marmalades-msg - 4/30/07 Period marmalades and fruit jellies and jams. NOTE: See also the files: fruits-msg, apples-msg, fruit-citrus-msg, fruit-quinces-msg, fruit-pears-msg, plums-msg, berries-msg, cherries-msg, suckets-msg, candied-peels-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 ************************************************************************ From: Philip & Susan Troy Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 10:16:45 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - An Introduction and a question. DdreMacNam at aol.com wrote: > What I need to know is how > period are preserves and jelly? Also what types of fruit would have been > used? One last thing does anyone have recepies or redactions? Fruits preserved in various sugar and/or honey preparations are exceedingly period. They range from fruit in spiced syrup, through myriad varieties of stamped, sliceable, fruit "marmalades" (kind of like a stack of fruit leather), to, in late period, the jams and jellies we know today. Ellinor Fettiplace's receipt book (AGAIN!) has quite a few recipes for all of these, and they are late enough in period style to be used as working recipes by relatively novice cooks. Tops on the list of fruits would be those known to medieval/renaissance Europeans (obviously), especially those that are high in pectin. Quinces are quite common for this reason. Apples and pears only slightly less so. Raspberries, strawberries, barberries, and gooseberries all appear in several sources. Oranges and lemons appear, but generally as candied peel or some kind of suckets. Apart from the use of honey substituted for part or all of the sugar in some recipes, particularly the early ones, the technology for making pectin set by combining it with sugar and acid hasn't changed over the years, so most of the period recipes are quite straightforward and easily interpreted by modern cooks with some experience with making jams and jellies. Generally you won't find, for instance, that much less sugar being used to make a sweet fruit jelly than is used today, just because sugar was expensive. If you don't use enough, you run the risk of the fruit not setting until it is cooked to death and devoid of color and flavor. So, most of the recipes are pretty similar to modern ones, although you'll find a somewhat greater variety of styles than is generally practiced today. Adamantius From: Philip E Cutone Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 12:27:43 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: SC - An Introduction and a question. The domestroi mentions various ways fruits are preserved/cooked. It mentions that Jellies may be given to the servents on sundays. (51) preserve apples, pears, cherries, and berries in brine (63) (66)it talks also of watermelons, melons, Kuzmin apples (seeming to be the origin of candied apples, pour honey syrup over whole apples), quinces and appls (fermented in a bucket with honey syrup), Mozhaisk cream (not mashed. soak apples and pears in a blended syrup, without water. (not sure what they mean)) berry candy (66)(bilberries, rasberries, currants, strawberries, cranberries, "or any other kind of berry". here is a quick rundown of the instructions: Boil and strain through a fine sieve add honey and then steam the mixture till VERY thick, stiring so as not to burn. pour onto a board. smear the board repeatedly with honey. as mixture sets, add a second and third layer and twirl it around a tube. dry it opposite the stove. my quick interpretation: cook the berries (use minimal water, or reserve the juice for mead/drinking later) Puree them and strain to remove seeds.(opt) add honey to your taste. simmer on very low heat till thick. then pour onto a honeyed marble pastry board. let dry a bit (perhaps in oven, not sure if this is good for marble) then add a second and third layer, letting set up some between layers. dry in oven on lowest setting. cut as is or roll it and then cut it. die of sugar shock. apple candy(66): about the same as berry candy, but it appears to be left "softer" (don't dry out in oven) the parenthesized numbers are chapters, for the interested. please note this was from a very quick browse through.... and typed rather quickly as well... BTW it also mentions that pears and apples may be preserved in syrup or kvass. (45) In Service to never letting the kvass thread die :) Filip of the Marche Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 07:41:15 -0400 From: Margo Lynn Hablutzel To: A&S List Subject: Period Jellies I have a cookbook dated 1604 which has a number of Jelly recipes, mostly as a prelude to candy (suckets) but some really jelly, or you simply undercook and stop when they are spreading consistency. It is called "Mrs. Fettiplace's Recipe Book" and I got it at Bargain Books last year. --- Morgan Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 20:26:17 -0400 (EDT) From: ALBAN at delphi.com To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: Period Jellies Morgan said >It is called "Mrs. Fettiplace's Recipe Book" Er, ah, not exactly, if your book's the same as mine. It is called, I believe, Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book. Author is Hilary Fettiplace. Alban Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 09:47:10 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Schuldenfrei To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: Concord Grapes I _think_ it's a sort of jelly, since he mentions that in the same sentence, but I'm not sure. Tibor? What's a quiddony? Alban, as near as I could figure, it was a jelly, but not quite made in the usual way. I haven't made it in years, and my notes aren't here, but you cut and boil the fruit in water, squeeze out the juice and pulp through a cloth, and then boil with sugar, and set. It came out halfway between jelly and fruit leather. It was a method of preserving fruit through the winter months. I kept it out on the shelf for about 4 years, until it was gone from occassional tastes. It was quite nice. My notes, and my books, are packed away until the kitchen rennovations are completed. Sorry. Tibor Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 10:59:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Schuldenfrei To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: Period Jellies Morgan said >It is called "Mrs. Fettiplace's Recipe Book" Er, ah, not exactly, if your book's the same as mine. It is called, I believe, Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book. Author is Hilary Fettiplace. Alban Author Hilary Spurling. Tibor Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 14:01:12 -0600 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Apricot recipes?(was Byzantine Cooking) Since I have Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery in front of me, here are some recipe's from it. Bear TO MAKE APRICOCK CAKES TO CANDY GREEN APRICOCK CHIPS TO PRESERUE DAMSONS OTHER PLUMS OR APRICOCKS TO KEEP ALL Ye YEAR IN A QUACKEING JELLY Take a pinte of apple water & boyle 2 pound of sugar in it, till it is thoroughly dissolved & is in a perfect sirrup. then take 2 pound of yr fairest & ripest plums, & put into it, & let them boil very leasurely till they are very tender, then set them aside to coole, & let them stand in ye sirrup 3 days. then take them out & boyle ye sirrup by it selfe, & as it riseth, scum it of very clean, & put to it yr plums, or yr plums to it, & they will keep all ye year very well, & ye sirrup will be A quacking Jelly. Note: Apple water is that water in which apples have been poached. To prepare it, pare and core green apples, cover them with water and scald (cook just below a boil) them for 3 hours. Remove the apples and use the water. TO MAKE OF PLUMS PEARS OR APRICOCKS A PASTE Yt SHALL LOOK CLEAR AS AMBER Take white pear plums of faire yellow Apricock[s]. pare & stone them, then boyle them on a chafing dish of coles till they be tender. then streyne them and dry the pulpe in a dish. then take as much sugar as ye pulp dos weigh & boyle it to a candy height, with as much rose water as will wet it. then put your apricocks or pear plums in ye sugar, & let them boyle together & keep it stirring. then fashion it upon A leaf of glass into halfe apricocks, & put ye stone into ye syde. then put them into a stove or warme oven, & ye next day turn them & close 2 of them together, & then put ye stones into them betwixt ye hollows. soe dry them out, & box them. TO MAKE A QUIDONY OF APRICOCKS OR PEAR PLUMS Take 2 pound of apricocks or pear plums & put them into a deep dish withe a pinte of fair water, in which boyle them tender. yn wring ye liquor from them thorough a fine cloth into A basin, & put into it a pound of sugar well clarified, & let it boyle in a [posnet] till it comes to its full thickness, then [put it in yr] moulds, and soe box it. Date: 30 Apr 1998 10:32:13 -0700 From: "Marisa Herzog" Subject: Re: SC - Dried currents Are they the same fruit currant jelly is made from, or is that real currants? Renata Currant jelly is from real currants- the red ones are beautiful tiny red berries that are really tart. We had a couple bushes when I was little. Usually between me and the birds my mom did not get enough to make anything out of! "Creme de Cassis" liquer is made from the black currants, and I think goose-berries are related, but I am not sure... So... if currants in period recipes are the little grape raisins, were *real* currants (red or black) used in period? and if so how were they refered to? - -brid Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 19:11:17 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Jams not period??? (was SC - Mulberry question) From: kat > So then, what is the accepted general belief on the use of preserves in reenacting period cooking? > > I have been happily placing my father's prizewinning apricot, berry and plum preserves on my breakfast buffets and have never heard any objection... > > ... I have always felt that his were "more period" than storebought; if only for the fact that he often grows the produce himself and uses less sugar than commercial jams... > > so... should I cease serving preserves, break my heart though it would? Hey! Do you really think I would tell you to do something like that? Okay. Here's the deal. You can either a) cook your preserves (beyond the normal point where they seem done, that is) quickly, in a wide pan like a deep skillet, until you can draw a spoon through it and it forms clean walls -- thick enough to hold stiff peaks, more or less. Watch out for burning, and for burns: this stuff is hotter than boiling water, and could splash. Kinda like napalm. When it's done (you don't need no steenking saucer pectin test) pour into oiled molds for a marmalade or fruit cheese, which is eaten in slices, or in wide flat drops on wax paper, for cakes or pastilles. Pastilles are eaten drier and firmer. Serve either with bread or biscuits (as in biscotti, not "cat-heads") and cheese. Earlier period versions of this type of fruit paste were often made with honey. b) serve your fruit poached in a spiced wine syrup, a reasonably similar approach to what often was done with fruits like pears. c) serve the preserves as you have been doing, and if anyone asks if they are period, tell them the truth, and say, but hey, this is good stuff, isn't it? Adamantius Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 22:03:45 EDT From: RuddR at aol.com Subject: Re: Jams not period??? (was SC - Mulberry question) I find in _The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened_ (1669) receipts for "Jelly of Currants" and "Marmulate of Cherries" at least (This is only a quick glance). These seem to be straight-up fruit preserves, little different from your father's prizewinning varieties. Rudd Rayfield Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 21:36:48 -0500 From: "Decker, Terry D." Subject: RE: SC - Jellies vs. aspics > I would find it very hard to believe that fruit > jellies in the since that we think of them were known during the Middle > Ages. > > Ras If you are thinking about the clear strained jellies we have now, you're probably right. If you are referring to fruit preserves in general, there is at least one Elizabethan marmalade recipe in A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1608. Bear Date: Sat, 06 Jun 1998 09:52:48 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: SC - Re: Jams not period??? > > so... should I cease serving preserves, break my heart though it would? > > I find in _The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened_ (1669) receipts for "Jelly > of Currants" and "Marmulate of Cherries" at least (This is only a quick > glance). These seem to be straight-up fruit preserves, little different from > your father's prizewinning varieties. I guess the real issue here is the efficacy of the preservative process. Jams, jellies, and what we call preserves today, are usually sealed up in preserving jars of some kind, or cans, or what have