“Take sum parsneps and boyle them till thay bee very soft, then mash them very small and picke out the hard peces, then put to it sum grated breed or flouer, and a good many Corrants sum nuttmeggs and a Litell suger, and when you have mixed them together putt too an Indeferett quantaty the yeolks of 4 or 5 eggs: Wett it with Creme till it bee as thin as batter, and then fry them quick, if you will boyle it you must not make it so thin and boyle it in a Cloath spred with butter, when it is boyled melt sum butter with sack and shuger for the sam.”

-Penn Family Recipes, 1702

So, I made this recipe for the first time last Thanksgiving, and it met with surprise rave reviews. The trouble is, I didn’t really write down the measurements I used. So, enter 2018, and I want to make it again. But this time from scratch, since I didn’t write down what I did last time around. SHEESH. Come on, past self.

Parsnips are an unsung vegetable of bygone days. I’ll warn you now that you are going to have doubts about this recipe. It starts when you buy the funny looking anemic-carrot roots, and the cashier has to look up the price because he’s never seen one before. Or, at best, regales you with tales of how her Canadian grandmother used to cook with parsnips. Take heart that you are broadening their horizons, and get yourself back to the kitchen.

You’ll doubt again when those parsnips are a roiling boil, when you take one sniff and think, “I’m up for new things, but that’s NOT going to make a delicious side dish.”

Bear with me, gentle readers. Because by the time we’re done, I promise it will all be ok. The finished dish is certainly quirky, but in the best historical way. The pudding cooks up to a great consistency, so that you can easily cut slices of it but it’s still quite soft. The spice of the nutmeg complements the sweet earthiness of the parsnips, and it combines with the turkey-cranberry-squash-etc. spread of Thanksgiving like it was always meant to be there.

I didn’t try it with the sauce of butter/sugar/sherry (we drank all the sherry… whoops) but I bet it would pair beautifully with the flavors in the pudding. But since it’s now a holiday staple, there’s always next year!

Parsnip Pudding Recipe, circa 1702

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. parsnips, roughly chopped
• ~2 cups breadcrumbs
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2-1 cup dried currants
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 cup sugar
• heavy cream, enough (~1/2 cup)
• butter for cloth
• cheesecloth
• pudding mold or bowl

Boil the parsnips in a pot of water until they are very tender. Drain and add the parsnips to a bowl, then mash them to a nice even consistency. Add the breadcrumbs, egg yolks (the whites make a tasty meringue!), currants, nutmeg, and sugar. Then begin adding in just enough heavy cream to get a consistency that isn’t too soupy, but not to stiff either; aim for a batter that drops off the spoon, but isn’t runny.

Now’s the slightly tricky part: if you have a pudding mold, great! If not, a small mixing bowl should do just fine in a pinch. You’ll also need to fill a pot with just enough water to come almost up to the top of the mold; bring the water to a boil while you prepare the pudding. Spread out a piece of cheesecloth or linen (big enough to contain the pudding in the mold/bowl) on your counter and spread it generously with butter. Lay this cloth in the mold/bowl and transfer the pudding into it. Lightly fold over the ends of the cloth and place a small plate on top, pressing down to compact the pudding. Set the prepared pudding into the pot of boiling water, put the lid on, and boil for about 2 hours, checking every now and then to see if the water needs to be topped up.

When the pudding is done, remove from the pot and let cool for at least 15 minutes before unwrapping. Turn over onto a platter to serve either warm or cold.

Many of you have been asking for inspiration for your S7 feasts, so I thought I’d put together this little idea list. One of my favorite “themes” for a meal we did was one where we “traveled” the Kingsroad, sampling dishes as we went. This was pretty early on in the days of the blog, but it was a fun and different way to build a menu. These are fairly straightforward routes along the main North-South Kingsroad, but feel free to alter the route to include other places, such as the Iron Islands.

So, without further ado, let’s get going! And be sure to throw any extra suggestions into the ring, as well!

Note: italicized dishes are in the GoT cookbook, A Feast of Ice and Fire

The Dorne to Castle Black Menu

Perhaps you’ve heard of rebellion brewing in the North, and want to explore possible allies. Or maybe, like Tyrion, you just want to see the Wall and ah… look out over the end of the world. This listing takes you from the heat of Dorne right up to the freezing expanse of the far North.

