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Medieval foods:

MUSTARD MEALE

"It is usual in Venice to sell the meale of Mustard in their markets as we doe flower and meale in England: this meale, by the addition of vinegar, in two or three daies becommeth exceeding good mustard; but it would be much stronger and finer, if the huskes or huls were first divides by searce or boulter: which maybe easily done, if you dry your seeds against the fire before you grinde them. The Dutch iron hand-mils, or an ordinary pepper-mil, may serve for this purpose. I thought it very necessary to publish this manner of making your sawce, because our mustard which we buy from the chandlers at this day, is many times made up with vile and filthy vinegar, such as our stomacks would abhorre, if we shoud see it before the mixing thereof with the seeds." Hugh Plat "Delightes for Ladies"

MUSTARD after Hugh Plat

Begin with as much cider or other strong vinegar as you want to have mustard. Add either dry mustard and/or ground mustard seeds to taste. A rough ratio is 3 tsp mustard to 1/4 cup vinegar. Let sit a couple of days to mellow.

A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON A TRADITIONAL FOOD

After I was married to this Cornishman, I heard his parents reminisce over and over about how there was, in their day, "scalded cream" kept on the back of the woodstove. His father, in particular, would describe with longing the thick, sweet cream spread on bread or toast and topped with strawberry jam or fresh strawberries in season. Didn't excite me. I don't even like milk very much. The idea of heated thickened cream...

Then in 1992 we spent some time in Cornwall. Some friends we met there took us to a small village inn after a walk on the moors. In was June. We were served baskets, literally, baskets of warm scones, bowls of "scalded," or "clotted" cream and newly made strawberry jam. I thought I had found the food of the gods. I knew then what Bob's father had been talking about. The four of us couldn't get enough. We kept calling for more scones, more cream, more jam...all washed down with quarts of tea.

The best known clotted cream is the Devonshire cream. There are many clotted creams called Devonshire cream, and most of them are very good. Creams in England and Wales did not come close in richness and sweetness to Cornish creams, even when they were called "Devonshire" creams. Cornish cream fame is justly earned.

Celia Fiennes wrote in her book, "My Great Journey to Newcastle and Cornwall" (1698) :

"...apple pye with custard all on the top, it's the most acceptable entertainment that could be made; they scald their creame and milk in most parts of these countrys and so its a sort of clouted creame as we call it, with a little sugar, and so put on top of the apple pye; I was muched pleased with my supper..."

I've been back to the UK since, but not to Cornwall. Have I had withdrawal symptoms from no scalded cream? Not since coming to Central Florida. Thirty miles from here is a tea room run by a couple from Manchester, England. They have scones, "Devonshire" cream, and strawberry jam. I don't know how good their cream really is, but to me it's wonderful. The scones are huge, so it takes me at least 3 little dishes of cream and an equal amount of strawberry jam to get through a scone. Every now and then I go over there for a "fix."

I haven't been able to determine how long scalded cream has been around. Obviously it was common in the 1600s, and I suspect it goes back into the Renaissance period or earlier. Cheeses were the most common way of using milk, and scalded cream is a form of a soft cheese. Oh, and it's also wonderful topped with lemon curd, if you can't get strawberry jam.

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GLOSSARY

I have had requests for definitions of some of the words I use in the text. The identification behind each word in parentheses indicates either the word is derived from a similar word in an older language, or that the word is used today in that language. Also, there are some words in the book that I just plain made up out of my head- (identified as "mine.") If you want to know about a certain word, please email me at clovenstone@aol.com, or look it up in your dictionary.

morningside: (mine) east

muffle: (Scottish) mitten

mure: (v.) (Medieval Latin) to imprison

muzzy: (slang) thinking foggily, muddled

nadir: (Old French) the lowest point

necromancer: (Latin) foretells the future by communicating with the dead or any dark-side wizard.

neuk: (Scottish) nook or corner

nogging: brick fill of a half-timbered wall

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Literary Notes

MIDSUMMER

June is the month of midsummer, June 21 or 22, depending on the year. There are a slew of social and religious customs associated with the summer solstice, but two themes are constant to all of them. One, solstice calls for bonfires. In many instances, "passing through" or jumping over the fires were thought to cleanse and bring good luck. Two, the faeries and similar mystic creatures are at large and busy at mischief the night of the solstice. This was capitalized on by Shakespeare in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

In Clovenstone, I call midsummer "Seumorfest" or summer festival. I do use the custom of bonfires in the book, and the two prime wizards, Vidar and Maeve, always meet on Seumorfest night. All of which, of course, relates directly to traditional celebrations.

