Hello New Followers + Notes from the Holidays

Just wanted to say hello to the new followers who might be disappointed in my lack of new posts.

I’ve been on Xmas vacation. That might mean more free time, but it’s been a series of holiday meals predetermined by routine social obligation. 

I’ve also begun recruiting experts to help me out with this project. I’m a terrible baker, but at one of the better holiday parties, I encountered the most delicious pecan pie. The baker of the pecan pie felt the same way about one of the ASOIAF experiments I brought. We got to talking.

Lemon. Cakes. Get ready.

Also, New Year’s goals:

  • Create a page that lists  common ingredients and summarize their historical significance
  • Create regional definitions that correlate to historical regional cuisines. For instance, I’m confident that Winterfell is England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, etc. 
  • Figure out how to create “sections” based on tags. I’ve been trying to tag everything with a play on “A ______ of ______”. 

Reading ADWD

bronzedragon reblogged your post: Roasted Pork + Boar (Ready to get creeped?)

Have you read A Dance With Dragons yet?

I haven’t read it yet.

I’m putting it off and rereading the series from the beginning so I can create a spreadsheet of all the foodstuffs and dishes mentioned in the books.

I’m also doubling up by reading historical books about food during that time. 

I’m debating on getting help from friends as far as the spreadsheet is concerned. 

The most important part of this for me is the historically accurate recreation. That’s one of the things about ASOIAF that I really appreciate; the amount of details that GRRM puts into the books.

If I read ADWD now, it’ll be at least two weeks before I can jumpstart the list foods and finish the research. 

Roasted Pork + Boar (Ready to get creeped?)

King Robert hunted boar like crazy. Random people are always complaining of the lack of bacon, rashers, or ham. Tywin Lannister hung Ser Lorimer for stealing a ham once. 

According to my research, pork and boar were considered incredibly nutritious and healthy. 

Much of medieval cuisine played upon the balance of temperatures (pheasant was warm, cinnamon was cool, combine them!), moisture (lamb was moist, vinegar was dry, combine them!), and texture (beef was coarse, so it was poor people food; whale was delicate, not even allowed to be eaten by poor people). Temperature, moisture, and texture had little do with the actual physical traits of the food, but rather it’s effect on the body.

The attribution of these different traits slowly changed as Arab medicine began to infiltrate Europe. Doctors from the north often went south for training. Arab influence was particularly heavy in Spain and Italy, and thus England. France was uniquely uninfluenced because their doctors traveled south much less frequently.

Signs of Arab influence? Ever eat cinnamon, clove, anise, or nutmeg?  

Pork, for the record, were considered cold and moist. Wild boar, unlike most wild animals like venison, was considered easy to digest. It was also thought to be equally nutritious to pork. The reason is very creepy.

Physicians often described pork as having the taste of human flesh.

Famines were common during medieval times. Some of it was a result of the Little Ice Age, crop failures, ergot infected crops, labor shortage, or poor farming techniques. The commonality of famines are, for many historians, why the medieval times were “dark ages”. 

Starvation leads to a lot of things: crime, death, and desperate measures like the abandonment of children. One of the most desperate measures was cannibalism. The story of Hansel and Gretel captures the desperation caused by famine.

Cannibalism was common among the poor during times of extreme bread shortages. 

Pigs also have more genetic similarities to humans than dogs, and they’re pretty darn smart. Now that I’m repeatedly reading they taste like human and that’s why they’re so freaking healthy is a bit creepy. 

Spiced Wine by Lord Commander “Old Bear” Mormont

“… Jon built a cookfire, claimed a small cask of Mormont’s favorite robust red from stores, and poured it into a kettle. he hung the kettle above the flames wile he gathered the rest of his ingredients. The Old Bear was particular about his hot spiced wine. So much cinnamon and so much nutmeg and so much honey, not a drop more. Raisins and nuts and dried berries, but no lemon, that was the rankest sort of southron heresey— which was queer, since he always took lemon in his morning beer. The drink must be hot to warm a man properly, the Lord Commander insisted, but the the wine must never be allowed to come to a boil…”

—A Clash of Kings, Chapter 34 or pg. 511

I found a recipe with Innatthecrossroads.com and they have a couple of more spices than mentioned in the book, as well as provide a modernized recipe that’s relatively faithful the medieval versions they found.

A couple of notes from personal experience

  • When heating wine, always keep it to a gentle simmer. A strong heat tends to “cook” the wine and mess up the delicate chemical balance that makes wine delicious—it can sour fast. 
  • Invest in tea bags, paper or cotton. They’re great for herb and spice mixes you can throw into stocks or wine. 
  • Keep a lid on your pot. It isn’t the taste that keeps you warm, it’s the alcoholic content and temperature. A gentle simmer and a lid will help you retain the alcoholic content.

So far this hasn’t popped up in any of my reading, but I’ll update if it does.

I’m not going to use ground spices. Ground spices tend to lack the potency of whole spices. Also, based on my readings, grinding things to a powder seemed like, literally, a royal-pain. White flour was glorified because of the amount of grinding and sifting it took to reach that level. It applied to expensive spices, too. 

