I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world.	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he's experimenting with federated platforms. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance, and can found on t he PlusPora diaspora pod. He hates cell-phones.

Previous Entry First Entry

Planning Food for Musicians Part Four Previously on Planning Food for Musicians ... the menu as it stands. First, let's revisit the rather casual look I took at scones and malaches from last time. Scones, the way I do them I made some scones last week, just to check the recipe, and muscle memory is a thing. As I started the process, the bits fell into place. 1 1/2 cups flour 1 egg enough whey to make up 1/2 cup with the egg some butter, a few tablespoons maybe 1 tsp-ish of baking powder a little salt more whey or flour as needed Honestly, I really eyeball most of the stuff, so the measurements are very speculative. The important bit is that the initial ratio of flour to liquid (including egg) is about 3 to 1. In any case, mix the dry ingredients. Then add the butter, nice and cold, and mix it till it's a bit crumbly. Add the liquid, and mix. Add more whey (or other liquid) or flour as needed. Bake in a reasonably hot oven, 180-200C, for about 15 minutes, until they look done. Malaches, from Forme of Cury, Hieatt and Butler edition I also ran a batch of malaches. Malaches. Take blode of swyne, floure, & larde idysed, salt & mele; do hit togedre. Bake hyt in a trappe wyt whyte gres. As discussed previously, I decided to go with oats as the 'mele.' I tweaked my usual black pudding recipe and the result was this. 75 gm flour 50 gm oats 350 ml water 50 gm dried pig's blood 5 gm salt 100 gm bacon (in lieu of lard) optionally 3gm or so of both black pepper and coriander Cut the bacon as small as you can. Rehydrate the blood with a little water, then add the rest. The idea is to avoid lumps. They'll mostly cook out, so don't fret too much. Add oats, flour, salt, bacon, and spices if you're using them. Mix until smooth. For ease of delivery, if you aren't using a trap, line the bottom of your baking dish with foil or a silicone baking mat. Put in a water bath and bake at 165C for about 75 minutes. I'm currently planning to make two varieties, one plain, and one seasoned. Pommys morles, from Diuersa Servicia, Hieatt and Butler edition. For to make pommys morles. Nym rys & bray hem wel, & temper hem vp wiþ almaunde mylk & boyle yt. Nym applyn & pare hem & sher hem smal als dicis, & cast hem þereyn after þe boylyng, & cast sugar whþal & colowre yt wyþ safroun & cast þerto pouder, & serue yt forthe. This calls for diced apples to be simmered in almond milk thickened with ground rice or rice flour. After playing around with it a bit, I think I'm going to make it a little less pottage-like. The method I use will also scale more easily and work better with modern kitchen equipment. Essentially, I'll just roast the apples a bit, rather than try to cook them in the rice pudding-ish stuff. The rest then goes out as a sort of sauce poured on at service. The sauce is almond milk, thickened with a spoonful of rice flour per cup of milk, more or less, with sugar, ginger, and cinnamon added to make up the sauce. If needed the sauce could go on the side, as well. As is my usual practice, I won't bother with saffron. pise of Almayne, from Diuersa Servicia, Hieatt and Butler edition. For to make pise of Almayne. Nym wyte pisyn & wasch hem & seþ hem a god wyle; siþþyn wasch hem in cold watyr vnto þe holys gon of alle, and do hem alle in a pot, & keuer yt wel þat no breþ passe owt, &boyle hem ry(yogh)t wel. & do þerto god mylk of almandys & a party of flowr of rys, & salt & safroun, & messe yt forþe. almaunde mylk & boyle yt. Nym applyn & pare hem & sher hem smal als dicis, & cast hem þereyn after þe boylyng, & cast sugar whþal & colowre yt wyþ safroun & cast þerto pouder, & serue yt forthe. Pesoun of Almayne, from Forme of Cury, Hieatt and Butler edition. Pesoun of Almayne. Take white pesoun; waisshe hem. Seeþe hem a grete while. Take hem vp and cole hem thurgh a cloth; waisshe hem in colde water till the hulles go off. Cast hem in a pot and couere hem þat no breth go out, and boile hem right wel, and cast þerinne gode mylke of almaundes and a pertye of flour of rys wiþ powdour gynger, safroun, & salt. Two versions of the same dish. Pea soup with a bit of almond milk and rice flour, seasoned with salt and ginger. I'll use yellow split peas if I can find them, green if I can't, since the first few steps are getting the hulls off the peas, and split peas are pre-hulled for my convenience. Then just cook them up, and a touch of almond milk and a bare sprinkling of rice flour, just so I can say I did. One calls for sugar, one does not, so I shall omit it. Ginger and salt as needed. That gets us through breakfast and several of the feast dishes. Progress is being made.