Let the experiments begin, wild garlic season beginning, getting ready for investiture in July so looking to see frying off the beef in wild garlic butter for my beef and purple berries add to the taste of the dish , versus marinating in herbs overnight, now the purple berries will be a different experiment , my local butcher is selling shin beef, for years he went out to the back of shop to get me some, so excited to see it as part of the counter now.
The original menu looks like this, nearly three years ago will keep you updated on its progress

Asked about the planned feast for investiture so here we go again , this may change as lot of experiments have occurred since and our magical first investiture was on line so looking forward to July 2023 the first weekend
And for this one I will sign off as Meadhbh of the nine cauldrons

Menu looks like table set with creAm cheese ,salt , honeycomb and butter
Honey cakes
beef meat soup with purple berries

Green leaf salad with roasted hazelnuts black pudding
Hard boiled eggs or asparagus to cater for vegetarian etc
Baked honey and salted Salmon
Leek in milk
Kale
Wheat frumenty /stir about with different flavours and veg added
Baked apples/plums baked
Saffroncustard cream
Parsnip roasted with pork
Buttered greens
Roasted onion
Wild garlic, honey and verjuice/dressing for salad and dipping flat bread into

Instead of using oil in the dressing maybe use a verjuice or an apple cider vinegar, a raw vinegar with little amount of processing is best

Cooking this dish long and slow is key, adding vegetables thinly slice is also an option, I suggest leek, thinly shredded kale but a beef soup almost broth like is good too, letting the few ingredients do the talking, vegetable so thin that they disappear into the beef soup

Succulent and tasty, sealing the meats in the herb butter works well, so frying the meat in cauldron while camping will also work so purple berries is another story for another day

Sitting after New year in my sitting room isolating, I spotted my butter churn and tbought maybe a bit about butter maybe would be a nice topic to cover.

Butter in itself has founds its way into Brehon laws, trade and port accounts, myths and legends , Saints lives, and has its own social hierarchy in food that sustained many throughout the Irish ages. Butter was almost magical turning from a liquid to solid mass of butter. There were many superstitions and stories associated with butter.

How old is butter in the bog.

We grew up in Ireland with many stories of bog butter been found in Ireland which could be 5000 years old. But science and radiocarbon/isotope analysis is giving us a better picture and more precise time of when the butter was first made and placed in bogs.

There is much discussion about why butter was placed in bogs whether it was a votive offering, offering to the Gods, storage or flavours enhancement. But we do now know that butter was placed in bogs from the Iron Age onwards in Ireland. Old finds of butter have been dated by modern science back to 1600 BC up to 1700&1800 AD. There are over 500 bog finds of butter including a find of bog butter in Glenahilty bog just down the road by two local men. In fact we imagine butter to be yellow but bog butter as a white cheesy hard in texture, not what you imagine it to be.

Butter and Diet.

So now we know butter was definitely eaten, in fact the mainstay of the commoner diet was dairy, cereals made into bread, pottage,plants and fruit they could forage and grow, very little meat and some fish, but not as much fish as we thought. Whitemeats includes, curds, whey, buttermilk, cheeses, sweet and sour milk as part of their diet and hopefully some little butter.Often the butter was part of the rent payment so storage of the butter was necessary until rent time which in most cases was twice a year.

Mether, churns,bark,skins & cloth storage.

Steps in making butter

Butter was made with sour cream, cream that was skimmed from the milk. The milk was allowed to sit and cool, the cream rose to the top and was taken and placed in wooden churn, when enough cream was gather a lid was placed on top and the container which May been a hollowed out trunk, barrel like container was shaken until curds formed.

The dash churn consisted of a hole in the lid in which the plunger could be plunged up and down until lumps of butter began to form. The butter is then washed in cold water to get rid of the butter milk

Making butter according to Low1845 and Baldwin 1888 is described and cited in Downey et al 2021 as follows

Cooling,Separation, Ripening,Churning , Dressing and Curing . The only difference is using fresh cream and salt to make the sweet cream butter we know today by omitting the long ripening process.

Breakfast of kings

According to Kelly 1997 & Sexton 1998 butter is mentioned in the soft food of fosterage in Brehon laws which includes the following.

• Butter
• Egg yolks

• Curds

• Porridge

So now we have some foods that work together, porridge/frumenty can be served with the addition of butter and honey if you so wish, Bread served with curds/soft cheese, with added flavours of butter and honey. Now we have a breakfast of kings as depending what hierarchy you come from as foster child.

Whether you should receive butter depending on your rank in society as part of hospitality is also covered in law.

