Midwinter Coronation 2010

Note: This is a write up done well after the event, that I entered into one of the Kingdom A&S competitions in November 2011.

A 16th Century Italian Feast for Midwinter Coronation 2010

This is the feast that I cooked for the Midwinter Coronation held in Ildhafn in for Kind Edmund and Queen Leonore. My research on Italian cooking and feasting practices has expanded a lot since then, so this write up will be a reflection of what I presented at the time and the knowledge I've gained since.

The feast is primarily based on Bartolomeo Scappi’s L’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco, as translated by Terence Scully in 2008. I also used Martino of Como's The Art of Cooking, Nostradamus' Excellent & moulte utile Opuseule à toute necessaire, qui desirent auoir cognoissance de plusieurs exquises Receptes, diuisé en deux parties¹, and referred to other people's confit redactions online as well. I also refer to Messisbugo's Banchetti composizioni di vivande e apparecchio generale² for more information about where some aspects fit within a feast. I have since also been reading Lancelotti's Lo Scalco Prattico and have lately been comparing this later work with Scappi.

There were several key differences for me as a modern cook in terms of presenting this feast.

The first was the volume of food that I was presenting. I only prepared four or five items per course, with a small serving per person - and there was far more food than could be eaten. It was common practice in 16th century Italian feasts to present anywhere from 10 to 20 dishes per course - with enough for everyone to have some of each. This gave the person throwing the feast the best opportunity to show off just how ludicrously wealthy they were. It was also protocol for feast leftovers to be shared among the less fortunate - so having plenty of leftovers was considered a virtue, and allowed people to showcase their generosity.

The second was dealing with modern dietary requirements. What this mostly meant was that I ended up mixing lean day items in with "normal" items, to give me a feast suitable for the lactose intolerant and vegetarian diners as well. Although the Italians would often serve seafood courses as part of non-lean day feasts, I don't think that they would have used lean methods of cooking food if it wasn't required.

The dishes I cooked in the feast, although all 16th century Italian dishes, were not what I would deem to be a fair and accurate representation of a 16th century Italian feast. Although the Italians were known for eating vegetables, I had more vegetable-based dishes on the menu in proportion to the meat-based dishes. Furthermore, I also cooked them to be entirely vegetarian-friendly, where many would normally have been cooked in or with meat broths or animal fats. The range of foods that I presented is also far less typical of a 16th century Italian feast. They ate every part of every animal, and most feast menus of the time will reflect this, offering you not only the roasted leg of a calf but also the liver, the head stuffed with the mashed brain and other ingredients and cooked tongue charmingly placed back in its mouth, and perhaps a delicate pie made of the eyes and testicles. Modern squeamishness (my own included) as well as inavailability precluded this.

A standard Italian feast is composed of Credenza (sideboard) and Cucina (kitchen) courses. The Credenza courses tend to be cold foods, and are handled by an entirely separate kitchen and staff to the cucina courses. In Scappi's time (1550-1570), the Credenza courses are normally paired at the beginning and end of the feast, most often with either one or two Credenza courses at each end. Scappi will occasionally mention an 'extra' Credenza course at the end of a meal, consisting of the candies and following after the raising of the tablecloth. By Lancelotti's time (1600-1620), the Credenza courses start and finish the feast, and also often alternate with the Cucina courses. The 'extra' Credenza course has also by then become standard.

The recipes discussed below are from Scappi unless I have stated otherwise.

I named all the items on the menu myself, and translated them into Italian - so any mistakes in the Italian are my fault.

A la table – On the Table

Pane & Butiro – Bread & Butter

I noticed from looking at artworks that often tables will be laid with bread on them, so decided to do this for the event. Lord Ludwig von Regensburg made the bread, a nice white bread worthy of the wealthy. The first item of food mentioned by Messisbugo is bread, which he describes as "da tauola" - that is, from or of the table³.

Primo Servitio di Credenza – First Service from the Sideboard

Pestacchi mondi - Pistachios

It was quite common in Italian feasts for raw nuts of various sorts to crop up in any of the credenza courses at the beginning of a feast, or throughout a feast. Pistachios are an unremarkable choice.

Olive di piu sorte – Assorted Olives

Olives are another item that tend to show up in credenza courses, but they are just as likely to appear as part of a kitchen course⁴, and often appear multiple times in one meal⁵. Scappi will specify the country or region that olives come from⁶, but I described mine as "di piu sorte"⁷ as they all came from the local supermarket and most were from very non-European sounding places. There were also some local olives, which Lady Anna de Wilde and I had harvested⁸ from a local park, and I had then preserved them in brine.

