Title: steaks-msg
Subject: Period grilled steaks. Descriptions.
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, steaks, grill, griddle, meat, beef, pork, slice

steaks-msg – 7/28/13

Period grilled steaks. Descriptions.

NOTE: See also these files: roast-meats-msg, roast-pork-msg, sausages-msg, cattle-msg, livestock-msg, horse-recipes-msg.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************

Subject: RE: ANST - Steaks, Beans, and Other Questionable Foods
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 98 08:02:08 MST
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG'" <ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG>

In my casual reading,  I came across this little quote I thought might add
to the discussion of steak.

"Upon my soul, I haven't a scrap of bacon, and I haven't a cook to fry you
steak and onions."

Langland, "Piers Plowman", c. 1390.

Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 00:25:25 -0400
From: Margo Lynn Hablutzel <Hablutzel at compuserve.com>
To: A&S List <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Two 15th Century Receipts for Steak

I figured I should keep quiet until I had time to consult my references;
since I don't have a peerage to back up my words, I have to do it with
documentation.  Unfortunately, I have not been home much lately, and would
not be this weekend but the gate for Elfsea Defender closed at noon and I
was at a professional conference until a quarter 'til.  I knew I have
receipts for steaks in something, and now I had an evening in which to
locate them.

Turns out the "something" is the Harlein MS 279, specifically recipts II.30
and II.31, both of which call for "Stekys" of "Bef."  In fact, the first
one specifically begins that you should "Take fayre Bef of (th)e quischons,
& motoun of (th)e bottes, & kytte in (th)e maner of Stekys; ...."

For full text of both receipts, I refer the reader to Anderson, A FIFTEENTH
CENTURY COOKRY BOKE (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1962), at page 12,
and Hieatt & Butler, PLEYN DELIT (First Edition, University of Toronto
Press, 1976), items 73 and 72, respectively (with modern dedactions).  I
know there is a later edition of the latter, but I don't have a copy, so
the number may be different if you are looking in the Second Edition of
PLEYN DELIT.

Steak is the meat in the third course of my "Unbelieveably Period" feast,
which includes devilled eggs, queso dip, fried chicken, macaroni and
cheese, sweet potato pie, angelfood cake, and strawberry cheesecake.  All
documented.

                                                --- Morgan

Subject: RE: ANST - Two 15th Century Receipts for Steak
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 98 06:18:26 MST
From: Gunnora Hallakarva <gunnora at bga.com>
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG

> From: Margo Lynn Hablutzel <Hablutzel at compuserve.com>
> Morgan said:
> I figured I should keep quiet until I had time to consult my references;
> since I don't have a peerage to back up my words, I have to do it with
> documentation.  >

This is one of the bigger non-sequiturs I've seen in a while.  Are you
seriously suggesting that the Society holds Peers to a LESSER standard of
proof and documentation?

Certainly I never asked you for documentation... the issue we discussed
was whether or not it was reasonable for you to be chastizing me publicly
for what you
claimed was me chastizing others publicly.

And, in fact, I wouldn't have accepted a "Just because I say so" from a
peer or anyone
else -- though I do listen respectfully when noted experts on cooking such
as Ansteorra's Mistress Meadhbh have an opinion on cooking, as she is
inevitably well-informed and *does* have the sources to back up her
assertations.  My original comments were based upon information that I had
received from Meadhbh about the authenticity (or rather lack therof) of
steaks as a medieval dish.

We are encouraged as a Society to to produce documentation, so that others
may  learn from our research.  Thus I am happy to see that someone else has
introduced some relevant documentation into the discussion.  I would,
however, like to see more than just the titles of these receipts - I'd be
interested in seeing a little more about the nature of the ingredients and
the preparation, which I suspect may distinguish these "stekys"  from
modern steaks.

Mistress Meadhbh mentioned that the few period steak  recipes she was aware
of often involved pre-roasting or pre-boiling the meat, then slicing
collops thinly from the haunch and continuing preparation, these slices
being what is  known as "stekys".

So, just out of curiosity, are these "steaks" as we would recognize them?
By which I mean, raw meat (marinated or not) cooked on a grill over some
sort of flame?  Or is this  a different dish with the same name?  I'm more
than willing to learn something new.

