I was very honored this past Pennsic to be invited by THL Reyni-Hrefna, from the Midrealm, to attend her Icelandic feast.  I have long admired her work, and was quite excited to be part of this event. 

Reyni-Hrefna not only experiments with cooking period dishes (no easy thing, given that recipes from this time do not exist), but she also experiments with period preservation methods.  She also frequently cooks in iron kettles and soap stone pots, both of which are period.

For this feast she not only laid out a beautiful spread (with each item served in a period container) but she explained to us the food itself, how it was cooked or preserved, and often why someone would choose to eat these things (because honestly, most were strange to an American palate).

Included in the feast was beef and kale with juniper berries, preserved in whey; goat and sheep hearts; kettle worms (a type of sausage); grasmjolk (icelandic moss cooked in milk); barley flat bread; skyr; a whole cooked head; roasted duck; an ocean stew with fish broth and shellfish; cultured butter; and a kale that is made the way one makes sauerkraut.

I have to say that I loved the preserved beef and kale, despite the fact that it is very bizarre to eat what is essentially a fermented meat product.  The moss was amazing, and I did not even know that item was edible.  The skyr was fantastic, as was the bread and butter.  I am not normally a fan of sausage but this was excellent and had a bit of a forest taste (more juniper?), and likewise, I do not usually care for duck, but this was tastey.  I liked the kale, but the texture was quite rubbery after preservation.  The fish broth and mussels were nice as well, but I did not help myself to either head or heart.

I loved that this was both educational and tasty, but I have to say that the atmosphere provided really allowed for this to be one of those true "medieval moments" that one occasionally gets to experience in the SCA.  Her attention to detail in setting up the table and preparing this meal was superb, and I was greatly honored to be included.

I am reworking my Dish of Apples and Wheat food item, so that I can make it a part of my KASF Pentathlon entry.  Instead of using commercially bought butter this time, I am excited to be using hand churned, cultured butter!  Thanks very much to THL Reyni-Hrefna from the Midrealm for her advice in culturing and working this product.  I am more than pleased with my results!

For my dairy I used both whole, non-homogenized milk and heavy cream from South Mountain Creamery in Maryland.  I added Siggi's skyr to it to culture it and left it sit out, covered with a linen cloth, for a little more than a day in a room that was close to 70 degrees.  Everything I read said that you would know when it is cultured because it will thicken and smell slightly sour, but not "bad".  I approached this tentatively, as I have this almost-fear of spoiled dairy (I wont even use milk once it has been open for a few days, even if the expiration date is no where in site).  Once I went through the process, however, I completely understood that statement.  The cultured dairy indeed thickened, but it also smelled exactly like the yogurt that I had added to the milk.  It smelled fantastic.

I then put it in the refrigerator to drop the temperature closer to 60 degrees and then added it to the churn.  The time and effort needed to get the fat to separate from the liquid was more than I anticipated, but with my boyfriend's help, we finally got to that point.

After that I strained out the solids and spent a considerable amount of time pressing the butter and adding ice cold water to help clean the remaining buttermilk out of the butter.  Finally, I ended up with a bowl of wonderful, flavorful cultured butter! 

For Atlantia's Holiday Faire event I did my first ever food entry for a competition.  The theme was Holiday items so I made Sheker Burek, a sweet dish, served during Ottoman festivals.  My documentation and recipe are below.  The judges comments were very helpful (they loved my documentation, filling and presentation, but the dough itself was a bit overworked).  I will hopefully be revising my methods and trying the recipe again soon.

(For the competition I had several pastries laid out on an ornate dish and sprinkled slivered almonds and powered sugar over them.

Sheker Burek – A Sweet Dish for Festive Occasions

History

Sheker Burek is the ancestor of the the modern börek pastries which are found in Turkey and the nearby region.  While the origins of this dish have been suggested to be unleavened flatbreads cooked by nomads on griddles  (Malouf, 265), they are today most often comprised of a savory filling encased in dough similar to phyllo.  Another modern form of this food has a pasta-like dough that is filled and boiled (Roden, 132).

Historically, Muhammed bin Mahmûd Şirvanî, a 15th century Ottoman physician, translated an earlier 13th century cookbook at the request of Sultan Murad II (and in his translation he included an additional eighty recipes) (Samancı, 1981).  In this volume of work, the only the sweet version of this burek is mentioned.  (Yerasimos, 128) 

This dessert is also listed in the palace accounts from 1490 and was among the items served at a circumcision feast for Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s sons in 1539.  (Yerasimos, 128; Samancı, 1981)  Occasions such as a royal circumcision were grand festivals, and with books compiled to commemorate these festivities.  In these tomes, called surname, were incorporated the details for everything from processions, to the entertainers and to the foods served during the feasting that were part of such grandiose holidays.

Also worthy of note, the residents of the 16th century Ottoman Empire had developed a love for sweets that included sweetened rice dishes, fruit preserves, candied nuts and fruit and even included large-scale sugar sculptures that were displayed during festivals.  So valued were these sugared dishes that there were even special kitchens on the palace grounds dedicated to the production of sweets.  (Yerasimos)

A Note Regarding Sources

I was fortunate to be able to get two translations of this period recipe from Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya bint 'abd al-Karim al-hakam al-Fassi al-Sayyida from the West Kingdom.  She provided me with translated material from Stephane Yerasimos’s French translation of the Şirvanî’s text and also, later, with the modern Turkish translation by Mustafa and Çakır.  In addition to those translated passages, I also have the redacted recipe by Yerasimos, but found it no more valuable than the translations of the original recipe in recreating the dessert.  (Due to copyrights, I did not include the translations here.)