Morseletti di Biscotti – Biscotti

I used store-bought fine toasted breadcrumbs. This causes the biscotti to turn red rather than remaining white, as the crust is included as part of the crumb. I intend to try another batch without the crust in the breadcrumbs, to see if this fixes it. My initial interpretation overlooked the phrase "for every pound", which meant that the dough was too stiff and water had to be added to make it more batter-like. The end product still worked, but it broke a spoon in the process. However, when it is made in the correct proportions, it works without having to add any water.

Ciambelle

The recipe says you add "as much fine flour as the eggs can hold", and that the dough "should be thick". I added flour gradually, until I had a firm dough that was malleable but not too soft, and that would quickly become dry and crumbly if much more flour was added. The recipe calls for the dough to be kneaded for an hour. I could have done this by machine, but there would be no way for me to tell if it was the same as dough that had been kneaded by hand for an hour. So I sat down and watched tv and kneaded dough for an hour. I used almond oil to grease my hands with, and the dough was really lovely to work with. It gradually got finer and smoother, and more elastic, and the end result was far smoother than the point at which I would have considered it "done" if I was using a machine for this. Since they are supposed to be small, and Scappi specifies in recipe V.148 for large ciambelle that the large ones are about four ounces each, I made mine about two ounces each. I cooked them higher in the oven to give them a hotter heat above than below. They are very much like slightly sweet tiny bagels. I haven't yet worked out what the rosette of egg white is supposed to be. I served them dusted with cinnamon and sugar because this is topping that gets used on just about everything, and they looked a bit bare otherwise.

Prosciutto

A common feature of the first credenza course of any Italian feast. I served it plain, although it will often show up dusted with sugar, and perhaps sprinkled with orange juice.

Uoua Stufati – Stuffed Eggs

These are another item that is as likely to appear in a kitchen course as a credenza one, although it appears that both kitchen and credenza staff prepare eggs equally. I used a good quantity of pepper in proportion to the cinnamon, which seemed to work well. I had to omit the burnet because I didn't have enough in the garden, but the mint and marjoram worked well together. I served them with the orange juice sauce. The important thing I learned here is that these really need to be served in a shallow dish or bowl, and not on a tray, because the liquid makes them slide all over the place.

Primo Servitio di Cucina – First Service from the Kitchen

Brisauoli di Carne di Vaccine con Bruodo – Beef Roulades with Broth

I decided to make the stuffed version of the recipe. I used a schnitzel cut to make life a bit easier. Rather than putting the sage leaves in between when first cooking them, the sage leaves ended up going generally around to still add flavour but save time. Each roll ended up being about an inch wide, and about two inches in diameter. They didn't need very much filling. I used cheese in the same volume as the herbs, as Scappi only calls for "a little", and I chose parmesan cheese as Scappi often calls for a hard but rich cheese so it seemed appropriate. I tried making my own must from grapes and discovered it actually comes out identical in taste and appearance to a store-bought grape juice, it just ends up costing three times as much and taking at least an hour to make, so I bought the juice instead.⁹

Tagliatelle con Bruodo – Tagliatelle with Broth

I used chicken stock as I prefer this to beef stock, and hare and crane stock was unavailable for some reason. I used vegetable stock for the vegetarians because although I could have made it vegetarian by cooking them in milk I was not sure whether the vegetarians attending ate milk products. I probably should have added more fat to the chicken stock as it was a commercial stock and modern stocks are less fatty than Scappi's, and he does call for a "fat meat broth". My pasta maker broke on the day so these ended up being served in the second kitchen course, and missed out on their topping of cheese, sugar and cinnamon. They also ended up being cut to size as Scappi says to, since I could not just feed them through the fettucine setting of my pasta maker. One of the things that I find I struggle with is remembering to get the correct toppings on everything, since there's always such a lot going on in the kitchen. I am improving this by having a designated plater to work with me, who I liaise with ahead of time to make sure they know how I want the food presented and what it should be topped with, and who is responsible for making sure this happens and that all dishes have appropriate serving implements with them.

Minestra di Cauoli fiore – Thick Cauliflower Soup

This is not a soup as we know it: it is really chunks of cooked cauliflower with a thin sauce to pour over. This appears to be the case with most of the thick vegetable-based soups in Book VI, as well as those in Books II and III. The orange juice went really well with the cauliflower. From my pretesting I discovered that you really can add quite a lot of pepper, for as Scappi says "cauliflower likes pepper".

