fruitcakes-msg - 6/12/09
Period fruitcakes. Recipes.
NOTE: See also the files: Cndied-Ginger-art, cakes-msg, candied-fruit-msg, candied-peels-msg, Cft-Banquets-art, Great-Cake-art, Sugarplums-art, lebkuchen-msg, gingerbread-msg.
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NOTICE -
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This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
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Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 18:11:31 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
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: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 14:01:14 SAST-2
From: "Ian van Tets" <IVANTETS at botzoo.uct.ac.za>
Subject: SC - Bread/beer/yeast
Butting in again about breadmaking. I generally don't make bread
from the yeast in the bottom of the bottle, only after bottling beer
and having the lees to use up. After one or two appalling disasters,
I would strongly recommend not using stout barm or bitter barm for
bread. It makes stuff that is virtually inedible. If you don't brew
yourself, try to convince your favourite brewer to make ale or a
light beer. The stuff that's left in the bottom of the bottles
generally sits in my fridge (not more than a week or so) and used in
sauces (eg. over sausages) or (my favourite) Skye Cake, which is a
Scots recipe for fruitcake with the dried fruit soaked overnight in
beer first. I do usually use baking soda (1/2 quantity from normal),
but think that a yeast-risen version would be perfectly acceptable.
Cairistiona
*****************************************************
Dr. Ian van Tets
Dept. of Zoology
University of Cape Town
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 19:28:02 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
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." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
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: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 21:26:05 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fruitcakes in Period?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
AFAIK, panforte is the earliest European fruitcake with the first reference
in the 13th Century. There are no recipes. The modern version is honey,
spices, dried fruits and nuts with a little flour as a binding agent. It is
similar to the later recipes for lebkuchen and gingerbread. Pantonne is a
little later. It's difficult to place, but from what I've been able to
find, I believe the origins are toward the end of period. Again, no
recipes.
Bear
> All this semi-serious fruit cake discussion has gotten me to thinking. Do
> we have a period recipe for fruit cake and, if there are as I suspect
> several, what is the earliest clearly identifiable European fruit cake
> recipe?
>
> Daniel
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 14:01:36 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Useful things to do with fruitcake
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also sprach Micaylah:
> Sherry is also another alcohol to consider. I don't think I would recommend
> actually putting it in the cake as one of the ingreds, but to marinade the
> fruits, and for cheesecloth soaking, it sounds like it would be very good.
> YMMV
>
> Micaylah
Okay, so this one uses sack. Close enough, IMO. It also uses only
raisins and currants, but in profusion, and I don't think it suffers
for it.
ANOTHER VERY GOOD CAKE
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 put 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.
--The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelm Digby,
Knight, Opened, etc., London, 1669
Does anybody besides Andrea MacIntyre remember the 12th Night
subtlety thingy in Nordenhall a few years ago? This was my entry, so
it's conceivable somebody here may remember eating this.
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:00:38 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: tgrcat2001 at yahoo.com, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Cat . wrote:
<<< On the other topic, your discussion got me curious just how far back fruit cake recipes go. If I had to pick a country how about English? any online leads? >>>
Depends on how much fruit and what type of cake I suppose in part.
They show up titled as great cakes. Then there are the questions as to:
Mixed fruits? Rising agents being eggs, ale barm, yeast, or baking
powders/sodas???
MWBoC has this one-- pounds of currants and eggs and ale barm.
S 151 TO MAKE A *GREAT* *CAKE*
Take a peck of flower & put to it 10 eggs beaten; take out 3 of ye
whites. Put in nutmeg, cinnamond, cloves, & mace, of each a quarter of
an ounce; A full quart of Ale barme, & mingle with ye flower two pound
of fresh butter. When it
allmoste kneaded, put in 6 spoonfulls of hot water to it, & 10 pounds of
currans, & halfe a pound of sugar beaten. Let it ly by ye fire to rise,
& then bake it.
*Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery*. pp.315
This would be Tudor-Jacobean. My version of the recipe is in the
Florilegium.
