Four Sauces for a Chicken -- Sauces #3 & 4: Green Sauce

I had decided to make four sauces to serve with the roasted chicken I had purchased.  The first was a Roman Empire era sauce called "Sauce for Cooked Meat" and the second was "Cameline Sauce", a medieval era recipe that was dominant with wine and cinnamon.

Today's recipe is also medieval and from that same lovely book Pleyn Delit, by Hieatt, Hosington, and Butler.

ISBN 0-8020-7632-7

It is recipe #50, "Verde Sawse."  The authors comment:

Green sauce is the most common medieval (and later) accompaniment to fish.  The recipes vary from very simple (parsley, ground with vinegar, bread, and salt) to infinite variations:  besides the ingredients named here, some call for other greens such as sorrel, pungent roots such as pellitory, and additional spices (eg, cloves).  The Forme of Cury manuscripts themselves show various additions and subtractions:  feel free to vary the recipe according to taste and/or availability of ingredients.

The authors' redaction calls for a choice of the second herb after parsley so I decided to make two versions of the green sauce, one with sage and one with mint, for comparison.

Recall that that the original recipe is given first, then the redaction follows.

Verde Sawse

Take persel, mynt, garlek, a litul serpell and sawge; a litul canel, gynger, piper, wyne, brede, vyneger & salt; grynde it smal with safroun, & messe it forth.

Green Sauce

2-3 tbsp fresh, finely minced parsley
2 tsp each fresh, finely minced thyme, sage, or savory
1/8 tsp each ground ginger, pepper
1/4 cup fine breadcrumbs or two slices diced dry bread (crusts removed)
1 tbsp each vinegar (preferably white wine vinegar), white wine
1/2 tsp salt
optional:  1 tsp each fresh rosemary and mint, finely minced; 1 clove garlic, peeled, crushed, and minced; pinch each of cinnamon, cloves, saffron; 1 - 2 tsp horseradish (as substitute for roots such as pellatory).

You can see the mint and the sage here.

Blend the ingredients in a blender or mortar; if necessary, add more wine and/or vinegar to thin the sauce to a consistency something like mayonnaise.  Serve with poached, grilled, or sauteed fish, or with frogs' legs or goose.  The parsley sauce Chaucer's Cook served with "stubbel goos" was probably green sauce, including garlic, and this is what Platina recommends as a sauce for sauteed frogs' legs.

My Notes

I used dry bread crumbs, white wine vinegar, white wine, ginger, salt, and pepper along with the parsley.  For sauce #3 I used sage and for sauce #4 I used mint.

I put the ingredients for the sage sauce into the blender but the crumbs soaked up all the liquid immediately and there was nothing the blender blades could do to mix it.  

Sage version:  Too dry!

So I scraped it out into a bowl, added some more wine and vinegar (roughly equal parts) and blended it with a pestle.  It helped that the herbs were already finely minced because all I was doing was reducing the crumbs even more, mixing the ingredients, and adding more liquid as needed until I got the right consistency.

Sage version:  Much better!

At this point I had learned my lesson and put the ingredients for the mint sauce right into the bowl to blend with the mortar.  Again I had to add more liquid to get it right.

Mint version

Both sauces were made several hours before dinner time and had time to sit before serving.  They both made about 1/2 cup of sauce.

The Verdict

The plan was to serve the sauces with sliced pieces of chicken so that each diner could dip the meat into the sauce.  I put the sauces on plates so that two diners shared one set of plates.

Sage sauce is 3rd from the left.  Mint sauce is 4th.

These sauces were more pliable than the Roman and cameline sauces but still too stiff to easily dip a piece of chicken into.  Again, I should have tested them before serving to double check and add more liquid as needed.  Next time I won't be so easily fooled!

We ended up spooning the sauces onto our plates and spreading them onto the chicken before eating.

How did they taste?

Sauce #3, the sage green sauce, had sage leaves fresh from my garden.  I put in 2 teaspoons of finely minced leaves.  No one could really taste any sage flavor, although it did not taste just like parsley to me.  I am not sure if the sage melded beautifully with the parsley or just faded away.

It was smooth and lightly flavored.  No flavor was dominant.  Not exciting or memorable.  Just a mellow moistness to my mouth.  It was a good sauce but not anyone's favorite.   I think I would have liked more vinegar in it just to give it a sharp kick.

So success but not with any enthusiasm.

Sauce #4, the mint green sauce, also with leaves fresh from my garden, was very nice.  The mint flavor was light enough not to blast my taste buds but strong enough to tantalize.  I liked the balance of wine and wine vinegar -- no more acid was needed or it would have battled with the mint.  Tasty, indeed!  Success!

In both cases, I think I should have used fewer crumbs or more liquid.  I should have made them very wet knowing they would sit before serving and have time to thicken up again.

I would call the dinner a success, too.  My guests enjoyed trying the four sauces.  We all considered the blend of flavors, picked out our favorites when possible, and exchanged ideas on improving them later.  We shared a good meal and fun conversation.  I was glad to have them and experience my blog experiment!