Fritelli di Riso – Rice Fritters

I chose to make this recipe rather than Scappi's other for rice fritters (V.141 p498) as the other was cooked in meat broth and this was vegetarian without needing any alteration. I made the sticky rice rather than the ground rice version. The balls ended up a bit on the large side, as they were about the size of a Florentine ball and really only wanted to be half that size.¹⁰ The hardest part was convincing the batter to stick to the balls. It worked better when it was made in a thicker consistency. I substituted rice flour in place of wheat flour in the batter to keep the fritters gluten free.

Tomacelle di Caponi – Chicken Meatballs

Scappi does not say how much kidney fat to add to the mixture in proportion to the chicken breasts. I ended up using an entire kidney (not just the fat) since I did not want to waste it and I thought it would just add extra richness to the meatballs. I used an ox kidney, rather than that of a calf or goat kid, since that was what was available. I ended up excluding burnet from the herbs used, as my burnet plant was too small - but having tried it (and also getting people with a sense of smell to try it), it doesn't have an especially strong flavour so excluding it seemed fine. I put in sorrel in smaller proportion to the mint and marjoram, as I was limited by what was on my plant - but this has a stronger flavour, so this worked alright. I used raisins rather than gooseberries or verjuice grapes, since this was what was available, and this would have been appropriate in winter anyway. Scappi says that the meatballs should be "more cubed than spehrical". Since I had some square-shaped moulds and I knew that they liked moulding food where possible, I made mine completely cubed. I used a commercial broth rather than making my own. The herbs that I added to the broth (in addition to the saffron, which was quite strong¹¹) were mint, marjoram and parsley, since I'd run out of sorrel and these were commonly used herbs.

Fave – Fried Fava Beans - Martino

This is the dish that continues to have everyone who hates broad beans raving about how good the broad beans are. I had previously used dates instead of figs as we'd had them in the Baronial supplies and Scappi uses dates and figs in all the same recipes¹². The recipe works equally well with either. As the volumes aren't specified, I used equal amounts of broad beans, onions, figs, and apples which worked realy well. I chopped the onions, figs and apples finely, as the recipe referred to in the recipe I was using specifies that the apples and onoins should be finely chopped, and it made sense to have smaler pieces of fig so that they would blend better with the other ingredients. I used a fairly substantial amount of sage as it is quite a soft delicate flavour and would otherwise have been lost amidst the other ingredients. Since Martino calls for "some good herbs" I went with the classic combination of mint, marjoram and parsley, which crop up in just about every other dish. Since he also calls for "some good spices" to top the dish, I went for cinnamon, ginger, cloves and sugar¹³, using the same reasoning, that these are the most popular spices.

Secondo & Ultimo Servitio di Cucina – Second & Final Service from the Kitchen

Anatre con Sapore Galantina & Tortellini – Duck with Galantine Sauce & Tortellini

From my experience cooking duck this way previously¹⁴, I learnt that the duck comes out of the brine falling off the bones. So this time when we served it we took it all off the bones and put it in a bowl before serving. This goes against Italian serving practices of the time¹⁵, but it made it much easier for the servers to handle and was visually better than having a carcass falling apart on a plate.

For the tortellini pastry Scappi says that it should be made "as in the preceding recipe". This leads to a backwards hunt through the book, as the preceding recipe helpfully says "make a tourte by following the directions for making a rather thick shell in a tourte pan"¹⁶ but does not give you the dough recipe. Eventually the recipe appears in V.218. As an eggless pasta recipe, it works rather well. I substituted in almond milk in place of pinenut milk, as it was slightly cheaper.

For the filling I omitted the caviar to keep the recipe vegetarian. I also omitted the burnet, as again I just did not have enough. I was unsure what the exact difference was between the raisins and the "seeded muscatel raisins" that Scappi calls for, but since my selection was limited to "raisin of brand x" or "raisin of brand y" I chose one of those. I used pistachios as my old nuts because I had them on hand and they were genuinely old, and they are also a nut that comes up quite often as part of a feast, so likely to be among the choices that Scappi had on hand. I added in mushrooms as Scappi suggested since I thought that would make the recipe a little richer. I chopped them finely though since they were filling tortellini, rather than just peeling them as for the pie.

I chose the sauce because I was cooking fowl, albeit not spit-roasted, and because we had a large quantity of currants in the baronial supplies that really needed to be used. I wished I had tested this recipe ahead of time, or at least made it in advance, as it did not make as great a quantity as I had envisaged. It was very sticky, which was completely unsurprising. I used some of my own biscotti for the mostaccioli that Scappi calls for, as the two are very similar.

Pomi Sdegnosi – Eggplant Casserole

Scappi offers two versions of this, one for normal days and one for lean days. I cooked the lean day version to make it dairy free¹⁷. Instead of using wheat flour, I dusted the pieces of eggplant in rice flour so that it would be gluten free as well.¹⁸ I used large dark purple skinned eggplants rather than the white or white and purple skinned ones, as these are more readily available. I find that the dark purple skinned ones are slightly more bitter than the others, but once they've been soaked and cooked there is no perceptable difference.

