Apple-raisin pottage

 

My starting point is the 15th C English recipe and modern redaction found on the Gode Cookery web site. I deviated from the Gode Cookery redaction in reserving the galingale/ginger mixture  solely for sprinkling on top of the dish, which appears to me to be what the original recipe instructs. 

A potage of Roysons. Take Raysonys, & do a-way şe kyrnellys; & take a part of Applys, & do a-way şe corys, & şe pare, & bray hem in a mortere, & temper hem with Almande Mylke, & melle hem with flowre of Rys, şat it be clene chargeaunt, & straw vppe-on pouder of Galygale & of Gyngere, & serue it forth.

- Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Harleian MS. 279 & Harl. MS. 4016, with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1429, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS 55. London: for The Early English Text Society by N. Trübner & Co., 1888. 


 

VERSION I:

-6 fairly small organic granny smith apples (not a period variety, but in texture and taste I find them very similar to the Summer Rambo, which is period but hard to find)
- 1 Tbs sugar (organic cane)
- 4+ Tbs rice flour
- 1.5+ cups almond milk (I cheated and used a commercial almond milk. It contains vitamin related additives, but nothing else 'unperiod')
- Galingale & ginger mixture, to sprinkle on top.

I trust the Gode Cookery author who says that unless you boil the apples (something not in the 15th c instructions) you end up with a brown, disgusting mess. So I boiled the apples and raisons until the apples were soft, discarded the water (and probably a certain amount of flavor), then added the sugar and almond milk followed by the flour. It mixes up to be just like a pudding, but made of apples.

Period apples, such as those seen above, are hard to find in the US. As I recall, I purchased these from an orchard in Michigan. When searching online, look for orchards that sell "heritage" apples. Period varieties include Summer Rambo and Caville blanc d'hiver, and probably the Lady Apple. You can also find early 17th century varieties, such as the Roxbury Russet.

I was disappointed with the flavor, however, and found later that the rest of the apples I'd bought were also not as flavorful as usual. But overall I liked the dish enough to actually want to tinker with it some more...leading to

VERSION II: