Romanesque Burgers

Romanesque Burgers!

So, this was an interesting situation.  As I was working more and more on Roman food, I stumbled across thermopolia, which were ancient Roman "fast food" joints.  Doing a little more research brought me to THIS website, which I shamelessly stole from.  As such, I will not be including the recipe to the burgers here.  Go get it from Avrila!


However, my judges were a little less daring than I am, and as such I needed to make the recipe a little more modern.  I didn't mess with the burgers at all--I even made another batch of liquamen for it--but I did add some black garlic aioli, mushroom ketchup, and fig paste, then served it all on toasted sourdough bread.


I won the cooking contest with a very high score and some GREAT feedback from the judges, so it must have gone over pretty well.


Historical Accuracy:  I haven't seen Avrila's recipes listed anywhere else, but she seems fairly knowledgeable.  Call it a 7/10 for a shot in the dark.


How's it Taste?  Strange.  The flavor seems to shift around on you.  Some bites you get a LOT of the mustard or pepper.  Other times, the juniper comes in strong.  But it's darned good.


Ingredients:  No.  Go see Avrila's Website for the recipe.  However, let's talk condiments!

Mushroom Ketchup

Mushroom ketchup tastes like Worcestershire sauce and is thick like A-1.  I love this stuff.  It dates back from before tomatoes were introduced in Europe and is a big part of American colonial cuisine.


Mushroom Ketchup
2 pounds fresh mushrooms
2 tablespoons kosher or sea salt
2 bay leaves
1 large onion, chopped
zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon grated horseradish
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
 1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup cider vinegar


Wipe the mushrooms clean and chop.  Toss with the salt and bay leaves in a non-reactive bowl.  Cover and let sit overnight.  The mushrooms will have given off a LOT of water.  Transfer to a dutch oven and add all the other ingredients, cooking for 30 minutes or longer.  Allow the mixture to cool and puree.

Black Garlic Aioli

Black garlic is somewhat difficult to find.  It's fermented under low heat for a several weeks and has a funky, French onion soup-like flavor.  There are plenty of guides online on how to make it, but the easiest way is to take a bulb of garlic, wrap it in plastic wrap, wrap THAT in two layers of aluminum foil, and pop it in your dehydrator for three weeks.  Easy, right?   Your whole place will smell like an Italian kitchen, which is just a bonus.


Black Garlic Aioli
3  cloves aged black garlic, minced
Pinch of  kosher salt
1  egg yolk
1 1/2  teaspoon  lemon juice
1/4  cup  extra-virgin olive oil


Crush the garlic and salt together to make a paste.  Whisk the lemon juice and yolk together and put into a food processor.  Slowly mix the oil in to incorporate, then pulse in the black garlic paste.

Fig Paste

This couldn't be easier, and it's very historically accurate.  Just take your figs, some water, and some honey and blend them into a smooth paste.  Ta da!


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Horsebread!

Horsebread!

Looks a lot like the hardtack, doesn't it?  That's intentional.


I made up a batch of hardtack for my buddies, who were heading to a big LARP event. As I was cooking, I was reminded of something I read about in Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment.  After doing some research, I found out that horsebread was, in fact, a thing.


Horsebread was made primarily from legumes instead of grains and was considered a lower-class food, typically eaten by (you guessed it) horses, although in times of famine, people would consume it as well.  I took this concept and applied it to the hardtack, making...  Horsetack, I guess?


This recipe used three quarters vegetables to provide fiber and nutrition, with a little flour for empty calories.  I also added some schmaltz because, well, why not?


Historical Accuracy:  This is somewhat fantasy and somewhat an interpretation of a historical thing.  Give it a 4/10 and you're probably generous.

How's it Taste?  Do you like peas?  Because the pea flavor is seriously pronounced here.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's very prominent.  Also, the flour was initially green when rolled, but turned brown in the oven.

Difficulty:  This one is more tough than its predecessor.  You need a food dehydrator and a blender or food processor.  Otherwise, it's exactly the same.  3/10.


Ingredients


3 cups vegetable meal (see recipe below)
1 cup unbleached whole-wheat flour
1 cup water
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. schmaltz (or lard)


Mix all ingredients, knead, roll to 1/4" thick.  Cut into rectangles and pierce with skewers.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-25 minutes a side, turning once.


Vegetable Flour
2 pounds dried split green peas
2 pounds carrot chips
1 large onion
1 bulb garlic
1 large beet
1 bunch kale


Dehydrate all ingredients and blend into a powder, mixing well.


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Hardtack!

Hardtack!

