Grantville Gazette, Volume VIII Page 19
Isaac opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He closed it, coughed, then squeezed out, "Yes."
"Good, good." The older man nodded. "It is mostly good with us. It could be better, but it is good enough that I cannot complain." He fell silent, still nodding, only to receive another nudge from the woman. His look to her this time was a glare, which seemed to have absolutely no effect on her.
Franz and Marla watched in fascination.
The man spoke again. "Er . . . Yitzhak . . ." He hesitated, then finished in a rush. "Will you come home to us?"
Isaac turned white, starting to waver. Franz reached out and grasped his elbow to steady him.
The other man looked concerned. "Yitzhak, I have wronged you. I . . . was so certain that I was right in my plans for you. I was furious when you would not obey me. I was blind to see that I could not make you be anything other than what the Holy One, Blessed be He, had shaped you to be. I thought you were rebellious, and on that night . . . I was infuriated. I said words that no father should say to a son." The man, obviously Isaac's father, looked down at the ground, then back up with an earnest expression on his face. "As the greater fault was mine, I acknowledge that fault. I ask your pardon." He opened his arms. "Will you be restored to your family, my son?"
Isaac was trembling under Franz's hand. Slowly, he moved forward. Then, with a sudden rush he fell into his father's arms. "Avi, Avi."
His father folded his arms around Isaac in a fierce embrace, closed his eyes and bowed his head to lean against his son's, whispering softly to him. The woman, who must have been his mother, smiled a tender smile and rested a hand on Isaac's back. The other member of the group exchanged a smile of satisfaction with Don Francisco.
After a moment, Isaac straightened and pulled away. "My friends, I would like you to meet my father, Rabbi Shlomo ben Moishe of Aschenhausen, my mother Rivka, and Joachim ben Eleazar, the president of our community. Father, these are my very good friends, Franz Sylwester and his wife Marla."
"So," Rabbi Schlomo said. "You are musicians, yes?"
"That's right, sir," Marla replied.
The rabbi looked surprised at her response, but cleared his throat and continued. "Is my son a good musician?"
"Absolutely, sir." Franz smiled. "One of the best."
"Good, good." Rabbi Shlomo turned to Isaac. "But you should be the best, nu?"
Isaac laughed. "Yes, Father. I will try harder."
* * *
Franz watched as another stranger approached. The young man had diffidently entered the room after the concert was over and hovered around, walking a few steps one way, then back. After talking to one of the ushers briefly, he had focused on Franz, once or twice starting toward him but then pulling back. Franz judged him to be about thirty, maybe a little younger. He was dressed reasonably well, but certainly not as a member of the Hoch-Adel. He was now obviously determined on talking to them, so Franz stopped and waited for him.
"Good day, Herr Sylwester."
"Good day."
"I have heard of your offer for musicians, and I have come to find a place with them, if I may." The man stood straight, and looked Franz in the eye.
"There are a few places left. Where are you from, and what do you play?" "Most recently from Schweinfurt, although I have played in several of the towns of Thuringia. As to instruments, I play all of the common stringed instruments with some level of skill, but my best is the king of instruments, the organ."
He certainly seemed to not be burdened with false modesty. On the other hand, there was no air of braggadocio . . . he apparently was reciting what he considered to be fact. Franz could accept that.
"And you are?"
Now the stranger was flustered. "I am sorry; I have left my manners at home. You must think me very rude. My name is Bach, Johann Bach."
Franz and Marla looked at each other, and smiled.
NONFICTION:
What's For Dinner: Typical Dishes From 1632.
Written by Anette Pedersen
The common dishes in 1632 were quite different from what most western people eat today, and the following article will try to show what would have been prepared and served in the household of a moderately prosperous craftsman—say a printer or a blacksmith—in central Germany. In other words, what an American in the 1632 universe is likely to encounter if staying with a prospective business partner. The largest part of the population—the farm-workers and poor farmers—would have eaten only those dishes served to the servants in the household, while the wealthiest merchants and nobility would have dined exclusively on the richest dishes, but by choosing a middle-class household it should be possible to show the widest possible range. Most of the recipes are direct translations from a contemporary cookery book by Anna Wecker, the wife of a doctor from Colmar in Alsace, with some added explanations and comments based on other sources. That few attempts have been made to tell the quantities of the various ingredients is according to the custom at the time.
* * *
A household like the one described above would most likely consist of :
The craft master, in charge of the business,
The wife, who oversaw the household, was responsible for everybody's food and health, and did most of the shopping,
The children, who would have chores either in the business or in the house,
An older relative or two, who would be expected to do however much they could of the mending, repairs and other light work,
An unmarried or widowed sister or female cousin, who would share the housewife's work-load and probably be in charge of, for example, sewing, mending, washing and ironing all the linen and clothes of the household,
Two or three journeymen, and one or two apprentices, all working in the business and living in the house,
Two or three maids, to do the large amount of cleaning needed in a house with open fire-places and no modern cleaning tools or running water,
A cook, to plan the logistics of the meals together with the housewife, and cook the ten to twenty dishes served every day,
Two or three kitchen girls or boys, to do the scullery work, help the cook, and stir and turn food on the fireplace,
One or two male servants, to do the heaviest work such as chopping firewood for all heating and cooking, and for carrying every drop of water needed for cleaning, cooking and bathing into the house from whatever well had water.
