Bouts on your plate

Eating as if in your great-great-great-great-grandmother’s time

Bouts on your plate

Eating and drinking as though in Dieric Bouts’ time: it’s possible this autumn! Under the banner Bouts on your Plate, several Leuven restaurants and speciality shops are presenting culinary fare based on authentic fifteenth-century recipes.

The table is set. In the foreground: a platter filled with a brown sauce. Small loaves of bread can be seen, some broken, others whole. There are glasses, a saltshaker, and a wine-filled decanter. It is hard to miss: The Last Supper revolves around food. And not just the central scene: the side panels also depict biblical meals.

Visit Leuven were fascinated. Together with M and others, they have created an exciting culinary event around Bouts and his era. It is called Bouts on your Plate, and Lucie Vangerven of Visit Leuven explains what to expect.

‘We reached out to Jakob Snellings, a culinary historian. He knows what was on fifteenth-century tables, both rich and poor, and he owns a collection of authentic and contemporaneous recipes. Jakob held a workshop so that Leuven chefs could taste the dishes. The chefs then created their own contemporary interpretations of the recipes, which you can sample in their restaurants over the coming months.’

‘Leuven restaurants across all price categories are participating in the event, from haute cuisine to the better brasseries. Just book a table as you would normally. But don’t forget to mention that you’re coming for the Bouts menu.’

Elegant tables

‘In the restaurants, we make playful links to the major Bouts exhibition at M and the New Horizons city festival, to which Bouts on your Plate connects. On your table, you will discover a menu with fascinating facts about the food culture in Bouts’ time. People used an improbable array of spices back then, for example, or at least the rich did: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, saffron... Not so much to mask questionable flavours, as you sometimes read, but mainly to show that they could afford such products. Spices travelled great distances and were prohibitively expensive. People also sprinkled sugar on everything, another costly ingredient.’

‘Another fun fact: the food was not served on a plate, but on a piece of bread. Preferably one that was slightly stale, so that it formed a firm base for the lashings of sauce. And people used a spoon and sometimes a knife, but the fork had yet to be invented. But don’t worry, you can use ordinary cutlery in the partner restaurants (laughs).’

Land aan de Overkant, foto: © KarlBruninx

Cheese, sausages and beer

‘In addition to the restaurants, Leuven’s speciality shops are also participating in Bouts on your Plate. They are offering artisanal products prepared according to fifteenth-century recipes: a Bouts cheese, a Bouts sausage, a cheese mousse with compote... And brewery Hof ten Dormaal has developed a special Bouts white beer, based on six-hundred-year-old documents. See? There’s something for everyone!’

Boutskaas gedrenkt in het BOUTS-bier, Elsen Kaasambacht, foto: © Karl Bruninx

Boutssaucijs, Rondou, foto: © Karl Bruninx

Zalmpasteitje met gember en stoofpeer, De Walvis, foto: © Karl Bruninx

Ambachtelijke kaasmousse, Zuut, foto: © Karl Bruninx

‘Tamme lampreien’ [young domestic rabbits] with raisins and bacon

Recipe from restaurant De Valck, Leuven

1 lamprey (young rabbit in pieces) or 1 kg lamprey legs
1 knob of butter
3 onions
250 g diced bacon
A few sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 slice of white bread (wheat flour) spread with mustard
3 tablespoons redcurrant compote (jelly)
Duke’s powder (spice blend according to taste: pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg)
1 beaker (1 dl) of sweet brown table beer
100 g raisins, soaked in the table beer
½ l beef stock
Parsley

Peel and coarsely chop the onions. Season the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a pan and fry the bacon until crisp. Place the rabbit in the hot butter with the bacon and fry until golden and sealed. Add the sliced onion and continue to fry. Stir well and deglaze the pan with the beer and stock. Add the raisins and spices. Tie the bay leaf, parsley and thyme into a bouquet garni and add to the pan. Top with the mustard-coated bread. Let the stew simmer for 1.5 hours on a low heat. Taste and add the redcurrant compote to taste.

Participating in Bouts on your Plate:

Bar Jérôme, De Hoorn, De Klimop, De Valck, Gloria, Land aan de Overkant, Leuven Taste, ’t Oud Gasthuys, Dagobert & Mathilde, De Walvis vishandel & traiteur, Elsen Kaasambacht, slagerij Rondou, Zuut patisserie-chocolaterie, De Broodenier, Convento Food, Brouwerij De Coureur and

Hof Ten Dormaal.