For the third course of the menu with adapted recipes in the edition of Het excellente kookboek (The Excellent Cookbook) we decided to put some anchovies on the table as well. There is a still life by the German painter Sebastian Stoskopff (1597-1657) with a dish filled with anchovies as centre piece. It looks like…
Condiment
Basis recipe – Mayonnaise
To the page with Tips & Tricks If but one tablespoon is needed, just use mayonnaise from a jar. But in some dishes mayonnaise is an important ingredient, and then it is very rewarding to make one’s own. When buying mayonnaise in a store, always check the list of ingredients. Water should never be listed,…
Basic Recipe – Making Almond Milk
To the page with Tips & Tricks For people who are lactose-intolerant or follow a vegan diet, almond milk is one of the possible substitutions for milk from cow, goat or sheep. It is not difficult to make at home. A good thing, because shop-bought almond milk often contains sugar and other additives like thickening…
Roman fish sauce
Garum or liquamen Garum is one of the basic ingredients in the cuisine of Roman antiquity. It is a fish sauce that was used to salt dishes. One can’t simply use kitchen salt in recipes, because instead of extracting moisture (which is what salt does), garum adds moisture to a dish. When preparing an authentic Roman dish, this sauce is…
Red mustard the Roman way
Straight to the recipe This is not the first recipe for mustard on Coquinaria. The first mustard-recipe, from the fourteenth-century cookbook Le MĂ©nagier de Paris, was published fifteen years ago. Mustard in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times is comparable to tomato ketchup or soy sauce in some restaurants: there is a bottle on…
Sauce espagnole
Straigh to the recipe The first new historical recipe of 2018 concerns small chicken pies from nineteenth-century French cook CarĂŞme. The stuffing is seasoned with one spoonful of sauce espagnole. That will be easy, I thought, just look up what CarĂŞme has to say about this sauce and prepare it. But things were slightly more…
Murri
Straight to the recipe An Arabian condiment from the Middle Ages Who  prepares medieval Arab recipes on a regular basis, will have read about murrÄ«, because this condiment is frequently used in period recipes. The ancient Romans had garum, the medieval Arabs had their murrÄ«. This sauce can best be described as a fragrant, spicy way of…
Anchovy sauce
This recipe is from a manuscript that is kept in the Royal Library in The hague. It dates from around 1780. A transcription is in progress. The original recipe *wel vervarschd (well rinsed) – desalted by putting in water which has been changed regularly Modern adaptation of the recipe Butter sauce with anchovies can accompany…
Medieval mustard
Straight to the recipe Mustard has always been a popular condiment. Mustard is made from the seeds of several species of the brassica-family (cabbage). From some varieties the leaves can be eaten, and the seeds not only serve to make mustard, but can also be pressed to yield a culinary oil, or distilled to make…
Verjuice
Wine nor vinegar Literally verjuice means ‘green juice’ (from French ‘jus vert’). It is the juice from unripe grapes, unripe apples, sorrel, goose berries, whatever, as long as it is sour. It is a common ingredient in medieval recipes, and even in later recipes up to the seventeenth century. Then it was no longer in…