fried-breads-msg – 9/26/18 Period fried breads. Funnel Cakes, Donuts. NOTE: See also the files: pastries-msg, French-Toast-msg, bread-msg, flour-msg, pretzels-msg, breadmaking-msg, wafers-msg, yeasts-msg, cooking-oils-msg, desserts-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 22:36:01 -0700 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - Frittours At 8:50 AM -0400 5/12/98, LrdRas wrote: >Be that as it may, funnel cakes are frittour- >like and, SFAIK, period documentable. These tasties are sprinkled with >powdered sugar and are tasty warm or room temperature. :-) Yes. Mincebek (from mis-en-bec = put in funnel) is a funnel cake recipe from the Anglo-Norman cookbook; it has a sugar syrup on it rather than powdered sugar. Mincebek [or, funnel cakes] Anglo-Norman no. 4 p. 863 (Elizabeth's translation, guided by theirs) And another dish, which has the name mincebek. Take amydon [wheat starch] and grind it in a mortar, and if you do not have this, take fine white flour; and take almond milk or tepid water, and put in it a little yeast or a little sourdough; and then temper it; and take a bowl and make a hole in the middle, and pour the mincebek through the hole into oil or into grease; and then take sugar and make a syrup to boil; and dip[?] the mincebek in it, and put some on top [or, put salt on it]; and then serve them. [end of original] 1 c white flour 1 c whole wheat flour 2 c water for dough 1/4 c sourdough 1/2 c water for syrup 2 c sugar oil for frying Mix sourdough and water, stir into the mixed flour, stirring until pretty smooth. Let rise about 7 hours. Heat oil in frying pan. For syrup, bring water to a boil, add sugar and cover. When the sugar is dissolved and the syrup again clear, it is ready. Pour some of batter into a funnel and dribble around into oil at a medium heat, then fry until brown, turning at least once. Each mincebek comes out of the oil onto a paper towel to drain briefly, then is dipped (tongs are useful) into the syrup, then onto the plate to serve. Elizabeth/Betty Cook Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 15:39:26 -0400 From: Ceridwen Subject: SC - Funnel cakes (cryspes) The funnel cakes mentioned here are the forerunners of those lovelies that we get at the fairs. Funnel cake mix is available at most groceries, for those wanting to try them without redacting an original. I made them for breakfast at Trimaris' Tenth Year Anniversary, in an outdoor kitchen (two gas burners) for about 100 people. Fun... but I won't do it again unless I have a way to regulate the temperature of the oil better.... the breeze sucked the heat out of the burners, and I had far more waste than I would have liked. Doing them again in June at St Jerome's Study (for 50).Ceridwen From Le Menagier de Paris (janet Hinson trans) Crepes in Tournay Style First, you must have the use of a brass skillet holding a quart, of which the top is no wider than the bottom, even by a very little, and the edges should be 3 or 4 fingers tall and half a finger thick. Item: you need to have salted butter, melted, skimmed, and cleaned, and then turned into another skillet, and leave all the salt and fresh oil as clean in one as in the other. Then take eggs and fry (?) them and take the whites out of half of them, and the remains of these are beaten with all the whites and yolks, then take a third or a fourth of warm white wine and mix it all together, then take the best wheat flour you can get, and then beat together enough at a time, for one or two people, and your batter should be neither clear nor thick, but such that it will flow though a hole as big as your little finger: Then put your butter and your oil on the fire, as much of one as the other, until it boils, then take your batter and fill a bowl or a lerge pierced wooden spoon, and pour it inot your grese, first into the middle of the skillet, then circling until your skillet is full: and keep beating your batterwithout stopping to make more crepes. And this crepe which is in the pan should be lifted with a fork or a skewer, and turned over to cook, then take it out, put it on a plate, and start another, and keep stirring and beating the batter without stopping. Forme of Cury: Cryspes Take flour of pandemayn and medle it with white greece over the fire on achawfor and do the batter thereto quentlych through thy fingers, or through a skymour and let it little quayle a little so that it be hool therein. And if thou wilt colour it with alkanet ysondyt. Take them up and cast therein sugar, and serve them forth. Ancient Cookery (contained in form of Cury) For to make cryppys Nym flour and wytys of eyren sugar other honey and sweyng togeder, and make a batour. Nym white greece and do it in a posnet and cast the batour thereyn and stury to thou have many, and take them up and messe hem with the frutours ans serve forthe. Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books Cryspes Take white of eyron, milke, and fyne floure, and bete hit togidre and drawe hit thorgh a streynour, so that hit be rennyng and noght to stiff: and caste there-to sugur and salt. And then take a chauffur ful of fresh greece boiling: and then put thy honde in the batur and lete the batur ren thorgh thi fingers into the chaffur: And when it is runtogidre in the chaffre, and is ynow, take a skymour and take hit outw ofthe chauffer and putte oute al the greece and let ren: And putte hit ina faire dissh and cast sugur thereon ynow and serve it forth. Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 21:33:59 -0400 From: "marilyn traber" Subject: Re: SC - Frittours Why not do an above the salt with the more elaborate fruit fritters and below the salts get funnel cakes? I have made them for parties at home, and my lord worked in a funnel cake booth one northern California renn faire, and we both concur that at 30-60 seconds per funnel cake, with 2 skillets running and an assistant sugarer{?} they could be turned out with relative speed for even 300 people. Northern Equipment sells a very nice cast iron 2 burner that hooks up to propane and can be set up on a table just outside the kitchen door[if it isn't raining..] very reasonably[in the vicinity of $40. Then all you need is a nice pair of 10" cast iron skillets, some well-fry, a 1/2 gal pitcher, a skimmer, a draining grill, a large shaker for the sugar, a cake pan to sugar in and a whole stack of paper plates. The whole shebang, if you had to buy everything rather than dog-rob would be somewhere in the vicinity of $75 plus the cost of the ingredients for the batter. margali Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 09:16:51 -0400 From: "Nick Sasso" Subject: SC - Funnel Cakes (was [TY] cooking query) For thoise looking for the medieval funnel cake recipe, you will find it titled something like "Cryspes". They are made with a thickish batter that is put into a bowl with a hole in the bottom and drizzeled over heated grease. When done, you scatter ground sugar on them. It is used as a spice in this dish, not so much a sweetener. Hooray for medieval Faire Foods!! Might have to make these at an event some afternoon. niccolo difrancesco Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 09:58:21 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Funnel Cakes (was [TY] cooking query) Nick Sasso wrote: > For thoise looking for the medieval funnel cake recipe, you will find it tiled > something like "Cryspes". They are made with a thickish batter that is put > into a bowl with a hole in the bottom and drizzeled over heated grease. When > done, you scatter ground sugar on them. It is used as a spice in this dish, > not so much a sweetener. Hooray for medieval Faire Foods!! See also Le Menagier's Crepe recipe; he even speaks of using the funnel/bowl arrangement to make various shapes, such as buckles. Then there are the English (and other) recipes for nysbeke, mincebek, etc., which are somewhere in between funnel cakes and zeppoles, being raised with yeast. There are also similarly named dishes calling for a fruit stuffing wrapped up like a cus...uh, you know. That thing. Adamantius Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 19:34:37 -0400 From: "Andy Oppenheim" Subject: RE: SC - Funnel Cakes (was [TY] cooking query) There is also a recipe in Take A Thousand Eggs Or More. andy Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 16:59:51 -0700 From: varmstro at zipcon.net (Valoise Armstrong) Subject: Re: SC - Funnel Cakes (was [TY] cooking query) Here are several Strauben and other funnel cake-like recipes from Sabina Welserin. She must have really been fond of them to include this many recipes. I thought I saw a Strauben recipe in Anna Weckerin that included chopped apple in the dough. I'll look laer this evening to see if I can find it and give it a quick translation. Valoise ********** 82 Spritzgebackenes Then take one third quart of milk and let it boil and take wheat flour, as if you were making steamed buns, and take six or eight eggs and beat them in one after the other until the dough becomes very soft and put through a pastry bag and fry it slowly. 