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Home , Gervase Markham, The Accomplisht Cook, The Forme of Cury, Thomas Dawson (cook)

Salmagundy [ 1723 ]

iven the medieval suspicion of raw Library (Sloane ms 1201) has an alphabetical ingredients, and the taste for flesh list of more than a hundred to be found and spectacle (which brought swan, in a well-stocked garden, from Alexanders and peacock and porpoise to the dining anise to verbena and wormseed. table), you might assume there was little interest From this wealth of plant life, mixed in salad in the Middle Ages. But this is not the and flower salads were created that proved case; there’s a for Salat in the earliest extremely popular throughout the Middle Ages extant in English, , and beyond. The inclusion of edible flowers which was compiled around 1390 (see page 19): provided the drama of colour that medieval TO MAK E A S ALAMONGUNDY, diners took such delight in. And, since they S ALMINGONDIN, OR S ALGUNDY Take persel, sawge, grene , chibolles, were thought to have medicinal properties, oynouns, leek, borage, myntes, porrettes, fenel, salad leaves escaped the stigma attached to and toun cressis, rew, rosemarye, purslarye; many raw fruits and vegetables (though not  Mince a couple of Chickens, either boil’d or roasted very fine or Veal, if you lave and waische hem clene. Pike hem. Pluk everyone agreed: in the Boke of Kervynge, please; also mince the Yolks of hard Eggs very small; and mince also the Whites hem small with thyn honde and myng hem written around 1500, Wynkyn de Worde wel with rawe oile; lay on vunegar and salt, warned: “beware of grene sallettes & raw fruytes of the Eggs very small by themselves; also shred the Pulp of Lemons very small; and serve it forth. for they wyll make your soverayne seke.”) then lay in your Dish a Layer of your minced Meat, a Layer of Yolks of Eggs, a Besides, the composed nature of a salad made it Layer of Whites, a Layer of Anchovies, a Layer of your shred Lemon Pulp; a Clearly, salad composition was already relatively easy for a chef to juggle ingredients so as to Layer of Pickles, a Layer of Sorrel, a Layer of Spinage and , or else sophisticated by the fourteenth century. We achieve the necessary balance of humours shouldn’t be surprised at this, as there was a essential to health (see page 89), introducing Shalots shred small: When you have fill’d yourD ish with all these Ingredients, well-developed tradition of horticulture in “warm”, “dry” aromatic herbs to counterbalance set an Orange or Lemon on the top; then garnish it with Horse-radish, scrap’d, , and most people grew vegetables such the presence of “cold” leaves of endive or Barberries, and slices of Lemon. Then for the Sauce, beat up some Oil with the as , garlic, cabbage, and most of all leeks, purslane, and finishing it off with a “warm” oil- Juice of Lemons, Salt, and thick, and serve them up for a second to enliven their plain and basic fare, while and-vinegar dressing. manors and monasteries cultivated a range of By the end of the Tudor period, the salad had Course, Side-dish, or a Middle dish for Supper  plants and herbs as food and medicine. In De made an evolutionary leap. It was now important Naturis rerum (On the Nature of Things),t a for it to smell as good as it looked, and scented John Nott, The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary (1723) compendium of twelfth-century scientific flowers such as cowslip, elder and gillyflowers knowledge, Alexander Neckam gives a lengthy joined violets and primroses on the plate. The list of plants he’d expect to find in a garden, leaves and flowers would be garnished with including some that are familiar, such as , hard-boiled eggs and all sorts of fruits: in The fennel, coriander, sage, savory, sorrel, mustard, Good Huswife’s Jewell (1596), and others that are not, such as smallage, advises pared and sliced lemons; in A Newe dittany, pellitory, southernwood and orach. A Booke of Cookerie (1617) John Murrell suggests fifteenth-century manuscript in the British pomegranates, currants and barberries. These concoctions had become known as compound t This, and his vocabulary De Utensilibus, are invaluable works for the salads, which (author of The culinary historian. They’re also the source of Neckam’s main claim to fame as the first person in Europe to refer to the practice of using a English Huswife, 1615) defines as “young buds magnetic needle for navigation at sea. and knots of all manner of wholesome hearbes

