Baked Lumbarde Custard

I tried this recipe last year. I have had a few attempts at it. The taste is good, but the texture needs tweaking. My family (who generally don't eat medieval food) enjoyed it. I will keep working on it and post my final recipe when I am happy with it.

Custard lumbarde Recipe from A Boke of Kokery (Book of Cookery) c 1440
from: http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126388.html

Take good creme, and leuys of Percely, and yolkes and white of egges, and breke hem thereto, and streyne hem all þorg a straynour till hit be so thik that it woll bere him self. And take faire Mary and Dates, cutte in ij. or iij. and prunes, and put hem in faire coffyns of paast. And then put þe coffyn in an oven, And lete hem bake till thei be hard. And then drawe hem oute and putte the licoure into þe coffyns. And put hem into þe oven ayen. And lete hem bake til they be ynogh, but cast sugur and salt into þi licour whan ye putte hit into þe coffyns. And if hit be in lenton, take creme of Almondes and leve the egges. And the Mary.

 In present day English: Take good cream, and mix in leaves of parsley. Break the yolks and whites of eggs into the mixture. Strain through a strainer, till it is so stiff that it will bear (support) itself. Then take good marrow, and dates cut in 2 or 3 pieces, and prunes, and put them in nice coffins (pastry cases). Put the pies in the oven, and let them bake until they are hard. Then take them out and put the liquid into them, and put them back in the oven. Let them bake together until done, but add sugar and salt to the liquid when you put it into the coffins. And if it is in Lent, take cream of almonds and leave out the egg and the marrow.

Lemon Syrup

Having a respiratory infection, and lots of lemons, I was pleased to try this recipe:


SYRUP OF LEMON

"Take lemon, after peeling its outer skin, press it and take a ratl of juice, and add as much of sugar. Cook it until it takes the form of a syrup. Its advantages are for the heat of bile; it cuts the thirst and binds the bowels."

Recipe from 'An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century' found at  
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian10.htm


Some quick Googling revealed that 1 ratl is approximately 468g.

I used 2 large lemons and 11 small lemons. Juicing these produced about 750ml of juice, which I added to a saucepan with the same amount of sugar.  I also threw in about a tablespoon or so of lemon peel which I peeled with a vegetable peeler. (I tried to avoid peeling off any of the bitter pith.)

I then brought the mix to a light boil, stirring regularly, and then let it all simmer until the mixture was no longer cloudy and thickened up a bit. After it had cooled, I strained the syrup to get a nice clear consistency. I ended up with around 700ml of undiluted cordial syrup.

I had hoped to try this syrup with hot water, but it was just so delicious and refreshing with cold water that none survived for a hot water taste test! I will certainly be making this recipe again for mundane and SCA use. If you like sweet/sour tastes, I think you will really enjoy it.