Indonesian Spices in an Overpowering Broth from Medieval Italy
The Liber de Coquina was one of the earliest European cookbooks to have been written after the fall of the Western Roman empire. The text here is taken from Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 9328, a fourteenth-century manuscript of the work in Latin from southern Italy (Figure 1). Other recipes in the Liber also make use of cloves, nutmeg, and galangal, but this is perhaps the most elaborate of those that do — a recipe for ‘Provençale broth’, a chicken stew with liver and egg and flavoured with just about every available expensive herb and spice. It sounds horrendous.
TEXT
(f.135ra)
De brodio ꝓuincialico
Ad brodium ꝓ appetitu accipes pul-
los incisos ꝑ quartum et frige cũ
larto et cepis postea pone parũ aque
frigide deinde ficatella eorum maiora-
nam ros marinũ petrocillũ montam
saffranũ ťre oĩa ⁊ distemꝑa cũ brodio
dc’arum ⁊ cum carnibɔ pone ad bullie᷉
post modum accipe sp᷉es, cannellam
Gariofiľ nuces muscatas fusticellos
cardamones galanga mel ɀɀ. posťa
ibi tere ficatella ouoꝝ coctaꝗ ťm ꝙ
sufficiant. distemꝑa cum brodio carni-
um et facias parum bulliri postea tol-
le ab igne. […]
TRANSLATION
‘Provençal broth. For broth according to one’s taste: Take chickens cut into quarters and fry them with lard and onions. Then add a little cold water, and after that chicken liver, marjoram, rosemary, mint (1), and saffron. Chop everything and mix it with the aforementioned broth, and set it to boil with the meat. After that take spices — cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, pistachios (2), cardamoms, galangal, honey, and ginger, and then chop liver and cooked egg as needed. Mix this with the meat broth and boil it a little, and then take it off the fire.’
NOTES
(1) The word as written says <montam>, presumably an error for mentam ‘mint’.
(2) It’s possible that the pistachios referred to here were powdered, something known from other recipes and usually known as festicade (vel sim). If you want to recreate the dish (I’m not sure I do) then you’ll have to make a choice here about whether to grind your pistachios first.
As you can see, Mediterranean food has long been known for its simple and elegant combinations of flavours.
I don’t have much to add here; the origins of the spices and their other uses are well-known and I have discussed them at length in other posts. I’ve added a medieval European picture of galangal below (Figure 2) just so that this post isn’t too spartan. If you try this dish, let me know!
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A. J. West, December 2019
