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. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: 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: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 14:01:14 SAST-2 From: "Ian van Tets" 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." 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: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 21:26:05 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fruitcakes in Period? To: "Cooks within the SCA" 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" Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Useful things to do with fruitcake To: Cooks within the SCA 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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: tgrcat2001 at yahoo.com, Cooks within the SCA 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: Cooks within the SCA 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 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 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 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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: Cooks within the SCA 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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: Cooks within the SCA <<< 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 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 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 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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: Cooks within the SCA 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: "Cooks within the SCA" 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: "Cooks within the SCA" 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: "Cooks within the SCA" <<< 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: , "Cooks within the SCA" <<< 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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] panpepati was Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: Cooks within the SCA , Jenn Strobel 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 Subject: [Sca-cooks] Bad Editing: Was panpepati was Pancakes and Fruitcakes To: sca-cooks 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 Subject: [Sca-cooks] Cakes was Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday To: Cooks within the SCA , "Cat ." 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 Edited by Mark S. Harris fruitcake-msg 15 of 16