Pontefract Liquorice Festival
13 July 2014
Gingerbrede
Take good honye & clarefie it on þe fere, & take fayre paynemayn or
wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into þe boylenge hony, & stere it
well togyder faste with a skylse þat it bren not to þe vessell. & þanne
take it doun and put þerin ginger, long pepere & saundres, & tempere
it vp with þin handes; & than put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe þeron
suger, & pick þerin clowes rounde aboute by þe egge and in þe mydes,
yf it plece you.
Gingerbread
½ cup clear honey
1 loaf bread (1lb), at least 4 days old, grated or ground into fine
crumbs; if bread is too fresh it will not make sufficiently fine crumbs
1 tsp each ginger, cinnamon
1/8 tsp each ground white pepper, cloves
Bring the honey to a boil and skim off any scum. Keeping the pan over
a very low heat, stir in the breadcrumbs and spices. When it is a thick,
well-blended mass, press firmly into a small layer cake pan (8” is ideal
for this quantity) lined with Teflon or parchment paper. Cover and
leave in a cool place several hours or overnight before turning out on
a cake plate. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut into small slices to serve.
Farts of Portingale
To make Farts of Portingale. Take a quart of life Hony, and set it upon
the fire and when it seetheth scum it clean, and then put in a certaine
of fine Biskets well serced, and some pouder of Cloves, some Ginger,
and powder of sinamon, Annis seeds and some Sugar, and let all these
be well stirred upon the fire, til it be as thicke as you thinke needfull,
and for the paste for them take flowre as finelye dressed as may be,
and a good peece of sweet Butter, and woorke all these same well
togither, and not knead it.
A ‘fart’ is a type of pastry. ‘Portingale’ means Portugal. These are little
tarts made out of finely crushed biscuits, honey and spices (many of
which would have been brought to England in Portuguese ships).
As modern biscuits are quite sweet, I have not included the sugar
mentioned above in the filling but put a bit instead in the pastry. I have
used fennel seeds instead of aniseed.
Filling:
250 g of digestive biscuits
1 small jar of honey (340g)
2 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 tsp of ground ginger
½ tsp of ground cloves
1 tbsp of whole fennel seeds
Pastry cases:
125 g flour
60 g butter
1 tbsp of castor sugar
Water (enough to bind it together)
Sieve the flour and rub in the butter with your fingers to make a
breadcrumb mixture. Mix in the sugar and add a little water until it
binds together into a firm pastry mixture. Roll it out as thin as possible
on a floured board and cut into shapes to fit a metal baking tray with
individual cups. Bake until the pastry goes a light brown (about 10
minutes).
Crush and sieve the biscuits. Bring the honey gently to the boil in a
large saucepan, stir in the biscuits and the spices until it becomes a
fairly thick syrup. Spoon into the baked pastry cases (don’t overfill
them) and put back in the oven for another 8 minutes. Leave to cool
before eating.
Makes approx 24 tarts depending on the size and thickness of the
pastry.
Nucato – spiced honey nut crunch
Half a jar of honey
400 g Walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts
Spices – ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cloves (½-1 tsp of each)
Half a lemon
Bring honey to the boil slowly and skim off any impurities that rise to
the surface. Coarsely chop and add almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts, plus
some of the spices.
Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly for 30 to 45 minutes. The
mixture is done when the nuts begin to ‘pop’ but be careful not to let
the nuts burn as they will be bitter. When the mixture is done, pour
onto a pan lined with greaseproof paper, spread into an even layer
with the cut surface of a halved lemon. Cool completely before
serving.
Spiced apple juice
Adapted from a recipe for ‘hippocras’ (spiced wine) from ‘The Forme of Cury’
(14th century), published in ‘Pleyn Delit - Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks’
2 litres apple juice
3 cinnamon sticks
10g fresh ginger
1 teaspoon each cardamom, cloves, mace, nutmeg
Optional: spikenard, white pepper, caraway seed, galingale, marjoram
Put the sugar in a large saucepan and stir in the apple juice, heat
gently, stirring. Do not boil, or the alcohol will evaporate. Remove
from the heat and stir in all the spices (you can use a mulled spice
sachet if you don’t have the individual spices). Leave for at least 20
minutes then strain before filtering. Serve at room temperature.
Green sauce
2 good handfuls of mixed herbs — mint, parsley, thyme, rosemary or
rocket
100ml white wine or cider vinegar
Handful of wholemeal breadcrumbs
Pinch of salt
Pinch of ground white pepper
Pinch of ginger
Finely chop the herbs and mix with the wine vinegar and
breadcrumbs to make a thick sauce. Add seasonings to taste.
Serve with poached, grilled or sautéed fish.