All in all, this would be a household of 15-20 persons, most of whom were employees and all of whom worked hard.
If the household was old-fashioned for its time, the meals would be served to everybody at the same big table, but with different dishes placed at the high end—for the family—and at the low end—for the servants. If the household was more modern, the meals would be served at two separate tables with the family eating first, and the leftovers being passed on to the servant's meals together with an extra pot of something cheap and filling like stew, porridge or gruel. In either case, it was possible that the kitchen staff ate separately from the other servants and had a bowl of stew, soup or porridge while cooking the other dishes, and then picked over any remains of the meals after clearing the tables.
The two main meals in a 1632 household were served by placing the food on the table in sets or courses, each consisting of several dishes, but how many dishes per course and how many courses would vary with the status and prosperity of the household. For a household of the size here presented there would have been four to six dishes for the family in addition to the bread and beer. These dishes would all have been placed at the table at the same time or, if a second course was served, it would just have been some sweets, nuts and firm cheese. For the servants there would most likely be just a stew, or else porridge or gruel with a side-dish of boiled salted meat or herring in addition to the bread and beer.
1632 was in the middle of a major change in food fashion. The medieval ideal food—often dark in color, sweetened and with as many spices, as much meat and as few vegetables as
you could afford— was slowly being replaced by a new French style—often pale in color, and with few spices and as many of the newly developed Italian vegetables as you could afford. In the German manor houses this change would have taken place by 1632—unless the owner was very old-fashioned—but in a middle-class household the preference would have been for the old-style food, and something like braised lettuce or fried celery would be considered more of a novelty than a treat.
* * *
Beer and bread would have been served to everybody at all meals, but the family and guests would get strong beer and wheat or fine rye bread, while the servants would drink small beer and eat a coarser rye bread. These two major food items could be either bought or produced in the household, and how they were made has been described in other articles.
In a household where every morsel of food wasn't automatically eaten, there would often be bread slices and beer left when the tables were cleared, and unless they—and other leftovers—were either donated to the poor or given to the servants to sell, they would be used as a kind of porridge.
BEERBREAD
Soak leftover bread in cold water overnight, drain off the excess liquid and press the bread through a sieve. Add enough beer to create a porridge consistency, and boil until thick and smooth. Serve with honey and cold cream or milk. Comment: If served in a wealthy household spices could be added.
Beerbread was most common as a breakfast dish, but gruel and porridge made from barley, oat or dried peas formed the base of all the three daily meals. Porridge, in many households, would be all the servants would get to eat along with bread, beer and leftover meat dishes from the family's meal.
BARLEY GRUEL
Soak whole or cracked barley grain overnight in cold water. Rinse it in the morning and bring it to boil covered with fresh water until the water is reduced to half and the grains are tender. Comment: If this was also served to the family, washed raisins, honey, mace and white wine could be added.
Before the potato became common, it was the winter-hardy kale, that kept the population healthy, and this—now all but forgotten—dish was the most common of all winter dishes.
KALE GRUEL version 1
Carefully clean and chop fresh green kale. Cover it with water and boil until tender. Other vegetables and a piece of salted or smoked pork may be added. Once cooked, remove the meat and thicken the kale soup with oat meal or barley flour.
KALE GRUEL version 2
Soak barley grain overnight, and bring to a boil in water with finely chopped onion. Add finely chopped kale and simmer until it is all soft. Add butter or fat.
APPLE GRUEL WITH PORK
Soak a piece of salted pork, and boil it until tender. Sieve the soup, and add crushed oats, chopped leeks, bay leaf, and some thyme. Add fresh or dried apples, and cubes of the boiled pork, and boil again before serving. Comment: If this dish was also served to the family, the soup might be spiced with ginger, and the pork fried before being returned to the stew, perhaps along with some dumplings.
PEASE PORRIDGE
Soak the dried peas for 1-2 days. Rinse carefully, and pick out any bad peas by placing each handful on a plate. Boil for a long time until the peas are tender. If the skins of the peas are very tough it helps to add lye to the water. Press the drained peas through a coarse sieve until only the skins remain. Leeks, carrots, or parsnip may be added during the last part of the cooking. Comment: If the peas are served as a thick mush, fried chopped onions and cubes of salted or smoked pork may be sprinkled on top. If the peas are served as a soup, apple pieces and herbs such as parsley or thyme may be added.
* * *
In addition to the basics of beer, bread, and gruel all three daily meals would also contain some kind of protein—at least for the family. If the business was prosperous, the servants would also receive some kind of protein.
For breakfast the protein could be sausage, cheese or cold boiled meat from the day before spread with mustard or another condiment and placed on a slice of bread, but a hot side-dish of fried salted herring, black-pudding, or the meatballs known as faggots would also be common.