In our times, modern Druids hold ceremonies at Stonehenge and Avebury on the Solstices. Wiccan and other earth-based religions have their Solstice ceremonies. And a lot of folk who just love nature and the rhythms of the earth have their own ways of marking the solstice.

I know some folk who meet with friends and have a reading of poetry at midnight about the earth and sun. I've heard of bonfire gatherings, too. Others I have known to take a bottle of wine and sit on a mountainside to watch the sun set on the longest day of the year. While talking of solstices last December, I mentioned that the Winter Solstice seemed to draw more attention over here than the summer. I got a very interesting email from Anna-Kaisa Salomaa in Finland, and here's what she says.

"In Finland the Midsummer is celebrated still with rituals and ceremonies, even though young people prefer rock festivals. At the Midsummer night bonfires light all lake shores
and maidens collect seven different flowers under their pillows to see their
future husband in a dream. There are many old traditions and beliefs about
the magic things that happen at the Midsummer night and so there is always
something magical in the Midsummer to me."

I think we've lost something in our society to have forgotten the magic of the solstices. But it still lives in cultural pockets and with individuals. You can send a friend a solstice card from Blue Mountain cards, you know. Solstice lives.

I've never had any solstice traditions, myself, but I think it would be nice to do something to mark the day. This midsummer solstice, I'll be camping somewhere between Ohio and Florida. Maybe I can find a mountain in Tennessee to sit on with a bottle of merlot and a candle, and watch the sun go down. It will be a start.

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HERBS

In my discussions of herbs in all the issues of Kildonan Times, I present only general information. It is not intended to be a guide for the use of the herbs. If you wish to use any of the herbs described in Kildonan Times, consult an herbalist or a definitive guide book to using herbs.

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common mallow: Do you know the common mallow (also known as marsh mallow or musk mallow)? It has little flat seed pods that look like tiny green rounds of cheese. That's what my sister and I always called them, little cheeses. We would gather handfuls of them to eat; they have a slightly nutty taste. In Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden, the unripe seed capsules are also called "cheeses," so it's a universal and traditional term. I don't know where my sister and I Iearned it.

It is a low plant with leaves similar to geranium leaves and small pinkish flowers. The leaves are excellent in salads, and are loaded with vitamins A, B, and C. Like most green herbs, the leaves and tender shoots are also excellent cooked as a green vegetable. That's the way I always used mallow, as a food.

But I have found out that it is considered an important medical herb, too. Mallow soothes membranes, reduce inflammation (especially on bug bites), and is good for bronchitis. Mallow is traditionally used in ointments and in cough syrup. A sweet soothing recipe made from the powdered root of the mallow in times past gave us the name of our sugary marshmallow...which has absolutely no mallow in it.

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nasturtium: When I was growing up, we usually had bright orange, red, and yellow nasturtiums in a border between the house and the driveway. We used the round leaves as one would use lettuce in sandwiches. They lay nicely flat on the bread, and had a lot more flavor than lettuce. Chewier, though. They make good salad greens. Nasturtium flowers are edible, too. I have several times been served nasturtium flowers as an edible garnish in restaurants. They really dress up a plate.

Nasturtium seeds contain an antibiotic. An infusion made with the seeds, leaves, and flowers fights respiratory infection with fewer side effects than chemical antibiotics.

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A further note on nasturtiums. Just a few days after I had written the above paragraphs on nasturtiums, I was out at Lowe's getting some bags of mulch. I wandered over to the herbs rack to see if they had globe basil, and there were little yellow pots of nasturtiums. In the herbs! They're primarily thought of as ornamental flowers. I quote for you the little plastic tag that was stuck in the pot.

