Recipe Experiment: Sent Sovi's "Arugula"

[hrj]

So at one and the same time, I was pondering what to do with the large bunch of arugula that came in last week's CSA box and contemplating which of several 14th c. cookbooks I wanted to play with at the Cooks' Play Date at Coronet. And thus did I find myself staring at Sent Sovi's recipe for Arugula Sauce. The translation I'm working from (Robin Vogelzang's translation of the Joan Santanach edition) reads:

If you want to make arugula sauce, take the arugula and grate it, and, well ground and then diluted with good vinegar, knead it. Cook it well or scald it nine times with boiling water, and each time grind it finely. If it is too hard, you can put vinegar in the mortar or wherever you are grinding it; when it is well ground, dilute it. You can scald it in the same mortar, and each time that you scald it, pour out the water. Then mix it with vinegar for flavor, and with spices: saffron, pepper, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon, if you have some. Put in fruit syrup or sugar for someone delicate.

It is served with roasted chickens, roasted pork, beef, veal or salted fish.

Since the directions for "scalding" were more detailed than the option for "cook it well", I went with the former. I also made heavy use of a food processor rather than using a mortar since I don't have a large enough mortar for the experiment. So.

Wash one large bunch arugula, pick over, and pinch off the leafy parts from the stems. Add in small handfuls to a food processor with enough vinegar to make manageable and process to a roughly chopped level. This counts for "kneading" it as well. Dump into a strainer and press out the liquid. (The liquid was such a lovely thick green that I reserved it for further experimentation.)

Return the leaves to the processor and pour boiling water over them, process, then strain as before. (This liquid wasn't worth keeping.) Repeat for a total of 9 scalds. (The water gets progressively clearer and clearer as you go.)

Ok, at this point I have a wad of green vegetation that has pretty much been entirely stripped of the peppery taste that arugula is normally chosen for. So I decided to go down two different paths. For half of it, I mixed it with plain vinegar, for the other half, I mixed it with the original drained vinegar that had oodles of arugula juice in it. So...

To each part of squeezed arugula pulp, add one and a half parts vinegar (or vinegar-juice). I ended up with 2T arugula pulp in the plain version and 3T in the vinegar-juice version. The following amounts will be for the former, with adjustments for the latter.

Add:
1 pinch saffron
1/16 tsp pepper
1/16 tsp ginger
1/32 tsp cloves
1/16 tsp cinnamon

At this point, the volumes I was dealing with were such that I could grind the mixture in my kitchen mortar. I skipped the sweetener for the moment.

Results: Both taste pretty much of the vinegar and spices with the arugula being there for "body". The vinegar-juice based sauce does have an identifiable arugula taste, which the other does not. I plan to let them sit in the refrigerator to age a bit and then try them again, this time with some meat. If they keep for two weeks, I'll bring them to the event for others to try.

Guesses: The "cooking" aspect seems to assume a tough or older plant -- especially the bit about "if it is too hard". But on the other hand, it's hard to figure out why you'd make an arugula-based sauce if your process was guaranteed to eliminate all trace of what distinguishes arugula from any other generic plant pulp. The scalding, grinding, and draining, in particular, seem guaranteed to wash out any soluble flavorings. Compare with the parsley-based "Green Sauce" which is otherwise very similar in structure and seasonings, but involves no cooking. If the recipe assumes an older, tougher arugula than the young salad green of today, would that also mean a stronger flavored plant whose taste would stand up to the treatment? How valid would it be to take an approach of "cook it sufficiently to be able to grind it" and do a version where young arugula is treated much more lightly? Is it reasonable to find an interpretation of "grind it with vinegar, knead it, cook it (in the vinegar)" and then continue from there with adding the spices? Is it possible that the peppery arugula flavor was not a desired feature for this recipe and it was basically simply supplying a green base to a vinegar-spice mixture?

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Arugula. Arugula. It's just so much fun to say.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

'rocket' isn't half a neat, though that's what you'll find it labelled as over here. (I had to resort to the mighty google to find out which vegetabl was supposed to be so tough that it needed that much pounding.)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I prefer "AhhhROOOOOOOgula!"

