Today Mardi Gras and Carnival festivals
can get pretty raucous but they ain't nothing compared to how they
tore it up in the Middle Ages. So to party like it's 1399 we're making
ravioli for a meat day from 15th century Italy. So thank you to my Patreon patrons for
continuing to support this channel and for keeping me inspired with wonderful
suggestions like Medieval ravioli this time on Tasting History. Mardi Gras literally fat Tuesday is just
that. It is the last day before Lent that you can go ahead and get fat
by eating or drinking the fat. You were going to drink the fat. Specifically fat from animals:
milk, cheese, eggs, butter and of course meat, and that's actually
probably where the term Carnival comes from. Either from carne levare meaning remove
meat or carne vale a farewell to meat, and with that in mind any Medieval cook
worth his butter would be looking for a cheese, egg, and meat-filled dish
to make the most of their Mardi Gras. Like this one from the 15th
century Italian cookbook 'Libro de arte Coquinaria' by maestro Martino da
Como. "Ravioli for meat days. To make 10 portions: take a half pound of aged cheese
and a little of another fatty cheese and a pound of fatty pork belly or veal
breast boiled until it falls apart; then chop it well and take some nice well
chopped herbs, and pepper, cloves and ginger and it would taste even better if
you add ground breast of capon. Mix all these together. Then make a thin sheet of pasta and stuff
the mixture inside, as for other ravioli. These ravioli should not be
larger than a half chestnut. Cook them in capon broth or good meat broth
made yellow with saffron when it boils Let them boil for the time it
takes to say two Pater Noster. Then serve topped with grated cheese
and sweet spices mixed together. Similar ravioli can be made with breast
of pheasant partridge or other birds. Now there's a lot to love about this recipe but
I think my favorite thing is the cook time. That he says to boil it for the length that it takes
to say two Pater Noster or the Lord's Prayer. You don't find that too often in modern cookbooks. So for this recipe what you'll need is: two cups
or 200 grams of freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus more for topping. A half cup or 110 grams
of ricotta, 10 ounces or 280 grams of pork belly or fatty veal, six ounces or 170 grams of
boiled or roasted chicken breast shredded up, six tablespoons of chopped herbs, and it's
really up to you which herbs you want to use. I used oregano, sage, and tarragon. A half
teaspoon of black pepper or long pepper, an eighth teaspoon of cloves, a quarter teaspoon
of ginger, and a mixture of sweet spices. This was often called powder
douce or sweet powder, and really it depended on who the chef was- what was in this mixture.
Sometimes it had sugar, sometimes not. Many of the other ingredients were clove,
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, so I'm using a little bit of everything. Then you'll need two
quarts or two liters of meat, or chicken broth, a pinch of saffron threads, and for the pasta
two and a half cups or 300 grams of pastry flour. All-purpose works too and three large eggs. Also YouTube just went through like
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that little notification bell so you never miss an episode. So first boil the pork belly in water for about
an hour and a half or until it's very soft. Then chop it up small. Now it'll do
if you just chop everything really, really fine but it's better if
you kind of grind it up like in a food processor. It just makes it much
easier to make the ravioli later on. So add the pork and the chicken breast to
the food processor, and then the parmesan and ricotta cheese, and then finally the
chopped herbs, black pepper, cloves, and ginger and blend everything until it's like a paste. Then set the filling aside
while you make the pasta dough. Pour the flour onto a countertop
and create a well in the middle. Then crack the eggs into the well and
using your hands whisk the eggs up. Then just a little at a time
start incorporating the flour. Keep working it until you have
a nice paste to come together and then start kneading the dough for about 10
to 15 minutes or until it's nice and smooth. Now you might not use all of the flour, you
just don't want this to be a dry dough but you also don't want it to be a sticky
dough so just use as much as you need to get a nice smooth dough. Then set it
aside and cover it for about 20 minutes. Once the dough is rested take about a
fifth of the dough and roll it out. Now if you have a rolling pin you can
do this with a rolling pin. It is harder than using a pasta machine but either one will
work. Essentially the process is the same. With the pasta roller you want
to start with the widest setting rolling it smooth and then fold it into
thirds like an envelope and roll it out again. No matter what you're using do this four or five
times before rolling it as thin as possible. With a pasta roller just
keep rolling it out each time lowering the width of the pasta.
Now there are lots of ways to shape your ravioli. This is just one that
you can do without using a ravioli tray. So lay the strip of pasta out onto
a floured surface making sure not to get any of the flour onto
the top side of the pasta. Semolina flour works really well for this.
