Cooking Around the Calendar

Well, I got caught up in the winter doldrums and haven’t posted anything in ages! But I’m back with some interesting medieval cooking for you.

I’ve been participating in an SCA event each summer that involves cooking in more or less primative conditions. It is called, aptly, Trial by Fire. You have 4 hours to cook one or more medieval recipes, from start to finish, in “camping” conditions. I prefer to cook over charcoal, but propane stoves are allowed. There are four categories, Main Dish, Grains, Vegetables and Dessert.

My first time competing at Trial by Fire, I made a medieval bread called Rastons. Although, full disclosure, it contains eggs, and thus is technically a pastry. I created a DIY dutch oven, using a large cast iron pot, topped with a large cast iron pan. This allowed me to heat my bread over a coal fire, with additional coals on top for even baking. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked well.

I had a great time cooking for the contest, and even better, I won! I took both the grain category, and was also the overall winner.

I found the recipe in a 2 in 1 volume of a medieval period cookbook: Two fifteenth-century cookery-books : Harleian MS. 279 (ab 1430), & Harl. MS. 4016 (ab. 1450), with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1439, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS. 55. University of Michigan Digital Archives.

The actual text, as follows, is in a very old version of English.

“Rastons.—Take fayre Flowre, & þe whyte of Eyroun, & þe ȝolke, a lytel; þan take Warme Berme, & putte al þes to-gederys, & bete hem to-gederys with þin hond tyl it be schort & þikke y-now, & caste Sugre y-now þer-to, & þenne lat reste a whyle; þan kaste in a fayre place in þe oven, & late bake y-now; & þen with a knyf cutte yt round a-boue in maner of a crowne, & kepe þe cruste þat þou kyttyst; & þan pyke al þe cromys withynne to-gederys, an pike hem smal with þin knyf, & saue þe sydys & al þe cruste hole with-owte; & þan caste þer-in clarifiyd Boter, & Mille*. [melle A. (mix). ] þe cromeȝ & þe botere to-gedereȝ, & keuere it a-ȝen with þe cruste, þat þou kyttest a-way; þan putte it in þe ovyn aȝen a lytil tyme; & þan take it out, & serue it forth.”

Fortunately, for me, I found a modern translation for the recipe above on a blog called Give it Forth devoted to medieval cooking. It is attributed to Dan Myers of the website Medieval Cookery.

“Rastons – take fair flour, and the white of eggs, and the yolk, a little; then take Warm Barm, and put all these together, and beat them thereto, and then let rest a while: then caste in a fair place in the oven, and let bake enough.  

Then with a knife cut it round above in the manner of a crown, and keep the crust that thou cut; & then pick all the crumbs within together, and pick them small with thine knife, and save the sides and all the crust whole without; and then cast therein clarified butter and mix the crumbs and butter together, and cover it again with the crust, that thou cuttest away; then put in the oven again a little time; and then take it out and serve it forth.“

Working with these meager instructions, plus some trial and error, I created the following recipe. It is delicious and easy to make, I often bake this when I want some homemade bread.

Rastons

A Medieval Egg Bread

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Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Medieval

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup stout beer room temperature
• 2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs beaten

Method

 

1. In a mixing bowl, add the room temperature beer, yeast and honey. Stir gently until yeast is dissolved.
2. Let the mixture sit for 10 to 15 minutes. When ready, you will see the yeast has formed a foam on top of the liquid.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the unbleached and whole wheat flour.
4. Stir in eggs into the beer mixture. Add the flour, one cup at a time. You may not need all 4 cups of flour.
5. When you have a firm, but still slightly sticky dough, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for15 minutes, adding flour as necessary.
6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
7. Form dough into a ball, place it on a baking sheet, and let it rise until doubled in size, around 20 minutes.
8. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. When tapped the bread will sound hollow.

Notes

My personal preference is to slice the bread in the usual manner and slather with butter. 

The cooks of the medieval times added the follow steps before serving:

Allow the loaf to cool, then cut off the top 1/4 of the loaf. Hollow out the bread, and tear the inside into marble sized crumbles. Drizzel the crumbles with 1/4 cup melted clarified butter, and place them back inside the hollow loaf. Put the top back on, and serve.

Tried this recipe?

Let us know how it was!