you. This is necessary to avoid molds and other decay. One possible solution that seems to have been employed in later period (and after) is some kind of vessel (maybe a ceramic jar) topped with a brandy-soaked disk of parchment, and covered with melted lard or beeswax. More commonly, in period, fruits were preserved in sweet, spiced syrups of wine and sugar or honey, or in the form of solid marmalades. The former method is found in sources from Apicius on up, and the latter is found in, at the very least, several of the 14th-century sources. The problem with accepting Digby as a source typical of even late period for SCA purposes is his date, even when you take into account the fact that his book was published posthumously, and shave as many as ten years off 1669. Also, I don't recall there's much reason to assume Digby's recipes are for anything other than the slicing jellies and marmalades. I just think Digby is assuming his reader will place the current, prevailing definition of a fruit jelly or marmalade on the recipe, which is exactly what his 20th-century readers often do, too. > Surely this culinary process did not just appear full-blown in the seventeenth > century. There must be antecedants, even if unrecorded. Are there earlier > sources? What's the earliest date that can be put on a recipe for sweet fruit > preserves? As I say, I think there's one or more recipes for fruit preserved in wine, honey, and spices, in Apicius, roughly 1st - 3rd century CE (there's some question as to the identity, and therefore the date, of M. Gavius Apicius). The next time they seem to crop up, in the sources I'm familiar with, is in the 14th century. Based on the availability of recipes (which isn't always the best benchmark, but currently most of what we have to go on) the jams, jellies, and marmalades we know today don't _seem_ to have been common until the late 18th - early 19th century, which, coincidentally, seems to be when canning technology made significant leaps. Adamantius Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 09:24:02 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: Re: SC - jam vs. jelly stefan at texas.net writes: << What is the differance between a jam and a jelly? >> Jam is produced from crushed whole fruit . Jelly is produced from the juice strained off of whole crushed fruit. For all intent and purposes, Jam is thickened fruit. Jelly is thickened fruit juice. The thickening and sweetening in both are the same or similar. Ras Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 23:11:47 -0500 From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON) Subject: Re: SC - jam vs. jelly Stefan, The adding of sugar, to preserve, and to make palatable, is common, and the cooking, to destroy microorganisms--even before they knew about those, they figured out that if you cooked food well and sealed it, it didn't spoil. Here are the differances: whole or half or large chunks in the finished product=preserves crushed fruit left in the spread=jam fruit juice strained thru fabric (linen or cotton 'jelly bags') so that resulting jelly is clear=jelly. Now, just to confuse you, ;-) things can be added to a jelly, as chunks of cooked meat and vegetables can be added to a meat jelly for a galentine. Allison Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 19:29:20 -0500 From: vjarmstrong at aristotle.net (Valoise Armstrong) Subject: Latwerge (Was Re: SC - Jellies vs. aspics) Adamantius asked: >Latwerge, huh? This wouldn't be made from plums, would it? There is a >thick plum butter found in Poland, I believe, called lekvar. I wonder if >there's some etymological cognate voodoo going on here... Well, I don't know Polish or Polish cooking, but Latwerge refers to the conserve/fruit paste in general. I guess you could make it from plums, but the only recipes I could find at the spur of the moment were for quinces and pears. And I swear I thought I saw a cherry recipe somewhere, but I can't find it now that I want it. Valoise Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 19:14:22 EDT From: LrdRas at aol.com Subject: SC - Will's- more recipes Here are the few recipes my co-feastocrat at Will's Revenge, His Lordship Thorstein, was willing to share. :-) Sorry for the lack of documentation but this isn't my work. Enjoy. They are wonderful. :-) Rødgrød med Fløde 1 1/2 pounds of fresh raspberries or strawberries, or a combination of the two (or substitute 2 ten-ounce packages of frozen berries) 2 tablespoons of sugar 2 tablespoons of arrowroot powder 1/2 cup cold water slivered almonds 1/2 cup light cream Remove any hulls from the fresh berries, then wash the berries quickly in a sieve, drain and spread them out on paper towels, and pat them dry. After cutting the larger berries into quarters, place in the container of an electric blender. Blend at high speed for 2 or 3 minutes until they are puréed. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them thoroughly, then purée them in the blender - juices and all To make rødgrød by hand, rub the contents of the packages or the fresh berries through a fine sieve that is set over a large mixing bowl. Place the berry purée (which should measure about 22 cups) in a 1 to 1* quart enameled or stainless-steel saucepan and stir in the sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Mix the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and the cold water to a smooth paste, and stir it into the pan. Let the mixture come to a simmer to thicken the jelly (do not let it boil), then remove the pan from the heat. Pour into individual dessert bowls or a large serving bowl. Chill for at least 2 hours. Before serving the rødgrød, decorate the top with a few slivers of almonds and pass a pitcher of light cream separately. Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 15:23:00 -0500 From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON) Subject: SC - Re: gooseberries + jelly >>Gooseberries. Find me a period recipe (primary source only please) that uses them.<< I was looking through some of my books for your sauce, as I did not remember seeing one when I did my sauce research. Still did not find any gooseberry sauce, (Yes! See below) but have come across 'gelee of gooseberries' in _The French Cook_, Francis deLaVarenne, 1653. This is out of our period, but as we recently had a thread on jellies, I thought it interesting. In period, the clear jellies are meat and fish based and just 50 years later, the clear fruit jellies that we know are being published. Raspberry jelly is made the same way. OOP, but not to be a 'spoon tease', here it is: How to make gelee of gooseberries. Take some gooseberries, press them, and strain them through a napkin; measure your juice, and put near upon three quarters of sugar to one quart of juice; seeth it before you mixe it, and seeth again together; after they are mixed, try them on a plate, and you shall know that it is enough, when it riseth off. That of Rasberries is made the same way. As for other gooseberries, aside from a late period paste, and a gooseberry verjuice, everybody seems to have preserved them and nobody ate them! When the Brit museum continues excavating London, they will surely find many, many pots of preserved gooseberries! Could it be that someone tried to make paste in a rainy summer, and it wouldn't dry out? "Here, eat this anyhow" "I can't pick it up!" "Well, put it on some bread, then" "Oh, boy!" As an antecedent to the mackeral/gooseberry combo, some fish sauces are definately tart: they contain sorrell, lemon and other piquant tastes, so your combo in in line with prevailing tastes, just not currently documentable. Fruit jellies are so popular with meats in Europe, that tart jellies may sometimes have taken the place of tart sauces. Jeff says that European gooseberries are prickly. Do the prickles wash off? Do they cook down to be non-prickly? Our landlord grew them, but I never handled them. Would the prickles make them more or less likely to appear in sauces, jellies, etc.? Whoa!!! Hold!!! Just found something else in LaVarenne! 62. Fresh mackerells rosted. Rost them with fennell, after they are rosted, open them, and take off the bone; then make a good sauce with butter, parsley, and gooseberries, all well seasoned; stove a very little your mackerells with your sauce, then serve. Have just glanced at a number of her fish sauces; none seem to have cream or milk added, yet. Is 'short broth' a reduced cooking liquid, do you think? Allison Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 09:33:50 +1000 From: Robyn Probert Subject: Re: SC - Re: gooseberries + jelly Adamantius wrote >I understood "jelly" in British English usage to mean a hand-held sweet. >Do all you Americans recall Chuckles? Something along those lines... Jelly has 3 meanings for "British English" speakers: 1. A dessert also made with fruit juice and gelatine which you set in the fridge. Cheap variety is made with "jelly crystals" - basically gelatine, flavour and colour. Common child dessert (aka sweet, pudding). 2. Sweets (candies), usually fruit flavoured and transluscent. The good quality ones are made with real fruit juice and gelatine - these are soft (about like a ripe persimmon) and usually covered in sugar (aka fruit pastilles). The cheap variety are artificially coloured and flavoured and are very chewy. You can buy jelly snakes, frogs, rats etc. 3. The clear type of jam previously described on the list. Rowan Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 09:34:12 -0400 From: "LHG, JRG" Subject: SC - Jam Are jams/jellies or anything like this period? I would love to hear any information anyone could share with me in this area. Thanks again. Lady Gwyneth Blackrose Greywood Gwyneth---try the Good Huswife's Jewel for recipes for marmalet, etc. Yes, it's period. In Slavic countries I understand it was a custom to offer a spoon of jam either alone or in a glass of cold water as the ultimate in instant hospitality (much like the irish would offer buttermilk, and not to offer would be insulting). Jam also found it's way into wine for the Italians, IIRC, when the result desired was dessert-like wine on the cheap OR the drinker preferred sweet wine and none was available. Aoife Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 17:39:35 -0400 From: capriest at cs.vassar.edu (Carolyn Priest-Dorman) To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: marmalade question Renna asked: >Does anyone know if 1. Marmalade is period? and 2. doc. on the same 3. period recipes. There are recipes for marmalade of citrus in Plat and (I think) Markham, which both date to right around the turn of 1600. Digby also has several related recipes, but he's later still. Before that period citrus fruits seem typically to have been peeled and the peels candied. Earlier recipes for things called marmalade involve honey, not sugar, cooked with a paste of some pre-cooked fruit (usually quince). Neither is much like the thin slices of citrus rind in clear jelly that we associate with the term "marmalade." I once judged a cooking category at a pentathlon where a lady entered Red Quince Marmalade and Yellow Quince Marmalade from Hugh Plat's recipes. They were both delicious, and there was a very marked difference in color based on the different methods of cooking! Carolyn Priest-Dorman =DE=F3ra Sharptooth capriest at cs. vassar. edu Frostahlid, Austmork http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 08:04:28 -0500 (CDT) From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming) Subject: SC - Re: Fruit Conserves Karin wrote: >Basically, the fruit seems to have been saturated with sugar, until >it attains an almost tough jelly like state ( jelly bean rather than >jello ), sometimes it is then shaped into small fruit shapes, other >times it still seems to be the basic fruit. The texture is still quite >'solid' which seems to me that the fruit hasn't been pureed and >reformed, but that it is done by a similiar method to candying peel. I'm not sure about the not-pureeing and then being boiled up like candy peel. However, there are a number of fruit pastes which give a "tough jelly" or a nice paste, depending on one's skill, etc. Here are two I've used successfully (sometimes tough, sometimes nice paste, sometimes it didn't set). Also, it seems that one can't really substitute different fruits in certain recipes. I don't recall the fruits now (it was a few years back) but the substituted fruit didn't set up into the paste as the original fruit did. Sir Kenelm Digby, The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened, 3rd edition, 1677 Sweet-Meats of my Lady Windebanks She maketh a past of Apricocks (which is both very beautiful and clear, and tasteth most quick of the fruit) thus. Take six pound of pared and sliced Apricocks, put them in a high pot, which stop close, and set it in a kettle of boiling water, till you perceive the flesh is all become a uniform pulp; then put it out into your preserving pan or possenet, and boil it gently till it be