So, back to achalasia. It started with simple things. I would have problems eating a sandwich at night before bed. I would choke on hot dogs. Things weren't difficult to get down but they had a bad habit of coming back up again. It wasn't constant but it was getting worse. Saw the doctor and had my throat scoped. It came back clean and I was advised to see a speech therapist. In my head I knew that that wasn't where I needed to go, that we hadn't found the cause and I got stubborn which leads to stupid. I didn't go back to the doctor until my next yearly check up. The only smart thing that I did was to get fed up with losing weight and throwing up so that I put myself on a liquid/pureed food diet. This trip to the doctor got a new test, the barium swallow which showed the achalasia as if it was from a text book. Now I wait for the next step. I will need specialist and possible surgery but at least I know what I am in for and I am already eating better than I have in a long time. I still crave all the foods that I have been able to eat in the past but at least I can eat something. So next a recipe that I found that is quite tasty and can be done as an side dish for people who aren't on a specialized diet.  

Crab Fondue
 2 cups milk
 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 3/4 cups breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
 1 tablespoon minced onion
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
6 1/2 ounces canned or fresh crab meat
5 large eggs, separated
1 cup shredded cheese, cheddar or gruyere

Heat milk. Add the next eight ingredients after pureeing them together. Beat egg yolks and stir into the mixture. Stir and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until thickened. Add cheese and mix well. Beat egg whites until they stand in soft, stiff peaks and fold into the mixture. Turn into a 1 1/2 quart casserole, having only the bottom buttered. Place in a pan of hot water. Bake in a preheated slow oven (325 degrees F.) for 1 1/2 hours or until the center is firm. Serve with a tomato sauce.

 From The Spice Cookbook Avanelle Day and Lillie Stuckey, David White Company, NY, 1964.

So, it has been awhile since I last posted. That has to do with the fact that I mostly post my food adventures and food has been an issue for me for some time now. I finally have a diagnosis and it is not a good one for someone who loves food. I have achalasia. This is a condition where the muscles of the esophagus atrophy and the sphincter leading into the stomach doesn't open properly. Peristalsis is also not working in the esophagus so I have given up any dream of being an astronaut. I have moved to a liquid diet and am currently looking for food options that work for me in my condition. What this means is that I am now an achalasia food blogger. My diet at the moment is pretty simple- if it purees I eat it. I have oatmeal or cream of wheat for breakfast with my coffee. I add cream to everything that I can for the added fats and calories. Lunch is usually a fruit smoothie with whey protein and a one-a-day vitamin added for nutritional supplement. Dinner is currently either something based on mashed potatoes or gazpacho variations with nutritional yeast added as a supplement. I can eat very tiny grains so quinoa is also something that I have added to my diet. I will be looking for recipes that are good for my condition and I will be posting them. I will also be researching medieval recipes that work. I do have issues with potassium and so any advice about adding beans as a protein source, while welcome for the general audience, is not an option I can take except as a periodic option. The last thing I need is to crash my blood pressure while dealing with my current food issues. And yes, I have done it twice already while adjusting my diet- with bananas in the smoothies and with mixing hummus and guacamole. Delicious but way too much potassium for me. The biggest problem that I have has been eating out and the only advice I have at the moment is to not be afraid of asking for what you need. Indian restaurants are great because the sauces are good with rice alone and a mango lassi is a great drink. Fast food places are a problem as they usually have few options that aren't hand-held but smoothies are becoming more common on fast food menus and that is something. DO NOT ORDER THE SECOND CUP SMOOTHIES- yuck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achalasia

Beast Wellington

I started calling this dish Beast Wellington so that non-cooks could get an idea of what I meant and it just stuck. It is a dough wrapped roast or "pie". The dough would have protected the floor of the bake oven from the oils and juices of the roast as well as insulating the roast until service.


Beast Wellington


Sabina Welserin #67 A game pie


Take a hind leg from a red deer and divide it in for three pies, the bones are good afterwards for a game soup. Then boil the three pieces, which are for the pies, well, after which take them out and lay them on a platter or in a trouogh and salt and pepper them well and let them lie there overnight. Afterwards mix a dough out of rye flour. First pour about a quarter pound of flour on the table and put into apan about one quart water and one pound of fat and let it dissolve together and bring it to a boil and pour it afterwards on the flour, until it is sufficient, and make then a strong dough and work it well. After that remove some dough, about one third, and roll it out into two rounds, according to how many pies you need or want to make. Next put the game on the bottom round and put afterwards the top round on it and shape it, however you would like to have it. After that take a bag of water and spread the bottom crust on the edges. Afterwards press the top dough onto the bottom so that nothing runs out, arrange it with a small knife and crimp it, however you would like and shove it in the oven.

