desserts-msg - 3/7/08 Medieval and SCA dessert recipes. Sweets. NOTE: See also these files: recipes-msg, pastries-msg, cheesecake-msg, gingerbread-msg, candy-msg, cookies-msg, sugar-msg, honey-msg, hais-msg, 3-Span-Sweets-art, bread-pudding-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 ************************************************************************ Newsgroups: rec.org.sca From: epsteine at spot.Colorado.EDU (Emily Epstein) Subject: Re: period desserts to share??? Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder Date: Mon, 25 Apr 1994 19:14:51 GMT berman at cauchy.math.lsu.edu (Glenn Berman) writes: >share with everyone in the kitchen. So the question is what is a recipe >for a period dessert (or similiar snack type item) that would keep fairly >well and can be made by someone with the skills of a math grad student >(really good at proportions but no real cooking skill). Greetings from Alix Mont de fer. I'm sorry this will be too late to be of use at the event in question, but here's one of my favorites. I don't have the bibliographic citation for the original handy, but it's from a late 16th or early 17th century source, if memory serves. They're tasty, hold up well in both heat and cold, and don't mind humidity either (but don't leave them out in the rain). They also freeze reasonably well. Enjoy! Alix Mont de fer/Emily Epstein epsteine at spot.colorado.edu SHREWSBERY CAKES Beebe, Ruth Anne. Sallets, Humbles & Shrewsbery Cakes. Boston: Godine, 1976. p.64 To make Shrewsbery Cakes Take a quart of very fine flour, eight ounces of fine sugar beaten and sifted twelve ounces of sweet butter, a Nutmeg grated, two or three spoonfuls of damask rosewater, work all these together with your hands as hard as you can for the space of half an hour, then roll it in little round Cakes, about the thickness of three shillings one upon another, then take a silver Cup or a glass some four or three inches over and cut the cakes in them, then strew some flower upon white papers & lay them upon them, and bake them in an Oven as hot as for Manchet, set up your lid till you may tell a hundredth, then you shall see the white, if any of them rise up clap them down with some clean thing, and if your Oven be not too hot set up your lid again, and in a quarter of an hour they will be baked enough, but in any case take heed your Oven be not too hot, for they must not look brown but white, and so draw them forth & lay them one upon another till they bee could, and you may keep them half a year the new baked are best. 2 c. flour 4 oz. (1 c.) sugar 6 oz. (3/4 c.) butter 2 T rosewater 1/2 t. nutmeg Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter as for pie crust. Moisten with rosewater. Work with your hands until well blended. Roll out 1/8-1/4 in. thick Cut with a round cutter ca. 3 in. in diameter, stamp with a floured cookie stamp. Bake at 325 15-20 min., until done, but not browned. From: Dottie Elliott (10/4/95) To: Mark Harris, sjohns at mail.utexas.edu, fischer at cse.unsw.edu.au Subj: To Make an Excellent Cake [From Master Cariadoc's online Miscellany] ==> To Make an Excellent Cake (GOOD) [original recipe found in] Digby p. 219/175 To a peck of fine flour take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be tenderly melted, ten pounds of currants, of cloves and mace, 1/2 an ounce of each, an ounce of cinnamon, 1/2 an ounce of nutmegs, four ounces of sugar, one pint of sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of ale (as soon as it is settled to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will be when it is about two days old), half a pint of rosewater; 1/2 a quarter of an ounce of saffron. Then make your paste, strewing the spices, finely beaten, upon the flour: then put the melted butter (but even just melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquours: and put it into the oven well heated presently. For the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and let it stand in the oven one hour and a half. You ice the cake with the whites of two eggs, a small quantity of rosewater, and some sugar. [redaction by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook] Scaled down: (1/16th) 2 c flour 3/8 lb = 1 1/2 sticks of butter 5/8 lb currants = 2 c = 10 oz 1/4 t cloves 1/4 t mace 1/2 t cinnamon 1/4 t nutmeg 1/2 T sugar 2 T sack (or sherry) 1/4 c ale yeast settled out of homemade mead or beer (or 1 t dried yeast dissolved in 3 T water) 1 T rosewater 8 threads saffron Icing: 1/8 egg white (about 2 t) 1/4 t rosewater 2 T sugar Mix flour, spices, and sugar. Melt butter, mix up yeast mixture, and crush the saffron in the rosewater to extract the color. When the butter is melted, stir it into the flour mixture, then add sack, yeast mixture, and rosewater-saffron mixture. Stir this until smooth, then stir in currants. Bake at 350deg. in a greased 10" round pan or a 7"x11" rectangular pan for 40 minutes. Remove from pan and spread with a thin layer of icing; We usually cut it up into bar cookies. [Clarissa's notes: This is best if iced several hours before serving (and then kept cold) so the sugar can seep in. This is a very dry cake and the icing is a must. I added just a tad more butter, rosewater and sherry than called for to get it a little moister. I used raisins. It does rise but only a little. Each cake can be cut into 8 or 12 pieces depending on what else you are having.] From: ddfr at best.com (David Friedman) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Period Dessert Recipes Date: 13 Feb 1996 17:50:05 GMT dpirko at uoguelph.ca (Denise Pirko) wrote: > Okay, one more plea for help from me. We are holding a dessert revel in > two weeks up here and we need some recipes for those of us who want to > make things. If anyone has any easily found resources, or recipes could > you please either post them here, or mail me back??? Thank you... > -Katya You will find quite a lot of period desert recipes at: http://fermi.clas.virginia.edu/~gl8f/cariadoc/miscellany.html and a few more at: http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Medieval.html David/Cariadoc -- ddfr at best.com From: Stephen Bloch To: sca-cooks at eden.com Subject: sca-cooks special diets Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 14:35:13 -0400 (EDT) > I eat the Dean Ornish diet... Strict vegetarian (except for skim milk > products) and less than 10 grams of fat a day. No nuts, oil or butters, > avocado (New World, feh) etcetera. > > I've found a few period recipes I can adapt, but they taste poorly that way. A few weeks ago the University that pays my salary held a health fair, including a "Healthy Desserts Contest". I entered a recipe my wife and I had recently worked out for our Catalan feast: "Figues alla francesa". Take a bunch of figs (ideally a mix of white and black), stem them but leave them otherwise whole, steam them in white wine for half an hour or so, then add spices (we used cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, etc.) Serve all by itself (or, if you're in the 20th century, pour hot over vanilla ice cream). Not only did it go over well at the feast, but it took second place at the mundane contest. Zero fat, zero animal products, and extremely simple to make. Steve / Joshua From: Stephen Bloch Subject: Re: sca-cooks special diets To: sca-cooks at eden.com Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 14:59:51 -0400 (EDT) Tibor wrote, in reference to "figues alla francesa": > Your dessert sounds fascinating. May I share it with others? Sure. In fact, take a look at the more detailed description in "http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/cooking/st.val.feast.html". Steve / Joshua From: "Philip W. Troy" Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 14:32:27 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - any suggestions ?? grobin wrote: > I'm currently working on a menu for the Fall Coronation, Three Rivers > will be hosting it. I'm kinda stuck...I'm trying to put together a > formal feast with "palette cleansers" inbetween each remove. I'm not > sure just how peiod sorbet is, so until i can find some documentation to > its authenticity, i won't use it. > Does anyone have any good suggestions ?? > Thanx again > Christopher Well, maybe not GOOD suggestions, but... . First off, sherbet in period is a somewhat cool beverage / spoon food of friut juice and/or pulp, sweetened with honey, and cooled by evaporation. Probably in relation to, say, 120 degree Fahrenheit temperature weather in the Nabataean desert, quite refreshing. You might consider something like two or three very different sallets. They aren't all greens. Fresh grapes might be another possibility, depending on when/where you are seeing this feast happening. Ditto various melons. Adamantius From: Phil & Susan Troy Date: Thu, 1 May 97 13:39:01 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - Hello & Questions >Lady Rowan the Capricious here. > >I want to know if there are any kinds of cake >type frostings or icings that were used in >period cooking? > >Rowan Icing, yes. You find in sources like Gervase Markham and Kenelm Digby cake recipes that include instructions to sprinkle a cake with finely powdered sugar and put it back in the oven to glaze. This produces a hard-crack sugar shell. I believe some cakes are sprinkled with rosewater first, but I could be confusing some vague memory here... Adamantius From: david friedman Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 23:19:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: SC - Hello & Questions At 1:39 PM -0400 5/1/97, Phil & Susan Troy wrote: >Icing, yes. You find in sources like Gervase Markham and Kenelm Digby >cake recipes that include instructions to sprinkle a cake with finely >powdered sugar and put it back in the oven to glaze. This produces a >hard-crack sugar shell. Note that Digby is about fifty years out of period, Markham somewhat less. I suspect you would find similar things in the late sixteenth century, but I don't know that cuisine very well. You could look at Hugh Platt. Alys Katherine (MK) has looked into some of these question and would be a good person to check with. She does elaborate sugar paste plates, which are presumably a closely related technology. David/Cariadoc http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ From: Tovah at hubert.rain.com (Tovah) Date: 08 May 97 04:47:01 GMT Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Another Rose Recipe Here is a rose recipe for those who study the culinary arts of the medieval period. I have not as yet fully deciphered the recipe, so please feel free to let me and the other gentles know how the cake comes out. Tovah of Misty Isles Lady of North Keep a.k.a The Rose Lady --------<-< at --------<-< at --------<-< at --------<-< at --------<-< at To Make A Cake With Rose Water, The Way Of the Royal Princess, The Lady Elizabeth, Daughter To King Charles The First Take halfe a pecke of flowre (flour), half a pinte of rose water, a pint of ale yeast, a pint of creame. A pound an a half of butter, six egges (leave out the whites) four pounds of currants, one half pound of sugar, one nutmeg and a little salt. Work it very well and let it stand half an hour by the fire and then work it again and then make it up and let it stand another hour and a halfe in the oven; let not your oven be too hot. The recipe was found in -- The Queen's Closet Opened. By W.M. Cook to Queen Henrietta Maria From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 17:52:53 -0500 Subject: Re: SC - Regional cooking Hi, Katerine here. Clare St. John asks: >What's a cuskynole? The two English recipes for cuskynoles I'm familiar with are in an Anglo-Norman collection edited by Constance Hieatt and Robin Jones and in one of the MSs in _Cury on Inglysch_. The second, if I recall correctly, is a translation of the first into Middle English. Unfortunately, we're moving shortly, and my books are packed. Since I don't remember the recipes vividly, I'll let someone else handle that one. Cheers, - -- Katerine/Terry From: rousseau at scn.org (Anne-Marie Rousseau) Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997 23:12:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: SC - Gold Leaf-A use << Has anyone tried using gold (or silver) leaf to decorate foods? >> For our big blow out Baronial Banquet this year we did Elizabethan, and attempted to document EVERYTHING. Food, service, beverages, decorations, entertainment. One of the dishes we serverd was "gilded jello", or A White Leach (from Dawson, 1596) Take a quart of newe milke, and three ounces weight of Isinglasse, halfe a pounde of beaten suger, and stirre them thogether, and let it boile half a quarter of an hower till it be thicke, stirring htem all the while: then straine it with three spoonfull of Rosewater, then put it inot a platter and let it coole, and cut it in squares. Lay it fair in dishes, and lay golde upon it. Our reconstruction: Serves 16 5 tsp gelatin (about 2 1/4 packets) 2 cups whole milk 1/2 heaping cup sugar 5 tsp rosewater 1 sheet gold leaf 1 beaten egg white Heat a large pan of water to just below a simmer. Mix the gelatin in 4T of the milk with a whisk in a small bowl, suspended in the simmering water (like a double boiler). Keep whisking till it's completely dissolved. In a saucepan, heat the remaining milk, stir in the gelatin, add the sugar and bring to a simmer. Keep simmering, stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the rosewater. Rinse a 8x8 glass pyrex pan with cold water, and pour the jello stuff in. Cover with saran wrap and allow to set. It will set faster in the fridge, and will take several hours. Cut into 1" cubes and guild every other square in a checky pattern. This part can be tricky, find someone who is familiar with working with gold leaf. Decorate with fresh pansies and other pretty things (we used ribbons, flowers, etc). This delicate jelly flavored with rosewater, decorated with edible gold is reminiscint of firni and other middle eastern rosewater puddings. Isinglass is a gelling agent from the swim bladders of fish, and I have yet to find a source. We used gelatin (Knox brand) instead. For easty removal of the squares, use a glass pan, and rinse with cold water right before you pour the stuff in. It was a beautiful addition to our banquetting table! Gilded Jello! And chekcy, like our kingdom arms. - --Anne-Marie +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Anne-Marie Rousseau rousseau at scn.org Seattle, Washington From: "Nick Sasso (fra niccolo)" Date: Wed, 09 Jul 1997 09:50:17 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - Gold Leaf-A use Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote: > ><< Has anyone tried using gold (or silver) leaf to decorate foods? >> > > For our big blow out Baronial Banquet this year we did Elizabethan, and > attempted to document EVERYTHING. Food, service, beverages, > decorations, entertainment. One of the dishes we serverd was "gilded jello", > or A White Leach (from Dawson, 1596) > Take a quart of newe milke, and three ounces weight of > Isinglasse...... Isinglass is a substance from the air bladders of fish and is used occasionally in beer brewing. It is actually available from better homebrew supply stores for those who are adventerous enough to try it. niccolo From: Philip & Susan Troy Date: Wed, 09 Jul 1997 11:29:40 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - Gold Leaf-A use Isinglass is _supposed_ to come from the swim bladders of sturgeon, isin or ising (I forget which) being an Anglo-Saxon term for the sturgeon. You can get it powdered in homebrew supply shops; it's used in fining or clarifying beers, wines, etc. Perfectly edible (at least as much as liquamen ; ) ), but for practical purposes unflavored animal gelatin is a fine substitute. Adamantius Date: Sat, 2 Aug 1997 18:30:54 -0500 From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter) Subject: Re: SC - introduction with a question Hi, Katerine here. Lady Fiona asked about desserts. It's hard to say what's my favorite; I know a lot of them. Here are some options: 1. I have a version of Pears in Confit that, if I have a favorite, probably wins the stakes. Problem: lots of wine. It's significantly boiled, so that I doubt anyone could become tipsy even drinking the sauce in quantity, but still.... And it's probably not optimum for serving to children (I don't know how old the scouts you work with are) anyhow. Palates change as we get older, and I'm not sure this is something kids would go wild for. OTOH, I do, and everyone I've served it to does. Moderately complex. 2. I have a version of a dish that the collection it's in calls simple a bake mete. It's essentially douceties (cream custard pies) with pears in them. Simplicity itself to make, but lucious. 3. I'm very fond of the version of Flaun of Almayne in Cariadoc's Miscellany. It's another pie, with ground apples, pears, and raisins in a custardy base. 4. If you leave the pears out of the second, you have douceties. You can make these wonderfully neat looking by coloring. The period versions I know are colored with saffron, parsley juice, or strawberry juice. In the latter case, you can make them even prettier by arranging artfully shaped strawberry slices on top. I'll be happy to post recipes for the first two (the recipe for the fourth follows by obvious deductions) later tonight. Cheers, - -- Katerine/Terry Date: Sat, 2 Aug 1997 21:33:41 -0500 From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter) Subject: SC - Dessert Recipes Hi, Katerine here. Here are the two recipes I mentioned earlier. Enjoy! A bake Mete (Two Fifteenth Century H279 Vyaundez Furnez xxxii) This pear custard pie is simple, excellent, and nearly foolproof. If you leave out the pears, you have medieval pie called "Doucetez" (H279 Vyaunde Furnez xv). Recipe: Take an make fayre lytel cofyns; than take Perys, and ghif they ben lytelle, put .iij. in a cofynne, & pare clene, & be-twyn euery pere, lay a gobet of Marow; & yf thou haue no lytel Perys, take grete, & gobet ham, & so put hem in the ovyn a whyle; than take thin commade lyke as thou takyst to Dowcetys, and pore ther-on; but lat the Marow & the Pecyz ben sene; & whan it is y-now, serue f[orth]. Modern English: Make fair little coffins (pie crusts); then take pears, and if they are little, put three in a coffin, and pare them clean, and between every pear, lay a chunk of marrow. And if you have no little pears, take big ones, and cut them into pieces, and so put them in the oven a while. Then take your filling like you use for douceties, and pour it over them; but let the marrow and the pieces [of pear] be seen. And when it is done, serve it. Amounts as I make it: one 9-in deep dish pie crust 1/4 cup milk 1 1/2 bosc pears 1/4 cup sugar 2 cups cream 4 strands saffron 6 egg yolks Step-by-step: 1. Prebake pie shell 20 minutes at 350°. 