Chicken Pastry in the Lombarde Style

Greetings to all those who come eating! In my attempt to take my experience in the Society for Creative Anachronisms to a more genuine level, I decided to replicate the authentic smells and taste of the time period and place of my persona, 14th century France. I came upon the Menagier de Paris, a writing from 1393 that details the way a young women should manage her household. It offers meal plans, advice on selecting cheese and animals for food preparation and a myriad of other tidbits pertaining to domestic art. The recipe I chose to replicate was a chicken pastry dish that could have been made very simply as to take on a journey and or more ornate as to serve as a dish in an evening meal in a manor house, most likely as a second or third course. I chose to recreate the later Lombard style dish that was more complicated and most tasty! The primary source for the recipe is Le Menagier De Paris. French Translation by Jerome Pichon. POUCINS soient mis en past, le dos dessoubs et la poictrine dessus, et larges lesches de lart sur la poictrine; et puis couvers.

Item, la mode Lombarde, quant les poucins sont plums et appareills, aiez oeufs batus,
c'est assavoir moyeux et aubuns,1 avec vertjus et pouldre, et mouillez vos poucins dedans: puis mettez en past2 et des lesches de lart comme dessus. 1 My Personal Translation from French to English Chicks will be put into crust (pastry), underneath down and chest up. Take broad slices of lard covering the chest. In the stlye of Lombard, pluck and prepare the chick, eggs and green juice, spices, and wet the chicks. Put in the pastry with bacon. Baffled at some points of my translation, further research was required. For instance the word Lard in French is bacon, but in this recipe it was called lart. After looking through translation books and several stints on Google, not to mention a call to a friend in Montpelier, France I discovered finally an English translation of the text and found that low and beholdLart is Bacon! I am so glad to have not pilled lard into my pastry.
1

Pichon, Jrome, ed. Le Mnagier De Paris, Trait De Morale Et D'conomie Domestique Compos Vers 1393, Par Un Bourgeois Parisien; Contenant Des prceptes moraux, quelques faits historiques, des instructions sur l'art de diriger une maison, des reuseignemens sur la consommation du Roi, des Princes et de la ville de Paris, la fin du quatorzime sicle, des conseils sur le jardinage et sur le choix des chevaux; un trait de cuisine fort tendu, et un autre non moins complet sur la chasse l'pervier. Ensemble: L'histoire de Grisldis, Mellibe et Prudence par Albertan de Brescia (1246), traduit par frre Renault de Louens; et le chemin de Povret et de Richesse, pome compos, en 1342, par Jean Bruyant, notaire au Chtelet de Paris; Publi Pour La Premire Fois Par La Socit Des Bibliophiles Franois. Tome Second. A Paris, De L'imprimerie de Crapelet, Rue de Vaugirard, 9. 1846.

Chicken Pastry in the Lombarde Style

English translation by Janet Hinson.
2Chicks

may be placed in pastry, back down and breast up, and broad slices of bacon on the breast; and then cover. Item, in the Lombardy fashion, when the chicks are plucked and prepared, have beaten eggs, both yolks and whites, with verjuice and powdered spices, and moisten your chicks in it: then put in pastry with slices of bacon as above. Even with the English translation there was one final ingredient I was clueless about: Vertjus. Vertjus is literally translated into Green Juice. My research into Green Juice indicated that it was a very popular condiment used in many medieval dishes. Vertjus is made from the pressing of early green grapes normally used to make wine.3 It is not a fermented substance and it is not a vinegar though it does have a familiarly tart but not overwhelming flavor. And how do you come by this mysterious green juice? For me it was to find imported vertjus from France as grapes are not in session! All mysterys solved now to start cooking! Ingredients list Pastry: Flour, both finer white and whole wheat Unsalted butter Water Sea Salt Saffron Crocus sativus Fresh eggs Mixture Fresh eggs Peppercorns Piper nigrum Pastured Free range chicken, fresh from the farm La Fleche (Dixon, 2010) Crevecoeur (Ludlow, 2012)

A note on chickens: it came to my attention that it is not enough to state that a chicken is organic and therefore it was closest to what would have been used in the Middle Ages. After all, soil types are not the same, environments have changed so the chickens would have been unique. That being said, one can research the origins of chicken breeds in order to get a step closer, above are two French breeds of chicken with ancient/medieval origins. In the future I will endeavor to find these types of poultry for use unless they are considered rare or unavailable. Where I am able to purchase free range fresh chicken, they deal in a Cornish cross variety which is a breed from a Rock hen and Cornish Hen.

Janet Hinson. Le Menagier de Paris. http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Medieval.html. Page accessed on August 30th, 2011.
3

Maggie Black. The Medieval Cookbook. The British Museum Press. London, 1992-96.

