A Good Sauce for Chicken -- 15th Century Italy

I was given a copy of a Ken Albala book I did not know existed:  Cooking in Europe 1250-1650, part of the Daily Life through History series published by the Greenwood Press in 2006.  (Thank you, DS!)

ISBN 0-313-33096-4

Some of the recipes I had seen before, but many I had not and it was a fascinating read.  It has several organizational lists which I found to be very helpful.  One is by era (Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Late Renaissance and Elizabethan Era), and within it, subcategories (Cold Foods, Soups, Meat, etc.)  The other is by country (France, England, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland) with subcategories by era.  There is a list of recipes for special occasions (novelty, holidays, illness).

Ken includes a glossary at the beginning of the book.  Each recipe has a title and cites the source, location, and time period it came from.  He also puts comments after the recipes to define unusual words specific to the recipe or to clarify a technique.  Some of his comments help interpret the recipe to more modern, smaller quantities, since most of us are not cooking for large groups of people.  Clearly he has tried most of the recipes, so his experience and knowledge of food history are a valuable aspect of this book.

I recommend it as worthwhile for a better understanding of historical cooking and to get a feel for how a master historical cook would approach these recipes.

Today was a cold and rainy day, which made it perfect for building a fire in my living room fireplace.  This inspired me to cook something over that fire, and I found a recipe in Ken's book.  On page 51 is A Good Sauce for Chickens, cited as from Italy in the 15th century, by "Anonimo Veneziano", which Ken says means "Anonymous Venetian."  

To Make a good sauce for chickens, take pomegranate and make wine by hand, and place in this wine good sweet spices, and if it seems too strong, add pounded anise, or rosewater.  Others use wine of sour pomegranates and wine of good sweet grapes, and place these two wines together with enough sweet spices.  If you don't have grapes put in a bit of honey and let it boil, the spices should be raw, you don't want to let it stand so it spoils.

Ken notes that "wine" means "juice" and that the goal is a sweet-and-sour fruit sauce with spices.

It is winter, and my grape vine is merely empty twigs, but I did have a bag of frozen grapes from it.  After they partially defrosted, I put them in batches into the blender to coarsely chop them.  Then each batch went into a small cloth bag, where I squeezed out the juice.  This resulted in grape juice that was light in flavor and tart, not sweet.  

Grapes, stems and all

Pulsed to coarsely chop

Squeeze to nearly dry

The juice, more than enough for this recipe

I also had a bottle of homemade pomegranate molasses.  Using fruit from my own tree, I had mixed the juice with a little sugar and lemon juice, then reduced it to 1/4 of its volume.  This stores the juice well for a long time and takes up a small space in my refrigerator.

I was ready to give this recipe a try.

My Redaction

3 large pieces of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 2 pounds total)

olive oil

1/4 cup pomegranate molasses

1/2 cup grape juice

1 teaspoon poudre fines (a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, grains of paradise, pepper, and saffron)

1 tablespoon honey

The honey and olive oil were added later.

The chicken meat was coated on all sides with olive oil and placed on a hot, oiled grill over live coals.  While it was cooking, I kept track of the heat from the coals and added more coals as needed.  It took about 40 minutes to cook the meat through, turning it over once after about 20 minutes.

I mixed the pomegranate and grape juices with the spices, then tasted it.  Both juices were tart, and the mixture was less tart than the molasses but still too tart for my preference.  So I added the honey.  The mixture was put in a small ceramic pan near the fire to begin warming it.  Once the chicken was nearly done cooking, I put the pan on a trivet closer to the fire and with hot coals near one side.  I stirred it with a fork often to even the heating through the liquid.  Once it was steaming, I considered it ready.

Cozy, warm, and welcoming.

Starting to cook the chicken

Warming the sauce while the chicken cooked

Heating the sauce in earnest

The Verdict

Dinner is served!

A piece of chicken was set on top of a slice of sourdough bread, then the sauce was spooned over the top.  This put sauce and some spices on the meat.  Most of the sauce, though, ran off the meat where it was soaked up by the bread.  This was served with a simple side salad of greens, tomato, and croutons, with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

View from above.

My guest taster had no idea what was in the sauce, so I had him describe what he tasted.  He thought there was citrus in it, and said it was fruity.  He could taste some spices but none were dominating.  He did not think it needed salt and that the sweet-and-sour ratio was just right.  Over all, he loved it and had seconds.  He particularly enjoyed how the bread soaked up the sauce; he cut a piece of soaked bread with each bite of chicken, which I did, too.

