Medieval/Renaissance Geek...Runs in the Family

My Grandmother died a few years back and among other things I inherited a cookbook focused on medieval cooking and feasting. Now her sister, my Great Aunt, died just before Easter and as momentos from her estate I picked three brass rubbings that she and Grandma made from Medieval English burial monuments and this absolutely humongous cookie mold. I think the Ren. Geek blood skipped a generation with my Mom, but I look forward to keeping the family tradition alive. :)

And I'll be using this mold at our next Feast!

Largesse Project #2a - Constellation Region Card Deck

A few years ago I read about an SCA member who was making a game using matching pairs of heraldry painted inside shells. Her project seized my imagination and it has been quietly stewing in my brain...and then, by lucky coincidence, or fate, or something, I recently became Herald for my Barony and also took the first steps towards making largesse. Those new commitments poked about in my brain, discovered the stewing pot of an heraldic matching game, and a deck of cards for an heraldic game of Pairs (aka Concentration) is the result!

I haven't yet discovered enough information about the devices of our local populace to put together a local deck (although that is a long term plan of mine) but I thought a 'get to know your neighbors' deck of the Middle Kingdom would be a great place to start. Upon discovering just how many groups there are in the Middle Kingdom, and that we are conveniently grouped into regions, I decided to break the final project up into smaller pieces. I started with the region I reside in--Constellation

I collected a list of the Baronies and shires of the region, as wells as a map and images of their heraldry and worked in 'Paint' and 'Publisher' to create my deck. I then printed it out on card stock and cut them apart. The finished deck was wrapped in some misprints I had made on plain paper and labled with a sticker which includes instructions for playing the game

To play you lay out all the cards face down and take turns flipping them over in pairs to try and find a set. If they match you keep the pair and play agin. If they don't match it is the next persons turn. The game can be played by any number of people.

I've made up the first batch of ten sets for my local Baron and Baroness to distribute but more will be made soon to send to the Crown. And then I'll get started on the next region!

Update: 4/21/2014

I just wanted to mention that since there has been such interest in these cards I will be posting the PDF on the site so you can print them too. I just want to color correct some of the images and get some of the rougher edges smoothed out a bit. Give me about a month or so to do that work and get some sets sent to the Midrealm Royals and then I will put it up!

Sorry for the radio silence!

This Saturday is our Barony's annual event and I have been madly busy on various projects. Today I managed to rework a too-ambitious project that was heading towards being an epic fail. I scaled back the size, finished the easier half, and now have a Win! I can finish the whole project at some later date. :)

Here is a sneak peek at the pretty!

Largesse project 1 - Feast basket is complete!

I have been scouring the town looking for juice glass that are not oppressively modern and will fit in my feast baskets and finally met with some success.

The finished baskets (I made six), Tahdah!

Largess 1b - Feasting Flyer

I also created an informational flyer to go into the feast baskets. Most of the information is adapted from several websites (listed on the flyer.) I'm putting it out on the web in case other people might like to use it too.

It's connected now, and it will download just fine but it's still not displaying correctly. I'll keep working at it.

Largesse project 1a - Flatware Holders

I recently decided I want to start making largess for my Baron and Baroness. :)

Since we have a large contingent of college students I decided to focus on useful things for those starting out in the SCA, particularly things that would help a person be able to participate in the social aspects while letting them save their money for whatever their particular interest are.

Naturally, I decided on starter feast baskets for my first largess project.

After some judicious shopping on e-bay I managed to acquire six place settings of passable flatware  and I've just completed linen storage cases to keep them from rattling around the basket. Here's how I did it, in photos:

Turnip Tart

We've been looking to medieval France for recipes for our Barony's upcoming feast and so I've been experimenting:

To make tarts of turnips.

Take turnips, & put them to roast over the fire, when well cooked cut into long, small slices like one chops tripe, then take four ounces of soft, fat cheese, three raw eggs mixed with the cheese, a quarter ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of sugar, a little pepper, four ounces of melted butter, a little rose water, & make tarts like the others, & serve so.

The above is a rough translation of "Ouverture de Cuisine" based on this transcription by Thomas Gloning et. al. And is used with permission, to wit:

© 2006, 2011, 2012 Daniel Myers - This electronic document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes as long as the copyright and this notice are included.

(The entire document may be found by clicking on the recipe, above, or typing the address into your browser.:  http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/ouverture.html)


The first time I made this tart I bought the biggest turnips I could find. It turned out that just one of them filled two pie shells so this time I went for turnips of a more average size so, of course, it turned out I needed two of them for one pie! I'd say bake a couple more than you think you'll need.

My measured version:

Two small turnips, 3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup half and half, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp sugar, sprinkle with pepper, dot with butter (about 2 tsp) bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

As you can see I drastically changed the proportions of some of the ingredients, and moved much of the fat content from butter to half and half. I omitted the rose water only because I had none. I'll try adding it as soon as I have some in-house.

I find this tart to be a wonderful, slightly sweet savory tart with a subtle hint of cinnamon that really works. Very tasty!





Step One: Peel the turnips





Step Two: Bake In a closed damp environment

I wrapped them together in tin-foil and added a little bit of water to keep them from drying out, closed it up and into the oven they went!




Bake until soft. In this case they baked at 350 for an hour. Cool.


Step Three: "Cut into long thin slices like one cuts tripe"

I have never eaten or handled tripe (that adventure is still in my future) so this instruction was a bit of a stumper. I decided that intestines are tubes so it wouldn't be very thick, and they are probably something that needs to be cut into smallish pieces. This is all guess-work, but I decided to cut them in a sort of super-super-super-sized julienne, slices of the entire turnip about 3/8th inches wide, then crosscut into strips about twice that size.





Step Four: Arrange turnip in prepared pie crust

I swirled them into an even layer filling the unbaked pie crust. I gave the crust a nifty crenelated edge too.





Step Five: mix together eggs, cheese, half and half, cinnamon, and sugar, pour into filled pie shell. Sprinkle with pepper, dot with butter and bake at 350 for approximately 45 minutes





And voila!