Original: Bening Book of Hours

 Not a garment, but this month's original item for inspiration does depict clothing (mostly peasant clothing, even!), which is what I'm looking for as I prepare to replace my 16th century kit.

Book of Hours by Simon Bening, 1530-5, The Met.

Mending June

Very little mending got done this month, what with all the 1909 sewing I had (and still need to post). I did manage to sort through my stockings and pull out all the ones that need repair or replacing--which I'll count as the first step towards mending them.

All sorted.

Silk Stockings: 1 pair in perfect shape, 1 needing major repairs for runs

Wool Stockings: 3 pairs, all ready to wear

Linen Hose: 1 pair ready to wear, 1 pair needing slight seam repairs

Cotton Hose: None wearable. Fabric on hand to cut new hose; truly dire items have been removed. Twelve pairs in various states of disrepair available for patching or being patched (most badly worn at the heel and toes).

H.F.F. 6.9: Centerpiece

The Challenge: Centerpiece. Make a dish that's meant to impress or be the focal point of a meal. Time to experiment with plating and presentation!

The Recipe: "How To Dish Up Cherries" from The Royal English and Foreign Confectioner by Francatelli (with recourse to the preceding "Remarks on the Manner and Method for Dishing up Fruits.")

 

The Date/Year and Region: 1862, London

How Did You Make It: 

 

Step 1, procure a dessert dish (necessarily quite deep) and 2 pounds of cherries (the minimum to make a good pyramid).

 

Step 2: Fill the hollow of the bowl with rolled paper.

Dish with paper tampion.

Step 3: Place cut-to-fit pasteboard over the paper filler.

 

Never doing this with a scalloped dish again.

Step 4: Cover with moss.

Getting the moss to a uniform height actually ends up being really important.

 

Step 5: Lay leaves over the moss.

I ran out, so the leaves mostly just went around the edges.

Step 6: Make a conical heap of cherries, building outward from the center. [Alternatively, make a square or triangle of cherries, fill in the interior, and build a pyramid of smaller successive layers.]

 

Time to Complete: One eternity, or between 30-60 minutes.

Total Cost: $8 for cherries. The moss came out of the garden budget, and the leaves from the garden itself.

How Successful Was It?: Very frustrating, but educational. The tower fell at least 8 times that I counted; it was like playing Jenga with round pieces. I initially tried to make a 3-sided pyramid, then a 4-sided one, but couldn't get the sides even and secure. This was definitely my own fault--I cut the central piece of moss a little taller than the sides, creating an almost imperceptible slope, while the small gaps around the scallops  (filled in only with leaves, no moss) created additional pitfalls which made it hard to keep the base stabilized. I eventually gave up on getting the neat organized tower that was intended, and just tried to get the whole two pounds worth of fruit staying in place.

This also absolved my lingering guilt that stacking cherries isn't really a "recipe"--if I'd made glacé cherries to practice with, more than half of them would have been ruined.

For all that, I think this was a good learning project, with useful ideas for future plating. With a more regular-shaped bowl, and more evenly cut moss, I think this could make a lovely centerpiece. I also think I picked the worst fruit to start: larger items like peaches would have fewer pieces to stack, while smaller berries are supposed to just be "heaped" in position. Cherries and large strawberries are basically the worst choices here, since they are supposed to be neatly positioned, but also have the most components.

How Accurate Is It?: All the materials I used are period. I ended up pulling off the stems of the cherries instead of cutting them to 1" or less (as instructed) because the illustration doesn't show any stems at all, and I didn't fancy trying to tuck the stems in as well. I also didn't have access to vine leaves, and so substituted mint as the only nontoxic leaf readily available in my garden (with some parsnip leaves stuck under the moss and mint to cover small gaps where the cardboard was visible).

H.F.F. 6.8: Odd Fellows

The Challenge: Odd Fellows. Make a dish that combines ingredients or flavors you wouldn't normally use in modern life.

The Recipe: CHYKENS IN HOCCHEE from The Forme of Cury

Take Chykenns and scald hem. take parsel and sawge withoute eny oþere erbes. take garlec an grapes and stoppe the Chikenns ful and seeþ hem in gode broth. so þat þey may esely be boyled þerinne. messe hem an cast þerto powdour dowce.

In more modern English spelling, I believe this reads: "Take chickens and scald them. Take parsley and sage without any other herbs; take garlic and grapes and stop the chickens full, and seethe them in good broth so that they may easily be boiled therein. Mess them and cast thereto powdour douce.

