Green Pottages

[bunnyjadwiga]

What is a green pottage, or pottage of greens?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines pottage thus:
"A dish composed of vegetables alone, or along with meat, boiled to softness in water, and appropriately seasoned; soup, esp. a thick soup. In ancient cookery, often a highly composite dish."

Basically, I'm using the term to describe cooked greens, and especially cooked greens with a liquid.
Cooked greens thickened with a little milk, almond milk, eggs, cheese, and/or broth is a standard of medieval cooking.

Here's an example:

Platina book 6:
Zanzarella: Take seven eggs, half a pound of grated cheese, and ground bread all blended together. Put this into the pot where the saffron broth is made, when it begins to boil. When you have stirred it two or three times with a spoon, compose your dishes, for it is quickly done...
Green Broth: Take all that was contained in the first broth (Saffron Broth) except for the saffron and to these things add orach and a little parsley and a few ground sprouts of wheat if there are any green ones at the time. Pass this through a strainer and cook it in the same way as above.

Another:

This is an excerpt from Liber cure cocorum.
The original source can be found on Thomas Gloning's website.
For kole. Take fresshe brothe of motene clene, Of vele and porke al by dene. Hakke smalle þy wortis and persyl, þo When þat hit boylys, cast hom þerto, Do a lite grotes þy wortis amang And sethe hom forthe I undurstande. 3if þou have salt flesshe sethand I wot, Take a fresshe pece oute of þo pot, And sethe by þo self, as I þe kenne. Take up, put in þy wortis þenne, In þe mene whyle gode gravé þou gete To florisshe þy wortis at þo last hete.

One more:

From MS Pepys 1047 (15th c.):To make buttyrd Wortys
Take all maner of gode herbys that ye may gette pyke them washe them and hacke them and boyle them vp in fayre water and put ther to butture clarefied A grete quantite And when they be boylde enowgh salt them but let non Ote mele come ther yn And dyse brede in small gobbetts & do hit in dyshys and powre the wortes A pon and serue hit furth.

As you can see, there are definitely pro-and-anti grits factions. Even the 16th c. Russian text, the Domostroi, has a pottage of greens, for servants' dishes mostly:

"Chop cabbage, greens, or a mixture of both very fine, then wash them well. Boil or steam them for a long time. On meat days, put in red meat, ham, or a little pork fat; add cream or egg whites and warm the mixture. During a fast, saturate the greens with a little broth, or add some fat [oil?] and steam it well. Add some groats, salt and sour cabbage soup. Cook kasha the same way; steam it well with lard, oil, or herring in a broth."

Cooked greens served without liquid is often, in late period cookery, called a boiled salad, especially when dressed with vinegar and fat. (Think dandelion greens with hot bacon dressing, if necessary)

An Excellent Boiled Salad, English Huswife book 2, p.40 (GOOD)
To make an excellent compound boil'd Sallat: take of Spinage well washt two or three handfuls, and put it into faire water and boile it till it bee exceeding soft and tender as pappe; then put it into a Cullander and draine the water from it, which done, with the backside of your Chopping-knife chop it and bruise it as small as may bee: then put it into a Pipkin with a good lump of sweet butter and boile it over again; then take a good handfull of Currants cleane washt and put to it, and stirre them well together, then put to as much Vinegar as will make it reasonable tart, and then with sugar season it according to the taste of the Master of the house, and so serve it upon sippets.

Served upon sippets, this is actually a form of sops, that is, something served on pieces of bread.