Then spoon about a teaspoon of filling about an inch and a half separated
down the center of the pasta. Then fold the pasta over the filling and
gently press around each one to seal it. Then cut out the ravioli making sure they
are well sealed and set them on a dish. Then take another fifth of the pasta
dough and do the same thing. Now you don't want to roll out all the pasta
dough and then go on to making the ravioli because the dough will dry out before you're done
and it's going to be really hard to work with, so you got to kind of go back and forth. It's not a
quick process. It does take some time but we have plenty of it because I'm about to tell you what
it was like to go to Carnival in Medieval Europe. Now the origin of Carnival
is really up for debate. Some scholars believe that it
grew out of the pagan festivals that happened to take place
around the same time of year but there is no concrete evidence for
that, but in 743 at the Synod of Leptines they took inventory of all the pagan
practices that were still observed and there were definitely
some similarities between the old pagan practices and the Medieval Carnival. They made special note of de spurcalibus
in februario, debauchery in February. "The women disguise themselves
as men and the men as women; others, putting on skins and
horns, transform themselves into beasts; all run through the street, howling, leaping
and coming a thousand extravagances ." Sounds like a blast to me and not that
different from the later celebrations. Now Carnival or the weeks leading up to
Ash Wednesday did take different forms in different parts of Europe but they all
tended to be rather raucous and gluttonous. In England it became known as shrovetide
and on shrove Tuesday they celebrated by making pancakes in an effort to use up
the last of the butter eggs and milk. Similarly in Eastern Orthodox
countries they celebrated Maslenitsa which has been celebrated since the 2nd
century. They too made pancakes and ate lots of cheese while participating
in sleigh rides and snowball fights. In many parts of Catholic Europe
Carnival was celebrated all the way from the end of Christmas until Lent. In France it kicked off with the Feast of Fools
which was celebrated either on New Year's day or Epiphany which was January 6th
and it was the Medieval version of opposite day. All of the rules of polite
society were out the door that day. The poor would boss around the wealthy,
everyone could mock the clergy and you could do things in public that
you usually would not do in public, and there was always a king of fools
sometimes dressed as the Pope himself. It was usually the lowliest person in town who was
raised up and treated like royalty for that day, and he could basically tell
everyone else what to do. In 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'
Quasimodo is given this dubious honor. Though I've always thought
this was a bit anachronistic because it's supposed to take place in 1482, but in 1431 the Council of Basel had
forbidden it to take place, and while it was probably still going
on in certain places I doubt it would have been right in front of Notre Dame. That said who am I to- well actually Victor Hugo. Now while it kicked off with the Feast of
Fools, carnival was a bit more subdued for the next couple months until it ramped up near
the end culminating in Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Then the next day Ash Wednesday
began the 40 or 46 days of Lent. They're actually 46 days but they don't count
Sundays so often they say 40 days of Lent. This whole period was a catharsis
where the general population could release their frustrations that they had pent up
all year with feudalism, their lords, the Church, and just being treated like a Medieval
peasant because they were Medieval peasants. In a way it was sort of like the Purge. Now
murder was not legal but the festival did seem to encourage violence and drunkenness, lust,
gluttony, the best of the seven deadly sins. A blind eye was turned to them all on Mardi Gras
because you knew that you were going to spend the next six weeks atoning for whatever
you did that day, but it wasn't a total free-for-all even though you could do pretty
much whatever you wanted within reason. During Carnival there were still like set agendas and
and events scheduled, Carnival plays for example. These were allegories that were
put together to explain to people why they were behaving the
way that they were behaving. They would often pit Carnival and Lent against
each other in a sort of trial, and in one Lent complains that Carnival has been
encouraging people to commit adultery, perjury and even murder, but Carnival comes back
and says that Lent should actually be grateful because Carnival's existence is
indispensable to Lent's existence. Without the depravity of Carnival the
temperance of Lent really means nothing. It's kind of like without a Joker there is no
Batman. Now sometimes these plays would include a mock battle between Carnival and Lent most
famously depicted by Pieter Bruegel. Carnival was usually a corpulent fellow fighting with a
meat skewer against an emaciated man or woman wielding a fish, and sporting the
cross of ashes on their forehead. In one rather epic battle Lent leads
an army of onions herring and a whale, while Carnival is supported by cheese, venison
flavored with pepper, and a flock of pheasants that have already been roasted. Now often these
trials or battles would end with kind of an ambiguous ending like oh what's going to happen
even though everybody knows that the next day Lent wins, but in Hans Folz 15th century 'Ein
spiel von der fasnacht' Lent is given the victory at which point the everyman narrator who has
kind of been on Carnival's side the entire time plays innocent. "Dear Sirs, our prank's continued
long enough, the fool's fashion is not everyone's favorite. We wanted to frighten Carnival
here; it seems instead we've stirred her up." Now this play would have likely
been performed in Nurenberg which had one of the most
unique Carnival celebrations. See in1469 the Burgermeister
and city council decided to quash some of the more uncouth activities. They forbid crossdressing
and mask wearing, fireworks, "And no one, especially not the wildmen, shall
run after people and force them to give money with cries, insults, and injury... for indeed in the last Carnival various
people used light headed, luxurious, immodest, impolite words and gestures in plays.
