Mereneese Lamb with salad of raisins and carrots, hot flaky bread

“That night her handmaids brought her lamb, with a salad of raisins and carrots soaked in wine, and a hot flaky bread dripping with honey. She could eat none of it. Did Rhaegar ever grow so weary? she wondered. Did Aegon, after his conquest?” -A Storm of Swords

Roman Lamb and Carrots

Thoughts:

This was a delicious dish. Hands down one of our favorites so far. The sweetness of the sauces suited carrots, raisins, and lamb alike, while drawing out their natural flavors. We served our with Naan bread, warmed in the oven, and iced milk sweetened with honey.

Make it at Home!

Got Mead?

Our thoughts:

First of all, we LOVE mead. Like, would keep our own bees so we could make our own mead kind-of-love.

Mead comes in a wider variety than you might expect. All are honey-based, but that’s usually where the similarities end. Some meads are sweet and thick, like after dinner liquors; others are drier and spicier. Some meads, although still honey based, acquire their primary flavors from fermented fruits, or the casks in which they are aged. As such, you can find meads flavored with apples, pears, peaches, ginger root, whiskey casks, or rum casks.

Mead can be served any time of day, on its own, or with a meal. Most meads are best served at room temperature, but some of the sweeter, lighter varieties are also nice slightly chilled.

Our Recommendations:

Lurgashall English Mead is an excellent introduction to the beverage. It has a simple sweet honey flavor that is full bodied and easy to enjoy. Lurgashall’s other meads are also very good and easy to for a beginner. Typically, they cost around $21 a bottle in the US, and 8-10 pounds in the UK.

One of our personal favorites is Lurgashall Tower of London, which is aged in scotch barrels. The taste starts with spiced honey, has a hint of the best scotch flavors, then finishes with straight honey.

If you are feeling more adventurous consider anything by Dansk, especially their Viking Blood. This is a rich, serious, hearty mead that scotch drinkers will like. Another favorite is The GI. Dansk Mjod, which has a lovely ginger flavor. These are high quality and cost around $25.

A word to the wise where fruity meads are concerned: Some, especially the cheap ones, are reminiscent of cough syrup — too rich, and too sweet. The Redstone brand is fairly safe, although you are probably safest getting a straight honey mead that almost everyone will love. That said, I recently had a Honey Garden blueberry mead that was out of this world. Also, B. Nektar’s Wildberry mead is what humans taste like to vampires: intoxicatingly delicious.

Iqhilika is a South African mead that comes in bizarre flavors, such as coffee and fig. Again, interesting to try, but probably too big a risk for newcomers to the world of mead.

Overall, I highly recommend the Viking Blood, the Lurgashall, and the Honey Garden/B. Nektar if you are opting for something fruitier.

AVOID Chaucer’s mead; it’s horrible. Shame, because it has a great name and a pretty label. Unfortunately, Chaucer’s is the mead your local liquor store is most likely to carry. Don’t buy it, even if it is your only option.

Beef and Bacon Pies

“Part of him wanted nothing so much as to hear Bran laugh again, to sup on one of Gage’s beef-and-bacon pies, to listen to Old Nan tell her tales of the children of the forest and Florian the Fool.” -A Game of Thrones

Medieval Beef-and-Bacon Pie

Thoughts:

Both of these pies are delicious, but they are very different; the medieval pie is sweet, the modern is savory.

The sweetness of the medieval pie comes from added fruit and honey. As the pie bakes, the fruit melts, giving a lovely counter-taste to the tart vinegar and salty bacon. The fruit flavor fades into the background and what remains is a sweet, rich meat pie with an easy medley of flavors.

The savory modern pie was more what we imagined when we read about beef-and-bacon pies of Winterfell. For all that this is a relatively dense dish, the flavors are fairly light. The beef, bacon, onions, and herbs are all distinguishable, but don’t linger overlong on the palate.

Bottom line? Medieval is sweet, modern is savory. Make both, and tell us what you think! *The Modern recipe is now exclusively in the GoT Cookbook.

Medieval Beef-and-Bacon Pie

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

To make Pyes. Pyes of mutton or beif must be fyne mynced & seasoned with pepper and salte and a lytel saffron to colour it, suet or marrow a good quantitie, a lytell vynegre, pruynes, great reasons, and dates, take the fattest of the broath of powdred beefe. – A Propre new booke of Cokery, 1545

Our changes: We added bacon. Delicious, thick cut bacon, in place of the marrow. We winged the proportions a little on the dried fruit based on what was left in our pantry.