Cauli Milanesi – Stuffed Cabbages

I omitted the eel flesh because the steward refused to tolerate eel anywhere near her event¹⁹, and also then these were vegetarian. I used roughly even volumes of nuts and breadcrumbs as these made up the main content of the stuffing. Since I had someone helping me to make these, I went with just rolling the mixture into balls about the size of tennis balls²⁰ and wrapping them in the middle of the leaves. I tied them up to transport and cook them. I retained the outer leaves, to make a bed for them in the bowls as then it looked quite a lot like a whole cabbage was being served up so it was quite pretty.

Ciambelle Stufati – Filled Ciambelle

Scappi calls for these to be made into "little ciambelle", or little rings. He also tells you that the dough should be split into two-ounce lumps - about 50g - which in itself limits the size. I began by trying to make them about the same size as my (finished) zuccarini, into rings of about 6cm in diameter. This didn't work as I had interpreted the "creamy, plump, moderately soft cheese" by using ricotta. I immediately realised that this was not the best interpretation, because it made the mixture far too runny and really, really hard to encase in dough. My finished ciambelle stufati consequently ended up being about 8cm in diameter, and using more dough than Scappi specifies. On reflection, a ricotta is far softer than Scappi means by "moderately soft" - whcih makes it really hard to encase in dough. My personal definition of "creamy" and Scappi's are quite different, although this is partially a problem with the translation of the term "grasso"²¹. I think of something more like a cream cheese in texture, Scappi seems to think of it as being a "fat" cheese²², and therefore not necessarily so soft in texture. I think if I could find it, using something similar to a mozzarella in texture but made with cow's milk would be better, or else buffalo milk mozzarella would be a better substitute. I did not colour them "as offelle are coloured" - which would be to brush them with saffron tinted water and later with egg yolks²³. I would probably do this if I make them again though to see how they come out.

Secondo & Ultimo Servitio di Credenza – Second & Final Service from the Credenza

Tortiglione Ripieno di Mele – Apple Twist

Although Scappi does not specifically say that the pastry twists can be made with other ingredients, I thought it seemed a reasonable assumption. I had previously made recipe VI.116 as given, but in this case thought that apples would make a nice change. I used cream cheese with the apples, although on reflection I think that a buffalo milk mozzarella would have been more appropriate as provatura is a soft buffalo milk cheese. I had learnt from experience that although Scappi says the sheet of dough below the roll ought to be "quite thick", it is best to make it as thin as possible because the rest of the dough sticks to it and you cannot just pull it off afterwards. The dough is more breadlike than pastrylike.

Zuccarini

I had made these before and have made them since, they are one of the easiest and most satisfying things to make. Scappi calls for "fine sugar that is reduced to powder", so I use icing sugar. You need to put in as much sugar as possible in proportion to the egg whites: three egg whites will take about a kilo of icing sugar. That's enough to make about 50 zuccarini. Adding in a little rose water as suggested gives these a lovely hint of flavour. They are made in the form of ciambelle, which are little rings. To successfully get a ring shape once cooked, they need to be made really quite small with a very large hole in the centre because they puff up so much when being cooked that the hole closes if it's too narrow. Also if they are too large they won't cook evenly all the way through. I cooked them at about 150̊C as they are very meringue-like and that's a good temperature for meringues. I placed them just above halfway in the oven as Scappi calls for less heat below than above. I was dubious at first about brushing them with beeswax, but this gives them a really nice glean and just a very delicate taste of honey and is delicious combined with the rosewater.

Torta Cannellata – Cinnamon Tortes

My trial run of these was making them as a standard pie size, to be cut and served to eight people. However, the filling is extremely sticky and has a tendency to seep through the dough if you have not precooked it. Scappi makes no mention of precooking the base, but I decided to do this anyway to help mitigate the stickiness. I also made individual small pies so that we could avoid the need to cut them. I added small pastry crown shapes to the top as an extra decoration and they looked quite lovely stacked on platters. The dried peaches that I was able to purchase were actually only semi-dried, so still quite moist. I decided that they probably didn't need steeping, since the purpose of that would be to soften them. Scappi calls for a beaker of rosewater to be added. I don't know how big a beaker is, so it was a case of adding "some" so that it became softer rather than completely stiff as it would have been without it. Since I was concerned about cost, I used almond milk instead of pinenut milk. I again used some of my own biscotti for the mostaccioli that Scappi calls for, as the two are very similar.

