Frankish Stew

Source: Anthimus' de obseruatione ciborum is a dietetics manual written for the Frankish king Theuderic in the early 6th century CE . Text and translation after: Anthimus; de obseruatione ciborum. On the Observance of Foods, translated and edited by Mark Grant, Prospect Books, Totnes 1996. No.3 de carnibus.

I won the main dish category of TRIAL BY FIRE XIV with this dish.

Redacted Recipe (sufficient for about 10 people)

Ingredients

3,5 lbs. of either a stewing beef, cut up pork roast, also chicken would work as would mushrooms for a vegetarian/lent version)

4 stalks of leeks (one more or less doesn't actually hurt all that much)

1 bulb of fennel

6 stalks of celery (or one bulb)

2-3 cups of sharp vinegar

2-3 cups of honey

water or broth

Olive oil

1 TS Salt

2 TS penny royal

1 TS spikenard root (! do not use the oil, it is WAY too potent)

2 TS costmary (or subsitute that with equal parts Caraway and spearmint)

50 Peppercorns

5 cloves

a dash of red wine

3,5 lbs should be quite enough for 10 people. In a feast as a course among many this amount would be enough to serve even more as the intense aroma will have people feel filled quicker, however, they may not be aware of that and that will impact how much they will take for themselves. If I was cooking a lunch for a group of ten (fighting) fighters on the other hand, I would probably add a lbs more. You can also make about half and serve it at a mundane setting with people going crazy over the unusal spicy flavour. There, you could serve it as a course over pearl barley or use some leftovers cold in these little cracker shells with a tiny bit of whipped cream and baby grapes as appetizers.

You can use regular stewing beef, which you can get rather cheap and it will yield a flavourful stew but there is a risk that the meat will dry ever so slightly and become somewhat hard which impacts the texture of the dish. So, next time, I will try to get the striploin cut for the meat, or try pork. This dish would also be delicious as a lent /vegetarian dish with portabella or another mushroom substituting for the meat.

Cut the beef (or whatever you choose, One of my friends keeps obsessing that this should be done with rabbit) into small cubes, for SCA purposes you may even want to go smaller than your usual stew meat, because this makes it easier to eat with a spoon and since we are merely closing the pores of the cubes, not actually searing them to create a roasting aroma.

Fry the cubes in olive oil until they started smelling of cooked meat and giving off liquid. Here, take care of the classics: dry (!) your cleaned meat, heat the pan REAL good. keep the metal hot, etc. DO YOUR MEAT IN BATCHES. Ihis amount of meat in a 12 " pan should take about three batches. Have a good big pot (or even an eartheware pot as Anthimus himself recommended) on stand by. You fry, then, add a good dash of water (maybe about 4 oz, a little more than for a mere deglazing) take out the meat before the water has evaporated, fill the excess water with the meat into the pot, make sure the pan is cleanish again so that you don't get any charcoal aroma into the next batch (;)) heat it back up, drizzle in the oliveoil for the next batch and fry the next batch, again, when it gives off the liquid, add the water. Do not be afraid to use too much water, this will become a stew after all. When all the meat is fried, heat up the meat in the pot and add a good tablespoon of salt.

Salt is not mentioned in the original recipe. But is was available, and Anthimus does not warn against it like he is warning against liquamen. The warning against liquamen however indicates that this was still rather commonly used in this period. It being very salty I would think that to be a good argument to use some salt as we know that salt is a flavor enhancer and that palates used to salt will find unsalted dishes rather bland. Also, it will help the meat to retain its juices during the stewing process if salt is already present in the stewing liquid. Frankly I haven't tried it without salt and it may well taste lovely that way (if anybody tries it saltless I would appreciate a comment with the results). Let the liquid come to a small simmer, then, fill up the pot with vinegar until the meat is well covered (about a cup or two). The recipe calls for a sharp vinegar and a little more than about half that volume in honey, together with chopped leeks (no need to overchop, but clean them well ;) chopped celery and finely ground (dried) pennyroyal, about 1 Tablespoon, and the chopped fennel. I only used the white flesh. You can use the arial, herby parts for flavouring but they will cook into oblivion for no good reason if you add them at this point.

After another five minutes of simmering I added cloves and pepper mixed and some chopped costmary with a dash of wine. You can crack the peppercorns cloves and costmary in a mortar but you don't have to, I just used my small food processor. If you don't have really great costmary (also called bible leaf or alecost) trust me you can subsitute it with equal parts caraway and spearmint. Chemically you will have about 80 the same aromatic component that way. And frankly, if you don't grow costmary or have some secret source it is a bitch to get for cooking. Then add about a tablespoon of spikenard root which is suprisingly easy to get www.mountainrose.com (be warned their website is WAY too tempting for the faint of heart) carries it as well as some other websites. Do not substitute this with Spikenard Oil without SIGNIFICANTLY diluting it. It will give you a very *weird* result.

I have cooked and served this dish with and without spikenard. The spikenard version was much better received but everybody agrees the difference is slight. A friend of mine has tried it with spikenardoil and has been warining against that ever since.

After this the dish has to stew. let it cook. let it be. check for liquid, make sure the meat ist covered. If the meat isdrying a little too much add water or broth (If you do the lent version you won’t have the drying issue as the mushroom will just get juicier and more flavorful and you will be done earlier as the mushrooms cook much quicker, however, from the position of flavor it may well be a good Idea to have some vegetable broth ready to use for keeping the mixture at the right consistency. In this version you also should be careful with the vinegar. and take half the spices at first you can always spike up the seasoning, reducing the acid in a dish without haveing a cucumber or potatoes ready, OTOH is very difficult)

Taste your stew after about 30 minutes. if the flavours are off, out of balance season it. if it is too sour add more honey, if it needs more flavor add some honey, if it tastes too bland add more vineagr AND and more honey (there is a balance to be struck between the vinegar and teh honey). you may want to add some more spikenard or costmary if you want more spicy or more minty add more pepper oif you want it hotter and ad more cloves if you feel like the flavors are still all over the place rather than blending.

Taste. Season. Give it time. Taste again. The endresult should be a fresh spicy hot stew which will give you an immediate intuitive understanding why this yummy dish was hidden in a health book at a time where doctors were operating on the four humors theory. this should be AWESOME with chicken and using freshly cooked chicken stock as liquid for highly congested people. It tastes lovely hot and even better also the next day cold.

Try it.

It is worth being rediscovered not just for the SCA.

YIS

Elisande