Cuisine of My Ancestors: Norman French

Continued from Cuisine of My Ancestors: Tudor English

My Norman ancestors arrived in England following the Norman Conquest in 1060. So I focused on 1000s to 1100s for my research time frame. The Normans have a Danish heritage. In the 900s, when the Viking Rollo raided and conquered the area he become the first Duke of Normandy. William the Conqueror was the 7th Duke of Normandy. But, I could find nothing related to the foods they ate and cooked. So for our Norman dinner, I focused on the traditional dishes of Normandy today. 

Normandy is a coastal province of Northern France.

You can see why it was so easy for them to invade England.

So what kind of foods are we looking at? Normandy has a cooler climate than the rest of France, which is reflected in the fruits and vegetables that grow there:

• apples (lots of apples) and pears
• apple juice
• apple cider (hard, 2-3% alcohol) 
• apple brandy called Calvados
• both cider and Calvados are common ingredients in Norman recipes
• cabbage (grown at least since the middle ages)
• leeks
• root veggies such as potatoes, carrots, parsnips

As a coastal province, its cuisine features:

• lots of seafood
• also pork, lamb, chicken
• Andouille sausage (a smoked pork sausage)

Side note on the Andouille: I was first introduced to it when I lived in Cajun country, where it's used in gumbo. The Cajuns are of French ancestry via Acadia Canada. 

Normandy is also dairy country:

• butter
• cream (in sauces)
• cheese, especially Camembert. The origin of Camembert is typically dated from 1500 or 1700s, but it may have been made as early as 12th century.

Menu

Camembert

Normandy Pork Chops

Normandy Vegetables Brunoise

Pan Brie

Tarte Normande

Apple Cider

Recipe Notes

• The 4 C's of Norman cooking are said to be: cider, Camembert, cream, and Calvados.
• The Camembert wasn't featured in any of the recipes, so we had it as an appetizer with chunks of the pan brie and a glass of cider.
• I want to mention that in my research, I found a lot of traditional recipes, but often with variations. I chose the simplest and the modified those. 
• I was able to find hard apple cider locally, but not Calvados. What I finally found (on Amazon) was apple brandy extract. I reasoned that the alcohol would evaporate in cooking anyway, so what I was going after was the flavor. The product description said it's similar to Calvados, so it's the one I got. 
• The cream used in the original recipes is thick cream rising from fresh whole milk. I used my frozen goat cream. 

Appetizer: Camembert, Pain Brié, and Apple Cider

In a formal dinner in France, the cheese course is generally between the main course and dessert. Since Dan and I are just plain folk, we had our cheese as our appetizer. The recipe for the Pan Brie is further down the page.

It was our first time tasting Camembert. I had hoped to find one produced in Normandy, where it holds --- status, but this one just said "imported." I thought food products were supposed to tell the country of origin, but apparently not.

Entrée: Normandy Pork Chops

• 4 pork chops or pork cutlets
• 2 tbsp butter (to cook the chops)
• 4 apples peeled, cored and finely sliced 
• Squeeze of lemon juice (to prevent the apple from browning) 
• 1 tbsp butter (to cook the apples)  
• ¼ cup apple juice
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 or 2 tsp Calvados (I used 1/16th tsp apple brandy extract)
• Salt and pepper to season

To prepare

• Season pork chops with salt and pepper to taste. 
• Peel, core and slice apples, then set aside in cold water with a touch of lemon juice to keep from browning.
• Heat butter in skillet on medium heat. When butter foams, add pork chops and cook at med-high for 5 minutes on each side, then 5 minutes again on the first side gain. Cover and continue to cook. I added a little water to the pan to keep everything from sticking.
• While the pork chops are cooking, cook the apples in a hot frying pan on medium-high with the butter.
• Make the sauce for the pork and apples from the caramelized cooking juices, apple juice, cream, and cook for a minute or two until thick. Add the apple brandy extract.
• Top the hot pork chops with the apples, then pour the sauce over all. Heat thoroughly and serve.

Vegetable: NormandyVegetables Brunoise (adapted from a recipe for lamb)

        

There's an Americanized frozen vegetable medley called "Normandy Vegetables," "Normandy Blend," or "Normandy Style Vegetable Blend" (depending on the brand), but that's not what I made. My Normandy inspired vegetable for this dinner was adapted from a recipe for lamb with figs and vegetables. I omitted the lamb, figs, and curry powder, and substituted locally available versions of the other ingredients. It was very good. You can follow the link for the original recipe, below is what I did.

Recipe

• ½ small cabbage
• 2 parsnips
• 2 carrots
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup apple juice 
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar 
• sea salt, pepper
• knob of butter

Saute diced onion and garlic in the butter. Meanwhile, chop the remaining veggies Brunoise style, which is to finely dice them. To the onions, add the vegetables, apple juice and vinegar and season to taste. Cook until tender.

Bread: Pain Brié

Pain Brié is a wheat bread, originating in Spain. wheat, originates from Spain. It was introduced into Normandy in 1588 after the shipwreck of the Spanish vessel Calvador. It takes its name from the brie, which is a tool used during the kneading process of this bread. 

There are numerous recipes on the internet for it. I ended up combining several of them while I worked out American amounts and baking temperatures. 

Sourdough

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup warm water 
• 1 tsp dry yeast 
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine the bread flour, yeast, and salt. Gradually add the water, mixing thoroughly. It will be sticky. Cover with a tea towel and let rise at room temperature for at least 2 hours (overnight is better).

Bread dough

• 1 cup flour
• ¼ cup water 
• 1 tsp dry yeast 
• 2 tbsp butter, softened 
• 1 teaspoon salt

To make

• Add the bread dough ingredients to the sourdough. Mix well, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise for one hour.
• Divide dough into three balls and allow to rise about 1 hour.
• Place a pizza stone and pan of water in the oven and preheat to 450°F (230°C). Sprinkle the stone with flour and with a peel, transfer the bread onto the stone. Make 5 parallel cuts in each loaf with a sharp knife. 
• Bake 5 minutes at 450°F (230°C), then 15 minutes at 425°F (220°C). Remove from stone and cool on racks.

Dessert: Tarte Normande

Shortcrust:

• 1¼ C flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ C sugar
• ½ C butter, cut in small cubes
• 2 egg yolks

Mix flour, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Work in butter with your hands until evenly crumbed. Stir in egg yolks. Place in tart pan and press evenly to fill the pan. May refrigerate until ready to use.

Filling:

• 4 apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and cut into 12 slices
• 2 eggs
• ½ C sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream (I used my goat cream)
• 2 tbsp Calvados (I used 1/8 tsp apple brandy extract)
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp sugar

To make:

• Whisk eggs and sugar, add cream and extract and whisk in. Add flour and whisk until blended.
• Line shortcrust with apple slices in circular pattern, two layers. Pour cream mixture over all. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 45 minutes or until apples are tender and filling is set. Server warm or at room temperature.

Takeaways

• I will in no way call my creations authentic, but they were tasty modifications of traditional Norman recipes. It was interesting to use readily available different ingredients for different flavors. 
• I know to us moderns, the use of so much cream is quite luxurious. But for rural folk with dairy animals, cream is abundant. I skim and freeze most of our goat cream, so I had it available for my Normandy dinner.

To close, here's the link to my Norman Christmas song. It is sung in Latin because that was the church language of the time. But there's also a video of a modern gentleman speaking the old Norman French, aka Viking French, just to give you an idea of the language. 

 

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Norman French

Next post, our Viking meal.

Cuisine of My Ancestors: Norman French © 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Cuisine of My Ancestors: Tudor English

Continued from Cuisine of My Ancestors: German

My English ancestors dominate my genealogical timeline roughly between 1200 and 1500 A.D. Those dates span the Plantagenet and Tudor periods of England. For planning a meal, I chose the Tudor era (1485 - 1603) because there's quite a bit of information available on what they ate. The Tudor period began after Henry Tudor VII snatched the throne from Richard Plantagenet III, and then married Richard's fiance to appease public opinion. It ended with the death of the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I (daughter of Henry VIII). 

Menu

Tarte Owte of Lente

Salad of Greens

Perys en Composte

Hippocras

Tarte Owte of Lente (Cheese Tart)

Crust

It's amazing how many recipes for "authentic" or "traditional" British tarts and pies call for store-bought crust. After a bit of research, I found a recipe from A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye published in 1545. (That link will take you to the Internet Archive, where you can download your own free public domain copy.)  Unlike modern shortcrust, Tudor crust used the hot water method. 

