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Pynade-art - 11/23/01

"Pynade (Medieval Candy)" by Lady Constance de LaRose.

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NOTICE -

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set

of files, called Stefan's Florilegium.

These files are available on the Internet at:

http://www.florilegium.org

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be

reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first

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Thank you,

Mark S. Harris

AKA: Stefan li Rous

stefan at florilegium.org

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This is the documentation that Lady Constance submitted in a Kingdom Arts and Sciences contest.

Pynade (Medieval Candy)

by Lady Constance de LaRose

Why I chose to do this project:

I was bored one evening and began thumbing through some recipe books. In "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" by Cindy Renfrow, I ran across a recipe in the chicken dishes section which caught my eye. As I read further it appeared that chicken really had little to do with the recipe and, more interesting still, that this one dish could be prepared as either an appetizer, a main dish, a subtlety, or a dessert. The challenge of preparing one dish in so many ways enticed me and I decided to give it a try.

There was another ulterior motive in that my mother loves pinion nuts and this looked like something I could make which she would enjoy eating. It is so difficult to find presents for a woman who can just walk out and buy anything she wants, so finding something which I could make and which she would like but be unable to buy for herself was quite a motivator

The Recipes:

Though I started with just the Renfrow recipe, further research produced several recipes, ranging in time from the 1300's through the 1600's, in French and English primary sources. Possibly this dish in some variation might have been produced even earlier in time but printed cookbooks are not readily available for such time periods. It does appear to be a dish which was common throughout those 300 years in one form or another. It only disappears when sugar became more available at reasonable costs and therefore took over the sweetening of most dishes replacing honey. I tried the recipe with a sugar syrup base but it simply would not set up properly being either too hard or not setting up at all. Therefore, I suspect that the replacement of honey with sugar caused this dish to fall into decline.

The recipes that I was able to find are as follows:

Pynite (Curye on Inglysch, DC 21, 47)

Wyn, sucre, iboilled togedere; gyngebred & hony, poudre of gynger & of clouwes; ipiht wi[th] pynes gret plentee, & schal beon adressed in coffyns of flour of chasteyns; [th]e colour [z]olou wy[th] saffroun.

Pynade (Curye on Inglysch, DS 91, 79)

Tak hony and rotys of radich & grynd yt smal in a morter, & do to [th]at hony a quantite of broun sugur. Tak powder of peper & safroun & almandys, & do al togedere. Boyl hem long & held yt on a wet bord & let yt kele, & messe yt & do yt forth.

Pynade (Curye on Inglysch, UC 3, 83)

Tak wyn & peres & boyle hem togedere, & tak tosted bred & grynde hem alle togedere & draw hem [th]orw a streynoure, & tak [th]e thridde part of ceugre or elles lyf hony & tak penes & fry hem in fresch gres. & tak al [th]is togedere & cast in a pot, & boyle it & force it vp with pouder peper, & salt it; & whan it is dressed florsche it with hole maces & clowes & with mynced gyngere & serue it forth.

Pynnonade (Curye on Inglysch, FoC 59, 109)

Take almaundes iblaunched and drawe hem sumdell thicke with gode broth o[th]er with water, and set on the fire and see[th] it; cast therto [z]olkes of ayren ydrawe. Take pynes yfryed in oyle o[th]er in grece, and do [th]erto white powdour douce, sugur and salt, & colour it wi[th] alkenet a lytel.

Pynade (Two Fifteenth Century, H279 Leche Vyaundez iii, 34)

Take Hony & gode pouder Gyngere, & Galyngale, & Canelle, Pouder pepir, & graynys of parys, & boyle y-fere; [th]an take kyrnelys of Pynotys & caste [th]er-to; & take chyconys y-sothe, & hew hem in grece, & caste [th]er-to, & lat se[th]e y-fere; & [th]en lat droppe [th]er-of on a knyf; & [z]if it cleuyth & wexyth hard, it ys y-now; & [th]en putte it on a chargere tyl it be cold, & mace lechys, & serue with o[th]er metys; & [z]if [th]ou wolt make it in spycery, [th]en putte non chykonys [th]er-to.

The Process:

Since this was an entirely new and unknown dish for me, I decided to start with Cindy Renfrow's redaction (1) to get a feel for the item and build from there. Her redaction was based on the Harlien Manuscript in "Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books" as seen last on the list above. Her redacted recipe was as follows:

Variation 1:

1 cup honey

2 teaspoons ginger powder

1 teaspoon galingale powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper powder

1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder (or grains of paradise)

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 cup cold cooked chicken, chopped

Place honey and spices in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until mixture thickens. Add pine nuts and cook to soft-ball stage (or until a drop of the hot mixture clings to a cold knife blade). Cool the mixture and add the cold chicken. Stir. Pour into a large buttered dish and cool completely. Slice when cold. Serve cold.

