Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Food in the Time of Fawkes.

Today, or rather, this night in Britain it is “Guy Fawkes’ Night.” The night was the theme of yesterday’s post, in which I gave you links to previous stories inspired by the events of “Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot” in 1605.  It occurred to me that none of the recipes from these posts actually came from the time of Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators, so I am going to redress that today.

I have chosen some delights from Sir Hugh Plat’s Delightes for ladies: to adorn their persons, tables, closets, and distillatories with beauties, banquets, perfumes and waters, published in 1602.

Keeping of Pomegranats.
Make choice of such Pomgranates as are sound and not prickt as they tearme it, lap them over thinly with wax, hang them upon naales, where they may touch nothing, in some cupboard or closet in your bedchamber, wher you keep a continual fire, and every 3 or 4 daies turn the undersides uppermost, & therefore you must so hang them in packthread, that they may have a bowe knot at either end. This way Pomgranates have been kept fresh till whitsontide.

To boyle Pigeons with rice.
Boyle them in mutton broath, putting sweete hearbes in their bellies, then take a little Rice and boyle it in Creame, with a little whole mace, season it with sugar, lay it thick upon their breasts, wringing also the juice of a Lemmon upon them, and so serve them.

To make a Polonian sawsedge.

Take the fillets of an hog, chop them verie small, with a handfull of red sage, season it hot with Ginger and pepper, and them put it into a great sheepes gut, then let it lie three nights in brine, then boyle it and hang it up in a chimney where fire is usually kept, and these sawsedges will last one whole yeare. They are good for sallades, or to garnish boyled meats, or to make one relish a cup of wine.

3 comments:

Gary Gillman said...

Excellent to see how far back the polony (red polony, Bath polony) goes. Countless recipes for these in the English lexicon and they all differ somewhat except usually a red colour is wanted. The story I've read all these years is it is a corruption of Bologna (for its famous sausage), but who knows..

Gary

The Old Foodie said...

Yes, that' whatI understood about the name too - there have been some truly awful incarnations of "Colony" have they not?
And the same applies to "Saveloys" from Cervelas.

Gary Gillman said...

I've never had a polony but I like saveloys! It's one of those humble-but-decent little dishes that one hopes will never disappear although perennially unfashionable. (My issue is they never seem hot enough, even when all the caffs have the microwave). A saveloy, with its tissue paper and English ketchup, is part of England for me, it goes with bitter beer, Cadbury chocolate, rain and railway arches, museums.

Gary