JOHANNES BOCKENHEIM

Hemp seed soup



Sic fac ministrum de canapo. Recipe eum, et munda eum in aqua callida, et mitte eum lente bulire, ita quod coagulatur superius; et tunc remove partem superiorem, et mitte per straminiam, ut aqua exeat; et tunc mitte eum ad ignem cum pane grattato, et cepis rostitis in oleo olive; et tunc tempera illum cum lacte eius, zapharano, et aliis speciebus; et sparge uva passa ad scutellam. hemp seeds
bread crumbs
onions
olive oil
saffron
spices
raisins
Here's the way to make hemp seed soup. Get the seeds and remove the peels by boiling the seeds slowly until the peels rise to the surface. Remove the peels, place the seeds in a sieve and drain them thoroughly (but be sure to save the liquid). Now, cook them over a fire with the bread crumbs and the onions, which you have already browned in olive oil. Then, add the liquid you saved, put in some saffron and other spices, and sprinkle the plates with raisins before serving.

HISTORIC NOTES

An almost identical recipe is also described by Martino Rossi. The only difference is that chopped almonds are added to the hemp seeds, and the resulting batter is diluted with meat broth and sugar after cooking. This recipe can also be found in De Honesta Voluptate e Valitudine by Platina. However, since he considered this dish to be unrefined, Platina tended to leave it out of later recipe books. The use of foods containing narcotic substances was often dictated by famine or poverty. In fact, there are numerous reports of bread partially prepared with hallucinogenic cereals such as darnel or zizania. These grains cause states of collective excitement that may have been the driving force behind many popular revolts. And in 1527, Roberto di Spilimbergo notes in his diary that rye was mixed with darnel, "which intoxicates into a vacant demeanour, and immediately confounds, the one who eats the rye bread".


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