I suspect that in fact you're referring to recipes such as given here:

---------
"Original:
To make Stekys of venson or bef.  Take Venyson or Bef & leche & gredyl
it up brown; then take Vynegre & a litel verious <verjuice>, & a lytil
Wyne, and putte pouder perpir ther-on y-now and pouder Gyngere; and
atte the dressoure straw on pouder Canelle y-now, that the stekys be
all y-helid ther-wyth, and but a litel sauce; & serve it forth.

Redaction:  from Maggie Black:  The Medieval Cookbook

6 fairly thin beef steaks
oil or fat for grilling

Basting sauce:

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons seville orange juice
4 tablespoons red wine
pinch each of ground black pepper and ginger

Garnish
Sprinkle with cinnamon

Nick the edges of the steaks and grease them. Mix the sauce
ingredients in a jug, adjusting the proportions if you wish.  Then
grill the steaks as you prefer; warm the sauce, and sprinkle with a
few drops over the meat while grilling it.  Serve the steaks lightly
sprinkled with cinnamon and any remaining sauce."
---------

The medieval "stekys" recipes that Meadbh has made me aware of all are
pan-fried (the recipe above calls for cooking them on a "gredyl" or
griddle), very thin slices of meat, usually cooked with or served with a
vinegar-based sauce.

This is not at all the same thing as a ribeye served with A-1.

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde

Subject: RE: ANST - Two 15th Century Receipts for Steak
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 98 12:12:43 MST
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG'" <ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG>

> The medieval "stekys" recipes that Meadbh has made me aware of all are
> pan-fried (the recipe above calls for cooking them on a "gredyl" or
> griddle), very thin slices of meat, usually cooked with or served with a
> vinegar-based sauce.
>
> This is not at all the same thing as a ribeye served with A-1.
>
> Gunnora Hallakarva

I think you are putting a modern definition to the term gredyl, when you
consider this a pan.  In Middle English, a gredyl is a gridiron, a lattice
work of iron straps or bars used for roasting.  The term appears to have
been used interchangeably with gridirne.  I'm still researching the word
trying to determine when the definition changed to mean a flat pan.

The term derives from Old North French gredil and was probably introduced
during the Norman Conquest.  Since the Bayeux Tapestry, shows a cook
grilling meat on a gridiron, the technique was obviously in use in the 11th
Century and possibly was more common than pan frying.

As to the preparation, I might quibble about the ribeye.  The A-1 is
definitely not period, but we could easily replace it with pepper or
galantine sauce.

Bear

Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 11:06:48 -0400
From: "Philippa Alderton" <phlip at bright.net>
Subject: SC - Steak- OED- Long

More than anyone in their right minds would want to know about STEAK
;-)

OED Entry Search
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
steak

steak steik. Forms: 5 steike, steyke, styke, 5-6 steke, 6 steake, 7-8
stake, 7- steak. a. ONor. steik fem. (Sw. stek, Da. steg), cogn. w. steikja
to roast on a spit, stikna to be roasted.

1. a. A thick slice or strip of meat cut for roasting by grilling or
frying, sometimes used in a pie or pudding; esp. a piece cut from the hind
quarters of the animal; when used without qualification = beef-steak; also
with qualifying word indicating the part from which it is cut, as

•14.. King & Hermit 373 in Hazlitt E.P.P. (1864) I. 27 Fyll this eft, and
late us lyke, And between rost us a styke.

•C. 1420 Two Cookery Bks. 3 To make stekys of venysoun or Beef.

•1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 12802 Now to ffrye, now steykës make, And many
other soteltes;

•C. 1450 Douce MS. 55 xvij, Take feyre moton of the buttes & kutt it in
maner of stekes;

•1530 Palsgr. 275/2 Steke of flesshe, charbonnee.

•1646 Quarles Sheph. Oracles iv. 39 You can convert a dish Of Steakes to
Roots.

•1735 Dyche & Pardon Dict., Stake,..a small Slice of Meat to be broiled
before or on the Fire, when a Person cannot or will not stay till a regular
Joint is boiled or roasted, &c;

•1747 Mrs. Glasse Cookery i. 6 To Broil Steaks... Take fine Rump Steaks
about Half an Inch thick [etc.].

•1747 Mrs. Glasse Cookery, i. 6 As to Mutton and Pork Steaks, you must keep
them turning quick on the Gridiron.

•1747 Mrs. Glasse Cookery ii. 16 Cut a Neck of Veal into Steaks.

•1842 Tennyson Will Waterproof 148 How out of place she makes The violet of
a legend blow Among the chops and steaks!

