I had been more excited about trying out bread cups than almost anything else.  The easiest recipe of the whole lot, a paste made from flour and water, it took absolutely no skill at all, but the result did not disappoint, I was just as excited at the end result as I had been about the idea.  I made my paste, and moulded it onto well oiled, upturned individual pudding moulds.  I then put those moulds into my Aga and about 20 minutes later took out my first ever version of bread cups.  I then melted some butter, added hazlenuts and allowed them to cook for a few minutes, before adding some honey.  I took this mixture off the heat and added raspberries and blackberries while it was still warm.  I then spooned the berry and nut mixture into the bread cups and allowed the juice to seep into the 'bread', giving it a nice colour but also softening it.  I had no template, so to speak, for these 'cups', so I feel I made them slightly too thick and would adjust that if I were to make them again.  The result was definitely edible though, and interesting too.  I would like to develop this recipe some more, to bring it up to date and serve it as a dessert at lunch or dinner. 

The most time consuming part of this experimental cooking project is finding a recipe/recipes I feel would 'test' well.  I am not inclined to simply try anything, my quest is to find good food and prove that our ancestors had an interesting and varied diet.  Jacqui Wood is a good food writer, but I want to try other writers too, which is how I came across Phylis Pray Bober's Art, Culture, & Cuisine - Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy (1999).  Ms. Bober covers a lot of periods, from prehistory to what she calls "Late Gothic International Style".  The recipe I chose was from ancient Rome.  The ingredients were chicken (I used breasts, but I could have used pieces), leeks, olive oil (for cooking the chicken), small bunch of fresh dill, small bunch of fresh coriander, pine nuts, and I added chopped mushrooms since I felt they would have been an opticn.  It was very easily put together, frying the chicken before adding the leeks, mushrooms and finally the herbs etc.  The recipe called for defrutum though, which is made by reducing fresh unfermented grape juice to one third its volume, this is then poured on top of the finished dish.  Unfortunately I could not get grape juice anywhere, so I had to improvise.  I used a good apple juice instead, which seemed to work well.  I had no complaints from my test lunch guest anyway.  Photos going into the photo gallery now.

I am now going to make bread cups, I have been waiting for this moment!  Come back soon and see the result.

Apologies for taking so long to report on my first experiment, I had problems with my laptop and for some reason any blog entries I attempted to make weren't saved.  Most likely a teething problem, but one I hope I have now managed to sort out.

I am pleased to report the lamb casserole was a success, I had been a bit dubious about the addition of the cooking apple, but it worked very nicely.  I didn't, however, quite understand why chicken would have been cooked with lamb.  It's not my place to question it though, I was simply following a recipe written by someone who seems to know more than I do about ancient methods of cooking.

Since the lamb casserole I have made a Kedgeree and a dish simply called "Vegetable Stew".  Both recipes are by Jacqui Wood, but from different books, the first from her Tasting the Past - Recipes from the Stone Age to the Present (2009) and the second from Prehistoric Cooking (2012).

Kedgeree, as you may know, was served as a breakfast dish in Victorian times, but I chose to cook it for lunch since I am not a breakfast person.  I'm used to Delia Smith's version, so I was interested in what Ms. Wood would do.  Her version of the dish called for smoked haddock, cooked rice, butter, mustard, hard-boiled eggs, parsley, salt, cayenne pepper and onion.  Most elements of a kedgeree are cooked separately and then mixed together.  If I were writing a critique of a recipe I would have quite a bit to say, but since my task was simply to cook and taste food from the past I must not allow that side of me to surface.  On the whole it was tasty, although unlike the lamb casserole I will not be adding it to my recipe repetoire.

Going back in time, the Vegetable Stew was taken from Jacqui Wood's prehistoric recipes.  It consisted of hazlenuts, butter, sorrel (I used spinach, having read it was a good alternative), chives, marjoram (fresh), mint, leeks, peas, salt and bulgar wheat.  The method involved cooking the hazlenuts in butter, adding most other ingredients, covering it with water and eventually adding the bulgar wheat.  It worked quite well, the fresh herbs certainly helped to give it an interesting flavour.  I have to question the use of bulgar wheat though, I wonder what our ancestors would have used had they not been able to pop into Tesco to get bulgar wheat.

Finally, I have uploaded pictures, although I wasn't able to title them.  I'm sure by looking at them it will be easy to pair them to the recipes they are associated with.

Next time I will be cooking something sweet, and I will try to use a different food writer for inspiration.

It took me ages to decide what recipes to start with.  I eventually chose a lamb dish called "Lamb Stew with Mint and Apples", which comes from the Norman Period (1166 onwards).  The recipe is one of Jacqui Wood's from her Tasting the Past: Recipes from the Stone Age to the Present (2009).  Basically it's a mixture of lamb pieces, with onion, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, cooking apple, mint, blanched almonds, salt and pepper.  It smells good, so I'll report back to say how it tastes, and whether I think it could be improved upon.  Please come back later to see what I have to say!

This is my first time doing a blog, so forgive me if I get it wrong.  I spent the evening looking at 'ancient' recipes, or at least those that are presumed to be ancient.  My background is cooking, so I have a fair idea about recipes and whether they could work.  I must admit I am excited to start this new adventure though, which will hopefully include cooking meat in clay on or near a fire, making bread cups on hot stones, and filling them with both sweet and savoury fillings.  There is so much to explore.  I intend to have recipe testing sessions about twice a week, but I have yet to choose what I want to start with.  Bear with me, and please come back soon to see what I have done.  You can read new posts on this blog via the RSS feed.