Boiling/seething

When making the elderflower dish, I realised that boiling using a three – footed pot was a bit different from using a stove. Most imagery, and the layout of most hearths seem to indicate that the pots were used to cook over the embers rather than the actual fire. This produces a more even and controlled heat if not as intense and covering as having a pot directly in the flames.

Usually when boiling milk one have to watch ones back at all times as milk usually tend to boil vigorously and burn the moment you turn your back to it.

 

Not so when using the pot and embers, the milk simmered away just below the boiling point, drawing out the flavour of the elderflowers without being burned. While it may be a problem in other dishes, it was quite suitable in this context having this slow and controlled heat.

 

That said, my hearth is still smallish and I am only able to get so much embers out of it, with a larger fire, and more skill at keeping the fire, I should be able to get enough embers to surround the pot better thus making it get to a boil more quickly. However, regardless of this lack in regards to the amount of embers I still think that there is a valid point in the way one can controll the heat using embers.

 

Stockfish Ib – soaking and cooking

The next day I realised that I had erred as I soaked the fish in cold instead of warm water. In the morning I changed the water in order to soak the fish in warm water for a few hours. As I returned to the fish six hours later it had more or less resumed the size and consistency of an undried fish. This means that at least after about sixteen hours in cold water, and six hours in warm water the fish had rehydrated enough to be cooked. I then proceed to boil the fish in the larger soapstone vessel. As the fish neared completion, I started a second pot in which I melted some butter together with the mustard seeds I had ground earlier. The choice of butter and mustard seeds as a condiment to the fish, does not only fit with the original medieval French recipe, but seem to have been a quite common condiment to fish at the time, and especially popular in the north of Europe. The Viking age connection is based on some finds of mustard from a few Scandinavian sites- Hedeby if I recall right.

After about an hour and a half to two hours, which would be consistent with the original recipe (see the previous post), I considered the fish to be more or less cooked and tried it with some of the butter.

When boiling the fish smelled a bit like the traditional swedish dish, lutfisk, but did not share that texture. Although similar to the fresh cod in taste, it also had some other qualities and was – despite falling apart- a bit more firm in the meat. Together with the salt from the butter it tasted quite nice, though I must admit that I lack the reference to regular ways of cooking stockfish.

Though the skin was almost coming of the fish I put it in the pot as a container for the meat, however after the rather long cooking time the skin was almost dissolved, so keeping it only proved it more difficult to serve a nice piece of fish. After cooking it I also noticed that the roe sack was remaining in the fish, why I probably should have removed it before cooking. All in all the fish could probably have done with a better cleaning than I did.

Anyway, after two hours of cooking much of the fish had fallen apart into smaller pieces, though some larger pieces could be taken out and served as one portion. That said, I would still consider this project somewhat successful, the medieval method of rehydrating and cooking the stockfish seem to work well. Still, I would need to try this a few more times before getting it nice enough to serve. Due to the strong stockfish traditions here, the experimentation with stockfish will probably continue.

Meals & dishes III

As some finds indicate that peas may have been used within the Scandinavian peninsula during the Viking age – e.g. breads near Birka and similar finds – I decided to attempt to do a kind of pea soup as mentioned in Anglo Saxon sources. Although no description of how it was made survives, I chose to get some inspiration from a handful of medieval recipes. However, according to those the peas were supposed to be mashed through a sieve and lacking such an instrument made me skip that step.

After soaking the peas for the night I cooked them quite thoroughly until they were soft enough to be crushed by a spoon. I then took them out in order to mash them, returned them to the pot and added, some local chives (again this variety of onion my be difficult to date back to the Viking age), and some stock, and let it boil for quite some time. It turned out quite well, though looking rather like the ordinary Scandinavian pea soup. However looking closer at the medieval recipes made me realise that I perhaps should have poured of the liquid from the peas for use with some other dishes.

Interestingly enough for this area, peas where sometimes mentioned as the proper companion to Graspois, or salted whale. Would be an interesting combination to try out.

Day VII

Day VII

Inspired by an Italian barley soup, I planned on make something similar, based on the notion that Lofoten was not to rich in cereal growth during the Viking age – which at the moment seems a bit strange as the house I live here in is surrounded by newly manured fields.