•1848 Dickens Dombey iv, Uncle Sol and his nephew were speedily engaged on
a fried sole with a prospect of steak to follow.

b. A thick slice (of cod, salmon, halibut, or hake).

•1883 Standard 30 Nov. 2/2 `G. S. C.'s' Fishmonger charged 10d. per lb. for
his best cod steaks.

c. transf. and fig. Now rare or Obs.

•1607 Middleton Five Gallants iv. v. F 4 b, Bun. You must not thinke to
tread ath ground when you come there.-Go. No, how then? Bun. Why vpon paths
made of fig-frailes, & white blankets cut out in steakes;

•1607 Middleton Phoenix i. v. C 3 b, Is that your Lackey yonder, in the
steakes of veluet.

•A. 1616 Beaum. & Fl; Maid in Mill iv. ii, Bust. Safe? do you hear? take
notice what plight you find me in, if there want but a collop or steak o'
me, look to't.

•1641 Milton Reform. ii. 44 Their Malvezzi that can cut Tacitus into
slivers and steaks.

•1694 Motteux Rabelais v. xvi. 73 With this he lugg'd out his slashing
Cutlas..to cut the cousening Varlets into Stakes.

Phlip
Caer Frig
Barony of the Middle Marches
Middle Kingdom

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 23:58:48 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - steaks

> One thing that caught my eye was the use of the term "steak". This may simply
> be an Americanism or my own parochial view though. I remember some agruments
> on the Ansteorra list and perhaps here though. So maybe this will shed some
> light on those previous discussions. Bear, you were doing some research on
> steaks.
>
> > Danish, Codex K:
> > boil it well in a pan on hot embers without flame. And take a steak of hart
> > or deer, well larded, and cut into thick slices. And when the sauce is
>
> When I think of steak I think of slices of meat. I don't think of a steak as
> being other than sliced. In this paragraph "steak" seems to be more used as
> synonymous with "chunk of meat" or perhaps "roast" as it then specifies to
> cut it into thick slices. Also the second time "steak" is used as "steaks of
> hart, geese and ducks" seems to imply a more generic cut than I was thinking
> of. Perhaps it is my knowledge of meat cuts which is the problem.
> Comments, anyone?
>
> Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra

I suspect the term steak in this recipe means roast, as thick slices are
being cut from it.  The usage is Scandinavian as opposed to English.

Harleian 279 (Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books) has a recipe for "Stekys
of venison or bef." which has the instruction to "gredyl it up brown".  In
other words, cook it on a grate or a gridiron, as we would cook modern
steak.  My copy of the OED (I found one of the Compact OEDs) suggests that
the English usage is for slices of meat for grilling or frying.

The Bayeux Tapestry shows a banquet for William after his landing in England
with steaks being forked from the grill.

Bear

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 10:56:01 -0600
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - steaks

At 8:53 AM +0000 11/10/99, Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir wrote:
>You see, "steik" in Icelandic and Old Norse (English borrowed the
>word from ON) can mean either roast or slice of meat; the original meaning
>of the verb "steikja" is "to roast on a spit".

Does this mean that the English words "steak" and "stake" ultimately
come from the same ON source?

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 22:43:00 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - steaks

Cariadoc wrote:
>Does this mean that the English words "steak" and "stake" ultimately
>come from the same ON source?

Yes, I suppose so - or probably rather from an even older source. The
following comes from Cupboard Love by Mark Morton.

"This Indo-European source - pronounced something like _stei_ and meaning to
pierce ... <snip a section about tigers> ... The Indo-European stei also
evolved into the Greek word _stigma,_ the name of a wound caused by a
piercing instrument. English adopted this word in the late sixteenth
century, eventually using it methaphorically to mean a mark of shame. As
well, _stei_ evolved through Germanic into the Old English _sticca,_ meaning
a stick, sticks being used, like arrows, to pierce things; by the thirteenth
century, _sticca_ had acquired a more familiar spelling, stick. And finally,
the Indo-European stei also evolved, again via Germanic, into the Old Norse
_stik,_ meaning stick; from this word, Old Norse derived _steik,_ the name
of a piece of meat impaled and cooked upon a stick, whic appeared in English
as steak in the fifteenth century."

Nanna

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 18:19:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: SC - steaks

- --- david friedman <ddfr at best.com> wrote:
> Does this mean that the English words "steak" and
> "stake" ultimately come from the same ON source?
>
> David/Cariadoc

Not according to my dictionary.  "Stake" comes from
the OE word "staca" and akin to the MLG word "stake".