Variation 2:

Omit chicken. Increase pine nuts to 1 cup and proceed as above.

I started working my way through the ingredients first.

Honey - In order to remain as authentic as possible, I went to a local bee keeper and purchased raw unprocessed honey. Though this is modern honey and would vary somewhat even from European honey of modern days due to differences in pollen availability, this is the best approximation I could find to the honey which might have been used in period.

Ginger Powder - Last year I cultivated some ginger root which managed to produce a few straggling plants above ground and a rather healthy root system below ground. I harvested this root, sliced it, and dried it. I now took some of the dried root and ground it up in a mortar and pestle.

Galingale - This was almost impossible to find. I tried all of the grocery and health food stores and a wide variety of ethnic markets. I was almost resigned to doing without when I tried a word search on the Internet and came up with a definition which stated that this was the ancient name for a root spice that grows today in Vietnam and Korea. The modern name for this spice is "Laos". Finally found the dried root at a small oriental market in West Valley City. Bought some, brought it home, ground it up in mortar and pestle. This particular root is very ligamentus even when dried and the long strings, which remain after grinding, must be removed by hand before the powder can be used.

Cinnamon Powder - I purchased sticks of cinnamon bark as would have been done in period in most occidental households. I then broke the sticks into smaller segments and ground those segments into powder in a mortar and pestle.

Pepper Powder - Since neither the recipe nor the redaction specified what kind of pepper (white or black) should be used, I chose to grind white peppercorns in the mortar and pestle. According to Gerard's Herbal both white and black peppercorns existed in period and neither is commented on as being more rare or expensive than the other. I felt that the white would compliment the pinions and the other spices while the black would be a distraction and give the final product an ugly look.

Pine Nuts - Pine nuts (pinions) can be purchased either in the shell or as kernels. It was my personal opinion that the pine nuts, in period, would most likely be gathered in nearby woods and brought unshelled to the kitchen. Therefore, I chose to purchase the pine nuts in the shell. I then proceeded to shell the pine nuts by hand (a laborious activity) and then blanch them to remove any clinging skin. The skin has a slightly acidic taste which detracts from the taste of the pine nut and is best removed.

Cold Chicken - I roasted several chickens in order to try out the variations of dressing for another project of roast goose. Since I had now an abundance of chicken meat, I chose to take the breast meat and chop it by hand with about a tablespoon of the fatty broth.

I now had all of the ingredients called for in Renfrow's version of this recipe. I chose to make variation #2 first, followed by variation #1.

I found both versions to be far too spicy to the point of the spice burning the mouth and creating a taste which is most disastrous.

I went back to my research. In "Curye on Inglysch" (2) I found a discussion of recorded household accounts in medieval times. The authors had compared the amounts purchased of various goods to the number of persons recorded as being in residence. Their conclusion was that, even if you only counted nobility, the medieval person consumed far less of spices such as ginger, pepper, cinnamon, etc. than the average modern person. Therefore, and contrary to popular belief, to achieve a true medieval taste we should be using less of such spices than would be used in any comparable modern dish.

With this in mind, I created a second batch of both variations cutting most of the spice amounts in half while cutting the ginger down to an amount equivalent to the other spices. The result, while still too spicy for my taste, was much more palatable. By cutting the spices in half again, I produced a version which is tasty and which does not overpower the chicken flavor.

Since the original recipe also suggests serving with other meats, I took Renfrow's suggestion of forming the variation #2 into napkin rings and wrapping it around sliced meats. This seems to be most effective and pleasing to the eye.

Creative Variations:

Now that I felt I knew the dish better, I viewed the other renditions of the recipes from "Curye on Inglysch" to see what similarities and variations occurred.

This particular dish seems to vary depending on what the cook has available and what taste the diners are seeking. It appears to be more often used as a dessert or "spicery" than as a main course or served with meat. The only common ingredient appears to be honey, which appears in every version of the recipe. Second most common is pine nuts from which it is assumed the dish takes its name. Though pine nuts do not appear in one of the recipes, there is another nut (almond) there. The one other recipe where almonds appear also contains pine nuts so it is possible that the lack of pine nuts in the one recipe is a typographical or copy error.

With the exception of the Harlien manuscript recipe, none of the others use meat of any kind as an ingredient and all use far fewer spices. Most sticking to one or two spices or flavoring materials and one doing without spices at all, simply using a flavoring material.

The flavoring materials seem to be fruits or vegetables in the main, though wine is called for in one of the recipes.

Therefore, I decided to stick to the one cup of honey and one cup of pine nuts and try out some other flavoring ingredients which existed in period.

