Nettle pudding
Ingredients:
1 bunch of sorrel
1 bunch of watercress
1 bunch of dandelion leaves
2 bunches of young nettle leaves
Some chives
1 cup of barley flour
1 teaspoon salt
Method:
Chop the herbs finely and mix in the barley flour and salt. Add enough water to bind it together and place in the centre of a linen or muslin cloth. Tie the cloth securely and add to a pot of simmering venison or wild boar (a pork joint will do just as well). Leave in the pot until the meat is cooked and serve with chunks of bread.
This dish is thought to date back to 6,000BC.
Smokey Fish Stew
Ingredients:
125g bacon
2 leeks
500g of any smoked fish
1 litre milk
1 cup cream
Some chives
1 tsp salt
Method:
Fry the bacon until the fat comes away from it and add the chopped leeks. Cook until tender. Add the fillets of fish and cover with the milk. Slowly cook in a pot near the fire until the fish is cooked, which is about 30 minutes. Pour in the cream, along with the chopped chives and salt. Among the fish remains found in prehistoric middens (waste pits) in northern Europe are: eel, carp, pike, perch, trout, salmon, plaice, bass, mullet, cod and spurdog.
Patina of Elderberries
Ingredients:
6 bunches of elderberries
tsp pepper
1 tsp anchovy essence
4 fl oz (125ml) wine
4 fl oz (125ml) passum
4 fl oz (125ml) olive oil
6 eggs
Method:
Remove the fruits from the elderberry bunches. Wash, place in a saucepan with a little water, and simmer gently until just softened. Drain and arrange in a greased shallow pan. Add the pepper, moisten with anchovy essence, then add the wine and passum and mix well. Finally add the olive oil and bring to the boil. When the mixture is boiling, break the eggs into it and stir well to bind. When set, sprinkle pepper over it and serve hot or cold. If you are unsure of any of the plants in these recipes please check before picking in the wild and eating.
Liquamen or Garum
Ingredients:
1 jar of salted anchovies (100g/3 oz)
700ml/24 fl oz water
400g/14 oz sea salt
A pinch of dried oregano
1 tbsp sapa
Method:
Dissolve the salt in the water over a low heat. Add the anchovies to the salted water with the oregano and sapa. Simmer gently for 20 minutes and then leave to cool. Strain the garum through a fine sieve or muslin cloth and store in a jar ready for use.
Mussels in Mitulis
Ingredients:
Mussels
Liquamen (see above)
Chopped leek
Cumin
Passum (very sweet wine sauce made by boiling the must ? could use sapa above)
Method:
Mix the liquamen, chopped leek, cumin and passum or sweet wine. Add water. Cook until the mussels are tender.
Roasted Meats (Hedgehog)
According to medieval experts: "Hedgehog should have its throat cut, be singed and gutted, then trussed like a pullet, then pressed in a towel until very dry; and then roast it and eat with cameline sauce, or in pastry with wild duck sauce. Note that if the hedgehog refuses to unroll, put it in hot water." This is, however, a dish based on traditional methods of cooking meat going back to prehistoric times.
Ingredients:
2-2.5kg joint of meat (or leg of lamb)
Sufficient long grass to cover the meat
Method:
Season the meat. Wrap it in long grass, first lengthways and then tying more grass crossways to secure the green wrapping in place. Prepare your barbecue and place a large pot filled with water on it. Cook the meat for about two hours. Once the meat has cooked, remove the grass then place the meat back in the barbecue to sear. Then carve and serve. (Nettle pudding can be boiled in the same pot and served as an accompaniment.)
Pottage
Prepare some stock. It can contain meat or be vegetarian. Use stock cubes or leftover bones boiled and chopped up meat. Use about as much stock as the quantity of pottage you wish to end up with. In this stock cook as many different kinds of vegetables and herbs as you like. (Tomatoes and potatoes would not have been used.)
Suggestion of ingredients:
Onions of all varieties
Leeks
Cabbage of any kind (sorrel, cabbage)
Green beans or dried beans
Carrots
Turnips
Celery
Thyme, sage, parsley, marjoram, rosemary
Method:
When all the vegetables are cooked, add some porridge oats. If you want your pottage to be runny, like soup, add a couple of tablespoons of oats. If you want it to be extra thick and filling add a large cupful. Continue to simmer until the porridge is cooked. Adjust the seasoning and serve with bread and cheese.
Pancakes
In ancient times these would have been a seasonal delicacy as eggs would not have been available all year round. Perhaps that's why they have become associated with the season of Lent and Easter, when eggs would have been in abundance as the birds would be laying.
Ingredients:
125g wholewheat flour
500ml milk (from any domestic animal)
2 eggs (duck eggs get you closer to ancient times but hen eggs will do)
pinch of salt
butter to cook
Method:
To make pancakes simply whisk all the ingredients together then leave to stand for at least 90 minutes. At the end of this time heat a pan or a griddle, add a knob of butter and cook small spoonfuls of the mixture. The pancakes work well hot with honey or can be served cold spread with butter and jam.
Alternatives: Finely chop wood sorrel (has a lemony flavour) and mix into some honey and spread over the pancakes. Mix about 100g of toasted, chopped hazelnuts into the pancake mixture. Mix some fruit such as blackcurrants, blackberries, wild strawberries or elderberries into the mix.
Meat Pudding
Ingredients:
1 sheep's stomach or ox secum, cleaned and scalded, turned inside out and soaked overnight in cold salted water
heart and lungs of one lamb
450g/1lb beef or lamb trimmings, fat and lean
2 onions, finely chopped
225g/8oz oatmeal
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground dried coriander
1 tsp mace
1 tsp nutmeg
water, enough to cook the haggis stock from lungs and trimmings
Method:
Wash the lungs and heart. Place in large pan of cold water with the meat trimmings and bring to the boil. Cook for about 2 hours. When cooked, strain off the stock and set aside.
Mince the lungs, heart and trimmings. Put the minced mixture in a bowl and add the finely chopped onions, oatmeal and seasoning. Mix well and add enough stock to moisten the mixture. It should have a soft crumbly consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the sheep's stomach, so that it's just over half full. Sew up the stomach with strong thread and prick a couple of times so it doesn't explode while cooking.
Put the haggis in a pan of boiling water (enough to cover it) and cook for 3 hours without a lid. Keep adding water to keep it covered. To serve, cut open the haggis and spoon out the filling.
Barley Bread with Beer
Ingredients:
500g barley flour
500g stone-ground wheat flour
1 tsp salt
250g butter
Beer to mix
Method:
Mix the flours and salt together and rub in the butter. Add enough beer to make a soft dough and shape into small cakes. Cook on a hot stone (or griddle) until firm. This is a very light bread because of the addition of the beer and is good with cheese.
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