Chicken Pastry in the Lombarde Style

Vertjus (Sour Green Grape Juice) Sea Salt Thick cut Bacon Methods and Material In order to make the dish, I tried to mostly rely on methods employed by a cook in the 14th century. For instance wooden bowls were used in all preparation, mortar and pestle used to grind spices from their original forms and metal and stoneware cooking molds, a sieve and a rolling pin were all a part of making this dish as authentic as possible. All of these implements would have been found in a medieval kitchen.4 Much to my great sadness I was unable to create anything near a working brick oven and used a mundane one in the cooking of this pastry. With help from a few SCAdian friends I hope to make this happen. Spiting a chicken is one thing, creating an oven that cooks evenly.or at all is another ( Ill keep you posted on how future endeavors turn out) Because of my inability to properly employ the cooking methods of 14th Century France, I decided to go back to my original want to make sure I could smell and taste the authenticity. In order to make this happen I searched near and far for ingredients that would help bring that to fruition. Sea Salt (ground with mortar and pestle) Fresh eggs Peppercorns (Imported from Merey sous Montrand, France located in North Eastern France near Dijon) Piper nigrum Pastured Free range chicken, fresh from the farm (I did not kill or pluck my own chicken however my research concluded that if one was working as a cook in the Middle Ages, especially in the kitchen of nobility your job was just to cook. There were those to butcher and clean meat, those to tend fires and those who kept the dishes in order.5 I highly recommend Earths Promise Farm located at 4306 Mt Eden Rd. Shelbyville, KY 40065.)

Chris P. Adler-France(Dame Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina) . A Study of Cooking Tasks, Methods, and Equipment in the Renaissance Kitchen. thelmearc cademy, Stormsport, June 19, 2004. Originally presented January 20, 2002 in Colorado Springs.
5

Chris P. Adler-France(Dame Katja Davidova Orlova Khazarina) . A Study of Cooking Tasks, Methods, and Equipment in the Renaissance Kitchen. thelmearc cademy, Stormsport, June 19, 2004. Originally presented January 20, 2002 in Colorado Springs.

Chicken Pastry in the Lombarde Style

Preparation After gathering my ingredients the cooking commenced. On average it takes one hour of preparation to get to the point where the pasty is baked. The starting point is making the pasty crust. This was a very interesting adventure as many medieval texts dont give you the recipe for a crust. I suppose if youre a cook you simply should know how. For my crust I followed a recipe used by Baroness Jehanne de Huguenin, Guildmistress to the Adamastor Cooks' Guild, Cape Town, South Africa. I chose this recipe for two reasons, first its use of Saffron, a spice I had always wanted to use in cooking and second her impeccably cited sources. This recipe calls for flour, butter, eggs and cold water, saffron and salt.6 After creating the mixture it must be cooled for around 15 minutes, during this down time you will create the mixture for your pastry. Noting that there were no measurements for the recipe it became an adventure to figure out which combinations made a pleasant pastry and not an overly spiced or super sour concoction. After creating a sauce of sorts (Vertjus, pepper, spices, eggs) for the chicken to marinade in it was time to actually face the chicken, which gave me pause. The recipe never said whether the chicken and bacon should be pre cooked or cook while baked in the pie. Because the pie crust might burn before the meat would cook and because our mundane stomach may not have withstood undercooked food I opted to spit cook the chicken, with some of the fresh butter rubbed under the skin, and lightly fry the bacon (not crisp it). My concern with this was dry meat, however the egg and juice in the mixture is enough to keep the filling on the moist side. I also think topping it with the bacon helped to keep it moist. Now, back to the crust. With a rolling pin I rolled the crust into a circle large enough to fit my mold, trimming the excess edges, rolled out a top to cover it and pinched the edges to seal. With the left over pastry I topped it with a wheel which represents my household and the brave Saint Catherine of Alexandria!. Not knowing a precise amount of time or temperature to cook the tart, I went with what I knew, and watched as the crust turned a deep golden brown and the lovely aroma filled my kitchen (about 25 minutes). After researching how this tart was served it would have been eaten hot, cold or room temperature depending on the circumstance surrounding the meal. The tarts made in a handheld version would travel well, be filling and tasty on the cold side. If it were to be served with a meal in a manor house and made in a larger pastry mold, hot or at room temperature would be best. If I were to create a menu to go with this item it would be a menu for a day when meat was allowed severed most likely as a second or third course. Voila! My 14th Century Chicken tart done in the style of Lombarde. Bon appetite!

Baroness Jehanne de Huguenin. Medieval Pastry. http://www.3owls.org/sca/cook/pastrycase.htm. Page accessed on August 28, 2011.

Chicken Pastry in the Lombarde Style

Pictures: Dixon, I. a. (2010). South Yeo Farm East: Rare and Traditional Birds. Retrieved April 4/9/2011, 2011, from http://www.southyeofarm.co.uk/poultry/our_breeds.html. Ludlow, R. (2012). Backyard Chickens. Retrieved April 2011, from http://www.backyardchickens.com/products/crevecoeur. Tart picturesFrom my kitchen! 2012