"Nasturtiums are in the same family as watercress. Peppery taste of flowers or young leaves tossed in a salad adds a gourmet touch. Garnish chicken or seafood salad with the rainbow colored nasturtium (flower). Try nasturtium leaves on your tuna salad sandwich instead of lettuce. Float the flowers in bowls of punch. Hang baskets...of nasturtiums on your patio. Trail nasturtium vines up a garden trellis. To know them is to love them!" Kitchen Gardens, Naples, FL

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My basic herb reference books for the herbs I use either for food or medicine in Clovenstone and Stones Seven are: The Herb Book by John Lust (Bantam Books), Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden by Robin Whitman (Bullfinch Press) and Herbs by Lesley Bremness (DK Publishing).

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A FEW THOUGHTS FROM THE EDITOR (me, Ruth)

Remember last month I wrote about leaving a few weeds in your yard to liven up your menus in the kitchen. I particularly mentioned lambs quarters and sorrel. Tonight I was searching through my recipe books to find information on clotted cream, and ran into a confirmation of my thoughts. I have this wonderful recipe book, History from the Hearth, by Sally Eustice. The book features recipes related to and taken from diaries and other sources from 18th century settlers at Fort Michilimackinac (now a state park) in Michigan. Since these settlers were Scottish/Irish/British, their recipes reflect the traditional foods of their homelands. It is an excellent foods research source.

On page 137, the author describes fixing historic foods for staff members and guests at Fort Michilimackinac:

"One of our interpreters, Barb, is a master at locating edible weeds...We often find her, with a basket, scouring the parade ground, the beach area, and especially the pile of weeds just pulled from the gardens...Many a visitor has questioned our gardening ability when viewing the lush crop of dandelions, wild mustard, sorrel, and lamb's quarters growing next to the parsley, sage, and thyme.

Sorrel, as well as lambs quarters and dandelion greens, were used fresh in salads...greens can also be gently boiled and used like spinach...they used vinegar to season them."

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'Nuf said about foods. On to walking. Did you take a walk today? Aha. I didn't think so. I didn't either. But I'm a big walker. My father was a big walker. We would come home at night from an affair, and pass my father striding down the country roads. When I was a teen, I'd stuff some candy in my pocket and head out of town to walk the back roads for hours. As a teacher, my kids and I often walked the seven miles home from school for the fun of it. Sometimes neighbor kids would join us.

That's why Fiona and crew in Clovenstone trek the land. Granted, they're too poor to have horses, but I made them that way. I wanted them to put a pack on their backs and step out towards the horizon. I wanted them to walk, as I love to walk...to take on the world at an elemental level, on their own two feet.

Now, after all that romancing, I'll have to admit I don't walk as much as I should any more. Walking gives you energy. It keeps your weight down. It's healthy. We all know that. But I've got involved in other things. Sound familiar? I keep telling myself I need to put them aside and walk. I'm working on myself to start on a daily walking schedule, to make an hour of walking a priority instead of grabbing a cup of coffee in the morning and sitting down at the computer.

Do you walk? I'll tell you what. I'll do it if you do it. We can pretend we're Fiona and friends. No? Well, I have to walk these days on sidewalks in an urban neighborhood. Not inspiring. I have to pretend something. If you can walk on country or forested lanes, you have no excuse. Get out there. We'll start June first. OK?

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WEBSITES TO EXPLORE

This is a really lovely site, and one to relax with of an evening. So pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back, and click on the blue words below. If that doesn't work, copy the URL below, paste it into your browser window, and hit "go."

http://www.medieval-castles.co.uk/

When you get to this site, soft music will begin playing. Along the bottom of the page are little pictures of English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish castles and fortresses. Click on a little picture, and a big stunning photo of the castle you clicked on comes up. There are lots and lots of photos, all beautiful to see. Enjoy.

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And, as always, tell your aunts, uncles, cousins and friends about Clovenstone. Give them an adventure!

Good Fate Be Yours —
Ruth

All art work and text © copyrighted by Ruth McIntyre-Williams.