Johnnae
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:40:00 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
On Feb 24, 2009, at 11:00 AM, Johnna Holloway wrote:
<<< Depends on how much fruit and what type of cake I suppose in part.
They show up titled as great cakes. Then there are the questions as
to:
Mixed fruits? Rising agents being eggs, ale barm, yeast, or baking
powders/sodas???
MWBoC has this one-- pounds of currants and eggs and ale barm. >>>
I'm pretty sure Digby, at least, has a similar one, with currants,
eggs, butter, spices, sack, ale barm... and I think a small amount of
almond meal mixed in.
I can't find one in Gervase Markham's The English Housewife, which
surprises me. Will check Hugh Plat later.
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:58:50 +0000
From: jenn.strobel at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
A few years ago, I'd done some research into fruitcake and what I found was
that there were a few things that could be interpreted as fruitcake. The
fruitcake that we're all familiar with was essentially a Victorian
creation, there's not really a straight line from a cake that was
documented during the middle ages or renaissance. The complete fruitcake
documentation is located at
http://www.medievalcooking.org/aestelfruitcake.doc if you want to jump
straight to the long play extended remix of the information below.
My understanding of cake during our period of study is that it wasn't what
we'd understand as cake now, which involves artificial leveners in order to
get the volume and crumb. "Cake" would have been something that we'd
associate closest with a "cookie", smallish and not very risen. When I did
my research, I was looking for something that was more like modern cake
than medieval cake, so now you have the bias of my research.
From Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book:
Take a peck of flower, and fower pound of currance, one ounce of Cinamon,
half an ounce of ginger, two nutmegs, of cloves and mace two peniworth, of
butter one pound, mingle your spice and flower & fruit together, put as
much barme as eill make it light, then take good Ale & put your butter on
it, all saving a little, which you must put in the milk, & let the milk
boyle with the butter, then make a posset with it, & temper the Cake with
the posset drink & curd & all together, & put some sugar in & so bake it.
This is more of a currant spice bread that is really delicious, but isn't
quite right.
From the Libro Novo:
Take three pounds of candied citron cut very finely, five pounds skimmed
honey, five eights of an ounce of pepper, one scruple of saffron, three
quarters of an ounce of cinnamon, three grains of musk, and enough flour
that it will hold all these together. Make the Mostazzoli large or small as
you would like them to be. You will bake them as you would pampapati.
Mistress Rachaol MakCreith found a reference to pampapati in Waverly
Root's "The Food of Italy", sent it to me, and I ran with the information.
The reference is: ?The Christmas-New Years holidays are marked by the
appearance in pastry-shop windows of pampepato di ciccolato, a very old
Ferrarese sweet. It is a cake made of flour, cocoa, milk, honey (sugar if
honey is not at hand), pepper, spices, almonds, and lemon peel with
chocolate frosting powdered with sugar and tiny candies. It is of ancient
lineage. Duke Borso d?Este served pampapati at a banquet on November 11,
1465, making them exceptionally appetizing by inserting a gold piece in
each."
Even in my own creation of a pampapato recipe includes baking soda,
something that our medieval counterparts would not have had access to. What
I need to do is go back, not use any levener whatsoever in one batch and
use baking ammonia (which would be more appropriate for our period of study
as far as chemical leveners go).
If anyone else has done any research on fruitcake, or has points that I
missed/failed to get/totally screwed up, please contact me. This particular
subject is (obviously) one near and dear to my heart, but I haven't had the
time to revisit what I did lo those many years ago. New and better
information is always welcome.
Odriana vander Brugghe
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:49:55 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Martha Washington's Booke was Pancakes and
Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday
To: tgrcat2001 at yahoo.com, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I don't suppose we can say it too often but Martha Washington's Booke of
Cookery was owned by Martha but wasn't written by her.
What we have here are two culinary manuscripts that are Tudor-Jacobean
(recipes dated circa 1580-1625) that were passed down in the family of Martha Washington's first husband. Martha rec'd the manuscripts when
she married Daniel Custis in 1749. She kept the two manuscripts until
she gave them to Nelly Custis, her granddaughter in 1799.
The book is titled the way it is because mentioning Martha Washington
draws attention to the volume and she was the most famous of the owners.