 

According to the editor of the 18th century transcription, the 'powdour douce' may be "powdered galyngal" or else "a compound made of sundry aromatic spices ground or beaten small." The wikipedia page cites 14th and 16th century sources which offer such combinations as "grains of paradise, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and galangal" and "ginger, cinnamon, cloves and sugar [+/-galangal and long pepper]."

 

Using the spices available to me, I decided to go for a mixture of ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and granulated sugar. I did search for galangal and grains of paradise at some of the specialized grocery stores in town, but did not secure any (realizing too late that I could, in fact, order them online). I added black pepper to the spice mixture in place of the grains of paradise, which is sometimes used as a substitute pepper. For the galangal, I figured that ginger was the closest approximation on hand.

 

The Date/Year and Region: 1390, English [transcribed 1780]

How Did You Make It: I started with making the broth, using chicken bones and vegetable ends (onions, garlic, radishes) leftover from other dishes, along with my remaining dried herbs (parsley, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram), and some of the more abundant fresh herbs in my container garden (more parsley, sage, and chives). 

 

The next day, I took one commercially-prepared whole chicken, skipped the scalding step since it was already plucked and cleaned, removed the giblets, and stuffed the chicken with two handfuls of grapes, two bulbs of garlic. I should have added the parsley and sage as well, but misremembered the instructions and instead added those to the broth. I put the chicken, broth, and herbs into a modest-sized cauldron suspended over an open fire, covered it, and let it cook for about 2 hours. At my friend's suggestion, I added a generous dash of salt and pepper to the broth. When fully cooked, the chicken was removed from the water, plated with more parsley, and sprinkled with a spice mixture of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and sugar (about 1/4tsp -1/2 tsp each).

In true medieval form, we ate this with bread, and without forks.

 

Time to Complete: 2.5 hour from building the fire to plating

Total Cost: $7.50 [The chicken being on sale, the grapes were the most expensive element. Herbs and spices were all on hand.]

How Successful Was It?: I wish I had saved this for the centerpiece challenge--it plated up prettier than I expected, and tasted great to boot. The "grape pumpkin spice chicken with garlic" combo that I feared was actually quite palatable. It was a little weird on the outside where the spice was thickest, but the more lightly-seasoned areas had a lovely depth (the spices were discernible, but subtle, and it really worked well). I barely noted the garlic, but was pleasantly surprised at the grape notes which came through in some of the morsels closest to the center.

How Accurate Is It?: Cooked over a fire, which should be worth a few points. I was guessing on the broth, but as I could not find what constituted a 'good broth' at the time, I think my approximation of "bones from the same kind of animal + whatever's in season in the garden" is at least a valid possibility.  I already noted the question of spices, and I used a modern grape variety, but those were both the best available options at the moment. Next time (there will be a next time), I intend to use the galyngal and grains of paradise which I have since ordered, and which should offer an interesting possible flavor profile. I should also probably be a little more sparing with the spice mixture in general.

First time sewing a chicken.

In the pot. Note the sage and parsley which probably should be inside the chicken.

Dinner is served.

H.F.F. 6.7: T Time

 

The Challenge: T Time. Make a dish suited to tea time. Or tee time. All foods that make terrible "t" puns are in play.
 

The Recipe: Extra Soda Biscuits from Breakfast, Dinner, and Tea Viewed Classically, Poetically, and Practically, under the "Tea Biscuits and Cakes" heading.

Extra Soda Biscuits--Another rule for soda biscuits is as follows: To one quart of flour add five teaspoonsful of cream of tartar, two of soda, a little salt, and a piece of butter the size of an egg. Sift both cream of tartar and soda with the flour, rub the butter in well, and mix with sufficient sweet milk to make a soft dough. Roll it out and cut it into cakes about an inch thick, bake in a quick oven and they will puff up to twice their original size.

 

The Date/Year and Region: 1860, New York

How Did You Make It: Half-scale (which made 7 biscuits, and served 4 for tea). I started with 2 cups of flour, to which I added the 2.5 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt. After mixing the dry ingredients, I cut in the butter (estimated half the size of an egg, no idea the actual measure), then added 2% milk until the flour was all worked in. I then rolled out the dough on a floured counter, cut out the biscuits, and baked them at 400F for about 15 minutes.

 

Time to Complete: <30 minutes including baking time.

Total Cost: Ingredients on hand.

