Shakespeare's Kitchen (10 page)

Why, thou say’st true; it is a paltry cap,
A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie:
I love thee well, in that thou lik’est it not.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW,
4.3

Six Onions Simmered with Raisins

SERVES 6 TO 8

 C
ULTIVATED SINCE
prehistoric times, onions were a food staple for the common man in England. This onion dish is a wonderful accompaniment to meat, poultry, or fish and also makes a nice topping for toasted French bread as an appetizer or first course.

1 sweet Spanish onion, thinly sliced

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 small Vidalia onion, thinly sliced

2 leeks, thinly sliced (white part only)

3 scallions, diced

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup golden raisins

1 teaspoon five-color peppercorns, coarsely crushed

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup verjuice

1 tablespoon chopped chives

1.
    Sauté the onions, leeks, and scallions in the olive oil over medium-high heat for 15 minutes, or until just brown on the edges. Add the raisins, pepper, brown sugar, and salt and cook for 2 minutes, or until the onions are tender. Remove from the heat and stir in the verjuice.

2.
    Place the onion mixture in a serving bowl and sprinkle with the chives.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To Boil Onyons

Take a good many onyons & cut them in fowre quarters, set them on the fire in as much water as you thinke will boyle them tender, & when they be cleane skimmed, put in a good many smal raysins, halfe a spoonfull of grose Pepper, a good peece of Sugar, and a little Salt, and when the onyons be through boyled, beat the yolke of one egge with vergious and put into your pot, and so serve it upon soppes. If you will poch egges and laie upon them.

THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587

Lemony Sweet Potatoes with Dates

SERVES 6

 D
ATES, A PREHISTORIC
fruit of Arab origin, were imported into England in the thirteenth century. They were considered extremely healthful, especially for pregnant women, and were prized for their sweetness at a time when sugar was prohibitively expensive. In this recipe, dates are puréed to give a crunchy glaze to sweet potatoes flavored with lemon liqueur.

This recipe’s tart and sweet mix nicely complements many of the recipes in the Fowle chapter, such as
Stuffed Turkey Breast “French Fashion”
.

2 large, long sweet potatoes, baked

½ cup lemon liqueur (such as limoncello)

¼ teaspoon ground mace

8 pitted dates, chopped

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1.
    Peel the sweet potatoes and slice in circles.

2.
    Preheat the broiler. Purée the lemon liqueur, mace, dates, and salt until smooth. Place the purée in a saucepan and boil for 2 minutes. Place the sweet potatoes in a well-buttered baking dish and spread the purée over them. Dot the butter over the potatoes and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the edges and topping are golden brown.

White potatoes, although introduced into England during Shakespeare’s lifetime, were not commonly eaten until late in the eighteenth century. White potatoes originated from South America but were misnamed “Virginia potatoes” because they were thought to have come from the Virginia colony in America.

Another vegetable from the New World, corn, was also misnamed and called
granoturco,
“grain of Turkey,” by Europeans. Jerusalem artichokes, truly one of the most misnamed of the New World foods, are not from Jerusalem and are not even in the artichoke family!

Other New World foods such as limes, grapefruits, tomatoes, and chile peppers were discovered by European explorers and introduced into Europe during Shakespeare’s lifetime. However, these vegetables and fruits did not become available or even accepted as foods until a century after Shakespeare’s death. Tomatoes were probably the last food to enter the European diet. Because tomatoes are in the nightshade family and their leaves are noxious to the taste, they were believed to be poisonous.

Spinach and Endive Sauté

SERVES 6

 L
EMONS WERE BROUGHT
to England from Palestine during the Crusades led by English king Richard the Lionhearted. By the time of Shakespeare’s birth, lemon trees were growing on many noblemen’s estates. In the original recipe the herbs were fried with lemon slices to make a fritter. Here, raw lemons are added at the last minute to keep the greens bright but still provide the hint of tartness found in the Elizabethan version.

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup red wine

6 ounces baby spinach

1 large head of endive, thinly sliced

1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley, stemmed and chopped

¼ teaspoon dried savory

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

2 lemons, thinly sliced

Zest of 1 lemon

Dash of freshly ground nutmeg

1.
    Cook the garlic in the olive oil on low heat for 1 minute. Add the wine, bring to a boil, and cook for 10 minutes, or until most of the wine has evaporated. Add the spinach, endive, parsley, and savory and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute, or until the greens are just wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2.
    Spoon the greens onto a serving platter and arrange the lemon slices around the platter. Sprinkle the lemon zest and nutmeg over the greens.

Cabbages with Smoked Duck

SERVES 12

 C
ABBAGE WAS THOUGHT
to ward off drunkenness and prevent hangovers. Whether for that reason or simply because it was readily available, cabbage frequently appeared on feast menus. Oddly, recipes came with warnings that to eat reheated cabbage was fatal. “Twice cooked cabbage is death,” an ancient adage popular in the Renaissance, referred both to that belief and to the tedium of listening to a comment repeated over and over.