86 If you would bake good fried Strauben Then bring water to a boil and pour it on the flour, stir it together well, beat eggs into it and salt it, take a small Strauben funnel, which should have a hole as wide as a finger, and let the batter run through and fry the Strauben. The batter should be warm. 99 To bake white Lautensternchen Take flour and pour cold water thereon and salt and make the dough thick and thin it with pure egg whites, until it becomes thin enough. After that take a small Strauben funnel, which should have a very small hole, and take a small pan, and it should run through so that it looks like Lautensternchen and fry them therein. 141 To bake Strauben for a meal Take six eggs and a little milk with water, salt it, beat it together well and put the flour into it. Do not make it thick, then it is right. 161 To bake white Strauben Take egg whites, well beaten, and some wheat flour, make a thin batter out of it, and let it run through a skimming ladle. Turn the Strauben at once in the fat. Wind them around a rolling pin, then they become curved. 162 To bake Spritzgebackenes Take one quart of water or milk for a meal and put it into a pan. Bring it to a boil, stir good flour into it, so that the dough becomes fairly dry, take it out of the pan, roll it out well, but with additional flour, put it into a mortar, blend it well with eggs, until it becomes good and sticky, put it in a pastry bag, bake them slowly. 185 If you would fry white Strauben Take an egg white and a spoonful of water and of flour and stir it together well until the batter becomes smooth. Put sugar in the batter and make it thinner than other batters. Make eight or ten small holes in a small pot [let the batter run through] and fry it through that. And make nice long strips, as long as the pan. They are not as thick as other Strauben. Make a round stick three fingers wide, so that the pastry can be wrapped over it, and twist it around with the stick and take it out, and when you have taken it out, then take hold of the pastry and curve it over the stick so that it goes together like a Hohlhippe. And set them on a board, one after the other, and always set two close against each other. This is pretty around a tart. Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 18:43:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: SC - Funnel Cakes (was [TY] cooking query) - --- Valoise Armstrong wrote: > Here are several Strauben and other funnel cake-like > recipes from Sabina Welserin. Have you [or anyone else] found any correlation between funnel cakes and baumkuche? Baumkuche is a cake batter that is piped or drizzled onto a spit and cooked over a fire. I have always wondered if there was a correlation. Huette Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 13:49:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: SC - Funnel Cakes (was [TY] cooking query) - --- Valoise Armstrong wrote: > Huette wrote: > >Have you [or anyone else] found any correlation > >between funnel cakes and baumkuchen? Baumkuchen is > >cake batter that is piped or drizzled onto a spit > >and cooked over a fire. I have always wondered if > >there was a correlation. > > I don't recall seeing a recipe for anything like > baumkuchen in a period > cookbook, but I wasn't looking for it, so I can't > say when it might have > originated. Obviously the cooking methods vary, > Strauben is fried in fat > and baumkuchen baked on a spit, are batters similar? > > Valoise Sort of. It is hard to tell. There are similarities and there are some differences. I have only looked at Sabrina Welserin. The first recipe #161 To bake white Strauben, uses bake in the title, but is unclear in recipe. #185 If you would fry white Strauben, is clearly fried, but it is also twisted around a stick or rolling pin. 161 To bake white Strauben Take egg whites, well beaten, and some wheat flour, make a thin batter out of it, and let it run through a skimming ladle. Turn the Strauben at once in the fat. Wind them around a rolling pin, then they become curved. 185 If you would fry white Strauben Take an egg white and a spoonful of water and of flour and stir it together well until the batter becomes smooth. Put sugar in the batter and make it thinner than other batters. Make eight or ten small holes in a small pot [let the batter run through] and fry it through that. And make nice long strips, as long as the pan. They are not as thick as other Strauben. Make a round stick three fingers wide, so that the pastry can be wrapped over it, and twist it around with the stick and take it out, and when you have taken it out, then take hold of the pastry and curve it over the stick so that it goes together like a Hohlhippe. And set them on a board, one after the other, and always set two close against each other. This is pretty around a tart. So if the first recipe really meant baked and if you took the wrapping around the stick from the second recipe, you would have something similar to Baumkuchen. The batters from Welserin specify egg whites, whereas the modern recipe uses whole eggs but separates four eggs and asks that the whites be beaten until stiff. It also asks for lemon peel, almonds and cardemom. However, I have found a Swedish version of this called, "Spettekaka", which does not ask for any flavorings or butter. The German recipe comes from Stettin in Pomerania, and the Swedish recipe comes from the southern province of Skåne. The modern recipe: 1 1/2 cups + 1 tbsp butter, softened 3 cups sugar 14 eggs, 4 separated 1 3/4 cups flour grated peel of 1/2 lemon 1 heaping tbsp crushed almonds generous pinch of cardamom Combine the butter and sugar and beat until frothy. Add eggs one at a time (10 whole eggs + 4 egg yolks). Stir in flour and seasonings until you have a smooth mixture. Beat 4 egg whites until stiff and fold into batter. If the batter is still too stiff, beat in whole eggs until correct. Take a hard wood spit, 2 to 3 inches in diameter. Wrap it with waxed paper. Place spit over a low flame fire, approx. 12 inches above. Drip batter over spit as it is slowly rotating. When first layer is slightly brown, add next layer, and continue adding layers on top of browned layers until you have used up all the batter. Remove cake from spit and sprinkle with sugar. Serve warm. The Swedish recipe decorates the cake with flowers. Anyway, in my eyes, there is some correlation, but I think that there might be a "missing link" somewhere that should link these early recipes with the modern recipes. Or one of the other German cook book authors might have something closer, but all I have access to in English is Welserin and "Guter Speise". Huette Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 17:13:26 -0700 From: varmstro at zipcon.net (Valoise Armstrong) Subject: Re: SC - Funnel Cakes (was [TY] cooking query) Huette von Ahrens wrote (regarding baumkuchen/strauben): >Sort of. It is hard to tell. There are similarities >and there are some differences. I have only looked at >Sabrina Welserin. >The first recipe #161 To bake white Strauben, uses >bake in the title, but is unclear in recipe. Actually, the same word can be translated either bake or fry and needs to be translated in the context of the recipe. In this case, I really did mean to go back and change it to fry because: >161 To bake white Strauben > >Take egg whites, well beaten, and some wheat flour, >make a thin batter out of it, and let it run through a >skimming ladle. Turn the Strauben at once in the fat. >Wind them around a rolling pin, then they become >curved. Welser indicates that the strauben should be turned once in the fat - sounds like frying to me. I'm going to keep my eye open for anything that looks like