New Book--Eat Like A Viking

Earlier this week, I learned that there is a new book available about Viking era food:

Brooks, Craig. Eat like a Viking! A guide to Anglo-Saxon & Viking age food & drink.  (May 24, 2019).

Independently published by a British reenactor, this book is available on Amazon.com and possibly elsewhere also.  However, Amazon's page on the book includes enough text to suggest that it might be a useful edition to a Viking age food library. Mr. Brooks notes in his introduction that he wrote this text as a quick reference guide "of available food types" and to give ideas for recipes that could be cooked at reenactment events.  To my knowledge, the information in his Introduction is correct, and his attitude is appropriate.  He observes, in the close to his Introduction:

What follows is open to discussion, as these recipes are my take on what may or may not have been eaten by the Saxons and Vikings in the UK.  It's been an interesting journey, experimenting with raw vegetables, and new cooking methods, some of which have made it into our daily cooking routines, which I hope will give you some inspiration too.

Amazon is charging USD $19.12 for this slender (109 pages) paperback.  I would like to buy and read it, but at that price, I will not pay additional shipping for it; I'll wait until I can put together an order big enough to qualify for free shipping.  In the meantime, if any of my readers have had a chance to peruse this book, please let me know in the comments.

Even Better With Lamb

After the successful rabbit-and-barley Anglo-Saxon-inspired stew, a request from my husband, Eric, for a spring lamb stew led me to try the same recipe with lamb.  The only change I made to the recipe (other than using lamb as the meat, of course) was to add some rosemary (probably not period for Anglo-Saxon England) to the pot, in addition to the other ingredients.

This stew was truly magical. Eric raved about how wonderful the taste was each time he ate a bowlful. I think it was the combination of the wonderful flavor of leeks fried in butter with the relatively mild flavor of the lamb, but for whatever reason, the resulting recipe is a keeper; I like it much better than any other lamb stew I've made. It's a pity lamb is expensive here.  However, I will make this pot at least once per spring from now on.

Post-Rabbit Report

It's after dinner now, and my husband, Eric, and I dined on rabbit and barley stew, as planned.  I'm writing to report my observations.

After about three hours, I removed the cheesecloth-wrapped rabbit from the pot and removed the flesh from the bones, mixing the flesh back into the pot and squeezing the cheesecloth to recover the broth that had soaked into it.  This task took a bit over a half an hour.  After stirring the pot one final time to make sure the little bits of rabbit meat were well distributed through the barley and leek mixture, I called the stew done and we sat down to eat.

The stew came out very well.  It had plenty of flavor, but was not overpowering.  Part of this is undoubtedly due to the fact that the leeks and rabbit were fried in lots of butter, but the bay and sage also played a part.  It seemed closer to what a well-off Anglo-Saxon retainer might have eaten than the fowl-based varieties I had previously tried, though I'm not sure why I think so.

Although Eric understood that this was not meant to be a spicy dish, he was curious to experiment with capsaicin-based spices because it was our first time eating rabbit.  So he tried three capsaicin-based condiments on a few bites of the stew:  Tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, and sweet paprika.  He told me not to even bother with the Tabasco, because his verdict was that it detracted from the food:  "It steps on the flavor too much; you might as well be eating chicken," he reported.

The cayenne and paprika did better, and I tried both of them.  Eric preferred the cayenne, which delivered a bit of kick while not concealing the blend of barley and rabbit flavors.  I preferred the paprika, which I thought complemented those flavors better even though it was less spicy.  

Due to the high cost of farm-raised rabbit in this area (since neither of us hunts), and the labor-intensive nature of its preparation in comparison to the chicken and duck versions, I don't think we'll be having this version of the stew very often.  I am glad I decided to try it once, though, and I'm happy that we have enough left to enjoy for most of the rest of this week.

EDIT:  (3/28/2013)  We've been eating the stew, and have periodically come upon thin little bones and bits of gristle while chewing.  I attempted to remove all of these while removing the flesh from the carcass, but apparently I missed quite a few of them.  If you try this recipe, you will want to be very careful in eating the stew, unless you use only rabbit joints in making it.

Rabbit Barley Stew

After years of speculating about doing it, I have finally put on a rabbit-and-barley pot, using the same recipe I have used for my other barley pots. I've talked about my earlier experiments with it here, here and here.  It's a recipe that's more or less consistent with what we know of Anglo-Saxon cooking. 

This time, I followed the recipe almost exactly as I found it, except: 1) I added the sage with the other vegetables; 2) I left out the vinegar, and 3) I've wrapped my rabbits in cheesecloth, so that I can pull them out when the stew is done and remove the bones. I browned the meat and sauteed the vegetables in a skillet before moving them to my crockpot, instead of doing all the frying and simmering in one pot (more practical if you are using a cauldron or soup pot to cook in). I will provide an update after the stew is done and my husband and I have had an opportunity to taste the results.

Duck Redux

I have written twice previously about a putative Anglo-Saxon recipe for a stew involving barley, duck and leeks; here and here.

This time, I went for utter simplicity.  The only seasonings were fresh sage. dried bay leaves, and sea salt.  I used butter to fry the leeks, garlic and duck pieces, and chicken broth to steep it all in.  I did add some mushrooms to the pan as I was sauteing everything, because I had a bit less duck than I wanted.  No vinegar.  After sauteeing the duck, leeks, garlic, and mushrooms, I placed everything into my slow cooker pot, and allowed it to cook  on the low heat setting for about 10 hours. 

The result was wonderful.  Flavorful *and* (in my opinion) plausibly period.  My husband, a confirmed carnivore, didn't even mind that it was a bit short on duck.  I think I will make the recipe in this form as a part of my permanent cooking repertoire from now on.

