jellied-milk-msg – 1/7/08
An Elizabethan sweet similar to modern Jello.
NOTE: See also the files: sugar-msg, molded-foods-msg, custards-msg, almond-cream-msg, dairy-prod-msg, cheese-msg, fresh-cheeses-msg, clotted-cream-msg, desserts-msg.
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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
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Date: 9 Jan 2002 16:47:36 -0000
From: "Lynn REMEIKA" <rohanna at lovemail.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] RE:Mint Milk Jellies
This is the recipe given to me by Lady Cordelia fitzRobert of York, who's generally the creator of the jellies. No original source, but I will check with her and LYK.
Recipe for Jellied Milk
1 pint of milk
5 teaspoons of unflavoured gelatin
One Half Cup of sugar
Flavorings agent (mint, vanilla, almond, etc.)
Colouring agent (if required)
Prepare an eight by eight pan by rinsing with cold water. After drying, add the flavouring agent (1 and one half tsp. for an extract, 2 TABLESPOONS for rose or orange flower water) and any colouring agent (a few drops).
Sprinkle the gelatin onto 4 Tablespoons of the milk and allow to soften for 5 minutes. Then stand the container of milk and gelatin in a bowl of Very Hot (but not boiling) Water and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.
Heat the remainder of the milk and the sugar in a pot until it simmers. Add the dissolved gelatin/milk mixture and stir continuously for 5 minutes, never going past a simmer.
Pour the gelatin mixture into the prepared pan or mold and refrigerate for several hours until set.
*YOU MAY WANT TO DOUBLE THIS RECIPE*
In Service, (and Cordelia's jellied milk is THE BOMB, BTW!)
Ro de Laci
Bright Hills Cook's Guild
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2004 23:42:36 -0400
From: AEllin Olafs dotter <aellin at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] gelatin vs. renet
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Samrah wrote:
> Can anybody tell me the difference or when it is appropriate to use
> one instead of the other? Does it make a difference in milk dishes,
> like cremes? And do any of you have a preference in brands of
> gelatins, either for general effectiveness or cost efficiency?
Yes, that's going to make a huge difference! They're quite different.
Gelatin is a protein that, um, gels. You know, Jello. You can use it in
milk, and it will make a gel which can be molded. (I have - used to
have? - a recipe someplace for a spiced molded milk dessert that was
always on the I Should Try That list, but which I never did make.) It
needs to be kept cold, will melt with heat.
Rennet is quite different. That's what you use to make cheese. (An
enzyme, I think? Someone else will have to give you the science behind d
this.) You can use small amounts, with just warm milk, to make junket -
a solid milk dessert - and my guess is that this is what is confusing
you. But the Junket tablets come with directions for making cottage
cheese, too... *G* if you heat the milk further, it makes curds. And you
can further make all kinds of cheese with rennet - either the junket
tablet or a somewhat easier to use liquid rennet you can get from a
cheesemaking supply shop.
The only plain gelatin I'm really familiar with is Knox. Very reliable,
I've used it for years for aspic and with fruit and juice for desserts
that aren't solid sugar. Junket is a brand name (as well as a dessert)
and fairly readily available, if you want to do a simple experiment.
AEllin
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 12:10:48 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] gelatin vs. renet
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also sprach Samrah:
> Can anybody tell me the difference or when it is appropriate to use
> one instead of the other? Does it make a difference in milk dishes,
> like cremes? And do any of you have a preference in brands of
> gelatins, either for general effectiveness or cost efficiency?
AEllin touched on this briefly, but something crossed my mind that I
felt should be added.
I'm not sure where gelatin features as a classic, traditional
addition to a dairy product like milk. Yes, you can add it, and it'll
gel, but what you get is a milk jelly or perhaps a white leach
(assuming it's firm enough to be sliced). You don't get junket,
curds, or cheese.
Using rennet, either as junket tablets (which form weak curds
specifically designed for junket), or in more concentrated form,
either as tablets or in the form of a liquid sometimes used in making
cheeses, you get something more familiar in the cheesemaker's art.
And yes, this is what AEllin mentioned, but what just occurred to me
is that when using gelatin to set milk, you can't really drain off
any significant amount of water, so a quart of milk is a quart of
white leach. If you're calculating numbers of servings, this is an
important distinction.