salmagundy 215 at their first springing; as red-sage, mints, lettice, age of the “grand salad”, which required an even violets, marigolds, spinage, and many others more diverse range of ingredients and a mixed together, and then served up to the distinctly artful arrangement on the plate. table with vinegar, sallet oyle and sugar”, before These were salads for show, designed to be going on to outline a version including chopped carried to the table with some ceremony. Robert almonds, shredded figs, currants, raisins, capers, May, whose beautiful woodcuts of intricate olives and a variety of leaves, all generously designs for tarts show a strong sense of garnished with slices of orange and lemon. presentation, was an expert practitioner of the In part, this move towards something more grand salad, offering no less than fourteen formal and fancy was simply a reflection of the in (1660). May fashion of the times. The sacking of the selected all sorts of leaves, fruit, flowers and monasteries and appropriation of their land vegetables—lettuce, endive, borage, olives, begun by Henry VIII in 1536 had provided currants, pickled capers, pickled mushrooms, those who found favour at court with wealth boiled beetroots, shredded cabbage—and and influence. Keen to show off their enhanced neatly piled or laid them out either in a series of status, the Tudor gentry adopted an extravagant concentric rings or “in a cross partition-ways”, style of dress and built architecturally elaborate like a heraldic device. houses flanked by knot gardens: rectangular Towards the close of the century, this beds containing arrangements of plants and approach was taken to its logical extreme, with herbs into complex shapes such as ovals, mazes, the cornucopia of ingredients now including fleur-de-lys, or even heraldic beasts. In some cooked meats or seafood as well as vegetables, ways, therefore, the compound salad was simply eggs, leaves, fruit and pickles, and the whole a parallel opportunity to create a formal thing built up to give an impression of decorative composition of greenery that flaunted their magnificence.T his was the salmagundy (as the money and taste. There were other factors at heading to Nott’s recipe shows, its spelling was work too, though. The Renaissance approach open to wild variation), whose name is to cuisine was increasingly being taken up in supposedly derived from the French word England, and salads fitted in well with the new salmigondis, which means “hodgepodge”, Italian emphasis on fresh, clean flavours and although the eighteenth-century dish was the plentiful use of lemon. Allied to this, the anything but. Patrick Lamb’s recipe for Sallad- produce coming from the New World generated Magundy in Royal Cookery (1710) is several huge excitement about food and gave cooks an pages long, giving detailed instructions for the expanded set of ingredients to work with (see chopping and placement of each ingredient. page 118). Not surprisingly, this inspired many First a bed is made of lettuce shredded “as fine innovative and ambitious dishes, and compound as a Thread”. Above this, in the centre of the salads were among them. plate, “like the Top of a Sugar-Loaf ”, is a Meticulously prepared using a plethora of mound of diced chicken leg meat, hard-boiled ingredients, the compound salad provided a egg yolks and chopped parsley, anchovy and template for development over the next century lemon. Surrounding the mound, and laid neatly or so. The seventeenth century is known as the from the plate rim towards the centre, are strips

salmagundy 217 of cold roast chicken breast and wing “three 1716 expanded edition of Lamb’s Royal Cookery, For the chicken, I already had in mind a techniques aimed at capturing this, but inches long, as thin as a Knife, and a Quarter of which drew heavily on Massialot’s book. Nott’s favourite ingredient of mine that I was sure we couldn’t find a method that was consistent an Inch broad”, interleaved with anchovies. work isn’t a straightforward steal, though. He would be perfect for a salmagundy. Indeed, it enough. The solution we came up with was to The dish is garnished with cooked small onions, picks and chooses from Lamb and Massialot was one of the reasons I’d wanted to develop make an intense roast chicken stock by with the largest placed on top of the diced meat, with an eye both to culinary fashion and British the dish in the first place.T he chicken’s “oysters” carcasses, deglazing the pan, adding aromatics and the rest around the rim “as thick as they tastes, adapting and simplifying where necessary. are two round, thumb-sized pieces of meat that and cooking it all in a pressure cooker to can lie one by another”. For service, Lamb says: Nott has two recipes for salmagundy in The lie either side of the backbone where it meets maximise the