Karen Hess transcribed the manuscripts and added helpful notes and commentary. One thing Hess did was mention contemporary recipes that are similar to the ones in the manuscripts. So she refers to Markham, Plat, Dawson, etc. The manuscripts are 'A Booke of Cookery' which has 206 recipes while 'A Booke of Sweetmeats' has 326 recipes.
All in all a great book to own for not only the recipes but for the bibliography and all the notes. The book was first published in 1981 and remains in print.
Johnnae
Cat . wrote:
Hi, that actually looks just about PERFECT with all the currants, but isnt it 'post period?' at least I thought Martha was 1700s...
I realize I did not specify that I was looking for pre 1600, but that is the aim.
Purr
Gwen getting hungry now Cat
---Johnnae wrote---snipped
MWBoC has this one-- pounds of currants and eggs and ale barm.
S 151 TO MAKE A *GREAT* *CAKE*
*Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery*. pp.315
This would be Tudor-Jacobean. My version of the recipe is in the
Florilegium.
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:58:33 -0500
From: Elaine Koogler <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Yes, there is one...I think it's called "Another Fine Cake". I've made it
several times, but it seems to me that it's more of a spice cake than a
fruit cake, though it does have currants in it.
Kiri
On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius <
adamantius1 at verizon.net> wrote:
<<< I'm pretty sure Digby, at least, has a similar one, with currants, eggs,
butter, spices, sack, ale barm... and I think a small amount of almond meal
mixed in.
I can't find one in Gervase Markham's The English Housewife, which
surprises me. Will check Hugh Plat later.
Adamantius >>>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:56:53 -0500
From: Sandra Kisner <sjk3 at cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
<<< Mistress Rachaol MakCreith found a reference to pampapati in Waverly
Root's "The Food of Italy", sent it to me, and I ran with the information.
The reference is: "The Christmas-New Years holidays are marked by the
appearance in pastry-shop windows of pampepato di ciccolato, a very old
Ferrarese sweet. It is a cake made of flour, cocoa, milk, honey (sugar if
honey is not at hand), pepper, spices, almonds, and lemon peel with
chocolate frosting powdered with sugar and tiny candies. It is of ancient
lineage. Duke Borso d'Este served pampapati at a banquet on November 11,
1465, making them exceptionally appetizing by inserting a gold piece in
each."
Even in my own creation of a pampapato recipe includes baking soda,
something that our medieval counterparts would not have had access to. What
I need to do is go back, not use any levener whatsoever in one batch and
use baking ammonia (which would be more appropriate for our period of study
as far as chemical leveners go).
Odriana vander Brugghe >>>
It's not just the chemical leavener that's OOP; notice the reference also
says the pampapato was made with cocoa and had a chocolate frosting and was
served at a banquet in 1465. Unless the Duke had sent his own expedition
to the western hemisphere, chocolate wasn't known, much less used, in
Europe at the time of his feast. Perhaps there's an older recipe for
pampapato somewhere that doesn't include chocolate.
Sandra
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:05:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Pan Pepato - was fruitcakes
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
The odd thing is that I finally found a period recipe for panpepato (pan forte) in a chiurgeon book of all places.
It is, after all the same festival bread referenced in Elizabeth David's bread book and previously identified in other period cook books. I.e. a yeast bread with added sugar, spices, fruit etc.
I have included the recipe and reference below, the original book is in the Gallica collection at BNF:
========
Del modo di fare il pan forte, che si fa nelle speciarie Cap 39 Libro
Quinto.