2 1 ½ kilos French roast
1 pound salt
1 pound pepper
2 cups rye flour
1 cup water
½ cup shortening


Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Put the roasts into them and boil them for 30-45 minutes. Remove into a large pan and cover with a mixture of salt and pepper. Put in the fridge overnight to marinate.
Bring the water and shortening to a boil. Pour into a large bowl with the flour. Mix well with a large spoon and set aside to let the flour absorb the liquids. Do not let it cool too much. Work the dough until it is smooth and then separate it into 4 and roll each out separately. Cut to shape of the roasts and reserve the rest for decoration. Take the fat and string off the boiled roasts and place in the center of the bottom dough. Place the top over and shape it around the roast. Wet the edges of the bottom and roll over the top edges pressing down to seal the edges. Crimp and then wetting surfaces decorate as desired. Put into a 375 F oven for 30 minutes or until the roasts are hot through and the dough is cooked. If you are adding ears and tails you should cover them with foil for half the cooking time and remove the cover. Egg wash is also good for a decorative touch.

Veal pie

Sabina Welserin- 1553

60 To make a veal pie

Take pieces of veal from the leg and boil them in water, about as long as it takes to hard boil an egg. Afterwards take them out and chop the meat small, and take suet from the kidneys and cut it small and chop it with the veal. And when it is finely chopped, then put it in a bowl and put some wine into it and an ample ladelful of broth , pepper and a little mace, which should be whole. Crush it a little by hand so that it in small pieces, put in it raisins and saffron and stir it all up together with a spoon, put cinnamon in it also, and taste it, however it seems good to you.


1 double crust pie shell

2 kilograms ground beef or veal
1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 broth. preferably beef
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1 1/2 cup raisins, seedless
1/8 teaspoon saffrom
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
salt to taste

Put meat, wine and broth in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer, Cook until meat is done, add spices and raisins and simmer until the raisins are plump and the broth is reduced. Adjust salt and spices to taste. Put into crust, cover and bake at
425 F. for 30 minutes or until the crust is completely cooked.


It is common in medieval recipes for the meat to have been cooked before being put into the crust to bake. This also allows for a period cook to prepare the bulk of the dish ahead and then assembled on site and baked.

Baked Strauben

Sabina Welserin-1553

141 To bake Strauben for a meal

Take six eggs and a little milk with water, salt it, beat it together well and put the flour into it. Do not make it thick, then it is right.

1 cup milky water (3/4 water. 1/4 milk)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
4 medium eggs
oil for coating pans

Combine milky water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the flour all at once and stir constantly, over medium heat, with a wooden spoon or spatula until it is very firm and pulls away from the sides of the pan. Take off the heat and add the eggs one at a time, beating vigorously until each egg is completely incorporated. The dough should be firm and glossy. Pipe the mixture through a wide tipped pastry bag onto a large greased pan. Bake the strauben in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes (depending on the size that you made) or until puffy and golden. Remove from the oven and put a slask or hole in the bottom to allow steam to escape and return to the oven for a few minute to dry them. Cool and store loose.


Interpreting medieval recipes can be tricky because you never know if steps were left out or not and by whom. Since many medieval manuscripts would have been copied, errors can be either from the original cooks, the original clerk or a later copist/translater. There is only one way to deal with that- try the recipe as written. For me I could never make the original recipe work as written, it was fine flavor wise if you like rocks but it was always denser than I thought useful for any food purpose when baked. There are variant fried strauben recipes and it works well with them but still nothing special. Then it strikes me, as it has struck other cooks, that this is more workable as a hot dough method like a pate choux or a churro recipe. The purpose is to precook the flour and egg and then the baking or oil frying makes the pastry puff and hold air pockets. It is the kind of step that people who do something all the time might forget, like strudel cooks forgetting the pound the bejesus out of the dough step.

I adjusted the order of entry of the ingredients to the modern variant because it actually makes it easier to teach to new cooks. It can be done following the original order but it is trickier for making the porridgelike dough.

May Cake

Sabina Welserin- 1553

176 To make a good May cake

Take a pound of raisins, a pound of currants, five small portions of May butter, a handful of hyssop, a handful of ground ivy, some sage, about ten leaves, two times as much mint, a handful of costmary, approximately fifteen eggs and a half pound of sugar; the herbs finely chopped, baked for two hours. The butter must be stirred into the herbs. For the crust, two eggs, which are prepared as for a tart.


To do one May Cake in a 9 inch pie pan

1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup currants
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5 leaves fresh sage, finely chopped
10 leaves fresh mint, finely chopped
6 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sugar

2 additional eggs beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put the pan in and let it get hot. Toss the herbs and fruit with the butter and mixthe beaten eggs and sugar together. Put both together and set aside. When the pan is hot, take the two additional eggs and pour them into the hot pan and swish it around to coat the bottom and sides thoroughly. Let set and then add the fruit/egg mix and place in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the center is firm. Take out and cool.


This is a great recipe to serve the next day as the herbs infuse their flavor over time.

Large spoons

For my friend Tadea, a wooden spoon with her as Edward E Newman on one side and a woman doing her hair on the other.




For my friend Freya, a maple spoon used in large scale tomato paste production that has been woodburned with a fox pattern on one side and a viking ship bearing the logo Freya's Fabrics on the other. A running pattern of dots and seaaxes finishes the handle. Watercolors and varnish.