baumkuche. Besides #185 (the white strauben that is shaped to resemble Hohlippen) there are is the recipe for holliplen (or Hohlhippen) that is shaped like a tube around a metal form. 190 To fry small holliplen Take good flour, the best that you can get, as much as you would like to make, and put some water, sugar and pepper thereon. Also melt a little butter in a small pan and pour it also therein, but it should not be hot, but just as it is about to harden up again, then the holliplen will be more easily released from the iron mold. And make the batter about the same thickness as Strauben batter. You should also pour rose water into it. And fry them on a cast iron mold. Grease the iron also with butter. Valoise Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:27:16 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: [Sca-cooks] Still Life with Sweets and Pottery, 1627 To: Cooks within the SCA , SCA_Subtleties at yahoogroups.com I was doing an image search today and came across this one http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=45891+0+none It's too good to pass up and it's easy to get to since it's in the National Gallery of Art. There are a number of detail images too. Still Life with Sweets and Pottery, 1627 by Juan van der Hamen Doughnuts anyone? Johnnae Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 08:56:21 -0800 From: David Friedman Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] rice crispie (tm) treat analog--period To: Cooks within the SCA > I recently made some variation on rice crispie > treats... i hate marshmallows and eschew corn > syrup, unless absolutely necessary. And being a > cosmic organic sort i bought (From the Miscellany) Barad al-Baghdadi 211/13 Take best white flour, made into a dough, and leave to rise. Put a basin on the fire, with some sesame-oil. When boiling, take in a reticulated ladle some of the dough, and shake it into the oil, so that as each drop of the dough falls in, it sets. As each piece is cooked, remove with another ladle to drain off the oil. Take honey as required, mix with rose water, and put over the fire to boil to a consistency: then take off, and while still in the basin, whip until white. Throw in the barad, and place out on a soft-oiled surface, pressing in the shape of the mould. Then cut into pieces, and serve. 1/2 c white flour 1/2 t dried yeast + 2 t water 1/2 c honey 1/2 c water or 1/4 c sourdough 1 T rose water about 1 1/4 c sesame oil Make the flour and water into a smooth batter. Mix yeast and water, wait about 10 minutes, then add to the flour-water mixture. Let stand 2-3 hours (12-18 hours if your are using sourdough instead of the yeast/water mixture). Heat 1 c of the sesame oil to about 300° in a large frying pan. Pour the batter through a ladle or skimmer with small holes in it, so as to form small balls in the hot oil. Cook to a pale brown (1-3 minutes), take out, drain on paper towel. Add more sesame oil when it gets low. Mix rose water and honey, cook to 250°. Pay close attention-you want it almost but not quite boiling over. As it cools, whip it; it eventually takes a sort of whipped butter consistency, with a light color. Mix it with the fried dough, press down on an oiled plate, press down from above with another plate or a spatula. Chill before serving. It has some tendency to come out a bit oily; you may want to use paper towels during the pressing to absorb as much of the surplus oil as possible. ---- The first time we made these my squire Dain, part way through the process, told us that he knew what they were--rice krispie treats. -- David/Cariadoc www.daviddfriedman.com Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:57:04 -0500 (CDT) From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar Waffles? To: Cooks within the SCA On Tue, 13 Mar 2007, Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote: > A friend mentioned a fair speciality from her part of the finger lakes > region of NY, Sugar Waffles. > From her description, it's the waffles made with these irons: > http://www.petkeep.com/Sugar_Waffle.html > > I keep thinking there's another name for these, and also that > there's a period recipe similar to them -- could it be wafers? Rosettes. There's a recipe in Welserin for them: 88 A molded and fried pastry Take eight eggs and beat them well and pour them in a sieve and strain them, put a little wine in with it, so that it goes through easily, the chicken embryo remaining behind. Afterwards stir flour into it, until you think that it is right. Do not make the batter too thick. Dip the mold in with proper skill and let them fry, then it is well done. Salt the eggs [13]. Margaret FitzWilliam Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:49:32 -0700 From: Susan Fox Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar Waffles? To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net, Cooks within the SCA Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote: > A friend mentioned a fair speciality from her part of the finger lakes > region of NY, Sugar Waffles. >> From her description, it's the waffles made with these irons: > http://www.petkeep.com/Sugar_Waffle.html > > I keep thinking there's another name for these, and also that > there's a period recipe similar to them -- could it be wafers? Rosettes! They are Swedish. I make these around Christmastime. I never really found documentation for working them with dipped irons like this but I think Huette has. From http://rosetteirons.com/index.html, an guide to the naming of names: In Spain and Mexico, the pastries are called Buenellos; Scandinavian families call them "rosettes", the French call them "Merveille", and in Hungary, "roza frank". Even in the United States, we have many different names for these cookies. For instance: Minnesota = Rosette Cookie Ohio = Sugar Waffle Cookie Florida = Fried Cookie New York = Italian Fried Cookie Maryland = Lace Cookie Georgia = Elegant Wedding Cookie Pennsylvania = Festival Sugar Waffle Indiana = Fair Sugar Waffle Pukalani, Maui, Hawaii = Chinese pretzels Philippines = Swedish rosette iron Try this website for some radical shapes: http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/cooky/rosette.htm Yours in crunch goodness, Selene Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:54:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar Waffles? To: Cooks within the SCA Yes. This is one of the recipes that I found, Selene. There are a couple more in the Dutch opus. Huette --- "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" wrote: > Rosettes. There's a recipe in Welserin for them: > > 88 A molded and fried pastry > > Take eight eggs and beat them well and pour them in a sieve and strain > them, put a little wine in with it, so that it goes through easily, the > chicken embryo remaining behind. Afterwards stir flour into it, until you > think that it is right. Do not make the batter too thick. Dip the mold in > with proper skill and let them fry, then it is well done. Salt the eggs [13]. > > Margaret FitzWilliam Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:22:19 -0500 From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar Waffles? To: Cooks within the SCA > Rosettes! They are Swedish. I make these around Christmastime. I > never really found documentation for working them with dipped irons > like this but I think Huette has. > From Rumpolt, Ein new Kochbuch, Von allerlei Gebackens 5. Mach ein Teig mit Wein und Eiern an/ oder mit lauter Milch. Sto? den Messing Model in heisse Butter/ da? er warm wirt/ truckne jhn wohl ab/ sto? das Eisen in Teig/ da? er nicht vber das Eisen gehet/ halts gegen dem Feuwer/ da? fein trucken wirt an dem Eisen/ und wenns trucken ist/ so sto? flugs in heisse Butter/ so wirt der Teig vom Eisen lassen/ backs geschwindt au?