2. Peel pears and slice as you would slice apples for apple pie. 3. Arrange pear slices in the crust. 4. Mix remaining and pour over pears. 5. Bake 1 hr 15 min at 350°. 6. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 to 30 minutes. Notes: "Mete" means "foodstuff", not meat. I omit the marrow: it's hard to get, we don't need it in our diet (they did), and it probably adds little to the taste. I omit prebaking the fruit; modern pears are too big to put in whole, so I may as well slice them small enough to cook while the custard does. Be sure to use cooking pears! Most eating pears lose all flavor when baked. Peeres in confyt (Curye on Inglysch, Forme of Cury 136) This is spiced pears stewed in wine; absolutely lovely! Recipe: Take peeres and pare hem clene. Take gode rede wyne & mulberies other saundres, and seeth the peeres therin, & whan thei buth ysode take hem up. Make a syryp of wyne greke, other vernage [sweet italian white wine], with blanche powdur other white sugur and powdour gynger, & do the peres therin. Seeth it a lytel & messe it forth. Take pears and pare them clean. Take good red wine and mulberries or saunders, and boil the pears in it, and when they are boiled, take them out. Make a syrup of Greek wine, or vernage, with blanche powder or white sugar and ginger, and put the pears in it. Boil it a little and serve it forth. Amounts as I make it: 4 Bosc pears 2 cup semi-sweet Sauterne 1 1/4 cup burgundy 1 cup water 3/4 cup water 8 T sugar 2 tsp saunders 1/2 tsp ginger 1 1/2 T sugar Step-by-step: 1. Peel, core, and quarter pears. 2. Simmer in red wine, first water, saunders, and first sugar for 1 hr 5 min (until soft), adding water as necessary to keep pears covered with liquid. 3. Drain and rinse. Discard cooking liquid. 4. Combine remaining ingredients. 5. Simmer gently for 30-45 min, letting sauce cook down (and alcohol cook off). 6. Put pears in syrup and simmer another two or three minutes. Notes: The result is delicately flavored red pears in a yellow-white sauce; both delicious and beautiful. Again, cooking pears! Always cook with cooking pears! Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 13:35:27 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - recipe request (dessert, Irish/English or whatever) Russell Gilman-Hunt wrote: > I am an Irishman, looking to make an appropriate dessert for > a potluck later next month. I have 2 dogs, 4 cats and an > 8 month child, and a wife. . . I need something I can do in > maybe an hour. I am from the 12th century (~1130). > > So I am looking for a recipe for a dessert, perferably in some > variant of English from that time period. (heck, ANY Irish > 12th century ideas would be welcome!) I'm a pretty good cook, > but a lousy confectioner (made lollipops once; I wound up with > sticks floating in a nice green sugar sauce that tasted of food > coloring). > > English would be OK, or something brought back from the first > Crusade or something (persona history is still a little vague.) I'm not aware of any Irish dessert recipes from the period you mention, nor English ones either. There are some 12th-13th century accounts of meals and feast menus in English, I believe, but you won't really find any English recipes from any earlier than the fourteenth century, and probably no Irish recipes from before the 17th or 18th centuries, with a couple of inappropriate exceptions. Would you settle for a nice, slightly simplified 14th century English daryol? 1 commercial frozen pie shell 5 eggs 3 cups cream or half-and-half ~1/2 cup sugar (light brown granulated, or a mixture with white, is nice) or to taste 1/4 tsp salt 1 big pinch saffron Bake the pie shell blind (filled with pie beans or topped with another pie pan so it doesn't puff up) in a preheated 375 degree F. oven for ten minutes or so. Allow to cool a bit. (Leave the oven turned on.) While the shell is cooling, beat together the other ingredients until fully mixed. Pour into the shell and return to the oven for 25 - 40 minutes, just until a toothpick, when poked into the center, comes out clean. Serve at room temperature. From The Forme of Cury, #191: "Daryols. Take creme of cow milk, o6er of almaundes; do 6erto ayren with sugur, safroun and salt. Medle it yfere. Do it in a coffin of ii ynche depe; bake it wel and serue it forth." As usual, I am substituting the numeral "6" for the M.E. character "thorne", as ASCII often does ugly things when trying to reproduce the actual character. It's more or less equivalent to a "th". Adamantius Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 20:12:38 -0500 From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #281 How about Apple Charlet (the distant cousin of Apple Charlotte). You need apple puree, sweetened w/ sugar, made with sauteed apple slices, butter, spices. It needs to be very thick. Next take the crusts off of white bread slices. Butter one side. Arrange butter-side down in a loaf pan, covering the sides, too. If you're feeling creative, cut the bread up to make geometric shapes. But every cranny must be covered. Pour in the apple puree. Cover with more bread butter side up. Bake in a moderate oven until bread begins to brown. Remove and cool about 15 minutes-1/2 hour. Unmold onto plate. Squeeze with lemon juice lightly and sprinkle with sugar. Serve with cream. Sorry--no documentation. It's lost in the nether regions of my brain in a file I used about 10 years ago. But it's so yummy and kid-approved, i remembered it. Aoife---still waiting for dinner at 9 pm. Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 21:22:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Bronwynmgn at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - recipe request (dessert, Irish/English or whatever) << I am an Irishman, looking to make an appropriate dessert for a potluck later next month. I have 2 dogs, 4 cats and an 8 month child, and a wife. . . I need something I can do in maybe an hour. I am from the 12th century (~1130). >> Greetings, fellow centuryman (born in 1135 myself..) How about these: FINNISH BERRY PUDDING (from Knowne World Handbook - I think it may be a "modernized" variation of a Scottish dessert that involves oatmeal and berries, but I'm not sure) Ingredients: 3 cups strawberry or raspberry puree 4-6 Tbsp sugar 1/2 cup UNCOOKED Cream of Wheat Special utensils: Electric beater Quantity: 3-4 times the recipe feeds 60. - - Bring puree to a boil over moderate heat and add sugar. Add cream of wheat and stir continuously. Reduce heat and cook for 3-6 minutes, until mixture becomes a thick puree. - - Transfer to a large bowl. Whip with an electric beater at high speed until mixture doubles in bulk and becomes light and fluffy. - - Serve as soon as possible. Delicious with a little whipped cream. No one would believe the ingredients if you told them. For something more demonstrably period, and nearly as easy, (From Pleyn Delit, attributed to "Ancient Cookery", which is appended to the "Form of Curye" in the printed editions.) "Chireseye Take Chiryes at the Fest of Seynt John the Baptist and do away the stonys; grynde hem in a morter, and after frot hem wel in a sieve so that the Jus be wel comyn owt; and do than in a pot, and do therein feyr gres or Botor, and bred of wastrel ymyncid, and of sugur a god party, and a porcion of wyn; and wan it is wel ysoden and ydressed in Dyschis, stik therein clowis of Gilofre and strew thereon sugur. Cherry Bread Pudding 2 cups fresh sour pie cherries; stoned, or 20 oz (2 cans) pie cherries, drained, plus the juice of 1/2 lemon 2 cups breadcrumbs (we used wheat bread dried in the oven and crumbled) 1/3 cup sugar 3/4 cup red wine (or 1/2 cup wine plus 1/4 cup water or juice from canned cherries) 1 tbsp butter The easiest way to make this is with a blender: if you have one, put in all the ingredients except butter and blend, then put in pan, adding butter. If not, mash the cherries and force through a strainer, then mix with other ingredients before proceeding. Cook, stirring constantly, over a medium fire for about 5 minutes, or until well thickened. Pour into a serving dish, or individual dishes, and let cool - or chill in a refrigerator. Sprinkle with ground cloves (sparingly), if you wish, with or without extra sugar. This is particularly good served with cream - or with Creme Bastarde. VARIATION After stirring over heat for a moment or two, pour into a greased baking dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Serve hot or cold." Brangwayna Morgan Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 10:31:56 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Shortbread Peters, Rise J. wrote: > Does anyone have (a) a period shortbread recipe > and/or (b) a good modern shortbread recipe? I don't know of a period shortbread recipe. It probably evolved from sgian oatcake recipes, many of which call for fat to be rubbed into meal, sometimes sweetened slightly, but not always, and baked on a griddle or bakestone of some kind. No period recipes for them, either, but the people who've researched such things are pretty sure that sgians (scones) existed in period, despite the lack of direct documentation. (Neolithic ones have been found, for example). Get enough Englishmen into an honest Celtic land ; ), and you find things like wheat flour, butter, and sugar entering into your oatcakes. There goes the neighborhood. (Aoife, please, I swear I'm only joking! Put down that knife! If I give you my recipe for shortbread, will you forgive me?) Loosely adapted from Malachi McCormick's "Irish Country Cooking", Clarkson N. Potter, 1988. Text is mine. SHORTBREAD Eaten at tea-time for New Year's Day in Ireland and Scotland, (often in round cakes which probably denote the shape of the sun) Yield: Makes 2 eight-inch cakes. Time: 20 minutes plus 1 hour baking. 12 ounces butter or margarine (3 sticks) 1/2 cup sugar 3 cups flour 1/2 cup rice flour or cornstarch 1/2 tsp salt 1. Preheat oven to 325∞ F. 2. Using your fingers, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. You can use a knife at first to cut the butter up into small pieces, but the fingers are the best for finding lumps and breaking them up. 3. Combine the other dry ingredients and add them, in three batches, to the butter mixture. Work the flour into the butter, (fingers again) until there is no dry flour left. Form the dough into a ball. 4. Cut the ball into two equal pieces and shape each piece into a round flat cake about 3/4 inch thick. Place into two 8-inch round cake pans, lined with wax paper, or on a cookie sheet. If you want you can flute the edges or decorate the cakes with any pattern you like, using a fork, a knife, your fingers or whatever. Using a knife, score lines about 1/4 inch deep into the surface of the cakes; an asterisk (*) is traditional, but crosshatching is good too. This helps the cakes cook faster and when they are done, you break the cakes along these lines to serve. 5. Bake one hour at 325∞ F. The cakes shouldnít really brown, and they will seem soft at first, but will crisp up as they cool. Break along the lines and serve. Adamantius Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:10:13 -0400 From: marilyn traber Subject: Re: SC - recipe request (dessert, Irish/English or whatever) Russell Gilman-Hunt wrote: > I am an Irishman, looking to make an appropriate dessert for > a potluck later next month. I have 2 dogs, 4 cats and an > 8 month child, and a wife. . . I need something I can do in > maybe an hour. I am from the 12th century (~1130). > > So I am looking for a recipe for a dessert, perferably in some > variant of English from that time period. (heck, ANY Irish > 12th century ideas would be welcome!) Jusselle dates, the recipe is outremerish. very large pitted dates bread crumbs beef broth cream cheese almonds make a paste out of the cream cheese and crumbs, moistened with the broth, pipe into the hollows in the dates,, stuff in an almond to cap the opening and serve well chilled margali Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 12:08:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Schuldenfrei Subject: Re: SC - Shortbread Peters, Rise J. wrote: > Does anyone have (a) a period shortbread recipe > and/or (b) a good modern shortbread recipe? Good? 1-2-4, butter sugar flour, cups. Mix with hands, bake at 325 until just starting to golden. I like to season the top with cinnamon or other flavorings. This one's not necessarily period, but it IS good. Tibor (Thank you, Cynthia, for teaching me this one) Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 18:11:31 -0400 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Re: Gunthar, look at this Personally, I didn't pick up on the request for info on fruitcakes and/or plum pudding in period for several reasons. The dark plum pudding that became symbolic of Victorian England is pretty much that: Victorian. There are various steamed bag puddings in very late and post period, but their resemblance to plum pudding is superficial at best. As for fruitcakes, again, while there are several recipes from very late and post-period, they don't resemble modern fruitcake very much. The closest you'll find to period fruitcake (a conceptually dubious term) is Italian pannetone, or Spanish or Latin American pan dolce with fruit. There might be a modern form of brioche with raisins that might come close too. Generally any leavened bread dough with some butter and raisins or currants in it, possibly with some grated spice or other, and a glazing of sugar on top, is pretty much what would have been known as "cake" in period. Without the fruit, of course, it was simply bread. Virtually none of the dark, brown, fruity masses with a hit of hard liquor existed in period, so far as I know. Adamantius Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 18:21:04 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: SC - Plum Pudding >Bear, may I please request a copy of that recipie? Pretty please?? > >Dragonfyr Sure. You'll have to do your own redaction. I never got around to cooking it up. Plum Pudding Glasse, Hannah; The Art of Cookery, 1747 Take a Pound of Suet cut in little Pieces, not too fine, a Pound of Currants, and a Pound of Raisins stone, eight Eggs, one half the Whites, the Crumb of a Penny-loaf grated fine, one half a Nutmeg grated, and a Tea Spoonful of beaten Ginger, a little Salt, a Pound of Flour, a Pint of Milk; beat the Eggs first, then one half the Milk, beat them together, and by degrees stir in the Flour and Bread together, then the suet, spice and Fruit, and as Milk as will mix it all well together and very thick; boil it five Hours. Notes: Gloss on recipe card says, plum pudding with dried plums Elizabethan in origin, later replaced by raisins and currants. (no attribution) Use a pudding cloth to cook. About a 15" square of tight weave cotton or linen. Wet thoroughly, dust with flour, put in bowl flour side up. Pour batter into the cloth lined bowl. gather the edges and tie closed with string just above where the pudding stops bulging. Cook in boiling water, totally submerged. Lift occasionally to keep from sticking. Add water as needed. Drain and cool slightly in collander before serving. Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 15:54:00 -0700 From: DUNHAM Patricia R Subject: Re: SC - Fruitcake/Plum pudding (WAS: Roman Cheese Cake) I poked around for a few minutes yesterday, and what I remember of the responses on the list boil down to: Lorna Sass' Chrismas Feasts book says that the 18th C was the age of the pudding, tho she gives one pudding in the 17th C section, too... I have a reference to an "blasphemous and ungodly plum pudding" of Oliver Cromwell period (late 1640s) -- recipe seems fairly like modern plum pudding, but the printed version has baking soda in it, so... and I found a reference to a plum pudding in my 1st ed. Pleyn Delit (Constance Heiatt) that has a footnote that it's not at all like the Victorian plum pudding... My Martha Washington (internally dated by editor Karen Hess to ca. 1550-1625) to a number of puddings, most of which sound quite light and custardy, tho a number do include thickening with bread crumbs... Someone said something about Italian (Siena) Panforte being the closest periodish equivalent of fruitcake... I've always wanted to make one of those, and have a couple of recipes... They come in both chocolate and non-choc versions. Chimene Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 15:39:34 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: SC - Apple Pies (was: Small Feasts) Clarissa asks: >Do you have a period recipe for apple pies??!!!! I am looking for one! From _A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_ (16th c.): To make pyes of grene apples Take your apples and pare them cleane and core them as ye wyll a Quince, then make youre coffyn after this maner, take a lyttle fayre water and half a dyche of butter and a little Saffron, and sette all this upon a chafyngdyshe tyll it be hoate then temper your flower with this sayd licuor, and the whyte of two egges and also make your coffyn and ceason your apples with Sinemone, Gynger and Sugar ynoughe. Than putte them into your coffin and laye halfe a dyshe of butter above them and so close your coffin, and so bake them. [end of original] So this is a covered sweet pie; except for the details of the crust, and the absence of cornstarch to thicken the juice, it isn't too different from my mother's apple pie--assuming you cut up the apples, which it doesn't ever say. It could also be like the medieval quince pies, where you core the quince from the top, fill up the hole with sugar and sometimes ginger, stand three quinces in a pie shell, cover, and bake. Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 12:02:59 -0500 From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt Subject: SC - Apples and Chestnuts I found the following recipe for Apple and Chestnut Pie in a paper I wrote long ago, which I am re-vamping for the kingdom newsletter. It should take care of both the apple and the chestnut surplus. I havn't tested it, however it sounds good. Aoife Chestnut Pye To Make A Cheftnut Pye (Mrs. McClintock's Receipt Book, 1700s) Take 2 dozen of Apples, 100 Chefnuts, a lib. of Almonds, 2 lib. of Currans, half a lib. of Rafins, half a lib. of Sugar, half an Ounce of Cinnamon, 3 Drop of Nutmeg, a Quarter of a lib. of Cordecidron, as much Orange-peel; flice your Apples, fkin the Chefnuts, and blanche the Almonds, put a layer of Appls in the Bottom of the Pye, put a Layer of Chefnuts, a Layer of Almonds, Currans, Raifins, Cordecidron, Orange-peil and Spices; Give it good ftore of fweet Butter on the Top, then put on the Lid, and fend it to the oven; when 'tis near fired, pour in a Mutchkin of white Wine at the Lumb. (Lumb is a vent or funnel in a pie. Mutchkin is .212 litres or 2.996 gills, if that actually helps!) Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 10:39:21 -0600 From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt Subject: SC - Ice Cream in Period (not) > Now a question for the list--what about ice cream? I'm fairly sure >I've heard that the Romans made ices, but I don't have anything indicating >that the frozen custard concept existed. Anyone know for sure? > > Ldy Diana I spent some time studying this one, since I was actually served an ice-cream at an event long ago. Ignorantly, I continued to believe it was period, simply because someone had included it in their menu! I have discovered the following facts: Several cultures had fruit "ices", including the Maya. This consisted of a fruit syrup possibly sweetned with honey, poured over specially imported snow (from near-by mountains). Ice cream makes its first truly historical appearance (is given leterary mention)at the table of Mrs. Martha Washington (NOT the woman who owned/added to the M.W. Cookbook , but the 1st American President's Wife). It seems her inclusion of icecream was a big novelty, and one she imported from Europe, being a new invention. This, naturally, happened after the American Revolution, which took place OOP for us. We know that the Tudors had cold "Banquet" houses (basically a semi-buried ice-house, tarted up nice for visitors), where they served cold dessert type foods to the favored amongst their guests after the big celebrations. We know ice was in there, but we do not know that cream was poured over fruit, sugar, etc, and churned in a cold area to produce "Iced Cream". The likliest possibility is that sorbet is within our period. Other dishes served would have included custards, gelatin moulds, etc. If you think about it, you can see the progression from the "refrigerated" dishes of the Tudor period to the experimentation with cooking cold dishes (sorbet, custards, sweet gelatines, etc), once keeping ice houses became popular. From there we have a jump to the relative cheapness of sugar and then the discovery of the properties of sweetened frozen cream. That evolution would have taken a little while. So no, it does not appear that Iced Cream was period. Does anyone have documentation for Sorbet? Aoife Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 10:56:54 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Ice Cream in Period (not) >I spent some time studying this one, since I was actually served an >ice-cream at an event long ago. Ignorantly, I continued to believe it was >period, simply because someone had included it in their menu! > >So no, it does not appear that Iced Cream was period. Does anyone have >documentation for Sorbet? > >Aoife The Microsoft Bookshelf places the origin of ice cream in Italy about 1559. It reaches England in the 17th century and America in the 18th century. It was called "iced cream" in 1673 and is first mentioned as "ice cream" by an American in 1744. Of course, there's not a word about where they referenced the information. Just for fun, here's the entry on sherbet: sher*bet (shur?bit) noun 1. Also sher*bert (-burt?). A frozen dessert made primarily of fruit juice, sugar, and water, and also containing milk, egg white, or gelatin. 2. Chiefly British. A beverage made of sweetened diluted fruit juice. 3. Also sherbert. Australian. An alcoholic beverage, especially beer. [Ottoman Turkish, sweet fruit drink, from Persian sharbat, from Arabic ?arbah, drink, from ?ariba, to drink.] Word History: The word sherbet has been in the English language for several centuries (first recorded in 1603) but not as a name for what one normally thinks of as sherbet. The word came into English from Ottoman Turkish sherbet or Persian sharbat, both going back to Arabic ?arbah, "drink." The Turkish and Persian words referred to a beverage of sweetened, diluted fruit juice that was popular in the Middle East and imitated in Europe. Eventually in Europe sherbet came to refer to a carbonated drink. Because the original Middle Eastern drink contained fruit and was often cooled with snow, sherbet was applied to the frozen dessert (first recorded in 1891). It is thus distinguished slightly from sorbet, which can also mean "a fruit-flavored ice served between courses of a meal." Sorbet (first recorded in English in 1585) goes back through French (sorbet) and then Italian (sorbetto) to the same Turkish sherbet that gave us sherbet. It's not much help, but it gives and idea of where to start looking. Bear Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 13:43:22 -0500 From: Tara Sersen Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #504 Ice Cream question... In reference to the question about whether or not ice cream is period, I found this on the web... From: http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/ichist.html Ice Cream History and Folklore Most of the following material has been extracted from "The History of Ice Cream", written by the International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers (IAICM), Washington DC, 1978. As you will note below, however, much of the early history of ice cream remains unproven folklore. Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, Charles I of England hosted a sumptous state banquet for many of his friends and family. The meal, consisting of many delicacies of the day, had been simply superb but the "coup de grace" was yet to come. After much preparation, the King's french chef had concocted an apparently new dish. It was cold and resembled fresh-fallen snow but was much creamier and sweeter than any other after-dinner dessert. The guests were delighted, as was Charles, who summoned the cook and asked him not to divulge the recipe for his frozen cream. The King wanted the delicacy to be served only at the Royal table and offered the cook 500 pounds a year to keep it that way. Sometime later, however, poor Charles fell into disfavour with his people and was beheaded in 1649. But by that time, the secret of the frozen cream remained a secret no more. The cook, named DeMirco, had not kept his promise. This story is just one of many of the fascinating tales which surround the evolution of our country's most popular dessert, ice cream. It is likely that ice cream was not invented, but rather came to be over years of similar efforts. Indeed, the Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar is said to have sent slaves to the mountains to bring snow and ice to cool and freeze the fruit drinks he was so fond of. Centuries later, the Italian Marco Polo returned from his famous journey to the Far East with a recipe for making water ices resembling modern day sherbets. A newly published book, by Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir, Ices: The Definitive Guide, publ. by Hodder and Stoughton, 1993, ISBN 0-340-58335-5, suggests that the historical basis of these tales is skeptical. What follows is from the opening of the first chapter of their book: Most books are full of myths about the history of ice cream. According to popular accounts, Marco Polo (1254-1324) saw ice creams being made during his trip to China, and on his return, introduced them to Italy. The myth continues with the Italian chefs of the you Catherine de'Medici taking this magical dish to France when she went there in 1533 to marry the Duc d'Orleans, with Charles I rewarding his own ice-cream maker with a lifetime pension on condition that he did not divulge his secret recipe to anyone, thereby keeping ice cream as a royal perogative. Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence to support any of these stories. They would appear to be purely the creation of imaginative nineteenth-century ice-cream makers and vendors. Indeed, we have found no mention of any of these stories before the nineteenth century. They go on to refute the claims about Marco Polo, Catherine de'Medici, and Charles I (in particular, while the IAICM reference credits DeMirco as the Charles I chef, apparently while other various sources credit 10 different men, there are no records of such a pension being paid to any of Charles I's cooks). They do go on in their book to discuss history for which there is a record, with (I think) the earliest written record being something made in China. So, I guess the answer is no, ice cream isn't documentable. I'm as disappointed as you are :/ I have, however, often heard about the ices that were made in ancient Rome, and later in Italy. I don't know how much more widespread these would have been. Does anyone know? Are they akin to modern Italian Ice, or more like a sorbet or sherbert, like the legends say? ;) - -- Marjorie Date: Thu, 1 Jan 1998 22:33:25 -0800 From: David Friedman Subject: Re: SC - Byzantine Cuisine >Does anyone know if Halvah or Halwa is period? > >Aoife The word means, roughly, "sweet dish," and there are lots of period Hulwah's, including one in the _Miscellany_.. I have not yet found anything very close to the dish that is currently called "Halvah," however. David/Cariadoc Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 14:47:17 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - First try at redaction To Make an Excellent Cake The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby, Opened To a peck of fine flour take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be tenderly melted, ten pounds of currants, of cloves and mace, 1/2 an ounce of each, an ounce of cinnamon, 1/2 an ounce of nutmegs, four ounces of sugar, one pint of sack mixed with a quart at least of thick barm of ale (as soon as it is settled to have the thick fall to the bottom, which will be when it is about two days old), half a pint of rosewater; 1/2 a quarter of an ounce of saffron. Then make your paste, strewing the spices, finely beaten, upon the flour: then put the melted butter (but even just melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquours: and put it into the oven well heated presently. For the better baking of it, put it in a hoop, and let it stand in the oven one hour and a half. You ice the cake with the whites of two eggs, a small quantity of rosewater, and some sugar. [end of original] Scaled down: (1/16th) 2 c flour 3/8 lb = 1 1/2 sticks of butter 5/8 lb currants = 2 c = 10 oz 1/4 t cloves 1/4 t mace 1/2 t cinnamon 1/4 t nutmeg 1/2 T sugar 2 T sack (or sherry) 1/4 c ale yeast settled out of homemade mead or beer (or 1 t dried yeast dissolved in 3 T water) 1 T rosewater 8 threads saffron Icing: 1/8 egg white (about 2 t) 1/4 t rosewater 2 T sugar Mix flour, spices, and sugar. Melt butter, mix up yeast mixture, and crush the saffron in the rosewater to extract the color. When the butter is melted, stir it into the flour mixture, then add sack, yeast mixture, and rosewater-saffron mixture. Stir this until smooth, then stir in currants. Bake at 350° in a greased 10" round pan or a 7"x11" rectangular pan for 40 minutes. Remove from pan and spread with a thin layer of icing; We usually cut it up into bar cookies. Elizabeth/Betty Cook Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 19:35:06 -0800 From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" Subject: SC: Another Very Good Cake Was: Re: SC - Digby's Excellent Cake Hi all from Anne-Marie. Just for comparisons sake, here's another cake from Digby. You'll notice lots of similarities to the one in Cariadoc and Elizabeths work. There's a few differences too. We found that even the short half hour of rising makes a difference. We chose golden raisens mostly becuase I prefer them :) This cake is pretty good at room temperature. When warm, however, the sack and nutmeg combine and become aromatic and heady...Wonderful stuff! If you use or publish this recipe, all I ask is that you let me know. Enjoy! This one is a favorite with some of us in the Guild here in Madrone. - --AM Another very good Cake (Digby p212) Take four quarts of fine flour, two pound and half of Butter, three quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs, a little Mace, a pound of Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good Ale-yeast, a pint of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of eggs; four pound of Currans. When you have wrought all these into a very fine paste, let it be kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the Oven. If you please, you may put into it two pound of Raisens of the Sun stoned and quartered. Let your Oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand therein two hours and a half, before you ice it; and afterwards only to harden the ice. The ice for this Cake is made thus. Take the whites of three new-laid eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar finely beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the eggs, and ice the Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece. Another Very Good Cake from Digby p212 (amounts from original in proportion, just scaled down) 3 1/4 c flour 2 sticks butter, softened Cut in butter with fork/your hand until mealy (no lumps) Add 1/3 c. sugar 2 t nutmeg 1/4 tsp mace 1 c currants 2/3 c. golden raisens 3/4 cup ground almonds mix well to blend. Beat well together: 1/2 c half and half, warmed to body temp. 1/4 c. sack (Dry Sack, available from the liquor store, NOT cooking sherry!) 1 egg 2 egg yolks Dissolve 1t yeast in 1/3 cup beer or warm water.. let it sit on the stove with the oven on till it's a bit burbly and warmed up. Add to beaten egg stuff. Mix well with a fork. Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. It's a heavy dough, like cookie dough. Butter and flour a ring mold. Spoon the dough into the ring mold, and cover with a towl. Let rise in a warm place 1/2 hour (it will not apprciably rise). Bake in a 350o oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. Do not overbake...check by sticking with a knife. It will come out damp looking, but not gooey. Remove from ring mold onto a cookie sheet. Drizzle with icing of 2 egg whites and 2 cups powdered sugar. Return to oven for a couple minutes to harden icing. Serve warm if possible. Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 21:23:08 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - Hulwa / Halva At 12:04 PM +1100 2/11/98, Charles McCathieNevile wrote: >Does anybody know when Halva (as sold in shops) appeared, and whether it >has antecedents? I suppose I am looking for a chronology of desserts really. The word means "sweets" and appear in period Islamic cookbooks, but none of the recipes I have seen corresponds to what we now call Hulwa. The one I do is similar to divinity. I believe there is a sweet in _al-Baghdadi_ that uses sesame seeds in a way that can be interpreted as somewhat like the modern Hulwa, although not the same. I experimented with it a long time ago, but I don't think it is in the Miscellany. David/Cariadoc http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ Date: Thu, 19 Feb 98 14:25:23 CST From: "Melissa Martines" Subject: SC - Roman Desserts I've received several private requests for the recipes for the Roman desserts I mentioned in my post to Rebecca, so I thought the whole list might enjoy them. BTW, Rebecca mentioned she had tried the cottage cheese dish and her test tasters had said it was too weird. When Roz and I did this for the feast, it was served to our three "above the salt" tables who paid extra money and got extra dishes for the "adventurous diner" (this allowed us to serve some strange Roman dishes like fish stew, garum and snails.) So, the cottage cheese may be too weird for the average feast eater, but I like it :) (These are the recipe sizes for one table of 8) Gustum De Piris (Poached Pears) 4 fresh pears, peeled and sliced off the core 1 c. Tokay (or really sweet red) wine 1 c. water 1/2 c. honey Mix wine, water and honey. Warm until thoroughly mixed, then add pear slices. Boil, then simmer 10 minutes or until tender but still firm. Remove from heat and chill. Before serving, drain off most of liquid. Patina de Persicis (Peach Custard) 1 30 oz. can peaches in heavy syrup 4 eggs 1 5 oz can evaporated milk 1/2 c. sugar Blend all ingredients (food processor is handy). Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold. Mel et Caseum (Cottage Cheese and Honey) 1 lb. cottage cheese 1/2 c. honey 1 tsp. poppy seeds Mix cheese and honey thoroughly. Sprinkle with poppy seeds and serve. THLady Morgan MacBride Shire of Glaedenfeld Meridies Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 02:08:39 EST From: korrin.daardain at juno.com (Korrin S DaArdain) Subject: SC - Recipes x3 M'Lords and M'Ladys, I thought people might enjoy these. