Dillegrout
Sweet and spiced chicken stew made with boozy almond milk
City/Region: England
Time Period: 1425
As happens sometimes with historical dishes, this one is kind of difficult to track down. There are a LOT of different names for what could be dillegrout, so we have to go off of descriptions of it as well. What we do know is that the descendents of Tezelin, the cook for William the Conqueror, were gifted the Manor at Addington as long as they agreed to make it for every coronation in perpetuity, and it was served at every coronation from 1068 to 1821.
Eventually this dish fell out of fashion as tastes changed, but I really, really liked it. It’s weird and medieval, but the sweetness and spices come together in a kind of barbecue sauce flavor. The rose water is very faint, so feel free to adjust the amount if you want more.
“Bardolf.
Take almonde mylk, and draw hit up thik with vernage, and let hit boyle, and braune [meat] of capons braied [pounded], and put thereto; and cast thereto sugre, clowes, maces, pynes [pinenuts], and ginger, mynced; and take chekyns parboyled, and chopped, and pul of the skyn, and boyle al ensemble [together], and in the settynge doune from the fire, put thereto a lytel vynegur alaied [mixed] with pouder of ginger, and a lytel water of everose [rose], and make the potage hanginge [thick], and serve hit forth.”
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (120 g) blanched almonds
- 3 lbs (1 1/2 kg) chicken, divided into white meat and dark meat
- 3 cups (710 ml) sweet white wine
- 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon mace*
- 1/4 cup (35 g) pine nuts
- 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger*, chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 cup (30 ml) white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon rose water
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
*See notes below.
Instructions:
- Soak the almonds in cool water for several hours.
- Cut the dark meat into small pieces, then pound the heck out of it until it’s nearly pulp.
- Parboil the white meat for 10 minutes, then chop it up into small pieces.
- Drain the soaked almonds. Add them to a blender with the wine and blend until pretty much all of the almonds are pulverized.
- Set up a nut milk bag or cheesecloth in a strainer and put it over a bowl. Pour the almond milk in and let as much drain as possible before gently squeezing the bag to get all of the liquid out.
- Pour the almond milk into a large pot and set it over high heat. Add the pounded dark meat and bring it to a boil. Stir in the sugar, cloves, mace, pine nuts, dried ginger, salt, and parboiled white meat. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
- When the dillegrout has cooked for an hour and has thickened a bit, take it off the heat. In a bowl, mix the vinegar, rose water, and ground ginger together, then stir that into the pot and serve it forth.
Notes
- Mace comes from the outside of a nutmeg seed and tastes similar to nutmeg with notes of cinnamon and black pepper. It's used in a lot of historical recipes and is definitely worth getting.
- Link to mace: https://amzn.to/3SMkVJ5
- Link to dried ginger: https://www.amazon.com/Sadaf-Dried-Ginger-Whole-0-75/dp/B00886MXH6/ref=sr_1_4_sspa
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