Pick a Peck of Pepper
Clockwise from top: Cubeb, Long and standard Black peppercorns
I was unfeasibly excited to discover a while ago that Waitrose now stock several different types of pepper in their spice section, including Cubebs (Piper cubeba) and Long Pepper (Piper longum). The reason for my excitement is that many varieties of pepper that we regard as exotic today were commonly referred to in Medieval recipes* and the particular spice blend, Poudre Fort, which is used in many Medieval savoury dishes includes several of these exotic peppers. Poudre Fort** does not have a specific recipe as such, it’s kind of a Savoury Mixed Spice of its time and so the constituents will have varied depending on the cook (or his/her Lord’s) preference, but broadly the mix contains pepper, cloves, cinnamon and ginger.
*Admittedly, these recipes were most definitely not everyday peasant fare, but there was a thriving spice trade in Medieval and Tudor England and so better households will have had access to a variety of spices. To be honest, at nearly £3 a jar, the stuff isn’t exactly cheap these days either.
**sometimes also Powdour, Powdre, Powder or Pouder, also Forte. Spelling throughout history has not been very consistent.
Poudre Fort
There is no fixed recipe for Poudre Fort, so you can make it to suit your preference. My basic blend spices is roughly (by proportion of ground spices):
4 Ginger
3.5 Cinnamon
2 Nutmeg
1.5 Black Pepper
1 Long Pepper*
1 Cloves
1 Grains of Paradise**
1 Galingale
*Long Pepper is similar to other peppercorns, so increase the black pepper or substitute green or white pepper for variety
**Grains of Paradise is related to ginger and cardamom and has a citrusy pepper taste.
***Galingale or galangal is similar to ginger.
As you can see, the predominant flavours here are ginger then pepper, with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves not too far behind. I do admit (due to an early error in measurement) that I probably use more cloves than indicated.
14th Century Beef Stew
So this is the bit where you get to wield the above spice blend. My Medieval Beef Stew is always a popular dish with the family, even fussy DD loves it, so without further ado, here is the original source, taken from A Forme of Cury (1390), followed by my interpretation.
MONCHELET [1]. XVI.
Take Veel other Moton and smite it to gobettes seeth it in gode broth. cast therto erbes yhewe, gode wyne. and a quantite of Oynouns mynced. Powdour fort and Safroun. and alye it with ayren and verious. but lat not seeth after.
Serve with crusty sourdough bread. Alternatively, you can add dumplings or gnocchi to the stew.
Another Beef Recipe
As a further illustration of the use of Medieval spices, I’m also going to include the following recipe from Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks, based on British Museum manuscripts from c.1450.
Beef y Stewyd
Take fayre beef of the rybbys of the fore quarterys, an smyte in fayre pecys, an wasche the beef in-to a fayre potte; than take the water that the beef was sothin yn, an strayne it thorw a straynowr, an sethe the same water and beef in a potte, an let hem boyle to-gederys; than take canel, clowes, maces, graynys of parise, quibibes, and oynons y-mynced, perceli, an sawge, an caste ther-to, an let hem boyle to-gederys; an than take a lof of brede, an stepe it with brothe an venegre, an than draw it thorw a straynoure, and let it be stylle; an whan it is nere y-now, caste the lycour ther-to, but nowt to moche, an than let boyle onys, an cast safroun ther-to a quantyte; than take salt an venegre, and cast ther-to, an loke that it be poynaunt y-now, and serue forth.
Happy cooking!
