Steak and Eggs with Beer and Molasses / Biff og Egg med Pils og Mørk Sirup

A classic Irish breakfast recipe found on irishcentral.com

Steak and eggs is a dish prepared with beefsteak and eggs as primary ingredients. It is most typically served as a breakfast or brunch food, although it can also be consumed at any mealtime, such as for dinner in the evening.

Ingredients

Various types of beefsteaks can be used, such as rib eye, strip, sirloin and flank, among others. Additional ingredients may include bell pepper, garlic, onion, butter, salt, pepper, seasonings and others. Accompaniments may include various sauces, such as steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chimichurri. and others.

Variations

Variations include steak and egg sandwiches, open sandwiches and steak and Eggs Benedict.  A version of steak and egg salad utilizes greens such as arugula, poached eggs and steak.  Vegetarian versions also exist, in which vegetables, such as cauliflower, squash and potatoes, are sliced into thick steaks and served with eggs.

In popular culture

Steak and eggs is the traditional NASA astronaut’s breakfast, first served to Alan Shepard before his flight on May 5, 1961.

Fried Apple Slices with Fennel Sugar and Apple Caramel Sauce / Friterte Epleskiver med Fennikelsukker og Eplekaramellsaus

A slightly different dessert / snack recipe found on godt.no

Spicy and golden apple slices sprinkled with fennel sugar and dipped in apple caramel sauce can be summed up with one word: delicious!

Garum Sauce: Ancient Rome’s ‘Ketchup’ Becomes a Modern-Day Secret Ingredient

An article by Olga Oksman posted on theguardian.com
Wednesday 26 August 2015

Garum and other similar fish-based sauces were the ketchup of the ancient world, mass produced in factories by the Romans, and sprinkled on anything savory. They usually made several versions: a dark-colored table condiment that was high in protein, a cooking sauce similar to Thai and Vietnamese fish sauces (sometimes called liquamen by historians, though often grouped together with garum), and a milder version called muria, explains food historian Sally Grainger. The fall of the Roman empire meant the end of its mass production, but the art of the fish sauce was not lost in Italy. The modern-day version, colatura di alici, is a saltier mixture of all three sauces.

While Italy may not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking of fish sauce, several companies on the Amalfi coast continue the ancient traditions. Today’s colatura is a clear, amber liquid made from fermented, salted anchovies and sold in tiny, elegant glass bottles. It is often described as the great-grandfather of Worcestershire sauce. “There is only a difference of a few ingredients, but colatura tastes better,” Grace Singleton, managing partner at Zingerman’s Delicatessen, tells me.

Zingerman’s, based in Michigan, started carrying the condiment around 15 years ago, when co-founding partner Ari Weinzweig found himself in the Amalfi coast town of Cetara, where it has been made for generations. After tasting it for the first time, Weinzweig knew he had to carry it in his store. It took a year to get all the labelling right for US importation, but it was worth it. Since then, the sauce has had a steady following, Weinzweig tells me.

Everyone who has tried it remembers the exact moment when colatura di alici and taste buds first met. For Matt Armendariz, who runs the food blog Matt Bites, it was in Italy, in an aioli sauce. “My mind was blown. It had this umami flavor and I asked the chef why it was so delicious, and he said he used colatura di alici. I just fell in love with it,” Armendariz fondly recalls.

The amber sauce, which is fermented traditionally in chestnut barrels, is an inexpensive way to add depth and flavor to dishes, says Singleton. A little glass bottle will set you back on average $15, but you only need a sprinkling to bring a new dimension to food.

It is also the key to a quick and simple pasta dish popular in the Amalfi coast. Any kind of long, thin pasta is mixed with garlic, chili-infused olive oil and a little colatura di alici for an unmistakable savory rich flavor that belies its simple ingredients. Armendariz recommends sprinkling it on ripe tomatoes or putting a few drops on grilled steaks and other meats to make the flavor pop. Singleton favors using it in place of salt in dishes, since it does double duty by both salting a dish and accentuating its flavors.

