Spelt Porridge with Bacon and Cheese
A thick spelt porridge cooked slowly, enriched with bacon and fresh cheese, flavored with lovage. Comforting and simple, it sticks to the ribs from dawn to dusk.
A thick spelt porridge cooked slowly, enriched with bacon and fresh cheese, flavored with lovage. Comforting and simple, it sticks to the ribs from dawn to dusk.
Before the meat appeared, it was the spelt porridge that opened our days, and believe me, it was worth many a costly dish. I wanted it thick, melted with a little bacon and that fresh cheese made on our Burgundian estates. A pinch of lovage, and the belly was content until evening. Poor and king eat the same puls: that is a lesson I never forgot.
- •Spelt (or hulled barley) — a measure (base cereal)
- •Salt bacon — a few dice (fat and umami)
- •Fresh cheese — a portion (creamy binder)
- •Lovage — a few leaves (aromatic herb)
- •Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Spelt Porridge with Bacon and Cheese
A thick spelt porridge cooked slowly, enriched with bacon and fresh cheese, flavored with lovage. Comforting and simple, it sticks to the ribs from dawn to dusk.
Why this dish? Before the roast and outside feast days, the royal household as well as the common people ate puls, the ancient cereal porridge inherited from Rome. It was the nourishing foundation of the Frankish kingdom, the everyday dish that sustained Clotilde's table.
Before the meat appeared, it was the spelt porridge that opened our days, and believe me, it was worth many a costly dish. I wanted it thick, melted with a little bacon and that fresh cheese made on our Burgundian estates. A pinch of lovage, and the belly was content until evening. Poor and king eat the same puls: that is a lesson I never forgot.
Ingredients (period version)
- Spelt (or hulled barley) — a measure (base cereal)
- Salt bacon — a few dice (fat and umami)
- Fresh cheese — a portion (creamy binder)
- Lovage — a few leaves (aromatic herb)
- Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Hulled spelt — 200 g (cereal)
- Smoked bacon lardons — 100 g (salty fat)
- Fresh cheese (like faisselle or brousse) — 100 g (creaminess)
- Broth or water — 1 liter (cooking liquid)
- Lovage or chopped celery leaves — 1 tbsp (herb)
- Salt and pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Rinse the spelt and cook it in the broth at a gentle boil for 40 to 50 minutes, until tender and the porridge is thick.
- Sauté the lardons in a dry pan, then add them with their fat to the porridge.
- Off the heat, stir in the fresh cheese to bind and smooth.
- Season with chopped lovage, salt, and serve hot in a bowl.
How it was made : Puls was the daily food of the Roman and then Frankish world: cereals (spelt, barley, millet) cooked in water until they formed a porridge, enriched according to means with bacon, cheese, herbs, or vegetables. It was prepared in a large bronze cauldron suspended over the hearth.
The contemporary twist : Serve it as a 'spelt risotto' creamed with fresh cheese, a few fresh herbs, and a twist of pepper: the porridge of Merovingian kings becomes a comforting modern dish.
Sources : Apicius, De re coquinaria · Pliny the Elder, Natural History (on puls)
Clotilde · Charactorium