Il pan forte che si fa nelle spetiarie che a Roma lo chiamano pan pepato,
perciohe vi entra il pepe, a Bologna lo chiamano pan spetiale, percioche vi
mettono dentro di piu sorti di spetie, & a Venetia lo chiamano pan forte dal
pepe che vi mettono, & in altri luochi lo chiamano in diversi altri modi;
una in quanto al modo di farlo e quasi tutto uno, & si fa cosi cioe, si
piglia farina, & se gli fa il suo levato come si fa per fare il pane, & poi
si impasta con acqua e mele tanto di uno quanto di l'altro, & vi si mette
pepe, zafarano, comino, garofali, zucche condite, scorze di naranze condite;
di tutte le sopradette cose quella quantita che pare allo speciale, che si
convenga in detto pane; & impastato che sara, fare il pane, & lasciarlo
levare, e poi farlo cuocere nel forno, avvertendo che il forno non sia
trooppo caldo quando vi si metto il detto pane, & questo e molto salutifero
(salutisero) allo stomaco rispetto alle specie che vi entrano.
The way to make "pan forte" that is made by the Spiciers (Chapter 39, Fifth
book)
The strong bread that is made by the spiciers of Rome is called Peppered
bread, because it contains pepper, in Bologna it is called spiced bread
because they put inside many more types of spices, and in Venice they call
it strong bread because of the pepper they put in, and in other places it is
called in many other ways, however in all these places the way of making it
is almost only one, and one makes it thus that is, one takes flour, and one
gives it it's raising agent (bigo) the same as one does for making bread,
and then one pastes it (mixes it) with water and honey more of the one
(first) than the other (second), and one puts into it pepper, saffron,
cumin, cloves, candied gourd (could be squash given time period of writing)
and candied orange peel, and all these above things one puts in in the
quantity that is the opinion of the spicier, that one agrees is better to
add to this bread; and when it is mixed make the bread and leave it to
raise, and then put it to cook in the oven, taking care that the oven is not
too hot when you add the bread, and this is very healthy to the stomach
because of the spices it has inside.
Type : texte imprim?, monographie
Auteur(s) : Fioravanti, Leonardo
Titre(s) : Compendio de i secreti rationali [Document ?lectronique] / di M.
Leonardo Fioravanti Bolognese,...
Type de ressource ?lectronique : Donn?es textuelles
Publication : 1995
Description mat?rielle : [11]-183 f.
Note(s) : Date d'?d. du microfilm provenant d'un catalogue d'?diteur
Reproduction : Num. BNF de l'?d. de : Cambridge (Mass.) : Omnisys, [ca
1990] (Italian books before 1601 ; 425.4). 1 microfilmReprod. de l'?d. de :
Turino : appresso Giovanni Dominico Tarino, 1592
Sujet(s) : M?decine -- Ouvrages avant 1800
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:19:21 +0000
From: jenn.strobel at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Sandra,
You are correct about the cocoa being problematic. I failed to comment upon
it and apologize for doing so.
I could find no recipes or other references to pampapato during our period
of study other than the reference given. I've also seen claims that
Pampepato came from the Middle East in the 1500's, originated in a convent
in the 16th century, and both Terni and Ferrara Italy claims it as being
from their area.
The Italian version of Wikipedia's entry on pampepato
(http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pampepato) repeats the Duke d'Este
information and says that the origins are in Umbria (Terni). My Italian is
not so great, so I am probably missing something in that article. The
Wikipedia article also links to an article (in Italian) about the origins
of Pampepato
(http://www.provincia.fe.it/download/scheda%20Pampapato.pdf?server=sd2.provincia.fe.it&;db=/intranet/internet.nsf&uid=C1369A18523C9F0EC125702800372857)
that I would need more time than I have to dig through for comprehension.
These were not resources for me when I wrote the article, but may clarify
things.
I'm not drawing any conclusions here, just adding more information onto the
pile.
Thoughts?
Odriana
On Feb 24, 2009 1:56pm, Sandra Kisner <sjk3 at cornell.edu> wrote:
<<< It's not just the chemical leavener that's OOP; notice the reference also
says the pampapato was made with cocoa and had a chocolate frosting and
was served at a banquet in 1465. Unless the Duke had sent his own
expedition to the western hemisphere, chocolate wasn't known, much less
used, in Europe at the time of his feast. Perhaps there's an older recipe
for pampapato somewhere that doesn't include chocolate.
Sandra >>>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:20:16 -0800
From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Pampapati appear to be referenced in a recipe in Messisbugo, C. (1557).
Libro Novo Nel Qual S'insegna a' far d'ogni Sorte de Vivanda. Venetia.
