I have been trying to find evidence for something like maultaschen, a southern German ravioli, as part of my ongoing fascination with all kinds of stuffed dumplings from different cultures. More recently, the local cooks guild decided that the theme for next year’s calendar is to be pies. That started me off on a search of pie recipes outside the usual corpus of French, English and Italian.
I have had some success, with interesting German possibilities, a Portuguese empanada, and several samosas from Indian and Iraqi sources. I’ll write about them later, as I try to make them work.
Quite by accident, as I was looking for pie recipes, I came across this, from The Kitchen, Food and Cooking in Reformation Germany, by Volker Bach (p. 153). The recipe comes from Sabrina Welserin #119, from her cookbook written in the mid 16th C. Volker says it is his earliest evidence for a German ravioli now known as maultaschen.
If you wish to make boiled krapfen. Take chard, as much as you wish, a little sage, marjoram, and rosemary; chop it together, add grated cheese, and break eggs into it until you think it is good. Also add cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and raisins and make a dough for krapfen. Let them boil as you do hard-boiled eggs, this they are made.
My recipe:
Filling
1 bunch chard, washed and chopped into small pieces (I left put the large stems)
1/4 c raisins, rinsed and chopped small
1/4 tsp ground dried sage (I didn’t have fresh – if I did, I would triple all the fresh herb amounts)
1/4 tsp dried marjoram, ground
1/4 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg
1/4-1/2 c parmesan cheese
Heat the chart until it wilts, then remove from heat. Add the raisins, herbs and spices, and mix in the egg and cheese to taste. I started with 1/4 c, but would have preferred more. Set aside.
Dough
2 cups pasta or all purpose flour
1 egg
1/4 water, or more as needed to get a smooth, stretchy dough
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese
Mix all ingredients together to form a dough ball, then use a rolling pin to get it as thin and square as possible. You can cut the dough in half, them put a spoonful of filling at regular intervals, cover with the second piece of dough, and cut into squares. I find this risky because I never get the squares quite right (and end up with filling oozing out). Instead, I prefer to cut out all the squares, then put filling on half, cover and pinch the dough tightly to seal.
Drop the dumplings into a pot of boiling water until they float to the top. The instructions say nothing about serving with a sauce, so I simply sprinkled a little more parmesan cheese on top. They would also be good with melted butter.
These recipes are from a Portuguese-language manuscript found in the Biblioteca Nacional de Napoles. It was was most likely written around 1540-1560. The document was part of the small personal library of the Infanta D. Maria de Portugal (1538-1577), which she took with her when she married Alexandre Farnese, the 3rd Duke of Parma (Giacinto Manupella, Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1987).
Maria of Portugal, From the workshop of Antonis Mor, c. 1550
It had several recipes that looked promising for the challenge of making a pie. The first one fails, as pastel in this case doesn’t work as an empanada or hand pie; it is more of a fried dessert. With goat liver. Not making it, at least not right now.
reçeita de pastell de figados de cabrito (original)
Tomarão ho figado do cabrito cozido e emtaõ rralado muj rralo e as gemas dos ouvos douras taõbem asi rraladas. ẽtaõ deitado cravo e canela e acucare q̃ seja doce e emtaõ huã pouqua de farinha peneirada nũ prato e tomay aquelles veos do cabrito e fazeios ẽ pedacinhos e emtaõ o rrecheo metido naquelles veos fritos como beylhos Emtaõ emfarinhados na farinha e fritos na sertam e pasados p̃lo pomto do açucar alto e cubertos de canella por syma.
Receita de pastel de fígados de cabrito (modern Portuguese)
Tomarão o fígado do cabrito cozido e então ralado mui ralo, e as gemas dos ovos duras, também assim raladas. Então detiado cravo e canela e açúcar, que seja doce, e então uma pouca de farinha peneirada num prato, e tomai aqueles véus do cabrito e fazei-os em pedacinhos, e então o recheio metido naqueles véus fritos como beilhós; então enfarinhados na farinha e fritos na sertã e passados pelo ponto do açúcar alto e cobertos de canela por cima.
Goat liver fried dessert recipe (my translation)
Take the liver of the goat, cooked and then grated very thin, and hard egg yolks, also grated. Then sprinkle in cloves and cinnamon and sugar, let it be sweet, and then a little flour sifted on a plate, and take cauls from the goat and break/cut them into small pieces and fry them, and then mix the stuffing with the cauls, form them into a shape like beilhós (this is a small round fried dessert); then coat them in flour and fry in the pan and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top.
The next recipe looks more promising. It is more like a frittata, and very similar to a modern Spanish tortilla (the egg dish, not the Latin American flatbread). This would be a sweet and savoury torta.
