Royal Tudor Feast
We’re going back to Tudor England to learn what Henry VIII and his 6 wives liked to eat. Royal Tudor food has long been studied, especially in regard to Henry and his hearty appetite. But I found myself wondering, what about the wives? Were there any dishes that Catherine of Aragon brought to court? What was served at a coronation feast? What did Anne Boleyn like to eat? Today we will make Maid of Honour Tarts, a treat tied to Anne Boleyn… A sweet spiced wine called Hippocras that Henry believed had medicinal properties, wafers, Tudor salad and of course fire roasted meat. We’ll learn how the palatial kitchens of Hampton Court fed hundreds of hungry courtiers while making a feast fit for King and Queen…s. Queens…so many queens!
Lets start with my favorite Tudor recipe… Maid of Honour Tarts. One of the stories of origin says that Henry came across Anne Boleyn and her Maids of Honour (the young ladies who attended the Queen), eating these tarts from a silver dish. Tasting one for himself, the King was so delighted by them that he confiscated the recipe and demanded it be kept secret in a locked iron box at Richmond Palace… Now…as you can imagine this recipe is still a secret. You can purchase them at Newen’s bakery in Richmond, which is said to be the proud owner of the original top secret recipe…which is unknown to the public. I saw an amazing documentary called Eat Like a King…in it, a baker from Newen’s describes the tart filling as very sweet with coconut flavor. After studying modern recipes, I learned that these tarts have a puff pastry crust and a lemon and cheese curd filling. I decided to recreate what I believe the secret recipe to be using coconut cream, store bought puff pastry and ricotta cheese. We do know that Henry had a coconut cup and was known to import all sorts of exotic fruits so that checks out. I’m sure Newen’s would laugh at my attempt but I have to say, It’s one of the best desserts I’ve ever made.
Alright lets talk about Henry. Naturally the bulk of information regarding royal food preferences is about the King. Henry once spent 4000 pounds on spices in one month alone while entertaining the king of France. The equivalent of millions today. Maybe you’ve heard about his 5000 calorie a day diet, his waist size or his gout. Henry, once a fit man in his early years had a recorded waist size of 32 inches. By his 50’s he was well into obesity at 52 inches around the middle. He even required a hoist to mount his horse. A diet of rich roasted meat, sugar, pastries and plenty of wine and ale led to gout, once called the disease of Kings. It’s easy to see why he would need a larger suit of armor after all those hours a day feasting. And while were taking shots at Henry…I mean let’s remember that he beheaded 2 of his wives…there are plenty of accounts of people calling Henry handsome in his young age…but every portrait I’ve seen of young Henry looks like someone tried to draw Benedict cumberbatch from memory….
But that didn’t stop him from having 6 wives. Henry was an avid hunter, known to wear out 8 horses in a day. Venison in particular was a meat reserved for royals. While courting Anne Boleyn, Henry sent her a deer, called a hart, along with this saucy letter: “I can do no less than send her some flesh, representing my name, which is hart flesh for Henry, prognosticating that hereafter, God willing, you may enjoy some of mine,” WOAH Henry! Using a dead dear to flirt! You old dog.
The kitchens at Hampton Court palace were immense. The great hall served hundreds of courtiers twice a day: Dinner at 10am and supper at 4pm. The great kitchen had 6 massive fires for roasting meats: the ultimate luxury to afford fresh meat and the labor and fuel costs needed to roast it. There were separate departments and buildings for the spicery, pastry yard, bakery, larders, wafery, wine cellars, brewery, boiling house & not to mention the massive storerooms and scullery… and that’s just one of several palaces. And just to feed the courtiers, guests and servants. The King and Queen had their own privy kitchens. These chefs had to take an oath of allegiance to the King and Queen to protect them and their children from poisoning. The presence chambers were used for dining with upper members of the court & entertaining guests. Anne Boleyn threw a banquet in her Greenwich palace presence chamber in 1533. The King also took meals in his privy chamber for even more private dining.
