Wintercake with ginger, pine nuts, and cherry

“He could still recall the sounds of the three bells, the way that Noom’s deep peals set his very bones to shuddering, the proud strong voice of Narrah, sweet Nyel’s silvery laughter. The taste of wintercake filled his mouth again, rich with ginger and pine nuts and bits of cherry…” -A Feast for Crows

Modern Wintercakes

Elizabethan Wintercakes

Our thoughts:

No wonder Areo Hotah remembered these wintercakes fondly. Biting into one is like tasting a memory- the memory of a childhood characterized by roaring fires in stone keeps, the smell of leather, and warm smiles from bearded men. Eating one of these cakes is like finding something you lost years ago and had forgotten how much you loved; it is like coming home.

Needless to say, we loved both of these recipes. In the modern cake, the spice of the ginger combined with the tang of the cherries is reminiscent of an English fruitcake, but is more similar in texture to the interior of a moist, high quality scone. The Elizabethan cakes are denser and heavier, like English biscuits. The overall taste is one of pleasant, homey shortbread, but when you get a bite with cherry or ginger, the flavor shifts from familiar into foreign and fantastic. Both cakes can be served any time of day, and are better at room temperature than hot. They are delicious with tea, coffee, or hot cider.

Bottom line: Have friends over for hot drinks. Sit in big leather chairs. Talk about beautiful things. Take up the mandolin. Consider the merits of index based mutual funds. Whatever you do, make these cakes.

Both recipes are available in the Cookbook.

White Beans and Bacon

Medieval White Beans and Bacon

“Then came lamprey pie, honeyed ham, buttered carrots, white beans and bacon, and roast swan stuffed with mushrooms and oysters.” (A Clash of Kings)

Modern White Beans and Bacon

Our thoughts:

Both of these recipes are absolutely wonderful. The medieval recipe really soaks up the bacon taste in the beans. Roughly chopped lardons paired with the buttery beans make for a lovely mouthful. The onions offer a bit of caramelized sweetness at the end of every bite.

The modern recipe is incredible. Curly endive is reminiscent of the broccoli rabe when wilted, balanced out phenomenally by the sweetness of the bacon and onions. We could eat this as a meal in itself! These dishes take about 10 minutes to make, and can easily be scaled up for more people.

Beans are indeed the magical fruit.

Get the Recipes!

Potted Hare

“Littlefinger turned away. ‘Boy, are you fond of potted hare?’ he asked Podrick Payne.” (II:199)

Elizabethan Potted Hare

Our Thoughts:

This quirky dish, still found in the UK, might be one of our new weekend staples. The Elizabethan version is quite basic in flavor as it contains only a few spices, but this allows the taste of the rabbit to come through. Ours didn’t hold together too well, and so ended up more a confit than a pate, which was still very good.

The modern potted hare is fantastic. The thyme gives the rabbit a wonderful savory flavor, and the reduced fat adds a creamy texture that is awesome spread over crackers. The rabbit sets very well, and should be molded into any shape for a fun, interesting presentation.

Bottom line? Well worth the effort, and tasty. We served ours as part of a ploughman’s platter, with pickle, chutney, apples, cheese, and hunky bread.

Elizabethan Potted Hare

A Hare Hashed.

Cut it out in quarters, chine it, and lay it in Clarret, mixed with three parts of water, and parboyl it, then slice the flesh in thin pieces, and lay it on your stew pan, let this be off the Body, but the legs wings, and head whole, almost cover it with some of the liquor it was boyled in, add some Butter, sliced Nutmeg, the juce of Lemon, and a little beaten Ginger, serve it upon sippets, Garnish it with Lemon, and sliced Onion.

–The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or a Guide to the Female Sex, 1696

Our changes: *NOTE* This dish is best prepared a day in advance. Potted meats are basically stewed meat and herb that are ground after stewing and packed into a terrine. So we’ve used the basic recipe for hashed hare and finished it as you would a potted recipe. Also, can we please just take a moment to appreciate the title of the original source? Hilarious.

Ingredients:

1 rabbit, cleaned
1 part red wine
3 parts water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 lemon, juiced
stick butter, clarified

Cut the rabbit into manageable pieces and place into a large pot. Add one part red wine to three parts water until the meat is covered and simmer until flesh is falling off the bone (several hours).

Strain off liquid and pull all meat from the bone, discarding the bones (what broth is left can be made into a soup — waste not!). Grind down by hand or in a food processor, adding spices, and lemon juice. Pack loosely into a terrine, add a bit of the broth, then pour over with clarified butter to completely seal and coat. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least one day before eating.