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Custard with Dates and Raisins, Spiced From "The Tudor Kitchen's Cookery Book" Hampton Court Palace; Printed in The Oregonian Newspaper Food Day Mar 10, 1998. Creamy, rich custards are as popular today as they were in Tudor times, and the method of making them is very similar. Spices and dried fruits were added or other flavorings such as marigold petals, which would also add a rich golden color. If you want to make the custard alone, omit the pastry from this recipe and bake in an oven proof dish, but instead of putting the dried fruit on the base, sprinkle it over the top after cooking. Pastry: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup butter 2 tb sugar Cold water to mix Rub the flour and butter together until it resembles fine crumbs, stir in the sugar if you want a slightly sweet crust. Add about 2 to 3 ts of cold water and mix into a firm dough; knead lightly until smooth. Roll out pastry and line a deep, 8-inch springform cake tin. Bring the pastry right up the sides, moulding with your fingers, if necessary. Pinch the top edge to decorate, prick the base and chill for about half an hour. Line the pastry case with foil or wax paper and baking beans, place on a baking sheet and bake at 400 deg for 25 minutes, removing the foil or paper and beans for the last 5 minutes. While crust bakes, make filling. Filling: 2 cups whipping cream 3 tb sugar 2 tb butter 3 cloves 1/2 ts ground mace 1 pinch saffron 3 egg yolks Heat the cream with the sugar, butter, cloves, mace and saffron until just on the point of boiling. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Reduce oven to 350 deg. Beat the yolks in a bowl and strain the hot cream on top, wisking to mix well. Sprinkle the chopped dried fruit onto the pastery base and pour in the custard. Return to the oven for about 30 minutes, until just firm and very slightly wobbly in the center. Remove and cool. The center of the custard should then firm as it cools without over cooking. Refrigerate if not serving right away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Korrin S. DaArdain Dodging trees in the Kingdom of An Tir. Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 21:03:13 EST From: geneviamoas at juno.com Subject: Re: SC - turkish recipe page? Woops!!! Sorry it is under Ancient Roman Recipes and is called Dulcia Domestica (housemade dessert) credited to Apic.7, 13, 1 . Try 50,000 Recipes - Ancient Roman Recipes. Or see below. I first found it at last years Atlantian Kingdom Arts and Sciences Festival . Dulcia Domestica - Housemade Dessert Ingredients: 200g Fresh or dried dates 50g coarsely ground nuts ( almonds ) or stone-pine Kernels a little bit of salt Honey or Red wine with honey (to stew) Instructions: Take the stones out of the dates and fill them with nuts or stone pine kernels. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the filled dates and stew them in honey ( or honey sweetened red wine ) The dates have to be cooked in on low heat until their paring starts to come off. ( about 5 - 10 min. ) Note: you may also fill some dates with ground pepper. suggested in the original it is not my idea. Enjoy - Genevia Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 22:09:20 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - turkish recipe page? >Dulcia Domestica - Housemade Dessert > >Ingredients: >200g Fresh or dried dates >50g coarsely ground nuts ( almonds ) or stone-pine Kernels >a little bit of salt >Honey or Red wine with honey (to stew) > >Instructions: > >Take the stones out of the dates and fill them with nuts or stone pine >kernels. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the filled dates and stew them in >honey ( or honey sweetened red wine ) The dates have to be cooked in on >low heat until their paring starts to come off. ( about 5 - 10 min. ) > >Note: you may also fill some dates with ground pepper. suggested in the >original it is not my idea. Here is the original recipe, from the Flowers and Rosenbaum translation, which I gather is the most reliable: Stone dates, and stuff with nuts, pine-kernels, or ground pepper. Roll in salt, fry in cooked honey, and serve. Does anyone know what "cooked honey" is? It occurs to me that it might be honey that had been cooked down, as you cook down a sugar syrup (except that it is harder to do with honey without burning). That would be at a temperature above boiling, which might explain why the recipe describes it as "frying" ("frigis") rather than stewing or boiling. David/Cariadoc Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 10:02:46 -0400 From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow) Subject: Re: SC - turkish recipe page? > >Here is the original recipe, from the Flowers and Rosenbaum translation, >which I gather is the most reliable: > >Stone dates, and stuff with nuts, pine-kernels, or ground pepper. Roll in >salt, fry in cooked honey, and serve. > >Does anyone know what "cooked honey" is? It occurs to me that it might be >honey that had been cooked down, as you cook down a sugar syrup (except >that it is harder to do with honey without burning). That would be at a >temperature above boiling, which might explain why the recipe describes it >as "frying" ("frigis") rather than stewing or boiling. > >David/Cariadoc Hello! Here is Vehling's translation for comparison: "Dulcia Domestica Et Melcae Home-made Sweets Dulcia Domestica #294 Little home confections (which are called dulciaria) are made thus: little palms or (as they are ordinarily called) dates are stuffed - after the seeds have been removed - with a nut or with the nuts and ground pepper, sprinked with salt on the outside and are candied in honey and served." Louise Sugar asks: >does honey caramelize when cooked? if so it sounds like taffy >apples/dates to me :D I've done honey candy (see Pynade in the Harleian MSS.), and you *can* get the honey to a taffy state (either soft ball or hard ball). I've also cooked the honey longer, and thrown in some nuts (a few days ago, just for grins) The result was candied nuts that were crisp when dried on a baking sheet for a few minutes. Caveat: I neglected to blanch the nuts first & the tannins leached out, making the end product bitter. Cindy/Sincgiefu renfrow at skylands.net Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 12:42:51 -0800 From: david friedman Subject: Re: SC - turkish recipe page? At 10:02 AM -0400 3/27/98, Cindy Renfrow wrote: >Hello! Here is Vehling's translation for comparison: > >"Dulcia Domestica Et Melcae > >Home-made Sweets Dulcia Domestica >#294 Little home confections (which are called dulciaria) are made thus: >little palms or (as they are ordinarily called) dates are stuffed - after >the seeds have been removed - with a nut or with the nuts and ground >pepper, sprinked with salt on the outside and are candied in honey and >served." Flowers and Rosenbaum give the original Latin as well, and I think it is pretty clear that they are following it and Vehling (as usual) is not. For example, the construction for the alternative stuffings is "vel ..vel ..." (or ... or) which doesn't seem consistent with "nuts and ground pepper." David/Cariadoc http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 10:39:16 -0500 From: vjarmstrong at aristotle.net (Valoise Armstrong) Subject: SC - Weixeltorten Yesterday evening I attended a great potluck feast at the nearby shire of Lagerdamm. There were only a couple of dozen people there but everyone made an effort to bring period foods, even the store-bought items were limited to roast chicken, loaves of bread and other dishes that didn't jar with the attempt to keep things in persona. The dinner conversation didn't stray to out of period topics and even those who seemed awkward with this kind of 'high persona' event seemed to enjoy themselves. I made the decision to attend on fairly short notice and did something I usually try to avoid - I took a dish that I had not pre-tested. Granted, it's a fairly simple fruit pie, but I have a personally-imposed rule about trying out experiments on large groups of unwilling victims. Turned out pretty good, though, and I thought I'd share with the list. It's a sour cherry tart from Sabina Welserin. I've replaced the period 's' forms with modern ones in the German text. 130 Ain weixeltorten zu machen Nim die weixlen, thu die stain heraus, mach ain boden wie zu den andern torten, nim ain semmelmel, geriben von ainem dem brot, vnnd reschts jm scmaltz, schits auf den boden, see zucker vnnd rerlen darauff, thu dan die weixlen darauff, lass das gesafft jn der schissel, besee es woll mit zucker vnnd mit zimet, mach ain boden darjber, lasst es sittlich bachen. 130 To make a sour cherry tart Take the sour cherries, take out the stones and make a pastry crust as for the other tarts. Take bread crumbs from grated white bread and fry them in fat. Pour them on the crust, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top, Put the sour cherries in it, leaving their juice in the bowl, sprinkle it well with sugar and with cinnamon, make a crust on top of it, let it bake, as it is customary. 1 1/2 C. Bread crumbs 1/4 C. Butter or lard (Other pie recipes in this book offer the cook the option of interchanging these fats.) 3 C. Pitted sour cherries (Fresh if in season, frozen if necessary, canned as a last resort. Make sure you are buying sour or tart cherries, not sweet cherries.) 2/3 C. Sugar 1 tsp. Cinnamon Pastry for a 2-crust pie Set the cherries in bowl and let drain. Melt the butter in a small skillet. Add the bread crumbs, brown lightly and set aside to cool. Arrange the bottom crust in the pie pan. Add the bread crumbs. [Next time I try this I'll sprinkle some of the sugar and cinnamon on the crumbs before adding the fruit, a step I accidentally omitted.] Add the sugar and cinnamon to the drained cherries, place on top of the crumbs. Put the top crust on the pie. Bake in an oven preheated to 450 degrees. After 10 minutes reduce the heat to 350 and bake until brown. The practice of starting out with a high temp and then reducing it is a modern one I learned from my mother, but I thought it might simulate baking in a wood fired oven where the temp would decrease a bit over the cooking time. Also, I wondered about the bread crumbs in the bottom the pie - would the just serve to thicken the fruit or would they soak up the juices and make a thin layer of 'bread pudding'? It turns out neither one is true. They did soak up the juices, but they formed an almost crunchy layer that added a nice texture. Next time the only thing I might change is to perhaps add a bit more cinnamon. Valoise Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 12:54:21 +1000 (EST) From: The Cheshire Cat Subject: SC - One thing no kithen should be without >I could use a jewelers torch on sugar, whaddaya think Cariadoc? > >Rhiannon Cathaoir-mor I have a blowtorch kept in the kitchen for such things as melting sugar. My favourite dessert is: Torched Peaches: 1 fresh peach. a little butter, melted a little brown sugar Slice the peach in half and sit them, cut side up on a serving plate. Brush the top with a little butter and sprinkle a liberal amount of brown sugar on them. Whip out your trusty blowtorch and torch the top until the sugar has melted but not burned. Serve it with cinnamon cream. What you end up with it basically a fresh peach but with a caramel/toffe type coating on the top. A friend and I saw it on a cooking program once and thought that all kitchens should keep a blowtorch for culinary use. It was immensely funny when she whiped out the blowtorch from under the counter and attacked the peaches with it. - -Sianan Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 18:54:06 EDT From: kathleen.hogan at juno.com (Kathleen M Hogan) Subject: SC - Greetings and Salivations For my first contribution...a collection of almond milk/creame recipes... A Rosy Almond Cream (Medieval England) Yield: 6 servings 2 1/2 c Milk 2 oz Ground almonds 1 1/2 oz Rice flour 1/2 ts Ground cinnamon 1 ts Ground ginger 12 oz Berries or currants, fresh or defrosted 3 oz Sugar 1-2 tb wine vinegar (don't worry-- used by ancient Romans to emphasize the flavor of the fruit) Crystallized petals to decorate Put milk in pan with ground almonds, bring to a boil, and simmer for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the spices with the rice flour in a pan, then gradually add the hot almond milk. Cook them together till the mixture thickens slightly. Add the fruit with the sugar. Cook them all together gently till the sugar is melted and the fruit well mixed-- it should not totally disintegrate although it should be partially mushed. Add the vinegar to taste and spoon the dessert into glasses. Chill for a couple of hours but serve at room temp., decorated with another berry or with a crystallised rose or violet petal. Recipe from "The British Museum Cookbook", 1987 British Museum Publications, Ltd. Michelle Berriedale-Johnson Caitlin NicFhionghuin Shire of BorderVale Keep Atlantia Augusta, GA Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 14:08:25 EDT From: LtSpicy at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Ideas for Girl Scout Demo feast? A personal fav of any event is the desert. Here's one that I just love! Kinuko Shire of Isles Cooking Guild Custarde: A Custarde the coffyn must be fyrst hardened in the oven, and then take a quart of creme and fyve or syxe yolkes of egges and beate them well together, and put them into the creme, and put in suger and small Raysyns and Dates sliced, and put into the coffyn butter or else marrowe, but on the fyshe daies put in butter. 1 pie crust 2 cups cream 3 egg yolks 1/4 cup sugar 1/3 cup raisins 1/4 cup dates 3 teaspoons butter or marrow Make pie crust and pre-bake for 10-15 mins at 400 deg. Chop dates. Beat the eggs, add cream, sugar, raisins and dates and pour into pie crust. Dot pie with butter. Bake at 350deg for 1 hr 15 minutes. Source: A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye. ed> Catherine Frances Frere, Cambridge, W. Heffer and sons, LTd, 1913 (16th Century) Reprinted in Cariadoc's Miscellany. Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 21:15:05 -0600 From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON) Subject: Re: SC -12th Night dessert Hello to the list. Here's a recipe for you. Dessert for 12th Night I made a custard, like darioles, with 1 * C almond milk, and filled in with * C. cow's milk; 1 * t. honey, dash salt, four beaten large eggs. Poured it over a bottom fruit filling of * C. raisins, * C. chopped, dried dates, good pinch powder douce, extra cinnamon and nutmeg, boiled to filling consistency in * C. sweet white wine. Topped with sliced, unblanched almonds I had toasted with a sprinkling of sugar and sanders. Baked in ceramic flan dish (travels better than a coffyn) 45 min. Since I wanted a more elaborate dessert than just dariole, I added the same type of fruit filling that appears in rissoles, which I could not keep hot and serve hot. Based on Forme of Cury from Curye on Inglish, Take A 1000 Eggs or More, and To the King's Taste. Since I can't point to ONE recipe and say I did exactly what it said to do, I guess it isn't 'period', but that brings us right back to the old philosophical debate of whether you can cook period food and be creative, too, and whether the creative cook has any validity in what s/he does. Purly copying, to my mind, does benefit the SCA or the growth of the cook. I certainly believe in re-creating the food as it is given in our sources; I don't want that to be the limit for my work. It got a general 'thumbs up', with a couple of vying opinions. Made with almond milk, it's not a custard, it's more cake like-not cake, I don't know what to call it. Once cold, the sweetening in the dariole portion was much less noticable, so that it was a little out of balance with the filling. If I serve it again as a cold dessert, I'll use a full tablespoon of honey, working up from there in small increments, if necessary. One lady was convinced the taste of alchohol was too strong. I found it virtually un-noticeable, but will appreciate hearing from anybody who tries this. A couple of slices were left, which I had for breakfast. The fruit filling has now overpowered the delicate almond dariole, and is a 'mincemeat pie'…or, 'mincemeat upside down cake'! Hope somebody will try it and comment. Allison allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA Kingdom of Aethelmearc Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 18:09:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: SC - Syllabub - does anyone have a period recipe? - --- Lorix wrote: > > If not, I once served "A dyschefull of snowe" with > > strawberries added. > > OK, I have seen others refer to "a dyschefull of snowe", where is it from > and is it period? Oh, and what's the original recipe (Hey if you don't > ask . . . :-) > >From "A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye" [before 1575] TO MAKE A DYSCHEFULL OF SNOWE Take a pottell of swete thycke creame and the whytes of eyghte egges, and beate them altogether wyth a spone, then putte them in your creame and a saucerfull of Rosewater, and a dyshe full of suger wyth all, then take a stycke and make it cleane, and than cutte it in the end foure square, and therwith beate all the aforesayde thynges together and ever as it ryseth take it of and put it in a Collaunder, this done take one apple and set it in the myddes of it, and a thick bushe of Rosemary, and set it is the myddes of the platter, then cast your Snowe uppon the Rosemarye and fyll your platter therwith. And yf you have wafers caste some in wyth all and thus serve them forthe. This is Madge Lorwin's version of this, from "Dining with William Shakespeare": 1 medium-size apple 1 8" sprig of fresh rosemary 1 egg white 1 tbsp. sugar 1 cup whipping cream, chilled 1 tbsp. rosewater 8 wafers/cookies Wash and dry the apple, pull off the stem, and slice a piece off the base of it so that it will stand firmly. Remove the lower leaves of the rosemary to a height that will firmly anchor it in the center of the apple. Rinse the rosemary in cold water and shake off moisture. Chill a flat serving dish, place the apple in the center of it and insert the sprig of rosemary down to the base of the apple. Beat the egg white until it starts to froth, add the sugar, and continue beating until the white is firm and glossy. Whip the chilled cream until it is stiff and fold it into the egg white. Stir in the rosewater, a tsp. at a time. Shake several spoonfuls of the whipped mixture over the sprig, then pile the rest lightly over and around the apple and the lower section of the rosemary. Set the cookies upright into the cream around the edge of the dish and serve immediately. To serve, spoon the cream into individual serving saucers and garnish with the cookies. The apple serves only to hold the rosemary firmly. My version of this: I had 3 dozen leftover egg whites from another dish I was serving earlier, so I expanded the recipe accordingly. I didn't like the fact, according to Ms. Lorwin, that the apple was not to be eaten. I experimented with strawberries and found that very large strawberries [approv. 