Largesse, in the SCA, is referring to the gifts given, usually to and from Royals, as an expression of thanks and generosity, though anyone can give these gifts to anyone else for any reason. For more information, check out this site: Largesse – An Tir Culture Wiki
I have been collecting ideas to hopefully provide inspiration!
This is the documentation I turned in with my dish, as well as a quick note of the advise given by the judge, Maestra Fiamma the Unquenchable*.
xxxj – Herbelade Prepared for Banner War 2014 on September 20th
Documentation and translation by Lady Sabina di Zorzi
Interpretation and preparation by Lady Sabina di Zorzi and Arnora Jonsdottir of House Gremlin, Aquaterra, An Tir
Introduction This entry is a re-creation of a recipe from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430), entitled “xxxj – Herbelade” – a pie made of pork shoulder, herbs, and dried fruits and nuts. This recipe can be found online with a couple different translations, but they both differ slightly from mine.
When verifying my translation of the recipe, I found this book online, which shows one translation http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/To_Milk_an_Almond.pdf . I also found another translation of the Herbelade recipe here: http://www.3owls.org/sca/cook/cowshed.htm. Copies of each are included with this documentation.
I don’t like the second one because it blends the meat and I can’t see anything in the original that says that it needs to be pureed. The recipe in the first link is close to my translation, but it uses pork chops and I am using pork shoulder/butt instead per the original recipe.
The Source Recipe The original text of the recipe is as follows:
xxxj – Herbelade. Take Buttes of Porke, and smyte hem in pecys, and sette it ouer the fyre; and sethe hem in fayre Watere; and whan it is y-sothe y-now, ley it on a fayre bord, and pyke owt alle the bonys, and hew it smal, and put it in a fayre bolle; than take ysope, Sawge, Percely a gode quantite, and hew it smal, and putte it on a fayre vesselle; than take a lytel of the brothe, that the porke was sothin in, and draw thorw a straynoure, and caste to the Erbys, and 3if it a boyle; thenne take owt the Erbys with a Skymoure fro the brothe, and caste hem to the Porke in the bolle; than mynce Datys smal, and caste hem ther-to, and Roysonys of Coraunce, and Pyne3, and drawe thorw a straynoure 3olkys of Eyroun ther-to, and Sugre, and pouder Gyngere, and Salt, and coloure it a lytel with Safroune; and toyle yt with thin hond al thes to-gederys; than make fayre round cofyns, and harde hem a lytel in the ovyn; than take hem owt, and wyth a dyssche in thin hond, fylle hem fulle of the Stuffe; than sette hem ther-in a-3en; and lat hem bake y-now, and serue forth.
Translation Translated into modern English, this becomes:
xxxj – Herbelade. Take butts of pork, and chop them in pieces, and set it over the fire; and boil them in clean water; and when it is boiled enough, lay it on a fair table, and pick out all the bones, and chop it small, and put it in a fair bowl; then take hyssop, sage, parsley a good quantity, and chop it small, and put it on a fair vessel; then take a little of the broth that the pork was cooked in, and draw through a strainer, and add to the herbs, and give it a boil; then take out the herbs with a skimmer from the broth, and add them to the pork in the bowl; then mince dates small, and add them there-to, and raisins of currants, and pine nuts or whole peppercorns, and draw through a strainer egg yolks thereto, and sugar, and powder ginger , and salt, and color it a little with saffron; and rub/cover it with your hand all these together; then make fair round crusts, and harden them a little in the oven; then take them out, and with a dish in your hand, fill them full of the stuff; then set them there-in again; and let them bake enough, and serve forth.
Procedure
Boil pieces of pork roast until it is able to be picked clean of all bones then diced and put in a bowl.
Chop hyssop, sage, and parsley into small pieces and boil it in some strained pork broth. Skim out the herbs and add them to the pork.
Add minced dates, currants, pine nuts, strained egg yolks, sugar, powdered ginger, and salt. Add a little saffron for color. Mix all ingredients thus far together.
Make large round crusts and bake them in the oven until they harden a little. Stuff them with the mixture and put back in the oven until the mixture is cooked through. Serve immediately.
Materials The original recipe calls for the following ingredients:
Pork butt, water, hyssop, sage, parsley, dates, currant, pine nuts, egg yolk, sugar, ginger – powdered, salt, saffron, and a pie crust
Notes
I used dried hyssop, dates, and currants due to availability. I did not use saffron to color the dish due to the expense. I did not use egg yolks in order to prevent an additional food allergy* or sugar, ginger, or salt because the dish’s flavor was great where it was at before those additions.