Modern Potted Hare

Ingredients:

1 rabbit, cleaned
1/3 lb. smoked slab bacon, cut into lardons
1 pigs trotter, washed
1 onion, peeled and quatered
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
5 thyme sprigs, 1 Tablespoon thyme
2 bay leaves
1 glass white wine
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cut rabbit into manageable pieces. Warm a glug of olive oil in a large sauce pan on medium-high heat, and brown rabbit pieces on all sides. Remove rabbit and brown the bacon. Put meat in a casserole dish with the trotter, veg, thyme, bay leaves, wine, and enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cover, transfer to the oven and cook for about two hours.

Place sieve over a saucepan, and strain off the liquid. Boil and reduce to a little over one cup. While boiling, pull rabbit meat off the bones and shred into a bowl. Finely chop the bacon, add it to the rabbit as well as the mustard and tablespoon of fresh thyme. Season with salt and pepper and and loosely pack into a terrine.

Pour over the reduced cooking liquid, cool, cover and refrigerate until solid.

Remove from fridge 20 minutes before serving.

Apple Crisps

Medieval Apple Fritters

“For the sweet, Lord Caswell’s servants brought down trays of pastries from his castle kitchens, cream swans and spun-sugar unicorns, lemon cakes in the shape of roses, spiced honey biscuits and blackberry tarts, apple crisps and wheels of buttery cheese.” -A Clash of Kings

Modern Apple Fritters

Thoughts:

This is my take on Martin’s “apple crisps”. I considered making something more like a conventional apple crisp recipe, with the crumbled oats and such on top, but since the excerpt from the book mentions “crisps”, plural, I wanted to find something smaller to go with the other individual desserts in the feast. And after I found the first fritter recipe, I was sold on the idea.

The batter for the medieval fritters comes out surprisingly light due, and garnered much praise from my taste-testers. The apples were perfectly crisp to begin with, but during the frying process transformed into a warm, soft texture just shy of gooey, while the outside batter stayed firm. The crunchiness of the fried batter is enhanced by the sugar coating, and the zest gives a hint of freshness to counter the oil. I swapped the ale in the original recipe for a sparkling hard cider, and I think it made all the difference. Add a little fancy presentation (medieval folks loved that), and all in all, the whole experience is Westeros-meets-State fair.

The modern fritters? I really liked the medieval version, but I’ll be honest: I ate a half batch of the modern fritters all by myself. They are less crispy than the old school recipe, and comes out with more of a dense, almost cake-like texture. The zest flavor is there, but helps compliment the apple flavors rather than interfering. I enjoyed mine immensely dipped in honey (maple syrup could be awesome, too), and could almost justify serving it as a breakfast dish, rather than a dessert.

Which one wins? They’re both great, but I’ve got to give it to the medieval version!

Medieval Apple Fritters

Take whete floure, ale, zest, safroun, & salt, & bete alle togederys as thikke as thou schuldyst make other bature in fleyssche tyme, & than take fayre applys, & kut hem in maner of fretourys, & wete hemm in the bature up on downne, & frye hem in fayre oyle, & caste hem in a dyssche, & caste sugre theron & serve forth. -Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks

Cook’s Notes: Although it’s not called for in the original recipe, I added a pinch of dry yeast to help simulate the more bready nature of old fashioned ale. This helps give the batter its lightness.

Ingredients:

1/2 bottle sparkling hard cider (6 fl. oz)
a few threads of saffron
pinch of dry yeast
pinch of salt
zest of 1/2 lemon or orange
1 cup flour
3-4 smallish apples
lard or shortening for frying
sugar for sprinkling over, the coarser the better
several whole cloves, and leaves (mint works well) to decorate

Heat the cider gently over low heat, then add the saffron. Allow to sit for about 30 minutes, which should let the saffron dissolve. Add the yeast, and stir (this should make the cider foam up impressively). Add the salt and zest, followed by the flour. Beat until the batter is light and smooth and there are no lumps of flour. You should end up with a thick, but not unworkable batter. Set aside.

Peel your apples. Using a sharp knife, take off the whole top in a slice about 1/2″ thick (this gives you a pretty top with which to top your reconstructed fritter-apples). Core the rest of the apple, then cut into 1/2″ slices. Pat dry with a paper towel.

Heat your lard or oil over medium heat; it may take some adjusting to get the temperature just right, especially as the oil is absorbed by the fritters. Dip each apple slice into the batter, then carefully lower into the hot oil. Let each slice fry for about a minute before flipping to cook the other side. The fritters are done when they are golden brown on both sides. Place on a paper towel lined plate to drain. When the slices are all cooked and cooled enough to handle, dip them in the coarse sugar.