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

It reads like a very *English* vegetable recipe. Take your vegetables and pound every inch of taste and goodness out of them.

As I don't like the stuff, I'm sort of ambivalent, but I hate the taste of vinegar, too, so for me this is a no-win recipe anyway.

And I think that if the recipe assumes tough plants, scaling down the abuse you heap upon the poor things is only fair.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying that--I'm so used to people looking at me like I'm deformed when I say I don't like the taste of vinegar that it is a joy to see someone else with the same opinion on that point!

[ichseke.livejournal.com]

The original recipe doesn't say anything about removing the stems, and it looks as though you didn't return them to the mix. They'd add not only bulk but probably also flavor, which might survive the washings.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I didn't remove all the stems -- but this was "bunches" as in "whole plants", so I was snipping off the parts of the stems that were conjoined where the root had been. Also, I rather doubt that the stems themselves are particularly flavorful -- at least, not more flavorful than the leaves.

[lapioggia.livejournal.com]

for comparison, here are Robin Carroll-Mann's translations of the Arugula recipes from DeNola (spanish 1529)
Although the arugula I have let go to seed in my garden has not gotten fuzzy on the bottom, I am willing to beleive that other varieties could per RCM's footnote #122, in which case perhaps that first instruction in the Sent Sovi translation could have been scrape rather than grate? Arugula let go does get rather bitter & tought compared to the young stuff we usually get at the market.


150. GOOD ARUGULA (119)
ORUGA BUENA

Take a pound of the loaves (120) of clean arugula and grind them well in a mortar; and after grinding them well put them inside a cloth which is white and very clean, and fasten it well; and then put water on the fire in a kettle; and when it starts to boil, put the arugula into the water, fastened as it was in the cloth; and when you have given it a boil, remove it, and press it between two chopping blocks until the water comes out well; and when it is well pressed, remove it from the cloth and blend it with good white vinegar and honey, eight pounds; and purify it on the fire, skimming it constantly; and when the honey is clarified, cast it over the arugula, and mix it well with a stick; then take a quarter (121) of cinnamon, and a quarter of saffron, and three quarters of ginger, all well-ground and cast it on top of the arugula, stirring it four or five turns around, so that the sauce can mix well, and incorporate; and if it should be very thick, thin it with a little white vinegar.


151. ARUGULA IN ANOTHER GOOD MANNER
ORUGA DE OTRA MANERA BUENA

Take a pound of arugula very well scraped with a knife (122), and grind it very well and finely, and strain it through a fine sieve; then set it to soak in good red vinegar, that it should be more thin than thick, for six or eight days; then take ten pounds of honey and melt it while you bring it to a boil; and remove it from the fire, and cast in three maravedis of good red wine; and take the soaked arugula, and empty it into the kettle where you must prepare the arugula; and empty out the melted honey on top of it, straining it through a sieve; again stirring the arugula very well with a stick, and set it to cook until it thickens as it should; and remove it from the fire, and take two arienzos (123) of saffron, well-ground, and blended with red wine, cast it into the prepared arugula, etc.


152. ANOTHER GOOD ARUGULA TO BE MADE SWIFTLY
OTRA ORUGA BUENA PARA DE PRESTO

Take the little loaf of the arugula and scrape it on top where you see that it is dirty; and [take] the quantity of cinnamon that you wish to make, and toast a crustless piece of bread, and having soaked it in vinegar, grind it with the arugula; and cast in your honey and a little red or white wine with it; and heat it on a fire of coals in a kettle; and give it a little boil, so that the honey will incorporate with the arugula and with the other things and it is made. You can add a little cinnamon and ginger if you wish.


(119) The Libre de Sent Sovi says that arugula sauce is served with roasted beef or pork.
(120) Panes. Plural of pan, which means bread, but can also refer to something shaped like a loaf of bread. The
meaning here is not completely clear, but possibly arugula leaves were gathered or sold in loaf-like bundles.
(121) Presumably this means a quarter ounce.
(122) If arugula is not harvested when young and tender, its leaves become furry on the underside.