- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2003 CF Ronces to Santiago
Hospi San Anton 2016.
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I like your migas recipe but I think that olive oil and paprika were very expensive 1000 years ago on the Camino, especially in Galicia, because the big production was in Muslim territory.They could perhaps have eaten a variety of the simple, traditional dish “migas” which, according to “Small Dictionary of Gastronomy”/Maria Lucia Gomensoro originates to a Spanish tradition of eating small cubes of bread dipped in milk and then fried. Allegedly, this dish has been known since the middle ages when bread was a main nutriment all over Europe.
Today migas is often made with chorizo, but in earlier times, it was probably made with “morchilla” (blood sausage) or some kind of fish. There are numerous varieties of migas, here is one that I have tried:
200 g Spanish chorizo sausage
4 thick slices of day-old slightly dry white bread
1-2 tablespoons of Spanish extra virgin olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
Cut the chorizo sausage into ½ cm thick slices.
Cut the bread, with crust, into 1 cm cubes.
Add enough olive oil to a large, heavy-bottom skillet so that it generously covers the bottom.
Heat the oil, add the garlic and cook for a minute or so.
Add the chorizo slices and cook them for 2-3 minutes until browned.
Add the Spanish sweet paprika and mix well.
Add the bread cubes to the skillet and pan fry, stirring all the time, until golden brown and crisp.
Serve hot in a bowl with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.
Some say that though this is a very simple dish, it is difficult to make it well, and I agree! I think it has to do with frying the bread at the right temperature so it will not absorb too much oil and not frying the garlic too much(?) – but it is fun to experiment…
I like your migas recipe but I think that olive oil and paprika were very expensive 1000 years ago on the Camino, especially in Galicia, because the big production was in Muslim territory.
Yes, the southern half part of Spain produced olive oil 1000 years ago but at that time it was Al Andalus and the relation with the Christian kingdoms were most time not good.Did not Spain provide a lot of Olive oil to the Roman Empire? It would surely have been available in ~ 1000 AD.
Charlemagne who died in 814 (the same year as the discovery of the moral remains of Saint James) decreed that herb gardens be planted throughout the Carolingian Empire and he led by example, planting the following culinary and medicinal herbs/foods in his gardens - talk about French Cooking!
I wonder if the capers went with his morning lox and bagel?
It is our wish that they shall have in their gardens all kinds of plants: lily, roses, fenugreek, costmary, sage, rue, southernwood, cucumbers, pumpkins, gourds, kidney-bean, cumin, rosemary, caraway, chick-pea, squill, gladiolus, tarragon, anise, colocynth, chicory, ammi, sesili, lettuces, spider's foot, rocket salad, garden cress, burdock, penny-royal, hemlock, parsley, celery, lovage, juniper, dill, sweet fennel, endive, dittany, white mustard, summer savory, water mint, garden mint, wild mint, tansy, catnip, centaury, garden poppy, beets, hazelwort, marshmallows, mallows, carrots, parsnip, orach, spinach, kohlrabi, cabbages, onions, chives, leeks, radishes, shallots, cibols, garlic, madder, teazles, broad beans, peas, coriander, chervil, capers, clary.
Charlemagne also promoted aquaculture - known as "Stew Ponds"- maintained at some monasteries - they were stocked with pike, eel and tench fish and were a boon to the elasticity of food supply. Have you ever had smoked eel? Delicious!
Areas with long coastlines like Galicia would have eaten lots of wild-caught seafood during the 9th century including cod, lobster, sea-bream, oysters, conger eel, pilchards and octopus boiled in a copper cauldron.
I'm surprised to see Carrot on that list, according to the http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html "Carrots were originally recorded as being cultivated in present day Afghanistan about 1000 years ago, purple, white and yellow carrots were brought into southern Europe in the 14th century and were widely grown in Europe into the 16th Century".
Likewise Kidney-beans, a native of South America and unknown in Europe pre-Columbus - unless those sneaky Vikings got a lot further than Newfoundland. As to the culinary delights of Hemlock.
FWIW I tried using sliced radish in place of potato when making shrimp tortilla and it worked very well. slightly trickier to do the cooking...has radish been around that long in Spain?
For an idea of what pilgrims ate in the distant past you might check out what the wandering journeymen or compagnons de devoir ate in
Les Etoiles de Compostelle by Henri Vincenot. It provides a fine accounting of medieval ways and techniques both philosophical and mechanical. Originally published 1982 in French, the English version is The Prophet of Compostela.
The major character in the novel,
Jehan le Tonnerre, becomes a journeyman or
compagnon. Still today in France such highly specialized craftsmen are known as Les Compagnons de Devoir. Read here in French more about their long history, tradition and contemporary training which includes a working Tour de France.
For a good English account of the Compagnons see this Wiki article.