On this page: http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/appendix2.html
Helewyse translated the following:
/A fare mostazzoli di zuccaro/
Piglia di cedro confetto tagliato minutamente libre tre, di Mele collato
lib. Cinque, di pevere cinque ottavi, di Zaffarano serupulo uno, di
cinnamonmo tre quarti d?oncia, di muschio tre grani, di Farina tanto che
basti ad impastare dette robbe. Poi farai i mostazzoli grandi, &
piccioli, come ? te piacer?. Poi li farai cuocere come i pampapati, ma
questi si fanno d?oncie 4 in 6 l?uno, e non piu grandi.
/To make mostazzoli (biscotti) of sugar/
Take three pounds of candied citron and cut it very fine, and five
pounds of strained honey, and five ?ottavi? of pepper, and a single
?serupulo? of saffron, three quarters of an ounce of cinnamon, three
grains of musk, of flour as much as is enough to paste together these
things. And make large and small mostazzoli as you would like. And one
can cook them like the ?pampapati?, but these one makes at 4 to 6 ounces
each and not larger.
Oh, Helewyse... Is there a recipe for pampapati elsewhere in this book?
Or is this just so well known that it served as a description itself?
Best, Selene
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:48:14 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Take a look at panforte. Panforte is a fruitcake from Sienna that predates
the pampepato from Ferrara. Panforte Scuro is the version that has
chocolate as an ingredient. I suspect that there are also pampepato recipes
without chocolate. Traditional panforte is made without leavening and I
suspect that traditional pampepato probably is also. The result is similar
to the German lebkuchen recipes of the 16th Century.
Bear
<<< It's not just the chemical leavener that's OOP; notice the reference also
says the pampapato was made with cocoa and had a chocolate frosting and
was served at a banquet in 1465. Unless the Duke had sent his own
expedition to the western hemisphere, chocolate wasn't known, much less
used, in Europe at the time of his feast. Perhaps there's an older recipe
for pampapato somewhere that doesn't include chocolate.
Sandra >>>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:01:19 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Given pampepato's similarity to panforte, it is probably a regional variant
of the Italian honey pepper cakes. There was a discussion of panforte some
time ago, but I haven't been able to locate the discussion in the
Florilegium. Maybe Stefan can tell us where he hid it.
Bear
<<< I could find no recipes or other references to pampapato during our period
of study other than the reference given. I've also seen claims that
Pampepato came from the Middle East in the 1500's, originated in a convent
in the 16th century, and both Terni and Ferrara Italy claims it as being
from their area.
Odriana >>>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:12:07 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
<<< How do these recipes relate to pannetone that you find at Christmas. They sound very similar.
Kiri >>>
They really don't. Pannetone is made from enriched bread dough that is
filled with candied fruit and nuts. It is similar to Weinachtstollen or
Dresdener Stollen. Pampepato and panforte are spiced candied fuit and nuts
in a matrix of honey and flour (or breadcrumbs) similar to 16th Century
gingerbread and lebkuchen. I haven't compared the recipes, but pampepato
may have more matrix then panforte.
Bear
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:31:06 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat
Tuesday
To: <tgrcat2001 at yahoo.com>, "Cooks within the SCA"
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
<<< On the other topic, your discussion got me curious just how far back fruit
cake recipes go. If I had to pick a country how about English? any
online leads?
Gwen Cat >>>
Depends on just what you mean by fruitcake. If you take a look at Joris
Hoefnagel's A Wedding Fete at Bermondsey (1570s), you will see four large
brides cakes being displayed. These are large Banbury cakes filled with
currants and spices and possibly other candied fruit. A recipe for these
from "The Queen's Closet Open'd" (1655) describes them as being scented with
musk and ambergris.
Bear
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:28:32 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] panpepati was Pancakes and Fruitcakes was
Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>, Jenn Strobel
<jenn.strobel at gmail.com>
Maybe I can add some more information. I'll be drawing together information
from several books so I hope this makes sense.