See how the bread soaked up the sauce?

I thought the sweet-and-sour ratio was just right, too.  It was not "balanced" as it was more on the sour side.  The sweet was just enough to temper the sour; the sour was just enough tempered to make my taste buds tingle, my mouth water, and inspire me to take another bite.  If it had been any sweeter, I don't think I would have had the same physical reaction, and I wanted that reaction.

It is possible I could have put in more spices, but I'm not sure I wanted them to be more prevalent.  They were there and they added depth to the sauce.  I really enjoyed the emphasis on the fruit flavors.  

Success!

It was great fun cooking over fire in my home.  It doesn't get cold enough in sunny Southern California to build fires often, so I take advantage of it when I can.  It reminds me of the times I've spent demonstrating historical cooking to the public, which I miss.  And the chicken, by itself, had that wonderful grilled meat flavor you can only get from cooking it over fire.  Mmmmmmmmm!

Sweet and Sour Green Olive Appetizer -- Zeitoon bi Hamod er Rummaan

This is my first post since May.  Life went into overdrive in June and is just now settling down!  Nothing bad, just very busy.  But enough of that, let's talk about recipes!

I was in the mood for something Arabic so I perused one of my fun books, The Arabian Delights Cookbook by Anne Marie Weiss-Armush.

ISBN 1-56565-219-3

Ms. Weiss-Armush, born American, was introduced into the food from the Middle East when she and her husband moved to Syria and she first met her mother-in-law.  She learned recipes and traditions from a variety of places in the Middle East during the 11 years she lived and traveled there.  This book was published in 1995.

This recipe, a type of mezzeh or appetizer, is one she and a friend concocted after having it at a Lebanese restaurant.  Look for the recipe on pages 47 and 48.

Sweet and Sour Green Olive Appetizer

1 cup green olives

1/2 small onion, slivered

3 tablespoons hamod er rummaan pomegranate syrup

3 tablespoons water

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons brown sugar

salt

The onion is sitting on the blue lid.  

1.  Drain the olives of their brine.

2.  Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the olives.  Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before serving.


My Notes

While the olives were draining, I mixed the marinade.

I used about 1/4 of the onion you see in the picture.  I don't think I really slivered it but I did slice it thinly so the marinade could penetrate it.

I used about 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  This is what I thought would bring out the flavors without making anything taste salty.

Just the marinade

Once I had everything ready, I mixed the olives into the marinade.

Olives only slightly mixed into the marinade.

I then put them into a sterilized canning jar.  I sterilized it using the water and microwave method I have used before.  I am not certain it was really sterilized but it certainly was very clean!

I worried that the marinade didn't cover the top of the olives, so I turned it over and gently shook it during the first 24 hours in the refrigerator.

The Verdict

I waited a few days instead of just one to taste it.

Oh my, very good!  At first the onion flavor was dominant, which did not please me, but then the marinade and the sour of the olives came through.  It was a little too sweet, so if I make it again I will reduce the amount of brown sugar to 1 teaspoon and see how I like that.  It could be that the pomegranate syrup Ms. Weiss-Armush used wasn't as sweet as mine.

After a week or so the onion flavor mellowed and was more acceptable.  It should be a background flavor.  The little bit of crunch the onions added to the mixture was pleasant, too.

What I tasted was the slight chewy from the olives, the crunch from the onions, the sour and sweet from the pomegranates.  It was all very inviting and made me want to eat more.

One important note:  I stored the olives in the refrigerator, which caused the olive oil to harden.  The mixture tastes best if you allow the olives to come to room temperature before serving them.

Success!  I gave some to friends who also shared it with friends.  They gave me positive reviews and one person asked for the recipe.  I think it is time to make some more!

Romania -- Chicken with Pomegranate Juice

Here is an intriguing book:  The Medieval Kitchen by Redon, Sabban, and Serventi.  The ISBN is 978-0226706856.  

It brings us recipes from medieval France and Italy, which had some different ingredients available than the same time period in England.  Romania is listed on page 88, in the chapter "Meats Cooked in Sauce".  They mention that both sweet and sour pomegranates were available and this recipe called for the sour variety.  Since those aren't available in my area, they recommend adding some lemon juice to brighten the flavor.

