OMG! Smakeleyck! OCTOBER JULY APRIL JANUARY
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EYCK VAN LIKE EATING OMG! Smakeleyck! OCTOBER JULY APRIL JANUARY NOVEMBER AUGUST MAY FEBRUARY DECEMBER SEPTEMBER JUNE MARCH Smakeleyck! COLOPHON A project and publication by Cultuur Gent, December 2019. 09 323 61 80 – [email protected] PUBLISHER Mieke Hullebroeck, General Manager, Stadhuis, Botermarkt 1, 9000 Ghent RESEARCH Jeroen Van Vaerenbergh (De Foodarcheoloog), Annelies Van Wittenberghe EDITOR Femke Vandevelde (Gunpowder & Smoke) MINIATURES AND TEXT Erik Verroken DESIGN Pjotr ILLUSTRATIONS Thys Desmet PHOTOGRAPHY Foodphoto - Lisa Valcke FOODSTYLING Mieke Goffin and Suzan Teirlinck. Thanks to all enthusiastic partners: City of Ghent, Puur Gent and Team Van Eyck Photo © Frederik van Allemeersch JANUARY 6 Dried sausage with walnuts and fennel 7 Homemade white sausage FEBRUARY Dear reader, 10 Colourful pancakes 11 Liège waffles MARCH 14 White bean hummus 15 Rice pudding with almond milk hen Cultuur Gent asked me to take focus on seasonal products that still play APRIL W care of the culinary aspect of the an important role today. This way we want 18 Brittle aperitif Van Eyck project as an ambassador, to make sure that this culinary heritage biscuits with cheese I obviously felt flattered. I was very keen to is preserved and passed on to the 19 Quiche contribute to the homage paid by the City of next generations. MAY Ghent to Jan van Eyck in 2020. His legacy 22 North Sea remains inextricably linked to Ghent and is To share this wealth of information with you, fish cooked in even now very much alive. we have opted for this brochure. Each month buttermilk features an article about Ghent (Greetings 23 Bycatch stew Yet I must admit that I knew very little about from Ghent), a historical article (Tasty this Flemish master or about his oeuvre when Souvenir) and a culinary article (Dinner is JUNE starting this project. That changed when served). This fascinating story full of culinary 26 Old Ghent herb rub I came into contact with food archaeologist and historical facts is supplemented every for veal chop Jeroen Van Vaerenbergh and Annelies Van month with two seasonal recipes which I hope 27 Rich herb sauce Wittenberghe, a historian with a strong will inspire you to get creative.3 My selection culinary passion. They taught me to take was determined by historical authenticity (the JULY 30 Homemade a fresh look at the Ghent Altarpiece. basic ingredients of my recipes were already watercress syrup used at the time) and present-day application, 31 Berry verjuice Thanks to their fieldwork and research1, so that my recipes find a broad public: from lemonade I found out more about the meaning of this local shopkeepers and artisans (butchers, iconic painting. For instance, the buildings baker, chocolatiers and baristas) to catering AUGUST depicted in the painting refer to the greatness businesses, foodies, chefs and tourists who 34 Fresh maslin bread of Ghent. I find it absolutely fascinating that want to (re)discover Ghent as a historical and 35 Filled sandwich Ghent was the second largest city north of contemporary food capital. the Alps – after Paris – in the 15th century. And SEPTEMBER 38 Fruit and honey thanks to Jan Van Eyck, Ghent also became one marmalade of the world’s most prominent cultural cities. 39 Apple and pear The 75 plants, herbs, fruits and ingredients Taste, celebrate purée with saffron included in his painting demonstrate that and rosemary he was an artist with an eye for detail. & experience! OCTOBER With the knowledge of Jeroen and Annelies Olly Ceulenaere 42 Shellfish stew with in mind, I managed to follow in the footsteps Chef of restaurant Publiek verjuice and parsley of the 15th-century local residents and analyse 43 Oysters au gratin not only their eating habits but also their taste with saffron butter patterns. The more information I perused, 1 The manuscripts, old documents from the city sauce the more I realised that the medieval eating archives and other sources we consulted are NOVEMBER culture is in fact very similar to our present-day detailed in the bibliography at the end. 46 Cockentrice stew eating culture. A few examples: nose to tail 2 The depiction of a date palm in the Ghent 47 Pulled goose eating was already an everyday phenomenon Altarpiece referred to the wealth of patron Joos with ginger at that time, as were sustainable preparation Vijd rather than to an ingredient. techniques (salting and fermentation), food 3 Old cookery books never specify quantities or DECEMBER products harvested in the wild and regional preparation times. To increase the feasibility 50 Beef stew and seasonal products. I also discovered that of our dishes we have updated the recipes with with gingerbread food often had a