Here are my ingredients:

  • whole anise[1]
  • whole cloves
  • whole dried lemon[2]
  • whole cardamon
  • whole dried ginger[2]
  • whole cassia[3]
  • whole nutmeg, ground[4]
  • dried strawberries [2]
  • raisins [2]
  • cotton bag[5]
  • 6 cups of red wine [6]

[1] Anise was considered a spice with a warm and dry nature, and often prescribed to fortify people against a “cold stomach”. Dried ginger and lemon because the wall was 1,000 leagues from Winterfell and roughly 2,000 leagues from King’s Landing according to the book. The convoy that brought King Robert to Winterfall took about a month of travelling.

[2] During medieval times, both lemons and ginger were often imported to the north from sunnier regions, and both originated from India. If you applied the logic of that trade to Westeros, it’s pretty easy to believe that fresh ginger or lemon wouldn’t exist on the Wall. In fact, most mentions of fruit on the wall were dry such as the prunes eaten with breakfast.

You can buy dried lemons and ginger from stores that cater to Arabic foods be it Moroccan, Persian, Tunisian, or what have you. The dried versions of these spices are prevalent in their recipes to this day and do taste different than the fresh varieties. If you’ve ever tried to cook something Arabic and it “just doesn’t right”, try dried varieties.

You can also easily make your own dried varieties by buying these ingredients and drying them yourself.

[3] Cassia and cinnamon were often interchangeably used; chefs then and today often have difficulty differentiating them. Cassia, however, was darker and more pungent so cheaper. I’ve opted for it for that reason. 

[4] Nutmeg is not designed to be cracked and thrown whole into anything. I buy it whole and simply use a spice grate to get a powder from it when I need it. Nutmeg deteriorates particularly fast if it is pre-ground. 

[5] I am using a cotton spice bag to contain all this stuff. These are great if you make stocks or tea. They’re also relatively cheap if you live near a market where loose tea is sold. 

What’s great too about these bags is if you throw all your ingredients in there, you can bash/mash them with a hammer so flavors leech more readily in your concoction.

[6] I am using Malbec. I’ve used Pinot Noir. I’ve opted not to use Cabarnet as recommended by various internet sources because it’s a full-bodied wine with a lot of acidity. It is also a relatively new varietal prized for it’s ability to age. During medieval times, wine wasn’t really given the time to age. It would often more than not sour before reaching any age. Sweet wines with less tannin were preferred because they could be drunk sooner and with less affect of age. 

Steps:

  1. Heat your wine slow and low. Do not boil, ever. Watch it. Stick your finger it. You may need to turn the flame on and off to keep it from boiling.
  2. When it’s too hot to keep your finger in it, add the fruit.
  3. When the fruit is plump, add the spices.
  4. Keep at it for about 5-10 minutes depending on strength of beverage you want.
  5. At this point you can add nuts if you care to, but I’m personally fine with the rest of the stuff. 

Of course there is another person doing this exact same project…

http://www.cookingiceandfire.com/

He’s also going to cook recipes from the book along with writing about the experience of cooking for it with historical quips and quotes.

Not only that, but we’re using a couple of the same references. 

It looks like he’s got a few posts, but the latest is from September so maybe he’s taking a break?

Reading Homework

All of the medieval dietary books I’ve ordered have arrived so I’m starting my reading.

Luckily the first chapter of one of the books explains trenchers, grains, and breads. I plan on making the honeyed chicken from AGOT as the first go, but I also really want to make a gravy-filled trencher because that seems to be what it was served along with roasted onions.

This will, of course, come with hot spiced wine. 

One of the books I ordered is a concordance, so if I ever do own the dozens of books it references, I can skim a quick list of recipes and foodstuffs without going through each book.

Starting A Diet of Thrones

I’m pretty happy with the theme for the Tumblr, and I’ve also bought a domain name (of course!).

I’ve bought a few books to get me on my way as references. I don’t really follow recipes. I have dyscalculia, which is a learning disorder not too far off from dyslexia but with numbers and math. Once I tried to follow a recipe calling for 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and instead used 2 1/2 tbsp. It was disgusting.

Some of these books are more historical and I plan on referencing them as guides to get me through figuring out what exactly these dishes are about.

Like honeyed chicken is something I have an idea about cooking, and I’m curious to how it was done hundreds of years ago, but let’s see what I can come up with.

The first thing I tried to cook was oatcakes sometime during ACOK or maybe it was ASOS.

Everytime an outlaw or some other non-noble person hits the road and stumbles across an inn, they buy oatcakes. I got hungry. I was reading on the train, and went out during lunch to the fancy-pants cheese/wine shop to buy oatcakes. Those oatcakes were so delicious I tried to make my own.

Did they come out well? I thought so, but the GF thought they were abominations. I’m going to keep trying till they come out delicious.

That’s the plan. Pick a food from the book and try to figure out how it’s cooked using recipes or history as guides, and working it till the dish is grand and providing a recipe based on it.