For an earlier forum thread re the Compagnons see https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/a-different-sort-of-pilgrimage.40029/
?Hemlock?Charlemagne who died in 814 (the same year as the discovery of the moral remains of Saint James) decreed that herb gardens be planted throughout the Carolingian Empire and he led by example, planting the following culinary and medicinal herbs/foods in his gardens - talk about French Cooking!
I wonder if the capers went with his morning lox and bagel?
It is our wish that they shall have in their gardens all kinds of plants: lily, roses, fenugreek, costmary, sage, rue, southernwood, cucumbers, pumpkins, gourds, kidney-bean, cumin, rosemary, caraway, chick-pea, squill, gladiolus, tarragon, anise, colocynth, chicory, ammi, sesili, lettuces, spider's foot, rocket salad, garden cress, burdock, penny-royal, hemlock, parsley, celery, lovage, juniper, dill, sweet fennel, endive, dittany, white mustard, summer savory, water mint, garden mint, wild mint, tansy, catnip, centaury, garden poppy, beets, hazelwort, marshmallows, mallows, carrots, parsnip, orach, spinach, kohlrabi, cabbages, onions, chives, leeks, radishes, shallots, cibols, garlic, madder, teazles, broad beans, peas, coriander, chervil, capers, clary.
Charlemagne also promoted aquaculture - known as "Stew Ponds"- maintained at some monasteries - they were stocked with pike, eel and tench fish and were a boon to the elasticity of food supply. Have you ever had smoked eel? Delicious!
Areas with long coastlines like Galicia would have eaten lots of wild-caught seafood during the 9th century including cod, lobster, sea-bream, oysters, conger eel, pilchards and octopus boiled in a copper cauldron.
Shed your 20th century ideas. Perhaps medieval doctors found poison WOULD kick start the immune system? Why are people questioning actual historical documents??Hemlock?
Bread was consumed in large quantities. Bread could constitute up to 70% of the daily food ration of the people of the time. The lower classes ate rye bread, barley, millet and oats. The refined flours like the wheat with which white bread was made were mainly consumed by the upper classes.
Probably café con leche... sin café ☹ !
The Latin word used in Charlemagne's list is carvitas, and a list of translations offers this: Daucus carota L. / Möhre / Peen / carotte sauvage / carrot. Source is a place near Aachen in Germany where they set up a Charlemagne garden, see here (in German only). However, it is not possible to determine without doubt whether these names relate to plants we grow and commonly eat today.In response the the comment that carrots didn't exist in Western Europe in the Charlemagne's time: "When they were first cultivated, carrots were grown for their aromatic leaves and seeds rather than their roots. Carrot seeds have been found in Switzerland and Southern Germany dating back to 2000–3000 BC.[8]"
8. Rubatsky, Quiros & Siman (1999), p. 6
Terry, I would love to get on your mailing list. mike_blackard@hotmail.comYes, If there were five- star Michelin restaurants in "Spain" at the time (814) of Alfonso II, they all would have been in the south controlled by the Islamic rulers,
What many folk do not know from history, is that the real culture in "Spain" in the 9th century (when the Apostle was discovered) was centered in the Caliphate of Cordoba to the south. Something I am working on -exclusive preview to Camino forum readers.
I will privately email the first 19 chapters of the book (like Dickens did in the London papers - one chapter at a time each day) if you send me email contacts privately -I need critical readers!) Particularly history buffs like JabbaPappa, Raggy, Dave Bugg, Pelegrin, Turga and Tincatrinker, but also anyone that reads and can contribute constructive criticism. In the time of this virus - we need daily contact - 19 chapter in 19 days starting 4/5.
There are so many books on the subject! There were a lot fewer when I started following it some thirty-five years ago.The consumption of pork was the most common, but not the cow or the veal.
An interesting book on this subject is 'The Medieval Cookbook' by Maggie Black, with recipes. The cookbook presents the original recipes as well as their modern adaptations to prepare them.
Not tapas, roast lamb (cordeiro) or oranges as far as I recall.You are going to startle some folks who think the Camino only began with "The Way". To them, the question would be, "What did Martin Sheen eat?"
This recipe is great and simple to make. I'll give it a try sometime with my own twist of a sprinkling of goats milk cheese on top?Mushrooms, wild asparagus and crumbled old bread, gently fried in a little salted pork fat. Yum.
Not tapas, roast lamb (cordeiro) or oranges as far as I recall.
I agree David that there has been a migration in popular meat eating but in my local Farmers Market, at least until Lockdown (now there's a word for next years edition of Chambers), I can buy both Mutton and Kid-meat. The Goat-milk and Cheese-makers need an outlet for the Little-Billies and the Sheep farmers are trying to get a return on barren ewes. Popular consumption evolves constantly. It would be a wide-eyed Apprentice these days who got served Oysters 4 days a week.If I look at grocery stores and restaurant menus today, I can see lamb but not mutton, goat but not kid. If I look at the recipes in medieval cookbooks, it is precisely the opposite: you see recipes for mutton and not lamb, kid and not goat.
