St Patrick, Gold and the best Medieval Beef Stew you ever tasted!

  Fish and Eagles zoomorphic mount

When I think of St Patrick (387-493), I always think of Irish myth, not Christian martyrs –– lots of green, the little people and their pots of gold –– gorgeous, gorgeous gold.

Fish andEagles Zoomorphic Mount

A few years ago in a farmer’s field in Staffordshire England, a very lucky man with a metal detector came upon what has come to be known as The Staffordshire Hoard –– the largest collection of early Medieval gold ever found in England –– 11 pounds of gold made with a staggering level of craftsmanship and art (as a former jewelry maker, I can’t imagine how they did it with the tools at hand).

Cheek piece, fittings and zoomorphic mount  (many pieces were bent to fit them into their hiding place) 

Escaping marauders (or rightful owners escaping capture) buried their treasure (mostly implements of war) –– but never came back to claim it.  So it waited for the light for 1400 years.

Tara Brooch 700 AD

The Migration Period  (300-900AD) saw the blossoming of remarkable workmanship all over the Island amongst the Anglo-Saxons and the Celts – had they learned the skill at the hands of their Roman lords or Viking conquerers? The Hoard gold is perhaps not quite as intricate as the Hiberno-Saxon Tara brooch from Ireland (oh those crafty leprechauns), but it is vital and complex work and put me in a medieval state of mind.

When I look at these wonders it made me think (no surprise), how could a people that created these miracles of art and craftsmanship not make wonderful food?  I felt I must be remembering my history wrong… too much Monty Python on the brain???

 Palace of Theodoric 500 AD

China, Japan, India and the Middle East enjoyed a high level of sophistication during this period (so did the Mayans, for that matter).  Even in the neighboring kingdom of the Ostragoth Theodoric the Great they were living large in Ravenna, with the potent force of Roman science and culture still pulsing through their lives and architecture. But the early Middle Ages in the British Isles were all about rough clothes, rough men, 30-year life expectancy and subsistence eating –– rocks and berries and tree bark, right? Where are their buildings, their palaces?  MFK Fisher said during the Dark Ages, "Food was only a necessity again, like sleep and sweating."

The Romans left England around 410 and soon farmland returned to a nearly feral state.  The vast wheat fields and crop rotation were gone and soon forgotten (the British Isles had been Rome’s breadbasket) when the Roman overlords withdrew –– the skills were slow to return.

Wouldn’t you know it, soon after they’d seen the last of the Romans, the Plague of Justinian devastated Europe and the British Isles in the 6^th and 7^th centuries and the population of England went from 5 million to 1 million. The forests reclaimed the cultivated land.  With this transformation came increased game and pigs -- in fact, Cambridge historian, Debby Banham said forest size was determined by how many pigs could thrive under its leafy canopy and that oak trees “might be measured according to the number of pigs they would feed” (then as now with the famous Spanish Iberico ham, acorns are great pig food). Barley and oats regained primacy as the principal grains of the land until around the first millennium when wheat bounced back. 

Could it be the real gold in “This other Eden, demi-paradise” was in its verdant, vibrant diversity?  The fields and forests were full of nuts, berries, fruits and herbs as well as grains like oats and barley.  It was a rich place even if the evaporation of the Roman expertise in farming left the populace in dire straights from time to time. Crops failed often.  In a horrible way, the Plague of Justinian made life much better for those who remained –– until the Normans came at least –– there was a lot more to go around.

Although there is precious little remaining to tell us what they ate in the early Middle Ages… there are clues in medical manuscripts of all places.  These precious documents point to a wonderful cuisine (sorry MFK) in emerging cultures but scholars, like Debby Banham, think this forward movement may have been slow in coming to Britain, there is at least no record of it.  I had to cast my net a little further afield to have a taste of the times.  I was determined to eat medievally to honor a medieval saint.