flavour, and then to use the stock, “beat up some Oil and Vinegar, Pepper, and Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary. The first is the thighs. In France they’re known as sot-l’y- once reduced, as a glaze. Going down this route Salt, and pour all over it. But this is commonly obviously taken from Royal Cookery; the writing laisse—or “the fool leaves it there”—because meant that the dish’s final preparation would be done at Table. You may garnish this Sallad with style is streamlined slightly, but otherwise the they’re often overlooked during carving and virtually one-pan cooking: the cooked oysters some Grapes, just scalded, or with French Beans ingredients, techniques and terminology are left attached to the carcass. But if you do so, were browned in the pan, followed by salsify, blanch’d off, or Station-Flowers…” identical. But the second was the one that you’re missing out on one of the best bits of the which was also browned, after which a mixture This is a salad fit for a feast, and it was captured my attention: I liked the way it had , which is firm, tender and full of flavour. of chicken stock and walnut was served at one of the most famous of all. As the stripped the dish back a bit, emphasising that And the neat oyster shape means they’re ideal added and reduced to make a coating. Towards king’s master cook, Lamb presided over the the key to composition was a series of layers, for presentation (Patrick Lamb, with his three- the end of cooking, slices of bone marrow were spectacular coronation dinner for James II, each with a separate and distinct flavour that inch-long, thin-as-a-knife strips of chicken, added to warm through. which took place at Westminster Hall on 23 complemented all the others. I also really liked would certainly have approved). Ashley Palmer- With each element in place, the dish could April 1685. Among the 144 dishes on offer, Nott’s use of , a feature I hadn’t seen Watts and I tried out all sorts of different be put together in the classic composed salad including puffin, pickled scallops,B eef à la in other salmagundy recipes. Horseradish, approaches to cooking them—hot and fast, style: an horseradish and fluid gel (for Royal, and gooseberry and apricot particularly in the form of a cream, can be a slow and low temperature—but it was only sweetness and flavour release) spooned onto tarts, there was a salmagundy. fantastic addition to a dish, giving it a little kick when we started playing around with smoked the plate, the oysters, salsify and bone marrow of sharpness that brings it alive. I’ve used it to duck fat that things fell into place. The criss-crossed above it, garnished with a variety great effect with oysters and in a beetroot development of salmagundy was happening in of green leaves, dressed with walnut vinaigrette t risotto, and I felt that here too it would help the run-up to the opening of Dinner, and I and a little grated fresh horseradish. The leaves Like Patrick Lamb, Charles Carter, Henry create a salad with true character. wanted the menu to have light smoked notes are partly foraged, so that at different times of Howard, T. Hall, R. Smith and William Rabisha, Nott, then, was the starting point. But since running through it, partly because I really like year salmagundy might include chickweed, John Nott is part of a group whose refined style of there are at least as many recipes for salmagundy that barbecued characteristic, but also to give a sheep’s sorrel, or whatever is in season. This cooking, inspired by French cuisine, particularly as there are ways to spell it, I didn’t feel we had suggestion of the smell of the hearth, as a offers a range that gives some idea of the sheer François Massialot’s Le cuisinier roïal et bourgeois, to be faithful to a specific approach or set of reminder of how central the fireplace has been variety and abundance of British plant life that is now known as court cookery. The term is a ingredients. In any case, most of the historic to kitchens and cookery over the centuries. has been inspiring chefs for centuries. useful but loose one, encompassing a broad recipes I’d read were impressive rather than (That’s also why I wanted a spit-roast in range of personalities in the late seventeenth and refined.T here was a lot happening on the plate, Dinner’s kitchen that would be visible to diners early eighteenth centuries. Some court cooks, which was fine for a royal blowout with hundreds in the restaurant; see page 389.) So we vacuum- like Hall and Howard, were skilled but not of dishes and guests, but perhaps not appropriate packed the oysters with smoked duck fat and particularly innovative; others were