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Many people ask me if I come\u00a0across weird and\u00a0unappetising\u00a0dishes in those old British cookery books I collect and devour.<\/p>\n

Of course there are always recipes in historical cookery books which might seem odd to us today, but I am quite sure if someone from the 18th century would come and visit us today, he would go home with as much stories about strange foods to tell his\u00a0contemporaries.
\nIt’s all a difference in how we look at food, and how we approach it. For example, most of us only ever see meat, packed in plastic, neatly arranged in the supermarket shelves. Small independent butchers are disappearing on our streets and so is our connection to the animal that provides us with our much savoured sausage. Only last year a butcher shop in Suffolk was asked to remove his elaborate game displays from the window so children wouldn’t be upset by the sight of dead animals. Man has become disconnected and doesn’t think past the plastic surrounding the factory farmed meat.<\/p>\n

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I don’t find eating the head of a pig weird at all, people in the past would have been happy to have it. But today it is seen as ‘medieval’ and not very appetising. I must confess I do not have a desire to eat a pigs head any time soon, but many have told me it is\u00a0exquisite.<\/p>\n

I am talking about a Medieval dish with a name that might sound strange to us today, but only because we have given a different explanation to the word, or the word as evolved. Medieval dishes have always delighted me in their inventiveness, and elegance. A pure kind of cooking, with herbs and spices that give your tastebuds a whole other experience.<\/p>\n

In the 14th and 15th century the dish with the name ‘compost’ has been the term for any stewed mixture. A ‘composition’ of ingredients. This could have been meat, vegetables or fruit. The French term ‘compote’ very likely derives\u00a0from the English ‘compost’ which later only meant stewed fruits. The name ‘Compost’ for a recipe can also be found in Flemish Medieval cookery books.
\nTo anyone, this dish must sound intriguing, especially as one would\u00a0immediately\u00a0think this was a recipe for creating the best compost to fertilise your veggie patch with.<\/p>\n

But no, the\u00a0etymology of the word\u00a0might be obscure, we are not making any kind of compost for the garden today.
\nThis recipe\u00a0for\u00a0‘compost’\u00a0I am bringing to you today\u00a0is made with chicken and green herbs, and spices. Another contemporary recipe\u00a0is made with chickens and some of its offal. Herbs vary in recipes and another\u00a0‘compost’\u00a0is made exclusively from root vegetables, dried fruits and spices. They are all very clean and pure dishes.<\/p>\n

Chicken was always a noble type of meat on a banquet. It was considered more economical if a chicken was kept for her eggs. Killing off a chicken meant killing of your egg factory so chicken would be on the tables of those who could miss a bird, the elite.
\nThis dish is fantastic, it is so pure and simple, it is the kind of dish that just makes my heart skip a beat when I first have a little taste. The dish eats like a soup, and I like to add a nice slice of stale sourdough bread as a ‘sup’ – which was in the past frequently added to thicken the soup and give more substance. This ‘sup’ is also what gave us the term ‘supper’ later on in history. A ‘sup’ could also have been a piece of cake soaked in booze or sauce, the Italian word for trifle ‘Zuppa Inglese’ still gives shows us the link with the ‘sup’.
\nTo make it into an evening meal I added some new potatoes. This of course not ver Medieval as the potato was not known in the Middle Ages, but it is a lovely addition to this dish.<\/p>\n

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New potatoes are a lovely addition to make it into a main dish, but not very Medieval.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Original recipe from\u00a0A Noble Boke off Cookry\u00a0<\/b>(England, 1468)<\/p>\n

To mak composte tak chekins and halve them then tak saige parsly lekes and other good erbes and chop them small then tak a pint of hony and som of the erbes and lay in the botom of the pot and som of the chekyn then tak lard of pork smale mynced and lay it on and cast ther to pouder of guingere and canelle and boille it and serue it.<\/i><\/div>\n
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I brown my chicken before stewing, this isn’t done in the original Medieval recipe, but I find it improves the flavour and the look of the dish, I leave my chicken whole, but you can cut it in half if you prefer.
\nIt might be so that the Medieval cook also browned the chicken, but recipes of that period weren’t complete as they were more often just aide-memoirs rather than clear instructions.<\/p>\n

What do you need – serves 4 or 2 very hungry people with leftovers, it is very good the next day.<\/b><\/p>\n

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