wafers-msg – 1/9/08
Period wafers. Waffles. Wafer recipes and directions. wafer irons.
NOTE: See also the files: bread-msg, breadmaking-msg, desserts-msg, pancakes-msg, utensils-msg, cookies-msg, flour-msg.
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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.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 11:52:14 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: Wafer recipe (WAS: Re: Re: SC - Weekend Tart Review and
Cookie request!
Chimene asked about wafer recipes. Here is what the Menagier de Paris has
to say about wafers or waffles (the word could be translated either way):
"Waffles are made in four ways. In the first, beat eggs in a bowl, then
salt and wine, and add flour, and moisten the one with the other, and then
put in two irons little by little, each time using as much batter as a
slice of cheese is wide, and clap between two irons, and cook one side and
then the other; and if the iron does not easily release the batter, anoint
with a little cloth soaked in oil or fat. - The second way is like the
first, but add cheese, that is, spread the batter as though making a tart
or pie, then put slices of cheese in the middle, and cover the edges (with
batter: JH); thus the cheese stays within the batter and thus you put it
between two irons. - The third method, is for dropped waffles, called
dropped only because the batter is thinner like clear soup, made as above;
and throw in with it fine cheese grated; and mix it all together. - The
fourth method is with flour mixed with water, salt and wine, without eggs
or cheese.
"Item, waffles can be used when one speaks of the "large sticks" which are
made of flour mixed with eggs and powdered ginger beaten together, and made
as big as and shaped like sausages; cook between two irons."
This is the Janet Hinson translation.
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 17:29:23 -0500
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - Waffres ala Master Huen
<snip>
>I bow to your expertise, M'Lady.
>However, putting the stomach of a luce, or of a pike into such a delicate
>recipe makes no sense. It would add a strong fishy taste, and very little
>else.
>Would it be entirely off base to think that perhaps, since this is a fish day
>recipe, in an effort to add the character of fowl eggs, which were forbidden,
>the cook chose to use fish eggs?
>
>Mordonna
Um, the recipe *does* call for hen's eggs, unless luce eggs are big enough
to crack & separate?:
Harleian MS. 279 - Leche Vyaundez
xxiiij. Waffres. Take [th]e Wombe of A luce, & se[th]e here wyl, & do it
on a morter, & tender chese [th]er-to, grynde hem y-fere; [th]an take
flowre an whyte of Eyroun & bete to-gedere, [th]en take Sugre an pouder of
Gyngere, & do al to-gederys, & loke [th]at [th]in Eyroun ben hote, & ley
[th]er-on of [th]in paste, & [th]an make [th]in waffrys, & serue yn.
24. Wafers. Take the Stomach of A pike, & seethe her well, & put it in a
mortar, & tender cheese thereto, grind them together; then take flour and
white of Eggs & beat together, then take Sugar and powder of Ginger, & put
all together, & look that thine Eggs are hot, & lay thereon of thine paste,
& then make thine wafers, & serve in.
I find the method somewhat confusing, unless we're being instructed to make
2 mixtures, i.e., a thick one with the fish & cheese, & another mixture
with flour, eggwhite, sugar & ginger. Le Menagier (Goodman, p. 306) gives
instructions for cheese wafers that don't leak, in which the paste is
spread out, filled with strips of cheese, & then the ends of the paste are
folded into the middle, & the whole thing transferred to the waffle iron &
cooked. I think that's what is happening here.
(<SHRIEK!> Pocket sandwiches are period! ;D <laughing>)
Stirring up trouble,
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 02:01:53 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - Quick and Dirty Wafer Redaction
I donıt recall if this has been worked on or commented on by anybody on
the list, but I had occasion to make some wafers for an event Iım going
to Saturday, and I figured an account of the proceedings might be
helpful to someone.
From Gervase Markhamıs "The English Hus-Wife", 1615, Michael Best
edition, İ1986 McGill-Queens University Press, Kingston and Montreal:
"To make wafers
To make the best wafers, take the finest wheat flour you can get, and
mix it with cream, the yolks of eggs, rose-water, sugar, and cinnamon
till it be a little thicker than pancake batter; and then, warming your
wafer irons on a charcoal fire, anoint them first with sweet butter, and
then lay your batter and press it, and bake it white or brown at your pleasure."
After consulting a few Italian pizzelle recipes for some basic
proportions, I ended up with the following:
3 cups (~450 grams plain) all-purpose flour
1 U.S. pint (~500 grams) heavy cream
6 large egg yolks, beaten
1/4 - 1/2 cup (60 - 120 grams) rosewater
1 cup (~250 grams) sugar
1/8 teaspoon (~1 ml) ground cinnamon
pinch salt
Sift the flour, cinnamon, and the salt together, set aside. Beat the egg
yolks and sugar together until light and bright yellow. Add the cream
and 1/4 cup (60 grams) rosewater, mix thoroughly. Fold the dry
ingredients into the liquid. If the batter is too thick, you can thin it
with more rosewater until it is clearly a soft batter but too thick to
easily pour: your basic American "cream" cake batter.
