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 recipe January/February 2008
Jacobin Sops
Take two hundred capons ...
Dutch version of this recipe

This is a recipe from the delightful cookbook Du fait de cuysine by Maître Chiquart. He was a cook in the service of Amadeus VIII (1383-1451), count and first duke of Savoy. Amadeus was a regular guest at the courts of Burgundy and Berry (the Duc de Berry of the famous book of prayers was his great-uncle), and was well aware of the elevated status of his family and court. He commisioned a history of the duchy of Savoy, and ordered several of the craftsmen and scientists at his court to write books on their subject. Interesting little fact for Harry Potter fans: a study about the philosopher's stone was one of the works that were written.
Maitre Chiquart (that is how he called himself, and how he is named in the ducal administration) dictated his book in 1420 to  "Jehan de Dudens, clerc, bourgeois de Anessier le bourg (Annecy)". That it is in essence a spoken text is obvious. An modern editor would have revised the text drastically. But the charm of the book is that you get a clear imopression of how a kitchen in a great court functioned. This is clearly a cookbook written by a cook.
Du fait de cuysine is unique in its composition. instead of à division in kinds of dishes or ingredients, the recipes are ordered according to the festive meals that were served on October 26 and 27 ((which year is not certain, Scully suggests 1403) during a visit of Philip the Bold. The menus of these meals are recorded on the last pages of the manuscript. No meat was served, just fish. As it appears, October 26 and 27 were a Friday and Saturday in 1403, both fishdays according to the rules of the Church. But Chiquart has given a meat recipe as equivalence for every fish recipe.
There is also a very impressive shoppinglist: hundred fat cows, hundred thirty fat sheep, hundred twenty pigs, a hundred piglets a day, two hundred goats and lambs, hundred calfves, two thousand chickens and six thousand eggs. Not to forget six hundred pounds of ginger, cinnamon, grains of paradise and pepper, twenty four pounds saffron, and six pounds each of nutmeg, cloves, mace and galanga.
This is not a cookbook for beginners or amateurs, Chiquart describes some very intricate recipes, like guilded, fire spitting boar's heads with heraldic decorations, or an outrageous castle that has to be carried in by four men, decorated with little figures of meat paste and a fontaine d'Amours that spouts rose water and spiced wine. On top of the four towers are spectacular entremets, and the birds that occupy the court are all roasted.

The recipe is for soupe Jacobine. This soupe is not a soup in the modern sense, but a sop (food soaked in a liquid before being eaten). According to the menu at the end of the cookbook this was served during the main meal of the second day, the dynee that was served at noon.
More medieval Jacobin recipes have survived. In the Ménagier de Paris there is a recipe for a delicious pie named Tarte Jacobine. Who or what were these Jacobins? They were monks from the Dominican order, the oldest cloister in Paris was dedicated to the apostle Jacob. The street where the Dominican cloister was .. , was named Rue Saint-Jacques. (during the French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century there was a group of radical revolutionaries than named itself after the street where they convened, but these Jacobins have nothing to do with our soupe Jacobine). But I would love to take a peek at the fourteenth century cookbook of that cloister, because both recipes are very tasty!
The sop must be served in gold, silver and pewter dishes. What metal you got depended on your status. Moreover, the lower you were on the social ladder, the smaller the portion you got. The dishes did not get smaller, but you had to share a dish with more people. On the picture above you can see a French tableware shop from the fifteenth century.

The soupe jacobine has a Middledutch variation. In ms UB Gent 476 (around 1500, edition) there is a recipe for soppijn Jacopijn, a slice of bread on which cheese and chickenmeat are heaped. But the recipes are not exactly the same. Chiquart uses broyh with bone marrow and herbs, the Dutch version beef broth and sugar. And the cheeses are regional cheeses. I have prepared the Dutch version several times, and it is very good. Because of the sugar it tastes even more 'medieval' than the almost hundred year older recipe of Chiquart.