grown thick, stirring it carefully all the while. Then put two pound of pure Sugar to it, and mingle it well, and let it boil gently, till you see the matter come to such a thickness and solidity, that it will not stick to a plate. Then make it up into what form you will. The like you may do with Raspes or Currants. Redaction from 'Banquetting Stuffe' edited by C. Anne Wilson, chapter 4, Rare Conceits and Strange Delightes by Peter Brears. (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1986, ISBN 0 7486 0103 1) 8 oz (225 g) (when prepared) peeled and stoned apricots 3 oz (75 g) sugar (Alys: 1/2 cup; 1 lb. apricots to 1/3 lb. sugar) Place the apricots in a heatproof jar, seal the top with a piece of cooking foil, and stand in a covered saucepan of boiling water for an hour. Pour the apricots into a small saucepan and gently boil, stirring continuously until the paste is extremely thick, then add the sugar and continue stirring. When it is so thick that it has to be spread across the bottom of the pan with a spoon, it may be turned on to a lightly greased plate, worked into a shallow square block, and allowed to cool. It has a deep orange colour, and is every bit as good today as Sir Kenelm found it three centuries ago. Alys Katharine's revision: (1 lb. apricots to 1/3 lb. sugar. Ten apricots (2-2 1/2") are slightly under one pound when peeled and stoned.) Slice the apricots, place in cooking container (Corningware 1 3/4 quart pan holds a little over 2 lbs. of apricots). Seal with foil and rubber band for extra security. Place in large pot, or larger Corningware container. If you put a lid on the outer container you needn't top it off with boiling water as quickly. Add boiling water and set on burner at simmer for a good two hours. The apricots should have fallen into a mush by then. To peel apricots easily, place them in boiling water for about two minutes and then remove them. The skins should peel off easily with a knife or your fingers. If you let them stay in the boiling water too long they begin to cook and get mushy under the skin. You can also just slice the apricots without peeling them. After they have cooked for two or more hours, puree them in a blender. It is best to use a thick pan for cooking the pureed apricots and sugar. If you simmer them on a low heat you need not stir them continuously until the mixture begins to thicken and erupt into "burps." This "cooking down" process can take 4 hours or so depending on the amount of apricots you use and the temperature of the heat. You will need to stir the mixture more and more as it gets thicker. The apricots are done when you can drag your spoon through the mixture and it leaves a trail. It should also be pulling away from the sides of the pan at this time. While this recipe doesn't call for a sugar syrup, you can make one by taking an amount of sugar, wetting it enough to dissolve the sugar, and heating it to hard crack stage. Add it to the apricots, stirring as you add it. Then cook the mixture down over low heat until you can make a trail with your spoon. Pour into shallow, buttered pans and allow to cool. You can cut them into squares or into shapes using small cookie or canape cutters. Store between waxed paper or parchment paper. With proper storage they will keep for a year or so. TO MAKE A PASTE OF PEACHES, #S112, A Booke of SweetmeatsMartha Washington's Booke of Cookery, transcribed by Karen Hess, Columbia University Press, New York, 1981, ISBN 0-231-04930-7Take peaches & boyle them tender, as you did your apricocks, & strayne them. then take as much sugar as they weigh & boyle it to candy height. mix ym together, & make it up into paste as you doe yr other fruit. soe dry them and use it at your pleasure.Peel and slice peaches. Bring them to a boil over medium heat in a thick pan. Cover pan, stirring occasionally. Add a little rosewater if desired. (The previous recipe for apricots includes rosewater.) Cook for approximately two or two and a half hours until they are fully soft and "tender." I have pureed them in a blender but that leaves a good deal of water to cook off. Try pouring off the excess liquid through a sieve or strainer. Puree the remaining pulp. (Save the liquid for other uses.) Weigh the pulp and take the same amount in sugar. (Approximately 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar equal one pound.) Gently boil down the pulp until it is thick. When the pulp is as thick as it can get and not burn, boil up the sugar with a small amount of water. Hess identifies candy height as soft ball or 220 F. A modern recipe for fruit paste says to boil to hard ball or 260 F. I have found that hard ball or even to almost hard crack works best. Pour the sugar syrup into the cooked pulp and stir until thoroughly mixed. Continue cooking the paste until it leaves the side of the pan and you can draw a line in it with the spoon. Be careful that it doesn't burn at the final stages, nor that you burn yourself with splatters of boiling pulp. Pour it onto a buttered cookie sheet with sides and let it cool. If it doesn't solidify to a paste that you can cut try one of the following. Let it sit for several days to dry out. Put it into a warm oven to dry out. Scrape it all back into a pan and re-boil to drive off more water. You can also make up more sugar syrup, but be sure to go to the hard crack stage before adding it to the paste. Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 20:25:58 -0700 From: "Robert C. Lightfoot" Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #1455 > The recipes, yes, please. > Raoghnailt > > > Have you thought of fruit butters and cheeses? --snip-- > > This comes out like the commercial applets and cotlets. > > > > I can look up my recipes if anyone's interestes. > > Siobhan Here goes. These are from various cooking/preserving cookbooks I've collected over the years. _Your Country Kitchen_ by Jocasta Innes Damson Plum Cheese 4 lbs. plums 1 & 1/4 c. water Sugar Rinse the plums, place in a kettle with the water and simmer gently until quite soft. mashing occasionally. Strain/sieve pulp. Weigh the pulp, and measuring oput 1 & 1/2 c. sugar to every pound of pulp -- DO NOT COMBINE YET. Put the sugar where it will stay warm. Return the pulp to the kettle and cook very gently until thick, with no visible liquid. Pour in the warmed sugar, stirring hard to dissolve it, then turn upop the heat a little and continue cooking and sturring until pressing the spoon down on top of the mixture leaves a mark. This gives a cheese a firm enough texture to be turned out of a mold.. For a very firm, almost jellied consistency, go on cooking until a spoon drawn across the kettle parts the mixture and the bottom shows. Turn into oiled molds and seal/cover with a peice of wax paper pressed over the hot preserve. Cover with palstic wrap and close. This should keep in a cool place for several months. Cranberry Cheese 2 lb cranberries 1 quart water 4 c. sugar. Pick over the cranberries then rinse the. Simmer the berries in a kettle with the water until quite sift. Cook as for the Damson cheese, but stop at the first sppon stage. Pot and seal. Siobhan Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 21:12:13 -0000 From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" Subject: Re: SC - SC: Re: Marmalade Elysant wrote: >I'd learned as a child that the word "Marmalade" originally came from "Marie >malade" (sick Mary) because Marmalade was regularly made for Mary Queen of >Scots by her nurse (or cook possibly?) to keep her healthy (she was always >sickly apparently). I'm wondering if anyone knows if this tale is true or >not? Marmalade originally meant "quince jam" and comes via French from Portuguese marmelada (marmelo = quince). The earliest English reference to marmalade is from 1524 (18 years before the birth of Queen Mary), when one box of marmalade was presented to the king by "Hull of Exeter". The term seems mainly to refer to quince jam throughout the 16th century. Nanna Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 21:59:33 -0600 From: "RANDALL DIAMOND" Subject: SC - Marmalade As I have not been privy to previous topics, being newly arrived, I would like to ask whether marmalades are of interest. Since the seasonal availabilty of affordable quinces is upon us all, I would entertain discussion of period marmalades. Personally, I have made several batches over the past few years of Condoignac and Chardequynce according to recipies circa 1394 and circa 1444. The problem of making this excellent food is mainly its expense. For no small reason was this a favoured gift to nobles; the honey and red wine was prohibatively costly. A real jewel of a book on this subject is THE BOOK OF MARMALADE, C. Anne Wilson, St. Martins, NY, 1985. Akim Yaroslavich Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 07:41:35 -0500 From: Philip & Susan Troy Subject: Re: SC - Marmalade Stefan li Rous wrote: > While we have discussed marmalades here before, I don't > remember any mention of them being this early or using > honey instead of sugar so this is interesting. See Le Menagier de Paris, and I think also some of the 14th-century English sources, for early cotignac recipes using honey. The reason you probably don't think of marmalade being that early might be that the word marmalade doesn't seem to turn up in the usual French, English and Italian sources until late period. As far as I know, offhand, anyway. But there are several cotignac recipes, under phonetically similar but variously spelled names, in some of the more mainstream "medieval" sources. And there's a lovely picture of a wheel of cotignac, a specialty of the town of Orleans, complete with an embossed picture of the Maid of Orleans, in the Lang/American edition of the Larousse Gastronomique. Adamantius Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 08:36:49 -0600 From: "RANDALL DIAMOND" Subject: SC - RE: Marmalade Lord Stefan li Rous in a private sending kindly brought me up to date on recent discussions of this subject. He wrote: > snip >Thank you for mentioning this book. Although I have several >other of C. Anne Wilson's books, and have been quite >happy with them, I had not heard of this book. >While we have discussed marmalades here before, I don't >remember any mention of them being this early or using >honey instead of sugar so this is interesting. C.Anne Wilson has an extensive and exhaustive study of marmalade in her book. Indeed the full title is THE BOOK OF MARMALADE: Its Antecedents, Its History and Its Role in the World Today. Actually, the Condoignac and Chardequynce I mentioned are not technically marmalade as we know it today, but are among its antecedents. Indeed they descended from the 'cidonitum' of Palladius circa 4th c.. In medieval parley, Greek "melomeli" had become "malomellus" (Isidore of Seville, c.570 - -636 AD) a term both for the fruit quince and for the conserve. The modern Portugese for the fruit is still "marmelo". Ms. Wilson in her extensive history brings up the reasons why the soft fruits other than quinces and citris did not show up as marmalades in period. In a nutshell, because quinces must be cooked to be edible, early on being boiled in honey, the huge store of pectin was released to make marmalade or what the Brits call "jams". It was not until Tudor times that other fruits were boiled with pectin rich fruits in combination to make other fruit marmalades. Of course, by then, sugar had largely replaced honey as the sweetener of choice. Ms. Wilson, as an adjunct to the marmalade history, perforce had to include a very nice brief discourse on sugar and its Arabic connections. John Partidge, in his "The Treasures of Commodiious Conceites and Hidden Secrets" c.1584, states "This wise you may make marmalade of wardens, pears, apple and medlars, services, checkers or strawberries, every one by himself, or mix it together, as you think good." I personally have only tried out the recipes for Condoignac, Chardequynce and Palladius' cidonitum'. The results were incredibly well received, with many sampling and commenting how insipid modern marmalades are by comparison. Some gentles ventured to say I could make a great deal of money preparing these recipies commercially. But boy, Howdie, would these be costly, I estimate $12 or more for a pint jar! Going back to John Partidge's book, he mentions a fair number of period fruits that are difficult to obtain today. Among them, he mentions medlars, services and wardens. Well, in a few years they may not be so difficult to obtain and we can try out some of these recipes. Part of the orchard program of the Glaedenfeld Centre includes planting a minimum of 25 each of these and other rare European fruits. I have grown medlars before in my period Elizabethean garden in which I grew them and about 600 other period plant varieties. Unfortunately. the single tree nerver produced enough fruit at once to experiment with them in marmalades rather being eaten just to taste ordinary medlars. Another fruit I will be growing in