Receita da tortora
Tomarão a carne do carneiro ou do porquo fresquuo e picalaam muito picada como pera os pastês e mais poder ser; e laualaão e deitalam em huã panela e naõ ade ter oso nenhú e deitarlheam huã pouca dagoa e deitarlheam no cozimento hú pedaço daçuquar e hú pedaço de manteiga, e agoa seja pouqua e despois de cozida deitarlheam hú pequeno de adubo de crauo e outro nenhú naõ e despois de cozido tiralaam deste caldo temdo acola huã duzia dovos com craras e gemas batidas doçes. E emtaõ tomares eses ouos e teres acola huã sartam cõ huã pouca de manteiga sobelo boralho e despois da mãteyga quente deitares ametade daquelles [daqueles] ovos q̃ temdes batidos e emtaõ porlhees a carne despois em sima daquela mall asada emtaõ poloes sebre [Sic] as brasas ate uos pareçer q̃ a mal asada he corada e porlhees hú prato em sima e ujralaes sobelo prato emtaõ detares huã pouca de manteiga na sertam e tornalaes a deitar virada asi como a galiha esbarada e meteres a rrapadoura por ela q̃ faca buracos q̃ uaõ nos ovos abaixo e a manteyga [e a mãteiga] e q̃ amde sempre desapegada e esta se lhe querem por fatias pasadas p̃lo açuquar nos pratos poemlho e por sima canela e açuquar bramquo e seu borryfo cõ agoa de froll.
Receita da torta
Tomarão a carne do carneiro ou do porco fresco e pica-la-ão muito picada, como para os pastéis e mais, se mais puder ser; e lavá-la-ão e deitá-la-ão numa panela, e não há-de ter osso nenhum, e deitá-lhe-ão pouca de água e deitar-lhe-ão no cozimento um pedaço de açúcar e hũ pedaco de manteiga, e água seja pouca; e, depois de cozida, deitar-lhe-ão um pequeno de adubo de cravo, e outro nenhum não; e depois de cozido, tirá-la-ão deste caldo, tendo acolá uma dúzia de ovos com claras e gemas batidas doces. Então tomareis esses ovos e tereis acolá uma sertã com uma pouca de manteiga sobre o borralho; e depois da manteiga quente deitareis ametade daqueles ovos que tendes batidos, e então pôr-lhe-eis a carne depois em cima daquela mal-assada. Então pô-lo-eis sobre as brasas até vos parecer que a mal-assada é corada e pôr-lhe-eis um prato em cima e virá-la-eis sobre o prato. Então deitareis uma pouca de manteiga na sertã e torná-la-eis a deitar virada, assim como a galinha esbarada, e metereis a rapadoura por ela que faça buracos que vão nos ovos abaixo e a manteiga, e que ande sempre desapegada; e esta, se lhe querem pôr fatias passadas pelo açúcar nos pratos põem-lho, e por cima canela e açúcar branco e seu borrifo com água-de-flor.
Pie recipe
Take fresh mutton or pork and chop it very finely, as for pastries and more, if more can be done; and wash it and put it in a pan, and it will not have any bones, and pour a little water on it and put a piece of sugar in the cooking and a piece of butter, and a little water; and, after it has been cooked, a small amount of clove will be poured into it, and nothing more; and after it is cooked, take it out of this broth. Then add to the broth a dozen eggs with whites and sweet beaten yolks. Then take those eggs and a frying pan with a little butter on the embers; and after the butter is hot pour in half of those eggs that you have beaten, and then put the meat on top of that and then the rest of the eggs. Then you will put it on the coals until it appears to you that the eggs are browned, and you will put a plate on top of it and turn it over on the plate. Then you will put a little butter in the frying pan and you will turn it over, just like the chicken that has been bumped (flipped over?), and you will put the brown sugar so that it makes holes that go through the eggs and down into the butter, and that doesn’t stick; and then, if you want, put slices on the plates, and on top of each slice put cinnamon and white sugar and sprinkle with flower water (possibly orange or rose water).
I chopped up a single pork chop as finely as I could, than cooked in about 1/4 cup of water with 1 tsp of butter and 1/2 tsp of white sugar. When the pork was cooked, I added about 1/4 tsp of ground cloves., then scooped out the pork on to a separate plate. I whisked five jumbo eggs with the water (medieval eggs were much smaller, so that seemed reasonable.
I melted 1 Tbsp of butter in a pan, then poured in half the egg mixture. When it was partly cooked, I added the meat, then topped it with the remaining eggs. I covered it with a lid and allowed it to cook until the top layer was no longer runny.
The trickiest part was to flip the torta onto a plate, but it worked surprisingly well. I then slid the torta back into the pan to cook the other side a bit more, and dropped on some lumps of brown sugar. The sugar didn’t really melt and create holes in the torta, but it did melt and sink in a bit.
The last step was to slice it and sprinkle a pinch of sugar and cinnamon on top, followed by a tiny bit of rose water.
Final verdict? It tasted very much the way we think of stereotypical medieval food, with meaty flavours mixed with sugar and sweet spices. It was fine, but tasted mostly like an excuse to show off wealth through use of spices. I am undecided about whether I would like it to have even more spices.
Siglindesarts's Blog 