One book that has appeared since your original research was done is Gillian Riley's The Oxford Companion to Italian Food (2007). I won't reproduce the entire entry on "Panpepato" but there appear to be a number of variants to this cake or bread. (To begin, Riley lists it as being a version of panforte and there's of course another entry on that. See below.) In her entry on panepato, Riley writes "The scholar-courtier Francesco Redi defined panpetato as coming in three versions: the /sopraffina/, made with refined sugar, decorated with marzipan shapes and coloured icing; a medium quality made with honey and ordinary ingredients; and the inferior sort, which to us sounds rather good, made with wholemeal flour and bran, pepper, dried figs, walnuts, and honey." [Redi's dates are 1626?1697, so his remarks are 17th century.]
Riley refers to the work of Giovanna Giusti Galardi author of the 2001 Dolci a Corte. I actually own both the English translation and the original Italian version of Dolci a Corte, so I can easily look up her chapter on "panpepato." Giusti Galardi notes that the Palatine Electress Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici wrote from Dusseldorf to her uncle to thank him for the offer of a panpepato that he was sending from Florence. This was 1692. Giusti Galardi uses this letter as an introduction to a section on panpepato. She writes that it was "linked to the Feast of All Saints....in Siena it was called pane impepato (literally, peppered-bread), in Florence, less refinedly, pandigusto (flavourful bread). Giusti Galardi includes a 17th century recipe that calls for honey, squash preserves, orange preserves, spices, and flour as needed.
When one returns to Riley and her Oxford Companion to Italian Food entry on panforte,one comes across a few more places to check for medieval and Renaissance descriptions and recipes. She writes "Spiced cakes or breads were described by Costanzo Felici in the 1560's."(According to the bibliography there are two volumes of Felici letters that were published in the 1980's.) Panfortes were also made "with honey or sapa, hence the name pan melato and panpepato. "Riley ends with the interesting note that Maria Vittoria della Verde included recipes for several versions of a panmelato in her notebooks. This is an important note. By way of information, Suor (or Sister) Maria Vittoria was anun in Perugia. In 1583 she began keeping a series of notebooks that include recipes for a number of confections and items like wafers. She died in 1622 at the age of 67, so her notebooks are late 16th and early 17th century as to dating. And all 170 recipes from the notebooks were published in 1989. It took me forever but I eventually found and purchased a copy of this book several years back. In it there are indeed a few recipes for panmelato.
--
Lastly, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, author of The Splendid Table, says that
chocolate was first added in the 19th century. She includes a recipe at:
http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/dessert_chocolate_christmas_spicecake.shtml
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:25:54 -0500
From: Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Bad Editing: Was panpepati was Pancakes and
Fruitcakes
To: sca-cooks <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Greetings! Johnnae (and someone else?) pointed out that the Duke d'Este
couldn't have served chocolate pampapati in 1465. (Columbus hadn't even
made his first voyage then!) I'd thought of that at first and then I
got to thinking that the paragraph might have suffered from poor writing
or sloppy editing. It says:
<<< The reference is: "The Christmas-New Years holidays are marked by the
appearance in pastry-shop windows of pampepato di ciccolato, a very
old Ferrarese sweet. It is a cake made of flour, cocoa, milk, honey
(sugar if honey is not at hand), pepper, spices, almonds, and lemon
peel with chocolate frosting powdered with sugar and tiny candies. It
is of ancient lineage. Duke Borso d?Este served pampapati at a banquet
on November 11, 1465, making them exceptionally appetizing by
inserting a gold piece in each." >>>
I think that the comment about the Duke isn't referring to the pampepato
di ciccolato, but that there's a reference to the Duke being served
pampapati. Because that sentence comes just after the chocolate
reference and description, it would be logical to assume that his
pampapati is the same as the pampetato di ciccolato. What would have
helped would have been to start a new paragraph with "It is of ancient
lineage" and said something like "There is a reference to 'pampapati' in
an account describing a banquet given by the Duke Borso d'Este on
November 11..." While that isn't perfect, it would be less likely to
link chocolate and 1465.
Alys K.
--
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:00:56 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Cakes was Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy
Shrove/Fat Tuesday
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>, "Cat ."