According to Sexton 1998 porridge and frumenty go hand in hand, so cracked wheat, milk and whatever flavours you wish go well together, so melted butter on top works well with some honey if you want sweet or wild garlic and cress if you want savoury. The joy of experimental archaeology and living is trying new dishes out.

Bread and butter

Bread was mostly made of barley and oats unless you are lord or a king, high ranking in society or the church you may have wheaten bread.

Laws determined the width and thickness, bread about 12’’ inches in diameter and thickness of man’s little finger weighing about 30 ounces, there are others but the 30 ounce weight has been mentioned in eccclesticall bread making in Ireland and England This would have been regarded as your daily allowance for a man while the woman’s portion was half that by law. Sexton,1998. Murphy & Stout 2015 Thick dense bread would benefit from butter, curds , soft cheese, green onion, wild garlic, honey, lard ,bacon ,fish, egg, menadach . Ovens have been an issue but baking bread in cast iron pot turned upside down or with a lid has worked for centuries including my grandmother time and my fathers childhood . So different types of bread existed flat, unleavened and leavened maybe from brewing side of things but the one thing they all have in common is that bread and butter together provides good nourishment through the Irish ages.

Butter uses

Wild garlic, ransoms or creamh l harvest in spring time and make a garlic butter with, roll it out flat between two sheets of grease proof paper and store in my freezer to add to salmon, trout, pottages, frumenty, oatcakes, flat breads of all types, just a handy trick. Brushing butter on cooked salmon two minutes before it’s finished cooking if roasting is sublime, don’t burn your fingers from its hot flesh, a story in itself, wrapped salmon or trout which has butter enclosed in the leaves on embers of a turf fire ……

As you can guess my library is determine by food in Ireland , so over the weekend of isolation I have read and enjoyed these books while dipping into others, my prep for my Irish feast for investiture in July beginning with just butter, from my references , you can see my book collection is another story for another day. Ps have just ordered another

References

Downey, D. & Downey,L & O Donovan , D. 2021. Historical Irish Dairy Products. Wordwell Ltd. Dublin

Kelly,F.1997Early Irish Farming,Dublin Instuite for Advanced studies. Dublin.

Lucas, A T. 1989 Cattle in Ancient Ireland. Brethius Press.Kilkenny.

Murphy,M & Stout, M.2015. Agriculture and Settlement in Ireland. Four Court Press. Dublin .

Sexton, R 1998. Porridge Gruels and Breads in Early Medieval Munster edited by Monk, M.A & Sheehan . J. Cork University Press. Cork.

Having read a easy book to understand Brehon laws, chosen because it was one of the few books of interest that I could find in wet and windy Clare this week. The book itself is Brehon laws The Ancient Wisdom of Ireland by Jo Kerrigan took my interested as grounded by the weather in Spanish Point. So instead I get to have fun reading and researching and most of all writing. A thing I have not done for a while, due in no part to post Covid exhaustion since the Summer. Getting through the day and work has been enough for the last number of months. The first kick came last weekend, following a visit to Country Choice Nenagh. This is one of my few blogs that entails todays food, folklore of food and the living food folklore. Just Magical after all we associate Halloween with magical powers, folklore, myths and legends.

Food of the highest order in Country Choice, from rare Dexter beef slices, (small cow like animals of medieval time), local beets, organic fruit and vegetables, local comb and runny honey, jams and chutneys made on site, the place is renowned for its Irish cheese selection along with other cheeses, a place worth visiting any day , his pride in sourcing food near and afar.

The Proprietor of Country Choice Nenagh Peter Ward and dicussion about two objects near me, the one at my shoulder a French Duck Press and further a long a Norther Ireland Harnen /Oat cake /bread dryer both beautiful pieces. I knew the later of the two but not the first. I promise to get pictures if Peter allows me when I get home. The duck press I thought might be a cheese press which we agreed was not a bad guess considering Country choice is famed for its cheeses near and afar.

So while I was there at least three customers came in the door, said word fruit to Peter and he directed them to the place in the long narrow shop,deli, restaurant. Not fresh fruit but dried and candied fruit. The folklore around the produce was living in front of my eyes. People in Ireland began preparing for Christmas by baking their Christmas cake in late October early November, in essence gathering the red and green cherries, currants, raisins and sultanas, candied peels of orange, lemons and limes, the barter of using whiskey that hidden in the back press for special occasions at home, or giving up on that idea and just buying the bottle of Irish whiskey to feed, moisten and preserve the baked Christmas cake until December and January. The same customers have been doing this since childhood at their mothers and grandmothers elbows. In essence if the fruit is all bought in for Christmas at this time, some can be used for the barnbrack for Halloween..