Heat a pizzelle or other wafer iron for two or three minutes; if itıs
the kind that you sit on a stove burner, heat each side for two minutes.
Brush a little melted butter on the inside of the irons, and spoon an
appropriate amount of batter into the irons. Youıll need to experiment
to get the exact amount and placement right. My old-fashioned 5-inch
pizzelle iron uses a heaping teaspoon of batter (roughly a level
dessertspoon for those that use such measures). Bake till golden, and be
aware that the wafers will continue to brown a bit after they come out
of the irons. Cool on a cake rack until crispy or roll into tubes or
cones while hot and flexible. Makes about three dozen, depending on the
size of the iron, and the obvious necessity to hide several that are
unevenly browned by immediately eating them. You have your reputation to
consider, after all.
Historically, most of the wafers eaten in period Europe appear not to
have been very sweet, but Iıve used a fair amount of sugar both to
appease the tastes of those who will look at a wafer and see a cookie,
and to achieve a crisp but tender, sort of brittle, product.
Un-or-barely-sweetened wafers, such as the cheese wafers mentioned in Le
Menagier de Paris, should probably be made with a much softer flour than
AP, probably some kind of pastry flour would be the way to get them
decently crisp without a lot of sugar. AP tends to be slightly glutinous
in this wafer when unsweetened, especially when using dilute or
secondary shortening sources like egg yolks and cream. Of course, we
canıt really be sure how crispy wafers were supposed to get in period, either.
If you manage to bring leftovers home from events, they make excellent
ice cream sandwiches... .
Adamantius
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 20:52:39 EST
From: Aelfwyn at aol.com
Subject: SC - Wafers/Oblaten
Just a couple of additional mail order sources I spotted this week for those
curious;
King Arthur Flour carries "Baking Wafers" in 2 sizes and offers free shipping
on them. It mentions that they "are designed to cradle certain German cookies
as they bake on a baking sheet; they're a kind of edible parchment."
1-800-827-6836 or www.kingarthurflour.com
The Stash Tea Spring catalog offers "Dessert Wafers" "Faithfully baked
following a 200 year old European recipe, these delicate crisp wafers are made
of pounded almonds, sweet butter, pure cane sugar and rare bourbon vanilla
beans." The most interesting part is the tin these come in that says "The
Original Carlsbad Oblaten" on the outside! 1-800-826-4218 or
www.stashtea.com
The catalog queen; Aelfwyn
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 16:57:01 -0600 (CST)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming)
Subject: SC - German Oblaten
Greetings! The term probably _does_ refer to communion-type wafers
since they are still commercially available. The German import house
here in Cleveland had at least three different sizes a number of years
ago which I used for the base of my small marchpanes. The modern
oblaten are very white and papery, which reminds many of us of the
communion wafers that melt in the mouth, or that "papery" substance
used on Italian nougats. How papery the German wafers would have been
in the 1500s and 1600s, I don't know.
English marchpanes call for the marzipan to be laid on "wafers". IIRC,
at least one recipe calls for layering the wafers to increase the
dimension of the marchpane. Some English recipes for marchpanes
indicate that their thickness is about "two fingers", again IIRC.
Alys Katharine
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 12:33:30 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Recipies
At 11:06 AM -0700 5/13/99, Nancy Santella wrote:
...
>Crisps
>From the mother of Canstance Waite
If you want a period recipe for this sort of thing take a look at the
wafers recipe (I don't remember how it is spelled) in Le Menagier; the
Hinson translation is webbed on my page (follow the medieval link).
David/Cariadoc
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 06:43:19 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - wafer help
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> This page says "complete with cone roller" and shows a shallow wooden
> cone with a handle on it. Anyone know what this cone is for? To roll
> the fresh, soft pizelle around to get a cone? Since you are mashing
> the dough between two hot surfaces, I don't think it is for smoothing
> the wafer with. If it is to make a cone with, is their any evidence of
> this cone shape being used in period? I just remembered seeing "rolled".
The Larousse (that's Larousse, not Li Rous ; ) ) Gastronomique speaks
of the habit of rolling wafers into both tubes and cornucopia while hot,
becoming brittle as they cool, and says the practice is quite old. We
know, of course, well, Larousse has been known to have a Francocentric
view of both world history and food history (as does Toussaint-Hamat, if
I've got the name right) so the occasional error shows up which is as
wide in dissemination as it is in inaccuracy. Or maybe the other way
around; I haven't had my tea yet, leemee alone. It has some alleged
facts in it which are, well, alleged.
But yes, they do seem to at least imply that rolling wafers into cones
was not unheard of in period. The main problem is that the recipes and
other information we have suggests wafers weren't always crispy enough
to make holding a formed shape likely. I wonder if a cone might have
been wrapped around cheese?
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 06:49:32 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Pizelles
> I think I missed the post that this is a reply to. Are pizelles period? We
> make 'em all the time around here, but I never thought they were period.