Strawberry and liquorice jam
500 g of strawberries
300 g of sugar
200 mls of water
Approx 20 Pontefract cakes
½ a vanilla pod (optional)
Juice of 1 lemon, grated zest of half a lemon
Makes approx 2 jars of jam – depending on the size of jar
Put the Pontefract cakes in the water in a large saucepan and gently
bring to the boil, stirring occasionally until the cakes have completely
melted (this can take 20-30 minutes). Mash the strawberries with a
potato masher and add them to the liquorice mixture with the sugar
and mix well. Scrape out the contents of the vanilla pod half and add.
Also add the lemon juice and zest at this stage (these are crucial to
help your jam to set). Boil the mixture for 20-30 minutes.
In order to test to see if it is ready, put a saucer in the freezer until it is
really cold. Drop a small amount of the boiling mixture on the saucer. If
it immediately wrinkles/forms a skin, then it is ready. If not, put the
saucer back in the freezer and keep boiling. Test it again every few
minutes.
Once you think it is ready, spoon the mixture into prepared jam jars. It
is very hot so be very careful at this stage. The jar will also be hot.
To prepare jars for jam: wash the jars thoroughly in hot soapy water
and rinse in very hot water. Immediately put the jars on a tray in a hot
oven (not too hot - roughly 120o C or gas mark 1). When the jam is
ready spoon it into a jar that has just come out of the oven.
Immediately seal with a greaseproof paper circle and the lid. Wipe the
jam jar and store until you need it. Doing this to your jam jars will
ensure that your jam will be preserved for longer.
Raspberry and liquorice jam
600 g of raspberries
600 g of sugar
200 mls of water
Approx 20 Pontefract cakes
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
Makes approx 2 jars of jam – depending on the size of the jar!
Put the Pontefract cakes in the water in a large saucepan and gently
bring to the boil, stirring occasionally until the cakes have completely
melted (this can take 20-30 minutes). Add the raspberries, sugar and
lemon juice (this last ingredient is crucial as it helps your jam to set).
Mix well and boil for 20-30 minutes.
In order to test to see if it is ready, put a saucer in the freezer until it is
really cold. Drop a small amount of the boiling mixture on the saucer. If
it immediately wrinkles/forms a skin, then it is ready. If not, put the
saucer back in the freezer and keep boiling. Test it again every few
minutes.
Once you think it is ready, spoon the mixture into prepared jam jars. It
is very hot so be very careful at this stage. The jar will also be hot.
To prepare jars for jam: wash the jars thoroughly in hot soapy water
and rinse in very hot water. Immediately put the jars on a tray in a hot
oven (not too hot - roughly 120o C or gas mark 1). When the jam is
ready spoon it into a jar that has just come out of the oven.
Immediately seal with a greaseproof paper circle and the lid. Wipe the
jam jar and store until you need it. Doing this to your jam jars will
ensure that your jam will be preserved for longer.
Strawberye
225g strawberries
¼ pt or 150 ml of almond milk (or you can make your own as below)
3tbsp red wine
4 tbsp rice flour
4 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp each of ground pepper, ginger, cinnamon
2 tsp wine vinegar
1 tsp butter
Draw up an almond milk with ground almonds and hot water. To do
this, mix ground almonds with hot water to form a porridgy mixture.
Allow to stand for a few minutes, then transfer the mixture to a fine
clean cloth and squeeze the milk through the cloth. Hull and pick over
the strawberries; half or quarter them depending on size. Pour the
wine over the strawberries, mix gently and then pour off the wine. Mix
the almond milk with rice flour, sugar, spices, currants and berries.
Bring to a boil and stir until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and add butter and wine vinegar to serve.
Herb fritters
Mixed herbs — chives, parsley, sorrel, sage etc.
Batter mixture — flour, milk, egg, pinch of salt
Oil for frying
Mix herbs with the batter mixture and fry in oil.
Sources
rd
A.W. (gathered by), A Book of Cookrye, 3 edn (London, 1591)
C.B. Hieatt, B. Hosington and S. Butler (eds.), Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern
nd
Cooks, 2 edn (Toronto, 1996)
O. Redon, F. Sabban and S. Seventi (ed.), E. Schneider (trans), The Medieval Kitchen:
Recipes from Italy and France (Chicago, 1998)
Please note that these recipes should be eaten as part of a balanced diet. Our aim is to
encourage you to try new foods and enjoy cooking for fun. However, many historical
recipes are no more or less healthier than modern ones and have to be eaten just as
sensibly.
...check out our website:
www.leeds.ac.uk/youarewhatyouate
You Are What You Ate is a project that gets children and adults thinking about exercise
and healthy eating in innovative ways. We use historical foods, archaeology and modern
nutritional research to help you learn about the body and how it is dependent on what
you have eaten. We can learn how to be healthier by looking at the lessons of the past.
We are running cooking demonstrations, festival stalls, exhibitions, bone workshops and
schools projects all over West Yorkshire until 2014. Look out for us!
The project is a partnership between the University of Leeds, Wakefield Council and the
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information e-mail: [email protected], phone 0113 3431910 or visit our
website: www.leeds.ac.uk/youarewhatyouate.