Waiter, There's Something In My... Easter Basket: C.14th Tart de Bry

Easter was an occasion of great celebration in medieval times in the Western Christian world - not just for religious reasons, but for culinary reasons also. It was the termination of Lent, the seemingly endless 'tithe days of the year', meaning no more preserved dried fish! Meat, eggs, cheese, milk and butter were back on the menu; fasting was finished and the single daily Lenten meal reverted back to two official daily meals (and any number of smaller unofficial ones).

There was a practical reason for Lent in addition to its purpose of religious penance - it was the end of winter. Food was scarce, with medieval households relying on the provisions stored and preserved during autumn. By early spring, the chickens would not be laying many eggs, the majority of the cheese and salt meat will have been eaten, the only surviving animals were being kept to breed and the cows wouldn't be giving milk yet.

By the end of Lent, all the new shoots and vegetables would be coming into season, the chickens would be laying again and the animals breeding and producing milk, making for a magnificent feast at the end of the fasting.

One of the dishes that would have been a sure fire hit at Eastertide is my offering to this month's "Waiter, There's Something In My... Easter basket" challenge - an egg & cheese tart from the fourteenth century. This is an English recipe (once again, taken from "The Forme of Cury", cookbook of Richard II's chefs), which specifies 'chese ruayn'. This means cheese from Ruayn or rather, modern day Rouen. This was apparently being a soft fresh cheese rather like a modern-day rindless Brie. I actually made these for an afternoon tea as individual tartlets (and must admit to overcooking them a little!). They puff up into beautiful golden mounds and work very well like this because as well as being pretty and delicious, they're also rather rich.

Tart de Bry. Take a crust ynche depe in a trap. Take 3olkes of ayren rawe & chese ruayn & medle it & Þe 3olkes togyder. Do Þerto powdour ginger, sugur, safroun, and salt. Do it in a trap; bake it & serue it forth.

Brie Tart
1 wedge of Brie, de-crusted
8 egg yolks
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp normal sugar*
4 threads saffron
¼ tsp salt
Short Pastry **

1. Soak the saffron in a tablespoon or so of lukewarm milk or water for at least 10 minutes. This softens it and releases the flavour.
2. Chop the Brie into ½ inch cubes.
3. Mix the eggs together but don't beat them.
4. Mix together the eggs and cheese.
5. Add the ginger, sugar, saffron and salt.
6. Line a flan or pie dish or small individual tartlets with the pastry.
7. Bake the tart for 30 - 40 minutes at GM5/375°F/190°C.
8. After 25 minutes, check the tarts every 5 minutes or so. They are baked when the top goes golden and pastry browned.
9. Serve either hot or cold.

* The sugar here is used mainly to bring out the flavour, like salt or MSG, rather than as a sweetener.
** I got 14 tartlets from half a block of Saxby's Shortcrust Pastry i.e. aprx. 250 gm. I also used the small tin disposable tartlet cases.

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Bibliography:
HIEATT, Constance B. & BUTLER, Sharon. (transcription) ANONYMOUS Curye on Inglysch (includes 'The Forme of Cury') London, Oxford Early English Text Society, 1985.
WILSON, C.Anne Food and Drink in Britain Penguin Books, 1973, reprint 1984 ISBN 0-14-046.546-4

Comments

[johanna]

i love the original recipe and am glad you converted it into a proper recipe... sounds a bit like a celebrity chef grudgingly divulging a signature dish without giving it all away ;-)
thanks for participating, the tarts were indeed lovely!

[Freya]

This is my first visit to your blog and it's wonderful! A fascinating article! I'm off to read more now! I might miss my own suppertime schedule though...

[thorngrove]

Johanna - Thank you! And yes, the medieval recipes are rather scanty on details! More notes, really.

Freya - Welcome! Thanks for the feedback and I hope you enjoy the rest of my blog. :-)

[Richard Leader]

Another great looking recipe - must give it a go.

I'm interested in the use of ginger - partly because I wouldn't have thought of putting it with cheese and partly because of its overall use in medieval food. I've noticed in other recipies that powdered ginger is used - does it ever get used in its root form? Does galangale get used in it's root form? I know galangale does get used in some of these recipes then seems to disappear from British cooking right up until the Thai-restaurant-revolution of the 1990s. I also note that as late as the 1970's, Elizabeth David talks of it being impossible to get ginger in its root form in the UK and making do with powdered ginger - to me they have very different flavours.

[Christina]

Thanks!
Ginger was one of the most popular spices in fourteenth century English cooking - they put it with absolutely everything. :-D
Yes, their ginger and galangale would have both been powdered. Off the top of my head I can't think of any instance where fresh root was used in cooking. Which is not to say it never was; however it had to be imported overland and oversea so it just wasn't feasible to get fresh produce. So when ginger or galangale is mentioned in the receipes they mean the powdered spice.
Yes, the fresh and powdered do have very different flavors, and powdered is the correct taste/use for medieval food.