The original recipe
The cookbook of Maistre Chiquart is called Du fait de Cuysine (About cooking). It survives in just one manuscript, S103, that is kept in the Kantonal-Bibliothek in Sion (in the Swiss province Wallis). Terence Scully, who has also delivered excellent editions and translations of the Viandier and the three books by La Varenne, has published the Oldfrench text in 1986, and seperately an English translation. Both are hard to find, but there is also a translation on the internet by Elizabeth Cook, so you can at least get an impression. Manuscript S103 is the actual manuscript written in the hand of Jehan de Dudens, in 1420. For the English translation I have used Scully's version (edition pp.44/45).

Brie - Soft cheese with a crusty white mould, originally made of raw cow milk. It is made in the region East of Paris. Most Brie you can buy today is made from pasteurized milk, to the detriment ot the taste of the cheese, but it eliminates listeria bacteria. That is important for pregnant women, because it can cause miscarriage or a very sick baby. However, if you or your guests aren't expecting, look for unpasteurized Brie. By the way, in unpasteurized Gouda cheese there's no danger of listeria because of the different production process.
Brie has a long history. It was already produced during the reign of Charlemagne who enjoyed the cheese in 774. In the fifteenth century the cheese inspired Charles, Duke of Orleans (1394-1465) to write a little poem to accompany 240 whole Bries that were send to as many ladies at the court:  Mon doux coeur, je vous envoie / Soigneusement choisi par moi / Le brie de Meaux délicieux. / Il vous dira que, malheureux, / Par votre absence je languis / Au point d'en perdre l'appétit. / Et c'est pourquoi je vous l 'envoie. / Quel sacrifice c'est pour moi! (source: Duizend gezichten van zuivel). Famous is the anecdote about the Congress in Vienna in 1814/1815, when Talleyrand, to lighten the mood, organized a competition between the attending nations which produced the best cheese. Brie was the unanimous favourite and received the honorary title roi des fromages, et fromage des rois.
Craponne or Salers - The fromaige de crampone is a pressed cheese of cow milk originating from Craponne in the Auvergne. The modern name of this cheese is Salers, a variation of Cantal. Salers is still produced with raw milk from cows grazing on mountain pasture. But, while Cantal is made all year through, the production of Salers is limited from April 15 to November 15.
Hyssop - A small shrub with tiny purple flowers, Hyssopus officinalis. You can grow it easily in your own garden. The taste of the leaves resembles thyme. The plant originates from the Middle East and the Mediterranean, where it was a kitchen herb in classic times. The taste is rather dominant, use it sparingly. According to Alan Davidson (The Oxford Companion to Food) hyssop helps the digestion of fat, which makes it a very good herb in fatty meat dishes.
Marjoram - In Latin Origanum majorana. The koitchen herb oregano is wild marjoram, Origanum vulgare. Marjoram is the cultivated variety, but very old, it is already used in the classical Greek and Roman kitchens. In a temperate climate like the Netherlands marjoram is an annual herb, it has trouble surviving the winter. Oregano is stronger, but tastes better in a warmer climate.
Bone Marrow is 'the soft, nutritious substance found in the internal cavities of animal bones, especially the shin bones of oxen and calves' (The Oxford Companion to Food). It used to be a delicacy, but now it is looked upon with suspicion (BSE, cholesterol). This distrus and repulsion is not justified. Bone marrow contains iron, phosphorus, vitamin A, and contains 75% monounsaturated fat which is believed (though not yet proven beyond a doubt) to reduce the risk of heart disease and even some cancers. Since the shin bone is not connected to the brain or spine, there is no risk of BSE.
Modern use of bone marrow is limited to soup bones and ossobucco.
Before using bone marrow, you have to prepare it. The bones have to soak for at least twelve hours in salted water which has to be refreshed several times. You'll see the water turn pink from the blood that is extracted from the bone marrow by the salted water. After soaking rinse the bones and dep them dry.
Bone marrow can be prepared in to fashions: you can boil them or roast them. If you boil them, fifteen minutes is enough. Roasting takes about as much (or little) time, in a preheated oven of 225-240 dgC/435-465 dgF. Just place the bones upright in a greased baking tray. When the bones are done, they are served on a plate with a special marrow spoon. The marrow is scooped out of the bones, spread on freshly toasted bread and sprinkled with salt.
The marrow spoon dates from around 1700, when serving roasted marrow bones was quite popular. The spoon can be used at both sides, for narrow and wider marrow bones.