For my St Patrick’s Day meal, I am combining recipes from the continent and Ireland.  It is believed the medieval gold of the hoard covers 600-900 AD.  The suggestion for the beef recipe comes from Anthimus (511-34AD) who wrote of it in his 6^th century in De obseruatione ciborum. He was a Byzantine physician who was sent by the emperor in Constantinople to the court of the Ostrogoth king, Theodoric the Great   (454-526AD).  You can see from the Palace picture (and that was only an outbuilding) that it was not an uncivilized backwater.  It was considered the first French cookbook (the Ostragoths cut a wide swath covering Italy and part of France minus Burgundy), well, sort of cookbook. I found out about him reading British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History by Colin Spencer -- the minute I read the description of this beef dish I wanted to make it. If you like sweet and sour (like sauerbraten) you will love this. 

This beef stew is a medieval treat that moves into the modern world with ease and grace.  I tried to honor the ingredients that would have been available at the time as best I could.  I had Italian Forest Honey on hand (you know this kind of splurge purchase we all do from time to time) well you will be amazed at how delicious it is –– dark and rich and full of the flavors of the Forest that the bees called home.  If you can’t get it, any good honey with personality would work. 

Beekeeping, from  the tacuinum sanitatis (a 14^th Century book on Health) 

Medieval scholar Banham said organized beekeeping wasn’t happening just yet in the early Middle Ages in England (although the Greeks had been doing it since pre-history). Perhaps they got honey the old fashioned way –– like bears –– from hives secreted in trees?? It didn’t make for a huge supply, so as in all special things, most of it went to the lords of the land for their food and their mead (a honey liquor).

Did you know that honey is like wine –– it has terroir  in that it tastes like its environment?  Sadly, Mr. Honeybear is often filled with honey made by bees that have been fed corn syrup instead of drinking nectar as they should.  If you’ve never tried single source honey –– you should just to see the difference, it’s worth the $12 or so bucks. 

French Wine (Gaul) being shipped in the newly invented wine barrel 

Wine would have only been taken by the Lords (the lower classes drank ale) and was probably French since a chilling climate in England made for bad vine growing conditions until a warming at the end of the millennium, even then the English were not big wine makers.

325AD Roman wine bottle found in Germany 

Wine was stored in barrels and jars (amphorae). The Roman bottle had not caught on in the outposts of the Empire as it receded (glass was still rare).  The world’s oldest wine bottle and its contents were discovered in Germany and examination revealed that oil was floated on top of the wine to keep it from spoiling – it turned to vinegar very quickly, which might be why vinegar is ubiquitous in early cuisine (and perhaps salad dressing came from dumping out the winey/vinagery oil at the top?).  As for spices –– the Catholic church and the Romans brought new tastes to England and Ireland –– it’s hard to say what the natives would have had or kept a taste for after the Romans left ––so far they aren't telling.

 Spikenard nardostachys jatamansi

Some of the ingredients are a wee bit esoteric.  Spikenard or nard (from nardostachys jatamansi- not to be confused with the American Aralia recemosa) is one of the ingredients mentioned in the description of the dish -- you are probably unfamiliar with it (I was until last year).  It’s in the Bible and is a lushly scented spice, famous for being used to anoint Jesus’ feet.  It grows in China, India and Nepal and is in the valerian family but it is easy to get online these days.  If you are in the mood to try it, go for it HERE  The closest I can come to replicating it would be a combination of ginger and mushrooms for a little earthiness with spice

 Costmary

I do wish I could have used costmary.   It is part of the chrysanthemum family but was often called ‘scented salvia’ so I used sage since that would be closest in flavor –– although costmary itself is really a beautiful herb –– more delicate and complex than the strong sage.  Grows beautifully in the garden and you can get it HERE.

 Pennyroyal (with lovely purple flowers)

I have tasted pennyroyal –– it is a sweet, childlike mint so mint or catnip would be a good substitute.   Should you have it in your garden and want to use it, remember never feed it to a pregnant woman and don’t eat too much of it.

The flavors of the dish reminded me of Hippocras, an ancient spiced wine that I made a while ago.  Although the earliest English recipe for the drink is in the Forme of Cury (1390), written over 800 years after Anthimus wrote about this dish, spiced wines were popular with the Romans and their great epicurean collection Apicius, de re Coquinaria has a recipe for a spiced wine with many of the same spices that you find in hippocras and this dish.  It is not hard to imagine that only a few hundred years after the Romans had left that spiced wines would still be drunk and used for cooking. Would you throw out something delicious just because it was Roman? 

