Garlic Butter

[kiwifruitbat]

Hi all

Wondering if anyone has a good recipe for Garlic Butter - with or without herbs. Basically one that makes your guests go "WOW".

Any other type of butter would be nice as well

Alan

[Nathan]

1 Block of Butter softened and whipped in mixer till white.
Add 2-3 Tbsp Garlic
and Handful of chopped Italian Parsley
Mix well.

If your doing it for steak add a finely sliced red capsicum and roll in to a length of grease proof and freeze. Place slices on top of steak just before serving.

Nathan

[Nathan]

PS Use real butter and add salt and pepper to season.

[Inigo]

Honey butter is also very nice. Mix equal parts honey and butter.

[stephan]

caspian is not period

[stephan]

these dishes are also served as themselves
ie a dish of garlic butter /honey butter

[griff]

whats a caspian?

[kiwifruitbat]

A Caspian rules Narnia. The movie will be released soon.

Joking aside, Capsicum may not be period but it does go well on steak.

Thanks heaps to those who gave suggestions and recipes. Muchly appreciated!

Or they will be

[Gaius Drustanus]

Caspian is a Sea in the former Soviet Union, one of the eastern most destinations of the vikings. Alternatively a Prince on the far side of the wardrobe.
On the other hand Capsicum is from South America, like Chocolate or Chilli, and therefore probably not Period (unless brought back by Leif Ericson or the Cocaine mummies!)

[Nathan]

In that case, add some Oregano, or Thyme, or even a pinch of Mint. Mint butter would be great with a roast hogget or mutton but NOT lamb (to delicate)

To be perfectly honest garlic butter would really only be accurate to the south of Italy or the South of France (up the Cathars)

Nathan

[stefano]

Here's something to try instead of garlic butter, which is also highly and widely documentable. This is my own preferred recipe, being that I find the mixture of cooked and raw garlic pleasingly strong yet mellow, and that it can be eaten by vegetarians/vegans and coeliacs.

Garlic sauce.

Grind well (with a mortar and pestle, or in a kitchen whiz if you must)
equal amounts of peeled roast garlic and peeled raw garlic,
add an amount of ground almonds,
- more for weak sauce, less for strong sauce -
add equal quantities of white wine and verjuice
(if you don't have Verjuice,
which is the juice of unripe grapes,
substitute a mixture of half white wine vinegar and half water)
- more liquid for a runny sauce, less for a thick sauce -
mix together well,
add salt and pepper to taste,
and pass the mixture through a fine sieve,
using a tablespoon to vigourously rub it through the sieve.

This recipe is a Southern European favourite, and various versions are available in very many cooking manuscripts and books from the middle ages - I daresay there is also a version in Apicius (from Imperial Rome)!

In 'The Original Mediterranean Cuisine' Barbara Santich notes garlic sauce is recommended (depending upon the manuscript) as an accompaniment for boiled or roast chicken, boiled calf's head, poached fish, or goose.

[Joel of Old]

Stefano,

Is there any reference to beans being used as a base for sauces?

Are beans even authentic? There are many Italian recipes now which call for beans to be cooked and mashed to provide a texture to sauces, like flour or breadcrumbs, but this way it comes out more like a grainy paste which tastes better than it sounds.

For example...

Beans (Borlotti, White or whatever) - could also use lentils but the colour is offputting.
Stock - to reach desired consistency
Herbs - Parsley, Sage, Fennell (Combination of all three if you wish)
S&P - To taste
Butter - whisked in to sauce while still hot to add gloss. (optional)

Works really well with veges or fish.
Could also add hard grated cheese and lemon (especially with fish)

[Nathan]

Joel,

If you want a substitute for beans why not use Barley. Its been farmed longer than grains, cooks up well and adds both texture and flavour. Make sure that its hulled barley though not that over processed cheap Pearl Barley though even this will add some flavor, texture and nutrients. Barley does not lose but in the way of nutrients when processed remember, unlike grain.