Piu sorti di Pere & Mele – Assorted Pears & Apples

It is standard practice at the end of Italian feasts to serve fresh fruit²⁴. Pears and apples seem to be quite common. I used pears and apples since they were in season, buying a variety of each since it was common practice to offer several different sorts. I labelled them as being "piu sorti" as like with the olives, mine did not have regional European names to attach to them. Scappi will often label the fruit this way, but Lancelotti will usually specify where it comes from. The trick with having pears that are perfectly ripe seems to be to buy them a week before you want to eat them.

Melangoletti Conditi – Candied Orange Peel

I ended up using a combination of the recipes. It turns out that it makes absolutely no difference to the quality of the peel whether you steep it or not²⁵. It pays not to soak it in salted water at all as it is really hard to get rid of the taste of the salt and it does nothing to improve the end product. The most important thing is to get as much of the pith as possible off the peel, and to really boil the peel extremely well in water. If you try reheating the peel repeatedly in the sugar as Scappi says, it is prone to caramelising²⁶. Having water in with the sugar as Nostradamus says to in chapter III helps prevent this - but I have yet to find a way to extract the orange peel from the syrup to reboil it once the syrup is on the peel. After I was sure the peel was candied, I drained off the excess syrup and stuck the pieces to waxed paper until I needed them, then rolled them in caster sugar to serve. There was no point doing this earlier as the humidity in Auckland just inclines things like this to go soft and sticky (see the sugared plums below), so it would have just been adding extra unnecessary sugar.

Prugne Fresche Conditi – Sugared Plums

I tried both recipes. I had thought that the second recipe might keep the plums more whole, as they were only cooked once, but this seems to make no difference. I also attempted to remove the skins of some of the plums after they burst, but again this makes no difference to the end result. Both recipes came out about the same. However, the instruction in the second recipe to cast the pieces briefly into boiling water is really, really important. It suddenly gives the fruit a wonderful jellied texture. I dried the plums out in my hot water cupboard for a number of weeks, but the did not really dry well because of the humidity in Auckland. So I rolled them in sugar and packed them in greaseproof paper. What happened was the plums soaked through the sugar and through the paper to form a sticky mess. However, I was able to extract them from the paper fairly easily - but at that point I left them until closer to the event before re-rolling them in sugar, rather than end up with too many superfluous coatings of sugar on them.

Albicocci Sechi – Dried Apricots

I now think it more likely that apricots would have been offered in a sugar syrup rather than dry. The sixteenth century sees the start of preserves, and the Italians especially were very keen on coating just about everything you could think of in sugar. Covering fruit in a syrup of sugar (preferably) or honey became normal practice, and many of the dishes served in the final courses were fruits preserved in this way.

Gelo di Cotogni – Quince Jelly

I used my own translation and redaction of Nostradamus' recipe in Chapter XV of his book for this. He has several other recipes for this as well, but this one was labelled as "fit for a King", so I thought it the most appropriate one for a Coronation banquet. Two kilos of quinces turned into about 300 grams of finished quince paste - but it tasted absolutely incredible.

Gelo di Marasche – Cherry Jelly

This recipe came out more like a boiled lolly than a jelly in texture, I am not sure why. I need to try it again this summer to see if I can get a better result.

Levata la tovaglia & data l’acqua alle mani – Raising of the Tablecloth & Washing of Hands

This was done with the high table only, due to time constraints. It should have been done with everybody.

Conditi, & confettioni a beneplacito – Assorted Confits

These were store-bought from the local Indian store, and I managed to get some that were silver coloured. They were most notable because they tasted like soap. The volume of confits on offer was not near enough compared to what would have been served in the 16th century.

Stecchi in piatti con acqua rose – Sticks on a plate with rose water

For a while I was mystified about what these were, but had an inkling that they might be toothpicks. This was backed up by seeing them in a few different paintings of feasts, including the one below²⁷. Then it got even more backed up by reading Messisbugo, who specifies that one should have "stecchi per nettari denti" - that is, sticks for cleaning the teeth²⁸. They tend to be longer and broader than what we would think of as a toothpick - about as thick as a pencil. I used very wide kebab sticks, cut in half and sharpened at both ends.

Mazzetti di fiori profumati – Bunches of Scented Flowers

I still have not made up my mind about how these were served and what was done with them. Scappi just lists them as part of what happens after the tablecloth gets raised. Lancelotti generally says that there is a bunch of flowers for each gentleman²⁹. Messisbugo on the other hand says that the flowers are to go over the serviettes, and that they should should follow the season - in winter, flowers of silk, gold, and silver ought to be used³⁰.