Elegant mushroom pies

Straight to the recipe

A fourteenth-century dish from France

When I give a talk on medieval cuisine I always serve a sampling of medieval dishes and spiced wine. The recipe on this page never fails to be a success. The pasties were originally served during the first course of a medieval banquet, but in a modern menu with venison they would be an excellent starter. And the pasties are also great as vegetarian main course.
Since I never know exactly how many people will attend my talks, for these occasions I prepare a kind of pizza the size of the baking tray of my oven. So, a very versatile dish.

The picture on the left is a painting by Pieter Breughel the Elder, The fall of the rebel angels (1562). The picture is filled with monsterlike creatures that call medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch to mind. In the red ‘circle’ there’s a mushroom, enlarged in the picture below. Mushrooms have always had a bad reputation, not only because some are deadly poisonous (“Some mushrooms you eat only once …”), but also because of their mysterious growth. How is it possible that these strange plants could come into existence from one day to another? And, lacking visible roots, where do they get there food? Mushrooms were considered ‘excrementa terrae’, the excrements of the earth.

Mushrooms in the medieval kitchen

Mushrooms are gifts of nature, so you’d think they have always been a welcome addition to the meal. However, there are precious few recipes with mushrooms in medieval cookery books. That is not to say that they weren’t prepared, just that the recipes were never considered apt for the rich kitchen. Platina, the Italian humanist, writes in De honeste voluptate et valetudine(1474) about ‘boleti et fungi’ that, although they are eaten by some, they were often the cause of crimes. He mentions the case of the murder of Roman emperor Claudius by his wife Agrippina in 54 AD. Platina advises us to only eat mushrooms that were gathered by experienced people, and even they can make a mistake: whole families have died because of one wrong mushroom in the pot. Mushrooms should be prepared with garlic because, still according to Platina, garlic is a good antidote. He also describes truffles as big as a large quince, and mentions African truffles as the tastiest. Truffles are also an aphrodisiac, which is the reason they are so popular on the tables of lusty nobles. Platina finds that completely detestable  (“detestandum omnino est”). (More about Platina)

Mushrooms in post-medieval cuisine

After the Middle Ages mushrooms quickly gained in popularity. From the seventeenth century onward, truffles, morels and other mushrooms were used in great quantities. In the cookbook Ouverture de cuisine from Lancelot de Casteau (1604) there appeared some recipes with tartoufles. The Belgian gastronome and writer Léo Moulin (1906-1996) wrote in 1983, in an article in the facsimilé edition of the Ouverture that these were recipes for potatoes. However, a few years later he revised his opinion: the recipes were for truffles (Léo Moulin, Living and eating in Europe, 1988, p.160). As is often the case with the internet, his outmoded view can be found everywhere, even on the French wikipedia under the lemma Lancelot de Casteau, but the correct but less spectacular view is nowhere to be found. Until now. Since Lancelot also has a recipe for mushroom pie, this can be found below as extra recipe.

Cultivated mushrooms

The first to describe the cultivation of mushrooms was the Frenchman Nicolas de Bonnefons, in Le jardinier françois from1651. He used dung of mules and donkeys to grow champignons de bois and champignons de prez, and mousserons (Calocybe gambosa). Morels and truffles could not (and still can’t) be cultivated, they have to be ‘ hunted’. In the sequel to Le jardinier François, Les délices de la campagne from 1654, Bonnefons presents several recipes for truffles, white mushrooms, mousserons and morels.

The Traktaat van de kampernoeljes (Treatise on field mushrooms)

The first text in Dutch about mushrooms is the Tractaet van de campernoillien, ghenaemt duyvelsbroot (Treatise on field mushrooms, named devil’s bread) from Johannes Fransiscus van Sterbeeck. It was printed in Antwerp 1668 as part of a pirate edition of De verstandige kock (The sensible cook). He describes several mushrooms, and provides a few recipes, like a mushroom pasty with sweetbread, marrow, oysters and gooseberries. Taxonomy was not yet based on biological criteria, but on similarity in form or colour, so it is rather difficult to determine exactly what mushrooms Van Sterbeeck describes. The treatise has been translated into modern Dutch in 2006 by Marleen Willebrands and Arno van ‘t Hoog (see bibliography).