quanity is the Kornel or cornellian cherry, a dogwood species. Regretably, we will have to wait close to a decade until plantings achieve maturity and allow sufficient harvests to experience these tastes. At any rate, C. Anne Wilson's book is first rate imo. Her references and bibliography are scholarly and, best of all, her historic recipes are all translated from well documented Greek, Latin and French sources. I have not been sufficiently familiar with this list to know what kind of information formating you all normally share. So if I am tantalizing you all by not quoting the actual recipes, you must let me know. Incidentally, I do hope that the OOP banter about "lime jello molds" and "watergate salad" are Thanksgiving lapses into mundane cookery. It would be most disappointing if such modern banality intrudes regularly into what should be a period discourse. Akim Yaroslavich Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 13:34:29 -0600 From: "RANDALL DIAMOND" Subject: SC - Marmalade As I have had requests, here are a couple of the recipes from C. Anne Wilson's book. Chardequynce c.1444 "Chardecoynes that is good for the stomach is thus made: take a quart of clarified honey and 2 ounces of powder of pepper and meddle them together, and take 20 quinces and 10 wardens (large pears) and pare them and take out the kernels with the cores and seeth them in clean (ale-)wort till they be tender and then stamp them in a mortar as small as thou mayest and then strain them through a strainer and that will not (go) well through, put in again and stamp it oft, and oft drive it through a cloth or strainer, and if it be too dry put in half a saucerful or a little more (of wort?) for to get out the other the better, and then put it to the honey and set it on the fire and make it to seeth well and stir fast with a great staff, and if there be 2 stirrers, it is the better for both (for) if it be (not) strongly stirred, it will set (stick) to the vessel and then it is lost; and seeth it till it (be) sodden thick and then take it down off the fire and when it is well nigh cold put in 1/4 ounce of ginger and as much of canell (cinnamon) powdered, and mettle them well together with a slice (spatula) and then let it cool and put it in a box; this manner of making is good and if it (is) thus made it will be black; if thou wilt make more at once, take more of each one after the proportions, as much as thou list." This is the basic recipe which I used, though I cut back by half on the pepper as modern tastes are not used to odd Tudor spicing. I balanced out by increasing the ginger and cinnamon so that there would still be a strong spicing but more acceptable modern taste. For lack of alewort, I boiled the prepared fruit in the cheapest light English type ale I could find, not beer as the hop flavour would not be an improvement. When I had gotten it down to about 1/3 its volume, I ran the fruit and liquid alike through a blender and continued to cook it until it had the consistancy of applesauce. I also used the finest white pepper and powdered it first. I presume a great deal of the original recipe process filtered out the larger pepper fragments in the straining process anyway. Stir, stir, stir, and stir some more (for several hours after adding the honey). It actually does turn very, very dark, though black is not exactly the shade (it was darker than dark fudge however) I got. I think you have to let the end product cool in a wax paper lined pan to successfully cut it up and put it in a box. I put most of mine in jars as I did not achieve the full consistancy of old linoleum that the recipe tends to expect. More experienced candymakers will probably have better results than I did. The taste however, was excellent. C. Anne Wilson goes further in this recipe: "another manner of making and is better than the first: for to put in 2 parts honey and 3 parts of sugar and shall this be better than the other, and in all things do as thou did before, for thou mayest well enough seeth thy quinces in water, and it is good enough though thou put no wort thereto, and if thou wilt, thou make it without wardens, but it is the better with wardens." Been there, done that... with quinces alone. I agree with Ms Wilsons last part of this recipe: "The third manner of making is this, and this is the best of all, and that is for to take sugar and quinces alike much by weight, and no honey nor pears and in all other things do as thou didst before, and this shall be whiter than the other, inasmuch as the sugar is white (so) shall the chardequyence be" (from A LEECHBOOK, Royal Medical Society MS 136, ed W.R. Dawson (1934), 62-4 , Nos. 156-8.) Well, white is not exactly what you get with this method, but sugar then was not white as we get it now either, The colour is about the shade of Malt-o-meal cooked cereal. By far, this has the taste most acceptable to modern palates, though I personally perfer the stronger flavours of the first method. But I also eat snails, love Roman liquamen and picked eggs too. The all quince version tastes very good to us because, I think, that the novelty of the quince flavour, being new and different, adds greatly to its appeal. As I mentioned, I put up most of what I made in ball jars and the lidded ceramic cheese pots with the rubber gasket and the wire closure on top. As my batch was about 2 gallons each, I have been giving away a lot of it. It seems that it will keep indefinitely and if the open jars are refrigerated, they last forever. I still have a good bit in the pantry, so if anyone is in the close neighborhood of Glaedenfeld Centre, come by and we will make some fresh hot french bread and try out these proto-marmalades. My real favorite of Ms. Wilson's recipes is the French, wine based Condoignac c.1394: "Take the quinces and peel them. Then divide into quarters, and discard the eye and the pips. Then cook them in a good red wine and then they are to be straine through a sieve. then take honey, and boil it for a long time and remove the scum, and afterwards put your quinces (wine/quince mash) into it and stir very well, and lrt it boil until the honey is reduced to at least to half. Then throw in hippocras powder (powdered cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) and stir until it is quite cold. Then cut into pieces and store them. (LE MENAGIER DE PARIS, ed. G. E. Brereton & J, M, Ferrier, Oxford, 1981, p.269.) Remember that a good red wine of this period is nothing like modern bordeux or burgundy because they were not aged in the bottle as today. I have assumed that wine with more grape musts and sugar of a period "good red" was more fruity tasting, so I used 10 liters of Franzia "Chillable Red" for cost and flavour reasons both. It also helped make the interminable stirring more tolerable sipping the excess wine. Again to save time and prevent burning, I pulped the reduced wine and quinces in a blender and reduced this further till it thickened. Then I added the honey to it. Don't do it the other way around as the very hot clarified honey will explosively boil over the instant the first dollup of paste hits its surface. Do you know how hard it is to get burnt honey out from under your burner pans? You DO NOT want to know! In this recipe, the quantity of spicing is not given, so I did it to taste but probably heavier than modern tastes as the period foods all seem more heavily spiced to us. I also used the c.1444 as a guide somewhat to the corrrect spicing per quart of honey (about 1/4 ounce of each spice) and quince paste volume. I reduced it down to a very dark paste with the consistancy of soft taffy. Again candymakers probably will have more slicable results. The flavour imo is quite good and I prefer it to the other recipes, though my opinion on this is not shared by others. I hope this information will be of interest and use to many of you. By all means possible, get your hands on a copy of this book; it is a prize! Akim Yaroslavich Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 01:25:36 +0100From: Thomas Gloning Subject: SC - marmalade & research libraryLet me mention two additional titles, that might be pertinent to the(pre-)history of marmalade. They show, that these preparations could beboth medical and culinary:- -- Liliane Plouvier: Le letuaire, une confiture du Bas Moyen Age. In:Lambert, C. (éd): Du manuscrit à la table. Montréal/ Paris 1992,243-256.- -- Walther Ryff (Gualtherus Ryffius): Confect Buechlin/ vnd HaußApoteck. (...) Frankfurt a.M. 1544. Reprint Leipzig/ München 1983. (onquinces see fol. 22b_ss.; fol. 72a_ss.; fol. 104b_ss.).Some of the German "Latwergen" described by Ryff might also belong tothe _antecedents_ of marmelade. Ryff has several recipes with vinegar,honey and spices (fol. 22b-26a). According to Ryff, he is relying onancient recipes ("... haben die alten genommen ..."). Thus, we must beprepared to find (versions of) ancient recipes in early modern recipecollections.Akim Yaroslavich wrote:<<< Indeed they descended from the 'cidonitum' of Palladius circa 4th c.>>>Do you mean the two recipes for "cydonites" in Palladius lib. 11.20 (ed.Rodgers p. 213), or is there yet another passage pertinent to thehistory of marmalade?Regarding Palladius 11.20, I wonder what the honey, Palladius mentions,was like: "dehinc in melle decoques, donec ad mensuram mediamreuertatur"? Does that mean- -- (a) that one has to boil the pieces of quinces until they are half oftheir original size or- -- (b) does that mean that the whole fluid must boil down to half of itsoriginal measure?Columella, in a recipe for the preservation of quinces, says that oneshould fill the vessel with the quinces "optimo et liquidissimo melle"'with the best and the most liquid honey'.<<< Of course, by then, sugar had largely replaced honey as thesweetener of choice. >>>The main function of the honey seems to be preservative. Columella saysin the passage about the preserving of quinces: "nam ea mellis estnatura, ut coerceat vitia nec serpere ea patiatur. qua ex causa etiamexanimum corpus hominis per annos plurimos innoxium conservat" (Col.XII, 47.4). Roughly: 'It is the nature of the honey to stop defects andnot to allow that the defects develop any further. This is the reasonwhy honey conserves even a dead human body for several years withoutdefect'. Thomas Date: Sun, 28 Nov 1999 02:23:21 -0600 From: "RANDALL DIAMOND" Subject: SC - Replies to Centre, marmalde and russian recipe queries Thomas asked on 28 Nov 1999 01:25: >> >Do you mean the two recipes for "cydonites" in Palladius lib. 11.20 (ed. >Rodgers p. 213), or is there yet another passage pertinent to the history of >marmalade? Yes, the two from Opus Agriculturae, II.20. >Palladius mentions, was like: "dehinc in melle >decoques, donec ad mensuram >mediam reuertatur"? Does that mean >- -- (a) that one has to boil the pieces of quinces until they are half of their >original size or >- -- (b) does that mean that the whole fluid must boil down to half of its original measure? I say (b) since my experience with boiling the fruit has shown me it does not shrink noticably no matter how long you boil the pieces. >Roughly:'It is the nature of the honey to stop defects and not to allow that >the defects develop any further. This is the reason why honey conserves even a >dead human body for several years without defect'. A lovely image there Thomas, even though likely true. Akim Yaroslavich Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 18:11:55 -0400 (EDT) From: alysk at ix.netcom.com Subject: SC - Orange Marmelade Period? Greetings. The best (and most definitive?) book on the topic of marmelades is by C. Anne Wilson, _The Book of Marmalade_, Prospect Books, 1999, ISBN 1 903018 03 X. (It should be on Prospect Book's website.) Chapter III deals with orange marmelade, and the short of it is (if I read correctly) that what we know as orange marmalade was developed around the reign of Charles II, out of period. Her first sentence reads, "Quince marmalade was the basic form of the conserve, the one that the Tudor and Stuart preserving books simply designated as 'marmalade', often without further qualification. However, _The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont_ (1562 into English) has a quince recipe which concludes, "In the like manner may you dress and trim peaches, pears, and other kinds of fruits." These marmalades, however, were fairly stiff and were stored in boxes, not glass jars. On page 49 Ms. Wilson says, "The idea of cutting orange-peel into the shreds or chips which were later to characterise British can be traced back to this period, and in particular to the pippin jellies and marmalades invented by the members of the circle of the Court of King Charles II." La Varenne (definitely OOP) had a recipe for a soft jelly which could be/was stored in pots or glasses, and was (if I read correctly) called a marmelade. "A true orange marmelade had now emerged, made from Seville oranges set by their pectin without any assistance from pippins, and this too was potted, not boxed...one very early maker of true marmelade was the mother of Rebecca Price...