Sheker Burek – My Recipe

3 cups flour

1 cup warm water

One packet of yeast and a bit of sugar

Salt

4 T butter

100 grams sugar

100 grams almond flour

Rosewater

Preheat oven to 350.


To make the filling, mix together the sugar and almond flour.  Sprinkle in just a bit of rose water and mix.  The mixture will just stick together and there should not be enough water to make it syrupy.

Add a bit of sugar to a cup of warm water and stir in the yeast.

Melt butter and add to the flour.  Add four pinches of salt.  Add the yeast/water to the four and mix until a dough forms.  Knead until smooth.  Let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a floured board and cut into small pieces (I used a coffee cup to make circles from the dough 3-4 inches in diameter).  Add a spoonful of the filling to the center of the circle and fold in half.  Use a fork to press the edges closed.

Add the sheker burek to a cookie sheet greased with butter and back until the tops are just start to brown.


Issues with Recreation and My Adaptations/Changes

• Given that I have no access to sheep’s tail fat (and while it is supposed to be more delicate in flavor than fat from other areas on the animal, I do not know that many people would be willing to consume a dessert made with this ingredient), I used butter only as my fat. 
• For the almonds, I chose instead to use almond flour rather than whole nuts as I assume that the directive to grind the almonds them with a mortar would indicate that they should be very finely ground for this recipe.  (Additionally, my kitchen was already well stocked with almond flour.)
• I tested both a mixture of granulated and powered sugar together and just granulated sugar for the filling, and did not notice a perceptible difference in the the two after baking.
• I had two failed attempts when adding the yeast directly to the mixture, so instead, I chose to activate yeast in warm water with a bit of sugar and then used that water to create my dough. 
• It took two tries to get the water/flour ratio correct for producing a dough that I could roll out and cut.
• I initially had only the recipe from A la table du Grand Turc and it called for 150 grams of sugar and almond each as a topping and 250 grams of flour in the dough.  The almond mixture was to be used as a topping in this version and no matter how much I piled on, there was more than half of it left.  In a discussion later with Urtatim, she sent me the translation from the Turkish version, which called for the almond/sugar mixture to be used as a filling.  This worked much better and the result looks something like a pierogi (which some sources claim is to be a related dish to modern savory börek) and is definitely similar to the boiled borek that the Foat Tugay (author of Three Centuries: Family Chronicles of Turkey and Egypt) describes in the passage quoted in Roden’s The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.
• I find the filling to be exceptionally sweet, almost too sweet for my tastes in her commentary on recreating these recipes, Yerasimos noted that the modern inclination would be to reduce the sugar.  I did not for the purpose of this recreation, but would possibly do so in the future.
• The version presented to day has no saffron, but I will continue to work on a saffroned version and getting the correct amount of the spice in the recipe.

Sources Cited

Argunşah, Mustafa and Müjgan Çakır. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Mutfağı, (Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya bint 'abd al-Karim al-hakam al-Fassi, West Kingdom/ Ellen Perlman, Trans.) Istanbul. 2007.,

Malouf, Gred and Lucy.  Turquoise: A Chef’s Travels in Turkey. 

Chronicle Books, 2008.

Roden, Claudia.  The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.  Random House, 2008.

Samancı, Özge.  “Food Studies in Ottoman-Turkish Historiography.” Writing Food History: A global Perspective. (Ed. Clafin and Scholliers.)  Berg, 2013.

Yerasimos, Stephane and Belkis Taskeser.  A la table du Grand Turc. (Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya bint 'abd al-Karim al-hakam al-Fassi, West Kingdom/ Ellen Perlman, Trans.) Sindbad/Editions Actes Sud, 2001.

I love to eat.  I also enjoy cooking, though the day-job somewhat impairs my desire to do that on most days.  I enjoy most SCA feasts and getting to sample various period dishes (or even the quasi-period ones).  On occasion, I even like to test out recipes that SCA chefs or cooking Laurels have posted online. I also enjoy working the kitchen when my boyfriend or friend's are in charge of a feast.

This spring I actually was responsible for the outcome of two dishes at a Viking era feast.  One of those was based on a recipe I had provided, but I wasn't actually planning to be the one to execute it at the event! 

Note that this is not a fully researched recipe, and not a redaction (because there are no extant recipe books from that time), but it is based on period ingredients and period cooking method and makes a passable dish that people seem to enjoy.  I do not plan to devote most of my limited research time to cooking (costuming and fibre arts are my true passions), but I have to say that I think I might be digging into this area just a bit further in the future.  I love pulling many things together to better develop a persona and an understanding of how that person would have lived.

I am posting this "recipe" here because I have had friends ask how to replicate it.

Viking Stew (Crock-pot Version)
Coat large piece of beef with flour (no, I cannot document that practice at all, but it is one I typically employ while cooking).  I have used sirloin once when it was on sale, but often just use whatever cheap stew-meat they have at the store the day I plan to cook this (1-2lbs typically).  Brown the meat in butter over med-high heat then place in the bottom of the crock-pot.

Lightly cook two medium onions (cut in quarters and then segmented) and two or three stalks of celery, chopped in the skillet used for the meat.  Add these items to the crockpot.  (If you were going to slow cook this on the stovetop or in an oven rather than the croppot, you would keep everything in the same pan.)

Deglaze the skillet with a bit of beef stock and scrape that into the crockpot.  Pour additional stock (I use an entire 15oz can) into the crockpot and add a bottle of ale.  Add salt to taste and several sprigs of fresh thyme.  Add a 2-3 teaspoons of honey and 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar.  Lay in carrots, turnips and 2 dozen prunes.

Cook on high in the crockpot for 2-3 hours (or until the meat starts to fall apart).  You might need to occasionally stir or rearrange the mixture to ensure that all components cook fully.