Sawse madame (recipe)

Period Recipe

From the Forme of Cury.

SAWSE MADAME. XXX.

Take sawge. persel. ysope. and saueray. quinces. and peeres, garlek and Grapes. and fylle the gees þerwith;. and sowe the hole þat no grece come out. and roost hem wel. and kepe the grece þat fallith þerof. take galytyne and grece and do in a possynet, whan the gees buth rosted ynowh; take an smyte hem on pecys. and þat tat is withinne and do it in a possynet and put þerinne wyne if it be to thyk. do þerto powdour of galyngale. powdour douce and salt and boyle the sawse and dresse þe Gees in disshes and lay þe sowe onoward.

Notes

• Peares. Pears.
• that tat, i.e. that that. Vide Gloss.

Modern Recipe

Take sage, parsley, hyssop and savoir, quinces mad pears, garlic and grapes. Fill then goose with it and sew the hole so no grease comes out.. Roast them well.

Keep grease that falls out. Take Galingale and grease and do in a little pot. When the goose e is roasted, take and breaks into pieces, put in a little pot and add wine if too thick. The powder of Galingale, Powder Douce, and boil the sauce and dress goose in dishes and lay it served around.

Ingredients

• 1 medium size chicken whole
• Stuffing
  • 1/2 cup grapes, seedless cut up
  • 1 pear, chopped fine
  • 1 cup chopped fresh herbs, sage, hyssop, savoury, lovage
  • 2 cloves garlic
• Sauce
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • up to 1 cup of dripping
  • 1/2 cinnamon
  • 1/2 nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon galingale

Method

Chicken

1. Mix all ingreidients together and use to stuff Chicken.
2. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over chicken to simulate the grease from a goose.
3. Put in Hot oven (200) for an hour and half or until done.

Sauce

1. To make sauce, take dripping from chicken and mix with wine and spices.
2. Put in sauce pan and reduce til thicken.
3. Pour over chicken and serve

YiS to medieval cooking,
Nicolette Dufay

Note: I would have loved to use a goose but they where not available at the time. It would have been a richer flavour and much more interesting.

Modern Recipie 2:

Ingredients

• small (1.7kg) chicken
• stuffing:
  • 1/2 large quince
  • 1 small pear, chopped into chunks
  • large handfulls of parsley, sage, oregano, washed
  • 1/2 cup grapes
• sauce
  • dripping from chicken
  • dash of white wine (1/4 cup?)
  • spices: 1/2 to 1 teaspoon each cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, sugar, 3 teaspoons ginger

Method

1. stuff chook with stuffing ingredients
2. sew opening closed with cooking twine. Also truss legs and wings above body with twine.
3. drizzle olive oil over it
4. cook in 180C oven. approx 2 hours.
5. combine sauce ingredients over stove on low heat, stir gently until thickens a little

comments

• couldn't get a goose, couldn't afford a duck (better substitute), so used cheap chicken.
• hyssop is not suitable for pregnant women, and was not available, so wasn't used.
• savory not available, substituted oregano
• forgot the garlic. whoops.
• chose not to chop up the grapes and herbs, to see what differnce it made
• I really need to go to a specialist shop and get some galingale. Till then I'll use ginger.
• modern pallete's aren't used to whole herbs, and find them too much to tackle - chop or tear the herbs into pieces for a more even flavour. Maybe medieval pallets werent used to such pungency too?
• chicken really is rather too mild for this dish
• the pear was only just cooked - smaller pieces may cook quicker, or make sure you have fairly ripe pears. The quince was slightly overcooked (soft), but I consider it would have been raw and hard if put in raw (considering how the pears cooked). The grapes were cooked, but still firm and shapely (not soft and squishy). The herbs were slightly limp, but still green. So overall the stuffing cooked very little for the long cooking time.
• the sauce was lovely and rich, but made the chicken seem even milder. It was rather runny over the stove, just nice to pour when cooled a bit, and congealed when completely cold (which took hours in an eathernware jug).

Teffania Tuckerton

Notes

The historical version of this recipe was taken from the Project Gutenberg e-text of the Forme of Cury.