Cookery lesson from an old fart, number one

If you want to do any serious medieval cooking (I have discovered), then you will need to know how to make 2 basic sauces or 'stocks' - Almond Milk and Verjuice.

Verjuice has made something of a comeback recently as a health food fad drink, but the difference is that the modern day fanatics do not allow the pressed juice to ferment for a couple of days before using it.

In the coming weeks, you may be as surprised as I was to learn that cooking in medieval England involved ingredients which I thought did not arrive in this country until the Asian corner shops appeared, and most of them can now be bought in a supermarket, including Galangal - a root from the Cypress tree which I though was limited in use to the Far East, and now pretty much is.

Ginger, almonds, and stork (the bird, not the margarine) were commonplace ingredients in 700 year-old cooking. The only really exotic ingredient in those days was pepper, hence some land rents being paid in peppercorns as a valuable (not a worthless token) and rare commodity in many cases.

The greatest gift that the Venerable Bede left to his fellow monks upon his death was his collection of spices, which included items like coriander, cumin and cardomon - I never knew they were in England before about 1750.

The Romans introduced cherries, anchovy sauce and rabbits - things that I for one take for granted these days.

I will also be giving all of you who have a glut of quince this year, some interesting alternatives as to how to use them. Quince, by the way, was only brought to this country in the mid 17th century. Well I'll be blowed, thanks to Maxime McKendry.

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