Visited Mary Arden's Farm last week near Stratford Upon Avon. Amazing place- with a working Tudor farm! One lady who works there said they're stopping doing the dressing up and proper reenactment soon as the management think it's too expensive. A real shame actually as they did a great job. The lady of the house was making Pottage on the range from all the homegrown veg and pigs (we even watched them start the fire- from a flint. Incredibly hard unless you've got that knack!) then at lunchtime all the workers on the farm sat down to eat it as us tourists looked on and asked questions. Was truly fascinated.
Anyway, so in honour of the Tudor Farmers at The Palmer's Farmhouse, today it's Tudor Feast time!
Now of course were it to be a feast, many more dishes than these would have been served. I use the term loosely, as it's a whole meal first for me, rather than one historical dish.
On the menu;Homebaked Rough Grain bread, such as they would have eaten, before the days of refined flour.
Spicy Pork Pottage- the nearest the Tudor's got to curry.
Apple Pie. Minus the sugar as for a start their palates weren't accustomed to the sugar we're used to, and they simply didn't have it in great quantities, as it was incredibly expensive.
To start, bread! (dare I admit, this is from a packet mix....look, it's been in the cupboard for ages and I thought it was appropriate to use up and not waste) The bread, kneaded and pulled to get the gluten working, got placed in a damp and warm place near the fire, then baked at hot temperatures (they'd have used the wood fired clay oven outside) until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Done!
THEN on to the
Spicy Pork Pottage.
Pottage being a kind of thick stew or broth using whatever veg was available. Leftover meat too if it was around, perhaps as a leftover from a Sunday when meat was always eaten if it could be afforded.
The veg was chopped and the onions and meat browned.
The spices in this particular pottage come from the garlic, the ginger, cinnamon and cumin. All of which would be ground in a pestle and mortar.
Less spicy than a Chicken Tikka Massala perhaps, but adding something nonetheless!
The Stock would be added with the spices, and then the honey and apricots to add sweetness. Honey was also much sought after and if you had bees, their produce would likely have been sold on for profit, but any leftover would be used to add flavour to dishes such as this.
Then the pot would be left to simmer for some hours, ready to be served at lunchtime, the main meal of the day, when the hungry workers would expect something hale and hearty. The meal would be taken together with the bread and some ale, which before you get too excited, was generally just hops and barley flavoured water as far as we'd be concerned today. Mmmm.
So while that's simmering, and I'm hoping for a melt in the mouth porkiness to the dish, on with the apple pie. Now apples are currently in season, hooray, that makes me feel a bit smug, get me, using fruit in season, but this really would have been the perfect time to serve apple pie in Tudor times. This pie looks much like the pie we might have now, the main difference is the absence of sugar, so sweet dessert apples would be the ones to use for their natural flavour. (Sadly I bought Bramleys, so I'm going to cheat a teensy bit by using some sugar as otherwise the tartness'll put The husband off ever trying one of my historical recipes again...)
Luckily the Tudors had some tricks up their long and flapping sleeves to emphasise the sweetness and true taste of the apples. Namely butter and rosewater. Butter would have been churned on the farm itself, and rosewater either created from crushing rose petals or brought in. It smells wonderfully of Turkish Delight and seems very exotic to me! This again was most sought after by the lady of the house and was used as perfume as well as in food.
The pastry was created in the same way as now, fat and flour and water, although theirs would have been a much heavier kind. The apples peeled and cored and laid in the pastry case, butter dotted around, then Cinnamon added, perhaps some cloves too, then the pastry lid would go on with small holes made to let out the steam.
Halfway through cooking a melted rosewater and butter liquid was poured over , which would sink into the pastry and the apples and would create a fabulous rosey appley aroma for the final 20 minutes of cooking. If you did have sugar, then after the liquid had soaked in, would be the time to sprinkle any on top to show that yes, you really could afford such delicacies. At this time, before sugar became plentiful, even meat dishes would be sprinkled with it as a suggestion of wealth. Clearly at varying points in history people were more concerned with how something looked than how it tasted...I imagine it's much the same on Ready Steady Cook....
But how has our Tudor feast turned out? It's the taste I'm after really. Only one way to find out- using the experienced palate of The Husband.Success! The pottage was more stew like than soup like, but that's ok. Had a gentle sweetness from the honey, but the meat fell apart in your mouth. Husband said it tasted like beef...hmmm....Really pleased with it. He gave it 10/10. He also loved the bread which was heavy and doughy, just as I wanted.
The apple pie really was sweet enough without sugar! Very impressed, but really needed to all be eaten on the day, as it went a bit soggy as leftovers. Husband gave it 7/10. Cos he bit on a clove. Tsk. Bloomin fussy eaters.