How Successful Was It?: I thought the biscuits tasted fine and had a reasonable crumb, though they didn't fully double in height. One of my companions found the texture a bit tough, and advised handling the dough more delicately (which I will endeavor to do).

How Accurate Is It?: Fairly. I used a modern kitchen, but didn't substitute any of the ingredients. The salt quantity and baking time/temperature were guesses based on the instructions, which appear to have worked out. I did get to serve them in an 1857 building, which was lovely.

Extra Soda Biscuits.

More Early Modern (& Medieval) References Online

It's faire season again. Last year I compiled some of my favorite easy-to-read books for refreshing on early modern social history and interpretation. This year, it's blogs and electronic references. These include primary (or at least photographs of actual artifacts), secondary, and tertiary sources which I believe be reliable. 

Blogs & Reference Sheets

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook and Internet Modern Sourcebook are the Holy Grail of searchable digitized original texts.

In addition to handwriting references, the National Archives' palaeography page also has handy references lists of county abbreviations, non-decimal currency units, term for land measurement, how Roman numerals were used in early modern English texts, and calendar peculiarities.

A Compendium of Common Knowledge contains introductory information on a wide variety of topics related to daily life in England c.1558-1603, from where to buy different goods in London to lists of the ranking peers.

Dr. Brett Devereaux's blog has (fully cited) essays on the logistics of military campaigns in the ancient through early modern period, as well as other topics relevant to pre-modern economics and warfare (like an overview of bread production). Note that this blog covers a wider time period that just the early modern, and that a number of its essays are focused on how fantasy media does or does not portray the historic systems it is nominally based on (which is great if you like overthinking LotR or GoT in addition to pre-modern history).

 Dr. Eleanor Janega's Going Medieval blog also has fully-cited, highly conversational essays on a variety of subjects, particularly those related to sex and death in medieval Europe.

Medievalists.net functions as a news site for medieval research: it announces new books, has essays on various topics, writes up current news related to medieval topics, and even has funny listicles (medieval swear words, anyone?).

 

Salt, c.1515-1530, Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales

Museum Collections

Portable Antiquities Scheme. Index of archeological finds in the UK. Lots of little metal items such as brooches. The UI is a little old-fashioned, but the search filtering is a delight.

Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales). The collection search doesn't include a filter by date range, but a search for "post medieval" turns up all sorts of metal and ceramic pieces, including the lovely Tudor lady salt dish above. Also lots of arrow heads...

Scottish National Museum. Also no date-filter on the collection search, but there are many cool items, such as medieval leather shoes and 17th century candle lanterns.

Museum of London has a lot of interesting artifacts found in the city. I especially like the medieval purse frames recovered from the Thames.

UK National Trust. Online collection database for historic sites across the UK. Mostly modern period, but there are some earlier pieces.

Victoria and Albert Museum. Focused on art and design, the museum's pre-1600 collection includes decorated ceramics, ecclesiastical items, and more textile fragments than one might expect.

National Gallery Tudor and Jacobean Portraits Database. Includes most of the early modern English portraits you've heard of. There's also some interesting essays on art history and conservation.

British Library Manuscript Viewer. Original manuscripts: useful for content, writing voice, letter shapes, and all kinds of illustrations. See also the British Library Digital Catalog of Illuminated Manuscripts for an illustration-search.

British Museum. Does have some items from Britain. Browsing the "medieval" and "post-medieval" period tags reveals pottery, glass, and metal artifacts.

Royal Armouries Collection. Not my usual, but if you're looking for early modern English arms and armor, this is the place.

Rotterdam Archeology has some very complete medieval metal and ceramic items (badges, sheers, pots) and even textiles. Amsterdam: Below The Surface likewise has a wide variety of items from pre-history to the 21st century. 

Geese from the Luttrell Psalter, British Library

Transcriptions of Tudor Charters, Accounts, Letters, etc.

Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII vol 1 & Materials for a History of Henry VII vol 2

Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York.

Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland: A.D. 1506-1507 

Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court, in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I

The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth

The Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth: A Narrative in Contemporary Letters 

Queen Elizabeth and Her Times: A Series of Original Letters (vol 2)

Different, but related to period literature: JSTOR Understanding Shakespeare database.

Original: Straw Bonnet, 19th century

Straw Bonnet, 19th century, VAM.

 

I selected this straw bonnet for the lovely figured ribbon. I wish they had more photographs to I could see the brim construction and neck edge better...