Week 2 - Frumenty (or how to pimp your porridge)
Above: The Sense of Taste by Jan Steen (1625/1626 - 1679) from the collection of Upton House, National Trust
Welcome to Week 2! Before we jump in, a big shout out to everyone who participated in last week’s challenge. Great to see some of our veteran cook off-ers returning again this year. Equally exciting to see so many new faces. Thanks sooooo much for joining the insanity. The Cook Off isn’t a cook off without you.
A Dish of Many Names
This week’s recipe goes by many names: frumenty, frumentee, furmity, fromity, fermenty…. Whatever you decide to call it, it’s a classic. It appears in the 1390 manuscript of The Form of Curry, one of oldest surviving English-language cookbooks, and Florence White, founder of the English Folk Cookery Association, proclaimed it England's "oldest national dish”.
At its simplest, frumenty consists of grain (usually wheat, but sometimes barley) gently stewed until it forms a soft, glutinous mass. Mmmmmmmm! Basically, it’s a porridge, but a super versatile one. It can be sweet or savoury, and may be served hot, or left to cool and then sliced, like polenta.
Pimped out versions include eggs, cream, and honey/sugar, dried fruit, and nuts (sweet) or broth with a side of meat (savoury). Venison appears to have been a popular accompaniment with savoury fermenty - at least for those with the means and status to acquire it - but there are also recipes featuring beaver and porpoise. Don’t worry, we’re not going there, but archaeological evidence indicates that the Colony of Avalon’s early settlers did.
Delicious AND Nutritious
If you’ve been following the Colony of Avalon’s Facebook page, you’ll know that Lori has been experimenting with this dish for a couple of days. Her initial feedback includes a comment that periodic spoonfuls of fermenty throughout the day have kept her feeling full and energized. It’s no wonder. Cracked wheat and bulger wheat are both complex carbohydrates that are high in nutrients and super-good-for-you fibre.
The Recipes
We’re giving you two recipe options this week. The first one is for the hard core cook off-ers out there (yes, we’re talking about you Sean!) who want to go the extra mile. It uses whole wheat grains that still include the hull and bran. These grains must be creed, or softened, otherwise they won’t gloop together.
The second recipe uses bulger, which allows you to skip the creeing. There’s absolutely no shame in taking this easier route. You won’t be the first. Back when frumenty was a really big thing, market vendors sold creed, jellied wheat by the bucketful.
The first recipe comes from Peter Brears’ Cooking and Dining in Medieval England, courtesy of our friends at CKBK.
Ingredients
150 grams (6 oz) whole wheat grains
150 ml (a generous 1/2 cup) milk or almond milk
1/2 tsp salt
Large pinch of saffron
Optional (for pimped out version)
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
2 egg yolks
Dried fruit and/or nuts (optional)
Method
Place the wheat in a deep stone mortar, cover with water, and work with a wooden pestle to grind off the bran.
OR
Place the grain in a food processor with 450 ml of water and process for about 5 minutes.
Pour the grain into a coarse sieve and rinse with water to remove the bran.
Put the drained grain and saffron into a pan with 900 ml of water (for sweet) or light stock/broth (for savoury). Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about an hour, stirring occasionally until it has formed a thick gelatinous mixture.
Add the milk/almond milk and salt and cook a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then serve hot.
For a pimped out version, stir in 1 tablespoon sugar or honey beaten with 2 egg yolks, and your choice of dried fruit and nuts when you add the milk/almond milk and salt.
The second recipe is for a sweet frumenty. It uses bulger instead of whole wheat, which reduces the processing and cooking time.
Ingredients
1 cup bulgur wheat
250 ml (1 cup) milk/almond milk
250 ml (1 cup) water
355 ml (1 ½ cups) of extra milk/almond milk
pinch of saffron (optional)
Any fruit / honey for garnish
Instructions
Mix 250 ml (1 cup) of water and 250 ml (1 cup) of milk/almond milk together
Add the bulger and mix.
Bring this mixture to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer either for 20 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed.
Meanwhile, add a small pinch of saffron to 355 ml (1 1/2 cups) of milk/almond milk and allow to soak.
When the bulgur wheat is cooked, add the saffron flavoured milk to the mixture and stir through.
Heat to a low simmer then remove from the heat.
Serve as is, or top with dried/fresh fruit, nuts, and whatever else you can dream up.
For a richer version, stir in 1 tablespoon sugar or honey beaten with 2 egg yolks when you add the saffron flavoured milk.
We encourage you to make this recipe your own. For inspiration, here’s a 1653 recipe for frumenty from A True Gentlewoman’s Delight
To make Furmentie
Take a quart of sweet Cream, two or three sprigs of Mace, and a Nutmeg cut in half, put into your cream, so let it boil, then take your French Barlie or Rice, being first washed clean in fair water three times, and picked clean, then boyle it in sweet milk till it be tender, then put it into your cream, and boil it well, and when it hath boiled a good while, take the yolks of six or seven eggs, beat them very well, and thicken on a soft fire, boyl it, and stir it for it will quickly burn, when you thinke it is boyled enough, sweeten it to your taste, and so serve it in with Rosewater, and Musk Sugar , in the same manner you may make it with wheat.
In case you’re wondering, musk sugar is exactly as it sounds - sugar infused with musk, which is a strong-smelling reddish-brown substance secreted by the male musk deer for scent-marking. Personally, I put musk in the same “not going there” category as porpoise, but if it’s your thing, go for it. We’d love to hear how it turns out!
Remember, snap a pic of your 17th century coffee and post it as a comment under the Week 2 recipe on the Colony of Avalon’s Facebook page for a chance to win this week’s prize and the grand prize. Deadline for entries is 11:59 pm, Saturday, July 23, 2022. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!