I liked the Elizabethan notion of mixing cabbage and duck, but not wanting to cook an entire duck, I substituted prepared smoked duck breast that I purchased at my grocer. The smoky flavor added a perfect touch to the cabbage. Served with brown bread this makes a wonderful midweek dinner or weekend lunch. By the way, it reheats beautifully!

2 medium onions, diced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3 cups diced green cabbage

¼ cup
Renaissance Stock

1 cup slivered smoked duck meat

4 cups diced kale

1 cup diced savoy cabbage

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

       Preheat the oven to 375°F. Sauté the onions in the butter and olive oil in an ovenproof baking dish over medium heat for 10 minutes, or until soft. Stir in the green cabbage, Renaissance Stock, and duck and bake for 30 minutes. Add the kale and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir in the savoy cabbage, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To boyle a Mallard with cabbedge

Take some cabbedge and pricke & wash them cleane, and perboyle them in faire water, then put them into a collender, and let water run from them cleane, then put them into a faire earthen pot, and as much sweete broth as will cover the cabbadge, and sweete butter, then take your Mallard and rost it halfe enough, and save the dripping of him, then cut him in the side, and put the mallard into the cabbedge and put in all your drippings, then let it stew an houre, and season it with salt, and serve it upon soppes.

THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587

Baby Cauliflower in Orange-Lemon Sauce

SERVES 6

 I
N THE ORIGINAL
recipe the chef specifies to cut off the cauliflower roots because the roots and leaves were usually cooked with the vegetable.

Taking a cue from the Elizabethans, on both not wasting and on cooking foods in broth, I now save leftover meat scraps and vegetables and tie them into a little sack made with cheesecloth closed with kitchen string. I add this sack to the cooking water for a sort of instant broth and flavor boost when I’m steaming vegetables or cooking pasta or rice.

6 heads of baby cauliflower

2 cups
Renaissance Stock

2 tablespoons butter

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Zest of 1 orange

½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Salt

1.
    Clean the cauliflower, leaving on some of the green leaves. Bring the Renaissance Stock to a boil in a pot with a steamer insert. Steam the cauliflower for 15 minutes, or until tender, and drain.

2.
    Combine the butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, orange zest, and orange juice in a large saucepan and simmer for 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

3.
    Place the cauliflower in a shallow serving bowl and pour the sauce over the cauliflower.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

Buttered Colliflowers

Have a skillet of fair water, and when it boils put in the whole tops of the colliflowers, the root being cut away, put some salt to it; and being fine and tender boiled dish it whole in a dish, with carved sippets round about it, and serve it with beaten butter and water or juyce of orange and lemon.

THE ACCOMPLISHT COOK,
1660

Orange-Scented Rice

SERVES 4

 … Rice,—what will this sister of mine do with rice?
But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she lays it on.

THE WINTER’S TALE,
4.3

 C
OSTLY PERFUME INGREDIENTS
such as ambergris and musk, with little or no flavor of their own, were often called for in Elizabethan recipes to add fragrance. Here, cooking the rice in orange juice, orange zest, and crystallized ginger adds fragrance as well as a lovely flavor.

1¾ cups
Renaissance Stock

¼ cup orange-flavored liqueur (such as Cointreau)

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup white rice

¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1 2-inch cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons crystallized ginger

Zest of 1 orange

1.
    Bring the Renaissance Stock, orange liqueur, and salt to a boil. Add the rice, cover, and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Add the orange juice, cinnamon stick, butter, sugar, and ginger, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender.

2.
    Place the rice in a serving bowl and sprinkle with the orange zest.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To make a tart of Ryce

Boyle your ryce, and put in the yolkes of two or three Egges into the ryce and when it is boyled, put it into a dish, and season it with Sugar, Synamon and ginger and butter, and the juyce of two or three orenges, and set it on the fire againe.

THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587

Dry rice from India was introduced into Italy in Roman times. It was planted in the Lombardy region of Italy during the Middle Ages and was exported on spice ships to England where, initially, it was a very expensive luxury.

Autumn Squashes with Apples and Fried Parsley

SERVES 6

And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime …

SONNET 97

 T
HE FRIED PARSLEY
adds a nice crunch and flavor to this wonderful fall dish. Parsley was eaten both raw and cooked in Shakespeare’s day and was prescribed in remedies, including decoctions to counteract poisons and ease stomachaches. Queen Elizabeth I was known to have loved stewed parsley. According to
The Herball,
a botany book written in 1597, parsley “leaves are pleasant in sauces and broths … and agreeable to the stomach.”