans. (2006), ISBN 1-903018-13-7
Fêtes Gourmandes au Moyen Age, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Carole Lambert (1998), ISBN 2-7433-0268-2, Micaela Burnham, translator for purposes 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
To the King’s Taste, Lorna J. Sass (1975), ISBN 0-87099-133-7
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