(who)...copied the instructions for 'marmelett of oringes: my mother's receipt' into her own recipe book in 1681." So, no. Orange marmelade can't really be considered period unless one makes a thick, solid marmelade that contains apples to help it set, and has no real shreds of peel in it. Wilson's book has recipes in it, arranged in chronological order. The first is from the 1st century AD and is made from quinces and honey. Also included are selected recipes for meat cookery which incorporate marmelade, as well as sauces, puddings and desserts, cakes, and sandwiches. These do not appear to be "historical" since no dates are attached, or if they are, they are from recent times. I'm hungry... Alys Katharine From: "Elise Fleming" To: Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 17:33:13 -0500 Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Online Glossary Cindy queried about Quodiniack. It's the same as quiddony, condiniak, and other spelling permutations. It's a quince paste. Alys Katharine Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 17:54:02 -0400 From: johnna holloway To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jams & Preserves (Redaction) Lady Johnnae llyn Lewis sends greetings. If you want to do work with marmalades, you should probably spring for a copy of C. Anne Wilson's The Book of Marmalade. It's now in a revised second edition published in paperback by the the University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN: 0-8122-1727-6. http://www.acanthus-books.com has it for 17.00 dollars. It's still one of the best single food reference volumes ever written. History, traditions, and recipes both historical and modern with reminders as to how to proceed when converting older recipes for today. Wilson mentions one thing that people swear by is to use cane sugar and not beet sugar. It contains 13 pre-1700 historic recipes, so that would give you a range of choices and allow for more experimentation. To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: lavender sugar From: "Christina L Biles" Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 08:27:03 -0600 I said: > If you accidentally forget to add pectin, it makes a great syrup for > waffles. ;> Stefan said: >>>I assume from this, that this little tidbit was learned from practical experience. Is there some reason you can't heat this syrup back up and then mix the pectin in at that point?<<< If you try to add pectin after the sugar, you get a really strange texture and it doesn't jell well, if at all. The end result still tastes good, and can be incorporated into banana bread and muffins or other baked goods, but isn't something I'd want to spread on toast. -Magdalena d.C. From: "Barbara Benson" To: Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Honey Butter? No! No! Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 21:28:14 -0500 > And are you going to share the recipe with us? Pretty please? > - Beathog Not a problem. Unfortunately I have misplaced my copy of Banqueting Stuff so I cannot provide the original recepit. Maybe some other kind gentle could provide the original. The red marmalade was made by adding red food coloring to the marmalade. I did this because I served the marmalade cut into triangles and then arranged into diamonds. I decided the diamonds would look nice particolored, so I added red food coloring (it was also 2 am and was really sick of looking at orange marmalade). Serena da Riva Orange Marmalade From Banquetting Stuff, taken from Hugh Platt's Delights for Ladies 5 Oranges (we used Temple, you should make sure not to get Naval) 5 Apples (we used Gala, but need to find one with more pectin) 150 ml water A large amount of sugar Wash the Oranges very well in hot water. Commercial orange growers wax their oranges for protection and to make them look shiny & lovely, if you leave the wax on the oranges it will ruin your marmalade. Peel, core and seed apples, then place in large stainless pot. Place a large strainer over the pot and quarter the oranges over the strainer. Remove the seeds and then squeeze into pot. Place all of the orange, except the seeds, in with the apples. Add 150 ml of water to the pot and then bring it all to a gentle simmer. Cover and simmer for 1 hour (or until the apples are squishy and the orange peel is very soft), stirring to prevent sticking. Pick out the orange peels and remove the pulp from the peel. Pick out the apples and leave the juice in the pot. Place the apple and orange pulp into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour blended mixture through a strainer into a bowl, then pour juice out of pot into bowl, stir well. Weigh the pulp mixture and return it to the cooking pot. Add an equal weight of sugar and stir over low heat. Stir until all of the sugar has been dissolved (if you run your spoon along the bottom or sides of the pot and feel graininess - keep stirring). Theoretically the marmalade will set up into a very stiff paste that can be turned out onto a surface and then formed into a block. Our apples did not have enough pectin to set up, so we added Sure-Jell=AE. We used =BD a packet of Sure-Jell=AE per batch, stir it in until dissolved and then bring the marmalade to a vigorous boil. Boil for exactly one minute and then take off of heat. Pour marmalade into greased pans to create freestanding blocks. For good, non-period, storage this can also be poured into canning jars. From: "Olwen the Odd" To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Subject: RE: [SCA-cooks] Fruit Paste Question Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 18:51:01 +0000 Bring it to room temperature and from there slowly heat it back up. If you shock it it will burn the sugar. It should finish nicely from there. I used to make fruit leather and it can be finicky but if you don't rush it you end up with a quite nice result. I trust you are using a heavy pan, preferrably an enamaled one or corningware/visionware. Olwen > I have a technical question for the food scientists here: > > This past Sunday I was messing around with one of the fruit paste recipes > from Granado. This one calls for five pounds of pears, one and a half > pounds of quince, and five pounds of sugar. The fruit gets cooked and > mashed through a strainer, then the sugar gets added and the whole business > gets cooked down until a spoon leaves a clear path across the bottom of the > pan. I cooked the stuff for several hours, but I had to leave the house > before it was to the recommended point. I put the stuff in the fridge to > cool down. It's a lovely deep rose-red from the quince, and has the > consistency of jam, but it's not as stiff as I'd like. I was thinking it > would be more along the lines of a cotignac. > > Anyway, can I keep cooking it down after cooling it, or should I just put it > in jars and eat it on toast? > > It's actually quite yummy... > > Vicente Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 08:58:40 -0500 From: "Elaine Koogler" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Citron? To: "Cooks within the SCA" I didn't order seville oranges per se. I ordered Mamade orange marmalade preparation, which was the oranges all cut up and ready for making into marmalade. I got cans of the stuff from Penny HaPenny (www.pennyhapenny.com). Kiri Date: 16 Feb 2004 17:38:4 -0800 From: Colleen L McDonald Subject: [Sca-cooks] Codigniato recipe? To: Cooks within the SCA I've come acrss a reference in C. Anne Wilson's _The Book of Marmelade_ to a 15th century Venetian recipe for codigniato, which is supposed to be similar to the condoignac recipe in _Le Menager_. The source that is cited is: E. Faccioli, Arte della Cuisine (Milan, 166) also labelled as _Liber per cuoco_. Has anyone seen this book/manuscript/recipe? Is there a copy anywhere on line? Cainder Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 09:58:24 -0800 (PST) From: Louise Smthson Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: codogniato To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Actually the Italian and my rough translation of this are available on the web. The Italian transcription of Libro di cucina/ Libro per cuoco is available here http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/%7Egloning/frati.htm Courtesy of Thomas Gloning. And a rough translation was available here: http://www.geocities.com/hlewyse/libro.html However, I have polished it and the recipe now looks something like this: CXXXIII. A ffare codogniato bono vantagiato. Toy le codogne e mondale e lessale in aqua tanto chote che se desfazeno; piglia uno bacino forado o la gratachasa, e ratali tanto fina che tu tragi tuto el buono, e guarda ch' el non ge vada le granelle dentro el gratato. Salva per 3 iorni al aiere questo gratato inanzi che tu li meti in lo mele, poi per ogni libra de codogni gratati vol essere libre 3 de mele. Fa bolir tanto inseme quanto ch' el mele sia cocto e spezie fine e se tu la vole per li amaladi, metili a bolire un pocho de zucharo, per libre 3 de chodognato vol essere onze vj de zucharo in cambio de specie. Quando sia choto distendilo suso una tavola bagnata hon l' aqua frescha, e fala a modo de foie de pasta grosi mancho de mezo dido, e fane a modo de schachi e mitili in uno albarello con spezie e con aloro: zoè quella che non è per i malati vole bolire duo hore presso fino ch' è cocto sempre menando. Questochodogniato vole coxendolo senpre esser ben menato con uno baston spachato, etc. Expliciunt. CXXXIII To make a good and fantastic marmalade of quinces. Take the quinces, peel them and then boil them in water, enough so that they soften. Take colander or rater and grate the quinces very finely all the good (flesh). Watch that you don't get seeds into the grated (mixture). Keep the grated quinces in the air for three days before you put them into the honey (dry them). Then for every pound of grated quinces one wants three pounds of honey. Put these two things to boil together until the honey is cooked, add fine spices (to the mixture) if you want and put to boil a little bit of sugar. For 3 pounds of quince marmalade you will have 6 ounces of sugar instead of the spices. When it is cooked spread it over a table, which has been bathed with cold water. And make in the way that one makes a sheet of pasta, as thick as a little less than half a finger. And make them in the way of rolled wafers (form tube I am assuming) and put them in a ceramic pot (albarello) with spices and laurel leaves. To prevent spoilage you should always boil for two hours before it finishes cooking, mixing constantly. This quince marmalade should always be cooked while mixing wlll with a flat wooden stirrer. It is finished. Date: 16 May 2004 08:03:24 -0000 From: "Volker Bach" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jams and Jellies in period To: Cooks within the SCA On Sat, 15 May 2004 21:53:34 EDT, Varju at aol.com wrote : > A question came up on a message board I'm on about if there was anything > similar to modern jam or jelly in the Middle Ages. I wasn't able to find any > in the small group of cookbooks I have, so I was wondering if you fine people > could give me a more definitive answer than that. In German cookbooks, there are 'Mus' recipes that come somewhat close - basically boiled or baked and mashed fruit that are sweetened and thickened for storage. There is also one recipe that calls for boiling fruit juice with sugar until it thickens and sets. The result can be used in 'pieces the size of a walnut', so I assume something like an old-style jelly. It's in an untranslated source, though. Renaissance 'Confect' are also somewhat like that - fruit or juices boiled with sugar, then poured into boxes to cool and set. Sometimes the jam/jelly is poured over whole fruit. Rumpoldt and de Rontzier both have those, but I recall similar things from British and French cookbooks, too. They are pretty international. A still life by Georg Flegel (1566-1638, probably dates to almost exactly End-of-Period) shows what they looked like. It really looks like someone poured jam into a box. Unfortunately I have no electronic medium of this. It is titled 'Grosses Schauessen' (Great Show Banquet) and may be found at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. Giano Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 02:41:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jams and Jellies in period To: Cooks within the SCA --- Varju at aol.com wrote: > A question came up on a message board I'm on > about if there was anything > similar to modern jam or jelly in the Middle > Ages. I wasn't able to find any in > the small group of cookbooks I have, so I was > wondering if you fine people > could give me a more definitive answer than that. > > Noemi This is the book you need: Wilson, C. Anne. The book of marmalade : its antecedents, its history, and its role in the world today, together with a collection of recipes for marmalades and marmalade cookery / C. Anne Wilson. Rev. ed. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. 184 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. 0812217276 (alk. paper) Here is a website that has the Queen's Delight, Or the Art of Preserving, Conserving and Candying. http://www.bib.ub.es/grewe/showbook.pl?gw020 > From "A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye" [circa 1557-1558]: ¶. For to make wardens in Conserue. Fyrste make the syrope in this wyse, take a quarte of good romney and putte a pynte of claryfyed honey, and a pounde or a halfe of suger, and myngle all those together over the fyre, till tyme they seeth, and then set it to cole. And thys is a good sirope for manye thinges, and wyll be kepte a yere or two. Then take thy warden and scrape cleane awaye the barke, but pare them not, and seeth them in good redde wyne so that they be wel soked and tender, that the wyne be nere hande soked into them, then take and strayne them throughe a cloth or through a strayner into a vessell, then put to them of this syrope aforesayde tyll it be almost fylled, and then caste in the pouders, as fyne canel, synamon, pouder of gynger and such other, and put it in a boxes and kepe it yf thou wylt and make thy syrope as thou wylt worke in quantyte, as if thou wylt worke twenty wardens or more or lesse as by experience. The Good Huswifes Jewell [1596] To make Marmelat of Quinces You must take a pottle of Water, and foure pound of Suger, and so let them boyle together, and when they boyle, you must skumme them as cleane as you can, and you must take the whites of two or three Egges, and beat them to froth, and put the froth into hte pan for to make the skum to rise, then skimme it as cleane as you can, and then take off the Kettle and put in the Quinces, and let them boyle a good while, and when they boyle, you must stirre them stil, and when they be boyled you must bore them up. Huette Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 10:01:12 -0400 From: "Daniel Phelps" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jams and Jellies in period To: "Cooks within the SCA" Was written: >> From "A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye" [circa 1557-1558]: I've translated this line by line as follows: > ¶. For to make wardens in Conserue. For to make pears in a conserve > Fyrste make the syrope in this wyse, First make a syrup in this wise > take a quarte of good romney and putte a take a quart of good romney and put a > pynte of claryfyed honey, and a pounde or a a pint of clarified honey and a pound or a > halfe of suger, and myngle all those half pound of sugar, and mingle all those > together over the fyre, till tyme they togeather over the fire, until they > seeth, and then set it to cole. And thys Seeth (boil?) and then set to cool. And this > is a good sirope for manye thinges, and is a good syrup for many things, and > wyll be kepte a yere or two. Then take will keep a year or two. Then take > thy warden and scrape cleane awaye the the pears and scrape away their > barke, but pare them not, and seeth peel, but leave them whole and seeth (boil?) > them in good redde wyne so that they them in good red wine so that they > be wel soked and tender, that the wyne be are well permeated and tender, the wine is > nere hande soked into them, then take and permeated in to the pears, then take and > strayne them throughe a cloth or through strain the pears through a cloth or through > a strayner into a vessell, then put to them a strainer into a vessel, then put over them > of this syrope aforesayde tyll it be almost the syrup previously mentioned until the almost > fylled, and then caste in the pouders, as full and then put in as powders > fyne canel, synamon, pouder of gynger fine canel, cinnamon, powder of ginger > and such other, and put it in a boxes and and such other, and put it in boxes and > kepe it yf thou wylt and make thy keep it if as you will and make the > syrope as thou wylt worke in syrup as you would to work in > quantyte, as if thou wylt in quantity so that if you would > worke twenty wardens work 20 pears > or more or lesse as or more or less > by experience. by experience I've a few questions: It does not seem as if the syrup is reduced very much but just brought to a boil? "good romney" I think that this is a wine but is it red or white, sweet or dry? What would be a good modern reasonable substitution? "fyne canel, synamon, pouder of gynger and such other" I thought that canel and cinamon were essentially the same spice? What other spices might be added? I can think of clove, nutmeg and/or mace and cardamon but I'm not sure if cardamon is period. Daniel Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 10:48:39 -0400 From: "franiccolo" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jams and Jellies in period To: "Cooks within the SCA" It is fairly widely held among these parts that canel is basically 'cassia' (Cassia cinnamomum) of modern spice. Americans use it as their powdered 'Cinnamon' in grocery stores around the country. (It's all about English/Dutch trade around the time of the Revolution). Synamon would probably been closer to Zeylanicum cinnamomum, or Ceylon Cinnamon. It is almost papery, sweeter, a little spicier in its qualities. English recipes often use Cassia and cinnamon together in the 13th to 15th centuries from what I have cooked from sources. I do the same thing myself since I have learned the differences some years back. Cinnamon rolls aren't the same anymore :o) maestro niccolo difrancesco Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 17:57:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette on Ahrens Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jams and Jellies in period To: Cooks within the SCA --- Danel Phelps wrote: > I've a few questions: > > It does not seem as if the syrup is reduced > very much but just brought to a boil? True. But the honey is already thick. I think the boiling is just to break down the sugar so it would ot be so grainy. It really doesn't need more thickening, IMHO. > "good romney" > I think that this is a wine but is it red or > white, sweet or dry? What would be a good > modern reasonable substitution? According to Cindy Renfrows glossary: Rompney, Romenay, Rumney, Romney, etc. = a sweet wine In another glossary they equate Romney wine with Rhenish wine or Rhine wine. Since the Rhine wines I know of are white and sweet or semi-sweet I would say that a reasonably modern substitute would be a GermanAuslese or another sweet white wine. > "fyne canel, synamon, pouder of gynger and such other" > I thought that canel and cinamon were > essentially the same spice? What other spices > might be added? I can think of clove, nutmeg > and/or mace and crdamon but I'm not sure if > cardamon is period. Cardamom is period. Its origins are from Sri Lanka and India. It is allspice that is New World. Huette Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 21:38:53 -0400 From: Elaine Koogler Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Kiri's feast To: Cooks within the SCA > Wow Kiri, > Your menu sounds totally delicious!! Can ou please share the recipe > for the Alaju, in particular.... it sounds just wonderful!!! > > Phillipa Thanks for your kind words. Here is the recipe for the Alaju: Manual de mugeres translated by Meistrine Karen Larsdatter (a 16th C. Spanish manuscript) Recipe for making a conserve of alajú (a delicacy of Arabic origin, basically a paste made of almonds, walnuts, or pine nuts, toasted breadcrumbs, spices, and honey). Knead together well-sifted flour with oil and water. And leave the dough somewhat hard and knead it well. And make thin cakes and cook them well, so they can be ground; and grind them and sift them. And then take a celemín of ground cleaned walnuts, and two pounds of ground toasted almonds. And while you crush the walnuts and almonds, mix them. Put a well-measured azumbre of honey to the fire, and the best that you can find, skim it and return it to the fire. And when the honey rises, add the walnuts and almonds in it. And cook it until he honey is cooked. And when it is, remove it from the fire and put with it a half a celemín of the grated flour cakes, and mix it well. And then add a half-ounce of cloves and another half (ounce) of cinnamon, and two nutmegs, all ground-up. And then repeat the stirring a lot. And then make it into cakes or put it in boxes, whichever you desire more. My redaction (with the assistance of Mistress Rose of Black Diamond): 1 cup breadcrumbs 1 cup Walnuts, ground 1 cup almonds, toasted and ground 1cup honey /8 tsp. cloves, ground 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, ground 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg Toast almonds. Grind almonds and walnuts together. Heat honey until it boils up. Add the almond/walnut mixture and continue cooking until 250º on a candy thermometer. Add the breadcrumbs, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together well. Press into molds or a pan, and turn out to finish drying. Made 3 doz. Small heart cakes. Hope you enjoy it! Kiri Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 14:09:52 -0700 From: Ruth Frey Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Mustard, wine issues, fruit sweets. To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Finally, as for fruit sweets, I had very good luck once with an apple jelly candy recipe from _The Medieval Kitchen_ (don't remember which original source it was in, though) made from equal weights pureed fresh apples and honey, with spices added. It took *forever* to cook down to the point where it would "gel" when it cooled (the mix has to be really coming away from the sides and bottom of the pan, and it has to be on high-medium heat and stirred constantly to keep it from burning, for, oh, a couple hours), but it was very, very good. I bet one could do the same thing with pears. (Not necessarily in the same line as the other pear sweets being discussed, but the comment jogged my memory about the apple jellies, so I thought I'd share . . .). :) -- Ruth Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:56:32 -0500 From: "Elise Fleming" Subject: [Sca-cooks] Quinces and Marmalade To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" Etain wrote: > The recipes for quince paste that I have read > (late English sources) refer to rolling and "stamping" the > paste...or rolling it on a mold. This sounded more like a candy to me. From what I remember, the original marmalades were like a fruit paste. You can see paintings of some marmalades in Dutch paintings, particularly. They sit in oval or round boxes made from thin wood, very like the Amish-made boxes and boxes available in hobby stores like Michael's. Etain is correct that the paste was more like a candy than what we know today as marmalade. Alys Katharine Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 17:07:57 +0100 From: agora at algonet.se Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Quinces and Marmalade To: Cooks within the SCA In Spain and South America, Mexico included, quince jam is a solid jam. The jam is dark red and can be eaten [like] cheese. [There is] a quince marmalade as well, but is not so common. In Spanish quinces are called "membrillos". In Brasil the same solid jam is made of guava fruits and its called "guayabada". They are sold in boxes or wrapped. They are not liquid at all. An Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 12:25:11 -0800 (PST) From: Chris Stanifer Subject: Re: [Sca-coks] Quinces and Marmalade To: Cooks within the SCA --- Mark Hendershott wrote: > That's the stuf. I made some which is drying right now. Basically make > "quince sauce" in the same way a applesauce then add an equal weight of > sugar and cook a while longer. pour out onto parchment paper lined sheet > pans and let cool. Let it dry, flipping occasionally. I think it will > take a month or so. We tested it with some cheese. This is the stuff I > like so much on a visit to Spain. I poured my quince paste right onto the countertop, spread it with an offset spatula, and let it cool unti it was cool enough to handle. I then slipped it into my mold, stamped it, and unmolded it immediately. Left on a cookie sheet, it was dry enough to handle without sticking after only a few hours. Slightly chewy, but very nice. I'm assuming the small molded pieces will dry faster than a large slab of it. William de Grandfort Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 06:24:41 -0400 From: "Elise Fleming" Subject: [Sca-cooks] Condoignac by Any Other Name... To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" Nichola commented: > I must look up what the Condoignac is exactly > but I definitely appreciate the setting the stage > and documenting. It's quince paste and is known and spelled by many names: quiddony, cotignac and a bunch of other variations that sound similar if you read the word aloud. It's very popular in English cookery books in the 1500s and 1600s. Alys Katharine