Ingredients:

Pastry dough enough for 9″ pie pan, top and bottom (Recipe)
1 ½ lbs. stew beef cut into small pieces
½ cup bacon, diced or cut small
½ tsp. pepper (or to taste)
½ tsp. salt (or to taste)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup prunes, sliced
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup dates, chopped
~1 cups beef broth
2-3 Tbs. flour

On the stovetop, cook the diced bacon until the fat runs from it; drain off the fat. To the bacon pan, add the beef, spices, vinegar & the fruit. Add enough broth to thoroughly wet the mixture – the final consistency should be runny.

Throw in the flour and cook on low heat until the juices form a sort of gravy.

Let cool. Line a 9-inch pie pan with and fill with the meat mixture. Add a pastry lid or leave open-faced. Bake at 375º F until filling is bubbling and the pastry cooked, approx. 40 minutes.

NB: The cookbook contains a better, more delicious, perfected modern pie recipe, complete with a lattice-woven bacon top.

Breakfast at Winterfell

“There was much more than she’d asked for: hot bread, butter and honey and blackberry preserves, a rasher of bacon and a soft-boiled egg, a wedge of cheese, a pot of mint tea. And with came Maester Luwin.” -A Game of Thrones

Breakfast at Winterfell

Thoughts:

The continental elegance of the soft boiled egg was a wonderful counterpart to the salty heartiness of the bacon. Likewise, the sweetness of the preserves and honey paired well with the other elements of the meal. It was an interesting textural experience, too. The almost creaminess of the perfectly done soft-boiled egg, the crispiness of the bacon, and the pop of berry seeds all added something to the meal. While it is a fairly hefty meal, the mint tea lightens it more than one would expect, and is the perfect finish to what might be the perfect breakfast.

Bottom line? It’s cold in The North, but this is a great breakfast for any time of year, anywhere.

Make it at Home

Lemoncakes, part 2

Elizabethan Lemoncakes, version 1

*UPDATE: If you dip the tops of the Elizabethan cakes in Lemon Curd, they become exquisitely delicious. I can’t keep them in the house for more than a few hours!*

Thoughts:

First of all, I’d like to thank the author over at Phantasmagorical Musings for her wonderful breakdown of the essential qualities of a Game of Thrones lemon cake. With such clear, concise standards, I were inspired to give the lemon cakes another go.

Round 2 of Battle Lemon Cakes was highly successful. Both the modern and period recipes yielded baked goods that would make top quality additions to any afternoon tea, whether in London, or King’s Landing. For a truly Game-of-Thronsian culinary experience, however, the period recipe can’t be beat.

The period recipe is Elizabethan; it results in deliciously dense lemon poppy-seed cakes with sweet lemony glaze. Although these cakes have a heavier consistency than the modern ones, they go down easily. Too easily. Don’t be shy with the lemon glaze, however, since most of the lemon flavor seems to bake out of the cakes.

The modern recipe, courtesy of Martha Stewart, produces soft sweet cakes with a consistency between pound cake and corn muffins. Mine puffed up a little more than they ought to have, so we might decrease the leavening just a bit next time.

Bottom Line: Tea drinker? Make both. Planing a premier party? The Elizabethan lemon cakes are a must.

Am I happy? Yes. Are they perfect? So very nearly. But I believed the third time would be the charm, and I was right. The winningest two lemoncake recipes are in the cookbook!

Elizabethan Lemon Cakes II

This is an original recipe, based on cake receipts from A.W.’s Book of Cookrye (1591) and The English Huswife by Gervase Markham, 1615. A round cake such as this is described in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, where it is compared to the shape of the medieval round shield, the Buckler.

Our changes: The original recipe didn’t call for lemon, which I added in. It also didn’t specify a type of seed, so I opted for the classic pairing of lemon and poppyseed. Makes ~9 lemoncakes.

Ingredients:

3 Tbs. warm ale
2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1/2 stick unsalted butter (4 Tbs.)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbs. poppy seeds
juice and zest of 1 lemon
~2 cups unbleached flour
1/8 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in warm ale, along with 1Tbs. of the flour mixture. Your yeast should bubble up after a few minutes, indicating that the yeast is active.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and seeds, followed by the lemon zest and juice. Gently add the yeast to this mixture, then begin to fold in the flour and salt. Use as much flour as is needed to make a smooth, thick batter. Grease your cupcake pan, and fill the cups 2/3 full. Bake in middle of oven at 350° F for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly before turning onto a cake rack.

