Wolf Hall and Medieval Hens

 Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, is the Booker Prize winning story of one of the most famous episodes in Tudor history, told from the perspective of lawyer and royal advisor, Thomas Cromwell.    I love stories about Tudor England, and have read a lot of historical fiction about this period in history (e.g. The Other Boleyn Girl, etc...) but no book has had as much depth and emotional weight as Wolf Hall.  Cromwell is famous for his rise from an extremely low birth (he is the son of a drunk blacksmith) to become the right hand of King Henry VIII during the most tumultuous period of his reign - the renouncement of his marriage to Queen Katherine, his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and her subsequent beheading.  He is equally famous for his great fall from the King's man to the victim of the scaffold, after King Henry's disastrous fourth marriage to Anne of Cleves.  Wolf Hall tells Cromwell's story from his childhood, to the time he served as a key advisor to Cardinal Wolsey, the most senior cleric in England during Queen Katherine's reign, and then as Cromwell rises to become the most powerful man in England, after the King.  During this time, the King's marriage to Queen Katherine is annuled and he marries Anne Boleyn, who bears him Princess Elizabeth.  The novel does not continue on to document Cromwell's fall, and I wish it did, because the Cromwell Mantel creates is a deeply fascinating, witty and likable character.    I decided to create a medieval style dish for the book and did some research on what kind of food was available during Henry VIII's reign.  I settled on fruit stuff poultry.  I also added some touches to the recipe based on food that is mentioned in the book, particularly walnuts, apples and spiced wine.  This spiced fruit stuff game hen with spiced wine glaze was improvised, and it turned out great.  The stuffing and cooking methods would work with any poultry, it would be great with chicken or capon.  Seeing as this is Thanksgiving Week, it would also work for a Turkey - you could add crumbled cornbread or regular bread cubes to the fruit along with sausage and some chicken stock and it would be a yummy Thanksgiving Stuffing. 

It took me several weeks to get through Wolf Hall, it is one of those books that has family trees and timelines in the first few pages because there are so many people and events to keep track of.  What is great about this book is that it certainly felt like Mantel didn't dumb the history down or leave out any important people or events.  And while this meant the book was incredibly dense, Mantel created incredibly real and emotionally interesting characters, most centrally Cromwell.   Cromwell was known as a serious and ambitious man - he would have to be to become King Henry's closest adviser despite his humble beginnings.  During this time in English history, the class system ruled and nobility was everything.  Yet Thomas Cromwell, who had a violent and wayward youth, fought for France and Italy as a teenager, eventually returned to England and rose above his birth by first becoming a close aide to Cardinal Wolsey, a high ranking English Cardinal and then becoming close to Henry VIII and spearheading England's historic break from the Catholic Church.  This book, unlike many others about Henry and Anne Boleyn, stays away for the most part from romance, melodrama and sex.  Wolf Hall made all the other books I read above Tudor England seem like nothing more than cotton candy - pure fluff.  That isn't to say that the book doesn't have heart - it has it in spades.  Mantel's Cromwell is a fascinating man - he clearly knows how to fight, but climbs higher and higher in the King's esteem through his keen ability to read the King's moods.  And although he had a reputation for being such a dour and serious man (see the Hans Holbein portrait below), he suffered unimaginable family loss as a result of the plague and built a second family by welcoming into his household a menagerie of strays and distant relatives.   The book documents Cromwell's incredible climb, and the inevitable casualties of colleagues along the way (Wolsey, Thomas More), but I do wish we also got the story of his fall.    This book will take some time and commitment, but it is worth it. 

Medieval Hens

I put this recipe together by googling medieval foods/recipes, and combining what I found with some ideas I got for the book.   On several occasions, Cromwell would receive gives of fowl (pheasant, capon) from patrons wishing to gain his favor.  In the book, Cromwell is actually a real foodie, he spent several years in Italy in his youth and the delicious food made an impression on him.  He often notes how much better the food is in his house than in other great houses in England.  Further, he understands the power of good food to impress and to persuade.   My research on medieval food revealed that fruit and spices were often used with proteins - the high spicing used to preserve meats without refrigeration.  So I decided to stuff a cornish game hen with a highly spiced fruit stuffing.  I noticed a reference to walnuts in the book and added those to the stuffing for some crunch.  Finally, towards the end of the book Cromwell serves spiced wine to a guest during a trying time.  I decided to make a spiced wine reduction to glaze the hens with.  The dish turned out great, yum!

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 Cornish game hens, cleaned and patted dry.

1 apple, peeled and chopped

1 quince, peeled and chopped

1 pear, peeled and chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 tablespoons butter

Glaze

2 cups red wine

1 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves

2 black peppercorns

(there was no science to the spice mix, I would maybe add more next time for a stronger flavor)

1 tablespoon butter

Directions: Preheat oven to 400.  To make glaze, combine spices in wine in a heavy saucepan.  Bring to a boil and let boil for about 30 minutes, until the red wine is significantly reduced, to about half a cup.  Swirl in butter and let met.  Then pour through a sieve and remove whole spices.  Set aside.

To make hens, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in saute pan, add shallots and cook over medium heat for 2 or 3 minutes.  Add apples, pears and quinces and toss to coat with butter and shallots.  Cook for 3 or 4 minutes.  Then add spices and walnuts and toss to coat fruit.  Continue to cook for 3 or 4 minutes more. The fruit should still be firm.

Let cool.  Salt and pepper inside and outside of hens.  Stuff completely with fruit mixture.  Dot the hens with butter and put in oven to roast for about 20 minutes.

After about 20 minutes, take out hens and use pastry brush to completely glaze the hens.  Put back in the oven for another 20 minutes.  Take out and glaze again.  Cook for another 15 minutes, glaze again.  Cook for 10 - 15 minutes more, until the little hen legs wiggle easily.  Ta da!