Here's the original recipe:

"Make youre coffin after this maner, take a lyttle fayre water and half a dyche of butter and a little saffron and settle all this upon a chafyngdyshe tyll it be hoate then temper your flower with this sayd licuor, and the whyte of two egges and also make your coffyn. . . Then putte (your filling) into your coffyn and laye halfe a dyshe of butter above them end so close your coffin, and so bake them."

(Note that the term "coffin" for pie crust was in continued use up to the 1700s, where it is found in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery for various meat and fruit pies.) 

Rough translation:

"Make your crust after this manner. Take a little fair water and half a dish of butter and a little saffron and put it in a chaffing dish until it's hot enough to temper the flour. Add the liquid and white of two eggs. Mix, shape, add filling, and layer half a dish of butter on top. Close the crust and bake."

The amounts I used were adapted from Anne Boleyn's Tudor Apple Pie at Love British History. 

• 6 tbsp butter
• ½ cup water 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 for the dough
• 1, beaten, to glaze the tart before baking
• 1½ + cups all-purpose flour
• salt 

Put the butter and water into a small saucepan and heat gently until warm and melted together. In the meantime, sift flour and salt into a bowl then pour hot water/butter mixture into it, stirring to combine. Once it's just come together, crack in the egg and stir again. Cover and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Roll out and shape tart before filling.

Recipe Notes:

• The dough was way too soft and I ended up adding probably another half cup to get a workable consistency.
• To shape, I rolled it out after chilling, cut a 10" circle (using a bowl as a form) and folded up the sides to shape. 
• The texture after baking was flaky and tender.

Cheese filling

I sourced two original recipes for the filling (and quite a few modern ones). 

• A Book of Cookrye, by A. W., London, 1591. (Originally published 1584.)
• Gentyll Manly Cokere ( MS Pepys 1047, c. 1490) 

I used the second one. Here's the original recipe 

Take neshe chese and pare hit and grynd yn A morter and breke egges and do ther to and then put yn buttur and creme and mell all well to gethur put not to moche butter ther yn if the chese be fatte make A coffyn of dowe and close hit a bove with dowe and collor hit a bove with the yokes of eggs and bake hit well and serue hit furth.

Translation (courtesy of Godecookery.com)

Take soft (neshe) cheese and pare it and grind it in a morter and break eggs and do thereto and then put in butter and cream and mix all well together. Put not too much butter therein if the cheese be fatty. Make a coffin (pie shell) of dough and close it above with dough and color it above with the yolks of eggs and bake it well and serve it forth.

Modern interpretations based on the original recipe vary greatly because no ingredient amounts are given. For the cheese, they ranged anywhere from 100 to 225 grams for a 9-inch tart. Most suggested a hard cheese to obtain the thick paste-like consistency of the batter after mashing the cheese. Some added lots of eggs to make it more like quiche. I found a very helpful video from the Historic Royal Palaces YouTube channel, 16th Century 'Tarte Owte of Lente': Tudor cookalong. No ingredient amounts are given, but it gave me an idea of what the tart dough and cheese mixture should look like. 

Here's my recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups grated cheese*
• 2 egg yolks
• nob of softened butter
• salt and pepper
• 2- 3 tbsp cream to make a workable cheese paste 

Mixing

• Mash cheese and egg yolks into a thick paste, working in the butter, salt, and pepper
• Add a little cream as needed
• Should be the consistency of cookie dough (see video mentioned above)

Assembling and baking

• Spread the filling into the shaped bottom crust
• Add the pastry lid.
• Brush lightly with beaten egg
• Bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for 30 - 45 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown.

Recipe notes

• *What's wanted here is a cheese that won't get gooey and melty but will hold its shape with cooking. Cheshire cheese was said to be a favorite of Elizabeth I, so that's what I first looked for although I didn't find it. 
• Other suggestions for a pre-1600s cheese would be Wensleydale (1000), Gorgonzola (879), Comté (1000), Emmenthal (1542), Gruyére (1100s), Grana (1200), , or Cheddar (1500).
• Of those I found very few, but did find what I hoped was a fairly traditional cheddar. 

I found this imported cheddar at Aldi and it worked really well. Dan and I have often commented how American cheeses like American cheddar have no flavor. Well, this one did. High end grocery stores sometimes carry specialty cheeses, so next time I'm near one I'll have to take a look. The recipe is definitely a keeper and I wouldn't mind trying other flavors.

While my tart wouldn't win any beauty contests, I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Especially considering I had no clue as to what I was doing.

Salad of Greens

This is an Elizabethan recipe from The Tudor Travel Guide website. It's based on a 1570 Italian cookbook entitled The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi. "Opera" here translates "works" which in this case are recipes because the author was chef to several popes of the period. (You can download a public domain copy here, although it's in Italian.)

Ingredients

• Assorted greens: beet leaves, sorrel, chard, parsley, lettuce, kale, spinach, etc.
• Assorted fresh herbs: sage, rosemary, thyme, mint, lemon balm, basil, cress, salad burnet, tarragon,etc.
• Leeks, sliced
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Fresh edible flowers if available: nasturtiums, violets, pansies, borage, calendula, French marigolds, honeysuckle, rose petals, clover, chickweed

Preparation

Wash, sort, and mix the greens and herbs. Dress with oil, vinegar and salt & pepper. Decorate with leek slices and fresh flowers.

Recipe notes

• It was winter when I made this so I was somewhat limited for fresh herbs and flowers.  
• Mine contained lettuce, kale, chard, chickweed, dandelion greens, parsley, oregano, sheep sorrel, spinach, and slices of leeks.  

Perys en Composte (Pear Compote)

The Tudor English apparently loved their desserts because there are quite a few recipes for them. I chose this one because it's very different from any of the other desserts we've tried so far.

The original recipe is from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books at the Internet Archive (page 12).

Click to enlarge

Here is a translation from A Boke of Gode Cookery website.

"Pears in Compote. Take wine and cinnamon, & a great deal of white sugar, and set it on the fire and heat it hot, but don't let boil, and strain; then take fair dates, and pick out the stones, and cut thin, & add; then take pears, and pare them and boil them, and cut them in thin slices, and place in the syrup; then take a little sandalwood, and add, and set it on the fire; and if you have quinces, add them, and look that it stand well with sugar, and well laid with cinnamon, and add salt, and let it boil; and put it in a wooden container, & let it cool, and serve."

I found several modern versions for this around the internet. Here's mine:

• 4 - 6 pears (may substitute a quince for one if available)
• 2 cups red wine
• white sugar to taste* (I used 2 tbsp)
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1/2 cups pitted, chopped dates
• pinch salt

Heat wine, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Meanwhile pare, core, and quarter pears. Add pears, dates, and salt to heated wine mixture, simmer until pears are cooked. Remove cinnamon stick. Cool and serve.

Recipe Notes

• Apparently sandalwood was used for coloring and several modern versions substituted red food coloring. I figured the red wine would color the pears well enough and as the picture shows, it did.
• *I find "to taste" frustrating in recipes. The original recipe called for "a great deal of white sugar" whereas modern recipes changed it to one tablespoon. I can think of two reasons for this.
• Older wines (drier or turning to vinegar. See introduction to Hippocras below) so these would likely be used for cooking, hence the need to sweeten.
• It's possibly a reflection on type of pears they had. For example, cooking pears aren't as sweet as table pears. Also riper pears would be sweeter, of course, but more likely to get mushy with cooking, so firmer pears were likely used. 
• Recommendation: taste the wine and the pears and add sugar (or not) for the sweetness you prefer. The dates help sweeten it too. My pears were fairly hard and bland, so I used 2 tablespoons of sugar.
• It smelled quite wonderful while the pears were cooking.

Hippocras (Spiced Wine)

The oldest recipe for Hippocras dates back to 1390, but there are many variations for it. It is a cold-steeped spiced beverage using red or white wine, spices, and usually sugar. Of all the recipes (there's a nice collection of hypocras recipes at Medieval Cookery, scroll to the bottom of the page), the foundation spices seem to be cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Variable ingredients include: spikenard root, galangal (a rhizome in the ginger family), pepper, marjoram, rosemary, cardamom, and grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta. a gingery flavored pepper from West Africa).

