Writings: Katira al-Maghrebiyya (aka Kay the Innocent of Bel Anjou)

Copper Spoon
Category - Herbal Foods
Cynagua Investiture A.S. XXXIV
Entry: Green Sauce
Documentation

Source: The Medieval Kitchen, Recipes from France and Italy, by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, & Silvano Serventi. Translated by Edward Schneider. The University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Original Recipe: Salsa viridis hoc modo fit: accipe zinziber, cinamomum, piper, nucum muscatam, gariofilos, petrosillum atque salviam. Terantur primo species, post herbe et ponatur tertia pars salvie et petrosilum, et qui voluerit 3 uel 2 spice de aleis. Distemberentur aceto vel agresta. Nota quod in omni salsamento et condimento, sal est apponendum, et mica panis ad inspissandum. (Tractatus de modo preparandi et condiendi omnia cibaria 394)

Translation by Edward Schneider: Green Sauce. Here is how to make green sauce: take ginger, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, parsley, and sage. First grind the spices, then the herbs, and add a third of the sage and parsley, and, if you wish, three or two cloves of garlic. Moisten with vinegar or verjuice. Note that to every sauce and condiment salt is added, and crumb of bread to thicken it.

Notes: I put this sauce together using the "throw this and this together, taste, add, taste, add, taste" school of thought and leftover ingredients from the herb soup. Below is my best guess on quantities. I replaced some of the verjuice with chicken broth because I didn't want the sauce to be too tart and still achieve the desired consistency.

Of interest is a comment in the The Medieval Kitchen: "The closing sentence of the original recipe recalls the necessity, when making medieval sauces, of including bread as a thickener and salt as a seasoning. This is interesting because it shows that these treatises were often written as reminders for professional cooks, who needed only the essential outlines and who knew perfectly well that all sauces had to contain bread and salt." Of more interest to me is the fact that they mention nothing about the "add a third of the sage and parsley". It makes me think something is missing from the original, and perhaps further research will resolve this mystery.

Recipe

5-6 tbl minced parsley
2 tsp dried sage (the fluffy stuff)
1 pinch ground ginger
2 pinches ground cinnamon
1-2 pinches of ground black pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tbl verjuice
1 pinch salt
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
5-6 tbl chicken broth

Process the parsley, sage, spices, garlic and verjuice.
Add some of the crumbs and broth and continue to process, adding more until the mixture is a thick, just pourable consistency, and the overall taste is to your liking.

Last updated 01/03/2007