symbolic function2 as well, specific instructions and have also included 51 French toast which is why Jeroen, Annelies and I decided to some practical tips. with gingerbread Sausages: from poor man’s food JANUARY to heartwarming comfort food DINNER IS SERVED Livestock used to be Sausages as a social binder butchered in the coldest months to lay in supplies owadays, sausages brawn? Sausages were not the GREETINGS N continue to be a only food products made from FROM GHENT for the winter. Parts of popular food, for leftover meat. Other examples the animal that could instance you can order dried include Ghent uufflakke made The art not be preserved by sausages to go with a beer in from pig’s trotters, tails and curing, drying, pickling, Belgian cafés, or order a garlic tongues, or meat jellies such of smoking or salting were sausage in a chip shop or end as potjesvlees – a specialty a winter barbecue with grilled from the Westhoek area first butchering processed immediately blood sausages. What is mentioned in Le Viandier de after slaughter. Although striking, however, is that late Taillevent, one of the principal n the city, slaughter traditionally medieval blood puddings cookery books from the I slaughtering began in November in the orboudins à la flamande Middle Ages. To prepare this animals was the countryside, the pots and contained spices and raisins. dish, veal feet are cooked in privilege of butchers and Apples were even filled with wine and mixed with pork, took place in small private spits of the Ghentians this sweet-and-sour mixture. chicken and rabbit. This abattoirs. Meat was sold in were lavishly filled with Blood pudding with apple mixture is then seasoned with a butchers’ hall by chartered meat at the start of the sauce has always been a ginger, saffron and vinegar. vendors. In the Middle new year. popular dish in Flanders. Ages, Ghent had a market What about head cheese or hall called Groot Vleeshuis (Great Butchers’ Hall) where the sale of meat was centralised to guarantee freshness, hygiene and quality. Sixteen tripe shops were built adjacent to the south- east façade in 1542. These little shops exclusively sold offal, suet and other by- In the Middle Ages, people did not let any part products. DID YOU KNOW? of a slaughtered animal go to waste. Children inflated pig bladders and used them as balloons or for water games. Adults used male pigs’ genitals as clubs or to grease kitchen utensils. This brings a whole 4 new meaning to nose to tail eating. TASTY SOUVENIR fat cover against How were the cold blood sausages prepared? Pig’s blood was 1 collected and stirred to prevent t made sense to clotting. I slaughter livestock primarily in the early Intestines winter months: fattened 2 were cleaned. animals did not require further feeding during the The lungs, lean months ahead, and 3 gullet, heart and thanks to the low trimmings from temperatures, the meat could the head were first be preserved more easily. In boiled and then the 15th century, townspeople finely minced. preferred veal, but mutton and pork were more often on Bread or boiled the menu, even among the 4 cereals (e.g. barley less well-off. For them, or buckwheat) nutritious sausages were were mixed with more than welcome during the blood and the coldest months of the then added to the year. minced offal, which was seasoned with various herbs. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library (PML), Ms. M. 399 (Da Costa Getijdenboek), f. 13v° The cleaned 5 intestines were Ghent-born illuminator Simon Bening (ca. 1483–1561) filled by means of a painted this miniature circa 1515 for the calendar of a book funnel. of hours owned by Portuguese diplomat Alvaro da Costa. It depicts a wonderful hilly and snowy winter landscape. Finally, the In the background, we see a snow-covered hill with 6 sausages were clumps of bare trees and two large inns in the middle. boiled. The In the first inn, the guests are looking out of the window cooking liquid to the scene in the foreground, where a pig is being was sometimes slaughtered. consumed as sausage soup. 5 10 to 15 pcs. Dried » 500 g pork belly » 500 g pork shoulder sausage » 75 g fresh walnuts with (coarsely chopped) walnuts » 15 g salt and fennel » 2 g cane sugar » 1.5 g white pepper » 0.5 g mace » 2,2 g fennel seed (toasted) » 2 rolls of pig intestines » Utensils: mincer Cut the pork in small pieces and mix the meat with the toasted fennel seed. Put the mixture in the mincer and add the other spices. Let the mixture rest for an hour in the fridge and then put it in the mincer once again. Add the coarsely chopped walnuts. Soak the pig intestines in salted water for one night and then rinse thoroughly. Fill the intestines carefully with the mixture. Let the sausage dry in a well ventilated and cool place.