Let’s make our own little Tudor feast shall we? Washing before feasting was even luxurious. Rose oil was a popular scent and fitting because the royal symbol was the Tudor rose. The ewer was in charge of washing hands with clean water and providing linens. Even the table cloths were perfumed. The lead ewer for Anne Boleyn’s coronation was poor Thomas Wyatt, who was hopelessly in love with her. First lets read some Tudor etiquette from Erasmus…“SIT NOT DOWN UNTIL YOU HAVE WASHED. DON'T SHIFT YOUR BUTTOCKS LEFT AND RIGHT AS IF TO LET OFF SOME BLAST. SIT NEATLY AND STILL.” I’m calling them blasts from here on out! Hahaha.
My little roasting set up is much more modest than Hampton Court palace but the results are perfectly delicious. I’m serving just one roasted meat but Hampton court served at least 20 roasted meats for dinner and supper. Royal Tudor kitchens had spit boys or spit jacks to do the turning. I’m the spit boy today. The kitchen staff was scolded in a proclamation to clean up their act. Aparently they were known to urinate in the fireplaces and “Go naked or in garments of such vileness and lie on the ground of the fireside, licking the dripping pan.” And after tasting the meat myself…i can see why they would. Fireside roasting adds so much flavor and the dripping pan collects all the best bits for basting. Meats were first partially cooked by boiling and then roasted on long spits along the fire. THe meat must be roasted beside the fire. Not over it. It needs turning every 5 minutes or so. There’s a detailed recipe below.
I read about a butter sauce for roasted meats that Henry enjoyed (From Lucy Worsley’s Book: If Walls Could Talk). It’s basically a compound butter with parsley, sugar, yes sugar, pepper and breadcrumbs. I’ll serve this with my roasted chicken. It’s delicious. You could put this butter on almost anything and I’d eat it. The bread for the meal would have been Manchet, the most refined white rolls reserved for the upper crust. I was surprised to see salad on royal Tudor menus because there were many warnings of the era like “beware of green salats and raw fruits for they will make your sovereign sick.” But they were popular, Catherine of Aragon was especially fond of them. Here’s a recipe from Peter Brears’ book: All the King’s Cooks: A salad of greens and sage is dressed with imported olive oil, & sugar, topped with almonds, currants, oranges, lemons and rose petals or marigolds. It may sound strange to sprinkle sugar on a salad but most bottled dressings have added sugar these days. Before serving, I added salt and pepper, squeezed the lemon juice and then discarded it. Toss together and wow, what a seriously interesting salad. I’m going to make it all the time.
Stick around for dessert because there’s much more!
Let’s talk about what Henry’s queens liked to eat! From the beginning. Henry’s first wife Catherine of Aragon, was from Spain. Missing the Seville oranges of her homeland, orange marmalade was prepared for Queen Catherine. Tudor marmalade had a texture more like dried fruit leather than the spreadable marmalade we know today and was served cut into peices. Henry’s household even purchased an orange strainer in 1534 to make citrus dishes like orange pies. Catherine also enjoyed a Tudor favorite: porpoise. This fashionable showy dish was often the piece de resistance at Tudor feasts, brought into the hall whole, then carved and served with mustard.
1.Wife number 2, and my favorite Queen… Anne Boleyn… The first record of Anne at Henry’s court involved food. She was a performing in a shrove Tuesday masqued play called chateau vert with Henry. Anne portrayed the virtue of Perserverance, appropriately enough. In the play, they threw fruit and sweet meats as part of the performance, followed by an elaborate banquet.
2. Anne was fond of fruit especially apples, damsons, and strawberries. When she was pregnant with Elizabeth she had a sudden strong craving for apples which according to the King, meant she was with child. Anne was also a big fan of strawberries and cream, a dish popularized by Cardinal Wolsey. Anne’s coronation was full of flowing wine fountains and elaborate sugar figures called subtleties.