Romania -- Chicken with Pomegranate Juice

1 free-range chicken, about 3 1/4 pounds
2 fresh pomegranates
1 cup unblanched almonds
1 medium large onion
2 ounce fresh pork fatback
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon strong spice mixture (*see notes below)
salt

Wash the almonds and dry them thoroughly.  When they are completely dry, grind them to a powder in a blender.  Remove from blender jar and set aside (you need not wash the blender before the next step).

Cut the pomegranates in half an scoop out all their seeds into the blender jar.  Puree the seeds and strain; this should yield 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of juice.  Mix the juice and the ground almonds, and add the lemon juice.  Press the mixture through a fine strainer; the result will be an almond milk made with pomegranate juice instead of water.

Cut the chicken into serving pieces and pat dry.  Sprinkle with salt.  Cut the fat into 1/8-inch dice  and render it over low heat in a heavy-bottomed casserole.

Peel the onion and slice into thin rings.  When the fat has rendered, brown the chicken and onion until evenly golden.  If excess fat remains in the casserole, spoon most of it out before proceeding.

Add the almond-pomegranate juice and the spices.  Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down as low as possible and simmer, covered, until the chicken is tender, 30 to 45 minutes.

Check for seasoning and serve.

It looks like the olive oil bottle needs refilling

I'll admit it -- I'm a modern cook using medieval recipes.  Yes, I took some modern shortcuts.  Pomegranates are not yet in season (close!) so I bought pomegranate juice.  I also used the healthier choice of olive oil rather than pork fatback.  Maybe I lost some extra flavor with that decision, but I think my arteries are thanking me for it.

I bought a whole chicken as per the recipe but next time I think I'll just use a cut up one or, even better by my tastes, a package of boneless, skinless thighs.

The "strong spice mixture" is listed as "recipe 150, variation C" further on in the book.  It is basically 1 part ground black pepper, 1 part long pepper, 3 parts ground cloves, and 3 parts ground nutmeg.  At least that is what I used.  I put them all in my coffee-grinder-dedicated-to-grinding-spices-only and whirred them into a powder.

I have long pepper (see the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_pepper) because I cook in the medieval and Renaissance time period.  It is much like black pepper but with a more fiery bite.  The mixture I put together had quantities that were just eye-balled and it did smell strong and peppery.

Anyway, it was easy to grind the almonds and mix them with the juices.  I let them steep (always a good idea for almond milk) while I cut up the chicken and then browned it with the onions.

Nearly all browned

When I strain almond milk, I always lose a lot of the moisture into the almond meal, so I didn't get much more than 1 cup of the milk from it.  ** TAKE NOTE:  save the used almond meal for a dessert called "Emeles".  See the next posting.

The almond milk was mostly brown so I'm not sure how the authors got the "rosy color" they refer to in the text.  I tasted it and was wowed by the burst of flavor in my mouth.  I couldn't wait to try this dish!

Not rosy but wowsie!

After I poured on the sauce, I sprinkled the spices evenly over the chicken pieces.

I even made sure some of the onion was on top of the chicken.  Then I covered it, set the heat to very low, and walked away for 45 minutes.

'Tis done.

The Verdict
I tried a thigh with some onion and a few spoonfuls of sauce over the top.  Success!  The authors said it would have a "gentle flavor" and it certainly did.  The juice flavors I tasted before cooking had mellowed considerably and blended with the chicken, spices, and onion.  I liked it a lot!

I noticed that some of the sauce around the edges had thickened more than what I had scooped out, so I tried that, too.  Oh, I liked this even more!  The flavor was richer and the sauce stayed longer on my tongue.  The thick pieces of chicken hadn't cooked all the way through (my heat is very low) so I turned it back on and simmered them, uncovered, for another 20 minutes on very low. Now all the meat was cooked and all the sauce was thick. Much, much better!

I truly liked the mellow fruit and spice flavor.  But I was also intrigued with the idea of getting more of that rosy color and a stronger burst of pomegranate, so I took some of the sauce and mixed in just a splash of pomegranate juice.  This was good over the chicken, too!

So make your choice:  Want your sauce to have a gentle, subtle flavor?  Follow the recipe.  Want it to be thicker?  Reduce it and the flavor will intensify a bit, too.  Want that rosy color and a stronger pomegranate flavor?  I would reserve out about 1/4 cup of the pomegranate-lemon juice mix and add it at the very end.

Who knew this recipe could be so versatile?