> Caitlin ingen ui Dalaig
Wafers seem to have been widely eaten in period Europe, and pizelle
irons seem to be a pretty good way to recreate the shape and pattern of
a wafer. Pizelles tend to be made according to a somewhat different
recipe, with eggs usually separated, more sugar, etc., but they are
presumably a reasonably close descendant.
Gervase Markham's "The English Hus-Wife", c. 1615, gives a wafer recipe
that works quite well with a pizelle iron.
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 19:48:34 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Wafer recipes please?
Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> does anyone have a reconstructed recipe that they like for wafers???
I'm almost positive (no, I _am_ positive) I posted a reconstruction of
the Markham wafer recipe from The English Hus-wife, 1615, in March or so,
maybe early April. Trouble is, I now can't find it.
By any chance did anyone see it? It worked _really_ well except for a
tendency to brown a bit blotchy if you're not careful: I attribute this
to the milk solids in the cream.
[His original recipe is given further up in this file. - editor]
Adamantius
Subject: Re: wafers
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 09:17:57 -0600 (MDT)
From: Linda Peterson <mirhaxa at swcp.com>
To: Stefan li Rous <stefan at texas.net>
Ps. I was just looking at the Maid of Scandinavia, which jogged my memory
that the wafer irons are sometimes refered to as krumkake irons, which may
help in your search. The site also had some recipes under the krumkake
heading. Mirhaxa
[the URL is: http://www.sweetc.com/maid.htm -ed]
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 02:07:42 EDT
From: Korrin S DaArdain <korrin.daardain at juno.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Wafer recipes please? OOP - Recipe
Not a period recipe but it is a start.
Cooky Cones
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter / margarine
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup all purpose flour
Use a krumkakka iron; bake and roll to cone form, either free hand or
around a cone form.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, melted butter,
vanilla, and almond extract. stir in flour until smoothly blended.
Place flat griddle plates on electric waffle iron and preeheat to medium
hot; or use a krumkakka iron.
Makes about 18 small or 9 large cones.
Source: Betty Storrey; Kerman, Cal. via Sunset Magazine 6/83.
Korrin S. DaArdain
Kitchen Steward of Household Port Karr
Kingdom of An Tir in the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 10:00:42 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Revisited Wafers Redaction
The wafers in question, BTW, go great with the "snow" from the New
Proper Boke of Cookery, a stiff-whipped mixture of egg whites and heavy
cream, sweetened with sugar and flavored with rosewater.
Adamantius
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 21:14:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Laura C Minnick <lainie at gladstone.uoregon.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Wafer recipes please?
I just checked- there is a readaction of a wafes recipe from _menagier de
Paris_ in _Pleyn Delit_. I don't have an iron so I tried doing it like a
crepe. Interesting, but not what I wanted. My birthday is in November...
;-)
'Lainie
- -
Laura C. Minnick
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 15:32:53 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Cone History
> Is there a linguistic relationship between wafer and waffle? Could these
> terms have become applied to items cooked between layers of metal?
>
> Mirhaxa
> mirhaxa at morktorn.com
Wafer derives from the Middle English wafre which comes from the Old
Northern French waufre which is apparently of Germanic origin. Waffle
derives from the Dutch wafel.
Wafers are thin, crisp biscuits, cookies, cakes or candies. Waffles are
battercakes cooked in or on an iron mold. These definitions suggest that
wafers and waffles are two different classes of dish with some overlap. So,
the terms get put on the list for my next trip to the OED.
Bear
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 22:00:12 -0700
From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at efn.org>
Subject: Re: SC - Recipe needed
Kerri Canepa wrote:
> All this talk about pizzelle made me go out and buy one. That and we're going
> to serve wafers at the 12th Night feast next January.
> Is there an authentic wafer recipe? I'd like to have time to play with making
> wafers before the real thing.
There is a wafer recipe from _Menagier de Paris_ redacted and ready in
_Pleyn Delit_. You might want to see what MP has, since the editors of
PD mention that some of the wafers have cheese and some don't. You might
want to look at sweet as well as savories...
'Lainie
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 00:25:33 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Recipe needed
Scully's redaction of Menagier's recipe from Early French Cookery:
Wafers (makes about 30 4-inch round wafers)
(Imperial measure)
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp dessert wine
2-3 tsp oil or fat
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1-2 tbsp sugar
Beat eggs lightly.
Whisk in salt, wine, oil and sugar.
Whisk in flour 1 tablespoon at a time until a smooth runny paste is reached.
Drop 1 tablespoon at a time onto a hot sandwich grill or Krumcake iron.
Close grill and press on lid. Cook until lightly brown--about 1 minute.
Sprinkle with sugar. Store in airtight container in cool, dry place until
needed.
Re-crisp in a low oven (275 F) before serving.
Bear
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 06:15:21 GMT
From: kerric at pobox.alaska.net (Kerri Canepa)
Subject: SC - Adventures with wafers - part the second (long)
In the continuing testing of wafers, today's endeavors involved Scully's
redaction of one of the wafer recipes from Menagier. Thanks, Bear.
Scully's redaction of Menagier's recipe from Early French Cookery:
Wafers (makes about 30 4-inch round wafers)
(Imperial measure)