Work Break: Salad Recipes?

[callistotoni]

OK all you cooks out there, can you suggest sources for 16th C salad recipes? I know from my reading that salt, oil and vinegar play prominant roles, but JIMR tells me that there is much variation as to what can go into such salads (such as meat and fruit). If I was going to wing it are there greens that I should avoid because they are new world?

Dreaming away about serving luncheon at my pavillion. :-) 16th C Slackers unite!

Comments

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

here's two of my faves...they're both in the elizabethan feudal gourmet cookbook we did a few years ago, and both are big hits with feast crowds (we get asked for seconds on the green salad even!)

enjoy :)

1. Compound Salat (The English Hous-wife, 1615)
Serves 8
1/8 cup slivered almonds
1 oz capers
2 oz currants
1/8 cup figs
1 1/2 heads leafy greens
2 oz olives
1 orange, peeled and sliced (no white part). Reserve half for garnish. (or a small can of mandarin orange bits, drained)
1 oz sweet pickles
1/8 cup raisens
4-5 lemon slices for garnish
1 tsp lemon juice
Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sugar

Slice, shred and/or chop all salat ingredients. Layer in a nice bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix dressing. Taste, and adjust for vinegar, salt or sugar as needed. Pour on salat and serve, garnished with lemon slices and reserved orange slices.


2. Sallet of Cold Hen

This is a wonderful cold chicken salad. The apple gives it crunch, the parsley gives it color and the lemon and onion flavors meld beautifully for a clean, crisp taste. We found it a delightful foil to the rest of a course of a full Elizabethan dinner, which tends towards the heavy and rich and sweet. If you wish to be totally accurate, start with a whole cooked chicken, remove the legs and mince the meat from the body. We started with boneless skinless breasts purely for the ease of preparation.

The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth Commonly called Joan Cromwell, 1664 . From Pepys at Table.

A Sallet of a Cold Hen or Pullet.
Take a hen and roast it, let it be cold, carve up the legs, take the flesh and mince it small, shred a lemmon and a little parsley and onions, an apple, a little pepper, and slat, with oyle and vinegar; garnish the dish with the bones and lemon peel and so serve it.

Our reconstruction:
Sallet of Cold Hen
Serves 12 as a side dish, 4 to 6 as a main course.
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 lemons
3 oz onions
2 large granny smith apples
1/2 cup parsley, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
8 tsp. good quality olive oil
2 tsp. white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Bake chicken breasts at 350o for 1 hour, until done, but not petrified.
Cube chicken.
Peel and chop lemon, being sure not to get any bitter white part (an easy way to do this: slice the lemon into rounds. Use the knife to circle around the lemon slice and remove the peel and outer membranes.
Slice the onion paper thin.
Chop the apples into the same size chunks as the chicken.
Mix all the ingredients together very thoroughly.
Cover and chill at least two hours, but no more than 12.
Serve garnished with lemon twists and some boiled chicken leg bones.

Stupid question

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

For the first recipe, what kind of olives?

For the second, I'm trying to parse what I can do offsite. 12 hour max means I can't put it all together before leaving for a tourney.

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

Don't use iceberg lettuce. Or corn, tomatoes, or tropical fruit.

Any of the leaf lettuces are fine.
Flower petals (not commercial, of course) are good. I particularly like rose petals. People seldom guess that's what they are eating.

Re: Stupid question

[ornerie.livejournal.com]

for the olives, I usually use kalmata cuz I like 'em :). I've also seen green olives used but dont think they're as nice.

I've had the theory that you can make that chicken salad with cold roast chicken from a grocery store deli. you could always test that!

me, I tend to make it with sauteed chicken breast. keep the ingredients seperate until a couple hours before serving. ziplocks work great for this :). you do want a handful of hours to let the flavors meld, and it can be made the day before, just that the apples might go brown, etc...

good luck!

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

While yummy-looking, the second salad is 1664 and thus for 17th century slackers. Stick to the English Hus-wife.

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

If I wear my ropa, can I be a 16th C slacker?

Speaking of 16th C Slackers

[moira-ramsay.livejournal.com]

http://jillwheezul.livejournal.com/

My LJ Friend posted this aboout 16th C Clothing.

Moira

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Bummer. I don't know enough to discern an acceptable cutoff date ("This was published in the 17th C but we're confident it was done in the 16th C") and not ("Published in the 17th C and we think it's limited to that century"). I know our English Country dances are Playford, which is 17th C but for whatever reason we think they are OK for the SCA.

I'm going to try the second salad at home anyway, 'cause it sounds good. And I've been thinking about trying to serve something different at my place when people come over to sew. :-)

Re: Speaking of 16th C Slackers

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Very Very Cool. I saved the photos of the ropa. There is so much out there that we've not seen published!

I wonder, though, about here comment about that being the same sort of thing as depicted in the Elanor rondol. I think another possibily is that the overdress is fitted. Could, of course, be either, because the details of the dress are not clear.

Re: Speaking of 16th C Slackers

[moira-ramsay.livejournal.com]

I thought you might like that.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, it's a great recipe. Just post-period, is all. Strictly speaking, English Huswife is also post (pub date 1615) but it's so similar to 1580-1590s cookbooks that we generally don't worry about it.
There's a compound sallet of capers and olives recipe that I'll try to remember to find for you when I get home...