Junket (whose name appears to derive from the woven basket
traditionally used to drain the uncut curds), is drained, if only
slightly, so you'd lose some mass in the finished product; a quart of
milk would not make, say, eight four-ounce servings.
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 07:46:35 -0400
From: "a5foil" <a5foil at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-coks] jellied milk
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
This recipe looks like it is identical to the one in "Food and Cooking in
16th Cetury Britain" by Peter Brears. The original is from The good
huswifes Jewell pt. 2.
A white leach: Take a quarte of newe milke, and three ounces weight of
Isinglasse, half a pounde of beaten suger, and stirre them together, and let
it boile half a quartr of an hower till it be thicke, stirring them al the
while: then straine it with three sponfull of Rosewater, then put it into a
platter and let it coole, and cut it in squares. Lay it faire in dishes, and
lay golde upon it.
My apprentice Naomi served this a number of years ago at a small feast here
in Caer Mear, I believe between courses as part of a platter of dried fruit
and nuts. The people who tried it seemed to like it, but IIRC some folks
were scared off by it's dead-white appearance.
Cynara
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 2004 13:21:59 +0000
From: "Olwen the Odd" <olwentheodd at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] jellied milk
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
I have seen the period recipe for this but cannot recall where but for some
reason am thinking the Good Huswifes Jewel (someone please correct me!). We
do use this recipe quite often, very often as a palette cleanser between
courses. Sometimes it is found on the dessert table. It does also travel
quite well and we often have a plate of it on the hospitality table at the
Baronial pavillion. It sets up stiff enough that you can make it, cut it
into cubes and toss into a ziplock and into the cooler. Any ones that get
broken still aren't lost, if you know what I mean. We colour (mostly to tell flavors apart) and flavor it with mint, rose or orange water, vanilla,
cinnamon and other flavors. It holds up fairly well in the heat but will
eventually succumb. It can either, as previously stated, be made in a
cakepan and cut into squares or diamond shapes, cut with a cookie cutter or
made in simple molds.
Olwen
> Previous to todayÕs messages on jellying milk using either rennet or
> gelatin, this was all I had saved on jellied milk dishes. Did Ro ever post
> an original, period source for her recipe? If not, does anyone have it? Or
> other period recipes for this? Has anyone served this at an SCA feast?
> If so, how did it go over? How did you present it?
>
> What flavorings do period versions of this dish use? It doesn't sound like
> it would be very good to me without some kind of flavoring but others may
> differ.
>
> Stefan
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 06:51:46 -0400
From: "a5foil" <a5foil at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-coks] jellied milk
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Remember those jello cubes from the school cafeteria? Well, the jellied milk
was softer but it was just cut into small squares and arranged on the
tray alongside the fruit and nuts.
Cynara
Stefan asked:
> So, how was this served? I assume you are saying it was served
> seperately from the dried fruit and the nuts, they weren't mixed
> together. There doesn't seem to be anything to put a slice on and eat
> it. Or was it more scoopable than sliceable? Maybe it is expected to be
> eaten like a pudding? Hmmm. Or I guess you could serve it in a bowl and
> top it with the dried fruits and nuts?
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 10:54:39 +0200
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] jellied milk
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Am Sonntag, 2. Oktober 2005 08:45 schrieb Stefan li Rous:
> Ro mentioned in a review of a recent dayboard she did:
>> Cold fruit. Raw veggies didn't play well, jellied milk would have
>> been a nice touch (thought of it way to late.).
>
> Has anyone made jellied milk before? Have you served it at an SCA
> event? How did it go over? Redaction?
I made it (not at an SCA event), taking a shortcut with modern gelatin (rather
than boiling down isinglass). I added sugar and cinnamon, but I'm not sure
whether that combination really is period. Half the milk had sandalwood
boiled in it to make 'red' (more like brown, really) and half was yellowed
with saffron, and the whole poured into baking tins and cut into squares
after gelling. I then arranged them in a chequerboard fashion. It looked
rather cute, but not many people liked it. Me included.
Now I found this recipe for jellied almond milk I might try whether
that goes over better.