Sorry.  I keep meaning to update this thing, and I keep postponing it.  But here we go.  The breakfast of champions--hardtack!

Hardtack, at its most basic, is a simple cracked made from flour and water and a pinch of salt.  It is rolled thing and baked hard and, so long as it does not get wet, it will keep for a VERY long time.  It is near-inedible and makes a wonderful shim or backup armor, but not so much a great breakfast.

If you soak it in milk or tea and fry it in pork fat, the flavor is improved tremendously.  You can also add various seeds and maybe some lard or schmaltz to improve the flavor.  A little honey helps as well.  Experiment here!

Historical Accuracy:  This is hardtack.  The only way it could be more historically accurate is if I used worse quality flour for the recipe. Call it a 10/10 and be happy.


What's it Taste Like?  Flour.  Really, it's bland and dry and horrible all on its own.  I added some caraway and celery seed to another batch, plus some schmaltz and honey, and it was better, but still bad.  This is survival food.  This is "trail" food.  Want to feel like a soldier on a march?  Have some tea, hardtack, and salt pork for breakfast.


Difficulty:  Nil.  You mix, roll, cut, piece, and bake.  Super-simple.  1/10.

Ingredients:4 cups flour (any type, although I used a mix of unbleached whole-grain wheat and leftover spelt)
1 cup water
1 tbsp. salt
Seasonings to taste


Mix it all up and knead it a bit to combine.  Roll out 1/4" thick and cut into rectangles.  Using a skewer, poke holes into the hardtack to allow it to bake hard.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes a side, turning once.  Once it feels like a brick, it's done!

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Pot Roast!

Pot Roast!

The rain continued on Sunday.  I had a nice, fresh loaf of sourdough bread (that the dogs wound up pulling off the counter after dinner, mind you), I had just gone out and beat a bunch of nerds up, I was cold, I was wet, and I was in the mood for some comfort food.  Luckily, I had thought ahead and had a pot roast going before I headed out.

Yes, it's not the prettiest picture in the world.  It's hard to dress up what is essentially a deconstructed stew.  However, it's certainly delicious, and it's oh-so-easy to make.  Plus, the gravy was excellent sopped up with some sourdough bread.

Historical Accuracy:  Pot roast, in and of itself, is a uniquely American thing.  However, it bears such strong similarities to many other dishes from antiquity that it would be extraordinarily simple to "adapt" it to fit the mold--hence me including it here.  Yes, I'm using a new world ingredient in the potato.  You can totally swap that out for rutabagas or parsnips or whatever else floats your boat.  Call it a 2/10 here with potential (with just a little work) to become 8/10.  Funny how that works.

How's it Taste?  Like home.  Growing up, this was one of my favorite meals.  I can never make it exactly the same way each time--I always have to experiment just a little bit.  It's tender, fall-apart chunks of meat and root vegetables with a bunch of warm brown mushroomy, oniony gravy and so on.  The dogs love it too--go figure.

Difficulty:  This is, by far, the easiest "big meal" a person can make.  You can make it in a slow cooker if you want.  You can make it on the stove.  I use a Dutch oven and then pop it into the oven when I'm done browning and sautéing everything (Ooh, cool, autocorrect made things fancy!).  1/10.  You do have to peel vegetables.

Ingredients:

1 large roast--I used beef chuck, but this will work with pork, lamb, or whatever.  Don't waste your money on a really good roast for this, as the cooking time will ensure quality from a bad cut.
2 large potatoes (rutabagas/parsnips if you want accuracy)
6-8 large carrots
2 large white onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
8 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 container sliced mushrooms
1 bunch celery, chopped
Cornmeal for thickening (if desired)
Beef stock to fill pot
Olive oil/schmaltz/lard for browning
Salt and Pepper to taste

Season the roast with salt and pepper, then brown nicely in the pan.  Remove the meat and add the chopped onions, celery, and garlic, cooking until the onions go translucent (about 5-10 minutes).  Add the parsley and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes to soften the mushrooms./

Return the meat to the pot and add potatoes and carrots.  Fill pot with stock and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, cover the pot and place in a 200F oven on a pan to catch any drips.  Roast for 5-8 hours.  Pull the meat and veggies from the pot (they will break apart) and reduce the liquid to gravy.

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Smoked Lamb Dinner!

Smoked Lamb Dinner!

This was something of an experiment that came out surprisingly well.  This weekend was full of rain and not a lot of fun, so I went ahead and made a couple of good meals.  In this case, a boneless leg of lamb was smoked for several hours and served with my honey-butter beets (recipe is already HERE on the blog!) and some roasted fennel with Parmesan cheese and olive oil.  I also make a honey-dill mustard sauce for the lamb.  Vikingesque dinner.  Yum.