The original recipe would require the soup to be boiled for about for four hours, with a some addition of cheese and eggs at the end. The rather long cooking time suited todays mission nicely as the aim of the day was to make an attempt to keep the kettle simmering for about three – four hours in order to better learn what I would consider one of the more important parts of Viking age cuisine, that is the long slow cooking session.

I built a rather good fire, and filled the soapstone vessel with about half a bucket (2-3 litres)

10:13 Start

10:22 boiling

At this point I added about two handfuls of barely, and allowed for the water to simmer away

I had, however, to add water as the day passed along as it would have cooked dry other wise.

The end result was very much a porridge in texture, and should probably have been given some taste by using herbs or some cheese or other dairy product.

Day VI

Attempting to make a barley porridge with some inspiration from a 14^th century recipe of pork gruel. In this I’ll first cook the meat, salted and smoked bacon, after which I’ll cook the barley to a porridge in the same water, then chop up the meat and add it to the porridge

10:22 start

10:33 steam is starting to form

10:42 It is boiling and the meat is added

Meat is taken upp and barley added to the water

the barley is allowed to cook until it forms a porridge

at 12:50 I chose to take it from the fire, the barley is still a bit chewy, “al dente” but I add the meat

the result is a bit dry and hard, and could do with an addition of some herbs and a more full stock.

Some of the visitors did appreciate the porridge though.

Later in the evening I cooked it with the addition of some soured cream and chicken stock which proved to be a good choice.

Day V

The backlog continues … I’ll catch up in a day or two.

Some more attempts at controlling the temperature using firewood of various sizes, can a larger log maintain the liquid simmering after I’ve reached the boil – freeing me of the constant feeding of the fire. Today I am just cleaning the soapstone vessel by boiling water in it

10:49 The soapstone vessel is placed over the fire

10:57 The water starts to simmer

11:10 continued simmering…

11:14 the simmering is at a minium, hopefully enough to cook porridge though

adding more firewood in rather small pieces

11:21 it is boiling

11:44 I wrote something illegible in my notebook … (note to self I need to try to be a bit more clearer in what I write down, especially since the note book is smudged with soot and dirt and there is a delay in getting it to the computer)

*** observations***

The reduction of the liquid is reasonable, not the same drastic reduction as I could observe in the metal cauldron.

By chagning the size of the firewood some control of both smoke and temperature can be maintained. Need to explore the use of larger logs for simmering a bit more. Can I use them without getting to much smoke from them.

Day IV

Just an attempt to adjust the time it takes to get a soapstone vessel to the boil. This time I am just boiling the same soapstone vessel as I did yesterday in order to clean it from any residues

Liquid used: 4 litres

10:21 The pot is hung above – or rather on – the fire.

Due to some heavy smoke emanating from under the pot, it was raised two links on the chain it was hanging from in order to allow some air to pass under it.

10:28  some steam forming on the surface, and the water is a bit more than luke warm

10:38  Heavy steam billowing from the surface

Fat and remains starts floating to the surface. The water is now very hot to the touch

10:43  Boiling

Time taken: 22 minutes.

day III

Two vessels hanging over the fire; both the metal cauldron and the soapstone vessel are used in this trial

The experiment is started with the larger cauldron

The cauldron is filled with two buckets of water (=~12 litres)

The fire is lit underneath and which takes some time to start due to the storng winds, but once started it burned quite heavily. Into the cauldron were added three rather large bones of lamb

11:19 The fire was burning vigorously

11:32 Some steam was forming on the surface of the water, somewhat warmer than luke warm

11:55 The steam is quite thick and the water is hot to the touch

12:07 The water is starting to make some fizzing noises

12:14 Fat from the lambbones is starting to form on the surface

12:54 Bubbles are starting to form and the water is simmering

13:12 a vigorous boil

13:25 The soapstone vessel was used for boiling porridge..

The porridge was more or less finished by 14.00

Due to the stock being cooked in the metal cauldron the barley was nearly blue. While the stock of the lambbones did produce some fat it did not have much taste. In order to give the barely some more taste I added some butter before eating it.