FRIED SALTED HERRING
Soak salt-preserved herrings in water over night. Clean out any remaining blood and remove the head. Dip the fish in a batter made from rye flour mixed with beer, and fry in lard until crisp. Comment: This was eaten by biting the meat off the backbone, or dipping the fish in sweet mustard and just crunching everything.
BLACK PUDDING
This boiled sausage—made from stirring the fresh blood from a butchered pig with oat meal, raisins and bits of lard—would be cut into slices, fried and served with apples cooked with vinegar and honey.
FAGGOTS
At the time faggot could mean either a bundle of kindling for the oven, or a mix of pork meat, liver and organ meat finely chopped, pressed to balls, fried and preserved in a jar sealed with a layer of fat. When served the balls would be removed from their protective fat seal, heated and served with the porridge or mashed peas plus pickled beetroot and/or mustard.
MUSTARD
This, the most common condiment, could be bought in several versions at the apothecary, but many households preferred to buy the black or yellow seeds whole and make up the large batches needed in the house. This was often done by placing the seeds in a big clay bowl along with a cannonball. The bowl would then be placed on somebody's lap, and the mustard seeds would be crushed by moving the thighs to make the ball roll, while the person did other work with his or her hands. Once the seeds were finely crushed, the ball would be removed and the mustard mixed with water, oil, vinegar, honey or cream depending on the wanted taste and texture. Unless cream was used, the mustard would keep as well as modern mustard.
APPLE SAUCE
The second most common condiment would probably be an applesauce made by cooking apples and onions in beer or wine, and then thickening the sauce with grated bread before pressing it through a sieve. For serving to the family the sauce could be spiced with cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and made sweeter with honey or sweet wine syrup, but the basic version would be used by the servants to vary the flavor of their salted meat and porridge. This condiment doesn't keep well, and was usually freshly made.
PICKLED BEETROOT
Boil beetroots until they are tender and remove the skin. Cut to slices if the roots are big. Place in a glazed jar with spices such as peeled and chopped horseradish, caraway seed, mustard seeds, dill seeds, cloves or cinnamon, and cover with vinegar or vinegar and sour beer. Comment: These roots could keep for a year.
PEARS IN MUSTARD
A less common condiment, but one that's still used in the area of Hanover, was made by boiling the firm bergamot pears in apple juice or cider until tender. The pears were then removed, and the liquid concentrated to a thick syrup by boiling. Finally the pears were returned to the syrup along with as much mustard as was wanted. These preserved fruits could keep for months.
* * *
In a craftsman's household the biggest meal would be in the middle of the day, and in addition to the basic beer, bread, and gruel or porridge there would also be several protein dishes, both warm and cold, fish and meat. For the servants the protein would most likely be limited to a platter of boiled, salted pork, beef or mutton or a few salted herrings, but for the family there would be 3-4 carefully prepared dishes with meat or fish, probably in a sauce, possibly in a pie, as well as something sweet such as baked apples. During the summer there might also have been a vegetable dish or two for the family—the same if any version of Lent was kept.
Meatless days during Lent or on certain days of the week were not limited to Catholic families, but were considered spiritually cleansing by all faiths, so fresh and salted fish would remain in demand regardless of the changing politics.
PICKLED EELS
Carefully clean and skin the freshly caught fish, and cut to finger-long pieces. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, dredge in wheat flour, and fry until golden in butter or olive oil
. Let the fish get cold. Bring vinegar or a mix of vinegar and sour beer to the boil and let that get cold too. In the bottom of a glazed jar now sprinkle thyme, marjoram, crushed black pepper and mace, and place a layer of fish on top using a big spoon so you don't touch the fish with your hands. Repeat this until the jar is full, and pour over the cold vinegar. Thinly sliced onion should be placed on top to keep the fish down and covered with the vinegar.
FISH PATTIES
Boil a fresh firm fish in salted water, drain and let it cool before picking the meat off the bones. Chop the meat finely, and mix it with currants, ginger, pepper, salt and saffron plus grated fine bread or flour. Add eggs and a little cream until you have a firm paste. Shape to balls and fry in butter. Another way to prepare this paste is to make it thinner with more cream, and bake it like a pie. Cut this to pieces once baked and serve with a little sugar on. Comment: Dried or dried and salted cod was served in much the same way.
BERGENFISH IN POLIAN SAUCE
Soak the fish (salted and dried cod) in cold water, changing the water several times, until you can bend it, and then boil in water with some vinegar until tender. Make the yellow sauce as described below. Place the fish in a broad pan and pour over the sauce. Bring the dish to a boil, cover with a lid, and remove it from the fire. Let it rest for half an hour before serving to let the flavors mingle. Comment: Another source gives the following treatment: Bergenfish, the dried cod from Bergen in Norway must be beaten well to tenderise, cut to pieces, soaked 2-3 days in lightly salted water, soaked again in "lud" boiled from beech-ash for a day, soaked again in pure water for 2 days, and finally cooked in, for example, a pie.