Origen y evolución del concepto

 mortar and pestle  sieve or strainer  roasting spit

 cast-iron or earthenware pots  standard cooking utensils

None of the recipes in this book require expensive or complicated equip- ment. There are, however, two, perhaps three, special items that were ab- solutely central to the medieval and Early Modern kitchen. A mortar and pestle was used in a vast array of dishes and to make almost all sauces. The type typically carried today in kitchenware shops is significantly smaller than a medieval cook would have used and holds maybe a cup or two of in- gredients that can be comfortably pounded. Wooden mortars are cheap and work well but tend to pick up flavors, especially spices and garlic, often used in the recipes. Marble is a much better choice, and so are stone mortars. A huge, rough-hewn stone mortar can be purchased in an Indian shop for about $15. Large, smooth Thai mortars are also a good option as are Mexi- can ones, though an authentic metate is made of porous stone that is too soft for serious pounding and is really intended for avocados, tomatoes, and such. The medieval cook would have used a brass mortar that holds maybe a gallon or more—large enough to hold a whole chicken or a good handful of spices. These are practically indestructible and are still made today but are extremely expensive; even a small brass mortar can cost a fortune. In place of a mortar a food processor should work.

The other item essential to getting started is a sieve. In the past this would have been a round hoop strung with horsehair or coarse fabric through which foods were pressed, creating a smooth puree. This sort of sieve is still used today in classic French kitchens and is called a tamis; it is usually strung with a fine metal or nylon mesh screen. A food mill makes a good substitute—it is a round metal container with a perforated disk at the bot- tom and a crank that passes food, but not seeds and larger pieces of food, through the holes. A conical “china hat” sieve or a regular fine mesh sieve also works well. Food can be pushed with a spoon, the back of a ladle, or a special wooden cone that fits inside. For pureeing liquids, a blender is an acceptable substitute and even an immersion blender works well. But both the texture and even flavor are a little different using a mortar and sieve, and the labor involved is really minimally greater than using a machine—and of course it gives you a better idea of historical cooking methods.

Last among unusual implements, a proper spit is something truly invalu- able. A hand-turned spit, a long metal rod onto which food is skewered and

a moderate fire, either in front of the fireplace or out- side beside a fire pit. To test some of the recipes in this book, a mechanical turnspit that needs winding every 15 minutes was used. It can be purchased from http://www.spitjack.com. It comes with extensive instructions and is well worth the hefty price. It is a little tricky to position properly in front of a standard fireplace, but the fiddling is well worth the time. A drip pan must be used beneath, both for basting and to catch the drippings, which can be used as a gravy base—though this is more typical of cook- ery after the period covered here. The flavor of food properly “roasted” before a fire cannot be described; there is really nothing like it. A cooking fire, ideally made with hardwood like apple or oak, should be

started a good hour or two before one intends to cook. The flames are thus very hot and steady. A rotisserie on a barbecue can come close, but cooking directly over a fire is somewhat different. Grilling, a technique that was indeed used in the past, is also quite different. The food cooks much quicker, and of course leaves grill marks and charred parts. There are a few excellent books that can get you started with hearth cooking if you are so inclined—William Rubel’s

The Magic of Fire is highly recommended. For most recipes an oven will also work, though naturally the flavor will be much simpler and less interesting.

Cooking with pots over a hearth is also something worth trying if one takes proper precautions. Tin-lined copper was preferred in wealthy households by the sixteenth century, and these can still be found in high-end cookware shops, but they are very expensive and difficult to maintain. Cast iron is cheap, stur- dy, and completely authentic. The only real difficulty is getting started with seasoning the pans. Manufacturers, such as Lodge, provide directions and even sell preseasoned cookware. Still it is very important to remember to never leave cast iron wet or it will rust, especially in the first year or so of use. Wipe it completely dry and rub with oil or bacon fat before storing. Second, and this will clash with everything you have been told about cleanliness, soap should never come near cast iron. Use a scrubby sponge to re-

move stuck-on particles of food, but never soap, which removes the seasoning. Cooking over a fire really helps develop a shiny surface, which after a year or so works better than the best teflon nonstick pan.

To cook over a fire, or more typically over hot coals, one needs other kinds of equipment—little tripods or spiders on which to place pots or pots with legs designed exactly for this purpose—such as a Dutch oven—lifting irons or tongs, notched stands for iron

Woman with mortar and pestle.

spits, and if one really want to be authentic, a large crane arm built into the hearth so that pots or a cauldron can be suspended directly over the fire and swung out for tasting or serving. In many historic houses across the country one can see proper hearth cooking in action, and it is really not very different from campfire cookery except that it is done inside. More- over, colonial American cooking technology is not terribly different from that used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and Plimoth Plantation and Old Sturbridge Village in Massachu- setts, as well as dozens of other historic sites, are great places to see hearth cooking in action.

If you choose not to go this route, of course any standard pots and pans work fine on conventional gas or electric stoves. But there is one type of cookware definitely worth trying if you can: earthenware. Low-fired pot- tery, although it breaks if dropped, is cheap and surprisingly sturdy both in the oven and directly over a gas flame, or in fact in the hearth. Be sure to use low-fired pottery intended for use as cookware, not decorative pots. Pot- tery cookware usually has a clear glaze only on the inside. High-fired stone- ware and porcelain, although much stronger, are more thoroughly vitrified, i.e., more like glass, and therefore shatter with sudden temperature changes, both in the oven and even sometimes in the freezer. Earthenware, how- ever, expands and contracts easily and conducts heat nicely. Pottery cook- ing vessels can be bought at Spanish food shops, and online at The Spanish Table (http://www.spanishtable.com) and Tienda.com (http://www.tienda. com), or at some Italian cookware shops. These vessels were often called for specifically in old cookbooks, for acidic sauces that might react with iron pots. Furthermore, most poorer households used earthenware vessels for all their cooking. Both covered casseroles and simple round straight-edged pans without handles are a delight to cook with. So too is a little pipkin—a ro- tund pot with three legs and a handle. If you know someone who can make pottery, the possibilities are endless—but again, to use over direct flame, the clay must be low-fired earthenware with a clear food-safe glaze inside. For cooking in the oven, stoneware and porcelain casseroles are fine.

Ovens

For all recipes that require baking, a regular oven can be used. Baking was actually not a very common technique and was mostly used for bread and pastries, especially in wealthy households. Something important to remem- ber is that bread would always be baked in a fairly hot oven before other foods. This was done by building a fire directly in the oven, which was ei- ther a brick or stone box next to the hearth or a free-standing, dome-shaped

and the floor of the oven swabbed out with a wet cloth on a pole. Bread would be baked first for an hour or more, and later pies or pastries or other foods would go in. What this means is that when an oven is called for, it would be fairly low in temperature. Sometimes a cookbook author will specify to use a hot oven or use a moderate oven. When unspecified, take as a rule baking between 325 and 350 degrees. To start, the oven might have been as hot as 800 degrees, which is how hot a proper pizza oven should be. Bread would have been baked cooler than this. The bricks would cool over time, and then other foods would be cooked at lower temperatures. However, if using an oven as a substitute for roasting, it is best to use higher temperatures, per- haps 400 to 425 degrees. A wooden or metal peel—a long pole with a sturdy flat end—was used for placing bread or other foods in the oven.