tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post5639080698176841292..comments2024-03-28T12:23:06.497-07:00Comments on Food History Jottings: Trayne Roste - A Fifteenth Century English Spit CakeIvan Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-76616365514968904092012-02-26T11:08:49.590-08:002012-02-26T11:08:49.590-08:00Thanks Shay. This cake technique must have been br...Thanks Shay. This cake technique must have been brought to Chicago by a European baker. It is very similar to many of the different spit cakes made in Northern Europe, which I mention in the post.Ivan Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-89746538895565226982012-02-26T11:02:19.328-08:002012-02-26T11:02:19.328-08:00I was browsing a vintage home magazine site and ra...I was browsing a vintage home magazine site and ran across this; thought you might be interested. <i>Plus ca change</i>, and all.<br /><br />http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/09/17/pastry-baked-from-inside-out/Shayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16527241089629026268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-32396087420492046032012-02-22T04:08:10.288-08:002012-02-22T04:08:10.288-08:00I suspect that the evolution of hastelets of fruyt...I suspect that the evolution of hastelets of fruyte and trayne roste took place independently in medieval Britain. Continental spit cakes are very different. As far as I know there is no trayne roste-like dish that has survived in continental Europe. Nor or there any recipes included in medieval and early modern period continental cookery literature. However, I have only searched through French, Italian and Spanish sources and that search has hardly been exhaustive. If any readers of this blog know of recipes for a dish like trayne roste in cookery texts in other European languages I would love to hear from you.<br /><br />In the hastelet recipes quoted above, the cook is instructed 'to endore them withe yolks of egges.' This was a common technique used to finish spit roast meat in a layer of spicy, saffron flavoured yellowish batter. The practice seems to have been so commonplace, that endoring batters were probably stock ingredients in most high status kitchens. The endoring batter in the recipe below is pretty well identical to the batter for coating the trayne roste quoted in the posting. Since this batter was usually used for coating meat dishes, most diners probably got the joke when they ate a trayne roste. <br /><br />Chike endored. <br /><br />Take a chike, and drawe him, and roste him, And lete the fete be on, and take awey the hede; then make batur of yolkes of eyron and floure, and caste there-to pouder of ginger, and peper, saffron and salt, and pouder hit faire til hit be rosted ynogh.<br /><br /> From Harl. Ms. 4016Ivan Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-52831711126080474402012-02-22T02:05:52.916-08:002012-02-22T02:05:52.916-08:00So if the main role of the trayne roste was as cou...So if the main role of the trayne roste was as counterfeit entrail dish on non-feast days, I guess this tells us some interesting details of these dishes. The medieval hastelets of a hog must have looked very similar to the extant kukurec/kokoretsi, not like the modern English Haslet, which is now more like a giant baked faggot.<br /><br />Also as an imitation dish it would have been very susceptible to the whims of fashion. It seems to me that there is a degree of whimsy to this dish, much like the "Yrchon" ("Urchin" = Hedgehog; stuffed hog stomach covered in paste prickles, roasted on a spit and endored) dish from the same period that also didn't last.<br /><br />Finally, is it really related to the other European spit cakes, other then in use of a smilar culinary technique? As an immatation dish it could be an independent development?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-85005741180788369842012-02-20T16:48:38.393-08:002012-02-20T16:48:38.393-08:00Adam, that is a very astute observation. In a numb...Adam, that is a very astute observation. In a number of early cookery texts such as The Forme of Cury (c.1390), Liber Cure Cocurum (1430) and in Mrs Alexander Napier's transcription of A Noble Booke of Cookery (c1460), there are recipes for hasteletes of fruit or hastelettes for fysshe days. These are in fact types of trayne roste. The word hastelet had a number of culinary meanings, but in this case it signifies the entrails of an animal. The entrails or hastelets of a hog were frequently wound around a small spit, which was also sometimes called a hastelet - thus the later term hatelet skewer. <br /><br />Here are two of these early recipes - <br /><br />Hasteletes on fysshe day.<br /><br />Take fyggus quartle, and raysyns, þo<br />Hole dates, almondes, rine hom also<br />On broche of irne, and rost hom sone;<br />Endore hom with yolkes of egges anon. (From Liber Cure Cocurum) <br /><br /><br />Hastolettes on fisshe days<br /><br />To mak hastolettes on fisshe dais tak figges<br />quartered and raissins dates and almondes <br />then rost them on an irne broche and endore<br />them withe yolks of egges and serue them. From (A Noble Booke of Cookery)<br /><br />It is quite likely that these dishes were counterfeit entrail dishes designed for days when meat was not allowed. <br /><br />There may be others, but the only bill of fare that I have so far found with trayne roste included in the meal is very interestingly a feast for a fish day, which supports your theory. The feast was in honour of a Lord de la Grey, possibly Lord Reginald Grey of Ruthyn who waited on Henry IV at his coronation in 1399. the date of the feast is unknown. <br /><br />Entrails roasted over the coals or in front of the fire do not feature much these days in Britain, but it was once a great favourite. Pepys was very fond of the dish - "A good hog's harslet, a piece of meat I love.' In the Balkans and the Levant, where it is known as kukurec, it is a very popular dish for the barbecue. I remember once seeing κοκορέτσι on a menu in a taverna in Crete. The English translation on the menu was simply 'guts'! <br /><br />Here is Lord de la Grey's bill of fare for his meatless convivium from Ms. Harl.279. The trayne roste is in the second course. <br /><br />Conuiuium domini de la Grey. <br /><br />Le .j. cours. <br /><br />Rys Moleyn. <br />Vyaunde bruyse. <br />Bakunde Heryng. <br />Gros Salt fysshe. <br />Salt Samoun. <br />Salt Elys. <br />Fryid Marlyng. <br />Grete Pyke. <br />Bakyn Elys. <br /><br />Le .ij. cours. <br /><br />Compost <br />Brode canelle.} Potage <br />Codlyng. <br />Ruchet. <br />Rochys. <br />Cheueyne. <br />Flampoyne. <br />Halybutte. <br />Plays fryid. <br />Trayne Roste. <br />Vn Lechemete. <br /><br />Le .iij. cours. <br /><br />Gelye. <br />Creme of Almaundys. <br />Trowtys. <br />Storione.<br />Purpays.<br />Wylkys.<br />Elys & Lamprouns Rostyd.<br />Perche.<br />Tenche.<br />Breme de Mere.<br />Pyuenade in paste. <br />Leche lumbarde.<br />Chesmeyne.Ivan Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03500437663759868535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8745493398948198755.post-49155361213594527112012-02-20T13:13:44.161-08:002012-02-20T13:13:44.161-08:00Ivan, several of the early recipes for the trayne ...Ivan, several of the early recipes for the trayne roste are named "Hasteletes on fysshe day", so sort of a vegetarian Kokoretsi. Do you think that it was seen as a non-meat alternative or was eaten outwith this context? Does it appear in any of the lists of Royal/noble feasts?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com