While cooking the barely I placed a swede in the the embers to have it cook slowly in there. I would have preferred to use a turnip, but due to the lack of such vegetables a swede had to do. The swede was unfortunately rather large weighing just above 1 kg, which would make the baking time a bit to long. The size of the swede made it difficult to make cover it completely and while I turned the vegetable, it was never really cooked all way through. After lying in the ashes and ember for a while a sweet smell of cooked swede was starting to spread. The swede were extracted from the hearth but proved to be uncooked in the centre. The cooked parts, however, were quite tasty when served with some butter.

Day II

Today I tried to investigate if it was possible to quickly bring boiling water or near boiling water to the boil when moved from a larger cauldron over the fire to a soapstone vesel placed in the embers.

The larger metal cauldron was filled with 10 litres of water and hung from the lowest link of the chain.

11.02 The fire was burning hot enough for the experiment to commence

11.12 Some slight steam forms on the surface of the water

11.49 The steam is quite heavy

—- my observations and ability to feed the fire is interrupted due to the presence of a large group of children and a lengthy discussion with my boss—

12.58 small bubbles start to appear- I try to feed the fire

13.22 larger bubbles

13.43 No change but lots of the water has steamed away

13.47 The boiling in the larger vessel is being stopped and I transfer some of the liquid to the smaller soapstone vessel.

Nothing appear but smaller bubbles by the rim of the vessel, due to some obvious problems with transferring glowing embers from the fire to be spread evenly around the soapstonevessel. Lacking the proper tools I could only shovel so much embers towards the soapstone vessel at the time and hardly any at the furthest side of it. A possible fault from my side is the comparison with medieval vessels which are built with a tripod and thus possible to place on top of the embers.

However these rather distressing results might mean that I have reconsider the interplay between soapstone vessels and metal cauldrons in the studied period.

The next step will have to be a study of the soapstone vessel as it hangs over the fire. Although I should have been able to bring the content of the cauldron to a boil, this may not be essential for the way I would imagine the use of the cauldron. Considering the rather heavy reduction of liquid in the cauldron would make it quite suitable for making stock .

Continued experiments

To boil stock.

To bring the soapstone vessel to a boil by hanging it from the chain

to cook a turnip in the fire..

Day I

Observations day 1

First attempt at boiling

Boiling – using a large metal cauldron vs. a smaller soapstone vessel

The metal cauldron was hung up over the fire while the soapstone vessel was planned to be heated using the residual heat from the cauldron.

For this experiment, 4 litres of water was used in the metal cauldron

The cauldron is hung from the lowest link of the chain.

10:22 the cauldron was placed over the fire

10:33 some fizzing and steam

10:44 small bubbles appeared

11.06 it was now boiling

Time spent 56 min.

Observation: it might be a good idea to feed the fire with smaller pieces of fire wood when it has gotten to the point of simmering, so that one could speed up the push towards boiling

Next try was placed 2 links up on the largest kettlechain. At the start the cauldron was somewhat warm

11:40 Commencing the attempt

11:51 some light steeam

12:01 some fizzing noises

12:24 more fizzing noises

12:59 small bubbles is forming around the rim

13:03 heavy simering

13:04 The water is boiling

Tme spent 1 h 24 min

Possible distractions; A class of young students was present, so the fire was difficult to maintain properly

Soapstonevessel on the side of the fire using only embers

filled with 4 litres of water

13:06 start

13:34 some steam

14:06 a slight fizzing sound

14:10 small bubbles at the rim of the vessel

14:38 the attempt is abondoned

Time spent 1h 32 min

By the end of the attempt the embers had started to fade due to a lengthy conversation with the observing tourists

Observation; it was however difficut to maintain enough embers around the whole vessel – the lack of proper implements to move the embers made the process more difficult. Some problem may be due to the fact that I started with cold water – if the soapstone vessel was used in

Two possibilities; I could either build a fire around the pot with finely cut firewoods or make sure that only aktive embers lies around the pot.

The trial of tomorrow

Boil a larger amount of water (10 litres in the big cauldron)

At the same time keep the soapstone vessel hot with embers and the heat from the main fire.

As the water is boiling it is moved from the larger vessel to the smaller.

Hypothesis When cooking by a hearth it might have been practical to have a larger cauldron in which water or stock was boiling (Perhaps something to think about when composing a complete menu

If time and resources allow… I’ll cook some bones in the cauldron and crushed barley in the soapstone vessel.