/ legs auf ein Bret oder Sib. 5. Make a dough with wine and eggs/ or with clean milk. Push the brass mold (pattern) in hot butter/ so it becomes warm/ dry it well/ push the iron in the dough/ that it does not go over the iron/ hold against the fire/ that it will dry nicely on the iron/ and when dry, then push quickly in hot butter/ then you will leave the dough on the iron/ fry quickly/ lay on a clean board or sieve. Ranvaig Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:08:15 -0800 From: Marion Waldegrave Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar Waffles? To: Cooks within the SCA I make this every christmas time, being Scandahoooovian means i have too!, the trick with these is TEMPERATURE! If you do not have the iron at the right temp, and the oil at the right temp and the batter at the right temp, the cookie will stick to the iron! I have eight different designs to dip and you can find most of these online or at a Scandinavian store! Marion Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:22:07 -0400 From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] clean milk? To: Cooks within the SCA > 5. Mach ein Teig mit Wein und Eiern an/ oder mit > lauter Milch. > > "with *clean* milk" ??? > > Huh? As opposed to what? Dirty milk? Sour milk? Pure might be a better translation. Rumpolt uses "lauter" about eggs, almonds, water, blood, wine, butter, lemon juice, "Rosensaft" rose juice, and broth after it has been strained or skimmed. And uses "gel?utert" - purified, about sugar and syrup. Ranvaig Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 06:32:34 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] clean milk? To: "Cooks within the SCA" > 5. Mach ein Teig mit Wein und Eiern an/ oder mit > lauter Milch. > > "with *clean* milk" ??? > > Huh? As opposed to what? Dirty milk? Sour milk? Pure might be a better translation. Rumpolt uses "lauter" about eggs, almonds, water, blood, wine, butter, lemon juice, "Rosensaft" rose juice, and broth after it has been strained or skimmed. And uses "gel?utert" - purified, about sugar and syrup. Ranvaig La:utern can also mean strain or clarify. Bear Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:49:19 -0500 (CDT) From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar Waffles To: Cooks within the SCA On Sat, 24 Mar 2007, Stefan li Rous wrote: > Rosettes. There's a recipe in Welserin for them: > > 88 A molded and fried pastry > > Take eight eggs and beat them well and pour them in a sieve and strain > them, put a little wine in with it, so that it goes through easily, the > chicken embryo remaining behind. Afterwards stir flour into it, until you > think that it is right. Do not make the batter too thick. Dip the mold in > with proper skill and let them fry, then it is well done. Salt the eggs > [13]. >>> > > Oh! Thank you. Until you gave this period reference I was considering > the info on these pastries interesting, but only of passing interest. > I did think the stuffed sandwich maker which could be used over a > campfire interesting as well. I wonder if they could be convinced to > make a unit making flatter wafers with a period design. > > I've never heard of anything like these sugar wafers before. The > result doesn't resemble my preconceived ideas of either a wafer or a > waffle. I guess it is a regional difference. How are these sugar > wafers usually eaten? As is? or sprinkled with powdered sugar? Or are > the hollow sections filled with something and then eaten? What about > in period? Welserin doesn't say how they're served. I suspect that sprinkled with sugar would be a valid presentation, but my focus is England/France medieval, not German. The German experts on the list will probably have a better idea. Modernly I know rosettes as a Xmas cookie (of which there were many) in our family. Since none of the family lived in a heavily Swedish neighborhood, I had no idea that rosettes were a general Scandahoovian thing until we moved up here to MN, where they appear in the grocery stores in early December (dyed red or green, yech!). Grandpa (who was Swedish and Austrian) served them sprinkled heavily with powdered sugar, which is how I serve them when I make them. Margaret FitzWilliam Northshield Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 03:23:24 -0800 (PST) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: [Sca-cooks] PPC 84 / doughnuts To: Cooks within the SCA I received my issue # 84 of PPC on Tuesday. I have had great respect for the editors of PPC up until now. Sigh. In this issue is a 23 page article entitled "The Origins and the Early History of the Doughnut" by Brian Brivati. Seeing this title, I was very excited and started to read the article almost immediately upon opening up the envelope. He starts nicely, but then proceeds to ramble through North America and practically stating that the Native American fry bread was an ancestor to doughnuts. He then rambles off to Ancient Egypt and talks about the origins of bread and yeast and throws in apocryphal stories, along with quotations from the Bible, both old and new testaments. He then rambles to Ancient Greece and Athenaeus' "The Deiphnosophists" stating that the 'krimnitas' or 'chondrinos' of Thessaly were the ancient ancestor of doughnuts. He then wanders to Cato and 'Of Agriculture' and stated that the clearest ancestor of the doughnut is either "placenta" or "globi". From there he wanders to early medieval England, talks about fairs and festivals and fast food, eventually making a statement that "payne puff", "pain pendu" and "mistembec" were ancestors of doughnuts. He wanders more and eventually states that the doughnut might have been brought over on the Mayflower. He briefly mentions the Dutch 'olie-koeck' [which he mis-spells as 'olyoek']. Not once does he mention 'krapfen'. He quotes from various historic texts, but he does not document [at least in my opinion any of his theories. If you can't tell by now, I am extremely disappointed in this article. So, who else has read this article? What is your opinion of it? Am I right in thinking it is a poorly written and researched article? Or am I totally off base? Huette Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 16:57:56 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] PPC 84 / doughnuts To: "Cooks within the SCA" > Do you think that Krapfen is an ancestor to doughnut? > Emilio Krapfen is a fairly broad term covering fritters, turnovers and other fat fried pastries including Berliners. I would argue that Cato's Globi are an early form of doughnut and they appear to be a close ancestor to recipe 173 "Wie man krepflen pfligt zu niernberg jn der fasnacht zu machen" from Sabina Welser. Thus Krapfen are likely in the true line of doughnut evolution. I would also argue that placenta has nothing to do with doughnuts, so I would flag the article that initiated this thread as being of questionable accuracy until it can be verified. Bear Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 18:49:19 -0800 (PST) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] PPC 84 / doughnuts To: Cooks within the SCA Thank you. I was hoping that you would comment on this. I was thinking of recipe #173 and also recipe #95. There are also four similar recipes in Ein Buch von Guter Spise: #58, 59, 60, and 61. Huette --- Terry Decker wrote: > Krapfen is a fairly broad term covering fritters, turnovers and other fat > fried pastries including Berliners. I would argue that Cato's Globi are an > early form of doughnut and they appear to be a close ancestor to recipe 173 > "Wie man krepflen pfligt zu niernberg jn der fasnacht zu machen" from Sabina > Welser. Thus Krapfen are likely in the true line of doughnut evolution. > > Bear Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 21:04:49 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] PPC 84 / doughnuts To: "Cooks within the SCA" Since Globi and the Shrove Tuesday Nuremberger Krapfen seem to be related, I wonder if the recipe was transferred into Germania by the Legions or if it is a later addition to the German corpus? Bear > Thank you. I was hoping that you would comment on this. I was thinking > of recipe #173 > and also recipe #95. There are also four similar recipes in Ein > Buch von Guter Spise: #58, 59, 60, and 61. > > Huette Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:23:07 -0500 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] PPC 84 / doughnuts To: Cooks within the SCA > Huette von Ahrens wrote: >> I received my issue # 84 of PPC on Tuesday. I have had great >> respect for the editors of PPC >> up until now. Sigh. In this issue is a 23 page article entitled >> "The Origins and the Early >> History of the Doughnut" by Brian Brivati. snipped If you can't >> tell by now, I am extremely >> disappointed in this article. >> So, who else has read this article? What is your opinion of it? >> Am I right in thinking it is a >> poorly written and researched article? Or am I totally off base? >> >> Huette Ok the doughnut article-- This "the Origins and Early History of the Doughnut" by Brian Brivati on pages 51-74 of PPC 84 is a very strange one. Here are some quick thoughts. To start -- No footnotes, references, bibliography, or sources are listed. So we have the author quoting large amounts of text without scant attribution at times. He mentions the internet and apparently quotes text from websites without naming the websites. He mentions for instance Martha Carlin and writes "Martha Carlin writing of the fast-food industry..." on page 68. Now where exactly did Martha Carlin write about the fast-food industry. He fails to say. I happen to know that he is referencing this article: Carlin, Martha. "Fast Food and Urban Living Standards in Medieval England." *Food and Eating in Medieval Europe.