Elise Fleming Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 07:03:02 -0400 From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Condoignac by Any Other Name... To: Cooks within the SCA On May 25, 2005, at 6:24 AM, Elise Fleming wrote: > Nichola commented: >> I must look up what the Condoignac is exactly >> but I definitely appreciate the setting the stage and documenting. > > It's quince paste and is known and spelled by many names: quiddony, > cotignac and a bunch of other variations that sound similar if you read the > word aloud. It's very popular in English cookery books in the 1500s and > 1600s. > > Alys Katharine Yup. A.k.a. marmalade (at least in marmalade's likely original form), and produced and sold commercially in France as coins cotignac, which is considered a specialty of Orleans, bearing the stamped image of an equestrian Jeanne d'Arc. Another product largely unchanged from its medieval form is eaten in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries as queso de membrillo. Adamantius Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 08:28:01 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Condoignac by Any Other Name... To: Cooks within the SCA Pretty pictures of quiddany or cotoniack including a great molded stag at http://www.historicfood.com/Quinces%20Recipe.htm Johnnae Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:09:46 +1300 From: Adele de Maisieres Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cranberry sauce (was Re: Report on Thanksgiving experiments) OOP To: Cooks within the SCA Daniel Myers wrote: > This leads me to a medieval-relevant question: Are there any lists > out there of period fruits with high pectin contents? I know that > quince has quite a lot of pectin, and that gooseberries are also > supposed to be good for jellies. Any others? Commercial pectin is > made from apples, yes? Can apples be cooked to a jelly (and not be > just thick applesauce)? How about plums? Yes, apples can most definitely be cooked to a jelly, as can red or black currants, quinces. More about fruit pectin levels: http://www.pickyourown.org/pectin.htm -- Adele de Maisieres Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:51:01 +0000 From: "Holly Stockley" Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Cranberry sauce and pectin To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org Doc asked: > This leads me to a medieval-relevant question: Are there any lists > out there of period fruits with high pectin contents? I know that > quince has quite a lot of pectin, and that gooseberries are also > supposed to be good for jellies. Any others? Commercial pectin is > made from apples, yes? Can apples be cooked to a jelly (and not be > just thick applesauce)? How about plums? Martha Washington's cookbook gives a recipe for Damsons in quaking jelly that instructs you to cook the fruit in apple water (water in which apples have been cooked). Same principle. I make my own pectin stock from apples instead of using the powder. Basically, I chop up apples, peel, core and all, and cook them in just enought water to cover. Once they're soft through, I dump them in a jelly bag overnight. Take the resulting juice and boil it down by about half, and process in whatever size jars are useful for you. It will be stronger in pectin if you use greener apples. If you've got a local orchard, you might even ask for the small apples when they thin the fruit in the summer. That way, they don't go to waste. ;-) I've never tried with plums. Apples are neutral enough in color and flavor not to interfere with most other fruit preserves. In my experience, apples, pears, strawberries, some varieties of plums, raspberries, and those you mentioned will set up without additional pectin if you cook them to the jellying point. Sour cherries are iffy, black ones very frustrating without pectin. Femke Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:08:54 +0000 From: "Holly Stockley" Subject: [Sca-cooks] Cotignac Was: Late SCA-Period Sweets? To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org >> Speaking of cotignac, is there a trick? When I cook down quinces (or >> Japanese quinces) I get something like applesauce. Is cotignac made from >> the strained juice? The references I've seen don't seem to say that. >> >> Sandra > > Yup...pretty much what I got. So what I did was to cook it longer, then > spread it out in a flat pan...and left it to dry out. Which it seemed > to do after several days. Surely I've missed something? > > Kiri Hmm, I've never tried it without honey or sugar. The recipe from Menagier de Paris uses honey. That takes longer. IF you've added extra sugar (or honey) and IF the quinces aren't too overripe then it's just like making jam but boiled down a little more. Use the full pulp, not just juice. If you cook it until a wooden spoon pulled across the bottom of the pan leaves a track for about 2 seconds, it will usually set up as soon as it's cool. I use a baking sheet with a light coating of cooking spray, sprinkled with sugar. Though I'd love to get a more period mold someday. Femke Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 18:23:46 +0200 From: Volker Bach Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cotignac Was: Late SCA-Period Sweets? To: dailleurs at liripipe.com, Cooks within the SCA Am Montag, 9. Oktober 2006 20:15 schrieb Anne-Marie Rousseau: > do we know of any period recipes for doing this with things other than > quince? de Rontzier (Western Germany, very late 16th century) describes similar confections made with pears, apples, cheeries and apricots. The fruit are to be boiled long, but very carefully, and if possible the whole to remain chunky. Giano Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 18:28:48 +0200 From: Volker Bach Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cotignac To: Cooks within the SCA Am Montag, 9. Oktober 2006 20:18 schrieb Sandra Kisner: >> Hmm, I've never tried it without honey or sugar. The recipe from Menagier >> de Paris uses honey. That takes longer. IF you've added extra sugar (or >> honey) and IF the quinces aren't too overripe then it's just like making >> jam but boiled down a little more. Use the full pulp, not just juice. >> If you cook it until a wooden spoon pulled arcoss the bottom of the pan >> leaves a track for about 2 seconds, it will usually set up as soon as >> it's cool. I use a baking sheet with a light coating of cooking spray, >> sprinkled with sugar. Though I'd love to get a more period mold someday. > > I've tried that, but ended up adding so much sugar I felt like I > was making candy. Basically, you *are* making candy - well, all but. It is supposed to be very sweet. I saw a documentary on that a few years ago, and they still make cotignac in Western France. Modern cotignac is made with the filtered juice of quinces and refined sugar (they claim their antecedents in the Renaissance, which I'll believe, but I haven't found the exact reference). The whole is cooked until it is boiled down to the point of jelling stiff, then poured into wooden boxes and cooled. The liquid reduces by IIRC more than two thirds in the process. Giano Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:02:48 +0000 From: "Holly Stockley" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cotignac To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org > I've tried that, but ended up adding so much sugar I felt like I was making > candy. The paste/sauce even looked quite glossy, but still tasted like it > needed more. If that was because the quinces weren't ripe, how do I know > when they are? They never soften, and they smelled lovely, so I > thought they were ready. > > Sandra For a rule of thumb, I tend to end up with equal weights of pulp and sugar to start with, or nearly so. Ripeness judging in quinces depends on the variety. Those I have access to locally tend to get more golden in color as they ripen, and their aroma gets even stronger. You're right, they don't soften until they've downright gone off. By which point they ripening process has produced enough pectinase enzymes that getting things to set is a little more difficult. It takes quite a while to get them boiled down. Plan on reducing the volume by half or more, depending on local weather conditions. I've made it with quinces, plums, apples, pears, gooseberries and blackberries. Markham's "The English Housewife" has a paste recipe that lists a variety of fruit that can be used. Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book has the recipe for gooseberry paste. The fun thing is that it keeps beatifully in an airtight container. You could make some now with in season fruits for Twelfth Night gift giving. Femke Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:07:24 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cotignac Was: Late SCA-Period Sweets? To: dailleurs at liripipe.com, Cooks within the SCA Ivan Day had us make knots with boiled down apples in April because he was unable to get quinces at that time. See his pretty quince recipes at http://www.historicfood.com/Quinces%20Recipe.htm There are recipes titled for "quyncis or wardouns in paste" in Harl. 279. Pears may be interchanged with quinces in the perys in confyte recipe 86 in An Ordinance of Pottage. Johnnae Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote: > snipped do we know of any period recipes for doing this with things > other than quince? > > --Anne-Marie, who can only eat so many pies... and has three apple > trees and two pear trees, along with the baby quince and three baby fig trees :) Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 17:09:45 EDT From: Devra at aol.com Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] contignac To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org No, there isn't a special trick; you just have to keep cooking it and keep cooking it and keep cooking it. Stirring occasionally. When we made apple paste at Ivan Day's it took forever. He kept saying, 'Just five more minutes' and then'Five more minutes'... When we turned it out, it wasn't done enough, and we had to put it back into the pot again. A crock pot with the lid off for the last hour or so might be a way to do it. Devra Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 17:27:13 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cotignac To: Cooks within the SCA There are a number of quidony and pastes recipes also in A Booke of Sweetmeats from Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery. S198, S199 call for quinces. S200 calls for pippins, S201 calls for apricocks or pear plums, S202 plums, S203 pippins either green or old, S204 gooseberries, S205 English currans, S206 repas [raspberries], S207 raspas and red roses. Then there are all the pastes and jellies. I think there ought to be enough recipes in that manuscript to take care of your fruit harvest, Anne Marie. Johnnae > Anne-Marie, who can only eat so many pies... and has three apple > trees and two pear > trees, along with the baby quince and three baby fig trees > > I've made it with quinces, plums, apples, pears, gooseberries and > blackberries. Markham's "The English Housewife" has a paste recipe that > lists a variety of fruit that can be used. Elinor Fettiplace's > Receipt Book has the recipe for gooseberry paste.snipped > Femke Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 17:00:17 -0600 From: "Sue Clemenger" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] contignac To: "Cooks within the SCA" Crock pots *totally rock* for this sort of thing. I made the "black" part of a black and white quince paste (from Fettiplace) quite successfully, several years ago. Haven't had the chance to repeat it since then, though, because I haven't had another chance at quinces.... --Maire > and we had to put it back into the pot again. A crock pot with the > lid off for the last hour or so might be a way to do it. > Devra Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2006 18:53:29 -0400 From: "Elise Fleming" Subject: [Sca-cooks] Apricot Paste: Was Cotignac To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" Hi, all. Lots of chat about making fruit pastes, so here is a recipe that worked pretty well. I found that substituting one fruit for another wasn't exactly a one-to-one ratio. This recipe worked for apricots but didn't work well for apples. Maybe I should try"raspes next time?? SWEET-MEATS OF MY LADY WINDEBANKS, Sir Kenelm Digby, The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened, 3rd edition, 1677 She maketh a past of Apricocks (which is both very beautiful and clear, and tasteth most quick of the fruit) thus. Take six pound of pared and sliced Apricocks, put them in a high pot, which stop close, and set it in a kettle of boiling water, till you perceive the flesh is all become a uniform pulp; then put it out into your preserving pan or possenet, and boil it gently till it be grown thick, stirring it carefully all the while. Then put two pound of pure Sugar to it, and