Such behavior is in the presence of honorable people and especially of maidens
and women sinful, annoying, and shameful." So the plays were gone as were the wild men. Now the wild men were basically the real
life embodiment of the Medieval green man who is a symbol of rebirth and can be found carved
into buildings all throughout the world. But in Nuremberg at this time they
were not carvings but real men who would dress as goats or horses or other
figures associated with male fertility. They wore green leaves around their waist
and carried a green branch in their hand. Then at Carnival they would enter the city and
abduct presumably a young woman and take her back to the forest. Now these were not actual people
that lived in the forest. They were people from the city who just behaved this way on Carnival and
it sort of reminds me of the ancient Roman holiday of Lupercalia which included young men running
around the city slapping women with goat skins, and I kind of wonder if maybe it's
not a not a descendant, I don't know. But in 1469 in Nuremberg they were
done along with all the other fun stuff that went along during Carnival except "We make
exception for those who serve the butchers and as protection for their usual Carnival dance..." Butchers you say? See in 1348 the
artisans of Nuremberg revolted, and the knife makers and butchers of
the city did not participate and so as their reward they were given the
opportunity every year at Carnival to dance through the streets. They didn't
revolt against the rulers of the city and instead of giving them money or a
raise of any kind they let them dance. It's like the Medieval version... of the pizza party. -_- But it was an honor and every
year the butchers and knife makers of the city would dress in silk and velvet. The knife makers would dance
holding knives and swords and the butchers held onto leather
rings mimicking a string of sausage as they danced from the castle over
the fleischbrücke and around the city. And per the exception of the Burgermeister
when the rest of Carnival was cancelled the butchers and knife makers still got
to do their dance along with 12 nobles and 12 commoners who would dress in masks
to clear the way and protect the dancers. Now with the butcher's dance or schembartlauf
being the only activity left it really grew . The costumes became more elaborate and in 1475 a float was added usually in the
form of a giant ship of fools. This lasted until 1539 when the Lutherans
became the majority in the city and got rid of anything to do with Carnival except that they actually kept around images of the
wild men but they put the Pope's face on him. Now as cool as the butcher's dance
was it never became as famous as the Carnival in Venice. Even in the Middle
Ages Venice's celebration was held in esteem not only for the meat-fueled debauchery, but
its well-crafted and brightly colored masks. Even Shakespeare comments on
this in 'The Merchant of Venice' "What are the masks? Hear you me, Jessica: lock up my doors and when you hear the drum
and the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife, clamber not you up to the casements then,
nor thrust your head into the public street to gaze on Christian fools with varnished faces." Now the character saying this seems to
be a little worried about the revelers and unfortunately he had right to be. See
the character was Shylock who was Jewish and the holiday especially in
Italy tended to be accompanied by mistreatment of the Jewish population. Now Venice's heyday for Carnival reached its zenith in the 18th century
during the time of Casanova. The holiday had all but banished in most of
Europe so its continued celebration in Venice was a great opportunity for tourism.
Unfortunately it also caught the eye of Napoleon Bonaparte when he
visited the city with his army. He was afraid that the celebration would give
the citizens an opportunity to foment rebellion, and so in 1797 he cancelled it and
it remained cancelled until 1979. In fact most of Europe's Mardi Gras celebrations
are revivals rather than ongoing traditions. It was really left up to places like New Orleans and
Rio de Janeiro to keep up traditional Carnival, but in either place I doubt they'll serve
you Medieval ravioli for a meat day. So once you've shaped all of your ravioli,
boil the chicken broth, and add in the saffron. Then let it boil for about five minutes
until the saffron colors it yellow. Then add your ravioli just a few at a time. Now the recipe says to boil these for the
length of two Pater Noster which is like two minutes, but maybe they talk really, really
slow because two minutes ain't gonna cut it so go with about four minutes or until they're done. Regardless once they're all cooked
cover them with plenty of parmesan and sprinkle with a bit of the
powdered douce or sweet spices, and here we are Medieval ravioli for a meat day. So I had to cut one in half
because they were just too big, I wish that I could have made them smaller. They're supposed to be smaller but it's
I think it's a skill so it is what it is. Let's give it a shot. [CHOMP] Hm! So there is a hint of that spice in there
but it's not overwhelming by any any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't think oh
this is sugar and cinnamon and ginger, not at all. That's great. What's weird is
I don't taste the meat. I get a little bit of that meaty quality, but it's not meat,
it is cheese! This is cheese and herb. Really you could just take like take like an
herb cheese and fill these I think you're going to end up with something very very similar. What
does not come through at all is the saffron. You don't get any saffron flavor from boiling it in
the saffron it's just going to help color them. So you could probably leave that out.
Overall the flavor is really, really great. What isn't is the texture I
think it's a little bit dry I- maybe I'm just so used to having like a sauce on my pasta. Even if it was just a drizzle
of olive oil or a light butter sauce. I think that would really, really help but
that you know that's an easy change to make. So whether you make Medieval ravioli or not I hope you have a marvelous Mardi
Gras and a crazy Carnival, and follow me on Instagram
@tastinghistorywithmaxmiller and I will see you next time on Tasting History.