Appetizers – Dorne

Olives, grapes, and stuffed grape leaves –

Soup/Salad – King’s Landing

Sansa Salad – Chestnut Soup – Ginger Soup with Autumn Greens

Bowls of Brown

A quick Tipple and Nibble – Riverlands

Cider – Wine – Ale

Syllabubs –

Hard Sausage and Oatcakes –

Main – Winterfell

Honeyed Chicken – Lord Manderly’s Pie –

Roasted Aurochs – Rack of Lamb

Dessert – Castle Black

Shortbread with Honey Caramel – Maple Snow Candy – Roasted Chestnuts

Roasted Quince/Apple – Apples with Goat Cheese

Buns on the Wall – Berries in Sweet Cream

–

The Castle Black to Dorne Menu

Have you been sent south to recruit new brothers for the Night’s Watch? Or perhaps your Northern lord has sent you to explore whether there is any truth to rumors of a foreign queen landing on Westeros’ shores.

Appetizers – Castle Black and Winterfell

Fried Black Pudding – Deviled Eggs – Mini Toasts with Haggis – Smoked Oysters

Pemmican – Cod Cakes – Sansa Salad – Beef and Barley Stew

Oatcakes – Cold Fruit Soup

 Soup/Salad – Riverlands

Seafood Stew – Leek Soup – Salad of Beans, Onions, and Beets

Sister’s Stew

Main – King’s Landing

Game Hens with Gravy – Skewers of Meat and Veg – Boiled Beef

Trout wrapped in Bacon – Stewed Rabbit

Dessert – Dorne

Sherbet – Creamcakes – Helva – Stuffed Dates in Honey – Walnut Pie –

–

The Hedge Knight Menu

Or maybe with all the turmoil across the seven kingdoms, you feel you would just be better off on the road, living off the land and occasionally stopping in an Inn when you’ve enough coin.

Appetizers

Smoked Oysters –

Fiddleheads –

Oatcakes –

Soup/Salad

Seafood Stew – Foraged Salad –

Main

 – Roasted Rabbit – Potted Hare or Potted Salmon –

Trout in Bacon

Dessert

Candied Ginger – Roasted Chestnuts

It’s February, and you know what that means?

GARDENING!!

Well, sort of. I mean, not really. At all. The backyard is basically a giant ice patch, and there’s not a hint of anything green as far as the eye can see.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to love in February: Valentine’s Day (which was always a family holiday when I was growing up, second only to Christmas), my birthday (Balloons! CAKE!!), ordering new honeybees (bzzzzzz) and the first hints of spring as the days lengthen.

But it’s often cold, murky, grey, and more than a little gloomy. So naturally I’ve been buoying my spirits by planning gardening projects for warmer months. After all, I get to start some seedlings in about a month, and they’ll need somewhere to go! I’ll also be shoring up the herb garden, moving things around and working on a more permanent fence and path, now that I know I like it where the garden is. But THAT’s another post, for another day. ;)

I recently rediscovered the notes I took last summer during a class on medieval cloister gardens (I’ll add the link when I find that, too). It was a really inspiring lecture, replete with a vivid slideshow and heaps of Latin names for historical plantings. Obviously, I was smitten. Even now, just thinking about it, I get a little glow of that late July warmth. Pair that with my trip earlier to the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, and I’ve been obsessively Pinning ever since…

So I pulled out some notebooks and started sketching. We’ve got a few good sections of relatively flat space around the house, and one, just up from the garage, is about 20’x30′. Can we say AMBITIOUS? But the more I’ve worked on this, the more I’m really keen to give it a go.

Here are the top three sketches:

The leftmost sketch is one I did last year, and really liked, until I did the other two earlier this week. I envision it being laid out like a cloister garden, with a heavy dash of potager-style planting. Basically, it’ll be a very pretty vegetable garden, with flowers and companion plantings scattered throughout. It will definitely take me several years to really get the thing sorted, but I’m guessing I can do the basic layout and at least the outside borders this year. The different sketches play with tiers of different heights, but I’m not sure how complicated I want to get with that.

Here are the absolutes:

• the paths are roughly 2′ wide. That might get fudged a little one way or the other, but I won’t know until I lay everything out.
• The back wall of the garden, at the tops of the sketches, will be a tall grape trellis. My father-in-law is giving me his vines, so I need a place to put them. There will be banks of hyssop and lavender below those, and possibly a pair of turf benches flanking the gateway out to the field.
• The front wall, at the bottom of the sketches, will be predominantly cutting flowers. That side of the garden faces the road, and I’d love for the 4-7 cars that drive by every day to see something beautiful.
• The front gate will have an arbor over it, with either climbing roses, or runner beans, or something. Maybe topped with bird houses. We’ll see.
• A quince tree in the center of the garden. I’m pretty sure I can get a hardy variety that will grow here, and I’d love to not have to catch them during the single week a year they’re available in stores.
• places for ALL the raspberries, because I love them so. Also, places for strawberries, asparagus, and corn, because I either have those already outgrowing their current spaces, or will definitely plant them again.