2 1/2 to 3 inches long] would hold the sprig firmly as well, so I bought 300 large fresh strawberries and froze them. [I was serving approx. 300]. As I had said earlier, the strawberries didn't thaw well, so I pureed them and mixed them into the "snowe" and served it with the rosettes that I had made. The sprigs of rosemary were used as a garnish with another dish. I know that everyone loved this, as I had no leftovers whatsoever. Whether this variation is truly period, I don't know, but I thought that strawberries with the snow would be a good mixture and would be completely eaten. I know that my family prefered the strawberries over the apple, when I first experimented with this. Huette Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 18:17:03 EDT From: ChannonM at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Syllabub - does anyone have a period recipe? ahrenshav at yahoo.com writes: << I didn't like the fact, according to Ms. Lorwin, that the apple was not to be eaten. >> I whole-heartedly agree, however I developed a way to use the apple as a "dipper" for the snowe. I chose big beautiful red delicious apples (I know they are not pippins but they are soooo beautiful), polished them to a sheen, then cored the apples, and using a device I don't know the name of but it essentially divides the apple into 1/8 ths very cleanly, tied the apple together with gold ribbon and sprayed with lemon juice to prevent browning of the edges. I stuck the rosemary in the centre just the same and every table just undid the ribbon, and could use the apple as a dipper into the cream/meringue. I added additional apple slivers etc around the outside of the dish with the Gauffres (see previous post on wafers or email me about Le Menagier's wafers). The crowd was pretty happy. Hauviette Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 01:24:18 -0500 From: Ann & Les Shelton Subject: SC - Pie Called Marzapan I'm teaching a class on Platina at Atlantian University next month and am working on redacting some recipes from De Honesta. I just got through with my first shot at "Pie Which They Call Marzapan" {VIII.48} and it came out nicely. The acid test will be tomorrow. My brother and his family {my demonically possessed nieces and nephew} are visiting from Florida, so we have to do the traditional Sunday lunch at my parent's house. I'm taking the pie along, and if they'll eat it, anyone in the SCA should be willing to. Pie Which They Call Marzapan Make the pie which they call marzapan this way. Grind almonds which have stood in freshwater a day and a night and which are as carefully washed as possible, continually sprinkling lightly with fresh water so they will not produce oil. If you want the best, add as much of the best sugar as of almonds. When all has been well pounded and soaked in rose water, spread in a pan filled with a light undercrust and moistened often with rose water. Put in an oven, sprinkling continually with ground sugar with a bit of rose water so that it will not be dried too much... {snip} My redaction: 1 cup almonds 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup rosewater 1 commercial pie shell, baked blind I ground the almonds in my blender, then added the sugar and got them well mixed to the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. My rosewater is incredibly strong, so I have to cut it 50:50 with water or else it totally overpowers every other ingredient. I put the dry ingredients in a bowl and started adding rosewater a tbs. at a time until they appeared soaked {which I interpreted to be "well moistened"}. This worked out to be 1/4 cup of rosewater. I baked it at 325 for about 35 minutes. It came out with a firm crust and just slightly "mushy" underneath. John le Burguillun Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 09:26:40 -0500 From: Ann & Les Shelton Subject: SC - Questions re Redaction {long} A couple of people asked good questions regarding the redaction I posted for the Marzapan pie from Platina. I'll respond as best I can: 1) Ras asked why I didn't soak the almonds a day and night ahead of time as called for. The truth is, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to try a redaction of the recipe. As noted, I needed something to take over to my parent's house the next afternoon and decided to subject my brother's family to something medieval {they're cynical about the whole SCA experience, so it was a personal need I was meeting. It turned out to be slightly too "rosewatery" for their palates, so it wasn't a total success}. I had the ingredients on-hand, but didn't have enough time to totally follow the recipe. This was a quick-and-dirty first attempt, to see if it merited further exploration. 2) Cariadoc caught a mistake. I neglected to state that I did sprinkle a little water in with the almonds when I ground them, as called for. He also asked whether I had tried pounding the almonds in a mortar, as he feels this would be closer to what Platina would have done. Again, I can only plead that this was a first attempt and subsequent refinements will be made. He also asked why I didn't continually sprinkle it with sugar/rosewater. This requires a little bit of explanation. I was working from the Milham translation, which states that the almonds and sugar should be "soaked" in rosewater. I checked this against the Mallinckrodt version, which translates the sentence as "dissolved" in rosewater. The question became "how wet do I want this mixture to get?" My concern was that if the mixture was too "soupy" it wouldn't get baked properly before the crust started burning. That's why I opted to get the dry ingredients moistened but not saturated with rosewater. When I baked it, it appeared that it was firming up, but it didn't appear to be drying out "too much." I wasn't sure what the impact of adding additional moistened sugar would be, so I left it out. On the post-mortem, the top crusted nice and chewy but there was a thin layer about the consistency of honey between the top and the pie crust. The original recipe calls for the additional sugar mixed with rose water to keep the pie from drying out too much. It appears that some additional sugar may have helped thicken the mixture, but if it was moistened with rose water it may have made it "mushier." The other concern was keeping the oven temperature stable. I want other people to be able to replicate this redaction and improve upon it. Not knowing what the final product was going to come out looking like, I wasn't sure what the impact would be of opening the oven every few minutes, pulling out the pie to sprinkle sugar on it, pushing it back in and closing the oven again {repeating "x" number of times}. My oven is balky and by the time it got back to the desired temperature, it would be time to start the process all over again. So, in the interest of having a control pie to start from, I chose not to follow this step. Thank you all for your assistance. If you have any further comments or questions, I'll be glad to try to respond. John le Burguillun Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 19:28:02 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Hi > BTW guys are fruitcakes period??? > Peldyn Panforte is 13th Century (IIRC). Panatonne is probably late period. There are some Elizabethean "cakes" with fruit worked into the dough. So I would say that some types of fruitcakes are period, but the fruitcake you are referring to may not be. Bear Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 06:55:38 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Hi > No one has > yet sent a "period" recipe in my request for fruit cakes. Anyone know > where there's a historic recipe for panforte? Or is it just described > in literature? > > Anahita al-shazhiya Panforte is supposedly listed in the rents of an Italian monastery. No recipe. Bear Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 16:13:19 -0500 (EST) From: alysk at ix.netcom.com Subject: SC - Re: Questions Phillipa wrote: >" During the evening in the hall the company enjoyed a banqueat of 70 >dishes. And after a *voidee* of spices and subtleties with 30 plates." >What is a voidee and does 30 plates refer to 30 seperate choices of food? A "voidee" is the dessert course, also called a "banquet". Thirty separate choices of sweets would not be inappropriate. One dish could be candied coriander; another candied ginger; another candied anise... Here is part of an article I wrote about "banquets". -- Alys Katharine ------ Gervase Markham (The English Huswife, 1615) wrote a brief section on "The Ordering of Banquets" wherein he describes an ideal dessert course. "...I will now proceed to the ordering or setting forth of a banquet; wherein you shall observe that the marchpanes have the first place, the middle place, and the last place; your preserved fruits shall be dished up first, your pastes next, your wet suckets after them, then your dried suckets, then your marmalades and goodinyakes, then your comfits of all kinds; next, your pears, apples, wardens baked, raw or roasted, and your oranges and lemons slices; and lastly your wafer cakes."(13) He continues by saying that this is the order in which to organize them prior to sending them out to the dining hall. When the diners are ready, "dish made for show only" preceeds everything. The following is a compilation of a number of "dessert" items listed in a variety of cookery books as proper for a "banquet." Fruits fruit pastes: quince, peach, green pippins pomegranate seeds fruit, fresh prunes preserves, dry and liquid barberries succade (suckets): orange peel, lemon peel lemons sitrenade sweet oranges marmalade cherries conserved pears in syrup raisins dates in composte orengat (orange peel candied in honey) dates in confit chitron (candied citron) dates Nuts, seeds, and spices nuts, sugared coliander (coriander) marzipan (ground almonds mixed with sugar, rosewater, and egg whites) nutmegs marchpane (marzipan baked) licoras pepper, white and brown ginger saffron anis vermeil (red-colored anise) aniseeds noisette confites (candied filberts) cinnamon pine nut comfits ginger comfits cubeb comfits cumin comfits coriander comfits Sugar Items Sugar paste (see an accompanying article) rose sugar (sucre rosat) sugar "reliefs," sculptures violet sugar sugar, melted and moulded dragees, large and small (round drops of sugar) sugar, spun candich (crystalized sugar gobbets) comfets (see specific listing above) Manus Christi (boiled sugar gobbets with gold leaf added) rusen, red and white (poured into moulds, usually fruit shaped) Baked goods, cookies, pies, cakes biscuits: there were a number of varieties * light, dry biscuits, biscuit breads, diet breads. Some had egg, others did not. * rich short cakes, the paste being mixed with butter or cream * raised with ale yeast; usually spiced with aniseeds, caraway, coriander. * "biskatello" almond macaroon jumballs (a kind of cookie twisted into fanciful knots wafers shortcakes: Shropshire Shrewsbury gingerbread: red (dried bread crumbs, red wine) white (gum tragacanth, ginger, sometimes almonds) payne puff corneseli marchpanes (baked marzipan, set on a wafer, frequently decorated with comfits, or a shiny white icing) Custards, milks, miscellaneous doucettes leach (milk and gelatine) dariols (custard tarts) jellies leach (egg and milk custard) cheese leach Lombard (dates, breadcrumbs, cream or almond milk) creams Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2000 18:42:14 -0600 From: Magdalena Subject: SC - seed cake from Tusser Seed Cake Melt 2 lbs of butter and let it stand 24 hours and then rub in 4 lbs of fine dried flour. Mix in 8 eggs, (wip the whites to sno') and pt of ale yeast and 1 pt of sack. (any white wine). Mix all together lightly and put in 2 lbs Carraway comfits. Put into buttered Hoops and bake 2 hours and a half. You may mix in 1/2 oz of cloves and cinnamon if you like. - ----- Anyone know what melting the butter and letting it stand will do? And does anyone have a recipe for carraway comfits? - -Magdalena Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 17:02:06 -0800 From: lilinah at earthlink.net Subject: Re: SC - seed cake from Tusser >Anyone know what melting the butter and letting it stand >will do? And does anyone have a recipe for carraway >comfits? > >-Magdalena It'll separate. Clear yellow ghee/clarified butter on top, opaque creamy yellow milk solids on the bottom. So, anyone, what do you use the milk solids from clarified butter for? I hate to throw them out... Anahita al-shazhiyya Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 00:03:19 -0500 From: "Bethany Public Library" Subject: Re: SC - cherry tarts & A Tarte to provoke courage Stefan, quoting Thomas, and then commenting himself on the subject, = penned the following: >Thomas said: >> "A Tarte to provoke courage either in man or Woman. >> >> Take a quart of good wine, and boyle therein two Burre >> rootes scraped cleane, two good Quinces, and a Potaton >> roote well pared and an ounce of Dates, and when all >> these are boyled verie tender, let them be drawne throgh >> a strainer wine and al, and then put in the yolks of >> eight Egs, and the braines of three or foure cocke >> Sparrowes, and straine them into the other, and a litle >> Rosewater, and seeth them all with Sugar, Synamon and >> Ginger, and cloves and Mace, and put in a litle Sweet >> Butter, and set it upon a chafingdish of coales betweene >> two platters, and so let it boyle till it be something >> big." (p. 39) >My first thought is that rather than provoking courage, anyone >who drinks(?) this knowing what is in it already has courage. :-) >Sparrow brains???? The brain are for a particular consistency, their delicate flavor being absorbed completely by the strongly falvored fruits in the dish. Along with the eggs, what you'll get with the inclusion of these ingredients is a nice jiggly fruit custard-type dish.Fruit Flan, in a pie shell, anyone? >What are "Burre" roots? And what is a "Potaton" root? Sweet potato? >Since I don't believe Thomas gave the source, although I assume >this is late period, I'm not sure. Borage, or burrage, is burre root. Potaton is exactly what you think it is. Potato. Obviously a late period recipe, perhaps from Huswife's Jewel or maybe Martha? >What is the final dish? A beverage or a thick cream-like thing? >A caudle perhaps? "let it boil till it be something big"??? >Would this froth up? To suss this out, you need to go back to the begining and read the whole thing, title and all. A Tarte is what it is called, so you'd get an openfaced pie. The cook assumed anyone could prepare a pie shell and slip the contents into it, so that bit was left out of the directions. It would end up being a tan/brownish colored custardy pie, without the benefit of milk products. The potato is there to give it substance and bulk. The wine helps degrade the organic materials while still preserving all of their flavor. All in all, I'd guess your guests would love this dish *if* you failed to impart the news that it contained bird brains. And if I had to cook it without the benefit of fowl's cranial contents, I would simply add more eggs, being careful to stir constantly over a chafing dish, and not too cook it too much. Not quite as gelatinous as it would be with the brains, but I'd bet very tasty none the less. Reminds me a bit of what you'd find in Sabrina Welserin's (sp?) book, which is online somewhere. URL, anyone? Aoife Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 09:07:57 -0500 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" Subject: Re: SC - cherry tarts & A tarte to provoke courage And it came to pass on 7 Mar 00,, that Stefan li Rous wrote: > Thomas said: > > "A Tarte to provoke courage either in man or Woman. [snip] > Since I don't believe Thomas gave the source, although I assume > this is late period, I'm not sure. It's from "The Good Huswifes Jewell", 1596. > What is the final dish? A beverage or a thick cream-like thing? > A caudle perhaps? "let it boil till it be something big"??? > Would this froth up? I judge from the title that it's the filling for a tart, though probably a crustless tart since it is to be cooked over some coals rather than baked in the oven. I don't think, with the potatoes and the egg yolks, that it could be thin enough to be drinkable. I think you're going to get a solidly set substance. There's only a quart of wine, lots of starchy stuff to absorb and thicken it, and 8 egg yolks to finish coagulating the liquid. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 09:54:22 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Recepies wanted Stefan li Rous wrote: > > The deserts I am interested in are Frangipani, > > Macaroons, Milan Cakes or Flavored Ice. > > I'm not sure what the first item is Frangipane is an almond pastry cream, made today with a thickish pastry cream containing flour, eggs, milk, sugar, butter and flavorings, to which is added crushed almonds or crushed almond macaroons. Usually used as a crepe, pate a choux, or tart filling. I vaguely remember reading that earlier versions of frangipane were made with almond milk instead of cow's milk. I could swear I read some stuff about frangipane in Wheaton's "Savoring the Past", but can't find it in there now. ("'You are old, Adamantius,' the young man cried, 'and your hair has become very white! And yet you incessantly stand on your head! At your age, do you think it is right?' ") The Larousse Gastronomique says frangipane is named for an Italian nobleman living in Paris in the sixteenth century, who had apparently invented a perfume based on bitter almonds. Creme frangipane is believed to be roughly contemporary, but then this is Larousse, so who knows? Larousse further says that "tartes franchipanne" are mentioned repeatedly in La Varenne's "La Patissier Francoise", which is, what, c. 1655 or 60? Anne-Marie? Anybody? Adamantius Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 09:21:09 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Recepies wanted > At 12:01 PM -0500 3/22/00, BSmif76308 at aol.com wrote: > >I was doing a feast and was looking for some recipes. I > have the recipes for > >the main part of the feast but I haven't found any period > recipes for the > >deserts I want to serve. The deserts I am interested in are > Frangipani, > >Macaroons, Milan Cakes or Flavored Ice. If anyone has any > suggestions where > >I could find them please let me know. Thank you for your time. > > Do you have reason to believe that any of those are period? If you > have an actual period reference, someone might be able to point you > at a period cookbook from the appropriate time and place, and you > could look through it for your recipe. > > David/Cariadoc Trager's "The Food Chronology" gives a date 1533 for the macaroons, milan cakes and frangipani being introduced to Florence. Trager is bad about not identifying sources, providing a thorough bibliography, and accepting apocryphal evidence as absolute truth, so the information could be in error. Apocryphally, frangipani is attributed to Count Cesare Frangipani, who is said to have created it in Rome around 1530. I have not found any contemporary reference or recipe. Bear Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 11:31:57 EST From: BSmif76308 at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Recepies wanted The documentation that I have on the recipes state that the dishes where introduced to France by the cooks of Catherine de Medici. And flavored ice was served at her wedding feast. The time period is around 1532-1533. Hans Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 08:42:22 -0000 From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" Subject: Re: SC - Recepies wanted In the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson cites Claudine BrÈcourt-Villars, who says frangipane originally meant a cream, flavoured with almonds and used in the construction of certain cakes. The term (franchipane) first appears in a French cookery book of 1674 but the name is said to come from Italian aristocrat Don Cesare Frangipani, who invented an almond-scented perfume used to scent the gloves of king Louis XIII: Macaroon recipes have appeared in cookbooks since at least the late 17th century but they are thought to have originated in Venice in the 14th or 15th centuries. Nanna Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:00:09 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - Peeres in confyt [Note - see recipe/redaction earlier in this file] stefan at texas.net writes: << 2 cup semisweet Sauterne >> I assume that the Sauternes you refer to is California sauterne and not a French sauterne as I had thought? That might work. A late harvest or ice wine might be a good substitute for vermage also but although less expensive than a true French Sauterne, they are still a bit pricey. Pinot Gris sweetened with a little sugar might be an acceptable substitute also. Semisweet Italian wines are occasionally available in the states but are a rare find. I am not sure if the is a white wine version of the Greek wine Mavrodophne (sp?) but if there is that would be a sweet Greek wine. You might also try to experiment with a cream sherry or a regular sherry if that is all that is available to you. By no means use cooking sherry as the salt content is way high. Dry cocktail sherry would also not fit the definition of semisweet either. Ras Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 22:41:43 -0400 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" Subject: SC - Cinnamon Cucumbers I have looked at "Medieval Festivals and Holidays" by Cosman, and the recipe on the web *is* the same one that is found in the book. Naturally, the book gives no hint of the the recipe's origins. I highly suspect that it is out of Ms. Cosman's fertile imagination. Several of the other recipes look as though they were invented, most notably peppermint rice and pasta with apricot butter. C. Anne Wilson, in "Food and Drink in Britain" says that the cucumber was little known in England in the 15th century, but was widely cultivated during the 16th century. I have checked all of the late-period and post-period English cookbooks I own, and the only cucumber recipes I can find are pickled. I haven't seen any that were sliced raw and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. At this point, I would be inclined label the periodness of Canel Cucumber as "undocumented and dubious". Does anyone else on the list have anything to add? Has anyone seen a period recipe like this (from England or elsewhere)? Lady Brighid ni Chiarain Settmour Swamp, East (NJ) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 16:35:19 -0400 (EDT) From: alysk at ix.netcom.com Subject: SC - Waffles, Turkey, and Trifle Greetings. Recently, there were posts (if my feeble brain recalls correctly) about period documentation for waffles, turkey and trifle. While bumming around during my vacation I came across some of each and thought I'd post in case there still was interest - or it hadn't been settled. I was one of those who said I didn't think a trifle was period. I was both wrong and right. The same Dawson book has "To make a Trifle", but its only ingredients are cream, sugar, ginger and rosewater. No fruit, no bread, no cake. It says, "Take a pinte of thicke Creame, and season it with Sugar and Ginger, and Rosewater, so stirre it as you would then have it, and make it luke warme in a dish on a Chafingdishe and coales, and after put it into a silver peece or a bowle, and so serve it to the boorde." Alys Katharine Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 21:40:12 -0600 (MDT) From: Ann Sasahara Subject: SC - "Ren Recipes" by G Riley: Martha's dessert On Fri, 1 Sep 2000, Karen O wrote: > OH OH but I *DO* have Martha's book now -- so what is the recipe? > I'll post what what/how it is in Martha's book ! Having a fun time reading > it, and deciding what recipes to copy out for myself. > Caointiarn Sounds great. I would like to compare them. G Riley's redaction follows. IMNTK Ariann Raspberry Cream redacted by G. Riley from _Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery_ 1 pint (600 ml) fresh heavy cream 3 whites of eggs 2 blades mace 1 tsp grated lemon peel (without pith) 2 oz (60 g) white sugar 1 lb (500 g) raspberries Melt the sugar and raspberries together on a very low heat. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl and let it cool. Meanwhile bring the cream up to the boil, then take it off the heat. Add, very carefully, the egg whites beaten with a little cold cream and stir gently until the custard thickens, putting the pan back on the heat from time to time to avoid cooling too soon. Put on one side and let it cool, then stir in the raspberry juice. Mix together thoroughly to get an even pink color, or swirl the juice in with the minimum of stirring to create a marbled effect. Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 16:37:15 -0600 From: "Karen O" Subject: Re: SC - Rasp cream from Martha > Raspberry Cream > redacted by G. Riley from _Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery_ > > 1 pint (600 ml) fresh heavy cream > 3 whites of eggs > 2 blades mace > 1 tsp grated lemon peel (without pith) > 2 oz (60 g) white sugar > 1 lb (500 g) raspberries > > Melt the sugar and raspberries together on a very low heat. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl and let it cool. Meanwhile bring the cream up to the boil, then take it off the heat. Add, very carefully, the egg whites beaten with a little cold cream and stir gently until the custard thickens, putting the pan back on the heat from time to time to avoid cooling too soon. Put on one side and let it cool, then stir in the raspberry juice. Mix together thoroughly to get an even pink color, or swirl the juice in with the minimum of stirring to create a marbled effect. __________________________ From _A Booke of Cookery_ p 142, Recipe # 125: To Make Rasberry Cream Take a pinte of cream & boyle it with 3 whites of eggs beaten well with warme cream, put in a blade or 2 of mace & some leamon pill, & when it is pritty well boyled take it of & season it with sugar & put in some Juice of rasberries. stir it well together & when it is cold serve it up. thus you may make curranberrie, sorrel, or leamon cream. AUTHORS NOTE: This cream is also a kind of fool, the kind that combined custard and fruit (see fool, C109). Omitting the egg yolks is perceptive in this case as they veil the intensity of these fruit flavors; it also makes the cooking of the custard a bit tricky, although the use of heavy cream makes this possible. Observe all rules of cooking custard and be especially careful about not overcooking. The use of sorrel in these creams was fairly common and not at all outre. MY OWN THOUGHTS: The amount of sugar in Riley's redaction may be too much. The martha one says *season it with* so, a lighter touch may be better. (tho' incorporating the sugar iin the ras juice is a idea) Sorry it took so long -- I still have a good third to read thru!! (and then off to the copier!!) Caointiarn Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 00:55:27 +1100 From: "Lee-Gwen" Subject: SC - Dyschefull of Snowe vs Apple Snow - a redaction question Some time ago Paul Macgregor posted a recipe for a "Dyschefull of Snowe" along with a redaction titled "Apple Snow" from "A Book of Historical Recipes" by Sara Paston-Williams. It is claimed to be a Scottish Elizabethan recipe dated 1572 AD. I was planning to make the redaction as a special desert for tea tomorrow and so took the time to compare the two recipes. It seems to me that they are different recipes bearing only a passing resemblance to each other - they have the same ingredients, basically. I have posted both versions and would appreciate the comments of the Gathered Cooks on this. I am also interested in redacting (and no comments from the peanut gallery about a woman who less than 6 months ago was unwilling to even think about redacting, thank you very much!) the original. To that end, I wonder if people here could tell me how much (in metric) a gallon measured in Scotland at that time? Dyschefull of Snowe "Take a pottell (half a gallon) of swete thycke creame and the whytes of eyghte egges, and beate them altogether wyth a spone. Then putte them in youre creame and a saucerful of Rosewater, and a dyshe full of Sugar wyth all. Then take a stycke and make it cleane, and then cutte it in the ende foure square, and therwith beate all the aforesayde thynges together, and ever as it ryseth take it of and put it into a Collaunder. This done, take one apple and set it in the myddes of it, and a thicke bushe of Rosemary, and set it in the myddes of the Platter. Then cast your Snowe uppon the Rosemary and fyll your platter therwith. And yf you have wafers caste some in wyth all and thus serve them forthe." Apple Snow 1 1/2 lb Cooking apples; peeled, cored & sliced 1 tb Rose-water Caster sugar; to taste 3 Egg whites 3 oz Caster sugar 1/4 pint Whipping cream GARNISH Fresh rosemary sprigs Gold dragees Cook the sliced apples with the rose-water until soft, then rub them through a fine sieve to make a smooth puree. Taste and sweeten with a little sugar if necessary. Leave to get cold, then measure out about 1/2 pint. In a large clean bowl, beat the egg whites until they stand in soft peaks. Gradually beat in the caster sugar and continue to beat to a stiff, glossy meringue. Gently fold in the measured apple puree, then spoon into individual glasses or sundae dishes. Top with swirls of whipped cream and decorate with rosemary and gold dragees. From: lilinah at earthlink.net Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 22:52:30 -0700 To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period sweets >...I shall be IN persona.. a woman of 10th century Al-Andalus... what would >be the proper sweetmeats that I would make and offer to my 'guests'... >Islamic Empire - 10th century.. > >'bella / Aine Here are two 13th century Muslim recipes: They're from the book "In A Caliph's Kitchen" by David Waines. His worked out recipes don't always follow the originals, but for the sweets they are pretty close. It is long out of print and i searched for nearly 2 years for a used copy before i gave up and got it via Inter-Library Loan. I've included the Original (as published in "In a Caliph's Kitchen") and David Waine's version, along with my notes and one of Lord Cariadoc's redactions. I've never made these myself because i don't like sweets much. ----------------------------------- Khushknanaj (khushk = dry and nan = bread in Persian) from the cookbook by al-Baghdadi, 13th c. ORIGINAL Take fine white flour and with every ratl mix 3 uqiya of sesame oil, kneading into a firm paste. Leave to rise. Then make into long loaves. Put into the middle of each loaf a suitable quantity of ground almonds and scented sugar mixed with rose water, using half as much almonds as sugar. Then press together as usual and bake in the oven. Remove. ----- David Waines' version: 6 oz white flour 1/2 oz yeast pinch of salt 1 tsp. granulated sugar 1 Tb. sesame oil [MY NOTE: you can find in the health food store it's good for cooking period Near Eastern food with Note: this is *not* the Chinese roasted kind] 2 oz. ground almonds 2 oz castor sugar [extra fine granulated sugar, not powdered sugar] 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 2-3 Tb. rose water [possibly less] Sift flour into a bowl, add salt Mix yeast with granulated sugar and a little water. Add to flour. Add sesame oil to mixture. Mix. Add enough water to make a dough with a firm consistency. Knead for 10 min. then cover with a towel and leave to rise in a warm place 1-1/2 hour. Mix together ground almonds, castor sugar, cinnamon. When well blended gradually add rosewater to make a stiff paste - may need to add a little water. When the dough has risen, turn onto a floured board and knead for a few minutes. Cut the dough into 10 equal portions. Roll each into a flat thin oval. Place 1/10 of the filling on one dough oval, roll the dough over it, moistening the edges with water so they'll stick. Form into sealed cylinders. Make sure filling is well covered so it doesn't burst out when cooking. Place on greased baking pan and cook in preheated oven at 450 until just golden. Cool before serving. ----- His Grace, Lord Cariadoc's version, from the Miscellany: 2 c white +1 c whole wheat flour 1/2 c sesame oil (from untoasted sesame!!!) 6 oz almonds = 1 c before chopping additional flour for rolling out dough 12 oz = 1 1/2 c sugar 1 T rose water 3/4 to 7/8 c cold water or 1/2 c water, 1/2 c sourdough starter "Leave to rise" is a puzzle, since the recipe includes neither yeast nor water. The recipe does not seem to work without water; perhaps the author took it for granted that making a paste implied adding water. We originally developed the recipe without leavening, but currently use sourdough, which is our best guess at what the original intended (and also seems to work a little better). The two versions are: Without leavening: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Sprinkle the water onto the dough, stir in. Knead briefly together. Sourdough: Mix the flour, stir in the oil. Mix the water and the sour dough starter together. Add gradually to the flour/oil mixture, and knead briefly together. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise about 8 hours in a warm place, then knead a little more. We also have two interpretations of how the loaves are made; they are: Almost Baklava: Divide in four parts. Roll each one out to about 8"x16" on a floured board. Grind almonds, combine with sugar and rose water. Spread the mixture over the rolled out dough and roll up like a jelly roll, sealing the ends and edges (use a wet finger if necessary). You may want to roll out the dough in one place and roll it up in another, so as not to have bits of nuts on the board you are trying to roll it out on. You can vary how thin you roll the dough and how much filling you use over a considerable range, to your own taste. Long thin loaves: Divide the dough into six or eight parts, roll each out to a long loaf (about 16"), flatten down the middle so that you can fill it with the sugar and almond mixture, then seal it together over the filling. You end up with a tube of dough with filling in the middle. Bake at 350 deg. about 45-50 minutes. Notes: At least some of the almonds should be only coarsely ground, for texture. The sesame oil is the Middle Eastern version, which is almost flavorless [Anahita's Note: i find sesame oil i get at the health food store to be *quite* flavorful]; you can get something similar at health food stores. Chinese sesame oil, made from toasted sesame seeds, is very strongly flavored and results in a nearly inedible pastry. We do not know what scented sugar contained. ----- Anahita's suggested short cut, if you don't feel the need to be really authentic: I suspect you can cheat by using a simple cookie dough made with sesame oil instead of butter and with NO vanilla. Roll dough into flat thin ovals and fill and bake as directed above. Do check on them, because they shouldn't be brown, just golden. Shouldn't take more than 15 min, and maybe less. ----------------------------------- Rutab mu'assal "Honeyed Dates" (literally) 13th c. recipe - source not specified ORIGINAL Take freshly gathered dates and lay in the shade and air for a day. Then remove the stones and stuff with peeled almonds. For every 10 ratls of dates take 2 ratls of honey. Boil over the fire with two uqiya of rose water and half a dirham of saffron, then throw in the dates, stirring for an hour. Remove and allow to cool. When cold, sprinkle with fine-ground sugar scented with musk, camphor,and hyacinth. Put into glass preserving jars, sprinkling on top some of the scented ground sugar. Cover until the weather is cold and chafing dishes are brought in. [my note: might "chafing dishes" be "braziers" used to warm the house?] David Waines' version: 1 lb. fresh dates 2 Tb. honey 4 oz. blanched almonds 3 Tb. rosewater big pinch saffron 2 Tb. castor sugar (extra fine granulated sugar) 2 Tb. ground cinnamon [i think that's a bit much!] 1.) Carefully slit each date down one side and remove the pit. 2.) Into each date place one blanched almond, then squeeze closed. 3.) Mix together rosewater, honey, and saffron in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer 3 minutes. Remove and allow to cool slightly. 4.) Add dates to syrup, spooning it over the dates so each is thoroughly coated. Leave them in the syrup for a couple of hours. 