Although this specific dish is European –– it isn’t that far-fetched to think the English were doing something a little like it.  Even with the decline of the Roman Empire, the new Empire of the Catholic church was covering the old world with its influence as surely as the interwoven tendrils of their art covered their gold and vellum illuminations (and preserved English/Irish mythology that would have been lost without monks writing it down).

I’ve also included an Irish recipe with roots in the 6^th century, Brochan Fotchep.  It was a favorite of an Irish Saint, St. Columkille   (521-97).  Those of you who are attached to rice and wheat as your starch may change your minds.  Today it is more of a soup –– but it began as a creamy porridge –– start thinking very creamy risotto to get yourself in the right mindset.

Medieval Beef Stew with Fennel, leeks, red wine, Honey and Vinegar, Serves 4


Ingredients

1 ½ pounds lean beef stew meat (mine is from Grazin Angus Acres)

2 T suet or rendered beef fat or oil

2 cups chopped leeks

2 cups chopped fennel

1 stalk celery

1 cup red wine

3 T Italian Forest honey (Rigoni di Asiago  is sold at Gourmet food shops in the US)

¼ c red wine vinegar (1/3 c if not using verjus)

2 T verjus (optional)

salt  to taste

1t ground pepper

¼ t cloves

2 t spikenard root  OR ½ t   dry ginger with 2 t powdered porcini (this is as close as I can get to the taste/smell of it)

1 T fresh sage or 1 t dry (use costmary if you are lucky enough to have some… but it is not in everyone’s cupboard—not mine at least)

1 t pennyroyal if you have it –– a very delicate mint –– used a pinch of dried mint or catnip instead

Directions

Brown the beef in the fat.  Remove and add the fennel, celery and leeks into the fat.  Saute for a few minutes.  Add the wine, vinegar, honey and spices and return the meat to the pot, cover.

Put into a 275º oven for 3 hours.

Brotchan Foltchep (Creamy Oatmeal with butterfried leeks) based on florilegium recipe 


Ingredients

2 cups milk

2 cups chicken or vegetable stock

½ c heavy cream 

¾ c steel cut oats

Parsley, a handful chopped

S & P

3-4 medium leeks, washed and sliced

4 T butter

Directions

Cook the oats in the milk and stock for ½ an hour at low heat till tender.

Saute the leeks until tender in the butter... or go a little farther till they are crisp… I liked them that way.  When finished, add the cream to the oatmeal and then top with the leeks and serve with the beef.

 

Original Recipe for Beef from Anthimus, translated from the Latin by Mark Grant

Beef which has been steamed can be used both roasted in a dish and also braised in a sauce, provided that, as soon as it begins to give off a smell, you put the meat in some water.  Boil it in as much fresh water as suits the size of the portion of meat; you should not have to add any more water during the boiling.  When the meat is cooked, put in a casserole about half a cup of sharp vinegar, some leeks and a little pennyroyal, some celery and fennel, and let these simmer for one hour.  Then add half the quantity of honey to vinegar, or as much honey as you wish for sweetness.  Cook over a low heat, shaking the pot frequently with one's hands so that the sauce coats the meat sufficiently.  Then grind the following:  50 pepper corns, 2 grammes each of costmary and spikenard, and 1.5 grammes of cloves.  Carefully grind all these spices together in an earthenware mortar with the addition of a little wine.  When well ground, add them to the casserole and stir well, so that before they are taken from the heat, they may warm up and release their flavour into the sauce.  Whenever you have a choice of honey or must reduced either by a third or two-thirds, add one of these as detailed above.  Do not use a bronze pan, because the sauce tastes better cooked in an earthenware casserole.


FYI, The bowl and its lid are American woodwork –– about 250 years old.  The statue is a Chinese dragon from about the same vintage.  Best I could do from my prop stock to give a Medieval flavor to the visuals~!



If you want the classic St Patrick's corned/spiced beef,  visit me HERE to get a from scratch recipe!