(Kšnigsberg MS)
[[17]] Wilthu machenn ein Sulzenn, die dreyerley Gestaltt hatt:
so nim Haue§enn plossenn die verseudtt inn Wasser schonn und nyme
dan dicke Mandell und Petersiligenn und hacke den gar klein un(d) reib
in ein Scherbenn der Mandell Milch und thu dan denn Trithell der Milch
doruntter und zuckers den woll abe, das wirdt ein grŸne Varbe und
nyme dan disse zwey Theill (und) seudt inne einer Pffanenn und zucker
es auch abe und lo§ es sidenn und geue§ ein Theill alls wei§ uff ein
Pffenlein und mach dann das drytthell gell gleich und geu§ und geue§
(!)
da§ auch uff ein Pffendleinn und la§ es dann stenn und seudt und
seudt (!) dann die grin Varbe auch in einer Pffanenn und geu§ dann
alls uff ein Pffanenn. also hastu dreuerley Varbe und las e§ stein, bi§
es hertt wirtt und habe es denne uber das Feuer und zuck es baldt
herabe und sch(l)ag es denn uff ein Panck und schneidt e§ dann
schagzaglett
(?)
und leg es denn uff ein Schussell, ein weill wei§, ein weill
gell, einn grine bi§ die SchŸssell vol(l) wyrtt und versalcz nicht.
If you want to make a jelly of three kinds
Take isinglass and boil it in water. Then take a lot of (ground) almond and
parsley chopped small, grind the almond milk into a plate, add a third of the
milk and sugar it well. That will be green. Then take these (other?) two
parts and boil them in a pan, sugar them, let them boil and pour off one part
of it onto a pannikin as white. Make the third part yellow and pour and pour
(repeated) that into a pannikin, too. Boil and boil (repeated) the green
color in a pan, too, and pour all of it into a pan. Thus you have three
colors. Let it stand until it hardens, then lift it over the fire, pull it
off again quickly and turn it out onto a board. Cut it /schagzaglet/
(chequered i.e. 'like a chessboard'?) and put it into a bowl, once white,
then yellow, then green, until it is full. Do not oversalt.
Giano
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 07:48:02 -0400
From: "Mairi Ceilidh" <jjterlouw at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] jellied milk
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Has anyone made jellied milk before? Have you served it at an SCA
> event? How did it go over? Redaction?
I did jellies almond milk, but I don't remember having a period (or any
other kind) recipe. Served it with peaches for a fundraiser lunch in the
summer. I should have made twice as much as I had. It went over
surprisingly well. 'Course, as I said, I don't know that I could document
it, so it may not count.
As I recall the ingredients were commercial almond milk ("original" flavor),
sugar, rose water, unflavored gelatin (no isinglass available in this
backwater). Very easy to do, and very good and refreshing on a hot
summer day.
Mairi Ceilidh
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 08:44:14 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] jellied milk
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On Oct 2, 2005, at 7:48 AM, Mairi Ceilidh wrote:
> As I recall the ingredients were commercial almond milk ("original" flavor),
> sugar, rose water, unflavored gelatin (no isinglass available in this
> backwater). Very easy to do, and very good and refreshing on a hot
> summer day.
FWIW, I'm pretty sure isinglass pretty much _is_ gelatin, and by the
time it is processed it is largely indistinguishable as an ingredient
from land-animal sources. It's just gelatin derived from sturgeon
swim bladders, used for making jellies that would not otherwise be
appropriate on non-meat days.
Adamantius
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 09:46:52 -0500
From: "Jeff Elder" <scholari at verizon.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] jellied milk
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Isn't jellied milk essentially Junket? Jelling the milk with Rennet rather
than gelatin? Just made some the other day on a lark, and said hey milk jello. So as I read this.. Hey Junket! Here is an article on Junket existing in the 14th century by Countess Elizabeth Beaufort.
the beginning portion of the article follows:
The Oak (A&S Newsletter of Atlantia) Countess Elizabeth Beaufort
Issue #8 kuijt at umiacs.umd.edu
http://www.greydragon.org/library/junket.html
Junket is coagulated milk which got its name from the reed baskets (giunco
in Italian) in which it was put to drain. The best junket is made from the
milk of young animals and makes the blood phlegmatic. It is useful in
treating swelling of the stomach, but it lies heavily on the stomach and is
therefore more suitable for robust, young people with hot temperaments. In
any case eat it infrequently, at breakfast, sprinkled with sugar or a pinch
of salt to prevent somewhat its heaviness in digestion.
