Concentrated veal stock or jus de veau is a staple in the classic French cuisine. It is used in sauces, seldom if ever as a base for soup. Veal bones are rich in gristle, which results in a stock that forms a jelly when it is cold. However, the resulting jelly is not firm enough…
ORIGIN
Dutch bitterballen from leftover oxtail meat
With oxtail meat and stock and dried ceps For the family Christmas dinner in 2014 I had prepared an old-fashioned clear oxtail consommé as first course. I ended up with leftover stock and a lot of leftover meat from the oxtail. I froze part of the meat with 3 cups of the stock, and when two months later…
Clear Oxtail Soup
Haute cuisine for the Middle Class In my youth we used to eat oxtail soup as the first course of our Christmas dinner. My mother did not really like cooking, so the rest of the year our dinner fare was simple. If she did serve soup, it was prepared from a can or stock cube….
Potage à la Reine
Straight to the recipe The French origins of a Dutch soup ‘Queen’s Day‘ (Koninginnedag) was a national holiday in the Netherlands. It was celebrated on April 30, originally the birthday of Queen Juliana, grandmother of our King Willem-Alexander. Prior to Juliana’s ascension to the throne in 1949, Queen’s Day was celebrated on August 31, the birthday of Juliana’s…
Crème brûlée
Straight to the recipe An all-time favourite from the seventeenth century Crème brûlée is one of the most popular desserts. That probably has to do with the titillating contrast between the cold, creamy custard and the hard, hot layer of burned sugar. This dish should be prepared with care, because it can easily turn out wrong….
Hippocras, a medieval digestive
“To your health!” Sangria, punch and bishop wine all are descendants of spiced wines that have been drunk since Antiquity. They were especially populair in the Middle Ages, when they were served at the end of a meal as digestive. These wines, with added spices and sweetened with sugar (which was also considered a spice),…
Salmon in red wine-sauce
Straight to the recipe A recipe from the French Golden Age The first really new cookbooks since the Middle Ages did not appear before 1650. In France these cookbooks were the first onset to the development of the classical French “haute cuisine”. Up til the middle of the seventeenth century medieval classics Le Ménagier de Paris and Le…
The day all France was vegetarian
Straight to the recipe Jean-Louis Flandrin, who died in 2001, wrote in his posthumously published book L’Ordre des mets that the reformation had such rapid succes in North-West Europe because of the prohibition of butter by the catholic church during Lent. Southern Europe used olive oil anyway, but in the North-West suet, lard and butter were the…
Mustard-dill sauce
Very good with fish For example with hot-smoked salmon I got this recipe nearly forty years ago from someone who was married to a Swede. For about 2.5 decilter (1 cup) sauce; preparation 10 minutes. 2 Tbsp mustard 2 Tbsp sugar 2 Tbsp white vinegar 6½ Tbsp sunflower oil (or other neutral-tasting vegetable oil) 6½…
Dashi
Recipes for Japanese stock Dashi is the basic stock of Japanese cuisine. It can be prepared in several manners, but mostly dashi is made with seaweed and dried bonito. Below there are several recipes for making dashi. When preparing noodlse, use Japanese noodle bouillon. The two main variations of dashi are ichiban dashi and niban…
Tortelli in brodo
Straight to the recipe An Italian recipe from the sixteenth century This is a real classic from the Italian kitchen: stuffed pasta in broth. The sixteenth century recipe prescribes the use of meat broth. If you replace this by a good vegetable broth, the result is a very tasty vegetarian dish. It is best not…
Refreshing almond lemonade
Straight to the recipe This is a recipe with a short introduction, belonging to the series of recipes for the group stage of the WC Soccer 2019 for women. Each day I published a recipe from a country that was playing on that day, and the Netherlands played their first game on Tuesday 11 June….
Fish with leeks for Lent
Straight to the recipe Herring, often in preserved form, is very important food for medieval people. During the fifteenth century, when the recipe on this page was written, one could buy very salty pickle herring, dried herring en smoked herring. The English have, just like the Dutch, several kinds of smoked herring, like kipper, bloater…
Mussels in antiquity
Straight to the recipe As the Romans liked to eat them The months around Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with good wining and dining. Give yourself a break from stuffed turkeys and roasted gammon, and have some humble shellfish. The mussel has been eaten ever since the stone age. The historical recipe on this page…
Roman tuna
Straight to the recipe Great with stewed cucumber Every year around the first day of May there is a Romeinenweek or ‘Week of the Romans’ in the Netherlands, when Roman heritage is put in the spotlight with festivals, events and activities. This year I was there on April 29 at a recently discovered Roman army marching…