Welcomme to Ye Olde Kichen

Let's be honest, a lot of Schooling in the Kitchen when you home school.  Sometimes it's just kids sitting at the table while Mom prepares food, but it's also a place for science experiments or practicing fractions while baking a batch of cookies.   When I first investigated home schooling I ran across Diana Waring's audio series "History via the Scenic Route." In it, she talks about making a more immersive learning experience by including recipes as part of a unit study.  It may be whipping up a batch of Almanzo's favorite Fried Apples & Onions after reading Farmer Boy or learning how to stir fry in a geography study of China.  Even science shouldn't be left out--what better way to experiment with salt changing the freezing point of water than cranking some ice cream!

I've never been very successful in the Unit Study approach for our school, but this year we've been studying Mystery of History's Volume 2 on the Middle Ages and I wanted to find a typical recipe from the period.   I found a treasure trove at the Medieval Cookery website.  Not only can you search by country of origin but they have  "easy" and "freezer safe"  categories.  I picked Blancmanger as " it appears in just about every medieval cookbook" according to the site
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Blancmanger

 

Take Rys, an lese hem clene, and wasshe hem clene in flake Water, and than sethe hem in Watere, and aftyrward in Almaunde Mylke, and do ther-to Brawn of the Capoun aftyrward in-to a-nother almaunde Mylke, an tese it smal sumdele with a pyn, an euer as it wolt caste ther-to, stere it wel; nym Sugre and caste ther-to, then make it chargeaunt; then take blawn-chyd Almaundys, an frye hem, an sette hem a-boue, whan thou seruyst ynne; and if thou wolt, thou myte departe hem with a Cawdelle Ferry y-wreten before, an than serue forth.

What's that?  You had a little trouble following the instructions?  Not to worry, Medieval Cookery also includes a modern translation.

1 pound chicken
4 cups cooked white rice (about 1 1/2 cup uncooked)  NOTE: I used brown rice, making the recipe more healthy and accurate since the polishing process wasn't around in the middle ages.
1/2 cup almond milk
1 cup water
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. white pepper

1. Boil chicken until very tender and allow to cool.  NOTE: I altered the recipe here.  Since I needed to cook the rice anyway I just added the chicken to the steamer basket.  The rice cooker is like a low-pressure cooker so the chicken was very tender and shred-able by the time the brown rice was done.

2. Tease meat apart with forks until well shredded. Put meat into a large pot with remaining ingredients and cook over medium heat until thick. Serve hot.

As you can see, it's not the most colorful dish I've served but I expected that from the dish's name.  Blanc in French means "white" and manger is the French verb "to eat."  Our meal would have been even whiter if I hadn't burned the bottom while exercising.  Of course the real test is the taste.  My picky eater said "It's really good" and ate his whole bowlful.  I found it a little on the bland side, but easily doctored with Ye Olde Chicken Wing Sauce.

 Now this is just one way of Schooling in the Kitchen.  Check out these other blogs for more ideas. And don't forget to check out the 5 Days of Teaching Creatively Giveaway.