BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: Centuries-Old Recipe for Snipe

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Centuries-Old Recipe for Snipe

In Bryony, Kellen tells Melissa that he became powerful by preying only on the rich and influential. Sounds like a good plan, right? I mean, somebody has to play victim to a vampire, so why not be choosy?

So in Before the Blood, one victim Kellen pursues in the 18th century is the Squire of Levonshire. While attending the squire's Michaelmas party, Kellen encounters one maiden - with red hair, what else? - who complains the snipe is dry.

Not sure what recipe the squire's cooks used, but it probably wasn't this one.

Recipe for a “surfuit” of snipes, from The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies

A Surfuit of Snipes

Take a fillit of veal. Cut it small with a pd of sewit, half a pd of good fat bacon, some thyme & pepper, a little shred lemon. Let these be minc’d extraordinary small, & made in forc’d meat wth an egg. Put a layer at ye bottom of yr dish & cut yr snipes in halves & lay a thin rashure of bacon on them, every one. After you have place’d ym handsomly in yr dish, strow a good deal of crumbs of bread & shred parsley & a very little pepper over all. Put some forc’d meat on ye edge of yr dish, & yr forc’d meat yt is left put as a lid over ym. Bake it an hour at least. When it coms out, cut a whole in ye top & pour in some very good greavy. So serve it up for first course.


And for more information on The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2363961/Cookbook-Unknown-Ladies-dating-1690-reveals-gluttonous-recipes-co

w-heel-veal-kidney-florentine.html

Preparing Snipe

            "Tell me," the squire said as he fastened his luscious blue eyes on Kellen, eyes that showed only concern, not a burning fever to be owned, "of what topic did my niece converse."

            Kellen held the gaze, but said nothing. Think, damn it!

            Ponder, ponder, ponder.

            The squire's eyes narrowed in growing annoyance at the delay. "I said, 'Of what topic,,,'"

            "Oh, Squire, forgive my hesitation in responding. I only wish to avoid offending you."

            "Offend me? You're more like to offend me by your silence than your speech." The squire glanced around at his guards, armed and ready to act. "Now for the last time, 'Of what topic...'"

            "Dinner. She spoke of dinner."

            "Dinner?"

            "She was unhappy with the snipe."

            "Anything else?"

            "None, Squire. I was merely reluctant to cast aspersions on the food after I had so heartily supped."

            To underscore his point, Kellen patted his stomach, bursting, not with snipe, but with the squire's chewed up niece.

Before the Blood, Kellen's Story, Chapter 7: Starting Fresh

Check out a dozen or so snipe recipes here: http://www.thesnipehunter.com/page26.html

For more great recipes based on the first book in the BryonySeries, check out Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony". All proceeds benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties at www.bbbswillgrundy.org.

Order the cookbook at www.bryonyseries.com/Dalton_s_Dry_Goods.html.

Centuries-Old Recipe for Snipe

In Bryony, Kellen tells Melissa that he became powerful by preying only on the rich and influential. Sounds like a good plan, right? I mean, somebody has to play victim to a vampire, so why not be choosy?

So in Before the Blood, one victim Kellen pursues in the 18th century is the Squire of Levonshire. While attending the squire's Michaelmas party, Kellen encounters one maiden - with red hair, what else? - who complains the snipe is dry.

Not sure what recipe the squire's cooks used, but it probably wasn't this one.

Recipe for a “surfuit” of snipes, from The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies

A Surfuit of Snipes

Take a fillit of veal. Cut it small with a pd of sewit, half a pd of good fat bacon, some thyme & pepper, a little shred lemon. Let these be minc’d extraordinary small, & made in forc’d meat wth an egg. Put a layer at ye bottom of yr dish & cut yr snipes in halves & lay a thin rashure of bacon on them, every one. After you have place’d ym handsomly in yr dish, strow a good deal of crumbs of bread & shred parsley & a very little pepper over all. Put some forc’d meat on ye edge of yr dish, & yr forc’d meat yt is left put as a lid over ym. Bake it an hour at least. When it coms out, cut a whole in ye top & pour in some very good greavy. So serve it up for first course.


And for more information on The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2363961/Cookbook-Unknown-Ladies-dating-1690-reveals-gluttonous-recipes-cow-heel-veal-kidney-florentine.html