Renaissance Recipes for Breakfast I

For those who like myself find the idea of ale & leftovers, or toast in wine a bit much to stomach first thing in the morning (I swear beer & cold pizza has no correspondence to those combinations at all!), here is the first of a few medieval fast-breaking recipes you might find more to your taste:

Carbonata
Translation: To make carbonata, take salt meat layered with lean and fat, and cut it in slices, and put it in a pan to cook; do not let it overcook. Then put it on a plate and sprinkle it with a little sugar, a little cinnamon, and a little finely chopped parsley. And you can do the same to prepare salt pork [?] or ham, using orange or lemon juice in place of vinegar, whichever you prefer; it will make you drink all the better.
Maestro Martino, Libro de arte coquinaria, Italian, mid 1400s

Redaction for 2:
1 pkt Unsmoked Bacon Rashers or Pancetta or Ham (4 slices each)
Juice of 1 Lemon or Seville Orange, or 2 Tb Vinegar
2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon
2 TB chopped Flatleaf Parsley

Fry the meat in it's own fat, olive oil or butter. At this point you can either squeeze or pour the citrus or vinegar over the meat, then sprinkle over the sugar, parsley and cinnamon, and serve. Alternately you can set the meat aside, covered, then heat the sugar in the juice in the frying pan until dissolved, throw in the cinnamon and parsley, boil it briefly and then pour it over the meat and serve it forth. Simple!

A few comments...
Maestro Martino was head cook for the Patriach of Aquileia in Rome in the mid-fifteenth century. He was as famous in his time as Escoffier or Mrs Beeton or Gordon Ramsay is in ours and for very good reason, being the author of the first 'all-rounder' treatise on Renaissance cuisine, Libro de arte Coquinaria (The Art Of Cooking).

Carbonata is one of my favourite brunches - not only is it quick and simple, but the combination of salt, sweet and sour with spice & herb accents is delicious and just the thing to pair with hot buttered toast, strong black coffee and a glass of orange juice. If you are cooking it with a very strong vinegar, water the vinegar down, so as not to overpower the dish. Balsamic vinegar is especially nice in carbonata, and I'm particularly fond of the white balsamic vinegar myself. Don't use distilled vinegars if possible, as these weren't available back then, so won't give you the authentic effect.

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Bibliography
REDON, Odile et al. The Medieval Kitchen : Recipes from France and Italy June 1998, Univ of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226706842

P.S. The picture is a bad pun, it's a picture of a young Francis Bacon.

Comments

[Shannon]

Hi Christina,

In the last few months, you may remember receiving an email invitation to become a part of the Foodbuzz Featured Publisher Program. With all the recipe-writing and food photography to be completed, we know emails can easily get lost in the shuffle, so Foodbuzz would like to re-extend our offer of inviting you to be a part of our food blogger network. I would love to send you more details about the program, so if you are interested, please email me at Shannon@foodbuzz.com.

And thanks for sharing the Renaissance recipe! It's so fun to taste your way through different eras. =)

Cheers!

Shannon Eliot
Editorial Assistant, Foodbuzz.com
shannon@foodbuzz.com

[Victoria (not_blue)]

Hello, by coincidence I found your blog today, when I just posted a medieval breakfast recipe at my blog as well! I have to try your recipe, though I must get used to the idea of eating meat in the morning. I have eaten (and posted about) bread in wine, it's not hard on the stomach at all, at least for me :).

I'll be adding you to my blogroll, your medieval recipe posts are very interesting!

[Jean]

Of the three suggestions for frying mentioned in the article, I'd have to say that frying in extra-virgin olive oil is the best; not only for health, but for taste.
A great place to buy extra-virgin olive oil is at Holy Food Imports. I buy from them when possible since they import their products from Israel, so it really has a unique taste.