Cerdo Asado con Salsa de Ciruelas Secas: Feast Preparation

Cerdo Asado con Salsa de
Ciruelas Secas

Cerdo Asado con Salsa de Ciruelas Secas
15th Century, Catalan

Silver Desert Championship and Fest: Feast Preparation

Original:
 

Salsa de ciruelas secas (Spanish)

Tomas las ciruelas y ponlas a remojo en vino tinto, y quitales los huesos, y muelelas muy bien con unas pocas almendras sin pelar, y un poco de pan tostado, o asado, puesto a remojo en el vino donde esteban las ciruelas. Y todas estas cosas las moleras juntas y con un poco de agraz, y ese vino, y un poco de arrope, o bien azucar, que seria mucho mejor, y las destemperaras y pasaras por la estamena poniendoles dentro buenas especias, especialmente canela.

Para hacer la pebrada lo veras donde se trata en el capitulo anterior; y seguiras cuanto alli se contiene.

[Libro de Arte Culinaria, Capitulo III #104, Maestro Martino da Como]

Sapor de progna secche (Italian)

Sapor de progna secche. Habi le progne e mittile a moglio nel vino rosso, et cavvagli fora l’ossa, et pistarale molto bene con un poche de amandole non mandate, et un pocho di pane rostitio, o bruschulato, stato a moglio nel preditto vino dove erano le progne. Et tutte queste cose pistarai inseme con un pocho d’aresto, et de questo vino sopra ditto, et un pocha de sapa, overo zuccaro, che serrebe molto meglio, destemperarai et passarai per le stamegala mettendovi dentro di bone spetie, spetialmente del la canella.

Per fare la peperata vederai il capitolo di sopra nel quale si tratta; et siguirai quanto lì si contene.

[Libro de arte Coquinaria, Capitulo III #104, Maestro Martino da Como]

Pork Loin Roast & Prune Sauce With Grappa

http://www.medievalspanishchef.com/2010/11/aguardiente.html
 
[Medieval Spanish Chef, Suey]

Translation:

Sapor de progna secche (Italian) / Salsa de ciruelas secas (Spanish)

Dried-plum sauce. Take prunes and put them to soak in red wine, and remove the pits; pound them very well with a few unskinned almonds and a little roasted or grilled bread soaked in the wine where the prunes had been. And pound all these things together with a little verjuice and the above-mentioned wine and a little boiled grape must, or sugar, which would be much better, mix and strain, adding good spices, especially cinnamon.

To make Pebrada which is in the chapter above; and Seguiras how much there is contained.
 
Excerpt:
 
Pork Loin Roast & Prune Sauce With Grappa
 
Prepare the sauce: In a medium saucepan, combine the prunes, dates, 1 ½ cups water, sugar, lemon juice and bay leaf. Simmer until the prunes just start to break apart and dates are soft and pulpy, about 15 minutes. Add ginger, pepper and grappa and simmer for 5 minutes more. Season to taste with salt.

Slice the pork. Serve each portion topped with the sauce.

Ingredients:

Sapor de progna secche / Salsa de ciruelas secas

Prunes

Sugar

Red Wine

Cinnamon

Almonds

Bread (Crumbs)

Verjuice

Pork Loin Roast & Prune Sauce With Grappa

Prunes

Sugar

Juice from 2 lemons

Bay Leaf

Ginger

Black Pepper

Grappa

Salt

Combination of the two Recipes

6 Prunes

1/2 Cup Sugar

1/2 Cup Red Wine

1 tsp Cinnamon

Almonds

Bread (Crumbs)

Verjuice
Juice from 2 Lemons

1 Bay Leaf

1 Tbsp Ginger

1 tsp Black Pepper

Grappa

Salt

1 1/2 Cup Water

Redaction:

Take the Prunes and soak them in red wine overnight. Remove the pits, chop them up and place them in a medium saucepan. Combine the Prunes, 1 ½ cups water, Sugar, Lemon Juice and Bay Leaf. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add Cinnamon, Ginger, and Black Pepper. Add the Wine from the soaking back into the Sauce and keep simmering. Add some Bread Crumbs to lightly thicken the sauce. Salt to taste.

Notes: 

This recipe is intended as part of the Feast for the Championship of Silver Desert. While researching recipes, I found the Pork Loin Roast & Prune Sauce With Grappa recipe on the Medieval Spanish Chef website. In reference to the recipe, she mentions that “recipes such as this one do not appear in Sent Soví or in Nola's MSS.”; however, she fails to mention specifically, where this recipe originated from. This is unusual considering how well she normally documents her recipes. I have contacted her to get a more specific history on this recipe. Knowing that I wanted to do a Pork Roast with a Prune Sauce, I searched for another recipe to reference. I found Sapor de progna secche by Maestro Martino da Como in his manuscript Libro de arte Coquinaria. Martino da Como was a Swiss born Italian. He worked in the northern Italian states before making his was to Rome and then the Vatican. His recipes show a Spanish influence, especially from the Catalan manuscript Libre de Sent Soví. Both of these recipes had drawbacks for a Feast. First, although the Grappa in the sauce sounds delicious, I did not want to use a Distilled Alcoholic Beverage for the sauce. Also, the Martino da Como recipe uses Almonds for the sauce making inedible for those with Nut allergies. I combined elements of the two recipes by removing the Grappa and the Almonds, soaking the Prunes in the Red Wine, then combining the elements in a saucepan.Eithne came over to test the recipe with me. Since there is not any specification on roasting the pork, we decided on a simple Dalmation Rub (Salt/Pepper) with some Basil and Sage. After we put the Pork in the oven, we started on the Sauce. It went together very quickly. It came out a nice shiny purple. It also thickened up enough without adding any Bread Crumbs.

We served up the meal. The Pork Roast, itself was over salted. The Dalmation Rub was too aggressive for this recipe. The Prune sauce was delicious. My wife and Eithne mentioned that The Pepper was a bit overpowering and I noticed it a bit, too. For the Feast, I plan to cut back on the Pepper to ½ tsp.