The spices are to be crushed, bruised, or powdered. 

I'm guessing the sugar is especially for older natural wines that are turning to vinegar. They wouldn't have had modern methods of stopping the fermentation process, so new wines would be sweetest, and they would get drier and more sour as they aged, eventually turning to wine vinegar (still a useful product for cooking and dressing salads as in the recipe above). 

I adapted my recipe (based on what I had) from Max Miller's (Tasting History) Making Hippocras at Home YouTube video. It's a no-added-sugar recipe. 

• 1 quart red wine
• 1/2 oz (14 gm) cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 oz (14 gm) fresh ginger
• 3 small sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp whole cloves
• 1/2 tsp peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Crush the spices and add to a jar of wine. Stir to mix and let sit for 1 to 2 days. Strain and serve warm or cold.

Recipe notes:

• I crushed the whole spices and bruised the rosemary with my kitchen hammer. This exposes more of the surface area of the spice and so imparts more flavor.
• If I had whole nutmegs and cardamoms I would have used those instead of powdered. 
• Mine steeped for 3 days
• It was excellent with the cheese tart. 

I'll close this very long post with a link to last year's Christmas series,

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: English

Next up, our Norman French meal.

Cuisine of My Ancestors: Tudor English © 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Cuisine of My Ancestors: German

Continued from Cuisine of My Ancestors: Irish

I mentioned in my series introduction that I only recently discovered a German ancestor. His youngest daughter married my Irish great-great-great-grandfather, but everything I have on her uses an Anglicized version of their original surname. So it had been a dead-end for quite awhile. Then I spent some time researching this on Ancestry.com during a library visit (library patrons can access the library's account for free). That's when I learned of the original surname spelling. 

My 4x-great grandfather was born in 1758 in Westernau, Nassau, Germany (modern day Westernohe in Rhineland-Palatinate, a state in western Germany). When he was 23 years old he was mustered into the Waldeck Regiment of the German army. They arrived in North America in 1781 to fight for the British in the American Revolution. The British hired auxiliary troops from their foreign allies, in this case, one of the German states. Because Waldeck was a town in the state of Hesse, they were later known as Hessian "mercenaries," which technically isn't correct. Mercenaries are hired private armies, while those hired from other nations are considered auxiliary troops. So they should have been called Hessian auxiliaries. For his service, my ancestor received a 100-acre land grant in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The time period I looked at was 1400s to 1700s, although I couldn't find recipes that were time and region specific. So I settled for some old traditional German dishes. For the ones I chose, I found numerous variations, from which I worked out my own recipes. 

Menu

Königsberger Klopse

Boiled yellow potatoes

Rotkraut (also called Rotkohl)

Pfeffernuesse

Königsberger Klopse (German Meatballs)

Ingredients

For the meatballs 

• 1 pound mix of ground pork and beef
• 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 slices pumpernickel rye bread (soaked in a little milk)
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 4 cups broth (I used beef broth)

For the sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups reserved meatball broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (I used our goat cream, of course)
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and white pepper, to taste

Instructions

Meatballs:

• In a large bowl mix mix all ingredients except broth
• Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes
• Shape into 12 meatballs
• Bring the broth to a simmer in a pan, and add the meatballs.
• Simmer 15–20 minutes, or until they’re cooked through and firm to the touch. Internal temperature should be 160°F (71°C). 
• Use a slotted spoon to remove the meatballs from the broth. Keep warm. Reserve 1.5 cups of strained broth for the sauce. 

Sauce:

• In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
• Whisk in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1–2 minutes
• Gradually add the reserved broth, whisking out the lumps. 
• Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently for 2–3 minutes until it begins to thicken.
• Stir in cream, capers, lemon juice, and Dijon mustard.
• Simmer and stir for another 2–3 minutes until it’s smooth and velvety. 
• Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper.
• Return meatballs to the pan with the sauce, gently spooning sauce over them
• Warm the meatballs in the sauce over low heat for 5 minutes

Serve over egg noodles or boiled yellow potatoes.