*The judge said I should only use medieval excuses in the future for changes to the recipe. I am thinking that it would be allowable to say that eggs ‘did not agree with my lord’, at the very least.
Austin’s Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Here is a link to in black and white .pdf format: https://ia600308.us.archive.org/4/items/twofifteenthcent00austuoft/twofifteenthcent00austuoft_bw.pdf
Also available here: http://www.archive.org/stream/twofifteenthcen00librgoog/twofifteenthcen00librgoog_djvu.txt
Along with the glossary in the books themselves, I used the Glossary of Medieval Cooking Terms by James L. Matterer as found on: http://www.godecookery.com/glossary/glossary.htm
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
This was my entry for the Iron Ink held at Banner War 2014. Unfortunately for my House, I didn’t win, though it was said to be a close competition.
The object of the competition was to take the bit of prose they gave you (everyone received a different one) and either do the calligraphy on the blank parchment provided, or the art with room for the quote to be added later, or both. I did the writing first, and then opened my little mini book of inspiration, tagged in a previous post, and it happened to land on a picture of a man hanging from a crane. I couldn’t resist trying to re-create that around the provided quote since it involved ‘tasting flight’. Here is the inspiration piece:
I also had brought documentation of the one place there is evidence of holes in the parchment being repaired, so I managed to get the nerve to cut a hole similar in shape to those in the pictures of the parchment repairs and stitch it up, almost dream catcher style. Here is an example from this archived page from Uppsala University showing the extant pieces from one book:
If I had spent all of the allowed six hours on this project, it would have had a better chance, but honestly, it doesn’t look finished enough, and I need to do line work before starting calligraphy in the future, plus finishing lines on the freehanded painting would have helped.
Overall though, I am very proud of my entry because it shows my growth so far. The Scribe said that I may have inspired a class with my addition of a repaired hole in my parchment which would be incredible!
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
Working on my Siege Cooking piece for Banner War 2014.
I have been working on translating meat pie recipes from Austin’s Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books and think I have decided on Herbelade, recipe xxxj.
First of all, when verifying my translation of that recipe, I found this book online: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/To_Milk_an_Almond.pdf
I also found another translation of the Herbelade recipe here: http://www.3owls.org/sca/cook/cowshed.htm
I don’t like the last one because it blends the meat and I can’t see anything in the original that says that it needs to be pureed. The recipe in the first link is close to my translation, but I would be using pork shoulder/butt instead of pork chops. I am working on finishing up my translation and formatting it into documentation form. Once it is finished I will post that all in a separate post.
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
Our next local SCA event is in less than two weeks, and I am actually going to get to help my house compete! Aside from helping to make donations to largess/war chest, one of the many activities is Siege Cooking:
Siege Cooking Challenge
“Maestra Fiamma the Unquenchable has issued this challenge:
Demonstrate the bounty of your house and bring a period potluck to the Open Tavern, serving at least 10 folks as part of the Tavern Meal that will be served to the populace and provide a complete ingredient list.
The more authentic and period the dish, the higher the score.
Documentation can be as simple as a copy of the original period recipe. Your redaction (interpretation) of the recipe a bonus. No New World ingredients, unless you can document their use within the SCA period.
The winning dish will be worth one War Point.
Please remember to bring your own cooking/heating/serving equipment and to clean up and remove your stuff as soon as the food serving is finished. If you have any questions, I am available for consultation on ideas and sources for period recipe. Please contact me.
How the Judging works: each person attending the tavern (including entrants) will receive a nut, which they may put in a cup by the dish they like best. Certain people (such as Their Excellency’s) will have multiple nuts to award as they see fit. The judge will award additional nuts for authentic and period dish, simple documentation see rule above, your redaction interpretation. See rules above.
Judge / Coordinator: Maestra Fiamma the Unquenchable (fiammetta@aol.com)”
I’ve never taken a medieval recipe and translated it myself, so I thought I would work with something I have some experience in, but try to apply it to an authentic recipe. For Fiamma’s Vigil, I made mini meat pies using this basic recipe:
http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec11.htm
That was more like a formula, not a specific recipe though, so I have been curious about exploring those more. In there, it refers to Austin’s Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books which Google quickly helped me find a link to in black and white .pdf format:
Click to access twofifteenthcent00austuoft_bw.pdf
Time to start studying the different options and see what I can come up with before the house meeting on Saturday. I would like to be able to present an actual plan at that point and maybe solicit help. I have an idea for presentation that would be quite amusing and I think the house would be on board.