Raspberries (Red Bramble) - I had some raspberry bushes which produced a small crop this year. Since raspberries were a period plant as evidenced by their inclusion in "The Medieval Health Handbook" (3) and Gerard's Herball I picked a cup full and mashed them in a bowl with a large wooden spoon. I then added only the mashed raspberries and the pinion nuts to the boiling honey. The result is quite tasty.

Blackberries (Bramble) - Also mentioned in the above missives were blackberries, thought to be a close cousin of the raspberry. Having no blackberry bushes, I purchased blackberries and mashed them. Thereafter I followed the same steps as for Raspberries.

Blueberries (Whortberry) - I have friends who adore blueberries. I searched through several herbals in vain to find if blueberries existed in period and had no luck until I looked up the scientific name and cross referenced with that name in Gerard's Herball. Using this method I soon discovered that blueberries did indeed exist in the SCA time period in Europe, they were simply under a different name - that of "Whortberries". Having no blueberry bushes, I purchased blueberries and mashed them. Thereafter I followed the same steps as for Raspberries.

Apple Cinnamon - Apples are also mentioned in the above references and Gerard calls them a close relative of the pear. Therefore this variation is closest to the third recipe in that respect. This was also my one experiment with both a flavoring agent (fruit) and a spice. I peeled, cored, and boiled the apples. When they were tender, I drained and mashed them. Mashing by hand is time consuming but insures a consistent sauce with no lumps. My first attempt with apples was not a success, as the end product would not set. I suspect that the pectin in the apples was too strong for the honey at the one-cup level. I cut the apples back to 3/4 cup and the dish set just fine and tastes delicious.

Pomegranate - This was my one attempt with a fruit juice and no pulp. Due to the differences of working with a juice, it took me four attempts to get just the right amount of juice in to add flavor without making the final product too soft to set. I also found that it is necessary to heat the pynade to the hardball stage for proper set up when using juice as your only flavoring agent Pomegranates are mentioned in legend and myth as far back as the Grecian Empire. I obtained the pomegranate juice crushing pomegranate seeds and straining.

Licorice (Liquorice) - This was an attempt to achieve a black or dark coloring to the confection for the kingdom arms subtlety. Licorice root has been used as far back as Roman times and perhaps even before. Gerard (4) in his herbal quotes from Pliny, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, and Theophrastus concerning the virtues and uses of this root. In order to use it, I first made a decoction of the root by boiling small pieces of the root from my garden in distilled water for about 2 hours. I then strained the mixture through an unbleached muslin bag and used the liquid thus gained in making the pynade.

Kingdom Arms Subtlety:

With some amount of experience under my belt, I decided to try a true subtlety using this form. My readings on the subject of subtleties seemed to indicate that they were most often done with a specific purpose or reason in mind and that they were made specific to the occasion. Since this was to be made for a Kingdom A&S championship and since our king and queen would be in attendance, I chose to make the Kingdom Arms.

I found that several difficulties needed to be surmounted in this project.

The first of which was the near impossibility of obtaining a true black coloring especially in food. After trying several things, which came out either not dark enough or dark enough but with a reddish tinge, I found that, if I made a 1/4 cup decoction of licorice root and then added 3 drops of blueberry juice, the resulting pynade was as close to black as is possible to get and still maintain a pleasant taste.

The second problem was related to the first. Using whole pinion nuts in the black pynade caused it to look more ermine than sable. In addition, the whole pinions in the griffin shapes with no logical direction tended to distract the eye from the shape intended. I solved this problem in two ways. For the black areas, I chopped up the pinions and then immersed them in the licorice tincture. This gave them a darker appearance and, when they were then added to the black honey mixture, they tended to blend in rather than standing out. The gold mixture I left the pinions out of entirely and added them later to outline the edges of the chevron. This use of the pinions was suggested by the "flourishing with nuts, cloves, and mace" in the third original recipe.

The third problem I discovered when I tried to pour the warm yellow pynade into the griffins forms and the chevron, which I had cut out of the black pynade. Warm pynade coming in contact with cooled pynade heats up the cooled pynade. The result is a muddy brown mess. While it was still edible, it in no way resembled the kingdom arms. I solved this by setting up two separate batches of pynade (one black and one yellow) and cutting the shapes and the holes out when they had cooled to lukewarm. I then put the arms together like a jigsaw puzzle and the small remaining heat in the pynade caused them to bond together without running together.

While this solved the problem for the chevron, I soon learned that the griffins were another story. By making the pynade soft enough to be molded and cut, it also became soft enough that the fine details in the griffins would still run together given enough time and simple room heat. When I checked my subtlety about an hour after putting it together, my griffins had become rather fuzzy duck like objects and the crown and laurel wreath were a blob with a bumpy circle.