more open in a restaurant setting. So I was determined to cooked them gently in a water bath. to the radical ideas coming from France. Nott pare the dish back. The essence of a salmagundy, This technique produced beautifully was one of these: like Massialot, he arranged it seemed to me, was beautifully cooked chicken, textured chicken with just the right subtle, The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary (1723) fresh green leaves and a condiment-style garnish. smoky note, but we wanted the dish to have the alphabetically, and many of his recipes are taken We’d take that and build our own version to go rich, unctuous quality of a roast chicken as well. from Le cuisinier roïal et bourgeois, or from the on the menu at Dinner. Ash and I tried out dozens of fast and slow

218 historic heston salmagundy 219 Add the milk, whipping cream and If the chicken stock has been chilled, Reser ved fried Japanese salmagundy vegetable stock and bring the mixture you may need to melt it first very breadcrumbs t to 80°c/176°f. Remove from the heat gently in a small saucepan, then leave Reser ved onion and horseradish Makes 6 portions and blitz using a handheld blender. to cool slightly before making the fluid gel vinaigrette. Place the stock and lemon Seasonal leaves Add the grated horseradish and cover juice in a bowl and gradually whisk in Horseradish root, peeled the saucepan. Allow the mixture to the walnut vinaigrette base to emulsify. infuse for 10 minutes. Remove the salsify pieces from the Roast Chicken Stock trimmed off. Place them in a sous-vide Pass through a fine-mesh sieve.O nce sous-vide bag and drain, reserving bag along with the duck fat. Ensure cooled, add the salt and 85g . Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and Fried Japanese Breadcrumbs 290g of the liquid. Heat a little olive 3.5 kg Chicken carcasses they are all lying flat and in a single Whisk well and refrigerate until needed. store in the fridge until needed. oil in a deep, non-stick pan and add 10g Thyme layer. Seal under full pressure. 50g Japanese breadcrumbs the chicken oysters, skin-side down. 2 Bay leaves Cook the chicken oysters in the water Salsify Onion and Horseradish 500g Grapeseed oil Cook until golden and crispy. Set 3g Black peppercorns bath for 14 minutes. They should be Fluid Gel aside on kitchen paper. Pass the breadcrumbs through a Preheat the oven to 180°c/350°f. cooked through. Place the sous-vide 2 Lemons fine-mesh sieve and set aside. Line a In the same pan, sear the salsify pieces bag in iced water and refrigerate the 200g Salsify (approximately) 800g Reserved onion and Chop the carcasses into smaller, evenly small tray with kitchen paper and place until caramelised. Set aside on kitchen chicken oysters until needed. 400g Vegetable braising liquid horseradish milk sized pieces. Spread them out evenly the grapeseed oil in a small saucepan. paper. 10g Salt on a roasting tray and roast in the oven Preheat a water bath to 90°c/194°f. 5g Gellan F (low-acyl gellan) Heat the grapeseed oil to 170°c/340°f, Add the reserved vegetable braising until golden brown, turning frequently. Vegetable Braising Liquid Make a bowl of acidulated water. Cut 120g Creamed horseradish then add the breadcrumbs. Stir the liquid to the pan and reduce by a third Deglaze the roasting trays with water, the lemons in half and squeeze the juice crumbs with a whisk and fry until over a moderate heat. Add the walnut- 4 g Coriander seeds Pour the onion and horseradish milk then place the roasted carcasses and into a large bowl of cold water. Add the golden. chicken vinaigrette and reduce it, 1g Black peppercorns into a Thermomix and add the salt. roasting juices in a large pressure lemon halves and set aside. whisking; you will notice the colour 25g Extra virgin olive oil Bring to 90°c /194°f on a medium Strain the crumbs and discard the oil. cooker, followed by 3.2 litres cold water. changing to a thickened, glossy golden 155g Peeled and chopped onions Prepare the salsify one piece at a time, setting. Add the gellan F and blitz for Spread out the strained crumbs on the Bring to the boil, skimming off all sauce. It will yield about 270g. 155g Peeled and chopped carrots working as quickly as possible to 10 seconds on high speed. Lift the lid lined tray and place kitchen paper on scum and impurities. 