On Saturday, I set up my camp and get organized and on Sunday, I have dress rehearsal with the cast.

I am very excited and I hope to see many of my fans this year.

Over the years, my historical research with cooking, recipes, and food has taken me to different cultures and tasting their cuisines.  Occasionally, I will encounter a new tidbit of information that will surprise me as well as culinary professional colleagues and amateur foodies alike.

The modern meatloaf usually consists of a combination of bread or cracker crumbs, eggs, and ketchup; some other ingredients may be added to each recipe making it unique for the geographic region or various family traditions.  Meatloaf has been with us for a very long time, but under different names.

The oldest recorded ground meat recipe can be found in Apicius, an ancient Roman cooking text.  This recipe consisted of finely chopped meat (or mince), combined with pepper, garum (a fermented fish sauce popular In Roman cooking), and pine nuts while its center contained white bread crumbs soaked in wine.  This mince was wrapped in a sheep’s stomach or upper intestines and then baked in a large oven.

Other versions of meatloaf can be traced to German, Belgium, and Holland 5th century recipes.  These central and northern Europeans regional forms of meatloaf usually consisted of minced or ground pork, hard boiled eggs, and bacon with bread soaked in milk or wine to help form the hand-shaped loaf and then baked.   These later forms influenced recipes from other cultures including the Middle Eastern kofta and Italian meatballs.  All meatloaf recipes came about for the same reason; by adding various fillers including bread, rice, or oatmeal to chopped, minced, or ground meat, anyone could stretch a small amount of meat to feed others.  Today, meatloaf has become a mainstay in the comfort food menus in many homes.  In this issue of Renaissance Magazine, I am sharing a meatloaf recipe from 14th century England.

Meatloaf
2 lbs. (4 cups) ground or minced beef
1 cup of oatmeal
1 / 3 cup of red wine
4 eggs
1 /4 tsp black pepper
1 / 4 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 / 8 tsp ground mace
1 / 8 tsp ground cloves

Combine ingredients in large bowl and shape into a loaf or place in deep casserole pan. Add a pinch of the mace and ground cloves and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Drain off fat and tip onto serving platter and slice up servings. Serves 4-6

Glazed Root Vegetables
4 cups of root vegetables, largely diced (carrots, rutabagas, turnips)
1/2 cup of brown sugar or honey
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp of ground clove
1 / 4 tsp ground ginger
Salt to taste

Cook vegetables in pot of water until tender.  Drain water.  In a separate saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and add the brown sugar or honey, cinnamon and cloves.  Continue to stir, slowly adding the brandy to the sauce mixture.  If honey is being used, the sauce will need to be reduced by one half.  Turn up the heat to medium and add the root vegetables. Continue to cook over medium until sauce thickens.  Serves 4.

Unlike the modern meatloaf recipes that have a saltier finish due to the use of ketchup, this recipe has a sweet/spicy finish due to the cloves, cinnamon, and mace.  The oatmeal provides an even binder when combined with the red wine and eggs.  I’ve also partnered this recipe with a side dish of Glazed Root Vegetables.  Both dishes complement each other rather well and may be served with red wine.

Some of the ingredients in these recipes date from civilizations that go back to earliest known history.  The simple foods of the desert and oasis – lamb, milk turned into yogurt and dates – merge with what was available in the maze of food stalls or souks in the markets of towns and cities. Here, olives of brown, green, red, and black, rice, dried beans of all color and varieties, wheat, peppers, onions and garlic were added.

The results of this merging are creations that are as appealing to the eye as well as the palate.  Beautiful vegetables are hollowed out and filled with seasoned combination of meat, rice, nuts, fruits, and spices.  Generous hospitality is the most important phenomenon in the Near east and no one is ever turned away.  Whether you stop for a visit in the morning or afternoon, a long-handled pot of fragrant coffee, platter of sweets, and a bowl of fruit would appear.  This hospitality would also be found at dinner.  Although the dishes were often easy to create, they were made with the utmost care.  Once of my favorite dishes is Harira, a Moroccan soup.   It’s a rich and delicately spiced  soup-stew of beef, vegetables, and chick peas.  It makes a meal in a bowl or is perfect with a light main dish.

1 lb  beef cubes (1/2 inch)
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp crushed saffron or ground turmeric
1 tbsp butter
1 cup beef broth
1 cup minced tomatoes or 1 small can of tomato paste
2 cups of water
1/4 cup of barley
1 lb of chick peas (equal to one can (drained) or 1 lb soaked chick peas)
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp fresh lemon zest

In a large pan, brown beef and cook carrots, celery and onion with seasonings in butter until tender.  Add broth, tomato paste, water and barley.  Cover and cook over low heat for an hour and 15 minutes.  Add chick peas, tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice.  Cook 15 minutes more or until done, stirring occassionally.  Sprinkle a pinch of lemon vest over each bowl served.  Make about 9 cups.

This particular dish has been a favorite of mine.  When I found it, it was in old French.  A friend of mine who specializes in European history, helped me translate the dish.

I was fortunate enough to test this in my kitchen and it is pretty good.  I usually serve this with some French bread to sop the sauce.

1 1/4 c oysters
3/4 c liquid from oysters
3/4 c ale  (I recommend a dark, heady ale)
2 slices bread, torn up small
1/8 t cinnamon
3 pinches of ground clove
3/16 t ginger
1/4 t sea salt
a few shakes of pepper
a pinch of saffron

Rinse and strain shelled oysters.   In a pot add the ale and the bread. Place the pot over medium heat and add the seasonings and begin to simmer.  Once the bread comes apart and begins to thicken the “broth,” add the oysters until done.

Serve