"Steak" comes from the ME word "steke", which comes
from ON word "steik".

Huette

Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 00:34:08 -0400
From: "Ron Rispoli" <rispoli at gte.net>
Subject: Re: SC - questions

>mooncat at in-tch.com writes:
><< There is no reason to be
> serving watermelon, corn-on-the-cob, steak, and a baked potato at an SCA
> event >>
>
>Although I agree with your views on maize and potatoes. Steak is western
>culture period and so is watermelon. :-)
>
>Ras

            To make stekys of venson or bef
    Take Venyson or Bef, & leche & gredyl it up bruon; then take vynegree &
a litel verious, & a lytil Wyne, & putte pouder perpir ther on y now, and
pouder Gyngere; & atte the dressoure straw on pouder Canelle y-now, that the
stekys be al y-helid ther-wyth, & but a litel sawce; & than serue it forth.
        From ' a fifteenth century cookry boke ' pg 12

Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 13:50:12 EDT
From: Mastercahankyle at cs.com
Subject: Re: SC - Roast beef

mermayde at juno.com writes:
<<  So, it looks like we have a recipe that can be used with various cuts of
 meat, including shoulder, ribs, loin, and butt, or perhaps a recipe that
 has been used over the centuries by various authors for varying cuts of
 meat.  
    Christianna >>

Yes, it can.  Here is a variation recipe.

                                            ALAUNDER OF BEEF
                                              from Ancient Cookery

Take leches of the lengthe of a fpoune, and take pareel and
 hewe fmal, and pouder of pepur, and maree, and temper bit
 togedur, and take leeches of beef, and rolle hom therin, and
  laye hom on a gridirne, and on the coles tyl they ben roiled,
 and if ye have no maree, take of the felf talgh and bewe hit
 with the parcelle, and tempur hit as ye dyd before.
  
                        as translated and adapted by Cahan Kyle

     1 flank steak (appox 2lb in size)
     1/2 cup butter (1 qtr lb, or 8 tbs)
     3 tsp parsley flakes
     1/4 tsp ground pepper
     3/4 tsp ground marjoram
     3/4 tsp ground thyme
     1/3 cup onions finely chopped ( this is a variation that
 is not in the original recipe and can be left out )

    Take the flank steak and cut it into 8 sections and place it in a baking 
pan or dish. Melt the butter and mix all the spices in the melted butter. 
Pour the mixture over the flank  steak and cover the pan/dish with aluminum 
foil. Bake in the oven at 325* for 1 1/2 hours. 

Serves eight.

I have used this recipe for several feasts and it always has been successful. 
 I works very well with a 2 pound shoulder or 2 pound chuck roast.  I always 
break down my recipes to servings of 8 so the amounts actually needed can be 
totaled up for a feast. (8 people per table as the controlling variable.

Cahan

Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 22:03:11 -0500
From: "Carol Eskesen Smith" <BrekkeFranksdottir at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Stekeys of Venison or Beef
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

   Stekeys of Venison or Beef, Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, pg. 40,
XXXJ.
  (I oven roasted roasts, which I then sliced into steaks, for 
convenience)
(we substituted more vinegar and unsweetened apple juice, since we did 
not have verjuce at the time; we need to try this again with verjus)

Griddle your steaks, saving the drippings

(for ca 12 oz steak or venison)

Apple Juice                            1/4 C
Wine Vinegar                             2 Tbsp
Cider Vinegar                            2 Tbsp
Red Wine (usually homemade)            1/4 C
whole pepper, ground in mortar           1 tsp
ginger                                 1/2 tsp
Drippings

Cook down to ca 1/3 C.  Pour hot over hot meat; sprinkle lightly with 
cinnamon and serve.

(for current taste, I usually serve the cinnamon on the side, and 
people can take it or leave it.
This is one of the compromises I make to modern taste expectations for 
a feast.)

Hmmm.  I have a class coming up, and verjus...  perhaps the 
substitution should be checked out?

Brekke

Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 10:38:23 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Also sprach Marcus Loidolt:
> Okay, I know I'm being lazy here, but I don't have a lot of time at hand.
>
> How period are grilled steaks? Steaks of any other sort?

Steaks as slices of meat cut across the grain are eminently period.
They are often cooked using moist-heat methods, though, and are
sometimes described as being small. The recipe may say something
like, cut it into stekys of a hand's breadth.