Historical Accuracy:  This all falls into the plausible range.  The lamb's seasonings, the smoking, and the beets are all directly from Viking sources, while the fennel is more modern, but plausible.  Give it a 6/10 because I'm feeling charitable.

How's it Taste?  It tastes like smoked ham, sweet and tangy beets, and anise-like fennel.  With hot mustard.  All in all, a well-balanced plate.

Difficulty:  If you have a smoker, it's a 3/10.  If not, it jumps up quite a bit.  Call it a 7/10.

Ingredients:

Smoked Lamb1 boneless leg of lamb
Ground Mustard
Dill Weed
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Salt
Pepper
Vinegar


Rub the lamb with the herbs and spices.  Take some more of them and mix it with the vinegar to make a "mop sauce."  Smoke the lamb at about 200-250 for 3-4 hours or until tender and cooked, mopping every 45 minutes with the sauce.

Roasted Fennel
2 fennel bulbs, stems removed, leaves reserved, sliced into 1/3" vertical sections
Olive oil
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

Oil a baking dish, then line it with the fennel.  Season with salt and pepper, then top with Parmesan.  Drizzle some more olive oil on top, then roast at 375F for about 45 minutes or until fork-tender.  Top with chopped fennel leaves and then serve.

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Romanesque Sourdough!

Romanesque Sourdough!

This weekend, I decided to do some baking.  I have some other things to show you guys, but this was by far my favorite.


Once again, I'm adapting a recipe from Pass the Garum, which is an excellent source of information and you guys should really check it out.

Historical Accuracy:  Well, the original recipe is a 10/10, so if you follow the link, you're perfect.  I made a few changes to make it somewhat more "accessible," so call it a 7/10 here.

How's it Taste?  Do you like sourdough bread?  Because you'll like this.  The spelt flour adds something nice, although you can totally just use unbleached or whole wheat flour if you can't find spelt.

Difficulty:  The only hard part is waiting.  4/10 at the best.

Ingredients:
2 cups unbleached or whole wheat flour
2 cups spelt flour
1 cup water
1 packet yeast
1/4 cup sourdough starter (here's a recipe)
1/4 cup honey
Pinch of salt

Proof the yeast and sourdough in separate bowls with a little flour, some water, and some honey.  Let sit for 10 minutes and watch the bubbles!

Mix everything together.  Let sit 2+ hours until doubled.  Knead down.  Let sit 2+ hours.  Shape into a loaf and put on a floured pan.  Score the top.  Let rise a bit, then bake at 425F for 20-25 minutes.

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Placenta!

Placenta (not what you think)!

Yeah, it's not like that.  Placenta (pronounced Plakenta or Plachenta) is an ancient Roman dessert "cake" that was considered good enough to be sacrificed to the gods.  It's just layers of filo dough and honeyed ricotta baked on top of oiled bay leaves.  No afterbirth required.

This recipe has been stolen from Pass the Garum, which was one of my inspirations in creating this oft-neglected blog.  But hey, I'll be posting more in the future.  I just haven't cooked anything that would qualify as period lately.

Historical Accuracy:  While this uses modern ingredients, it does so to make an ancient recipe accessible.  The filo dough is certainly quite a bit different than the historical recipe.  Let's call it a 7/10.

How's it Taste?  In all honesty, I would have liked this better without the bay leaves and with some sort of sweet fruity topping.  It's basically like if a cheesecake and baklava had a delicious baby.  The laurel adds an oddly astringent flavor that takes some getting used to.

Difficulty:  Filo dough isn't exactly easy to use in my opinion, but it's not super-hard.  Call it a 6/10,

Ingredients:
270g Filo Pastry

250g Ricotta Cheese

Lots of Honey

Dried Bay Leaves

Olive Oil

Basically, mix honey into the ricotta until you're happy with the taste.  Use 4-6 layers of filo dough as the outer crust (mine kind of erupted in the pan, as you can see).  Cut the rest into rectangles after folding in half 3-4 sheets thick.  Oil up some bay leaves and put them in the pan, then top with the outer crust.

Add a rectangle of filo, then top with the ricotta mixture.  Keep this up until you have as many layers as you'd like, then wrap the whole thing up in the outer crust and top with a bay leave or two.

Place in a cold oven, then set it to 350F.  Bake 45-60 minutes.

Obligatory Patreon Reference:  I haven't done these lately.  Well, I haven't posted lately.  Cooking is expensive.  But I have at least...  Five recipes that will be coming up soon.  Click HERE to toss some bread my way.