So, WHICH DO YOU LIKE BEST?!

Help me interwebs, you’re my only hope…

Now that we’ve seen a bit of the High Sparrow in season 5, it got me thinking about the Faith of the Seven, especially in King’s Landing. In our own Middle Ages, the calendar was rife with feast days, saint’s days, and all manner of other religious holidays. The more I think about it, the more I bet something similar could be said of Westeros.

First off, the seven facets of the one are:

• Maiden – innocence and chastity
• Mother – fertility, compassion, mercy
• Warrior – strength, victory, courage
• Father – justice, protection
• Smith – fortitude, help with tasks
• Crone – wisdom, guidance
• Stranger – outcasts, death

From that, I could easily extrapolate a few things, such as the Mother’s festival day would likely be in the fall, to coincide with the harvest. Maiden’s Day, as we see in Feast for Crows, is a day when only maidens may enter the septs, to sing songs and drape flower garlands at the feet of the Maiden’s statue- I can see some similarities to May Day, there.

While the Stranger isn’t formally worshiped or sung to, I sense that the observances around him would be more a preventative measure, such as our lighting pumpkin lanterns to scare away ghouls on Halloween. Perhaps a few specially baked cakes, left out on the doorstep, to appease wandering spirits? Sugar skulls akin to those used for the Day of the Dead celebrations?

So how about it? Can you think of any festival foods that you’ve enjoyed that could dovetail in with the deities in Westeros? One thing that I love about the fanbase for Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire is that it’s so international. The stories resonate with people from all over the world, who bring to it their own interpretations and traditions. As such, I’d love to hear what regional specialties you enjoy on festival days; If we collect enough ideas, I will be able to devote several posts to making recipes for those special feast days!

Thoughts:

So, a few of you might have seen my Twitter post back in the winter, when I finally found a capon for sale at the local grocery store, of all places. I think I actually frightened a store clerk when I gave a little shriek-gasp of delight and disbelief before hurrying around to clutch the bird protectively; there were approximately 23 other capons for sale in the same case, but having searched high and low for one, no way was I letting anyone take MY capon.

And it’s been in the freezer ever since. Let me make something clear: I don’t have one of those amazing huge modern fridges. Mine came with the house, and while it’s perfectly adequate, it’s not exactly spacious. So a giant capon taking up valuable tater-tot room in the freezer was something that finally had to change.

For those who don’t know, a capon is essentially a gelded rooster. A eunuch, as it were, which accounts for both its size and tasty plumpness. They were all the rage in historical cooking, but have mostly fallen out of fashion nowadays, with the exception of Christmas dinners in some families. We will now be taking up that tradition, as well!

This was my first time actually cooking a capon, but given everything else that has passed through my kitchen, I wasn’t too worried. Once again, the historical recipe did not disappoint. The meat was lightly flavored from the stuffing (possibly too lightly, so take that into account if you try your hand at this recipe!), rich with juices and steaming. With the exception of the delicious dark meat, I didn’t find that the capon tasted too terribly different from a well-roasted chicken, but the overall tenderness of the meat made every bite just a little special. The bird was considerably larger than your average roasting chicken, which made it ideal for feeding about 6 people that night at The Inn. Plus, it made a delicious broth the next day, which will turn up in another post soon!

Now, just to deal with those frozen camel patties…

Recipe for Roast Capon

To rost capon or gose tak and drawe his leuer and his guttes at the vent and his grece at the gorge and tak the leef of grece parsly ysope rosmarye and ij lengs of saige and put to the grece and hew it smale and hew yolks of eggs cromed raissins of corans good poudurs saffron and salt melled to gedure and fers the capon there withe and broche hym and let hym be stanche at the vent and at the gorge that the stuffur go not out and rost hym long with a soking fyere and kep the grece that fallithe to baist hym and kepe hym moist till ye serue hym and sauce hym with wyne and guingere as capons be. -A Noble Boke off Cookry, 15th c. 