For those who don’t know Halloween originated in Ireland the Celtic tradition of Samhain. So really the Irish Ages at its best, marking the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter. Dried fruit has come to Ireland for centuries, through the movement and settling of monastic orders, the Anglo Normans love of dried fruit which like spices displayed their wealth. The Trinity priory mentions figs and dates. Wine was imported by the monasteries and the wealthy , so dried fruits come from the same regions making it available to those who could afford it through the Irish ages.

Another conversation ensued , by four of us as customer was seeking molasses as it turned out to try in brown bread. The conversation discussed the merits of brown bread with the addition of molasses, treacle, beer or honey. Brown bread types has changed radically in last twenty years which include brown breads made with many different kinds of seeds and nuts, old type grains which may have been the norm in many centuries even if the bread was thicker, unleavened and coarser. The finish of this conversation was “why interfere with good brown bread recipe that your family loves in the first plac”e to which the reply was ” I am just trying to come into the 21st century”.

So to finish as the rain beats against the window , the wind howls, and the waves beats against the rocks in Co Clare tonight, remenber it is Christmas cake baking Season. So if you get a homemade rich Christmas cake from a friend of family member as a present at Christmas. Remember thay have spent two months looking after this rich moist Christmas cake covered in marizpan and icing, you smile and think to yourself, not only has a lot money gone into making it, but time and lots of love.

Thankyou to Peter and his customers who gave me a joyful half hour, sipping on hot beverage and providing a interesting food, food objects and folklore discussion. The Christmas cake will be opened for its first taste on Christmas eve, an another day and another story.

Maybe a Christmas present

Who am I when I cook, am I the Hunter gatherer, the first farmer, the monk on an island, the copper miner, the miller,Gaelic chief, people of myths and legends, An Tain, the foods of Aisling meic coinne glinn, the illuminators, the fisherman, a Viking, a Anglo Norman, a slave, a servant, a king, a noble, a person, a warrior, a child, a person all who need to eat, live and die

At the heart of any cooking I do is the simplicity of the food, in Ireland through the ages in everyday lives food was simple in form, whether it is nut and crab apples picked from the trees and dried by the smoke of the fire. The shell middens where shellfish was primary source of food. The trout, the salmon or eel, cooked over fire, wrapped in rushes and mud in embers, in later times a pastry crust, poached in liquids or as stew with foraged greens and in time cereal. The cooks world is your oyster. Breads of cereal and a liquid, same cereal used as a pottage, porridge or gruel, all have one thing in common, cereal + liquid= food. With advance of time from Hunter gatherer to farmer, from queen stone to mill, from embers, fulacht fiadh, pottery and pots made from different metals cooking changed but the main ingredients did not

To have many names associated with food and given to me

I have many names given to me

Queen of the breakfast Meadhbh of nine cauldrons The fire lady The lady of the biscuit so you choose the taste of me that you like and I’ll will see what food I will serve you

48 Hours On The Butler Trail – Tipperary Tourism
— Read on tipperary.com/itinerary/48-hours-on-the-butler-trail/

This week, I visit Ireland fabulous example of a Tudor house, Ormond Castle.Now it was fabulous and I highly recommend a visit. As usual it is something small, or an interesting fact that usually piques my interest throughout my whole tour. What you may ask ?, it was not the plaster work, the long hall, the great fireplaces, but a spice box. It’s the significance of the spice box that appeals to me, where the spice came from, the trade and the route taken, the trader, the merchant, the household it was purchased for, it’s worth, more expensive than the equivalent weight in gold, the leaving of spices, the spice box in wills, ransoms demanded and paid in Spice. The food made and eaten by who? The questions are endless

Back to the spices, the Anglo Normans are credited at times with the importation of spices into Ireland, but we should not forget, the ecclesiastical settings where spices and herbs played huge part in there medicinal cures , the pilgrimages, the Atlantic motorway of its time. Wines imported from Spain, Portugal, Brittany and France all added to the arrival of spices in Ireland. Trade between the likes of Bristol from England where spices arrived to be re-exported and traded. My favourite story so far to be found in Flavin, S.2014 .148 tells the story by Giles Wigger of Antwerp that the master of his ship in 1576 was held for ransom by the Bishop Cornelius Brenner of West Cork who demanded732lbs of spice made up of nutmeg, cinnamon,cloves and pepper for his release.

Now so spices were available to the elite at any rate, spices are mentioned in the Account Roll of the Priory of the Holy Trinity.

