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medieval diner and servant

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Garnished Turnips

Garnished Turnips

This was made up in a torte pan as mentioned in the original directions but I have seen it done in large square pans as well and also made up much higher.







spacer Directions

  1. Boil your turnips whole. These were not peeled or anything, just dropped in the pot as is.
  2. Slice your turnips as thick as the spine of the knife... which knife though? Tried some research but ended up settling for it a bit thicker than mine as it also stated that we were to cut them thick.
  3. slice up your cheese... this cheese should be quite fatty. I don't beleive there are many, if any, true period cheeses today so settle for some made in a simular manner... don't let names fool you. The proper size should be the same size as your turnip slices but thinner.
  4. Make up a spice mixture of sugar and pepper... use plenty of sugar (I though I was generous but found it could use more). A quarter cup of this mixture should be able to take you through 1 1/2 to 2 full 9" deep pies. (all I had was pie plates on hand). It also suggested sweet spices, I used cinnamon/ginger/sugar mixture I had on hand and it worked well, didn't even cause too much sugar to happen)
  5. take your torte pan (this is what it actually asks for) and sprinkle/spread some spice down
  6. Take your cheese and arrange it like you would a paste. I found this interesting as one of my, somewhat modern, cookbooks describes laying paste for a pie by rolling it up (in a tube) and slicing off discs to lay in the pan together to form a crust for the pie.
  7. Over the cheese, lay your turnip
  8. over the turnip, lay your spices
  9. over your spices, lay your butter (and it says a generous amount)
  10. Over your butter, lay your turnips and so on. (I finished it with cheese but do not think it necessary as a shell of armor may not be the point, or in fact a missunderstanding based on the name Platin gives for this dish.)
  11. This is to be baked in a normal oven for a quarter of an hour or more... It certainly doesn't hurt if you happen to forget about it... and cook it a little longer

Original recipe can be found in the Riva Del Garda Manuscript (Master Martino)

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