Fylettys en galentyne #blogjune Day 27

Like my last recipe, Fylettys en galentyne is one of the historic recipes I have been playing with for my FutureLearn course on Royal Food and Feasting. This is an example of the use of exotic spices cooked to flavour meat, not as I mistakenly thought to cover up bad meat, but to provide evidence of the wealth of the host providing the food. It is interesting to note that at the time of Henry VIII in England if you visited any other European court you could expect the same exotic spices to flavour your food.

This is a pork dish.  The original recipe would have used roast pork from the day before, but I used fresh pork and sealed it with the spices and butter while cooking the onions. The spices are ones which we don't use for meat much today: pepper, cinnamon, cloves and mace, but the mace was the only one I found a bit elusive in terms of purchasing. We were given both the original recipe and a simplified, modern version. I drew what I did and have recorded below from a combination of both recipes and it is neither one nor the other.

The recipe used whole cloves but I used ground cloves for the simple reason that that came to my hand in the pantry before the whole cloves. It also meant that the whole cloves didn't need to be picked out during eating. I accidentally omitted the saffron that the original recipe says to add with salt at the end.  I wasn't going to add the salt as I don't usually cook with it, but I found the saffron on the bench still waiting later.

Apart from adding the bread into the sauce while cooking (I used seeded sourdough but use what you have on hand), this dish would have probably have been eaten with more bread at the table. I ate it with potato gnocchi. definitely not a Tudor dish for a number of reasons.  But I am always keen to try fusion cuisine and this tasted delicious. And the kitchen smelt wonderful for 24 hours!  I'll certainly try this dish again, maybe with the saffron next time.

Ingredients

450 gr pork
1 litre beef stock
2 onions
25 gr butter
Pepper
Cinnamon
Mace
Ground cloves
2 slices bread
1 tsp vinegar

Mode 

Place the stock in a large pan on the stove top
Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer
Meanwhile slice the onion and chop the pork roughly
Melt the butter in a pan
Add the onions and cook until softening
Add the pork and turn until sealed on all sides
Add the pepper, cinnamon, mace and ground cloves in desired amounts
Combine everything and cook for a few minutes further stirring regularly
Transfer the meat, onions and spices to the stock
Bring to the boil again and then reduce to a simmer
Simmer slowly until all the ingredients are tender and the stock has reduced considerably.
Place the slices of bread in a bowl and pour two ladles of the stock over them
Leave to soak for ten minutes
Using a spoon press the bread and stock mixture through a sieve
Add the resulting mixture to the pan, stir to combine
Continue simmering until ready to serve.
A few minutes before serving add the vinegar to the pan and stir.