Cook’s note: I served this, as suggested, with a ginger-wine sauce. That recipe, along with the Stewed Capon, are forthcoming. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 8-10 lb. capon, giblets removed
• 3-4 large shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tsp. each rosemary, hyssop, parsley, and sage
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup dried currants
• pinch of salt
• pinch of saffron (expensive, and optional)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash and pat dry the capon, then combine all remaining ingredients except the oil, and stuff the bird with them. spread the oil over the bird, and sprinkle with salt.

Periodically basting as you go, roast for 1.5-2 hours, depending on the size of your bird, until the juices run clear. Remove to a serving dish and let sit for several minutes. If you would like to make a gravy at this point, you can move the pan to the stovetop over medium heat and gradually whisk in a little flour until you have a delicious thick sauce.

Now that the fifth season of Game of Thrones is in full swing, it’s time for a couple of giveaways! This week, I’m giving away TWO of the Funko POP! Drogon Figures. And following in the spirit of HBO’s #CatchDrogon movement, all you have to do is comment below, and say what recipe you would use to lure the little (alright, not so little anymore…) dragon in to land. The drawing will be random, so it can be any food, not just a Westerosi dish -playing to the judge won’t help! ;)

The names will be chosen on the morning of Saturday, May 2nd, at 10am EST. Good luck!

Thoughts:

A number of quirky Lenten dietary choices were made this year by members of this household, and that meant I had to go searching for new recipes to accommodate those restrictions. Thankfully, medieval cookbooks were all about recipes for Lent, and that’s where I found this beauty. It’s in the Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi, which you ought to know by now is one of my favorite historical cookbooks.

The recipe is really quite quick and easy to prepare, especially by medieval standards. I made the fully Lenten version, which is entirely vegan, but I suspect it would also be just delicious with a bit of sausage added in. As it is, it’s still delightfully flavorful and unique. The saffron turns the broth a brilliant yellow that contrasts nicely with the dark skin of the eggplant. The quirky collection of spices and herbs combine for a flavor mix unlike anything I’ve tasted, even in the realm of historical cooking. In short, it’s delicious.

 Where in Westeros?

Eggplants in medieval times had worked their way over to the Mediterranean from Asia. They were a different vegetable than our modern ones, smaller all around, but slightly larger in Italy, by all accounts. As such, I’d peg this as a dish from Essos, or even possibly the Reach, through Dorne.

Recipe for Stuffed Eggplants

Cook’s Note: The recipe is as I made it, for a Lenten fast day. You can also add an egg and about 1/4 cup grated parmesan for some extra body and flavor.

Ingredients:

• 4 small eggplants (under 8″long)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup each walnuts and almonds, roughly chopped
• pinch each salt, pepper, ground cinnamon and cloves
• 1 tsp. mixed herbs (as with Italian seasoning)
• 1 cup rough breadcrumbs
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 Tbs. wine vinegar

Broth:

• water
• pinch saffron
• a good pinch each of salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and mixed spices, as above
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 Tbs. wine vinegar

Take your eggplants and chop the tops from them as close to the stem as you can. Taking a melon baller (or a spoon, but that’s more difficult), carefully scoop out the insides of each eggplant, saving the excess eggplant. Place the insides of the eggplants in a food processor along with the garlic, nuts, spices, herbs, and breadcrumbs. Pulse a few times, then add the olive oil and vinegar, and pulse a few more.

Using a small spoon, gently divide this mixture evenly among the four eggplants, pressing it into them until it is all used up. Place the filled eggplants in a small saucepan with tallish sides, and fill 2/3 up with water. Add the above ingredients for the broth.

Cover the pot and simmer over medium-high heat for 15-20 minutes, or until the eggplants are tender. To serve, place each eggplant on a wide bowl, and carefully cut in half. Pour a bit of the broth from the pot over, and serve up!

So, I saw these quinces in the store about a month back, and was very excited. Quinces were very popular in historical cooking, and I thought to myself, “Great! I can make all sorts of things!” Starting with quince paste, because it goes well with cheese, and I happen to love me some cheese.

As with many experimental recipes, the first time didn’t quite work out as I would have wished. So I thought, “No biggie. I’ll just get more quinces.” And the next time I went to the store, I looked. And the time after that, I looked. And looked, and looked. Nary a quince to be found, I’m afraid.

As a result, this recipe is a little more rustic than I usually like to publish, but on the off chance that you can still find quinces where you are, huzzah! I’ve since learned that one ought to boil the peels along with the fruit (in a cheesecloth bag) for their super pectin goodness, so perhaps that is also where I misstepped.