* Edited by Martha Carlin and Joel T. Rosenthal. London: The Hambledon Press, 1998. pp. 27-51. Many other readers might not know that. I have to wonder if the sources or notes were just omitted from the end of the article. He early on states "I define the doughnut as wheat-based risen dough which is fried and then finished sweetly." page 51. As to his definitions, he doesn't reference OED, MED, or such works asone might expect like Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE/) or/The Historical Dictionary of American Slang. He also doesn't mention using the Oxford Companion to Food and Drink or the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America* *The article as has been noted by Mistress Huette is all over the place and even tries to tie into a Native American pre-historical connection on pages 53-54. Here he seems to be ignoring his own definition that was just offered two pages earlier. But no matter because he then tries to tie in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Bible. Then it's off to feast days and fairs in the Middle Ages and the already mentioned Martha Carlin article. It's confusing at best. In conclusion I will mention that the author on page 52 proclaims in nouncertain terms "Sally Levitt Steinberg's The Doughnut Book is the only previous work on the history of the doughnut." (There's actually two edition of this book by the way--1987 and 2004.The author was featured in a Travel Channel's documentary /Donut Crazy/.) Brivati is just wrong here as John T. Edge's excellent small history titled Donuts. An American passion came out in 2006. Had he read John Edge's book he might have gained a better perspective as to what doughnuts or donuts are or are not. Edge writes on page 14 of his book "The truth is that fried pastries are universal. They are historical." In conclusion I think people should just skip the article and read JohnEdge's book or perhaps wait until September. I will add that another book on doughnuts titled "Glazed America: A Social History of the Doughnut" will be published in September 2008 by University Press of Florida. Johnnae Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:47:28 -0400 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: Cooks within the SCA On Apr 12, 2008, at 10:23 AM, rattkitten wrote: > Ok so when making Funnel Cakes with a deep fryer how do you keep the > batter from sticking to the bottom side of the basket? It pours through > and we get little dots on the bottom of the basket and the cake part > ends up having to be almost cut off from the basket after it drains. We > have even tried to scrape it up while it was frying to very little > avail. Maybe you need a thicker batter and hotter oil? The trick is to get the cake to develop a partial "skin" before it reaches the bottom of the basket. Easier said than done, of course, until you have a little experience and tinkering time. Are you putting the batter into the basket and lowering it in, or lowering the empty basket first? Adamantius Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:44:49 -0400 From: rattkitten Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: Cooks within the SCA The oil is at 375 which is as hot as the poor little thing will go... makes me miss the commercial fryer I had at the Restaurant. (We don't use one at the School I am at so that our little darlings don't grow up with fried foods... ) anyways the batter was sort of thick but I guess it could have been a little more. And yes we are lowering the basket into the oil before we pour in the batter. One thing that worked sort of was using a spoon and pouring the batter into that after submerging the spoon into the oil.... But we shouldn't have to do that... I just think the damn thing is too small.... Need to get me a BIGGER FRYER.... aaruh aruh aruh... (Thank You Tim Allen) LOL. We got this thing back at Christmas and I have been slowly playing with it... I generally avoid fried foods. But it has been fun for French Fries and Won Tons, Egg Rolls, Shrimp Chips... etc... We just got up this morning and said mmm donuts. Ended up with funnel cakes. and crumbs... Good Breakfast though. Nichola Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote: > Maybe you need a thicker batter and hotter oil? The trick is to get > the cake to develop a partial "skin" before it reaches the bottom of > the basket. Easier said than done, of course, until you have a little > experience and tinkering time. > > Are you putting the batter into the basket and lowering it in, or > lowering the empty basket first? > > Adamantius Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:08:58 -0700 From: "Sarah Fitzpatrick" Subject: [Sca-cooks] Funnel cakes To: These things are cooked in a pot of oil with no basket. You put the batter into a funnel. Hold your finger over the end of the spout and let some dough drop into the hot oil. They fall into flatish curls. When you have enough, a couple of circles, put your finger back over the end to stop the flow. Pick them up with tongs or a fork. They do make specific pouring things now. A syrup pitcher might work. Sarah Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:42:01 -0600 From: "S CLEMENGER" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Funnel cakes To: "Cooks within the SCA" It's been years since I made them (and I do mean MANY years!), but IIRC, we used a cleaned syrup bottle--the Aunt Jemima kind that's got the little spout like dish soap bottles do. --Maire <<< These things are cooked in a pot of oil with no basket. You put the batter into a funnel. Hold your finger over the end of the spout and let some dough drop into the hot oil. Sarah >>> Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:28:14 -0400 From: "Elaine Koogler" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: "Cooks within the SCA" This reminds me of the Daifur, or Braided Bread, that we served at our recent ME event. The two major differences are that this is made with semolina flour and the dough is braided before frying, rather than put into a pretzel shape. The recipe for this can be found in the file about the event that I put up on the SCA Cooks Yahoogroups site. It can also be found in Cariadoc's Miscellany, on the Web. However, if anyone wants a separate copy, let me know. It was a howling success at our event...folks were meeting the servers at the door before they could even get to the mezze table! It is, however, quite labor-intensive, but we felt that it was well worth it! Kiri On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 12:11 AM, wrote: > Or Jalebi, which are rather like small funnel cakes that are fried then > dipped into syrup. They are bright orange and intensely sweet, and taste > rather less interesting than they look, IMO. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalebi > > Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:18:19 -0400 From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: Cooks within the SCA > This reminds me of the Daifur, or Braided Bread, that we served at our > recent ME event. The two major differences are that this is made with > semolina flour and the dough is braided before frying, rather than > put into a pretzel shape. The Jabebi are made from a batter and poured in the oil, not formed into shape. Ranvaig Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:32:38 -0700 From: Lilinah Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Someone wrote: > I keep seeing something that looks like funnel cakes > in the Indian markets in the neighborhood, that must have been poured > through an opening the thickness of a pencil, or less. I haven't tried > them, but they look cool. And Ranvaig replied: > I can think of two things this could be: > > Sev a dry crispy snack of chickpea flour, sometimes served on top > of Bhel puri. Let me note that sev are savory, not sweet. They are quite opaque. > Or Jalebi, which are rather like small funnel cakes that are fried > then dipped into syrup. They are bright orange and intensely sweet, > and taste rather less interesting than they look, IMO. Well, perhaps soaked in syrup would be more appropriate description :-) They're rather translucent, compared to sev, and they're not made with chickpea flour. They are quite popular throughout the Arabic speaking world from Morocco at least to Syria and Lebanon - i don't own a modern Iraqi cookbook, but i'd lay odds that they're eaten in Iraq, too. And, of course, as Ranvaig makes clear, all the way to South Asia. > I think I saw Jalebi in Nimatnama. They might be period (at least > the name if not the modern recipe). I only have a scanned copy, but > will try to look for it. They are indeed period, although they often have a more "complicated" name, jalabiyya. They appear in many of the surviving SCA-period Arabic-language cookbooks. > I found this on the web, but no citation > "Jalebi originated in Arabia, where it was called Zalabia. It was > brought to India during Moghul Empire." > http://www.indiacurry.com/desserts/ds008jalebi.htm There's no way to know if they originated in Arabia, since we have no Arabian cookbooks, and not much information on Arabian food. However, they are in many Arabic language cookbooks, bearing in mind that dishes in these cookbooks come from many different cultures (including Byzantine), but were somewhat standardized in the Abbasid dynasty (Arabic, but not Arabian). -- Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM) the persona formerly known as Anahita Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:13:47 -0700 From: Lilinah Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Kiri wrote: > On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 12:11 AM, wrote: >> Or Jalebi, which are rather like small funnel cakes that are fried then >> dipped into syrup. They are bright orange and intensely sweet, and taste >> rather less interesting than they look, IMO. >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalebi >> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv13kzR4wBU > > This reminds me of the Daifur, or Braided Bread, that we served at our > recent ME event. The two major differences are that this is made with > semolina flour and the dough is braided before frying, rather than > put into a pretzel shape. Actually , there's another huge difference between Dafair (it's a three syllable word - da-FA-ir) and Jalabiyya (that's the period name, obviously the modern shorter names is derived from it). (i don't know about the videos, but i've been exposed to modern jalebi and recipes for them) Dafair is a raised yeasted bread that is cooked in an oiled pan. Then topped with drizzles of spiced honey. Jalabiyya is a relatively liquid batter which is drizzled (from a funnel, or can with a hole in it, or a squeeze bottle, or a pitcher) into hot deep fat so that it becomes translucent and crispy. Then it is soaked in syrup. -- Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM) the persona formerly known as Anahita Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:27:27 -0400 From: "Elaine Koogler" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: "Cooks within the SCA" On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 5:13 PM, Lilinah wrote: > So i'm interested in knowing how far ahead i can make them. The other > sweets will keep for several days if tightly sealed. I won't have > access to an oven on site, since the kitchen will be occupied with > the feast, but i might be able to set up my camp stove in the parking > lot to warm them up. OK...let's try this again. We wound up making them the day of...they were wonderful coming out of the pot hot and crispy. You could probably make the dough up the day before, but I'd recommend not cooking them until just before you serve them. They were ok cold, but I would think that if they sat for any length of time (like overnight) they'd lose their crispness. Your mileage may vary, but that's our experience... Kiri Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:26:18 -0700 (PDT) From: Lawrence Bayne Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Frying Question To: Cooks within the SCA > Ok so when making Funnel Cakes with a deep fryer how do you keep the > batter from sticking to the bottom side of the basket? > Nichola Don't use the basket. Fish the funnel cake out and turn it with a chinese strainer. Lothar Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:17:44 -0700 (PDT) From: wheezul at canby.com To: "Cooks within the SCA" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cheese bread <<< I struggled with deciding on choosing the meaning of pipe/tube in a recipe recently. The recipe for 'strauben' (funnel cakes) in Anna Wecker's cookbook uses the word 'rohren' (pipes/tubes) for the shape that flows from the funnel into the frying pan. Rohren (or forms of it) are also the word used to distinguish the number of branches on a candlestick or ring. Ultimately I settled on 'pipes'. I'd guess that the recipe might imply to roll out the dough on dry flour (to keep it from sticking to the board) into pipe shapes and then cook it. I also wonder what sort of nuance is present in the word for biscuit - do you have the original untranslated version? If it is gebacken or a version of it, they can be both fried or baked. Katherine >>> << Interesting. Rohr can refer to "reed" or the thin round cane used in wickerwork. Wecker may be referring to the similarity between woven reed and the shapes produced by funnel cakes. Bear >> I'll let the recipe do the talking: Page 67 Strauben von Mandeln Mach ein gute dicke Mandelmilch/Klopff Eyer darein/fast Eyer und Milch gleich/thu ein wenig salz und zucker darein/von wegen des schmalzes/ein wenig Rosewasser/mach mit Sch?nem Meel ein straubenteig nicht zu d?nn/bachs wie andere strauben/oder lauter stern/mit ziemlichen r?hrlein/nit zu klein/leges auff ein sch?nes wei?tuch/darnach bestrewe es wol mit Zucker/sie werden sch?n unnd gut. Also magstu s?sse Oepffel klein hacken/und in einen straubenteig thun und mit grossen r?hren backen/sind fast gut. My attempt at translation: Almond funnel cakes Make a good thick almond milk/beat eggs into it/mix the eggs and milk together/add a bit of salt and sugar into it/from a weight of fat/a bit of rosewater/make with nice (fine?) flour into a strauben batter not too thin/bake as for other strauben/or plain stars/with seemly [appropiate sized] pipes [understood smallish]/not too small/lay on a clean white cloth/thereon strew well with sugar/they are nice and good. Also you can hack sweet apples small/and put in a strauben batter and bake with large pipes/[they]are quite good. These actually sound really nummy. Even if apples are diced small, the 'pipes' still are of a somewhat larger size than a reed. Welser has a recipe, I think, for the lauter sternen. Rontzier says to fry strauben in butter. Katherine Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:58:53 +0200 From: Ana Vald?s To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Honey Sopapilla! In Chile the sopapillas are made with flour, salt, water and pumpkin. In Argentina and Uruguay they are made with flour, salt and water, no baking powder and no lard. They are eaten covered with sugar. Ana On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 3:53 AM, Terry Decker wrote: <<< Sopapilla appears to derive from the Iberian Arabic "xopiapa" meaning "bread soaked in oil." Wikipedia, BTW, suggests that the Arabic derives from the German "suppa." This makes me wonder if the word may not derive from the Visigoths in North Africa. As we know them, sopapillas have been around since the 18th Century and probably earlier, but they appear to be a New World dish. The New Mexican style dessert sopapilla you are talking about is made with flour, salt, lard, and milk leavened with baking powder. So, sopapillas are probably not in the Medieval/Rennaisance corpus. The puff is from the frying. As for deep frying not being period, what do you mean by