For an extra lemony kick, try topping your cakes with lemon curd!

Modern Lemon Cakes II

Compliments of kitchen maven Martha Stewart, but I wasn’t that big a fan of the finished cakes. :)

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lowest position, and grease your cupcake pans.
In a small bowl (or liquid measuring cup), combine buttermilk with lemon zest and juice. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour; beat just until smooth (do not overmix).
Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, ~15 minutes (tent with foil if browning too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn out cakes onto a rack; cool completely before glazing.

Goat with Sweetgrass, Firepods, and Honey

Medieval Goat

“She brought back a haunch of goat and a basket of fruits and vegetables. Jhiqui roasted the meat with sweetgrass and firepods, basting it with honey as it cooked…” -A Storm of Swords

Modern Goat

Thoughts:

The argument was fierce over which of these dishes was better. Although different, both were very good. The metal skewers allowed the meat to cook perfectly so it was very tender, leaving all judgment hanging on the marinade.

The medieval goat dish was succulent and flavorful. The garlic, salt, and pepper are a tried and true combination, and one that in this case really complimented the slight gaminess of the goat. While it was tasty, it struck several of us as generically medieval (if such a thing is even possible). This dish seemed more appropriate to the clansmen in the Mountains of the Moon than the nomadic Dothraki.

In contrast, the modern dish made me feel like a princess on the plains of Vaes Dothrak. I could practically smell the sweat of horses and feel the wind blowing through grass tents. This dish had an exotic feel that was lacking in the medieval version, and that, for me, made the difference. The complexity of the ingredients, and the interplay of sweet, tart, savory and spicy is lovely, and I found myself tempted to lick the plate at the end of the meal.

Bottom line? Medieval if you want medieval, Modern if you want Dothraki.

Get the Recipes!

Honeyed Chicken

“‘Hungry again?’ he asked. There was still half a honeyed chicken in the center of the table. Jon reached out to tear off a leg, then had a better idea. He knifed the bird whole and let the carcass slide to the floor between his legs. Ghost ripped into it in savage silence.” -A Game of Thrones

Thoughts:

Yum. The sauce reduces down to a thick, syrupy consistency, which melts ever so slightly when drizzled over the hot chicken. The raisins soak up the sauce, and become absolutely delicious little morsels. Combine a bite of the chicken, dripping with the juice from the plate, with a plump raisin, and you’re golden.

Bottom line? Omnomnom!

Medieval Roast Chicken Recipe

This was a recipe that gave us some difficulty; Absurd, when it seems so straightforward. However, there appear to be no recipes for “honeyed chicken” from a surviving period cookbook. At last, we found a recipe that we could work with. Thank you Ancient Romans! Now, you say that ancient Rome is not the Middle Ages, and you are correct. However, we use what we can. And really, it’s honeyed chicken. Are you really going to hold that against us?

Our changes: Since this dish is mentioned in The North, we took out a few things that were more Roman than Stark. We started with Apicius’ recipe for Chicken in Honey and Dill Glaze (Apicius, 6.8.2). Instead of white wine vinegar, we substituted apple cider vinegar, and added raisins, assuming that raisins are easier to come by in The North than are grapes. We eliminated the dill and date syrup for the same reason. Also, absolutely no fish sauce with our chicken. This left us with ingredients as follows:

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken for roasting
olive oil/butter (~1 Tbs)
salt

Sauce:

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup honey
Dash of mint, dried or fresh (abt. 1 tsp.)
Small handful of raisins
~1 Tbs. butter

Rub the chicken down with olive oil/butter and salt. This makes the skin crispy and delicious. Cook in an oven at 450 degrees F for approximately an hour, or until the juices run clear, and the thick meat of the breast is no longer pink.

While your chicken is roasting away in the oven, combine all ingredients in saucepan and allow to simmer until the raisins plump and the sauce reduces slightly. Remove from heat, and when the chicken is done, spread the sauce and raisins over the bird.

Enjoy!