In any case, despite my moderate textural issues, whereby my paste was more of a spread, it was still delicious enough to eat with a spoon. Which I did, and it was great. Although quinces somewhat resemble very hard apples, their fruity flavor is quite unlike like any other fruit. Well worth another go, if only I could find more! ;)

Quince Paste Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 quinces, peeled, seeded, and chopped (peels saved)
• 2 cups raw sugar (such as demerara, or turbinado)

Tie the quince peels into a piece of cheese cloth and put in a medium pot along with the quince fruit. Cover with water, and bring to just under a boil. Allow the mixture to simmer for around 40 minutes, then remove from heat. Take the peels out and discard. Press the fruit through a sieve, then pour back into the saucepan, along with the sugar. Let this mixture simmer for around an hour and a half, or until it has turned a pretty dark red color, and thickened.

Now, at this point, you essentially have quince paste. I tried to really dry mine out in a low oven for several hours, but to no avail. Instead, I spooned it into jars, and enjoyed as-was!

For extra perusal, here are several historical recipes for quince paste, and related quincy dishes:

This is an excerpt from Libro di cucina / Libro per cuoco
(Italy, 14th/15th c. – Louise Smithson, trans.)

CXXXIII – To make marmalade of quinces good and fantastic. Take the quinces and peel and put to boil in lots of water and cook until they are come down; take a basin holed or the grater, and grate very fine that you take all that is good, and guard that the seeds don’t go into the grated quince. Save for 3 days in the air this grated mix before you put in the the honey, then for each pound of grated quinces you want to have 3 pounds of honey. Bring to a good boil together when the honeyis cooked add spices fine and if you want for the mixture, put to boil a little of sugar, for 3 pounds of quince marmalade you want to have 6 ounces of sugar in change of spices. When it is cooked tip it onto a table bathed with fresh water, and make it in the way of sheets of pasta large and just less than half a finger thick, and make in the way of wafers and put in a “albarello” (kitchen salt pot, refers to a specific storage vessel) with spices and with laurel: that it does not go bad you must boil two hours until it is cooked always stirring. This quince marmalade you want to cook always well mixed with a flat wooden stirrer, etc.

Red Quince Paste
To make the paste of a fine red, bake the quinces in the oven a long while, then peel and sift them in a strong hair-sieve; dry the marmalade over a slow fire a little while, to about half the consistency of a paste then to redden it the more, keep it a good while on a slow ashes-fire, stirring some time; and to add to this redness, put a little steeped cochineal, and reduce it on a flow fire, to a thick paste; that is, when it loosens from the Pan; put as much sugar as marmalade, or paste, soak it a little while on the fire and let it cool, just enough to work it well with the hands, and finish directly as usual.
From Borella, The Court and Country Confectioner (London: 1770)

 Thoughts:

During the colonial period in America, many early cookbooks made references to “indian” dishes, or “indian meal”. This simply meant dishes that included cornmeal, which was a primary staple food for many native tribes, and a somewhat novel ingredient to the European colonists.

Indian Pudding was essentially the New England counterpart to traditional English steamed puddings. The original puddings called for ingredients such as ground almonds, heavy cream, sugar, rosewater, and so on. The colonial pudding is more modest, making use of what ingredients were more readily available, such as cornmeal and molasses.

The consistency of this pudding, drawn from a 1796 recipe, is more firm than many modern versions of the same dish. I actually like this firmness, as it provides a nice counterpart to the lighter, softer whipped cream. The flavor is very similar to a gingerbread, and I would not have been able to guess that cornmeal was the primary dry ingredient. It’s rich, filling, and flavorful, and can be kept for days- a serious boon around holidays…

Indian Pudding Recipe

Ingredient:

• 3 pints scalded milk
• 1 pint meal
• 2 eggs
• 4 oz. butter
• 1/2 cup sugar or molasses
• 1 tsp. each ground cinnamon and ginger
• heavy cream (optional)

Combine the butter with the warm milk, stirring until it has melted in. Allow to cool, then mix with remaining ingredients in a large bowl. If you have one, pour this mixture into a pudding mold, and place the lid on. If you don’t have a pudding mold, you can use a bowl just large enough to hold the batter. Place a lid of aluminium foil on top. Set the pudding mold into a water bath that comes most of the way up the sides. Bake for two hours at 25oF. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.

If you are making this for a holiday, go ahead and make it the day before. Refrigerate, then either allow to come to room temperature, or gently reheat before serving. Scoop into bowls, and pour a little cream over top, or serve with a dollop of slightly sweetened whipped cream. It’s also tasty with vanilla ice cream on the side.