<tgrcat2001 at yahoo.com>
Took a couple of days to get back to this:
Digby has this one-- It has dates, raisins, citron, cuurants, plus the
spices.
To make a Plumb-Cake.
Take a peck of flower, and part it in half. Then take two quarts of good
Ale-yest, and strain it into half the flower, and some new milk boiled,
and almost cold again; make it into a very light paste, and set it
before the fire to rise; Then take five pound of Butter, and melt it in
a skillet, with a quarter of a pint of Rose-water; when your paste is
risen, and your oven almost hot, which will be by this time, take your
paste from the fire, and break it into small pieces, and take your other
part of flower, and strew it round your paste; Then take the melted
Butter, and put it to the past, and by degrees work the paste and flower
together, till you have mingled all very well. Take six Nutmegs, some
Cinnamon and Mace well beaten, and two pound of Sugar, and strew it into
the Paste, as they are a working it. Take three pounds of Raisins
stoned, and twelve pounds of Currants very well washed and dryed again;
one pound of Dates sliced; half a pound of green Citron dryed and sliced
very thin; strew all these into the paste, till it have received them
all; Then let your oven be ready, and make up your Cake, and set it into
the oven; but you must have a great care, it doth not take cold. Then to
Ice it, take a pound and half of double refined Sugar beaten and
searsed; The whites of three Eggs new-laid, and a little Orange
flower-water, with a little musk and Ambergreece, beaten and searsed,
and put to your sugar; Then strew your Sugar into the Eggs, and beat it
in a stone Mortar with a Woodden Pastel, till it be as white as snow,
which will be by that time the Cake is baked; Then draw it to the ovens
mouth, and drop it on, in what form you will; let it stand a little
again in the oven to harden.
and also as mentioned already this one too
To make an Excellent Cake.
To a Peck of fine flower, take six pounds of fresh butter, which must be
tenderly melted, ten pounds of Currants, of Cloves and Mace, half an
ounce of each, an ounce of Cinnamon, half 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
Rose-water; half a quarter of an ounce of Saffron. Then make your paste,
strewing the spices, finely beaten, upon the flower: Then put the melted
butter (but even just melted) to it; then the barm, and other liquors:
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 half.
You Ice the Cake with the whites of two Eggs, a small quantity of
Rose-water, and some Sugar.
Markham in the 1623 Countrey contentments, or The English husvvife has
this plain spice one that bakes up as small cakes:
To make excellent spice Cakes, take halfe a pecke of very fine
Wheat-flower, take almost one pound of sweet butter, and some good milke
and creame mixt together, set it on the fire, and put in your butter,
and a good deale of sugar, and let it melt together: then straine
Saffron into your milke a good quantity; then take seuen or eight
spoonefull of good Ale barme, and eight egges with two yelkes and mix
them together, then put your milke to it when it is somewhat cold, and
into your flower put salt, Aniseedes bruised, Cloues and Mace, and a
good deale of Cinamon: then worke all together good and stiffe, that you
need not worke in any flower after; then put in a little rosewater cold,
then rub it well in the thing you knead it in, and worke it throughly:
if it be not sweet enough, scrape in a little more suger, and pull it
all in peeces, and hurle in a good quantity of Currants, and so worke
all together againe, and bake your Cake as you see cause in a gentle
warme ouen.
And here is his one for a Banbury Cake:
To make a very good Banbury Cake, take 4. pounds of Currants, and wash
and picke them very cleane, and drie them in a cloth: then take three
egges and put away one yelke, and beate them, and straine them with good
barme, putting thereto Cloues, Mace, Cinamon and Nutmegges; then take a
pint of creame, and as much mornings milke and set it one the fire till
the cold bee taken away; then take flower and put in good store of cold
butter and suger, then put in your egges, barme and meale and worke them
all together an houre or more; then saue a part of the Past, and the
rest breake in peeces and worke in your Currants; which done, mould your
Cake of what quantity you please; And then with that past which hath not
any Currants couer it very thinne both vnderneath and a loft. And so
bake it according to the bignesse.
Johnnae
<the end>