To present, stack the fritters, small-large-small, and top them with one of the fried tops that you first sliced off the apple. You should hopefully end up with at least a couple of fritter-stacks that loosely resemble apples. If the top has no stem, place a clove in the very top, along with a leaf to add to the apple impression. Best served warm!

Modern Apple Fritters

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. lemon or orange zest
1/2 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1-2 medium-sized apple, peeled, cored and diced
Vegetable oil, for frying
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, followed by the zest and milk. Gradually add the dry ingredients and the apples until everything is incorporated. Continue to add flour just a little bit at a time until the batter is thick enough that it doesn’t drip off a spoon on its own.

Heat the vegetable oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When the oil is up to temperature, drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the pan, using another spoon or your finger to push the batter off. The fritters should flatten somewhat into thick shapes. Flip each fritter occasionally, until they are dark golden on both sides and cooked all the way through (you might have to check the first few until you get the knack). Place the cooked fritters on a plate lined with paper towel to drain.

Dust the tops of the fritters with confectioners’ sugar and serve with honey on the side.

Salad of Green Beans, Onions and Beets

“The wedding feast began with a thin leek soup, followed by a salad of green beans, onions, and beets…” (III:74)

Medieval Green Bean, Onion and Beet Salad

Modern Green Bean, Onion and Beet Salad

Our thoughts:

We are huge fans of beetroot, in fact they are one of our favorite veg, so we are thrilled to include them in these recipes! The color of these salads alone make them seem really impressive. They are both very similar in terms of presentation, but the taste varies.

The medieval salad tastes…well…medieval. The taste profile is somewhat weak, the strongest flavor coming from the semi-caramelized red onions. The beets taste as boiled beets should, and the green beans wouldn’t be anything without the salt we put on them. Balsamic vinegar is a must to make this dish passable.

We liked the modern salad far better, with the complexities of the thyme making the dish more interesting to eat. Broiling all the veg brought out the sweetness in each one, especially the beets and onions. The balsamic was less of a necessity on this dish, but it finishes the tastes fantastically.

Overall, if you have to choose, choose modern.

Get the Recipes!

Pork Pie

“‘If I could fly, I’d be back at Castle Black eating a pork pie,’ said Sam.” -A Clash of Kings

Medieval Pork Pie with Currants

Thoughts:

When we began to make these, we naively thought, “Two meat pies? We’ll surely have leftovers for days!” They were gone within hours. Like many of our modern and medieval comparisons, the resulting dishes were quite different from one another. Here’s the breakdown:

The medieval pork pie is definitely in the sweet category. The amount of eggs in it makes it fluffier than the modern version, and the currants and ginger only add to the sweetness. However, it is a sweetness that really suits the pork. We might leave out an egg or two in the future, just so the meat holds together a bit better.

The modern pork pie is dense, and is very serious about being pork. It could have used a little more salt, but when dipped in either ketchup or BBQ sauce it is rendered delicious. If you do have leftovers, this pie is wonderful for a quick, cold breakfast straight from the fridge.

Bottom line? Modern is savory, medieval is sweet, but both are delicious, and will be a hit with anyone who can get their fork into one.

**NB: The cookbook contains a tweaked version of the Medieval Pie, and a much more dynamic version of the Modern Pie.**

Medieval Pork Pie

A-nother manere. Tak fayre porke y-broylid, & grynd it smal with yolkys of Eyroun; than take Pepir, Gyngere, & grynd it smal, & melle it with-al, & a lytel hony, & floryssche thin cofyns with-ynne & with-owte, & hele hem with thin ledys, & late hem bake, & serue forth. – Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books

Our changes: Instead of boiling down our own pork roast and grinding it up, we used pre-ground pork. Much easier! ALSO! This makes a great pairing with the Cream Swans, because you will be able to use the egg yolks for this, and the whites for that. Win!

Ingredients:

1 9″ pie shell with lid
1 1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 tsp. salt
6 egg yolks
2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup currants
1/2 cup chopped dates

Brown the pork over medium heat. Let cool slightly, and mix well with all the other ingredients – The filling should be very moist. Place mixture in pie shell & add lid. Fold top dough under and pinch edges shut. Cut decorative steam holes in the top of the pastry, and bake at 375° F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a golden brown.

Modern Pork Pie

The new, updated, and totally delicious modern recipe is available in The Cookbook!

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.

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!

« Previous Page