Mermelada de tomate, Tomato Jam -- a Pinedo recipe

My neighbors, G & T, gave me a large bag of tomatoes -- an "excess" from their family garden.  I was thrilled!  I had been contemplating Pinedo recipes and had not yet made up my mind which to make.  This clenched it.

If you are not familiar with my series of Pinedo recipes, please click on the word "Pinedo" in the Labels section of this blog or do a search on the word "Pinedo".

I reviewed the recipes that used tomatoes and decided on the one on pages 161 and 162, Tomato Jam, which would use up most of the tomatoes they shared with me.

Miss Pinedo's recipe

My Translation

Tomato jam.

         Take one ounce of sugar for each large tomato; cook to the caramel point in the pan. Add the tenth part [of the weight of the tomatoes] of onions cut into small pieces, and when it has begun to color, the tomatoes are put inside with salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg.

Everything will be boiled over a very high heat and when it is quite thick, it is passed through a sieve.

         It is then returned to the fire until this jam is solid. It will be emptied into jars that will be covered with double paper to preserve it.

         It can also be composed without the onion in which case it will be used for many sauces.

         You can also make pure tomato jam, which will be used for different stews.

My Redaction

6 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes

12 ounces onion (1 medium onion)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 pound sugar

The order of steps is important here because once the sugar is caramelized, it needs to be used immediately.

Core the tomatoes and chop them.  Peel the onion and chop it.  Sprinkle the salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg on top of the mixture, then stir it.  Set it aside.

Use a large, heavy-bottomed kettle or Dutch oven to make the jam.  First heat it over medium-high heat.

Start caramelizing the sugar by pouring in several ounces across the bottom of the kettle.  Stir slowly and calmly with a wooden spoon -- avoid splashing sugar on the sides of the pan.  When all the sugar has melted, pour in a few more ounces.  Continue stirring.  Repeat the process until all the sugar is in the pan.  

When the last bit of sugar is melted, turn the heat to low.  Stop stirring.  Watch the sugar and, if possible, use a candy thermometer to check the temperature.  The molten sugar should be a beautiful golden brown, or reach 320 to 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once it is ready, pour in the tomato and onion mixture.  Stir well and turn the heat back up.

Keep stirring and bring the mixture to a hard boil.  Continue boiling to reduce the mixture and get it thick.  Stir occasionally to check that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the kettle.  Reduce the heat as needed to keep the thickening mixture from splattering outside the kettle.  This could take an hour or more.

Once the mixture is thick, puree it with a stick blender or in batches in a regular blender.  It won't be smooth but will look a lot like commercially-made tomato sauce.

Return the mixture to a simmer over low heat until it gets very thick, like a jam.  Stir often to stop it from sticking.

Put into jars and refrigerate.

My Notes

I used a food processor to get everything chopped into small pieces.  I worked in small batches and combined the batches together in one big bowl.  Note that I did not put the onions into the caramelized sugar to brown before the tomatoes went in.

Everything together, before the spices were stirred in.

One pound of melted sugar did not get deep enough for my candy thermometer to reach it, so I went by color and used a meat thermometer to get a feel for its temperature.  (I held it by hand and had a hard time keeping it off the hot bottom of the pan.)

A beautiful caramel color.

When I poured in the tomato mixture, there was a lot of sizzling and splattering.  The caramelized sugar immediately cooled to hard chunks.  But with the cooking process that followed, the chunks dissolved.  I suspect it might have been better to caramelize the sugar in a smaller pan and then pour that into the heated tomato mixture.

Newly combined

As the mixture boils, it is losing water.  If you don't lower the temperature while it is boiling, the tomato mixture will splatter all over your kitchen.  (Trust me on this!)  Check for that every time you stir it.  You will feel the mixture thickening.

Reduced to thick and ready for pureeing.

Pureed.

Miss Pinedo says to cook the pureed mixture until it is solid.  I didn't let it get that far, but it was very thick and it got thicker when it was cold.  Overall, it reduced to about one-fourth of its original volume.

The Verdict

It was thick, it was red, and bits of pepper were visible in the mixture.

We tried it by itself, just off the spoon.  It was sweet, but not like a fruit jam.  It was savory from the spices.  It was rich and had a good mouthfeel.  There was a slight acid bite and a little bitter aftertaste that was not unpleasant.  The main effect was a complex flavor that hinted of tomatoes but went much further than that.

We tried it spread on a flour tortilla - delicious!  My neighbors used it as a sauce on shrimp and found it to be good.  I think it would be a good spread on a sandwich, in the place of mayonnaise or mustard.  I would put a spoonful of it on my plate to be eaten along with roast chicken or beef.  It is robust enough to enhance beef and not be overwhelmed by it.

Look closely.  See how thick it is and notice the pepper in it.

Success!  

I got about 6 cups of tomato jam from the 6 pounds of tomatoes.  I didn't can it, so I kept it in the refrigerator.  There was plenty to share with others.

