Floreye (Chicken Pate with Roses)
As prepared for Purgatorio Wooden Spoon Competition - 15th C recipe
August 23, 2003 being AS XXXVIII
My Recipe:
6 chicken thighs
3-4 roses (red or rose in color)plus another for garnish
1 cup almond milk (1/3 c ground almonds + 1 cup water)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rose water
Cook chicken either roasted or boiled in chicken broth until
just done. Let cool. Put them through the meat grinder or processor.
Keep the broth or any fat/gelatin remaining in the pan.
Take the roses. De-petal them. Gently wash and dry the petals.
Remove the pointed tips (the bitter part). Put these through the
grinder.
Make almond milk - about 1 cup.
Mix the almond milk, roses, salt, sugar and chicken. Add 1/4 cup
cooking broth OR 3 tablespoons of fat/gelatin from the cooking
of the chicken. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the milk
is absorbed - about 5 minutes. Add rose water. Stir in then remove
from heat.
If serving warm - mound on plate. Sprinkle with sugar (about
1 teaspoon) and decorate the plate with rose petals.
If serving cold - put in mold. Unmold on to plate, sprinkle a
teaspoon of sugar over it, and decorate with rose petals.
To make Almond Milk:
Grind blanched almonds - about 1/3 cup. Place in cheese cloth
and tie tightly shut with string. Place in bowl and cover with
1 cup water. Let sit for 15 minutes. Remove cheese cloth - squeeze
all milk from cloth and contents. Makes approximately 1 cup almond
milk.
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Documentation
The Recipe from the Original Text:
75. Florey.
Take flourys of rosys; wesch hem & grynd hen with almond mylke.
Take brawn of capons grounden & do thereto. Loke hit be stondyng.
Cast theryn sugure, & cast theron the leves of floure of the
rose, & serve hit forth.
The Recipe by the Book's Author:
Petals of 4 medium sized roses
2 oz (1/2 cup) blanched of slivered almonds
3 cups cooked chicken breast chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken broth or water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
Reserve some of the inner, less wilted, petals. Put the rest
in a blender or processor with the almonds and process them; then
add the chicken meat and seasonings and process again.
Put this mixture in a saucepan and stir into it the broth or water,
previously brought to a boil. Leave to steep for 10 minutes, then
bring to a boil, stirring, and continue to stir over a low heat
for no more than 5 minutes.
The dish can be served hot, mounded on a serving dish. Or it can
be packed into a bowl and chilled, then unmounded before serving.
Either way, garnish at the last moment with the reserved rose
petals.
The Source:
Hieatt, Constance B. An Ordinance of Pottage: An Edition of
the Fifteenth Century Culinary Recipes in Yale University's MS
Beinecke 163. Published by Prospect Books. 1988. ISBN 0 907325
38 6. Pages 60, 167.
Major decisions Made in Developing this Recipe:
Chicken - dark meat, especially the thigh, has a sweet and almost fruit essence overlay which would enhance the rose flavor. Also, in this recipe, as in the other similar recipes, there is little cooking being done, so I also chose to precook the meat.
Chicken broth or gelatin - the original recipe merely says to cast it on the petals to serve, if this is not to be mushy it needs something to make it hold. I added the gelatin from the roasting pan.
Almond Milk - the reacted recipes all call for grinding the rose petals with the almonds and then making the almond milk. I chose to make the almond milk and add it as the original suggests.
Roses - to grind the rose petals, I made sure they were very dry. Writings, such as Gerard's Herbal espouse the use of roses as it strengthens the heart. While I do not know whether this is true, I do know that to ensure that the flavor of the rose comes through, you need to use a fair quantity of petals and a dash of sugar to bring the flavor forth.
Salt - I added salt to brighten the flavor of the chicken.
Rose Water - I added rose water to enhance the flavor of the roses, since the roses were bland.
Appendix:
Other versions of the recipe consulted --
There appears to be 2 versions of Rosee - one with chicken
and one with out. The one with appears to be a recipe of the same
sort as the Floreye - a chicken pate with roses.
41. For to make rosee, tak the flowrys of rosys and wasch hem wel in water, and after bray hem wel in a morter; & than tak almondys and temper hem, & seth hem, & after tak flesch of capons or of hennys and hac yt smale, & than bray hem wel in a morter, & than do yt in the rose so that the flesch acorde wyth the mylk, & so that the mete be charchaunt: & after do yt to the fyre to boyle, & do therto sugur & safroun that yt be wel ycolowrd & rosy of leuys of the for seyde flowrys, & serue yt forth.
Recipe 41 of Diuersa Servicia - book 2 of MS Cosin 14th C. Menus
32. To make a rosye. Tak braun of capounces or of hennes & hew it smal, & bray it in a morter & do perto grounde bred & tempre it vp with almounde melk, & and do into a pot & lye it with amodne & colour it with safroun. & do perto white gres & stere it weel, & tak roses & hewe hem smale & do into pe pot, & seth it all togedrere & ley it with eyre, & do perto sugre & salt, & dresch it, & strewe peron rede rose leaues & serue it forth.
Recipe 32 of Utilis Coquinario - book 3 of MS Cosin 14th C. Menus
Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). Published for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-19-722409-1.
Recipe 41 also printed and redacted with recipe in Hieatt, Constance B., Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler. Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks. Published by University of Toronto Press. 1976. ISBN 0-8020-7632-7. Recipe 69