5.) Remove dates and roll each one in caster sugar mixed with cinnamon. ----- My notes: I have never made this. That said... (1) i've seen some dates that were a bit hard. If you end up with these, you can simmer them in water to cover until they're tender, probably a few minutes. Drain and cool before proceeding. (2) Also, you can sometimes find pitted dates, which could save a bit of work. (3) you might want to put more than one almond in a date, depending on the size of the almonds and of the dates. (almonds in Morocco were rather small, but they were incredibly flavorful.) Well, that's it for these two recipes... There some others, but these sounded not bad to me and like they might work for your schtick. Anahita Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 22:10:58 -0400 From: johnna holloway To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Trifle, dated 1596 Came across this trifle, but it has no sponge cake or biscuits, and it's not chocolate. TO MAKE A TRIFLE Take a pint of thick cream, and season it with sugar and ginger, and rose water. So stir it as you would then have it and make it luke warm in a dish on a chafing dish and coals. And after put it into a silver piece or a bowl, and so serve it to the board. Thomas Dawson The Good Huswifes Jewell, 1596. f.23 Johnnae llyn Lewis From: grizly at mindspring.com Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 09:35:43 -0400 To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Custard thickening medievally? SPOON TEASE! Could we have the recipe please? (Please, please...with cherries on top) Lucrezia>>>>> MEA CULPA!! Gotta do some beads for that one. Here is my version with original: Zabaglone #220 Per fare quatro taze de Zabaglone, piglia .xii. rossi de ova fresca, tre onze de zucaro he meza onza de canella bona he uno bucale de vino bono dolce, he fallo cocere tanto cha sia preso como uno brodeto. Et poi levalo for a he ponello in uno grando piatello davante alli Compagnone. Zabaglaone (#220) For four cups of Zabaglone get twelve fresh egg yolks, three ounces of sugar, half an ounce of good cinnamon and a beaker of good sweet wine; cook this until it is as thick as a broth; then take it out and set it on a plate in front of the boys. And if you like you can add a bit of fresh butter, NICCOLO'S RECIPE Serves 10-12 1 cup water to boil in double boiler 12 large egg yolks 1=BD cups Madeira wine 2 Tbl cold butter 3 ounces sugar, to taste 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon In metal or glass mixing bowl (suitable for double boiler), whisk yolks and half of sugar together until pale and completely combined. Place over hot water (double boiler) and heat, stirring or whisking constantly. Add the wine all at once and heat until thickened and will hold ribbons on its surface for a short time. Add cinnamon and stir in butter quickly so that it incorporates before it melts. If too strong, add a little water or grape juice Serve warm with fruit or candied peel. ORIGINAL TEXT & TRANSLATION Scully, T. (2000). Cuoco Napoletano - The Neapolitan Recipe Collection: a critical edition and English translation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.) Can be found on the web (with others)at my site: http://franiccolo.home.mindspring.com/recipes_main.html THfra niccolo difrancesco the repentant Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 18:00:32 -0500 From: "Barbara Benson" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dessert for tomorrow To: "Cooks within the SCA" >>> I am making a Fool for dessert for tomorrow ;-), and have found a couple references online to recipes originating in the 15th or 16th centurey for Fools, but no sources were given. _Classic Home Desserts_, which is wonderful for discussing the origins and variations of many lovely and less-known desserts like flummery, is also vague about the origins of specific recipes for Fool. Any thoughts or pointers to resources? <<< From The English Housewife by Gervase Markham first published in 1615: A Norfolk Fool Take a pint of the sweetest and thickest cream that can be gotten, and set it on the fire in a very clean scoured skillet, and put into it sugar, cinnamon, and a nutmeg cut into four quarters, and so boil it well: then take the yolk of four eggs, and take off the films, and beat them well with a little sweet cream: then take the four quarters of the nutmeg out of the cream, then put in the eggs, and stir it exceedingly, till it be thick: then take a fine manchet, and cut it into thin shives, as much as will cover a dish bottom, and, holding it in your hand, pour half of the cream into the dish: then lay your bread over it, then cover the bread with the rest of the cream, and so let it stand till it be cold: then strew it over with caraway comfits, and prick up some cinnamon comfits, and some sliced dates; or for want thereof, scrape all over it with some sugar, and trim the sides of the dish with sugar, and so serve it up. The next recipt in line is also a familiar desert title but not what we would think of: A Trifle Take a pint of the best and thickest cream, and set it on the fire in a clean skillet, and put into it sugar, cinnamon, and a nutmeg cut into four quarters, and so boil it well: then put it into the dish you intend to serve it in, and let it stand to cool till it be no more than lukewarm: then put in a spoonful of the best earning, and stir it well about, and so let it stand till it be cold, and then strew sugar upon it, and so serve it up, and this you may serve either in a dish, glass, or other plate. I hope that these are helpful for you. --Serena da Riva Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 07:45:23 -0600 From: Sue Clemenger Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Semolina, Khabisa with Pamegranate To: Cooks within the SCA I've made that one, as a tet dessert for an Islamic feast a couple of years ago. Dang, but I was disappointed. Tasted like red "hot cereal!" Didn't strike me as anything worth doing for a dessert! --maire, who finds semolina in either the flour section or the organic foods/specia foods section.... Harold and Dinah Tackett wrote: > "Khabisa with Pomegranate" is from "An Anonymous Andalusian > Cookbook of the 13th. Century" translated by Charles Perry, (webbed > at > http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusin/ > andalusian_contents.htm ) and specifically calls for Semolina. > Considering the constancy of the finished cookies, I do not think that > Cracked wheat would work as well (but I will try it :) Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 12:26:43 -0700 From: David Friedman Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Semolina, Khabisa with Pamegranate To: Cooks within the SCA > "Khabisa with Pomegranate" is from "An > Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th. > Century" translated by Charles Perry, (webbed at > http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookboks/Andalusian/ > andalusian_contents.htm > ) and specifically calls for Semolina. > Considering the constancy of the finished > cookies, I do not think that Cracked wheat would > work as well (but I will try it :) > Below is my recipe with the original. > Dinah / Sayyida Dinah bint Ismai'l > > Khabîsa with Pomegranate > > Take half a ratl of sugar and put it in a metal > or earthenware pot and pour in three ratls of > juice of sweet table pomegranates [rummân sufri; > probably tart pomegranates were moe common in > cooking] and half an û qiya of rosewater, with a > penetrating smell. Boil it gently and after two > boilings, add half a mudd of semolina and boil > it until the semolina is cooked. Throw in the > weight of a quarter dirham of ground and sited > saffron, and three û qiyas of almonds. Put it in > a dish and sprinkle over it the like of pounded > sugar, and make balls [literally, hazelnuts] of this. > > My redaction: > > 2 1/2 cups Sugar > 3 tbs. Pomegranate Syrup > 2 1/2 cups Water > 1/3 cup Rosewater > 1 1/3 to 1 1/2 lbs. Semolina, Fine Grain > 10 to 12 oz. Ground Almonds > 4 or 5 threads of Saffron > Powder Sugar to roll in I don't see how you can make these quantities consistent with the original text. You are supposed to hav six times as much pomegranate juice as sugar, by weight--and the density of sugar is close to that of water, so that means about six times as much by volume. Even if we assume that your water plus syrup is intended as reconstituted pomegranate juice--and I think you have way too little syrup for that--you still have only one sixth the amount of pomegranate juice called for in the recipe. Am I missing something--as your text appears on my machine, there is a symbol ½, which looks like a large pi, before "cps" in each case. I'm assuming it is 1/2. A mudd is about four liters, or roughly a gallon, so a mudd of semolina would weigh a little over four pounds. So the ratio of semolina to sugar should be about four to one by weight. Your ratio is less than half that. The ratio of pomegranate juice to semolina should be about 3:2. Yours is more like 2:3. The ratio of rosewater to sugar by weight should be one to twelve--there are 12 uqiyas to the ratl, just as in the troy system of ounces and pounds. Yours is moe like one to four. I don't know if you noticed the information on period Islamic weights and measures in the translation--it's at the back. Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 17:06:14 -0400 From: "Harold and Dinah Tackett" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Semolina, Khabisa ith Pamegranate To: "Cooks within the SCA" ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Friedman" > I don' see how you can make these quantities > consistent with the original text. You are > supposed to have six times as much pomegranate > juice as sugar, by weight--and the density of > sugar is close to that of water, so that means > about six times as muchby volume. Even if we > assume that your water plus syrup is intended as > reconstituted pomegranate juice--and I think you > have way too little syrup for that--you still > have only one sixth the amount of pomegranate > juice called for in the recipe. A I missing > something--as your text appears on my machine, > there is a symbol ½, which looks like a large pi, > before "cups" in each case. I'm assuming it is > 1/2. I was using Pomegranate Molasses/Syrup instead of juice with extra sugar and water to compensate for it. Dinah Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 18:15:11 -0700 From: lilinah at earthink.net Subject: [Sca-cooks] Khabisa with Pomegranate To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org I don't like very sweet stuff, as i've said way too often on this list. So I have adapted this recipe to eat at breakfast at camping events. I cook it pretty much according to the recipe, but i don't coat it with sugar and make it into balls. Khabisa with Pomegranate ORIGINAL Take half a ratl of sugar and put t in a metal or earthenware pot and pour in three ratls of juice of sweet table pomegranates and half an uqiya of rosewater, with a penetrating smell. Boil it gently and after two boilings, add half a mudd of semolina and boil it until the semolina is cooed. Throw in the weight of a quarter dirham of ground and sifted saffron, and three uqiyas of almonds. Put it in a dish and sprinkle over it the like of pounded sugar, and make balls [literally, hazelnuts] of this. Cariadoc wrote: > A mudd is about fourliters, or roughly a gallon, so a mudd of > semolina would weigh a little over four pounds. A ratl is about 1 lb. A pound of sugar = 2 cups A pound of water = one pint = 2 cups (i used this for the juice, although it won't be identical to water) An uqiy is 1/12 of a pound, i.e., 16/12 oz = 1-1/3 oz. For the rosewater, 1-1/3 US liquid ounces = 8 tsp. Half of this is 4 tsp = 1 Tb + 1 tsp. This is not exact as i don't know how close a liquid ounce is to a "solid" ounce. A dirham is variable, but often shos up as about 40 per uqiya. So one dirham could be approx. 28/40 grams, i.e., seven tenths of a gram As i interpret the quantities in the above recipe, i come up with: 1 cup sugar (1/2 ratl) 1-1/2 quarts pure unsweetened pomegranate juice (3 ratls) 1 Tb and 1 tsp. rosewater (1/2 uqiya) 2 lb. semolina (NOT flour) i usually use fine, but medium should work (1/2 mudd) a pinch ground saffron (1/4 dirham) 4 oz. almonds (3 uqiyas) the like of pounded sugar (4 oz.?) 1. Put sugar, pomegranate juice, and rosewater in a saucepan. 2. Bring to a boil and simmer until it becomes a light syrup, stirring frequently. 3. Add semolina, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until the semolina is absorbs most of the liquid and is tender, about 5 minutes. 4. Stir in saffron and almonds. 5. Put it in a dish and sprinkle over it the like of pounded sugar 6. Make into hazelnut-sized balls. ANAHITA'S NOTES: Pure unsweetened pomegranate juice is available at health food stores and Middle Eastern makets. I LOVE to drink pure unsweetened pomegranate juice, but i find the flavor a bit strong when eating a bowl of this, so i cook it with 2/3 juice and 1/3 water. I actually add the rosewater with the saffron and almonds, so that it doesn't vaporize. The recipe doesn't specify whether the almonds are whole or ground. I would assume whole, but often after feasts i have ground almonds leftover, so i use them in this recipe so they don't go to waste. I don't make this into sugar coated balls. I eat a bowlful of it with a spoon and a cup of coffee :-) I lost my recipe for Khabisa with Pomegranate when i had the fatal hard drive crash in February. The recipe is a reconstruction. I remember my process, but not the exact quantities, however i originally developed my quantities based on the descriptions of the Islamic measurements given in the Andalusian cookbook. Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 19:32:18 -0700 From: David Friedman Subject: Re: [ca-cooks] Semolina, Khabisa with Pamegranate To: Cooks within the SCA > I was using Pomegranate Molasses/Syrup instead of juice with extra > sugar and water to compensate for it. > Dinah Why would you use extra sugar? The syrup contains whatever sugar was in the juice that was boiled down to make the syrup. If yu are trying to reconstitute it to get back to the juice, wouldn't you just add back the water? But your combined water+syrup was about a sixth of the amount of juice in the original, relative to sugar. If anything, the syrup might have added sugar of it own--you would have to check the bottle to see. If so, you would want to compensate in the opposite direction--put less sugar into the recipe relative to the amount of juice, not, as you did, much more. -- David Friedman www.daviddfriedman.com Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 11:56:54 -0400 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Digby's Small Cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Also sprach AEllin Olafs dotter: > I need to bring something snacky/desserty to an event with a Late > Elizabethan theme, and looked at these. (OK, they're slightly later > - they'll deal...) I looked up the recipe in the Florithingy > (thanks, Stefan) and glanced through the several redactions there. > And noticed something that intrigued me. > > In the original, you mix your ingredients, and then > When you have > wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a > dish before the fire, till it be through warm > > and then go on to form your cakes. All the redactions seem to > blithely skip over this step. (I was skimming - it's possible I > missed one.) Anyone know why, other than the fact that it makes no > sense to our modern bakers eye, well trained to chill dough? has > anyone tried it, and found a problem? Has anyone tried it, period? > Does it get soggy, or does this make it possible to make the cakes > thin, as directed? Or both? > > It's in the high 80s, here, I'm not going to need any fire to warm > my paste... which makes this rather attractive for summer baking... > *G* Looking at the recipe, I'm guessing it allows the cakes to be rolled fairly thin, and to make the aromatics (nutmeg, etc.) more aromatic (not that baking won't do the same). But between the specific instruction to make them thin (most SCA cooks seem almost to make a drop-cookie), the warning to bake them in a hot, _open_, oven, and the instruction to prick them full of holes, all seem to suggest these are more like biscotti in texture. It may also be that they're intended to be chemically rather than structurally shortened by all that butter and cream. IOW, made tender without the flakiness and air bubbling associated with buttery pastry. We normally chill pastry to make it easier to work and to speed up the relaxation of gluten, but when things are rolled out thin, they don't necessarily become tough, especially with that amount of fat. Adamantius Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 1:31:07 -0400 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Digby's Small Cakes To: Cooks within the SCA Also sprach Johnna Holloway: > There's also the real possibility that the "add ale barm" > got left out and this is supposed to rise. > That would account for the missing liquid that Master > Tirloch has noted i his redaction. > > Johnnae I also believe Master Tirloch has posited a Tablespoon for a "spoonful" of things like cream. People like Hillary Spurling posit a much larger measure for the Elizabethan and Jacobean spoonful. That might account for it, also. Adamantius Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:08:01 -0500 From: "Elise Fleming" Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Candies and Sweets To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" Greetings. Here is a list of candies and sweets (but no baked goods) used for the "banquet" course or dessert, most of which were listed by Gervase Markham in 1615 in _The English Housewife_. Some on the list are from Witteveen's article. (See paragraph after the list.) This might give you a start. Note that codiniacs/quiddony/quidenioc/quince paste are all the same thing basically. They just have different spellings. There are more items, but this is just from one source. The wierd spellings (oringes) are because that's the way it was spelled in Markham and I was copying the items he listed. The date is later