Shakespeare's Kitchen (22 page)

I will make an end of my dinner;
There’s pippins and cheese to come.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,
1.2

Basics

CHAPTER NINE

CANDIED CITRUS PEEL

RENAISSANCE DOUGH

RENAISSANCE STOCK

Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.

SONNET 8

 
Delightes
for Ladies, Sir Hugh Plat’s 1603 cookbook, is the source for all the recipes in this chapter. Plat begins his cookbook with a charming introduction written in verse that illuminates his gentle nature. Protesting the ongoing fighting between nations, he writes:

LET PIERCING BULLETS TURNE TO SUGAR BALS,

THE SPANISH FEARE IS HUSHT AND ALL THEIR RAGE.

OF MARMELADE AND PASTE OF GENUA,

OF MUSKED SUGARS I INTEND TO WRIGHT,

AFFORDING TO EACH LADY HER DELIGHT.

Sir Hugh Plat prefers the pen to weapons.

I SCORNE TO WRITE WITH COPPRES, OR WITH GALL,

BARBARIAN CANES ARE NOW BECOME MY QUILLS,

ROSEWATER IS THE INKE I WRITE WITHALL:

In another line he speaks with hope that his era will be remembered for its decorative marzipan sculptures instead of its public display of beheadings.

EMPALINGS, NOW ADEW, LUSH MARCHPAINE WALS

ARE STRONG ENOUGH, AND BEST BEFITS OUR AGE.

Candied Citrus Peel

MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP

You say true:
Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!

KING HENRY IV,
PART I, 1.3

 O
RANGES AND LEMONS
were expensive, so people took care not to waste any part of the fruit. Before becoming enchanted with Plat’s book, I had never candied fruit peels. It’s easy and the results are superior to the store-bought varieties available at the holidays. Add them to muffin or cake recipes, stuffing, soups, stews, or, finely minced, try them sprinkled on buttered toast for a change from marmalade.

3 oranges

3 lemons

2 cups granulated sugar

½ cup superfine sugar

1.
    Using a sharp knife or vegetable peeler, cut the peel from the oranges and lemons, removing any of the white pith. Soak the peels in cold water for 10 minutes. Discard the water and rinse the peels under cold running water. Place the peels in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Repeat the process two more times, rinsing well after boiling.

2.
    Preheat the oven to 200°F. Bring ¼ cup of water, the granulated sugar, and the peels to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool in the liquid. Drain in a colander and let dry slightly. Place a sheet of parchment on a baking pan. Sprinkle the superfine sugar onto the parchment and toss the peels in the sugar until coated. Discard the excess sugar. Bake the sugared peels for 1 hour, or until dry. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To candy Orenge pilles

Take your Orenge pilles after they bee preserved, then take fine sugar and Rosewater, & boile it to the height of Manus Christi, then draw it through your sugar, then lay them on the bottome of a sieve, and drie them in an oven after you have drawne bread, and they will be candied.

DELIGHTES FOR LADIES,
1603

In Plat’s original recipe he explains how to blanch peels, exactly as we do today, with three changes of boiling water. The
Manus Christi,
or “hand of Christ,” referred to in the recipe was a candy popular in Shakespeare’s day.

Renaissance Dough

MAKES 1 DOUBLE CRUST

 T
HIS DOUGH,
or “paste” as it was called, is perfect for a two-crust sweet or savory pie. In Shakespeare’s day, after baking, the top crust on dessert pies was often replaced with a separately baked, highly ornate top crust of multicolored preserves or sugars with intricate designs.

Of course, you may use store-bought ready-to-use or frozen crusts for any of the recipes in this book calling for Renaissance Dough. Nowadays, with so many good ready-made options available, you don’t need to lie “guiltily awake” (
King Richard III,
5.3) if you don’t want to bother with the fuss of making your own dough.

2 cups sifted loosely packed pastry flour (8 ounces)

½ teaspoon salt

1 large egg, beaten, cold

½ cup butter, cut in small cubes, cold

       Mix the flour, ½ cup ice-cold water, the salt, and egg together on a cold surface until crumbly. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin and place one quarter of the butter cubes on the dough. (Keep the remaining butter refrigerated until ready to use.) Roll the butter into the dough, fold the dough over, and roll again. Repeat the process 3 more times until all the butter is incorporated. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

To make a puffe paste

Take a quart of the finest flower and the whites of three egges, and the yolkes of two, and a little colde water and so make it into perfect paste, then drive it with a rouling pin abroade, then put on small peeces of butter as big as Nuts upon it, then folde it over, then drive it abroad againe, then put small peeces of butter upon it as you did before, doe this tenne times, always folding the paste and putting butter between everie folde. You may convey anie prettie forced dish, as Florentine, Cherry, tarte, rice, or pippen, & c. between two sheets of that paste.

DELIGHTES FOR LADIES,
1603

Renaissance Stock

MAKES APPROXIMATELY 2½ QUARTS

 T
HE DRIED FRUIT
imparts a delicate sweetness to this lovely stock. Sweet is a theme throughout Sir Hugh Plat’s
Delightes for Ladies,
which includes recipes for making sugar animals, rock candy, and marzipan and for preserving clusters of grapes by placing the stems into apples.

The book also contains nonedible recipes—such as a “handwater of Scotland” made with thyme, lavender, and rosemary—as well as outlandish advice to keep the skin clear and blemish-free by rubbing on the burned, ground jawbone of a hog.

4½ pounds chicken parts (necks, backs, wings, giblets)

1 lamb shank (about 8 ounces)

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 bay leaves

3 sprigs of mint

4 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley

1 whole mace

2 onions, peeled and quartered

1 cup white wine

½ cup ground blanched almonds

8 dates, pitted and chopped

½ cup currants

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

       Place the chicken and shank bone in a large pot. Add 2¾ quarts of water and bring to a boil. Skim the impurities that rise to the top. Add the rosemary, bay leaves, mint, parsley, mace, and onions and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the wine, almonds, dates, and currants and simmer for 1 hour, periodically skimming any impurities that rise to the top. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Sir Hugh Plat was not only a chef, but also a chemist, inventor, and even magician, as shown in
The Jewel House of Art and Nature,
another of his books. Knowledge of chemistry is apparent in his instructions on changing ink color with lemon juice and on drying parsnips to extract their sugar. The book includes tricks on how to make an egg stand on end, how to hold a hot rod in a bare hand, and how to make a variegated crystal ring to spy on an opponent’s playing cards. The book also describes invention ideas that eventually earned him a knighthood from King James I.

And of this book this learning mayst thou taste.

SONNET 77

Feasting and Bills of Fare

CHAPTER TEN

A good digestion to you all: and once more I show’r
a welcome on ye; welcome all.

KING HENRY VIII,
1.4

 
With fewer
entertainment options than we have today, a dinner feast was an especially significant event in Shakespeare’s time. Hosts reveled in displaying status, making new alliances, and repaying debts through elaborate multidish courses and fantastical culinary presentations.