The Knights Templar famous for their piety,
their ferocity in battle, their wealth,
and even their diet. A diet which some say
gave them inordinately long life.
So in an attempt to hold on to my youth just a little bit longer
I will eschew the Botox and fillers and instead make a Medieval wild boar with cameline sauce,
this time on Tasting History.
So I went back and forth deciding on what to
make for this episode because some days the knights ate meat,
and other days they were almost entirely vegetarian.
I ended up going with the meat because it would allow me to make a
sauce which would use a lot of the spices
that they would have had access to while crusading in the Holy Land.
So I'm actually using two sources both 14th century
French sources written around the waning days of the Knight's Templar.
The first is from 'Le Viandier de Taillevient' and is for
"Sanglier: Fresh wild boar venison. Cooked in wine
and water and boiled again; eaten with cameline sauce."
Today the term venison usually refers to deer or elk, but back then it could refer
to any hunted game animal like rabbit or deer, or badger, or boar like this recipe calls for.
Now the interesting part of this dish is the cameline sauce and there were recipes for
cameline sauce from France to England to Italy all through the Middle Ages,
and the one thing they all had in common was their color.
They were all a reddish brown that was supposed to be like the color of cameline
which is a wool made from camel hair. It was such a popular sauce
that it could actually be bought pre-made on the streets of Paris
which is where our second source 'Le Menagier de Paris' comes from.
It is one of my favorite Medieval sources because of the way that it's written.
It's ostensibly an old man writing to his new very young wife and its instructions on
how to please him in every sense of the word
which includes making cameline sauce. "Cameline. Note that in Tournai,
to make cameline they grind ginger, cinnamon, saffron, and half a nutmeg,
moistened with wine then taken out of the mortar. Then grind in a mortar untoasted
white bread crumbs that have been soaked in cold water, moistened with wine, and strain.
Then boil everything and finish with brown sugar, and that makes winter cameline. In the summer
they do the same but it is not boiled at all." Now there are many variations on this sauce. A
lot of them use vinegar, some use sugar or currants, lots of different spices and then
of course boiled and not boiled, and since it's winter I am going to use boiled for our meat.
Now once you have your boar you can actually boil it right away,
but I do find that that kind of dries out the meat
so it's best to heat a little olive oil in a pot and then sear the meat for a couple minutes
on each side. Once it's well crusted you can take it out of the pot and add in equal parts
water and wine and you can use red or white wine for this. The red is going to stain the
boar a little bit but it really adds more flavor I find so that's what I'm using.
Once it's boiling put the boar in and cover the pot leaving it to cook for 10 to 15 minutes,
and if it's not entirely submerged that's okay you can flip it if you want,
but it's actually not even necessary. Then once it's cooked, take it out and let it
rest. Now for the cameline sauce what you'll need is: one thick slice of good
white bread without crust. So this might seem an odd ingredient for sauce bread,
but in the Middle Ages that's what they often used to thicken sauces, that or egg yolks,
sometimes in some recipes but the bread was
definitely the most common, and it works pretty well.
One and a quarter cup or 300 milliliters of white wine, a quarter cup or 60 milliliters of red wine,
one teaspoon of ginger, two teaspoons cinnamon, a half teaspoon of nutmeg,
a pinch of saffron threads, two tablespoons of brown sugar, and a pinch of salt,
and you can mix those quantities pretty much however you want to your taste. Though the
cinnamon is supposed to be the dominant flavor. So rip up the bread into small bread crumbs,
then soak them in cold water for a couple hours. While it soaks mix the ginger,
cinnamon, nutmeg, and saffron together then stir them into the white wine.
Once the bread is soaked pour the red wine over it and if you want a little zing to the sauce
go ahead and add about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar here.
It's very popular in most cameline sauces of the day but it is not in this recipe,
but add it if you want.
Then mash up the bread and strain it over a saucepan
pressing the mushed bread through a sieve,
then add in the spiced wine and set it over medium heat, and bring to a boil.
Let it simmer for about 15 minutes and it will start to thicken and
while it thickens make sure you are subscribed to Tasting History,
and have that little notification bell hit so you never miss an episode,
and follow me on Twitter @TastingHistory1 as we take a look at this supposedly
life-giving diet of the Templars. The Knights Templar, warrior monks charged with protecting
pilgrims as they traveled to Jerusalem following the First Crusade as Bernard Declare wrote
"A Templar Knight is truly a fearless knight,
and secure on every side, for his soul is protected by the armor of faith,
just as his body is protected by the armor of steel. He is
thus doubly armored and need fear neither demons nor men."
With an introduction like that it's no wonder they became one
of the most mythologized groups of Medieval Europe
from the idea that they found the Holy Grail to their supposed worship of the idol Baphomet,
to the idea that their diet helped them live twice as long as the average man in the Middle Ages.