Despite its fishy origins, don’t think of it as a fish sauce, says Armendariz, who refers to the flavor enhancer as a “genie in a bottle” on his blog. It’s a true secret ingredient for the modern age, taken straight out of the ancient world.

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In context

Roman Garum was a fermented fish sauce used as a condiment in the cuisines of ancient Greece, Rome, and Byzantium. Liquamen was a similar preparation, and at times the two were synonymous. Although it enjoyed its greatest popularity in the Roman world, the sauce was earlier used by the Greeks.

When mixed with wine (oenogarum, a popular Byzantine sauce), vinegar, black pepper, or oil, garum enhances the flavor of a wide variety of dishes, including boiled veal and steamed mussels, even pear-and-honey soufflé. Diluted with water (hydrogarum) it was distributed to Roman legions. Pliny (d. 79) remarked in his Natural History that it could be diluted to the colour of honey wine and drunk.

You might have noticed that Liquamen was listed among the
ingredients on my Medieval Monday post a few days ago.
You can find old recipes for Garum here
http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/garum.htm

and here
http://www.pompeii-food-and-drink.org/garum.htm

Ted

West African Chicken in Peanut Sauce / Vestafrikansk Kylling i Peanøttsaus

A savoury chicken recipe from the African continent
found in “The best of International Cooking”
published by Hamlyn in 1984

West African cuisine encompasses a diverse range of foods that are split between its 16 countries. In West Africa, many families grow and raise their own food, and within each there is a division of labor. Indigenous foods consist of a number of plant species and animals, and are important to those whose lifestyle depends on farming and hunting.

The history of West Africa also plays a large role in their cuisine and recipes, as interactions with different cultures (particularly the Arab world and later Europeans) over the centuries have introduced many ingredients that would go on to become key components of the various national cuisines today.

Dill Cured Salmon / Dillgravad Lax

A classic Swedish starter recipe found on koket.nu

Curing salmon and trout with dill is a Swedish speciality. It adds
a delightful freshness to the finished dish.

Orange Blossom Crepes / Orange Blossom Pannekaker

A dessert recipe from “Crepe Cookery” published in 1976

Nothing livens up a dinner party more than a dessert being flambéed at the table. Combined with this simply delicious cream cheese filling you are sure to round off the dinner with a booming success.

Boiled Beef with Dill Sauce / Kokt Oksekjøtt med Dillsaus

A dinner recipe with herbs found in “Alt om Urter” (All About Hebs) published by Den Norske Bokklubben in 1982

Dill sauces both cold and hot ones are very popular in Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden and can be used with most sorts of meat. Hot it is particularly delicious with lamb and cold yoghurt or sour cream based ones with any sort of shellfish.

Honey and Mustard Sauce / Honning- og Sennepssaus

A medieval spicy sauce recipe found at cookit.e2bn.org

Mustard was much used by the Romans and later was very popular with the Anglo Saxons. It grew locally and so was cheap. It could be used to makes sauces for meat and fish as well as dressings for salads. It helped to preserve other foods as well as having healthy properties of its own.

The sauces were generally made from a mixture of ground mustard seeds, vinegar, wine and often honey, with spices or other flavourings added according to what people liked.

They could then be stored for several weeks. Mustard’s ‘hotness’ gets less after it is mixed and kept for a few days, which may account for the strength of the sauces often made – which would be much too hot for most of us today.

Salsa Verde – Green Sauce / Grønn Saus

A classic Continental cold sauce recipe found in
“God Mat fra Hele Verden” (Nice Food From All Over the Word) published by Schibsted in 1971

One usually think of this sauce as a typical Italian specialty, but as it turns out also in Germany is it known, as a specialty comming from Frankfurt.