As Miss Pinedo noted, you can make this without onions and even without spices.  I would prefer the complex flavors because without them, I think I would just have tomato sauce or tomato paste.

Pastés de poucins à la mode Lombarde (Chicken pasties Lombard)

I was describing how old recipes are not as detailed as what we are accustomed to in modern cookbooks and looked for some examples to illustrate it.  The following recipe, from Pleyn Delit, Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks by Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler caught my attention and also tempted my tastebuds.  Chicken wrapped in bacon?  I'm in.

ISBN 0-8020-7632-7

This is one of my favorite books.  Find recipe #107, as the book has no page numbers.  The authors took it from the late 14th century manuscript, Le Ménagier de Paris.

Pastés de poucins à la mode Lombarde

In the Lombard manner, when the small chickens are plucked and prepared, take beaten eggs, both the yolks and the whites, with verjuice and spice powder, and dip your chickens in this; and set them in the pasty with strips of bacon.

Notice that the recipe does not tell you any measurements or what spices to use.  It also does not say to cook the pasties!

My Redaction

The authors provide their version but I wanted to try it myself without their help.  

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 slices of bacon

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon poudre fines spice mix (see ingredient list in the Notes below)

2 tablespoons verjuice (or you can substitute lemon juice, according to the authors)

1 batch of pasties dough or pastry dough, chilled (I used the pasties dough recipe from King Arthur Baking, click here for it.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs with the spices and verjuice.  Set aside.

Cut the chicken breasts into pieces about 1 inch thick and about 2 to 3 inches long.  Cut eight and aim for uniformity so they bake evenly.  You will probably have some chicken meat left over.

Cut the bacon slices in half.

Cut the dough into eight equal-sized pieces.  Roll out one piece to about 6 inches in diameter.

Place a piece of bacon on the dough.

Dip a piece of chicken into the egg mixture.  The spices are mostly on the bottom, so push the meat down there to pick up a nice coating of egg and spices.  Place the chicken on the bacon, then wrap the bacon around the chicken in a spiral shape.

Wet the edges of the dough with water, fold over the chicken, pressing out most of the trapped air, then seal the edges.  Flute them or press them with a fork.  Cut some venting slits in the top. 

Place the pasty on the cooking sheet and then repeat the process for the other pasties.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.  The pasty dough should have some light browning on it.

My Notes

The King Arthur Baking recipe needed more water than they listed.  I put in about 8 tablespoons and it was still too dry for rolling well.  

I actually used 3 eggs but there was so much left over that I wrote to use 2 eggs.  One might have sufficed.

The poudre fines spice mix contains cinnamon, cloves, ginger, grains of paradise, pepper, and saffron.  

I cooked the batch for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Reasonably uniform in size

Too much egg.  

First, bacon

Then chicken

Spiral wrap

I really need to work on my pastry finishing skills.

The Verdict

They were tasty!  The chicken and bacon were both thoroughly cooked, and I think they would have been better if I had taken them out at 15 minutes to make the chicken moister.

Good with green beans.

The dough was just right -- flexible enough to roll and fold and sturdy enough to hold the ingredients without (much) leaking.  My guest tasters and I commented on its good flavor.  I was happy with its texture and crispiness.  It was not a pie crust but more like a step between pie crust and bread.  I suspect the dough absorbed most of the bacon fat, which added to the overall flavor.

Chicken wrapped in bacon was, of course, flavorful, and you can't beat that.  Chicken breast always strikes me as dry, and I felt that way about this, although it was not too dry.  However, the bacon contributed some fat to improve that.  I think using chicken thigh meat would be an improvement for me.

As a group, the dough, chicken, bacon, and spices were a good blend, an enjoyable meal, and we ate them all at dinner.  

I wished to taste more of the spices, and one of my guest tasters agreed.  The spices weren't always present in a bite, and only showed themselves sometimes.  If I were to do this again, I would sprinkle the spice mixture on the dough before wrapping it around the meat.  That would ensure enough spice and that it was spread evenly across the pasty.  Still, I am not complaining about the flavor.

We also decided to try eating the pasties with a sauce.  I created a sweet-and-sour one with verjuice, honey, salt, pepper, and some ground, toasted bread crumbs as a thickener.  We poured spoonfuls over the pasty, which was a very good addition, making it moister and adding more flavor.  If you do this, aim for more verjuice than honey, and it should tingle your taste buds with that balance of sweet with sour.  I didn't measure anything, I just combined.  I heated it up in the microwave to help the breadcrumbs absorb and thicken the sauce just a little.

With sauce.  The breadcrumbs helped keep all of the sauce from running out of the pasty.

While the batch of pasties were cooking, I decided to use up the rest of the bacon and more of the egg mixture.  First I cut more chicken breast into the same size pieces I made for the pasties.  After dipping each piece in the egg and wrapping it with bacon, I rolled it in dried bread crumbs.  Those baked for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees when the pasties came out.

These were also well-received.  Quite tasty!  They were perfect little two bite morsels, and the bread crumbs added a nice crunch.

Success!  In several ways!