However, late 16th and early 17th-century English sources refer to a
cooking method called, collectively, a carbonado (which is vastly
different from, say, Carbonade de Falamande, which is a stew made
with onions and beer, but also wonderful). Gervase Markham talks
about how to carbonado different foods at some length, and I believe
he mentions steaks among them -- also various items like boiled pig's
feet, the wings of poultry, small pieces of breast of lamb or veal,
veal chops, sausages, etc. The cooking apparatus is a sort of
vertical iron grill covered with little spikes or hooks, and you
stand the grill up next to the fire. The Elizabethans may have
preferred to avoid the smoky flavor of grilled meats, which may
explain their apparent fixation with wrapping certain foods in paper
before cooking, and cooking next to, rather than over, a fire. There
are also the logistics of cooking in a fireplace, rather than over an
open fire, to be considered.

Platina, writing in the 15th century, also mentions grilling small
pieces of meat over, I believe, charcoal.

> Where does Barbeque fit in?

Pit or grill?

> How so? Are either one of them period for us?

I believe Columbus found the Caribs doing some form of grilling over
a smoky fire when he arrived. Some might argue this, but it sounds
pretty period.

> Is Caribbean Barbeque Native or would it have been
> brought from Africa with the slave trade?

I don't know for sure, but I think it's native and predates the slave 
trade.

Adamantius

Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 22:03:11 -0500
From: "Carol Eskesen Smith" <BrekkeFranksdottir at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Stekeys of Venison or Beef
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

   Stekeys of Venison or Beef, Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, pg. 40, XXXJ.
  (I oven roasted roasts, which I then sliced into steaks, for convenience)
(we substituted more vinegar and unsweetened apple juice, since we did 
not have verjuce at the time; we need to try this again with verjus)

Griddle your steaks, saving the drippings

(for ca 12 oz steak or venison)

Apple Juice                            1/4 C
Wine Vinegar                             2 Tbsp
Cider Vinegar                            2 Tbsp
Red Wine (usually homemade)            1/4 C
whole pepper, ground in mortar           1 tsp
ginger                                 1/2 tsp
Drippings

Cook down to ca 1/3 C.  Pour hot over hot meat; sprinkle lightly with 
cinnamon and serve.

(for current taste, I usually serve the cinnamon on the side, and 
people can take it or leave it.
This is one of the compromises I make to modern taste expectations for 
a feast.)

Hmmm.  I have a class coming up, and verjus...  perhaps the 
substitution should be checked out?

Brekke

Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 10:38:23 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Also sprach Marcus Loidolt:
> Okay, I know I'm being lazy here, but I don't have a lot of time at hand.
>
> How period are grilled steaks? Steaks of any other sort?

Steaks as slices of meat cut across the grain are eminently period.
They are often cooked using moist-heat methods, though, and are
sometimes described as being small. The recipe may say something
like, cut it into stekys of a hand's breadth.

However, late 16th and early 17th-century English sources refer to a
cooking method called, collectively, a carbonado (which is vastly
different from, say, Carbonade de Falamande, which is a stew made
with onions and beer, but also wonderful). Gervase Markham talks
about how to carbonado different foods at some length, and I believe
he mentions steaks among them -- also various items like boiled pig's
feet, the wings of poultry, small pieces of breast of lamb or veal,
veal chops, sausages, etc. The cooking apparatus is a sort of
vertical iron grill covered with little spikes or hooks, and you
stand the grill up next to the fire. The Elizabethans may have
preferred to avoid the smoky flavor of grilled meats, which may
explain their apparent fixation with wrapping certain foods in paper
before cooking, and cooking next to, rather than over, a fire. There
are also the logistics of cooking in a fireplace, rather than over an
open fire, to be considered.

Platina, writing in the 15th century, also mentions grilling small
pieces of meat over, I believe, charcoal.

> Where does Barbeque fit in?

Pit or grill?

> How so? Are either one of them period for us?

I believe Columbus found the Caribs doing some form of grilling over
a smoky fire when he arrived. Some might argue this, but it sounds
pretty period.

> Is Caribbean Barbeque Native or would it have been
> brought from Africa with the slave trade?

I don't know for sure, but I think it's native and predates the slave 
trade.