deep? Foot deep frying vats may not be period, but most deep frying can be done in an inch or two of oil. >>> Bear Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:09:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Christiane To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org Subject: [Sca-cooks] The medieval origins of zeppole and cheesy doughnuts Food historian Clifford Wright has a new (new to me, anyway) article up on his site about Sicilian zeppole where he talks about their medieval origins, and he has some interesting period citations in it: http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/13/id/124/ He also gives in this article a period recipe by the traveler Abdalbasit ibn Halil for a fried cheese doughnut called mujabbana, which I am going to try making. What are your theories as to the "piece of cheese" placed in the middle of the cheesy dough? Mmmm, cheesy doughnuts ... Adelisa de Salernum Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:32:33 -0700 From: Glenn Gorsuch To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cheezy doughnuts Earlier this year I did a redaction for Samartard (from, if I remember right, A Noble Booke off Cookerie), which was essentially a funnel-cake/deep-fried snack-y thing, that uses fresh cheese in the batter, and is sprinkled with sugar. Pretty tasty, even if the cheese wasn't overwhelmingly present flavor-wise. And I seem also to recall a recipe from Sabrina Welserin that is a battered, fried piece of cheese...so it's a pretty common idea, deep frying cheezy goodness. Which cheese to use is a toughie. Most fresh cheeses, if formed into a solid piece, don't melt well, so if your mujabbana is supposed to have a solid lump o' cheese, I'd go with that--they're quick and easy enough to make with whatever animal's milk you are justified in using. If you think it's supposed to be crumbled into the dough, again those fresh cheeses are pretty crumbly. If you think it's supposed to be melty, well, I don't know enough about cheeses of that part of the world that ARE melty to guess. Gwyn <<< He also gives in this article a period recipe by the traveler Abdalbasit ibn Halil for a fried cheese doughnut called mujabbana, which I am going to try making. What are your theories as to the "piece of cheese" placed in the middle of the cheesy dough? Mmmm, cheesy doughnuts ... Adelisa de Salernum >>> Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:53:57 +1200 From: Antonia Calvo To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cheezy doughnuts Glenn Gorsuch wrote: <<< Which cheese to use is a toughie. Most fresh cheeses, if formed into a solid piece, don't melt well, so if your mujabbana is supposed to have a solid lump o' cheese, I'd go with that--they're quick and easy enough to make with whatever animal's milk you are justified in using. If you think it's supposed to be crumbled into the dough, again those fresh cheeses are pretty crumbly. If you think it's supposed to be melty, well, I don't know enough about cheeses of that part of the world that ARE melty to guess. >>> I make mujabbana with 3/4 white, non-gooey cheese (like young, mild feta) and 1/4 mild, slightly gooey cow's milk cheese (like asiago, gouda, colby, etc). -- Antonia di Benedetto Calvo Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:18:05 +1200 From: Antonia di Benedetto Calvo To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The medieval origins of zeppole and cheesy doughnuts Ian Kusz wrote: > please share yr redaction and results. Here's mine. The result is that they don't last very long. http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Mujabbana ================== Original Source Know that mujabbana isn't prepared with only one cheese, but of two; that is, of cow's and sheep's milk cheese. Because if you make it with only sheep cheese, it falls apart and the cheese leaves it and it runs. And if you make it with cow's cheese, it binds, and lets the water run and becomes one sole mass and the parts don't separate. The principle in making it is that the two cheeses bind together. Use one-fourth part cow's milk and three-quarters of sheep's. Knead all until [p. 64, recto] some binds with its parts another [Huici Miranda observes that this passage is faintly written and only a few letters can be made out] and becomes equal and holds together and doesn't run in the frying pan, but without hardening or congealing. If you need to soften it, soften it with fresh milk, recently milked from the cow. And let the cheese not be very fresh, but strong without...[words missing]...that the moisture has gone out of. Thus do the people of our land make it in the west of al-Andalus, as in Cordoba and Seville and Jerez, and elsewhere in the land of the West [here written as al-Maghrib]. Manner of Making it Knead wheat or semolina flour with some yeast into a well-made dough and moisten it with water little by little until it loosens. If you moisten it with fresh milk instead of water it is better, and easy, inasmuch as you make it with your palm. Roll it out and let it not have the consistency of mushahhada, but firmer than that, and lighter than musammana dough. When the leaven begins to enter it, put the frying pan on the fire with a lot of oil, so that it is drenched with what you fry it with. Then wet your hand in water and cut off a piece of the dough. Bury inside it the same amount of rubbed cheese. Squeeze it with your hand, and whatever leaves and drains from the hand, gather it up [? the meaning of this verb eludes me] carefully. Put it in the frying pan while the oil boils. When it has browned, remove it with an iron hook prepared for it and put it in a dipper ["iron hand"] similar to a sieve held above the frying pan, until its oil drips out. Then put it on a big platter and dust it with a lot of sugar and ground cinnamon. There are those who eat it with honey or rose syrup and it is the best you can eat. (Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, translated by Charles Perry) Redaction Ingredients 1 Tbsp dried yeast 1 tsp malt syrup (or sugar) 1/4 cup warm water 3 cups milk, lukewarm up to 10 cups flour 400g mild feta or similar cheese, cut into chunks 150g mild cow's milk cheese (edam, young provolone, asiago-- even colby will do in a pinch), *grated or finely chopped oil for frying cinnamon sugar Method Combine the water, malt, and yeast and let stand ten minutes or substitute sourdough starter. Combine the leavening with the warm milk and work in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and very springy, ~250-300 strokes. Put the dough in a clean, oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. Mash the feta in a bowl and mix in the other cheese. It should all cling together, but if it seems a bit dry and crumbly, you can add a drop or two of milk. Punch down the dough and knead a few strokes. To form the mujabbana, break off a bit of dough about the size of a ping-pong ball. Make a hollow in it with your thumb and put in a spoonful of cheese. Then seal the dough thoroughly around the filling. Shallow-fry in about half an inch of oil or deep fry until golden. Drain and sprinkle with plenty of cinnamon and sugar. Serve warm. Makes around 3-1/2 dozen. Does not freeze or reheat well. -- Antonia di Benedetto Calvo Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:23:15 -0400 From: Robin Carroll-Mann To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The medieval origins of zeppole and cheesy doughnuts And a later-period recipe in the same family: 133. Oranges of Xativa which are Cheesecakes. You must take new cheese and curd cheese, and grind them in a mortar together with eggs. Then take dough and knead those cheeses with the curd cheese, together with the dough. And when everything is incorporated and kneaded take a very clean casserole. And cast into it a good quantity of sweet pork fat or fine sweet oil. And when the pork grease or oil boils, make some balls from said dough, like toy balls or round oranges. And cast them into the casserole in such a manner that the ball goes floating in the casserole. And you can also make bunuelos of the dough, or whatever shapes and ostentations you wish. And when they are the color of gold, take them out, and cast in as many others. And when everything is fried, put it on plates. And cast honey upon it, and on top of the honey [cast] ground sugar and cinnamon. However, note one thing: that you must put a bit of leaven in the cheeses and in the eggs, and in the other put flour. And when you make the balls, grease your hands with a little fine oil, and then [the balls] go to the casserole. And when it is inside, if the dough crackles it is a signal that it is very soft, and you must cast in more flour [into the dough] until it is harder. And when the fritter is made and fried, cast your honey on it, and [cast] sugar and cinnamon on top as is said above. Ruperto de Nola, Libro de Guisados, Spain, 1529. (Translation, mine) Brighid ni Chiarain Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:48:56 -0400 From: Sharon Palmer To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Honey Sopapilla! <<< The pumpkin is cooked, made into a puree and mixed with the dough. Sopapillas is definitely a pastry :) Ana >>> Rumpolt's Gebackens chapter has several recipes that are dough fried in butter, not exactly sopapillas, but close. 