than you wanted, but most of these items existed in the late 1400s, although sugar paste probably didn't exist in England at that time. I don't know if it had developed yet in Italy. anis vermeil (red-colored anise), Artificiall Fruites, candich (crystalized sugar gobbets), Candied Citron, Candied Eringoes, Candied Oringes, chitron (candied citron), Cleere cakes of Rasberies, codiniacs, coriander comfits, cubeb comfits, cumin comfits, ginger comfits, pine nut comfits, large and small dragees (round drops of sugar), fruit pastes (quince, peach, green pippins), Manus Christi (boiled sugar gobbets with gold leaf added), Marble Paste, marchpane (marzipan baked), marchpanes (baked marzipan, set on a wafer, frequently decorated with comfits, or a shiny white icing), marzipan (ground almonds mixed with sugar, rosewater, and egg whites), Muscadines called kissing Comfites, noisette confites (candied filberts), sugared nuts, orengat (orange peel candied in honey), Paste of Apricocks, Paste of Gooseberies, Paste of pippins, Paste of Rasberies, peach paste, Quideniock, quince paste, rose sugar (sucre rosat), red and white rusen (poured into moulds, usually fruit shaped), succade (suckets): orange peel, lemon peel, Succet of Walnuts, Lemon Sucket, dried and wet suckets, sugar paste "reliefs" or sculptures, Sugar cakes, violet sugar A good reference is "Rose Sugar and Other Medieval Sweets" by Joop Witteveen, in Petits Propos Culinaires (PPC) #20. In the early medieval period (1200s) he lists rose and violet sugar. Comfits existed: "sugar-preserved seeds and spices". Comfits are mentioned in Le Menagier. The 14th century listing from household accounts in Holland include items above. If you want the items separated out, let me know. Witteveen also mentions Italian "zuccata" which he says is "candied pumpkin". Pumpkin wouldn't refer, however, to the New World item. Alys Katharine Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 21:28:28 -0500 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: [Sca-cooks] candies and sweets To: Cooks within the SCA The subject heading is confectionary or confectionery with the later being the preferred term today. There are a number of original works that deal just with confections like onfiturier françois : où est enseigné la maniere de faire toute sorte de confitures, dragées, liqueurs, & breuuages agreables : ensemble la maniere de plier le linge de table, & en faire toute sorte de figures from 1650. There are French editions of this vailable of course. In English Sir Hugh Plat of course contains a number of these recipes. Dawson has a few, although he rips off Alessio. Peter Brears' All the King's Cooks. The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace. covers a lot ofthese English sweets. You also might want to read or check out all the sweetmeat recipes included as the second manuscript published in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. Edited by Karen Hess. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. It's out in a pperback edition with an awful cover featuring George Washington eating a cherry. This is comprised of two Tudor- Jacobean manuscripts that ended up being owned by Martha Washington. Lots of commentaries on sweets and sugar things. As for a basic great history of candy and confections with a good bibliography-- The book you need to buy or loan in and read is Laura Mason's Sugar Plums & Sherbets which has been reprinted and released in a paperback edition for - $24.95 Laura Mason's renowned history of sweets in England now available in paper. Of particular interest to Scadians are the chapters on sugar boiling (including a table of sugar names and tests for various boiling heights), confits and sugar plate, as well as food colourings. Each chapter contains lear recipes for a number of the sweets discussed therein. Paper, 250pp. B/w contemporary illos, modern sketches. Appendix includes glossary of ingredients, equipment, pulling sugar, more. Notes on each chapter, excellent biblio & index. Prospect Books. [Devra carries it and this was her write-up of course!] You might also check out the bibliographies to my TI articles on Alessio and Nostradamus. They both published works in 1555 that deal with sweets and confections. Hope this helps. Johnnae llyn Lewis Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2005 01:29:28 -0500 From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Winter comfort food... To: Cooks within the SCA > --Maire, wondering what "stauben of apples" is.... http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_veggie1.htm 42. Cut apples rather rough/ and make a dough thereto rather thick with wine/ put the apples therein/ and stir them well together/ that the dough goes through the apples. Take thereafter a pan with butter/ make it hot/ and pull the apples therein with the dough/ and don't pull it all into one pile/ so that the butter can come between/ bake [fry] it quickly/ and turn it often over/ so it will be beautiful and lovely. Give it warm to the table/ and sprinkle it with white sugar. So bakes [fries] one the stauben of apples. It sounds like apple funnel cake to me. Google says that Stauben means "make dust", perhaps in the sense of the sugar that dusts them. I thought the wine batter sounded good, but havent picked up wine to try it with yet. Ranvaig Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2005 09:49:42 +0100 From: Volker Bach Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Winter comfort food... To: Cooks within the SCA Am Sonntag, 4. Dezember 2005 07:29 schrieb ranvaig at columbus.rr.com: > http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_veggie1.htm > > 42. Cut apples rather rough/ and make a dough thereto rather thick > with wine/ put the apples therein/ and stir them well together/ that the > dough goes through the apples. Take thereafter a pan with butter/ make it > hot/ and pull the apples therein with the dough/ and don't pull it all into > one pile/ > so that the butter can come between/ bake [fry] it quickly/ and turn > it often over/ > so it will be beautiful and lovely. Give it warm to the table/ and > sprinkle it with white sugar. So bakes [fries] one the stauben of apples. > > It sounds like apple funnel cake to me. Google says that Stauben > means "make dust", perhaps in the sense of the sugar that dusts them. > I thought the wine batter sounded good, but havent picked up wine to > try it with yet. It looks like this is a typo in the original (Rumpoldt?). 'stauben' means 'to make dust', from 'Staub' - 'dust', but 'Strauben' is the word for a deep-fried pastry. I wsonder, is this supposed to be more like an apple pancake or discrete battered apple slices? Giano Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 17:02:31 -0400 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] back to food by request To: Cooks within the SCA On May 31, 2006, at 4:49 PM, Martha Oser wrote: > I'm looking for a period cake recipe that includes almonds, honey, flour, > butter and eggs. The modern recipe that's inspiring me also has sour cream > in it (period?) and baking soda (not period, right?). > > Anyone have anything that will fit the bill? > > -Helena Hmmm. That combination in a cake? Maybe something Islamic... But Kenelm Digby has this one, which sort of comes close to what you're talking about: > Take four quarts of fine flower, two pound and half of butter, > three quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs; a little Mace; a > pound of Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good > Ale-yest, a pint of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of > Eggs; four pound of Currants. When you have wrought all these into > a very fine past, let it be kept warm before the fire half an hour, > before you set it into the oven. If you please, you may out into > it, two pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned and quartered. Let your > oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand therein two > hours and a half, before you Ice it; and afterwards only to harden > the Ice. The Ice for this Cake is made thus: Take the whites of > three new laid Eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar > finely beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the Eggs, > and ice the Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or > Ambergreece. I believe the other day I mentioned having made a cake subtlety in the shape of a ship. This was the cake recipe. IIRC, I used Digby's original quantities. The only difference was that I covered it with a thin layer of marzipan before decorating it. Adamantius Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 17:38:57 -0400 From: Daniel Myers Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] back to food by request To: Cooks within the SCA On May 31, 2006, at 4:49 PM, Martha Oser wrote: > I'm looking for a period cake recipe that includes almonds, honey, flour, > butter and eggs. The modern recipe that's inspiring me also has sour cream > in it (period?) and baking soda (not period, right?). > > Anyone have anything that will fit the bill? Here's a couple close matches: 131. PASTRIES OF FINE SUGAR. You must take a pound of peeled almonds and grind them dry without casting any water or broth on them so that they will become very oily, because the oilier they are the better they will be. And then take a pound and a half of white sugar that has been pulverized. And mix it well with the almonds. And when everything is well-mixed and ground, if it should be very hard, soften it with a little rosewater. And when the dough has been softened a little, dust a little ginger over it, at your discretion, well-ground. And then take dough made from flour and knead it with good eggs and sweet fine oil. And from this dough make tortillas, or empanadillas, or spiral cakes. And fill them with said dough. And then put a casserole on the fire with good sweet oil. And when it boils cast in these empanadillas. And cook them until they turn yellow like the color of gold. And when you take them from the fire, cast liquefied honey on top. And upon the honey, [cast] sugar and cinnamon. [Libre del Coch, R. Carroll-Mann (trans.)] 139. fritter of Marzipan. Take blanched almonds [which are] very well- ground; and when they have been ground, cast in sugar; and for a pound of almonds another pound of sugar; and grind it all together, and as you are grinding it, feed it with rosewater, and let all be as well ground as you can; and then take well-sifted flour, and knead it with eggs and lard, and a little white wine, and make little cakes; and cast that paste in them, and set a frying pan with lard; and after heating it well, cast the fritter within, and fry it slowly; and then on the plate cast honey, and sugar, and cinnamon on it. [Libre del Coch, R. Carroll-Mann (trans.)] - Doc -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Edouard Halidai (Daniel Myers) Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:52:09 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] back to food by request To: Cooks within the SCA Martha Oser wrote: > All righty, here's a question I've been wanting to ask... > I'm looking for a period cake recipe that includes almonds, honey, flour, > butter and eggs. The modern recipe that's inspiring me also has > sour cream in it (period?) and baking soda (not period, right?). > Anyone have anything that will fit the bill? There's a copy of my yeasted Great Cake recipe at http://home.comcast.net/~iasmin/mkcc/MKCCfiles/AlasdairGuinevreLunch.html I adapted it for a Jacobean dessert banquet for the Ladies of the Rose event in June 2002. My notes say: " This is one of four recipes for ale barm or yeast leavened cakes found in 'A Booke of Sweetmeats', which is the second manuscripts of the two Tudor-Jacobean manuscripts that make up Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. Sir Kenelme Digbie or Digby in his The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby, Opened had a similar recipe for "An Excellent Cake" in his collection. Other cakes of the same type include Gervase Markham's Banbury Cake and one entitled "To Make a Good Cake" from The Gentlewoman's Cabinet Unlocked of the 1590?s. Rebecca Price in her culinary manuscript included recipes for "rich" and "not rich" cakes, "good" and "very good" cakes, and lastly a recipe for "A very good, and a Rich Cake, often made by me." Elizabeth David would remark that over the centuries every village and town in the British Isles would develop its own specialty yeast bread or cake. The recipes mentioned here form the background of those cakes or breads." It contains flour, eggs, spices, ale barm (made from 1 bottle of Sam Adams' Summer Ale) and 1 tablespoon yeast, 1 cup butter, currants, sugar, salt. You could substitute some of the currants for almonds or use this recipe as a guide to create an almond yeasted cake from the other cake recipes that show up in the 17th century. Johnnae Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2006 23:53:39 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Late SCA-Period Sweets? To: Cooks within the SCA lilinah at earthlink.net wrote: > I am in charge of organizing a banqueting table for the 2nd annual > Duchesses' Ball at our Twelfth Night. snipped > Additionally this year has a theme: "The Masked Rose" snipped > I've got a couple people offering to do sugared or candied fruits. > What else would people recommend as sweet dishes that are fine served > cold more than 24 hours after having been cooked? Peter Brears made use of this list in his famous article for the 1st Leeds Symposium which was published as 'Banquetting Stuffe'. The list is originally from The Academy of Armory, by Randle Holme The book was printed for the author, 1688. from Section III, pg 80 1. March-pan set with several sorts of Sweet-Meats. 2. Preserves or wet Sweet-Meats in Plates as, Pears, Plums, Cherries, Quinces, Grapes Respass, Pippins, Oranges, Lemmons, young Walnuts, Apricocks, Peaches, &c. with their Syrup about them. 3. Dried Sweet-meats & Suckets of Oranges Lemmons Citron: or Conserves, or Candies, and Rock-Candies of Cherries, Apricocks, Plums, Damasius, Pippins, Pears, Angelica, Rosemary and Marygold Flowers, Pippins, Pears, Apricocks, Plums, Ringo roots: or Marmalet of Quinces, Damasins, Plums, Oranges, Pastes made of Citron: Pippins, Apricocks, Rasbery, English Currans. 4. Bikets, Mackroons, naple Bisket, Italian Bisket, Comfeits round, Longs and Loseng like, Gingerbread, Al|mond Cakes, Apricock Cakes, Losenges, Quince Chips, Orange cakes, Marchpane Collops. 5. Sugar cakes, Iamballs, Iemelloes, Sugar Plate, Plum and Rasbury cakes, Cheese cakes. 6. Tree Fruit as Apples and Pears of diverse kinds, Che|ries, Plums, Strawberies, Currans, Ra?pes, Walnut, Chestnuts, Filbernuts, Dates, Graps, Figgs, Oranges, Lemmons, Apricocks, Peech, Dried Raisins and Currans, Prunes, Almonds blanched According as the season is for them, all which several things are mixt and interchangably set on the Table according to the discription of the Gentleman Sewer. This is what your late Elizabethan and Jacobean banquet might have contained. See also http://home.comcast.net/~iasmin/mkcc/MKCCfiles/RoseTournament2002Desserts.html for something along these lines that I did just prior to tearing up the knee in June 2002. Johnnae Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:37:27 -0500 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] dessert onions To: alysk at ix.netcom.com, Cooks within the SCA This is the only one that I have found that might come close and I suspect that it only fits depending upon what one's idea of a sweet dish should be-- /This is an excerpt from *Libro di cucina/ Libro per cuoco*. The original source can be found on Louise Smithson's website ./ II - Ambroyno (a sweet food). If you want to make ambroyno, take a hen and chop in pieces, take onions well minced and fry them in strained lard, and put in sweet and strong spices, and ginger, and cloves, and grains of paradise, and cut them small with a knife and put them to fry everything together. And take un-peeled almonds and grind them and take verjuice and saffron together. When it is cooked put it over the hen. For three hens you want a pound of almonds. There is also this oddball one for an Almond milk that includes onions /This is an excerpt from *Le Menagier de Paris* (Janet Hinson, trans.) The original source can be found on David Friedman's website ./ ALMOND MILK. Parboil and peel your almonds, then put in cold water, then grind and soak in water in which onions have been cooked and strain through a sieve: then fry the onions, and add a little salt, and boil on the fire, then add the sops. And if you make almond milk for sick people, do not add onions, and in place of the onion water to soak the almonds as spoken of above, add and soak them in clean warm water and boil it, and do not add salt, but lots of sugar. And if you want to make it as a drink, strain through a sieve or through two pieces of cloth, and lots of sugar to drink it. But of course their idea of a dessert varied in a number of ways from ours. Johnnae > Stefan wrote: >> (snip) but does anyone know of any >> period desserts that contain onions? "Dan Brewer" responded: >> googledit and came up with >> http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Sweet_20Onion_20Dessert >> http://www.weslaco.com/onionfestival.asp >> >> Carmelized Onion Omelet with Vinegar >> > But wasn't his point that the dessert item should be within period? What > period cookery book recipe is the caramelized onion omelet based on? > > Alys Katharine Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:32:45 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The purpose of SCA-Cooks from Isabella de la Gryffin and a Culinary Question To: Cooks within the SCA The best place start (besides the Florilegium) might be with a copy of Laura Mason's *Sugar-Plums and Sherbet. The Prehistory of Sweets*/./ Totnes, Devon, U.K.: Prospect Books, 1998. It's out in paperback now and Devra even has copies. Johnnae Isabella askes: > that being said, Here's a culinary question I've been pondering: > Could anyone recommend some good sources for period confectionary? I'm > willing to start with marzipan, but I'd like to move past that. Edited by Mark S. Harris desserts-msg Page 64 of 64