The original recipe

The main recipe on this page is from the Ménagier de Paris, a text from the end of the fourteenth century that is more than just a cookbook. In my article on medieval mustard and hypocras I have written more about this Ménagier. It wasn’t printed in its own time, but there are several manuscripts. The first printed edition appeared in the nineteenth century, by Baron Hiérome Pichon, in 1846/47. In 1928 Eileen Power based her translation in strange, archaic English on this edition. The most recent scientific edition of the oldfrench text is from 1981, by Georgine Brereton and Janet Ferrier. They left out several passages from the first, non-culinary, part they deemed unauthentic. Their edition was used in 1994 for the translation in modern French by Karin Ueltschi. The most recent English translation from 2009 has taken all previous editions into account. This translation by Gina Greco and Christine Rose is calledThe Goodwife’s guide, because according to the translators it is the woman that is the subject of this book. The edition by Greco and Rose is valuable because they used the complete text of the Ménagier, including the passages left out by Brereton and Ferrier.
The French text below is from the edition from Brereton and Ferrier, page 230. The English translation is from the edition by Greco and Rose, p.300, and I’ve also added the translation by Power, just for comparison.

Modern adaptation of the recipe

This recipe has some typically medieval vagueness: what kind of dough is used for the pasty, is it one large pasty or several smaller, closed or open, fried or oven-baked? And what spices did the Ménagier mean with his ‘pouldre’? Medieval recipes for dough are practically non-existent, whether for pasty or for bread. Just choose what you like best, or what is best suited for the occasion: a pie, a quiche, small pasties. The ‘pouldre’ is the medieval equivalent of curry powder, a ready-made mixture of spices. The Ménagier provides us with a recipe for it elsewhere in his book: 2 heaped tablespoons ginger, a small teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, grains of paradise and sugar, to be used as needed.
For 1 larger pie to 40 very small pies; preparation in advance 15 minutes; preparation 15 (small pies) to 40 (large pie) minutes.

500 gr/2½ cup white mushrooms
100 gr/3½ oz. firm Brie de Meaux or fresh goat cheese
100 gr Gruyère (French, not Swiss) or Parmesan, Pecorino or Manchego
2 tsp in all of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, grains of paradise, sugar (ratio 3:1:1:1:1)
pinch of salt
2 slices old white bread without crust (optional)
dash of olive oil
450 to 600 gr short crust dough (depending on whether the pie is covered or open)
butter to grease the baking mould

Preparation in advance

Washing and peeling mushrooms is not something we do anymore. Just wipe them with a paper towel, cut off the end of the stalk, and then halve, quarter, slice, dice or chop the mushrooms.
Use a blender to crumble the bread. I added this to the recipe because mushrooms contain a lot of moisture. By covering the dough with a thin layer of bread crumbs before adding the stuffing you prevent the bottom becoming squishy.
If you use Brie for the pasty, cut off the white crust before dicing the cheese. Do this directly from the refrigerator, because once at room temperature the cheese will run off your cutting board. If you use fresh goat cheese, just crumble it.
Grate the Gruyere, Parmezan or Manchego.

Preparation

Heat olive oil, sautée the mushrooms a couple of minutes until they have released their moisture. Drain and pat dry with paper towels to remove excess fat. Leave them to cool.
Add Brie or fresh goat cheese and one tablespoon grated cheese to the mushrooms, with salt and spices.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C/355 °F. Grease the mould you plan to use with butter, dress with a sheet of pastry dough. Sprinkle bread crumbs on the bottom if you want to, to absorb excess moisture. Fill the dough with the mushroom stuffing. You can leave the pie open, or cover it with another sheet of dough.
Place the pasty (or small pasties) in the middle of the oven. Small ones are done in twelve to fifteen minutes, a large springform takes thirty to forty minutes (depending on your oven). When ready, remove the pasty from the oven and let cool for five minutes before demoulding. Use a cake rack to let the pasty or pasties cool to room temperature.
You can also cover an oven tray with the pasty dough and spread out the mushroom stuffing on it. Bake for twenty minutes. The effect will be a large ‘pizza’, and you can use a pizza wheel to cut the pie into small, one-bite pieces.

To serve

The pasty can be served as soon as it is demoulded, you can also reheat it in the oven (this works best with small pasties). But this mushroom pasty (or pie, or pizza) is also excellent at room temperature.

Pasties were the perfect medieval take-away food. They were bought at a pastry baker’s, and you could eat them cold while on the road, or serve them as an extra dish at home. These pasties always had a lid of dough.