Cornwall Toast / Cornwalltoast

A delicious toast recipe found in “Matglede Som Aldri Før”
(Joy of Food Like Never Before) published by
Skaninavisk Press as in 1977

French Veal Chops with Calvados / Fransk Kalvekoteletter med Calvados

A great dinner recipe from “The Best of International Cooking”
published by Hamlyn in 1984

In context: Apple orchards and brewers are mentioned as far back as the 8th century by Charlemagne. The first known Norman distillation was carried out by “Lord” de Gouberville in 1553, and the guild for cider distillation was created about 50 years later in 1606. In the 17th century, the traditional cider farms expanded, but taxation and prohibition of cider brandies were enforced elsewhere than Brittany, Maine, and Normandy.

The area called “Calvados” was created after the French Revolution, but eau de vie de cidre was already called calvados in common usage. In the 19th century, output increased with industrial distillation and the working class fashion for café-calva. When a phylloxera outbreak in the last quarter of the 19th century devastated the vineyards of France and Europe, calvados experienced a “golden age”.

During World War I, cider brandy was requisitioned for use in armaments due to its alcohol content. The appellation contrôlée regulations officially gave calvados a protected name in 1942.

After the war, many cider houses and distilleries were reconstructed, mainly in the Pays d’Auge. Many of the traditional farmhouse structures were replaced by modern agriculture with high output. The Calvados appellation system was revised in 1984 and 1996. Pommeau got its recognition in 1991; in 1997, an appellation for Domfront with 30% pears was created.

Crazy Bread with Marinara Sauce / Crazy Brød med Marinarasaus

A recipe from Saveur’s test kitchen found on saveur.com

Add a little “kick” to this homemade version of Little Caesar’s “Crazy Bread” by sprinkling on a little chile flake before dunking in hot marinara.

Test kitchen director Farideh Sadeghin grew up eating Little Caesar’s pizza with her family and friends, and was particularly fond of the crazy bread on the menu, thus inspiring her to make this homemade version. She loves to sprinkle it with chile flakes before dipping it in hot marinara sauce.

Medieval Monday – A Bold 12th Century Sauce for the Lords / En Kraftig Saus for Lorder fra det 12. Århundre

A recipe from the 12th Century Found on
A Taste of History with Joyce White

How to Prepare a Sauce for the Lords
and How Long it Lasts
One takes cloves and nutmeg, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon—that is canel—and ginger, all in equal amounts, except that there should be as much canel as all the other spices; and add twice as much toasted bread as of everything else, and grind them all together, and blend with strong vinegar, and place it in a cask. This is a lordly sauce, and it is good for half a year.

Joyce White who runs A Taste of History with Joyce White writes about the recipe above: This is another recipe from “Libellus de arte coquinaria”, An Early Northern Cookery Book, edited by Rudolph Grewe and Constance B. Hieatt in 2001, a translation of the oldest known collections of European recipes written sometime during the Middle Ages. The original text of the cookbook is believed to be lost, but there are four collections of recipes (codices) that appear to all come from it. They are written in the local vernacular languages of northern Europe: Danish, Icelandic and Low German. There are about 35 recipes contained in these four separate codices, and the oldest might date back as far as the 12th century.

1700s Mushroom Ketchup / 1700talls Soppketchup

An exiting recipe found on ‘World Turn’d Upside Down‘
a blog you would not want to miss if you are at
all interested in historic recipes

Stephanie Ann Farra who runs ‘World Turn’d Upside Down‘ writes: Mushroom ketchup was something I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. I love the fact that this was a common sauce so different from the ketchup we use today. In the early 1700s, ketchup was introduced to English explorers by the people of Singapore and Malaysia. Originally a sauce for fish, ketchup was made out of walnuts, oysters or mushrooms and was similar to soy sauce. The English expanded the use of the sauce and it became popular for fish and meat dishes.

   

Real Mint Sauce / Ekte Engelsk Myntesaus

A classic British recipe found on bbc.com/food/

A thin savoury sauce made from chopped mint, vinegar and sugar, traditionally served in England as an accompaniment to roast lamb. Mint grows so freely that once you know the trick you never need buy mint sauce again.