Now the first two don't really need any debunking, or at least
I'm not going to handle that but the third well that's right up my alley.
See the thing is the Knights Templar did live longer than
the average bear. Many made it into their late 60s or early 70s
and that is doubled the average life expectancy of the Middle Ages which was about 35,
but that includes a lot of infant mortality. If you adjust for that then the average was
probably early 50s and if you made it to about the age 20 you'd likely make it to the age 65,
so yes them living to 68 or 70 is a little more than average but not much.
But for argument's sake let's say that they did live a healthy lifestyle
outside of fighting in the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries
and being burned alive at the stake as heretics in the 14th century.
Both activities decidedly bad for your health,
but what were the particulars of this supposedly healthy lifestyle?
Well fortunately they wrote them all down. The Latin rule sometimes called the Primitive Rules
for the Templar Order was a document attributed to the French Aabbot Bernard de Clairvaux.
Written in 1129 it was largely based on the Rule of Saint Benedict which I talked about at length
in the video on how a Medieval monk might eat but they were not the average cloistered monk.
They were doing a lot of battling and traveling a lot more so
they had some different lifestyle requirements.
They were still monks, but monks with swords.
Alongside their white cloak which signified purity in complete chastity,
they wore the habit as an ordinary monk would have, though in Europe while most monks wore wool
"We mercifully rule that, because of the great intensity of the heat which exists in the East,
from Easter to All Saints, through compassion, and in no way is a right,
a linen shirt shall be given to any brother who wishes to wear it."
But don't for one minute think that kind of leniency is going to extend to your footwear.
"We prohibit pointed shoes and shoe-laces and forbid any brother to wear them... for
it is manifest and well known that these abominable things belong to pagans."
Though while that may have been the case in the 13th century by the
14th century pointy shoes called crakows had become all the rage,
and just like modern day crocs have their haters though I do wear them
in the kitchen because they are so comfortable,
so too did crakows have their haters.
In 1394 the monk of Ivasham described "those accursed vices half a yard in length,
thus it was necessary for them to be tied to the shin with chains of silver before they could walk
with them." There are also stories where the point was so long that they came up and curved so high
that they couldn't use stairs anymore, so maybe it's not the most sensible shoe wear for
a warrior monk.
Now wearing their white garments and sensible shoes they would read a bit of
scripture before sitting down to eat, and they would always eat together
specifically paired up in a sort of "accountabilabuddy" system.
"Because of the shortage of bowls, the brothers will eat in pairs,
so that one may study the other more closely, and so that neither austerity nor sacred abstinence
is introduced into the communal meal."
And so your buddy didn't drink too much you were supposed to
make sure that he and you got the exact same
amount of wine, and often that wine would be watered down.
"For Solomon said... that wine corrupts the wise."
Though after a few glasses of wine I always feel a little more wise, or at least
more willing to give my unvarnished opinion on things which-
which I guess isn't the same.
Now what was served to the knights was
completely dependent on the day of the week and the time of year.
"It should be sufficient for you to eat meat three times a week...
for it is understood that the custom of eating flesh corrupts the body."
Though as corrupt as it was they really cherished these meat-eating days and if a day of fasting
ended up on one of those days they would double up the meat portion on the next meat day.
"And on Sundays all the brothers of the Temple, the chaplains and the clerks
shall be given two meat meals in honor of the holy resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And the... squires and sergeants shall be content
with one meal and shall be thankful to God for it."
You'll get one meal of meat and you'll like it!
Now on Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays they got two or three meals that were
pretty much all vegetables legumes and bread,
then on Fridays they had to eat lenten meats that is to say
fish or any of the meats that the Medieval mind
considered fish, like puffin or beaver.
And with the exception of just a few days like Christmas from All Saints day in early November
all the way to Easter usually in April
you had to fast pretty much every day which meant one meal.
Though if you were sick you didn't have to follow any of these rules,
and you pretty much got to eat as much meat as you wanted.
Now during the meals there were a lot of rules on how the knights should behave
unlike most monks who had developed a sort
of sign language so that they didn't have to talk at meals,
the knights would "quietly and privately, ask for what you need at
table, with all humility and submission... Each brother may give some of the food in front of
him to the other brothers around him as far as he can stretch his arm, but no farther."
Or what today we would just call good table manners, and they had some other
good table manners as well like a need to wash your hands before coming to the table,
a need to wash the table itself before putting any food directly on it,
and if you had been working outside with your hands
you weren't allowed to touch the food at all.
They also used napkins though for some reason "On Good Friday all the
brothers should fast on bread and water and eat without a napkin."
Does anyone out there know why that might be because I couldn't figure it out.
