Balls

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A LOAD OF BALLS from Master Paul De Gorey

Here follows a double helpings of balls; two recipes from the "The GoodHuswifes Handmaide For The Kitchen" using similar ingredients but achievingsubtly different results.

How to make farts of portingale Take a piece of leg of Mutton, mince it smal and season it with cloves, Mace pepper and salt, and Dates minced with currants: then roll it into round rolles and so into little balls, and so boyle them in a little beefe broth and so serve them foorth.

To Make Balls Of Mutton

Take your Mutton and mince it very fine with suet. Then season it with sugar Sinamon, Ginger, Cloves and Mace, Salt and raw egges, make it in round balles. Let your broth seeth ere you put them in. Make your broth with Corrance, Dates quatered, whole mace and salt. Thiche it with yolkes of Egges, and Vergious, and serve it uppon soppes

In the first (with the delightful title) minced lamb is spiced with cloves, mace, pepper and salt then mixed with minced dates and currents (if you haven't got a mincer cut them up small). The mixture is then rolled into sausage shapes which can then be conveniently dived up into pieces for rolling into little balls. These are dropped into beef broth (stock cubes and water works well) and simmered. You can tell when they are ready because they float to the top (a bit like a fart in a bath tub perhaps...?). Make great, easy to prepare and cook camping food. Use what's left of the stock as soup!

Rather than just being for meat balls on their own the second recipe serves the balls in a thick sauce on Sops ( toasted bread soaked in a sauce or beer, wine, sack etc.). I find lamb fairly fatty so I miss out the suet; add it if you like! So, mix minced lamb with sugar , cinnamon, ginger,

cloves, mace, salt and beaten raw egg then divide up and roll into little balls (the egg making things far messier than in the first recipe!). Make a sauce with currents, quartered dates, whole mace (which is hard to come by and seems a bit excessive to me so I use the ground stuff) and salt, set it boiling then add the balls. Cook until the sauce reduces a bit then add some verjuice. This is the tart juice of crab apples, however lemon or limejuice will work just as well to alleviate the sweetness . There are two ways to thicken things with egg yolks the first is to allow the broth to cool somewhat then add the egg yolks raw (and if the white falls in as well who will notice?); the second is to take hard boiled eggs, throw the whites away, mash up the yolks then stir them into the broth (this is the method I'd use). Don't get too carried away thickening things up or it won't soak into the sops.

In both recipies I've said "lamb" (little sheep) instead of "mutton" (big,older sheep) because I can find handy packets of minced lamb in the local supermarket. If you have a friendly butcher who will mince mutton (which has a more 'robust' flavour) for you then aren't you lucky?

Source "The Good Huswifes Handmaide For The Kitchen", original circa 1580,reprinted by Stuart Press 1992.


back to Arts of Peace	A LOAD OF BALLS from Master Paul De Gorey Here follows a double helpings of balls; two recipes from the "The GoodHuswifes Handmaide For The Kitchen" using similar ingredients but achievingsubtly different results. How to make farts of portingale Take a piece of leg of Mutton, mince it smal and season it with cloves, Mace pepper and salt, and Dates minced with currants: then roll it into round rolles and so into little balls, and so boyle them in a little beefe broth and so serve them foorth. To Make Balls Of Mutton Take your Mutton and mince it very fine with suet. Then season it with sugar Sinamon, Ginger, Cloves and Mace, Salt and raw egges, make it in round balles. Let your broth seeth ere you put them in. Make your broth with Corrance, Dates quatered, whole mace and salt. Thiche it with yolkes of Egges, and Vergious, and serve it uppon soppes In the first (with the delightful title) minced lamb is spiced with cloves, mace, pepper and salt then mixed with minced dates and currents (if you haven't got a mincer cut them up small). The mixture is then rolled into sausage shapes which can then be conveniently dived up into pieces for rolling into little balls. These are dropped into beef broth (stock cubes and water works well) and simmered. You can tell when they are ready because they float to the top (a bit like a fart in a bath tub perhaps...?). Make great, easy to prepare and cook camping food. Use what's left of the stock as soup! Rather than just being for meat balls on their own the second recipe serves the balls in a thick sauce on Sops ( toasted bread soaked in a sauce or beer, wine, sack etc.). I find lamb fairly fatty so I miss out the suet; add it if you like! So, mix minced lamb with sugar , cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace, salt and beaten raw egg then divide up and roll into little balls (the egg making things far messier than in the first recipe!). Make a sauce with currents, quartered dates, whole mace (which is hard to come by and seems a bit excessive to me so I use the ground stuff) and salt, set it boiling then add the balls. Cook until the sauce reduces a bit then add some verjuice. This is the tart juice of crab apples, however lemon or limejuice will work just as well to alleviate the sweetness . There are two ways to thicken things with egg yolks the first is to allow the broth to cool somewhat then add the egg yolks raw (and if the white falls in as well who will notice?); the second is to take hard boiled eggs, throw the whites away, mash up the yolks then stir them into the broth (this is the method I'd use). Don't get too carried away thickening things up or it won't soak into the sops. In both recipies I've said "lamb" (little sheep) instead of "mutton" (big,older sheep) because I can find handy packets of minced lamb in the local supermarket. If you have a friendly butcher who will mince mutton (which has a more 'robust' flavour) for you then aren't you lucky? Source "The Good Huswifes Handmaide For The Kitchen", original circa 1580,reprinted by Stuart Press 1992.