I've also think I've found where this particular recipe comes from.  I found it in a compilation on a reenactor site, but judging from the citations it appears to be from the following book:

Berriedale-Johnson, Michelle. The British Museum Cookbook. (British Museum Publications 1987).*

There are two reviews of the book on Amazon.  One claims it has wonderful recipes, while the other criticizes the book for not citing source materials to support its implied claims that its recipes use period ingredients and methods.  (The reviewer who praised the book specifically cites the duck with barley recipe I've been experimenting with as an example of a recipe that provides "alternate choices").

I am not surprised to learn that Ms. Berriedale-Johnson's book includes recipes that feature ingredients that are out-of-period for the recipe--as my exploration of my Christmas presents showed, many "historical" cookbooks do.  In my opinion, the student of cooking simply has to dive in, read whatever material is available on historical periods of interest, and be prepared not to take an author's word that a proposed recipe as "historical" if it doesn't match one's own research.  Whatever her flaws, however, Ms. Berriedale-Johnson has helped me find a recipe I love and intend to keep, and I'm willing to be a bit sympathetic to her because of that.

And I still have to try the stew with rabbit, which my local butcher carries, and see how that differs from my now familiar "duck-a-leekie" stew (to use my husband's name for it). 

* Amazon has a 1995 book with the same author and title; I assume it's a more recent edition of the book used by the reenactor site and have accordingly provided a link to the page where Amazon sells the 1995 book.

Barley Stew again.

I'm trying the putative Anglo-Saxon recipe for hare or rabbit stew again, using the last of the duck breasts I bought this winter, with a few new variations, some of which are defensibly period, others which may not be:

• I've added some shredded pork roast from an earlier recipe (I'd cooked it with cranberries and honey);
• I added beef broth instead of water;
• I fried the leeks and garlic in the pan when I was browning the duck.  I don't know if that will improve the taste of the final stew, but the house sure smells wonderful now!
• I used a sea salt and rosemary blend to season it, along with some black pepper.  I was able to get fresh sage, so I used it this time, and omitted the bay leaves.
• I also omitted the vinegar, since it made the last batch too sour.

I suspect that the pork is a suitably period addition (it doesn't taste very strongly of cranberry, and the rest of the ingredients for the roast were period enough) and the rosemary could be defended, but I have my doubts about the pepper, and suspect that only a wealthy household would be able to combine beef broth, pork and duck in the same dish.  Still, it's fun to experiment.

EDIT:  My husband was delighted when he tasted the stew!  I thought it was good too, though not *quite* as good as it smelled.  :-)

SECOND EDIT: The stew got richer and more flavorful the longer it sat in my refrigerator! Sadly, it's mostly gone now.

My Twist on a Putative Anglo-Saxon Recipe

I found this recipe on the Internet years ago.

******

Hare, Rabbit, Veal or Chicken Stew with Herbs & Barley
[serves 6]

In 7th century England, herbs were one of the few flavourings available to cooks and were
used heavily...

50g (2 oz.) butter;
1 -1.5kg (2-3 lbs.) (depending on the amount of bone) of hare or rabbit
joints, stewing veal or chicken joints;
450g (1 lb.) washed and trimmed leeks, thickly sliced;
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely;
175 g (6 oz.) pot barley;
900 mL (30 fl oz., 3 3/4 cups) water;
3 generous tablespoons red or white wine vinegar;
2 bay leaves, salt, pepper;
15 fresh, roughly chopped sage leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried sage.

Melt the butter in a heavy pan and fry the meat with the leeks and garlic till the vegetables are slightly softened and the meat lightly browned. Add the barley, water, vinegar, bay leaves and seasoning. Bring the pot to the boil, cover it and simmer gently for 1 - 1 1/2 hours or till the meat is really tender and ready to fall from the bone. Add the sage and continue to cook for several minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste and serve in bowls-- the barley will serve as a vegetable.

******

You can find this recipe here; the page is somebody's e-mail post, attributing this and other recipes to The British Museum Cookbook by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, British Museum Publications (1987). Probably it's just someone's suggestion of a recipe that could be made with period ingredients (barley instead of potatoes), available herbs (dill, sage, salt, onions and garlic), and period cooking techniques (frying, then simmering in a pot). Since we don't have any Anglo-Saxon cookery books (assuming any were written), this is as plausible a period recipe as we're likely to find.

I have made this recipe before, browning the meat and then transferring all the ingredients to my faithful crockpot for long gentle simmering. But I'd always made it with chicken. This weekend, I decided that I wanted to try it with game--either rabbit, as the recipe suggests, or duck, either of which I can obtain from my local butcher. So I bought a quantity of boneless duck breasts (boneless, so that I wouldn't have to fish bones out of the stew, later) and leeks.

Then, I decided to experiment.

I sauteed some white mushrooms (possibly not native to Britain but certainly native to Chester County, Pennsylvania where I live) in butter, and added them to the duck and barley for more bulk and flavor. Then I fried a little bacon, chopped it into bits, and added it as well. (The 13th century cookery book I reviewed a few weeks ago supports the use of bacon with chicken in early medieval cooking.) I didn't have any dill, so I used a dill and salt mixture I had handy, in addition to the garlic, sage, and bay leaves. I substituted cider vinegar for the wine vinegar because I like it better. I also added mustard powder (which I believe is period also).

I can't attest to the authenticity of my substitutions any more than I can attest to the authenticity of the original recipe, but the aroma wafting up from my crockpot is wonderful.

If my experiment comes out well, I may try rabbit eventually (but not next time--I still have more frozen duck in my freezer for another round).

EDIT: The stew was good, except the vinegar made it too sour! Next time, I will leave the vinegar out, and let the butter, sage and bacon do more flavoring. Maybe the mustard powder should go, too.