Ingredients

All descriptions of ingredients

Brie

Soft cheese with a crusty white mould, originally made of raw (unpasteurized) cow milk. It originates from the region East of Paris. Most Brie you can buy today is made from pasteurized milk, to the detriment ot the taste of the cheese, but it eliminates listeria bacteria. That is important for pregnant women, because this bacteria can cause miscarriage or a very sick baby. However, if you or your guests aren’t expecting, look for unpasteurized Brie. By the way, in unpasteurized Gouda cheese there’s no danger of listeria because of the different production process.
Brie has a long history. It was already produced during the reign of Charlemagne who enjoyed the cheese in 774. In the fifteenth century the cheese inspired Charles, Duke of Orleans (1394-1465) to write a little poem to accompany 240 whole Bries that were send to as many ladies at the court: Mon doux coeur, je vous envoie / Soigneusement choisi par moi / Le brie de Meaux délicieux. / Il vous dira que, malheureux, / Par votre absence je languis / Au point d’en perdre l’appétit. / Et c’est pourquoi je vous l ‘envoie. / Quel sacrifice c’est pour moi! Famous is the anecdote about the Congress in Vienna in 1814/1815, when Talleyrand, to lighten the mood, organized a competition between the attending nations which produced the best cheese. Brie was the unanimous favourite and received the honorary title roi des fromages, et fromage des rois.

Grains of Paradise

This spice was used in European cuisines from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Its popularity was at its height during the fourteenth century in France. There is uncertainty on which plant is actually meant with ‘greins of paradise’, but it certainly is not cardamom. The Flemish physician and botanist Dodoens writes in his description of cardamom that there are two varieties, large and small cardamom, but accorfing to him sometimes apothecaries use “greynen die men Paradiische greynen nuempt” (grains that are called grains of paradise) instead of large cardamom.

According to some, Aframomum melegueta, the seeds of which are sold as grains of paradise, is not the same plant as Aframomum granum-paradisi. But the seeds of that plant seem to be non-exixting, and in fact any information on Aframomum granum-paradisi is hard to come by. In my sources, which include the Cambridge World History of Food (2000), only mention Aframomum melegueta. The seeds are also known as meleguetta pepper or alligator pepper (which seems to be the latest ‘super food’). Instead of grains of paradise, a mixture of black pepper and cardamom can be used.

Parmesan cheese

Italian hard cheese of cow milk. There are two kinds, Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano. The second costs about twice as much as the first. When using cheese in Italian dishes, it’s not necessary to always use the Reggiano. But sometimes you have to, like on carpaccio (the famous dish with raw beef). In some old French cookbooks Parmesan is called fromage de Milan. Pecorino is also an Italian cheese, similar in many ways to Parmesan, but made with sheep milk. Manchego is a hard cheese of sheep milk from Spain.
I sincerly hope that I don’t even have to explainthat you must never use packages of grated cheese in stead of grating your own.

Bibliography

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.

• N. Crossley-Holland, Living and Dining in Medieval Paris: The Household of a Fourteenth-Century Knight (1996, 2000).
• The Goodman of Paris (Le Menagier de Paris): A Treatise on Moral and Domestic Economy by A Citizen of Paris, c.1393. Translation Eileen Power. Woodbridge, 2006 (reproduction of the original edition from 1928).
• G.E Brereton and J.M. Ferrier, Le Menagier De Paris: A Critical Edition (Oxford, 1981). The edition Le Mesnagier de Paris has the Oldfrench text, but not the notes, of Brereton and Ferrier, with a translation in modern French by Karin Ueltschi (Paris, 1994).
• Jérôme Pichon, Le Ménagier de Paris, Traité de morale et d’économie domestique […] (Genève, 1847, 2 vols). Complete online facsimilé version of this edition: Volume 1, Volume 2. Printed reproductions van Volume 1 and Volume 2 are available since spring 2010. Online version of the transcription of the culinary part of this edition. Online English translation of the culinary part based on this edition by Janet Hinson.
• G.L. Greco and C.M. Rose, The Good Wife’s Guide (Le Menagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book (2009).
• Mark Janssen, Handboek paddestoelen. Zoeken & bereiden (‘Handbook mushrooms. Determination and preparation’) Mark Janssen, ADSearch, Amsterdam, 2010).
• Leo Moulin, Table Talk (A Cultural History of Eating and Drinking). Fonds Mercator/editions Albin Michel, 1988.
• Marleen Willebrands and Arno ‘t Hoog, Traktaat van de kampernoeljes, (‘Treatise on mushrooms’) (Uitgeverij Verloren, 2006), text online.

Mushroom pies, a French recipe from the fourteenth century
© Author Christianne Muusers