The Prince of Transylvania’s court cookbook From the 16th century Trans: Bence Kovacs Editor: Gwyn Chwith ap Llyr (mka Glenn Gorsuch) © Glenn F. Gorsuch Version 1.04 Additional Editing and Error-Checking (which is and shall be an ONGOING process): Kolosvari Arpadne Julia (mka Julia Szent-Györgyi) Kolozsvari Arpad (mka David Szent-Györgyi) Palotzi Marti (mka Martha Palotay) The Science of Cooking Written by The Prince of Transylvania’s court master chef at the end of the 16th century First part of the science of cooking. [text begins here]…keep it, so that the flies wouldn’t lay eggs on it. However, if you can’t kill the hen, ask your master; take both of its wings in your left hand, take its neck with your two fingers and cut it under its wattle, be cautious not to cut its neck. Do the same with the goose and chicken. If you use vinegar, be sure to wash your hands before, lest your hands would taint it. If you want to pluck the feathers, don’t use boiling water. The water for the goose and chicken should be colder than the sterlet’s water. After you’re done with plucking the feathers, singe it, put it into clean water, wash it, cut its nails, disembowel it, but put its stomach and liver into a different pot of water to clean it. When slaughtering a pig, take its nose with one of your hand and put a knife into its brisket. Water temperature should be similar to a chicken’s, because you don’t want to burn it. Put some ember into the water. Don’t put fat into the water. Wash it in the water, singe it, clean it in clean water, disembowel it from its stomach if you want to cook it, but if you want to fry it, then eviscerate it from its side. Remove its tongue and slice its neck in two places. The following birds’ feathers must be plucked out when dry, do not use water: great bustard, graylag goose, pheasant, grouse, peacock, little bustard, grey partridge, quail, blackbird. Don’t remove the stomach and the crop of the blackbird, remove only its intestines, the other two organs usually contain juniper berries. Treat the other birds like I told you, burn it and clean it like I said before. On to fish: If your master hands you a carp or a crucian, remove its scales, wash it, clean its gill, remove worms if there are any, because worms are common in fish. Put it to a clean table and make some cuts. Open it up and put some salt into it. Cook it as your master or lord says. If you want to cook a fish in salt, don’t remove the scales, instead open it and put it into iced water, especially in the summer. Wash the head and the legs of the calf, then cook it without removing anything. After it’s done, pour some cold water onto it, then skin it. After skinning it, clean it with water. Remove its chin and its chin bones, clean its tongue, break its teeth with the handle of the knife or cleaver, clean its nose. Do the same with the lamb’s head as you would with its legs. Wash the insides of the calf. Then roll it in salt. Clean it with water, then put it into water with its head and legs. If it’s summer, keep it in iced water. Keep it like so until you have to cook it. Do the same with the lamb insides. Second part of the science of cooking. After you wake up, pray to God, wash yourself then wash your pot. If you want to cook beef, wash your pot thrice, salt it twice or thrice, not more; for if you salt it more, you can’t undo it. If your master tells you to boil the pig before cleaning it, boil it with clean water. After you’re done, pour cold water onto it then clean the animal. Do this with every kind of meat: chicken, goose, calf, lamb. Later we shall tell you how to cook these meats as well. Make preparations for the wedding, count the days so that you won’t bring shame upon yourselves! Not only masters are needed, but joiners as well that know how to carve figurines, for if the master tells them to carve an elephant, unicorn, griffin or other animals, birds, they must be able to do so. Locksmiths are also needed. Besides the grand master, there should be other masters as well. There’s no such person that knows everything there is to know, some know how to cook warm dishes, cold dishes, pastries, meat, birds, cheese, fish and so on. If you have enough chefs, then proceed as said; if you have only two or three, divide their work; for we Hungarians cook warm dishes and dishes with salt and pastries too. However, it is better for a proper wedding to have a master for each task, because there you cook for many tables, and you need many masters to complete the task properly. After the masters are done with the food, assign one or two painters who can gild the foods or chef- creations [subtleties?], because even if the chef’s have the time, they are not skilled at gilding. The crest of the Princess must be written on the food, like the peacocks, pastries, deers, birds. These types of food are served to Princes. If you’re finished with everything, call the masters and ask them what type of food do they prepare. Tell them what to serve for the first course and what warm food should they make. If you’re an old man and can’t stand, sit down on a chair in the kitchen. If the servants have brought the plates, tell them to prepare the dishes one by one. Look out, that you don’t put the same food twice for a table, for the numbest guests will notice this too. Serve the food quickly so that it doesn’t become cold. Finis praefationis. About beef. Old masters used to make thirty-three dishes of food from beef. Same with fish, chicken and goose. I would like to remind all that God has helped me and I am very grateful. First. BEEF WITH PARSLEY. I told you earlier how to prepare beef, do the same again. If you want to cook it with parsley, then don’t spare the parsley leaves; look out, too much of its black pepper and acid will foul the taste. Prepare it the way your lord likes it. If you serve a fifty or sixty-year-old man, then really cook his dish; if you serve younger people, cook according to their age, for the youngsters’ beauty and legs are strong as well. Never serve an uncooked dish, no matter what your lord asks. Second plate of dishes with beef. BEEF WITH HARVEST SOUP. If you want to cook with a harvest soup, prepare the meat like I told you. Put parsley roots, leaves and onions into it. After it’s cooked, add six or seven eggs, according to your needs. After you’re done, put the eggs into vinegar and start whipping it. Then pour the meat’s juices into it. Pour it onto the meat again, but don’t boil it; if you boil it, its size will suffer [it will curdle]. The third still with beef. BEEF WITH GARLIC HARVESTER SAUCE Do the same. What we call garlic harvest sauce, as I said, is that you beat eggs in vinegar, peel the garlic glove by glove, break {chop?] it well, add it to the eggs and vinegar; then dilute it (add broth or vinegar) as I said before. Break it well with the blanching stick [beat it] after adding liquid, be careful to keep it from shrinking [curdling]. The fourth with beef. BEEF WITH CLEAN BLACK PEPPER. As I said before about blanching it, giving it its acid [sauce], do with it the same. When you blanch it. After it is halfway cooked, if you want it for a lord or prince, add a small yellow onion to it [sliced] nice and thin. Wash it. Garlic whole, split parsley root on it, parsley greens, live pepper, a little mace [literally: Saracen-nut-flower] too. When the time comes to serve it, give it the sauce, how your lord likes it, then add pepper and ginger, cook it with the spices about a quarter-hour, put it out [from the fire] and let it settle from cooking, then serve it up. The fifth with beef. ROASTED BEEF WITH TARRAGON AND SAGE SAUCE. Wash the meat and put it into a skewer, put salt on it and roast it; if it’s roasting well, remove it from the fire and beat it with wood so that the salt would fall off. Slice it into a pot, let it keep its broth because it gives it taste. Pour some beef broth on it; if there is none, pour clean water onto it, put it on the fire and clean it. Add some onions and sage, but don’t cut the sage leaves; if you want to slice it, slice it in half or third so that they would recognize it as sage. Add some juniper berries, but not too many, lest it becomes bitter. Add some vinegar, but not too much. Add some saffron, black pepper and ginger, but not too much.