30g Rinsed and chopped leeks prevent discolouring by oxidisation. and scrape down the sides of the jug. top of them to absorb all the excess oil. Return the salsify to the pan to gently Add the thyme, bay leaves and 45g Chopped fennel Peel and cut it into 8cm pieces. Blitz for 1 more minute to ensure the Allow to cool. heat through, and set aside to keep peppercorns, and stir the mixture one 10g Peeled and sliced garlic Cut them lengthways into quarters gellan has completely dissolved. warm. Store the cooled breadcrumbs in a last time before securing the lid of the 385g Chardonnay wine (you need approximately 36 pieces in Pour the mixture into a large bowl and sealed container and use within 1 day. Place the chicken oysters skin-side up pressure cooker. Cook for 2 hours. 500g Vegetable stock (see page 94) total). Plunge into the acidulated water, place the bowl in ice water. Allow to in the walnut-chicken vinaigrette sauce, 60g Chardonnay vinegar ensuring they are fully immersed by Allow the pressure cooker to cool to 40°c/104°f. without fully submerging them, and 15g Lemon juice placing a cartouche on top of the water. Bone Marrow Discs depressurise and the stock to cool allow them to heat though. Place the 15g Flatleaf parsley Place the gel in a clean Thermomix slightly before opening the lid. Strain Once prepped, place the salsify in a single oysters on kitchen paper and season 7g Thyme and blitz for 35 seconds, then add the 6 bone marrow bones, through a fine-mesh sieve, followed by layer in a sous-vide bag, along with the with salt and cracked . 1g Rosemary creamed horseradish. Stir well to sectioned into 6cm segments a fine-mesh filter bag. Chill the stock vegetable braising liquid. Seal the bag 1g Tarragon incorporate fully—do not blitz again. 500g Grapeseed oil Just before plating up, gently lower in the fridge overnight. under full pressure and place in the 15g Salt Pass the mixture through a fine-mesh the bone marrow discs into the sauce water bath to cook until soft all the way Rinse the bone marrow sections for Remove and discard the fat from the 95g Extra virgin olive oil sieve and refrigerate until needed. to gently heat through, then remove. through. This should take about 2 hours. 10 minutes under cold running water. surface of the chilled stock. Heat the Sprinkle some fried breadcrumbs onto Heat a dry pan and toast the coriander Wearing protective gloves, push the stock in a large saucepan and gently Cool the sous-vide bag in iced water to each disc. seeds and black peppercorns until Walnut Vinaigrette Base marrow out of the bone and discard the reduce to 300g. It is important to prevent further cooking, and store in fragrant. Set aside to cool, then lightly bone. Slice the cylindrical marrow To plate up, spread a thin layer of continue skimming it as it reduces. the fridge until needed. crush using a pestle and mortar. 245 g Walnut vinegar piece into 4mm discs (5g each) and set onion and horseradish fluid gel onto Once the stock has reduced, pass it 15g Dijon mustard aside on a tray in the fridge until each plate, followed by 5 warm chicken Heat 25g olive oil in a stockpot, add the through a fine-mesh filter bag. Set Onion and Horseradish Milk 245g Grapeseed oil needed. oysters. Place 5–6 warm salsify pieces onions and carrots and sweat until aside 190g stock in the fridge for this onto the plate and arrange the seasonal softened. Add the leeks, fennel and Place the walnut vinegar and Dijon dish; the rest can be frozen. 60g Unsalted butter leaves in and around them. Gently add garlic, as well as the toasted, crushed mustard in a bowl. Gradually whisk in To Serve 500g Peeled and finely sliced onions the bone marrow discs and spoon over aromatics, and cook for 5 more the grapeseed oil to emulsify. Store in 400g Semi-skimmed milk the remaining walnut-chicken Chicken Oysters minutes, stirring regularly. Add the the fridge until needed. Reserved salsify pieces in 190g Whipping cream vinaigrette sauce. Season with salt and white wine and gently reduce by half. vegetable braising liquid 300g Vegetable stock (see page 94) pepper and finish the dish with finely 30 Chicken oysters Extra virgin olive oil Add the vegetable stock, 500g water, 60g Peeled and finely grated Walnut-Chicken Vinaigrette grated fresh horseradish. 55g Smoked duck fat (see page 182) Reserved chicken oysters the white wine vinegar and lemon horseradish 400g Reserved walnut-chicken Preheat a water bath to 70°c/158°f. juice. Bring to a gentle simmer, then 190g Reserved reduced chicken Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the vinaigrette add the herbs. Simmer gently for 30 stock Carefully check each chicken oyster for onions and sweat over a medium heat 24 Reserved bone marrow discs minutes, then remove the pot from the 60g Lemon juice shards of bone, which should be until softened and translucent. Salt heat and allow to stand for 30 minutes. 450g Reser ved walnut vinaigrette Cracked black pepper base 220 historic heston salmagundy 221