3. Wife number 3 Jane Seymour- Jane had intense cravings for Quail & quail eggs while pregnant with Prince Edward. Henry had them brought to the palace from all over Europe, and believed this meant the baby was a boy. This hunch was correct. Edward was Henry’s long awaited son but Jane died soon after from complications.
4. On to the next wife! Anne of Cleves- Anne was only queen for 6 months because Henry found her to be ugly claiming “I like her not!” A divorce was arranged but Anne got a pretty sweet deal…several properties: Richmond Palace and Bletchingly Manor as well as Hever Castle (former home of Anne Boleyn!) One of the properties, was later turned into a pub called the Anne of Cleves, which remains today… pretty fitting for a girl who was said to enjoy ale and gambling.
5. Catherine Howard- His 5th wife, beautiful cousin of Anne Boleyn who met the same fate: beheading. They married when she was just a teenager while Henry was 49. Before her marriage to Henry, Katherine lived with the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, where she and the other girls would steal food and wine from the kitchens, among many other rumored late night activities.
6. Katherine Parr-Henry’s last wife was so fond of imported fruits that she sent messengers to Holland to retrieve some.
And now for dessert…
In Elizabeth’s time, banquets evolved into separate meals of dessert with separate locations and entertainment. After the main meal guests could be treated to a dessert banquet of wine, fruit, cheese and sweets of all sorts. In Henry’s time, Subtleties and sugar carvings were incredibly entertaining. After admiring them, they were often smashed. Molded and carved marzipan were also stars of the banquet. Jellies made from deer antlers were special treats. Jellied wine was popular along with milk jelly covered in gold leaf. Apparently children’s urine created a green colored jelly-HOW DID THEY LEARN THIS?! Wafers were made especially for the King by the wafery department. These crispy wafers were made with flour, rose water, cream and cinnamon. They were cooked in an iron over the fire, cooled and served with dessert. These were reserved for the King and shared with others only on special occasions. Served along with dessert was fruit, cheese, sugared spices and sweet wine.
Tudor doctors advised eating cheese at the end of the meal to “seal the the cauldron of the stomach and fortify it for strong liquors and sugar“. They believed cheese had healing properties- i also believe that. Hippocras was another vital component of dessert. The sweet spiced wine was believed to have medicinal properties and helped aid digestion. Its really easy to make. This recipe uses ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and rosemary. The cardamom was believed to prevent flatulence and rosemary for heart health.The spices steep in red wine for 24 hours, sweeten with sugar and strain it before serving. The name comes from the spice straining bag, which is said to look like Hippocrates’ sleeve. The chicken with butter sauce was delicious but by far my favorite is the maid of Honour tart. Thank you for joining me for a look at royal Tudor food and ill see you in the next era!
Maid of Honour Tarts
Ingredients
- 1 sheet of frozen store-bought puff pastry (in a 1 pound package, there are usually 2 sheets)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cup ricotta cheese (In the UK, you can use curd cheese)
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup coconut cream (shaken well)
- zest of 1 lemon
- pinch of salt
- 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour
Instructions
- Defrost the frozen prepared puff pastry. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Using a muffin tin, line each hole with parchment paper squares.
- Flour a clean work surface. Place the defrosted puff pastry on the floured surface and remove any packaging and unroll or unfold the dough. Do not use a rolling pin yet. Using a round biscuit cutter, cut out 12 pieces of dough. Use flour to dip the biscuit cutter in to prevent sticking.
- Once you have 12 dough circles, take a rolling pin to each dough. Give each one just a few rolls to make the circle just a little larger to better fit into the tin. Carefully place a circle into each parchment lined hole of the muffin tin. This takes a little practice but the dough should come up to just under the top of the muffin pan.
- Mix all the tart ingredients together starting with the eggs and sugar. Whisk well. Then add everything else and mix until combined.
- Fill each tart with the filling. Bake for about 1 hour until lightly golden. The filling will puff up quite a bit while baking and then sink down. This is normal. You’ll know they are done when the color on the puff pastry is golden and there is a little color on the custard. Allow to cool before serving.