7. Make a dough from clean yolks/ pour a little sweet cream under it/ and mix the dough with it/ and make streusel from it/ about a finger long/ and one Finger thick/ that see that you it do not over salt it/ throw into butter/ that is not too hot/ fry nicely/ cool off/ and give warm or hot on a table/ sprinkle with white sugar/ like this it is good and well tasting. 8. Take warm milk and beautiful flour/ put beer yeast with it/ and mix the dough with it/ sprinkle a little with salt/ and work the dough well/ set it to the fire/ that it goes over itself/ wash the fists clean/ and grab into the dough/ take a piece of it/ and pull finely from each other/ until it becomes thin and nicely long/ throw into hot Butter/ in a longish pan/ like this you fry the dough rapidly/ give it warm or cold on a table. You might sprinkle with sugar or not. And in Bavaria one calls them baked Steigleder (climbing leathers). Ranvaig Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:44:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Christiane To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org, dama.antonia at gmail.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The medieval origins of zeppole and cheesy doughnuts Ian Kusz wrote: please share yr redaction and results. Dama Antonia wrote: Here's mine. The result is that they don't last very long. http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Mujabbana Hmmm. The Anonymous Andalusian recipe and the recipe that Brighid provided seem to be different than this: "Knead the fresh cheese with your hands as you would dough. Carefully knead in the semolina. Once it has the consistency of a dough of our zal?biyya, or a rather thick consistency, then take a piece and spread it out delicately in the palm of your hand. Place a piece of cheese in the center and close it up to make a bonbon. Flatten it a little bit and deep-fry in oil. Remove and sprinkle on powdered sugar and a little powdered cumin." It seems in this one, you take your fresh cheese, reduce it to a paste by kneading, then knead in semolina until the cheese-flour mixture is the texture of zalabiyya dough. That actually reminded me of how some gnocchi are made, with ricotta cheese and grated fresh cheese and flour mixed together to make the dough. Incidentally, in Sicily (and among Sicilian-American and Italian-American families whose grandmothers still went through the agita of doing this) there's a form of zeppole made for Easter or for St. Joseph's day, either baked or deep fried, filled with ricotta cream. But the dough itself does not contain cheese. These are sometimes known as cassateddi, though there are other forms of cassateddi made with a filling of chopped figs instead of ricotta. I think they way I am going to try to redact the recipe above is to drain a container of ricotta (Sicilian ricotta is drier than the stuff we have here), knead it with semolina flour, and see what kind of dough texture I get. I am also trying to find out what are traditional Tunisian fresh cheeses. Modern Tunisia apparently produces a lot of gruyere. With the country's proximity to Sicily, I also wonder if there's a Tunisian version of ricotta. Adelisa de Salernum Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 13:05:11 -0800 (PST) From: V O To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: [Sca-cooks] question about recipes Would the 1st recipe be funnel cake? And would the second one possibly be a recipe that could be translated to be springerle? I know it says lebkuchen, but with all of the stuff about dipping the mold into rosewater, letting them sit overnight.? To me it sound like springerle, describing molding the cakes/cookies and letting them dry over night. The process of cooking is very interesting, I may just have to try this with some of my molds next time. from Das Kuchbuch der Sabrina Welserin (1553)? Thanks, Mirianna 99 To bake white Lautensternchen Take flour and pour cold water thereon and salt and make the dough thick and thin it with pure egg whites, until it becomes thin enough. After that take a small Strauben funnel, which should have a very small hole, and take a small pan, and it should run through so that it looks like Lautensternchen[14]and fry them therein. 163 To make N?rnberger Lebkuchen Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 13:55:12 -0800 (PST) From: wheezul at canby.com To: "Cooks within the SCA" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] question about recipes <<< Would the 1st recipe be funnel cake? ... from Das Kuchbuch der Sabrina Welserin (1553) Mirianna >>> I went through a whole funnel cake craze last spring. I think these are a type of funnel cake that is very light in color and dropped into the pan in the shape of a star. Other recipes for 'strauben' itself give directions for the dripping that sound more like the country fair funnel cake. Katherine <<< 99 To bake white Lautensternchen Take flour and pour cold water thereon and salt and make the dough thick and thin it with pure egg whites, until it becomes thin enough. After that take a small Strauben funnel, which should have a very small hole, and take a small pan, and it should run through so that it looks like Lautensternchen[14]and fry them therein. >>> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 18:47:32 -0500 From: Sharon Palmer To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] question about recipes > Would the 1st recipe be funnel cake? More or less, using only egg whites, it would be whiter and have a different texture, and it says to make a star shape, rather than a random one. Rumpolt has several strauben recipes too, let me know if you want me to look them up. Ranvaig Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2016 22:35:15 -0700 From: James Prescott To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pretzels Message-ID: <56CBEF93.6030600 at telusplanet.net> It would depend what counted as a pretzel. "Syringe fritters" or equivalent (e.g. beignet) appear in late period cookbooks. They are dough that is squeezed through an opening, usually into hot fat. The principal similarity is that they can be in a knotted shape, or almost any other twisty shape the cook chooses. The principal difference is that they are deep fried or shallow fried, not baked. Here's a hybrid sample recipe (most of #14 and a bit of #15) from Ouverture 1604 (my translation): 14. To make dough for beignet or fritter. Take a chopine of cream, and boil it in a frying pan with a bit of butter, then take white flour, and make the dough in the frying pan on the fire: mix it well with a wooden ladle. Then break four eggs in, and beat it well with the ladle, so that the eggs are well mixed into the dough, then take four more eggs and beat them once more until the dough is soft like a thick batter, add as many eggs as necessary so that the dough is soft enough. Then take butter well boiled so that the salt is out, then put the butter on the fire so that it is a bit hot. [end quote from #14] [begin quote from #15] Have a speriche or syringe with a small iron inside, having two or three holes, or a single hole if you wish; squeeze the dough through; and cook them in butter like the others. The batter is very like p?te a choux, squeezed through a syringe into the hot butter. For the syringe part, compare the modern Spanish "churro". Thorvald Edited by Mark S. Harris fried-breads-msg Page 2 of 30