Thomas Butler of Ormond castle who provided us with the Tudor manor in Carrick on Suir was born in 1531 and died in 1614. He was sent to London and was said to be educated with Edward VI. From this we gather that he had acquaintance with Henry VIII, EdwardV I, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. As part of court, he would have tasted the exotic, the unusual, the trending foods at that time.

Sweet hippocras wine flavoured with cloves, pepper, ginger and sugar

We know that wine, good and bad, red and white, was available in quantity in the Butler household. The river Suir runs behind the castle, where trade from Waterford port travelled up and down the fast moving river Suir

Rosemary hippocras flavoured with sugar , cloves, ginger,nutmeg, bruised Rosemary

Spice comfit Almond paste.Marchpane,Gingerbread made with spices,and breadcrumbs.cracknels , French Biscuits,Short cakes,jumbals.

Rents were received usually around Easter and before Christmas. Rents included cereal, farm animals, cow, sheep, goats, poultry, pigs and fish. Thomas Butler liked hunting and it is said that there were Deerpark, fishing weirs, mills, hot houses for fruit along with very accessible trade. No doubt some of the food and spices travelled with him and any of his three wives in the spice cabinets or boxed

Delicate meats of lamb, kid and suckling pigs. To eat meat and fish accompanied sauce.

Roasts of venison served with frumenty are with cereal which in turn could be flavoured with spices. Roast of beef, mutton, goose . Heron and Swans.Roast capons gilded in egg yolk and spices.

Driedfruits and nuts were fashionable at this time, currants, raisins, dares ,prunes,almonds and walnuts.

Aloes of beef, venison, salmon, mutton. Filled with a mixture of dried fruit, spices, breadcrumbs mixed into a paste , Olives of veal.

Fresh fruit of apples, apricots, plums, cherries and pears , some eaten fresh or preserved in sugar as a a preserve or a jam that we call it today, A little spice added for good measure, Fruit pudding or stew was popular like applemoyse or fritters.

Compound salads of exotic dried fruits, nuts, herbs and greens, ger kind, capers, and olives.

Pickled edible flowers, salads of all of the above with a selection of herbs and greens from the garden.

The English housewife suggests sauce for every kind of poultry, meat and fish. Note that was published after the 16 th century

Do not forget that the best of breads were also served with condiments of salt and sauces, bread need to mop up the many different sauces of different colours of vivid green, whites, browns. Sharp sweet sour spices all combined to make a feast for the palette.A big tip, when beginning, cook food that you think you will like and eat.

So if you come to Ireland to visit our fair landsI suggest you follower the Butler trail. Along with Nenagh, all those on the Butler trail app are Tipperary.A visit to Kilkenny city is also a must

Here is a link to find the app https://tipperary.com/itinerary/48-hours-on-the-butler-trail/

It is said that Thomas Butler 10 th Earl of Ormond like to hunt

Venison therefore would be easily accessed, along with salmon and eels, Fish poached in spices served with green sorrel sauce, serving of veal or Vension was showing status at this time in Ireland after all it was the noble lords and Earls who were allowed to hunt game freely according to Susan Beglane in Food and Drink Ireland, serving game at feast was ‘indicator of social identity and status’

Trout and green sauce, cooked Egg yolks mixed with spices

For some reason almond and their products was not not used to the extent it was in Britain. So have chosen just a sweet part use of almond in the list of food.

I could go on listing food all day, including the exotics, I will stop now , to sow my herbs and ground my spices, anther story, another day

Once upon time, it was norm to try and feed children porridge, feed adults porridge, feed the Knight, the lord, the squire, the monk, the Servant, the farmer . I could not abide porridge for over fifty years, today that changed. So a lot of medieval recipes call for addition of cereal such as oats, barley or wheat. so having purchased organic oats with their outer husk removed I left to soften in water overnight.

In this case I boiled them up with shAllots, garlic, parsley and thyme, as I wanted the grains for pottages and any medieval dish that calls for cereal.

Of course salt and pepper, taking the same ingredients I cooked off prawns, shallots, garlic, thyme, fennel and parsley still abundant in my garden on this February morning.

So now the real adventures again, wild garlic season is not too far away, a mussel or two or oysters would make a great seafood pottage

Leek, onion, wild garlic would create a full flavoured pottage with goodness of oats and barley. Now you may wonder why I don’t mention porridge, this too I will do in time but now will have fun with pottages.

The wheat grains sit in a mutton pottage, cooking in the slow cooker. When wanting to experiment the slow cooker is near as I can get to cauldron cooking on a really wet windy February day.