Adamantius

Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 09:09:36 -0500
From: "ysabeau" <ysabeau at mail.ev1.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] medieval steaks
To: Cooks within the SCA  <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I don't have any hard documentation on it, but when I lived in
Germany one of my favorite restaurants had been running for over
400 years in Idar-Oberstein. I can't remember the exact date but I
seem to remember it was late 1400's to early 1500's. The specialty
of the house was steak and they claim to have been serving it
since they opened. It was called spiessbraten and was delicious -
they had pork and beef. They cooked it over a fire on a round
grill that hung by a chain. The "pit" was in a room off to the
side of the restaurant. The restaurant itself is built into the
side of the mountain. The other buildings around it are as old as
the restaurant.

http://www.turm-schaenke.de/rost.htm

This is a link to the page showing how they cook the steaks.

Most of the medieval kitchens I saw didn't have a "stove" like we
think of it. I think it would have been a lot more difficult to
try to sear a steak in a pan over a fire than to put it on a grill
to cook. In the convent kitchen I visited, there was a four by
four area (give or take) in the corner that was set off by raised
bricks that served for cooking. There were pulleys and swing arms
for getting the food over the fire. I imagined they would keep a
fire going and scoop coals out to the edges to control the heat.

As I said, no hard documentation, just what they told me and what
I saw. I believe they did have thick slices of meat cooked on a
metal grill over a fire in the middle ages.

Ysabeau

Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:15:55 -0600
From: Michael Gunter <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Basting spit roasted meat
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

This weekend, along with stuffing sausage, I cooked the beef for my  
Egredouce. For fun I decided to use a period basting of butter,  
cinnamon, nutmeg and a bit of dried ginger. I cooked two large sirloin  
steaks dusted with the spices and placed a couple of large pats of  
butter on top. The steaks were broiled until medium rare. They were  
awesome. The sweet spices didn't taste at all off and the butter  
enhanced the beefy flavor and richness of the meat. I would serve this  
to modern tastes with no problem. They were slightly unusual but not  
"off".  The juices from this will be used to flavor my peas for my  
A&S display since the period recipe calls for cooking them in "sewe". I  
think this will make a MUCH better dish than using plain beef broth.  
So, maybe our ancestors were on to something.... 

Gunthar

Who usually spices steaks with smoked salt, ground pepper and garlic powder.

Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:04:46 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking steaks
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

There's some evidence to suggest that much beef eaten in medieval  
Europe may not have come from the kind of castrated steers we get our  
beef from, but from oxen young and old, bullocks and such, and even  
from old female cows. Between that factoid (assuming the evidence  
bears weight) and humoral concerns, much of the beef we see mentioned  
in recipes is parboiled till tender, then either larded and recooked  
however, chopped, fried and/or reboiled in pottages, occasionally  
roasted, and baked or fried in pies. Most of the steak references I've  
seen are for venison, so this is a tough question because the sample  
size for beef steaks appears to be pretty small until the sixteenth or  
seventeenth century.

Tacuinum sanitatis and other sources suggest that beef was considered  
both warm and dry, so boiling it or parboiling before other applying  
other processes not only makes sense (it would also tend to tenderize  
the meat) from that standpoint, but it would probably make too much  
rare-cooked beef unlikely to impossible.

In the late 16th, early 17th century, Gervase Markham gives some  
pretty detailed instructions for roasting beef, how to baste it, how  
to protect it with a coating of bread crumbs as it cooks, how to baste  
it, what fire temperature to use to keep pale meats like pork and veal  
from browning too much, without being under or overcooked or dried  
out, and how to tell when it's done. One of the things he says (not  
that it's much beyond the obvious) is that excessively rare meat is  
unwholesome, as is overcooked, dry meat.

It sounds to me like he's looking for at least medium-rare to medium- 
well: the juices for really rare beef aren't even really running yet,  
usually.

Elsewhere he speaks of a grilling process called a carbonado, which  
involves flat pieces of meat such as steaks, pieces of flank or what  
we'd call skirt, breasts of lamb, and such, cooked on a rectangular  
gridiron covered with little hooked spikes to hold the meat in place,  
because the grill not level; it is propped up and semi-inclined at an  
angle in front of the fire. Some of the meats suitable for  
carbonadoing are parboiled (I guess the tough, fatty ones like breast  
of lamb or veal, spare ribs, etc.), while the thin, tender cuts,  
perhaps split poultry or the thin, outermost layer of lean meat from a  
rib roast section, are broiled from a raw state. He says the outer  
layer of the rib roast engenderyth wantonness. Yeah, I can see that ;-).

Speaking very generally, and without too much hard info to back it up,  
I'm inclined to guess the black-and-blue porterhouse steak is more of  
a nineteenth-century thing.

Adamantius

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	steaks-msg	Page  of