Tudor Roasted Chicken with Butter Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- Herbs for basting(parsley, rosemary, sage), salt and pepper
- 1 stick salted butter (softened to room temperature)
- fresh ground black pepper (1 teaspoon)
- Chopped parsley (1-2 Tablespoons)
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
Instructions
- In a large stock pot bring water to a boil. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper (add more after cooking). Add chicken to the pot. Reduce to a simmer until partially cooked through (until a thermometer reads 100 degrees Fahrenheit ).
- Then using a roasting spit, skewer the chicken and roast in front of a fire until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The roasting spit must be beside the fire, not over it. If meat is directly over the flame it will char and not cook properly internally. Turn the spit every 5 minutes or so, all the way around the meat.
- Alternatively (if you don’t have a spit), you can roast the whole chicken in the oven for about an hour and a half at 425 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the size of your chicken, until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
- To make the butter sauce, mix chopped parsley with the other ingredients. Make sure the butter is very soft before mixing. Serve on top of the fully cooked chicken after slicing and portioning.
“Sallad For Great Feasts & Prince’s Tables”
Ingredients
- 5 ounce package of mixed salad greens
- 2 ounces sliced blanched almonds
- 4 ounces currants or raisins
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 oranges (peeled and sliced crossways)
- 2 lemons (cut in half juiced and discarded OR peeled and sliced crossways- I prefer the lemon juice method-although it’s beautiful the lemons aren’t mixed into the salad if left sliced)
- Several sage leaves, ripped into small pieces
- Marigolds or rose petals (make sure the edible flowers you use have not been sprayed with chemicals)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk olive oil, lemon juice and sugar in the bottom of the bowl. Add a large pinch of salt and black pepper.
- Toss salad greens and sage together with the dressing. Top the salad with almonds, currants and the sliced oranges. Optional edible flower petals.
King Henry VIII’s Wafers
Ingredients
- 8 ounces all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 pint cream
- 2 Tablespoons rosewater
- Butter or nonstick spray for cooking the wafers in the iron
Instructions
- Using a cookie wafer iron (I use a Norwegian Krumkake iron), heat the iron to medium heat over the stove. Henry’s cooks in the Wafery used charcoal fired chafing dishes or heated near the fireplace.
- Whisk all the batter ingredients until well combined. You can add additional water if the batter is thick. (I ended up adding a few tablespoons of water)
- Spray or butter the inside of the iron. Place a small spoon of batter into the iron. Close immediately and hold the handles together. Steam will come out along with some squeaks. While the wafer hardens, the steam and noise will subside. Flip the iron to the other side. The total time for cooking will be about 3 minutes. It takes some practice to get equal golden color on each side. Once the color matches on both sides, remove the wafer and cool on a cooling rack.
- Repeat until all the batter is used.
Tudor Hippocras
Ingredients
- 1 bottle dry red wine
- 8 ounces of sugar (This is what Peter Brear’s suggests. This is how sweet it would have been in Tudor times but you don’t have to use all of it)
- I used whole spices: sliced dried ginger ( about 3 slices), 5 cloves, 5 cardamom pods, 1/4 of a nutmeg pod, 1-2 sticks cinnamon. 1 sprig fresh rosemary. I find the whole spices easier to strain.
- OR
- Peter Brears’ Recipe uses: 1/2 teaspoon each ground cloves, nutmeg, and galingale. 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.
Instructions
- In a pitcher, empty 1 bottle of dry red wine. Add sugar and spices (use my version of whole spices or Peter Brear’s version of ground spices). Cover at let sit for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, strain the contents into another pitcher. For the whole spice version, I used cheese cloth. For the ground spice version, Peter recommends using s coffee filter and run it through again if cloudy.
- Enjoy!
Sources:
Brears, Peter (1999) All the King’s Cooks
https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/tudor-food-and-eating/#gs.1iuxdj
https://web.archive.org/web/20140202174505/http://www.theoriginalmaidsofhonour.co.uk/about/history/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/how-could-you-survive-in-tudor-england/znv