macaroons-msg - 9/2/10 Period Macaron/Macaroon cookies or cakes. A lightly baked confection of beaten egg white, sugar and grated, crushed or ground nuts.  The primary variation is in the proportions of the three main ingredients which can have a texture from a meringue cookie to a small cake. NOTE: See also the files: jumbals-msg, cookies-msg, nuts-msg, Digby-Cakes-msg, lebkuchen-msg, Rosquillas-msg, pastries-msg, hais-msg, 14C-Sweets-art. ************************************************************************ 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: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:19:23 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Macarons On Jul 18, 2010, at 1:13 PM, Susan Lin wrote: <<< We are trying to find some additional period information on macarons - the almond cookies from France.  All we seem to be able to determine is that Catherine de Medici brought them with her. If anyone has anything more informative we'd be grateful. Shoshana >>> Supposedly (and take this also with a grain of salt, they have been in France for centuries prior to Catherine de Medici. The latest Larousse Gastronomique ststes: "Some authorities  claim that the recipe for macaroons of Cormery, in   France, is the oldest. Macaroons have been made in the monastery there since 791 and legend has it they used to be made in the shape of   monks' navels. Towns or villages associated with the cookie include: Montmorillion, Niort, Reims, Pau, Amiens, Melun, and Nancy. Waverly Root mentions the Italian town- "Salsomaggiore is famous for its little almond-sized macaroons..." You might want to hunt up the following article from the journal Gastronomica, Spring 2009, Vol. 9, No. 2, Pages 14?18. The Macaron and Madame Blanchez by Cindy Meyers. "At the end of a month-long journey around France to learn about the   centuries-old almond cookies called macarons, the author interviews   Madame Blanchez, a baker who continues to make them in a traditional   manner in Saint-Emilion. Her methods and ingredients, along with the   history of her recipe and the macaron in general, are discussed. The   phenomenon of the macaron parisien, a newer version of the traditional macaron that has been causing quite a stir in Paris, is also examined." Johnnae Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:13:51 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway To: drakey at internode.on.net, Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Macarons On Jul 19, 2010, at 2:37 AM, drakey at internode.on.net wrote: <<< Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book (1604 I think...) has a recipe for them also... Drakey. >>> There are recipes also in: S84 "To Make Mackroons" Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery John Murrell's A Delightful Daily Excercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen from 1617 includes "To make French Mackroones of the best Fashion" and   "To make greene mackroones." Under that spelling you can find later recipes in a number of places. The Accomplish'd lady's delight in 1675 offers: 7. To make Mackroons Take Almonds, blanch them, and beat them in a Morter, with serced   Sugar mingled therewith, with the white of an Egg, and Rose-water,   then beat them altogether till they are thick as Fritters, then drop   it upon your Wafers, and take it. ("take it" is probably bake it. I suspect it's a typist or scanning   error.) They are even featured in the title of the 1710 cookery book: England's newest way in all sorts of cookery: pastry, and all pickles   that are fit to be used. Adorn'd with copper plates, setting forth the   manner of placing dishes upon tables; and the newest fashions of mince- pies. By Henry Howard, ... Likewise the best receipts for making   cakes, mackroons ... They appear in numerous other works including:  The experienced English house-keeper: for the use and ease of   ladies, house ...  By Elizabeth Raffald from 1769. Johnnae Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:28:37 -0500 From: Stefan li Rous To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Macarons So how would you define Macaron/Macaroon? What determines whether it is or isn't one? I was initially assuming the word wasn't period, so I looked for examples where people posted a period recipe and said it was similar to a macaroon. The main thing I seem to see is the use of a large amount of ground almond instead of wheat or grain flour. But this may not hold if there are other cookies that contain ground almond which aren't called macarons/macaroons. Yes, I'm wondering if I have enough info in my cookies-msg along with what has been posted, to possibly create a macaroons-msg file.  As well as now just being curious about these macarons/macaroons.  As well as the few I posted I have other comments that don't specify a specific period recipe. Stefan =========== The differentiation between macaron and macaroon is the first is French and the second is English.  Both words can be used as general terms for any of the various styles of macaroon.  The association of macaroon with the coconut variety is that it is the more common commercial form of the macaroon in the U.S.  BTW, you most often see them referred to as "coconut macaroons."  The coconut macaroon is also called a "congolais" in France. Bear <<< I'm not sure that distinction actually exists. In French, both are simply "macarons". >>> On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 10:25 AM, Susan Lin wrote: <<< I distinguish between macarons (made with almond flour) and macaroons (made with coconut - yuck!) >>> -------- THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:56:57 -0500 From: "Terry Decker" To: "Cooks within the SCA" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Macarons A macaroon is a lightly baked confection of beaten egg white, sugar and grated, crushed or ground nuts.  The primary variation is in the proportions of the three main ingredients which can have a texture from a meringue cookie to a small cake.  Until the 20th Century, the nuts would have been almonds, possibly with some bitter almond for flavoring.  Flavorings such as orange peel, lemon peel, cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate were being added by the early 19th Century.  Macaroons with jam, jelly, or creme fillings are common. The key point is macaroons are made from a meringue base and use nut meal or flour rather than cereal flour in their manufacture. Just to add to the confusion, there are recipes for baked marzipan which are labeled as being macaroons. Bear Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:39:08 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Macarons On Jul 19, 2010, at 3:28 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote: <<< So how would you define Macaron/Macaroon? What determines whether it   is or isn't one? >>> You could use the 1611 definition 1611 R. COTGRAVE Dict. French & Eng. Tongues, Macarons, Macarons;   little Fritter-like Bunnes, or thicke Losenges, compounded of Sugar,   Almonds, Rosewater, and Muske. Johnnae Edited by Mark S. Harris macaroons-msg 4 of 5