I get that Good Friday is all about you know suffering
and so I can see the the bread and water but
no napkin? Just seems odd. Anyone? Now if you were at one of these
meals you might notice something odd and that might be one of the brothers
sitting on the floor in front of everyone else while he eats, and that meant he had been naughty
because sitting on the floor while you eat was the penance for a minor sin,
but "if the fault is very serious let him go apart from the company of the brothers
so that he does not eat or drink at the table with them,
but all alone."
Now assuming you had not sinned and had finished the meal with your brothers
everyone would get up and go over to the church to say grace
and you would bring your partly eaten bread with you to give to the poor.
Any whole loaves of bread you kept back and
and saved for the next day because the poor just needed
you know the scraps, no new bread for them I guess.
Now all this food that the knights were eating was generally procured and prepared by
servants. In fact there was very little that a knight could do to get food for himself.
You couldn't accept any from a family member, that was forbidden,
and if someone gave you some food especially meat because of a thank you for doing your
knightly duties you had to give it to the person with the coolest job title,
Commander of the Victuals.
I want that job title.
And if you were tempted to go hunting well that was a no-no.
You could take some fresh green vegetables out of a field or go fishing,
but hunting no. Especially not with a hawk or a falcon,
you couldn't even be with someone who was hunting with a hawk or a falcon.
They also should not "...go into the woods with longbow or crossbow to hunt animals
or to accompany anyone who would do so, except out of love to save him from faithless pagans."
Those same pagans with the pointy shoes, I would assume.
Though there was one exception to the no hunting rule and this exception definitely would have
only applied to the Knights Templar rather than other monks because of where the knights tended
to travel "The prohibition of hunting is by no means intended to include the lion,
for he comes encircling and searching for whatever he can devour
his hands against every man and every man's hand against him." It's not just the lions,
foreign travel in general had to be addressed,
and if the knights were away from the monastery they were supposed to try to follow the rules
especially around meat and wine as closely as possible but not for any religious reason,
but "so that they may receive a good report from outsiders and not
sully by deed or word the precepts of the order."
So it was like when you go over to a friend's house for dinner and
your mom would say you better be on your best behavior so you don't embarrass us,
though my mom never added the addendum "the house
where you... take lodging should not be without light at night,
so that shadowy enemies may not lead them to wickedness..."
And exactly what wickedness that is they don't say but I'm guessing women were on the list.
The knights were really weird about women, they were not supposed to talk to women at all.
"As the company of women is a dangerous thing..."
And specifically says you are not supposed to under any circumstance kiss a woman
including your "mother, sister,
aunt or any other." Major issues, but then again they had major issues with a lot of things.
Here you have the most fearsome warriors of Medieval Europe
and they were treated like children.
"No brother may bathe, let blood, take medicine, go into town or ride a horse without permission,
no brother may shorten his stirrup leather... nor his sword belt... without permission.
No brother may throw his lance without permission, nor may he repair his sword without permission...
let no brother have letters from his relative or any other person;
but if he has permission from the commander,
the letters may be read to him."
So yeah, maybe this lifestyle let you live a few more years longer than the average person,
but was it really worth it?
I'll let you be the judge of that while I judge this boar with cameline sauce.
So once your sauce has reduced by about half whisk in the salt
and the sugar and let it simmer for five more minutes,
or until it's the thickness that you want. Now this is never going to become
as thick as like a ketchup but it will be as thick as like a barbecue sauce.
Then slice the boar and drizzle the sauce on top,
and here we are wild boar with cameline sauce,
and according to 'Le Viandier de Taillevient' it is best served with roasted chestnuts
so I have a few of those as well and I'm going to eat this with a little
wine that I had left over. Now if I was a Templar Knight in the Holy Land I might
drink something called the Elixir of Jerusalem which was palm wine mixed with aloe and hemp,
and may have acted as a bit of a medicine to to help healing but
I don't have palm wine so I'm drinking grape wine.
A cup of a Carpenter.
It's just brass so it is kind of the cup of a carpenter.
Getting a lot of the sauce because that's the flavor that I'm curious about.
Hm!
So I could see this as a modern sauce absolutely. It's like a fancy barbecue sauce.
It's so much more spiced and not as sweet so it just seems a little fancier
but it has- it has the texture of barbecue sauce. It has a lot of the same flavor profile
especially if you add in a little bit of that vinegar. It gives that certain zing.
It's really, really good.
Also the boar is excellent, the crust on the outside I think it's kind of necessary
because now it's not dry at all. It's wonderful because it's not fatty, like there is no fat on
this meat. It's all muscle but if you do it right it it doesn't get dry and it's really,
really wonderful. I need to start getting more boar, I like game meat.
So I definitely suggest making this. You could really make the sauce with any kind of meat
that you want, and if you do the unboiled kind then that's really good with fish especially
with a little bit of that vinegar to kind of give it an astringency really, really nice.
So again make sure you're subscribed to Tasting History, like this video,
and I will see you next time on Tasting History.