Veggie and oat pottages next.another story another day

Ancient Ireland or Hibernian is described by Tacitus lying between Britain and Spain in 98Ad, where much trade occurred in the harbours. It is hard to imagine trade along such rough seAs, but trade and movement of people brought different races to Iteland, Hibernian,

Ireland ancient motorway of trade was the sea, the Atlantic Ocean,

We know trade in 12 th to the 14 th century include trade of wheat, oats , barley to England , Wales , Scotland.

To other places such as Spain, Portugal, Gascony, Aquitaine, wine country which means the import of wine back into Ireland, pottery through the ages have shown the import of wine into Ireland, Clonmacnoise ecclesiastical settlement was importing wine since the seventh century. A place of prayer, manuscripts and educators of noble lords and Kings, land of scholars, trade and knowledge of the outside world.

Salting of herring in particular encouraged the importing of salt to salt the large catches of herring off the coast of Ireland , herring was the main export to Chester in mid 15 th century from Ireland (O Neill, 1987.31)

Exporting of Ireland of fish caught in the sea includes, herring, hake, king, cod. Some fish may have been pickled in old wine. There must be a reasonable use of old wine as it was imported into Ireland. Wool was exported and bought by Italian bankers who either loaned money to monasteries or to the aristocracy . Imports were also influenced by where the Anglo Normans came from originally, so mixture of Wales, Normandy, the Low Countries. Some of the monastic houses were English, French but mostly a mixture of the Irish and the monastic orders.

So therefore people were travelling, crusades were happening and new food was circulating. We already know that Anglo Normans bought spices, rabbit and pheasant. Interestingly an argument can be made for cooking a little French, Anglo cooking , Flemish dishes and even Italian, people bringing a little bit of home influences with them. Entwined with the food grown by the Anglo Normans, monastic orders with their granges. So the fun part take a place in time in Ireland. Maybe their archaeological dig , in this case we also look at the influences and trade from the north , south and East depending on where they came from originally. The monks and orders travelled between mother houses, the Anglo Normans castle hopped between their properties just as Royalty or millionaires do today. This idea grew a spark one day when I realised after a visit to Ormond castle in Carrick on Suir and realised their was strong connections to Tudor England and its courts. It naturally follows that you can show trade and influential people moving between countries, that it will indeed have influence. The Trinity priory in Dublin served an almond and rice dish.

Even my own home town of Nenagh had two different monasteries in 13 th century, one under the patronage of the Butlers and only allowed The English to enter as monks into the Augustinian order. While Nenagh Friary was the chief house of the Irish Friars and under the patronage of the Kennedy’s. So this alone locally could provide me with two different styles of cookery. In the area also information regarding fish pools, ponds, weirs, mills request for a deer park by the Butlers. The Butlers also had one of their main Irish castle holdings here between 12 th and 13 th century. Cooking based on historical facts relating to an area could make for interesting dishes. The original butlers had high connections in Cantebury as the brother was a bishop. Lest we should forget visitors to monastic houses were treated to the best of food, and it goes the opposite way too, Irish , monasteries in continental Europe, French was one of the main languages spoken and used to record information in Ireland ,in order to join some of the Cistercian houses, you needed to be able to confess in either French or Latin. Another story for another day.

Kirwin, J. The Chief Butlers of Ireland

Mills, J. Account Roll of the Prory of the Holy Trinity Dublin

O, Neill,T. Merchants and Mariners in Medieval Ireland

Ryan, J. Ireland From the earliest times to 800 Ad

Got up this morning, going to event and at my work house , as I live between two houses, due to migraine which meant driving would be stupid yesterday

So a scramble to find enough garb , something to cover my hair,a mismatch of tunic and chemise but I will be dressed.

So now a few nibbles that are covid acceptable and medical acceptable for others. in other words not sharing dish but individual, not much in the press either.

Added a little glacé of orange blossom and powdered sugar with some water to about quarter of tray

I will display the ingredients

As it has unusual ingredients of coconut sugar, cap of sweet almond oil, water and half cap of orange blossom 100 grams of coconut sugar to 200 grams of ground almonds.

Now I will declare my substitute of coconut sugar, but am looking forward to making my normal marchpane with orange blossom.

The only other quick make was scones, not medieval but quick to make, easy to serve as people arrive who want a hot drink and something to nibble on, has become a tradition that freshly made scones still warm wrapped in a tea towel with butter will set you up for the day, more to follow on pancakes and fritters , maybe more experiments today.

Off to buy a wire mesh sieve two sizes and off to Event in Tubberclaire , the first in person event in side in the Barony of Eplaheimr hosted by one of our Tuathas , up to now we had practices and picnics outside another story another day