Lemon Cakes

Medieval Lemon Cakes

“Later came sweetbreads and pigeon pie and baked apples fragrant with cinnamon and lemon cakes frosted in sugar, but by then Sansa was so stuffed that she could not manage more than two little lemon cakes, as much as she loved them. “

Modern Lemon Cakes

Our thoughts:

The modern recipe, while good, could use a little improvement. We’d lessen the leavening to get a slightly denser cake. As it stands, the cake is neither light enough for an airy cake, nor dense enough for something like a pound cake. There are definitely lemon cupcakes that have a clearer sense of their own identity than these little cakelettes.

As for the medieval recipe, it tastes good, but lacks that proper lemon kick. The glaze helps, but it is more a cookie with lemon frosting than a proper lemon cake. Unsatisfactory, when one desires a cake!

Bottom line? One too ambiguous, the other too cookie-like. Both have their ups, and both definitely have their downs. But what’s that you say? Perhaps we are too demanding where Lemon Cakes are concerned?

The hunt for the ideal Lemon Cake shall continue…

**NOTE! If you’re having trouble with the Elizabethan Lemoncakes from the cookbook, be advised that a little water or lemon juice is recommended to bring together an especially dry dough.**

Medieval Lemon Cake Recipe

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

Take fine flowre and good Damaske water you must have no other liquor but that, then take sweet butter, two or three yolkes of egges and a good quantity of Suger, and a fewe cloues, and mace, as your Cookes mouth shall serue him, and a lyttle saffron, and a little Gods good about a sponfull if you put in too much they shall arise, cutte them in squares lyke vnto trenchers, and pricke them well, and let your ouen be well swept and lay them vppon papers and so set them into the ouen. Do not burne them if they be three or foure dayes olde they bee the better.

– Dawson, Thomas. The good huswifes Iewell. London: Edward White, 1596.

Our Changes: To make these lemony cakes, we added lemon zest to the dough, and basted the finished cookies in a lemon-honey sauce. We also took out the rosewater to eliminated possible flavor rivalry.

Ingredients:

3 Tbs. butter, softened
1/4 heaping cup sugar
3 egg yolks
zest from one lemon
1/2 tsp. hartshorn (or baking soda), dissolved in 1 tsp. of hot water
1/4 tsp. each salt, cloves and mace
pinch saffron
1 1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
juice from one lemon
1 tbs honey

Cream together the butter & sugar until smooth; beat in the egg yolks. Blend in the dissolved hartshorn or baking soda, then the zest, salt & spices. Stir in the flour and work until a ball of dough is formed. Knead gently until smooth, working in more flour if necessary.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to a 1/4 ” thickness. With a floured butter knife, cut the dough into small squares or rectangles. Make decorative vent holes on the cakes by pricking with a fork, then place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake in a preheated 300° F oven for 14-15 minutes until just done. Be sure that they do not brown on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling, mix the lemon juice and honey together in a pan on the stove, over low heat. Let cool slightly before brushing onto cakes, and store in an air-tight container.

Cook’s Notes: Fun fact! Hartshorn, an early predecessor of baking soda, was literally made from reindeer antlers, or “hart’s horns”. It can still be purchased today, and gives baked goods an extra crispness.

Modern Lemon Cake Recipe

1-3/4 sticks (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
Grated zest of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
3 cups cake flour, sifted after measuring
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons whole milk
Lemon Glaze
Juice of 3 to 4 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons coarse or large-grain granulated sugar, for topping

Topping:

2 lemons, sliced thinly
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a couple of cupcake pans.

Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer and mix at medium speed until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs to the butter mixture and mix them at medium speed for 1 minute. Add the lemon zest.

Measure out the cake flour and sift into a separate bowl. Add the baking powder and salt and stir the ingredients just to blend them. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix them at low speed for about 1 minute or until the flour is completely incorporated. Add the lemon juice and 1 cup plus 1-1/2 tablespoons of milk. Mix them at low speed until they are completely incorporated. Add the rest of the ingredients, alternating between dry and wet, and mix at low speed for until it is completely incorporated.

Scrape the batter into the loaf pans, dividing it evenly and smoothing the surfaces with a spatula. Bake the cakes for ~15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.

While the cakes are baking, make the candied lemons: cook the water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until the mixture comes to a simmer. Add in the sliced lemons and continue to simmer until the lemons are semi-translucent. Fish out the lemons, and reserve the sugar mixture (which now tastes like lemons!). Arrange the lemon slices on top of your mini cakes, and for an added kick, let the cakes sit in the warm sugar mixture to soak up some of the juice.

Enjoy!

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