Mawmenee

Origin: English      Period: Medieval

Original Recipe

Mawmenee (from A Forme of Cury)

Take a ptiitl of wyne greke. and ii. ponde of ſug^r take and clarifye the ſug^r with a q^uatite of wyne ā drawe it thurgh a ſt^ryno^r in t oa pot of erthe take flo^r or Canell. and medle^g with sū of the wyne ā caſt to gydre. take pyn⁹ with Dat⁹ and frye hē to gydre. take clowes ā flo^r of canel hool and caſt þ⁹to. take powdo^r gyng^r. canel. clow⁹. colo^r it with sāndres a lytel yf hit be nede caſt ſalt þ⁹to. and lat it ſeeþ warly with a ſlowe fyre and not to thyk, take brawn of Capons yteyſed oþ of Fesānt teyſed ſmall and caſt þ⁹to.

Modern Redaction

Ingredients:

500ml red wine (a full-bodied red such as a Rhône)
150ml port
400g white sugar
300g stoned dates
70g pine nuts
2 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground mace
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground ginger
pinch of salt
4 chicken breasts (or equivalent amount of leftover roast chicken)

Method:

Preparation

The original recipe calls for a Greek wine. Some of the best tend to be very full-bodied and have a high alcohol content. If you can't find one of these use a mix of port and red wine, as above.

Mix together the wine, port, sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a large casserole pot and bring to a simmer. Keep heating gently until the volume has reduced by about a third. While simmering the stock cook the chicken (this can be done by roasting in an oven or by frying). If frying, remove the chicken when done, add a knob of butter to the frying pan and sauté the dates until they soften. Remove the dates (along with the frying butter) and lightly toast the pine nuts in the same pan until they begin to colour. Combine the pine nuts and the dates along with the remaining spices and add this to the wine mixture.

Continue cooking for a further 25 minutes or so, then shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add this to the wine mixture. Allow to warm for five minutes to heat the chicken then serve.

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