A Thing-A-Week Part 21: For to make chireseye

For to make chireseye:

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

For to make chireseye, tak chiryes at þe feast of Seynt Iohn þe Baptist, & do awey þe stonys. Grynd hem in a morter, & after frot hem wel in a seue so þat the ius be wel comyn owt; & do þan in a pot & do þerein feyre gres or botor & bred of wastel ymyid, & of sugur a god perty, & a porcioun of wyn. & wan it is wel ysodyn & ydessyd in dyschis, stik þerin clowis of gilofre & strew þeron sugur.

- Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

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GODE COOKERY TRANSLATION: http://www.godecookery.com/mtrans/mtrans06.htm

For to make Cherries, take cherries at the feast of Saint John the Baptist, & do away the stones. Grind them in a mortar, and after rub them well in a sieve so that the juice be well coming out; & do then in a pot and do there-in fair grease or butter & bread of wastel minced, & of sugar a good part, & a portion of wine. And when it is well cooked & dressed in dishes, stick there-in clove flowers & strew there-on sugar.

I only had one big issue with this recipe and that was the translation of clowis of gilofre to clove flowers. It is a minor thing but clove-gillyflower in looking at the OED was used to reference both the spice or the gillyflower (an ancestor of the carnation) in period text and they are obviously very different things. Again this is a minor detail but it reinforces the point that it is good to look up unfamiliar terms.

I was redacting this recipe to see if it could be made in a crock pot. This meant I had to use some larger quantities then I normally would and I ended up making quite a lot of the chireseye.
I started with:

2.5 lbs frozen dark sweet cherries (cherries are not at their peak at this time of year and where they can be found they are a little expensive. I have generally found that frozen fruit that doesn't contain any additives or a "sauce" are of good quality and these were some of the sweetest cherries I have ever had).

1/2 cup butter (I am guessing this to turn out something like a pudding and many puddings are creamy. I thought adding a little more butter would help balance out the acidity of the fruit. And I had a lot of fruit so in comparison it wasn't really all that much)

2 cups unseasoned bread crumbs

1/2-3/4 cup sugar

1 cup of port wine

I began by mashing the fruit until it was almost a puree. I have neither a food processor nor a mortar and pestle large enough to really work this much fruit so I used a potato masher. It actually worked rather well overall. I opted not to sieve the fruit not because I didn't think it was important but more because I was testing the recipe more for viability for my class. I wasn't looking for a perfect redaction. I plan to bring cheese cloth to class and allow students to make their own choices as to what they want to do. I also wanted to leave the juice in as much as possible as I didn't want it to burn in the crockpot.

I then added a stick of melted butter, the wine, some sugar (this seemed like plenty at this point as the fruit was very sweet), and the bread crumbs. 16 ounces of bread is about how much I have seen for modern bread pudding recipes and it seemed like a good starting point. I personally don't like the texture of sauces thickened with bread crumbs so I tend to lean to the side of less rather than more. I also didn't know how much the bread would absorb and I needed to make sure that the recipe was thick but still moist so that it didn't burn.

This all went into a crock pot on low for a little over an hour. I stirred it frequently to make sure it didn't burn. It also thickened a lot as the bread absorbed the juice from the fruit and I ended up adding some more cherry juice to balance a bit. I also noticed that it became more tart as it cooked so I ended up adding a little more sugar (about 1/2 to 1 cup). It still tasted rather grainy/starchy but I found that this improved with a night spent in the fridge. I warmed some up this morning with a little cinnamon/sugar sprinkled on it (as it really needs a little spicy zing) and had it for breakfast.

For my class I am going to bring in whole cloves and try to find some candied flowers.