mingle it well, and let it boil gently, till you see the matter come to such a thickness and solidity, that it will not stick to a plate. Then make it up into what form you will. The like you may do with Raspes or Currants. Modernized recipe from 'Banquetting Stuffe' edited by C. Anne Wilson, chapter 4, Rare Conceits and Strange Delightes by Peter Brears. (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1986, ISBN 0 7486 0103 1) 8 oz (225 g) (when prepared) peeled and stoned apricots 3 oz (75 g) sugar (Alys: 1/2 cup; 1 lb. apricots to 1/3 lb. sugar) Place the apricots in a heatproof jar, seal the top with a piece of cooking foil, and stand in a covered saucepan of boiling water for an hour. Pour the apricots into a small saucepan and gently boil, stirring continuously until the paste is extremely thick; then add the sugar and continue stirring. When it is so thick that it has to be spread across the bottom of the pan with a spoon, it may be turned on to a lightly greased plate, worked into a shallow square block, and allowed to cool. It has a deep orange colour, and is every bit as good today as Sir Kenelm found it three centuries ago. Alys's revision: (1 lb. apricots to 1/3 lb. sugar. Ten apricots (2-2 1/2") are slightly under one pound when peeled and stoned.) Slice the apricots, place in cooking container (Corningware 1 3/4 quart pan holds a little over 2 lbs. of apricots). Seal with foil and rubber band for extra security. Place in large pot, or larger Corningware container. If you put a lid on the outer container you needn't top it off with boiling water as quickly. Add boiling water and set on burner at simmer for a good two hours. The apricots should have fallen into a mush by then. To peel apricots easily, place them in boiling water for about two minutes and then remove them. The skins should peel off easily with a knife or your fingers. If you let them stay in the boiling water too long they begin to cook and get mushy under the skin. You can also just slice the apricots without peeling them. After they have cooked for two or more hours, puree them in a blender. It is best to use a thick pan for cooking the pureed apricots and sugar. If you simmer them on a low heat you need not stir them continuously until the mixture begins to thicken and erupt into "burps." This "cooking down" process can take 4 hours or so depending on the amount of apricots you use and the temperature of the heat. You will need to stir the mixture more and more as it gets thicker. The apricots are done when you can drag your spoon through the mixture and it leaves a trail. It should also be pulling away from the sides of the pan at this time. While this recipe doesn't call for a sugar syrup, you can make one by taking an amount of sugar, wetting it enough to dissolve the sugar, and heating it to hard crack stage. Add it to the apricots, stirring as you add it. Then cook the mixture down over low heat until you can make a trail with your spoon. Pour into shallow, buttered pans and allow to cool. You can cut them into squares or into shapes using small cookie or canapé cutters. Store between waxed paper or parchment paper. With proper storage they will keep for a year or so. Alys Katharine, apricot lover Elise Fleming alysk at ix.netcom.com http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:08:34 -0700 From: Susan Fox Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Apricot Paste: Was Cotignac To: Cooks within the SCA Cat Dancer wrote: > Something to do with all those currants I've been collecting!! > > I have lots of red currants that I've been picking then stashing in > the freezer every year until I have "enough to do something with". > They tend to be fairly small--the big ones are about 1/4" across, and > they're very seedy. Could I just start cooking them down in a little > bit of water and then force them through a sieve to take the seeds out? > > Margaret Yes, I would do that with any seedy fruit, currants, raspberries, even rose hips. I don't much like getting that crunch in my fruit paste, others may like it? A chaq'un son gout. Selene Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 17:51:50 -0600 From: "Sue Clemenger" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] contignac To: "Cooks within the SCA" I think I did the *initial* cooking (prepared fruit, some water, the sugar) on the stove top. When the fruit had gotten soft enough, I put it through a food mill (I have a china cap one), and put the (sweetened) puree into the crockpot, and turned it on low. No lid, 'cuz I was trying to get it to thicken quite a bit. Stirred it once an hour or so. IIRC, I did it over the course of a weekend (I get the willies thinking of leaving something like that plugged in when I'm not around.) I think I started it so that it first went into the crockpot in the evening, but I'm not positive, sorry. It's been a while. It started out looking like a sort-of pink-tinged apple sauce, thickened to an apple butter, and continued to thicken. The longer it cooked, the darker red/purple it got, until the final product (which was pretty stiff) was such a dark purple it was almost black. The "light/white" half of the paste is cooked much more quickly, to minimize the exposure of the fruit to the heat (to minimize the color change, I assume). When finished, it had a completely different texture-- almost like dried, sweetened papaya spears, rather than a flexible, but dry fruit paste. I'm not sure (since I didn't have a chance to repeat it) if that was an error on my part with the sugar, or just the nature of the two different cooking methods. Lots of fun to play with, though. ;o) --Maire Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 08:59:28 -0400 From: "Elise Fleming" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period fruit pastes (long and whiny and with To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" Urtatim wrote: > Of course there's the beet sugar vs. cane sugar issue. I've got a > huge sack of pure cane sugar in my kitchen, but i suspect that most > commercial preserves are made with the cheapest sugar they can get. > Anybody have any idea if the sugar source will matter for fruit paste? I wouldn't personally use any with beet sugar. I had purchased 5 pounds of sugar which, I believe, was mixed cane and beet. It didn't perform the way the pure cane sugar did. Perhaps someone else might have had different results and this _was_ quite a while ago when I was still working with fruit pastes. Didn't like the results _at all_! Alys Katharine Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:10:17 +0000 From: "Holly Stockley" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period fruit pastes (long and whiny and with questions) To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org > Additional pectin may not be bad, but i dunno... anyone have any idea > about that? I don't think i've ever made jam before. Or maybe i have, > but if, so it was well over 30 years ago. I remember making Indian > lime pickle and mango chutney in 1967, but i don't recall doing > anything like it again. Not a problem. In fact, the recipe for Damsons in Quaking Jelly in Elinor Fettiplace's receipt book directs the cook to start with "green apple water." Which is being used her for pectin. I tend to make pectin stock from green apples this time of year and can it for jam-making next year. It's just a little insurance, and gives a bit more "snap" than commercial pectin. It won't do anything but maybe help the pastes set up better. > Of course there's the beet sugar vs. cane sugar issue. I've got a > huge sack of pure cane sugar in my kitchen, but i suspect that most > commercial preserves are made with the cheapest sugar they can get. > Anybody have any idea if the sugar source will matter for fruit paste? I've used beet and cane and not had a problem either way. I usually DO use at least ceylon cinnamon, sometimes other spices, and some rosewater or orange blossom water. That might make pastes made from commercial preserves "feel" more period?? Apple paste also goes quite well with cinnamon stick comfits. ;-) Femke Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:15:43 +0000 From: "Holly Stockley" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period fruit pastes (long and whiny and withquestions) To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org > Fettiplace specifies "green apple water" and you mention using green > apples. Do green apples have more pectin in them than red (ripe?) > apples? Hmmm, does green in this case simply refer to a type of > apple, or does it mean an unripe apple? Green as in unripe. Green fruit has more pectin than ripe, whatever the fruit. The ripening process involves increasing levels of pectinase enzyme, softening of the fruit, and a concurrent drop in pectin levels. Local orchards often thin their trees in the heat of the summer. Those apples work great, or just the earliest apples of a given variety that are often on the greenish side. I chop them up, seeds, peel, and all, and put them in a stock pot with enough water to cover. Boil them until they're soft, then drain them overnight in a jellybag. Return the liquid to the stove, and reduce by half, then can like jam or jelly. I end up using about 8 oz of pectin stock per 2-2 1/2 quarts of fruit for jam or jelly. Depends on the fruit - more for cherries, less for raspberries, etc. Proper set requires specific ratios of acid, sugar, and pectin. You develop a feel for it with time. Pastes are a little easier because they're drier, and you're unlikely to run into a batch that won't set. If you do, just leave them out to dry a bit more. > I think of comfits as being candied seeds. This use of cinnamon > sticks to make comfits sounds interesting, although perhaps a bit > more difficult to eat because they will have to be sucked on, or > chewed for awhile. Sounds like an interesting soteltie item. > > Stefan I used ceylon cinnamon, and broke up the sticks somewhat. They're candy. You can just crunch on the little bits. Actually, I used Mistress Hauviette's basic instructions, as filed on your site already. ;-) This time of year, apple paste and a dish of cinnamon comfits tend to go over pretty well. Or I just dress the plate with the paste up with a sprinkling of the cinnamon comfits. Femke Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2006 00:44:23 +0000 From: "Holly Stockley" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fruit Paste... To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org I've done a few different things. 1. Cheap wood boxes, with the interiors rubbed with beeswax. Try to make sure they're food grade. I had mine made by a handy-dandy woodworker who was feeling both experimental and helpful. 2. Stoneware "shortbread" molds. Oil these up VERY well. If they're very detailed, a paste will want to stick. 3. A flat surface like a metal baking sheet or a corian cutting board. If you've cooked them down properly, you don't really need sides, it will stay as a mass about 1/4" thick. I usually just dust the sheet with sugar, then pour the paste, then dust with more sugar. When it hardens, I peel the whole sheet loose and cut into squares. Any of these can then be stored in an airtight container. Line it with aluminum foil or parchment paper if you like. I've had them last at least 9 months with no notable change in flavor or texture. Left out, they'll get hard as rocks in time. > OK, this may sound silly, but i don't know what i should be pouring > my fruit pastes into. I need to keep them about 6 weeks. Most > "period" recipes say to pour them into boxes, but i don't have a > handy supply of 16th C. fruit paste boxes around :-) > > I haven't made any fruit pastes yet because i haven't answered this > question. > > If it should be the consensus that plastic is the thing, i don't have > any, so i'll have to buy some - what's good? AND i'd prefer to keep > the fruit pastes from direct contact with the plastic. What should i > line the plastic with that will peel off the fruit paste (and, > please, not plastic wrap :-) > -- > Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM) > the persona formerly known as Anahita Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 18:38:20 -0700 From: "Sue Clemenger" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fruit Paste... To: "Cooks within the SCA" Sorry, but when I did fruit pastes, I poured the fruit sludge/stuff into plastic-wrap lined cookie sheets that had a good lip on them, almost like a jelly-roll pan. I've long wished I had access to some of the boxes and stamps mentioned in period literature! ;o) --Maire > OK, this may sound silly, but i don't know what i should be pouring > my fruit pastes into. I need to keep them about 6 weeks. Most > "period" recipes say to pour them into boxes, but i don't have a > handy supply of 16th C. fruit paste boxes around :-) > -- > Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM) Edited by Mark S. Harris marmalades-msg Page 43 of 43