Nathan

[stefano]

Yes, beans dishes are definitely medieval. For the poor (everyone below the nobility!), peas, beans and lentils make a very important protein contribution to an otherwise fairly meatless diet.

Fava beans (largish fawn coloured soft beans with a large black eye on one side) and broad beans (remove the cartiliginous shell, it's nasty!) are both old world beans. Most other beans e.g. haricot ('baked beans' beans), white beans, kidney beans are new world beans.

See for instance:

http://www.geocities.com/anahita_whitehorse/LibroDellaCocina.html

Anonimo Toscano, Libro della Cocina
late 14th or early 15th c.
Translated by Vittoria Aureli
(Digital version of the original: Thomas Gloning, 10/2003)
(http://staff.uni-marburg.de/˜gloning/an-tosc.htm)

[48] Fresh young fava beans, boil them; and throw away the water, set them to cook with goat's or sheep's milk, or almond milk, or with meat, well rinsed of its salt. And add beaten eggs, and small pieces of lard on the place, if you like.

[49] Another preparation. Fava beans in their first stage, set them to boil, and throw away the water, set them in fresh water to boil with pork, or with cheese; and serve them.

[50] Another preparation. Fresh young fava beans boiled; and throw away the water, and set them to cook with onions fried in oil, and ground savory herbs, with pepper and saffron added.

[51] Another preparation. Take fava blossoms, and set them to cook with fresh pork; and when they are partly cooked, ad beaten eggs, milk and spices, saffron and salt, and make sure the meat is well minced, and mix it all together, and make it thick, like a mortadello.

[52] Another preparation. Cook fava blossoms with a whole capon, and at the end of its cooking time, add almond milk and beaten eggs, pepper, saffron and salt; and cook it in a good pot.

[53] Take fava beans, well split, cleaned and picked over and rinsed, and let them boil in a pot; and, the cooking water thrown away, was them very well, and put them in another pot with a little water and salt, so that they are just covered with the water, and stir them often with a mixing spoon: and, when they are cooked and thickened, mash them thoroughly with the mixing spoon. Then dilute them with a bit of added water, and put them on plates, and put mele on the plates, or oil fried with onions instead, or fried lard instead.

[Translator's Note: Mele could here be either the plural of mela, "apple," or the archaic form of miele, "honey." The word mele appears throughout this recipe collection, and its meaning is usually obvious from the context; in this case, however, it is not entirely clear whether the recipe indicates that the dishes be topped with apples or with honey. Either is possible, and individual cooks who prepare this recipe may decide which interpretation, if either, they choose to follow.]

[54] Another preparation. Split fava beans, washed in hot water, set them to boil; and when they have boiled, wash them well a second time, and set them to boil in enough water to cover them and protect them from smoke. And when they are well cooked, stir them with a stick; then dilute them with cold water, or white wine instead, so that they are well made. Then make them into a pottage, and add oil, with fried onions; and serve it. And if you like, you can dilute it with hot water, and if you like, add pepper, saffron, honey and sugar. With these fava beans you can serve tench, or other fish. And know that, with the aforementioned things, you can make a mortadello.

[Translator's Note: Beans of the genus phaseolus are all New World. While it is unclear exactly which pulses are meant by fasoli in this manuscript, two likely Old World possibilities are black-eyed peas (and relatives such as "cream peas") and yard long-bean seeds.]

[57] Beans well cleaned and boiled, set them to cook with oil and onions, with aforementioned spices, grated cheese, and beaten eggs.

[58] Another preparation in the style of Treviso. Put boiled beans, shelled, to cook with salted meat, and with pepper and saffron. And this can be served fried in oil, put in a bit of vinegar, starch, and salt.

[59] Another preparation. Take boiled beans, and throw away the water, set them to cook with mutton, pork, or beef, or whatever you like, and grind it well, and a bit of saffron and salt, and serve it.