Recipe notes

• I served them with plain boiled yellow potatoes (not pictured).
• For the meatballs, the recipes I found called for white bread, but I substituted pumpernickel because rye bread was popular in Germany. It was a good flavor addition.
• Quite a few recipes for this called for anchovy paste, which I omitted. 

What did we think?

• Oh gosh, these were fantastic. This project is helping me realize how stuck-in-a-rut my cooking tends to be. I always grab the same ingredients and seasonings for everything. I'm seeing that I can expand our flavor repertoire with just a few ingredients I always have on hand anyway.
• For example, my current meatballs are always seasoned with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders, then sauteed in olive oil. Different spices and simmering in beef broth was a tasty change.
• The capers are considered a signature ingredient and were new for us. We thought they were okay, but I don't know that I'd buy them again just for this recipe.
• I heated the leftover meatballs and sauce several days later and served them over egg noodles. That was really good too.

Rotkraut or Rotkohl (Red Cabbage)

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, halved and sliced
• 1 medium apple, sliced
• 1 medium head red cabbage, shredded (about 8 cups)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp bacon grease
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Instructions

• Melt bacon grease in cast iron pan or Dutch oven. 
• Add the onion and apple and cook over medium heat until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. 
• Stir in remaining ingredients
• Covered and cook until cabbage is tender, about 1 hour. Stir occasionally. 
• Serve warm or cold.

Pfeffernuesse (Peppernut) Cookies

These are a traditional German Christmas cookie. The original recipe made 10 dozen, so I cut it in half.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon anise extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/21 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup confectioners sugar

Directions

• Heat in a small saucepan until melted: molasses, honey, and butter 
• Remove from heat; cool to room temperature. 
• Stir in eggs and extract.
• Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, cardamom,
• nutmeg, cloves, pepper and salt. Gradually add molasses mixture and mix well.
• Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C).
• Roll dough into 1-in. balls. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. 
• Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Roll in confectioners sugar when cool.

I've looked at recipes for pfeffernuesse in the past but for some reason, wasn't inclined to try them. I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted these! The combination of the spices + anise + pepper was different but delicious. It felt like we were eating cookies for grown-ups. I plan to add them to our regular Christmas cookie list.

With that, I have to say that we really liked everything. I'll make it all again, for sure. It's been interesting to try familiar types of foods which are prepared with different seasonings. I always seem to grab the same spices for everything I cook. Trying different ingredients and new flavor combinations has been a fantastic exercise.

Next post - our Tudor English meal.

Cuisine of My Ancestors: German © 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Cuisine of My Ancestors: Irish

Continued from Cuisine of My Ancestors: Native American

My Irish ancestry first inserts itself into my family tree in the mid-1800s. At the time of last year's Irish Christmas Carol post, I knew very little about my 3rd great-grandfather. I knew his name, birth and death dates, and that he migrated from Ireland to Nova Scotia where he settled, married, and raised a family. Since then, I had a chance to spent an afternoon at the public library, where I could access Ancestry.com for free as a library patron. 

I learned a lot! I learned that he was born in 1801, and christened that same year in Magheralin, County Down, Northern Ireland. I know he shows up on a census 20 years later in County Offaly in central Ireland. I know he emigrated from Ireland around 1825. I know he married after he settled in Nova Scotia, Canada. His first son (my great-great grandfather) was born there in 1835.

The meal I made is traditional Irish fare. If you saw my St. Patrick's Day post, then these pictures and recipes will look familiar because this was one of my earliest meals for this project. 

Menu

Colcannon

Bangers

Irish Soda Bread

Guinness Stout

Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce

Irish Coffee

Colcannon

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish of creamy mashed potatoes with cabbage.

• 4 lbs russet potatoes
• 1 small head of green cabbage or kale
• 1 cup milk (or cream)
• 1/4 stick butter, divided into thirds
• salt and pepper to taste

Peel potatoes and put them in a pot to boil. 

Remove the cabbage core, slice the leaves thinly, and put into a large saucepan. Cover with boiling water and keep at a slow rolling boil until the cabbage is just wilted, not overcooked. Drain and return to the pan, melting in one of the parts of butter. Leave covered in a warm place. 

