With the growing number of our friends sensitive to nuts, we always serve sauces like this one, on the side at feasts.  

• 1 tsp whole coriander seed

• 1/4 cup whole blanched almonds

• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/8 teaspoon Ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 cup orange juice

• 1/4 cup white wine or white grape juice

• Sugar to taste (2 teaspoons)

Grind coriander seed and almonds to a fine powder

Combine with other ingredients and simmer over med flame until sauce thickens   As with other nut based sauces this can take longer than you think but then it thickens suddenly. Makes about 2/3 cup sauce. Serve with roast fowl.

This sauce should have a sweet sour balance.  If you can find them use Seville oranges for the juice. They are nearer to a period orange than most modern oranges which have been bred for sweetness. Otherwise use cheap frozen juice for the sour. 

A crock pot turned out to be a great way to make this in larger quantities.  Just combine all the ingredients and let it cook.   It required little attention and held beautifully.

29.          Another Pottage of COriander Called the Second Celiandrate

               OTRO POTAJE DE CULANTRO LLAMADO CELIANDRATE SEGUNDO

Take grains of dry coriander, and clean it and grind it well in a mortar; and then take well-peeled almonds, and grind them well with the coriander; and when everything is well-ground, put these ground spices with it: cinnamon, ginger and cloves; and when it is well-ground, blend the sauce with the juice of sour oranges and sweet white grapes, so that it is not very sour, and put it on the fire to cook; and sample the taste, which must be between sour and sweet; and the color of this sauce must be a gray color.  And this sauce is good for roast partridges and chickens; and upon the sauce [put] sugar and cinnamon.

This recipe comes from the Catalan text  Libre del Coch, Maestro Robert 1520 English translation Robin Carroll-Mann, 2001 

We served this at our Yule Feast (2013) for more on that feast see Yule Feast

Other recipes from this manuscript

• Catalan Stew
• Figs in the French Manner
• Marinated Mutton
• Potaje de Fideos
• Simple Salmon Pie

Other sauces for meats

• Hazelnut Saffron Sauce
• Sauce a la Matius
• Sweet and Sour Sauce for Pork