Since the inserted chevron had survived with no problem, I started over and made the black shield and the gold chevron using the jigsaw puzzle method. The crown and the laurel wreath I was able to form out of the left over black pynade by hand before it had completely set. (Caution to anyone who attempts this that you should grease your hands and wet them in cold water before forming by hand) However, the griffins were beyond my ability to form by hand. I therefore took another period subtlety technique, which I had learned in making the chastet, and formed the griffins using pastry with ground saffron in the pastry. However, when I baked the pastry with the saffron, the griffins shrank and became to small as well as looking rather crispy. I went back to the original recipes and noticed that recipe #2 had the addition of almonds. I tried the griffins one more time using period marzipan (marchpane) with saffron for gold coloring to mold the griffins. This time it worked and the kingdom arms done entirely in candy was complete.

Deviations from Period Practices:

The only modern appliance used throughout was an electric stove. This may have given a more even heat that could be achieved over an open fire but, given the high temperatures needed in this process, I doubt that the stove caused an appreciable difference. I used Renfrow's set up technique of a greased pan for the public samples due to the large quantities needed. For the judging pieces, I used the wet board method stated in the second recipe. For the Kingdom Arms subtlety, I used a marble board in place of the charger called for in the 5th recipe. Also, I wrapped the public samples of the candy in modern wax paper to keep the candy clean and free of the germs, which can be spread by multiple handling. All other processes were accomplished using period implements and techniques.

Final Redacted Recipes:

Chicken Pynade

1 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon galingale powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder

1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 cup cold roast chicken, chopped with 1 tablespoon chicken fat

Place honey and spices in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and cook to soft ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball which is still pliable) Cool the mixture for two minutes and add the cold chicken. Mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Spicy Pynade

1 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon galingale powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder

1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

1 cup pine nuts

Place honey and spices in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and cook to soft ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball which is still pliable) Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Raspberry (Red Bramble) Pynade

1 cup honey

1 cup crushed raspberries

1 cup pine nuts

Place honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and raspberries. Cook to soft ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball which is still pliable) stirring constantly. Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Blackberry (Bramble) Pynade

1 cup honey

1 cup crushed blackberries

1 cup pine nuts

Place honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and blackberries. Cook to soft ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball which is still pliable) stirring constantly. Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Blueberry (Whortberry) Pynade

1 cup honey

1 cup crushed blueberries

1 cup pine nuts

Place honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and blueberries. Cook to soft ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball which is still pliable) stirring constantly. Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Apple Cinnamon Pynade

1 cup honey

3/4 cup applesauce

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 cup pine nuts

Place honey and cinnamon in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and applesauce. Cook to soft ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball which is still pliable) stirring constantly. Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Pomegranate Pynade

1 cup honey

1/4 cup pomegranate juice

1 cup pine nuts

Place honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and pomegranate juice. Cook to hard ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball that is not pliable) stirring constantly. Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Licorice (Liquorice) Pynade

1 cup honey

1/4 cup licorice root decoction

1 cup pine nuts

Place honey in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady rolling boil for 3 minutes. Add pine nuts and licorice root decoction. Cook to hard ball stage (when a drop of the mixture placed in a cup of cold water forms a round ball, which is not pliable) stirring constantly. Pour into a 9x9 buttered pan and cool completely. Cut into bite sized pieces. Serve cold.

Results:

From all I had heard up to this point, candy was non-existent in the middle ages. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that refined sugar based candy did not exist during this time for certainly this honey based candy did exist in many forms and for at least 300 years if not longer.

The candy, which resulted from this recipe, tastes good and has been popular amongst my acquaintances.

My mother started by reminding me that Christmas was coming up and she couldn't buy pynade anywhere (she never was good at the subtle part of hinting). She now mentions her pynade shortage at every viable holiday. She must like it as well.

Myself, I had better make it rarely or I won't fit in any of my garb. It is certainly a tempting treat. And, best of all, it was much fun to learn, experiment, and make (even the researching parts).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arano, Luisa Cogliati "The Medieval Health Handbook"

George Brasiller, Inc, New York. 1976

Austin, Thomas "Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books"

Oxford University Press, London. 1888

Gerard, John "The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes"

Adam Joice Norton, London. 1597

Hieatt & Butler "Curye on Inglysch"

Oxford University Press, London. 1985

Renfrow, Cindy "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" Volume One

Cindy Renfrow USA ISBN 0962859818. 1991

Footnotes:

1 Renfrow, Cindy. "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" Volume One pg. 73

2 Hieatt & Butler. "Curye on Inglysch" pp. 12-14

3 Arano, Luisa Cogliati. "The Medieval Health Handbook"

4 Gerard, John. "The Herbal or General History of Plants", 1633

Dover Publications, pgs. 1302-1303

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<LadyPDC at aol.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related

publications, provided the author is credited and receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in

the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also

appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being

reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.