YES!!!!!!!!!, so easy, sure.But @RENSHAW "What did Pilgrims eat 1000 years ago?" There's been some fun debate about the availability of flesh, fowl & good red-herring (oh, and Carrots). My feeling is the most accurate answer would be "whatever they could get" but probably Sopa, Lentillas y pan. Recipe? Put whatever you have in a pan, cook it, eat it
Who knows! There are many ways to achieve holiness ... and Saint Teresa of Jesus said that God is in the kitchen ...from @gmag's text: ""The friars have always been the best cooks, very good gourmets and thanks to them we have preserved, to a large extent, traditional Mediterranean cuisine," said Fàbrega, who is now immersed in the writing of a book on "aphrodisiac cuisine". "
I am presuming that there will not be much crossover from a book on monastic cuisine with one on "aphrodisiac cuisine."
Right , I know that it is just a tad off the OP but from now on I am only going to buy butter and cut my consumption in half , thus spending the same.Yes, I haven't eaten that "carcinogenic yellow brake fluid" for years. I both eat it and cook with it at times.
@RENSHAW great question. Any excuse to think about food is good for me.
A 1000 years ago, in Northern Iberia, right at the outset of the Camino. Interesting times.
Protein: meat, fowl, fish, shellfish all available but in relatively limited quantities and, without refrigeration, caught and killed and cooked that day or salted;
Lentils & chickpeas (possibly);
Milk, cheese & eggs (but of course every time you eat the egg you don't get to eat the chicken).
Carbs: in the North of Spain, mostly Barley, some Kimmer, some wheat.
Veg: Cabbage (various), Turnip/Beets, Onions (what did the Romans do for....) No carrots, peppers, chillis, beans, parsnip.
So, a couple of recipes.
Roast some Barley in a dry skillet till it smells like roasted nuts. Cool. Crack gently in a pestle & mortar or between two boards. Blow away the chaff.
Put some lard, butter, or Olive Oil if you are rich, in a pan and sweat some chopped onion if you have any. When soften add the kibbled Barley and a ladle of stock, stir. Keep adding stock and stirring until the Barley is soft. Add chopped greens. Serve when the greens have wilted.
Put in a sauce pan oil, broth, finely chopped leeks, herbs & spices, cured pork shoulder, cut into long strips including the skin. Cook, gently, till you can pierce the skin. Add apples cleaned, the core removed, slice lengthwise and cook them together: meanwhile crush pepper, cumin, green coriander, or seeds, mint, moistened with vinegar and honey, add to this the broth of the above morsels. Boil, skim, strain over the sprinkle with pepper and serve.
This recipe works for just about any meat or fowl. Substitute turnip, Alexander root, Parsley root or any other starchy root you can forage depending on time of year. My favourite version is Rabbit & Alexander root but I have both locally available. Drink the broth, eat the meat. Give thanks
Thank you for your inspiration, Tincatinker. We decided to reproduce this today, with only the food available at the time: no potatoes, no tomatoes, no rice. So, here we go with Pork, Lentils, Mushrooms, Onions, Root Veg, Apples and a rustic loaf, baked by my daughter Charlotte. It was an experiment, but it was bloody lovely!!!!@RENSHAW great question. Any excuse to think about food is good for me.
A 1000 years ago, in Northern Iberia, right at the outset of the Camino. Interesting times.
Protein: meat, fowl, fish, shellfish all available but in relatively limited quantities and, without refrigeration, caught and killed and cooked that day or salted;
Lentils & chickpeas (possibly);
Milk, cheese & eggs (but of course every time you eat the egg you don't get to eat the chicken).
Carbs: in the North of Spain, mostly Barley, some Kimmer, some wheat.
Veg: Cabbage (various), Turnip/Beets, Onions (what did the Romans do for....) No carrots, peppers, chillis, beans, parsnip.
So, a couple of recipes.
Roast some Barley in a dry skillet till it smells like roasted nuts. Cool. Crack gently in a pestle & mortar or between two boards. Blow away the chaff.
Put some lard, butter, or Olive Oil if you are rich, in a pan and sweat some chopped onion if you have any. When soften add the kibbled Barley and a ladle of stock, stir. Keep adding stock and stirring until the Barley is soft. Add chopped greens. Serve when the greens have wilted.
Put in a sauce pan oil, broth, finely chopped leeks, herbs & spices, cured pork shoulder, cut into long strips including the skin. Cook, gently, till you can pierce the skin. Add apples cleaned, the core removed, slice lengthwise and cook them together: meanwhile crush pepper, cumin, green coriander, or seeds, mint, moistened with vinegar and honey, add to this the broth of the above morsels. Boil, skim, strain over the sprinkle with pepper and serve.
This recipe works for just about any meat or fowl. Substitute turnip, Alexander root, Parsley root or any other starchy root you can forage depending on time of year. My favourite version is Rabbit & Alexander root but I have both locally available. Drink the broth, eat the meat. Give thanks
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