When the potatoes are soft, drain and return them to the saucepan. On low, let any excess moisture  evaporate. Heat the milk and another section of butter in a small saucepan until melted. Add to the potatoes and mash with a potato masher. Add the cabbage, stir to mix, and serve.

Recipe Notes:

• I halved the recipe and we still had leftovers.
• Next time, I'll try it with kale, which grows better for me than cabbage.

Bangers

Bangers are sausages. But since genuine Irish sausages are something I can't find here, I substituted Bratwurst for them. Not as authentic, but definitely delicious with the colcannon. Mine were raw, so I browned them on both sides for about 5 minutes, and then poured half-a-cup of water to the pan, covered, and simmered till done, about 15 minutes.

Irish Brown Bread

You've probably heard of Irish Soda Bread. Irish Brown Bread is a variation using whole wheat flour. There are tons of recipes for it out there, with tons of variations. I wanted one as close to traditional as possible, and finally settled on this one from Secret Ireland. I also found a lot of good information there, such as the traditional recipe of old uses only four ingredients. Oatmeal, seeds, raisins, sweetener, etc., are all modern additions.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe

• 4 cups flour (mix of wheat and white as desired)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1¾ cups buttermilk 

Mix until ingredients are combined (over kneading will toughen the dough). Shape into a round, score a cross on top, and bake at 375°F (190°C) for 35-40 minutes. For a soft crust, wrap the hot bread in a tea towel while it cools.

Recipe Notes:

• I was surprised at how much it rose. The texture was nice. Denser than biscuits, but good flavored.
• I used 50/50 whole wheat flour to white because that's the combination Dan likes.
• I didn't have buttermilk, so I used kefir instead.
• Next time I would increase the salt. For bread, I typically use 1/2 teaspoon salt per cup of flour. 
• The trick of covering the loaf with a towel worked, and helped keep the crust soft. 
• It's a quick but lovely rustic bread

I later experimented with this recipe to try some variations. You can read about those here.

Irish Apple Cake with Custard Sauce

I found quite a few versions of this online, so mine is a blend of the ones that had ingredient amounts I liked.

Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp of each ground ginger, nutmeg, & allspice
• 3/4 cup soft butter 
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 lbs baking apples 
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Peel, core, and slice apples. Toss with 1 tablespoon sugar and set aside. Cream butter and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs and blend. Mix dry ingredients and add to egg mixture along with milk and vanilla. Fold in apples and pour into greased and floured baking pan. Mix remaining tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350°F (180°C) in a 9-inch springform pan for 40 to 45 minutes. 

Custard sauce

• 1⁄3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 3⁄4 cup whole milk
• 3⁄4 cup heavy cream
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla 

In a bowl, whisk together sugar and egg yolks. Set aside. In a saucepan, mix together the milk, cream, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until milk begins to steam. S-l-o-w-l-y dribble the heated milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking continually to prevent curdling. Pour back into saucepan and heat until thick, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Stir in vanilla. 

At this point, the recipes say to strain the sauce, but I ran it through my blender, poured into a jar and refrigerated. 

The cake can be eaten warm or cool, with custard sauce poured over.

Recipe notes

• For the baking powder, I used 2 teaspoons cream of tartar and 1 teaspoon baking soda.
• I didn't have a springform pan, so I used a 9-inch regular cake pan. The batter spilled over the sides of the pan while baking! The recipe is excellent, so a springform pan will be a must before I make it again.
• More apples would be nice.
• Next time I'll omit the sugar/cinnamon topping. It made it too much like coffee cake. 

Irish Coffee

• 4 oz freshly brewed coffee
• 1.5-2 oz Irish whiskey (1 ounce = 2 tbsp)
• 1-2 tsp sugar
• 2-3 tbsp thick cream

Brew strong dark roast coffee and lightly whip fresh cream until slightly thickened. Pour hot coffee into the glass, add sugar and whiskey, and stir to dissolve. Pour cream over the back of a spoon into the cup to create a floating layer. Don't stir. Sip through the layer of cream to enjoy.

Recipe notes

• I only added 1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) of the Irish whiskey per cup of coffee, which made it more like a flavoring.

To close, here's the Irish link from last year's holiday blog series:

Christmas Songs of My Ancestors: Irish 

Coming next, our German meal.

Cuisine of My Ancestors: Irish © 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com