Read Shakespeare's Kitchen Online
Authors: Francine Segan
Shakespeare's Kitchen (2 page)
Foreword by Patrick O’Connell
I
N
SHAKESPEARE’S KITCHEN,
THE READER AND FOOD LOVER IS GIVEN
a unique introduction to William Shakespeare and the culture of his era. Since Shakespeare so passionately glorified eating and drinking in his plays and verse, food provides an ideal medium for approaching his life.
As a student of theater in college I often had difficulty wading through Shakespeare’s works. Unraveling the many layers of meaning in his writing was often a daunting and oblique task, rather like cracking the code of an ancient puzzle. If
Shakespeare’s Kitchen
had been available then, it might have provided a delicious entrée into the era in which he lived.
The French philosopher and food writer Brillat-Savarin said, “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”
Shakespeare’s Kitchen
not only reveals, sometimes surprisingly, what people were eating in Shakespeare’s time but also provides recipes that today’s cooks can easily re-create with readily available ingredients.
It has been said that one who knows food also knows history, language, and culture. This book on the food of Shakespeare’s era beautifully illustrates that truth. Included are fascinating introductions to the recipes that offer a unique perspective on daily life in England during the sixteenth century, illustrative stories of Elizabethan entertaining that depict a charming spirit of fun and frivolity, and many historical references that shed light on the numerous influences of foreign countries and cultures.
There is something unmistakably quaint and distinctive about an old, authentic recipe. The taste of the food draws you back to a different time much like wearing a period costume or entering an ancient space does. These recipes cause one to reflect on what it might have felt like to be alive during this colorful and vibrant time.
Shakespeare’s Kitchen
offers up an edible historical narrative from which food lovers, history buffs, and Shakespearean scholars will all derive nourishment.
Kickshaws: Appetizers
CHAPTER ONE
INDIVIDUAL MEAT PIES WITH COINTREAU MARMALADE
CRAB WITH PISTACHIOS AND PINE NUTS
DRIED PLUMS WITH WINE AND GINGER–ZEST CROSTINI
OYSTERS ON SPINACH WITH CAPERS
PâTé WITH DATES AND HOMEMADE NUTMEG MUSTARD
VEAL WITH GLAZED GRAPES ON SAFFRON TOAST
Some pigeons, Davy, a couple of
short-legged hens, a joint of mutton, and any pretty
little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook.
KING HENRY IV,
PART II, 5.1
Kickshaws,
the Elizabethan misspelling of the French
quelque chose,
“a little something,” refers to dishes we now categorize as appetizers or hors d’oeuvres.
The 1615 cookbook
The English Huswife,
by Gervase Markham, begins, “Now the compound Fricases, are those which consist of manie things such as Tansies, Fritters, Pancakes, and anie Quelquechose whatsoever, being things of great request and estimation in France, Spaine, and Italy, and the most curious Nations.”
Taking recipes from
The English Huswife
and from other cookbooks, this chapter offers a sampling of kickshaws from throughout Renaissance Europe.
Beef Purses
SERVES 8
I picked and cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man
come in with whoo-bub against his daughter and
the king’s son and scared my choughs from the chaff,
I had not left a purse alive in the whole army.
THE WINTER’S TALE,
4.4
I
N SHAKESPEARE’S DAY,
meat turnovers like these were called “purses” because they looked like the small change holders people wore attached to their belts. The expression “cut purse” referred to a thief who cut the cord to steal the purse, an all too common occurrence in those days before policed streets.
The savory filling of tangy candied ginger and sweet dried fruit make these purses worth stealing! Enjoy them with a glass of cold ale before heading off to see your favorite production of Shakespeare or while watching one of the many great movies inspired by his work.
8 ounces ground round or ground sirloin
¼ teaspoon ground rosemary
⅓ cup currants
6 pitted dates, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped candied ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly milled black pepper
½ recipe of
Renaissance Dough
1 large egg, beaten
1.
Place the beef, rosemary, currants, dates, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, salt, and pepper in a bowl and mix well. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Remove the meat mixture from the refrigerator 1 hour before baking.
2.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll out the Renaissance Dough ⅛ inch thick on a floured work surface. Using a 3-inch round ring cutter, cut out 24 dough circles. Place 1½ tablespoons of the meat mixture on each circle, fold in half, and pinch the edges to seal. Brush the purses with the egg and place on a well-greased nonstick baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
ORIGINAL RECIPE:
To make pursses or Cremitaries
Take a little mary, small raysons, and Dates, let the stones bee taken away, these being beaten together in a Morter, season it with Ginger, Sinemon, and Sugar, then put it in a fine paste, and bake them or fry them, so done in the serving of them cast blaunch powder upon them.
THE GOOD HUSWIFES JEWELL,
1587
Individual Meat Pies with Cointreau Marmalade
SERVES 8
E
LIZABETHAN STREET VENDORS
sold little minced pies like these, as well as oyster pies, apples, and nuts, to theatergoers. The audience ate during the entire play and tossed cores, shells, and scraps onto the theater floor.
These tiny meat pies delicately flavored with orange liqueur are just as perfect now as then, for picnics or pre-theater nibbling.
8 ounces ground lamb, beef, or veal
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly milled black pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground mace
3 pitted dried plums, finely chopped
½ cup currants
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
½ recipe of
Renaissance Dough
¼ cup Cointreau
½ cup thick-cut orange marmalade
1.
Combine the meat, pepper, salt, nutmeg, mace, dried plums, currants, and orange juice in a bowl and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Remove the meat mixture from the refrigerator 1 hour before baking.
2.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Roll out the Renaissance Dough
1
⁄
16
inch thick on a floured work surface. Cut twenty-four 3-inch circles from the dough. Press the dough circles into mini-muffin pans. Loosely fill each muffin cup with the meat mixture (about 1 tablespoon per pie) and bake for 15 minutes.
3.
Bring the Cointreau to a boil in a small saucepan, stir in the marmalade, and cook until the marmalade is warm.
4.
Spoon some of the marmalade mixture on top of each mince pie and serve.
Italian travel writers visiting England during this period noted disapprovingly that not only did the English eat inside theaters, but they also ate while strolling in the streets, a practice frowned upon in Italy.
But, not all visitors were critical. One German traveler wrote of the English, “They are more polite in Eating than the French, devouring less Bread, but more Meat, which they roast in Perfection.” He also noted that when an Englishman saw a particularly attractive, well-groomed foreigner, he would say, “It is a Pity he is not an Englishman.”
And I’ll be sworn ’tis true: travelers ne’er did lie,
Though fools at home condemn ’em.
THE TEMPEST,
3.3
Salmon with Violets