Since the meat pie can be made ahead of time, and can be served warm or cold, I should be able to still have plenty of free time on site. Looking through the other challenges, another challenge I would like to help with is the Scribal Challenge:
“Iron Ink
You’ve heard of an Iron Needle to test sewing prowess? This year we are testing your scribal skills in an Iron Ink. Bring your scribal kit and demonstrate illumination or calligraphy or both in the creation of a scroll.
Contestants will receive a charter blank and a piece of prose and have 6 hours to complete their piece. Winner will receive a War Point for their House. Remaining pieces will be donated to largess.
Judge / Coordinator: Daigo Tsukime Kitsume”
I have some ideas for incorporating documentable repairs, as that would be part of a scribe’s job, and will definitely make it stand out from the rest. I also recently purchased this tiny book for inspiration when working on scroll painting. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789202166/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It is so tiny, but it travels well. Time to hunt down my calligraphy pen that got packed away a while ago and make myself a scribal kit!
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
A few weeks ago, I took on a last minute project of cooking period food for Fiamma the Unquenchable’s well-deserved Vigil. She got became a Laurel due to her incredible passion for period cooking, and she deserved to have a full period spread at her Vigil, but this was the first time I had taken on such a large task and with her right there able to critique it! I decided to not go with everything having period recipes, due to lack of time, but at least limit it to things that could exist or that I found similar recipes for but had to make an appetizer version of. Here is what I came up with as a plan. Unfortunately, I don’t believe anybody took any pictures of the food, so that is lost to history, but, I did learn a few things!
My favorite dishes were the mini meat pies, which I made a couple different versions with the help of a couple friends of mine due to the labor intensive nature of making mini-muffin size pies. These were based on this recipe, so I ended up making pork, pea, and currant based version and a chicken, cheese, wine, and yellow raisin version. I used different porportions than the recipe called for to make sure that each tiny pie got a bit of every flavor. One thing learned for next time: cut up the raisins/currants before putting in the filling because they oddly resemble eyeballs when cooked, according to my husband.
The other thing that went really well were the fig, date, and goat cheese tarts that I made roughly based on this recipe. For both the pies and tarts, I cheated and used store bought pie crust, but that was mainly because I was on a time / labor crunch. The tarts were just circles of dough with a little bit of the filling put in the middle, fold the dough in half and pinch along the seam several times to make them stay closed and look pretty. The one thing I should have done with them and didn’t was poke holes in them so they would stay closed, but that’s my lack of baking experience showing!
I would like to do a small demo for the tarts at least this coming weekend at a private household event, just because I know of at least one person interested in learning that particular recipe. I will attempt to take pictures this time though!
Note: Here is an article I may want to read before the next time I do something this drastic!
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
I finally got around to making some largesse! These were inspired by this product by Kate’s Paperie:
I wanted to make these because they are perfect for events so the kids can do evening tent wall shadow puppet shows! However, I also wanted them to be usable during the day, so I wanted a landscape that would work to hide their hands if it was placed on a table top. To finalize this wish list, I also wanted to make it all easily packable so it could travel without taking up too much room or risking the safety of the pieces too much, but also wouldn’t cost more as I am tight on funds at the moment.
First, here is the landscape, which is made from one 12×12 piece of cardstock with two castle silhouette’s cut out. Slits allow the two pieces to lock together, forming a corner. This also nicely forms a tower behind the foreground, which I think adds nicely to the image.
Here are the puppets themselves, cut using the Silhouette Cameo Mom and I received for Christmas. They work well up next to a tent wall with a light behind them. If they need longer handles, they can be put into a straw, but I wanted them to be short so they could pack better. The handle is just a craft wood stick glued to the back with Elmers.
Here, you can see that the two walls of the castle are brought together like a book and the puppets are carefully sandwiched in between. I then wrapped a ribbon around the bundle enough times to make sure nothing slipped, added a little explanation, and tied a bow.
And here you can see the layers.
I also included who made them and where I am from so the royalty knows they came from here so they should be passed out in a foreign land, or at least not back to me. Not that I would expect to get a children’s piece of largesse!
I did six sets, half with grey castles and half with lavender. All but one set of puppets is black, with just the one set that is beige pictured above.
I used some templates from the Silhouette Online Store, made a template for the princess using a free clipart found here, and a the castle template from here.
I am quite happy with the results of these! I was originally planning on only doing ‘period’ pieces of largesse, but there are a lot of SCA specific needs as well that are inspiring, so I don’t think I am going to let that stop me. This was actually a lot of fun to see come together!
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
I will be going to this event to attempt this contest! That means attempting this simple medieval sock pattern on site withing a 24 hour period or less…. I’m pretty excited!
Edited to add: I won!
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
Sabina di Zorzi 