The above description is taken from The Four Seasons of the House of Cerruti
(page 50), which is a translation of a 14th century Latin manuscript known
as Tacuinim Sanitatis in Medicina (Tables of Health in Accordance with
Medical Science). The manuscript is an exploration of the medical arts and
sciences, based on the wisdom of the medieval alchemists, and attributed
specifically to the teachings of Ellbochasm de Baldach, a sage of the 11th
century.
Simon Hondy
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 13:45:03 -0400
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Jellied Milk
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Johnnae has probably beaten me to the source since I get the digest, but
jellied milk was called, in period, leach. Dawson has a recipe in the 1596
_The Good Huswifes Jewell_. A modern version is in _Banquetting Stuffe_
and a recipe is probably filed in Stefan's Florilegium since we had a
discussion of leach a few years back. It could be flavored with rosewater,
orangeflower water, gilded, etc. I've made it with raspberries but one
needs to filter out all the seeds since they fall to the bottom of the
leach and form a nasty bottom. Never served it at a feast but did take it
to events and dessert revels where most folk liked it - that is, if they
liked rosewater flavoring!
Alys Katharine
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 16:19:14 -0200
From: "Lady Ro" <ladyro at comcast.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Jellied Milk...
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
...Is one of the great treats of a Bright Hills feast as a palate cleanser.
It is, I believe, Baroness Cordelia fitzRobert of York's recipe, which I
currently do not have, but will see if I can get for your files.
We make 2 kinds (we make these a feast precook's) - almond, and mint
(coloured pale green with a little food colouring) and sometimes another
flavour.
They go over well - we can't make enough to satisfy the feasters.
Ro
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ladyrowansplace/
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 18:50:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sandra J. <kieralady2 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: jellied milk
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Experimented with this recipe with my laurel... first
bite is kind of odd... but it grows on you.
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.
Kind Regards,
HL Clara von Ulm
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 22:50:10 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jellied Milk
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also there's a good section on these in Robin Weir
and Caroline Liddell with Peter Brears's book
Recipes from the Dairy. This is a good book on dairy
products with English traditional and historic recipes from the National
Trust.
Also see http://www.historicfood.com/Jellies.htm
for pictures of a gilded leach. This is Ivan Day's site again.
Moulds and moulded foods will be the topic by the way of the
next Leeds Symposium next April in York.
Johnnae
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 22:54:00 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Leache with photos was Jellied Milk
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
http://www.historicfood.com/Leche.htm
takes you to the leache file which appears in Ivan Day's files.
Whole and shredded isinglass is at
http://www.historicfood.com/isinglass.htm
Johnnae
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 21:47:45 -0200
From: "Lady Ro" <ladyro at comcast.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Jellied Milk - straight from the Baroness' pen!
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Cc: Barre & Cordelia <barysears at comcast.net>
and I quote verbatim from the Fair Cordelia, lily of Bright Hills, and
stalwart of the Cook's Guild when we let her take her coronet off.
***
Lady Ro,
For you anything, for that Stefan fellow, who knows.
I came across the recipe in Banquetting Stuffe, edited by C. Anne
Wilson; a compilation of papers from the first Leeds Symposium on Food
History and Traditions.
The recipe is attributed to Thomas Dawson, The Good Huswifes Jewell, 1596,
p. 19.
The redaction reads as follows:
5 tsps gelatine
1 pint milk
4 ounces sugar
5 tsp rosewater.
Sprinkle the gelatine onto 4 tablespoons of the milk in a cup. Leave for 5
minutes before standing the cup in hot water until it is completely
dissolved. Warm the remaining milk, stir in the gelatine and sugar, and
simmer, stirring continuously for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the
rose water and pour into a shallow baking dish [extraneous directions
edited] allow to set before cutting into one inch cubes.
I have taken liberties with this recipe by changing the flavoring agent to
almond and mint with great success, though I only use about 1 1/2 teaspoons
as extracts are much more concentrated in flavor than is rosewater.
C.
****
there you have it - The Stuff that Made Bright Hills Famous - Simply Because
It Tastes So Good.
Ro
<the end>