pastries-msg - 5/4/08

Medieval pastries. Recipes.

NOTE: See also the files: Period-Pies-art, bread-msg, breadmaking-msg, ovens-msg, cookies-msg, gingerbread-msg, desserts-msg, Rosquillas-msg, cuskynoles-msg, pastry-logs-msg. 

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 17:55:13 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Regional cooking

ND Wederstrandt wrote:
> What's a cuskynole?

A cuskynole is a kind of filled pastry: various fresh and dried fruits
mixed with chopped nuts are wrapped in what might be a pasta dough,
parboiled and then roasted on a gridiron. I suspect they would be
something like a cross between Fig Newtons and Chinese fried dumplings.
Recipe is in one of the 14th-century English prototypes of The Forme of
Cury, called Diversa Servicia. The language is pretty obscure when
compared to the more modern Forme of Cury, so even though there is a
diagram, I'm not sure how the filling is wrapped or sealed. I suspect
they are either done as square ravioli or as triangular turnovers, but
can't be sure. 

Adamantius


From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 00:58:03 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: cuskynoles (was Re: SC - Regional cooking)

>As for me, it's those durned cuskynoles that I'm losing sleep over!
>
>Adamantius

The only recipe in the entire medieval corpus that comes with an
illustration, and he's still not happy with it.

The relevant part of my interpretation (from the Miscellany) is:

Roll out as two 12"x15" sheets. Cut each sheet into 10 6"x3" pieces. Spread
1 T of filling on one piece and put another piece over it, making a
sandwich of dough, filling, dough. Using the back of a thick knife, press
the edges together to seal them, then press along the lines shown in the
figure, giving a 6"x3" "cake" made up of fifteen miniature fruit filled
ravioli, joined at their edges. Boil about 4 minutes, then broil at a
medium distance from the burner about 4 minutes a side, watching to be sure
they do not burn.

That is at least consistent with the picture.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 1997 09:00:04 -0400
Subject: Re: cuskynoles (was Re: SC - Regional cooking)

david friedman wrote:
> >As for me, it's those durned cuskynoles that I'm losing sleep over!
> >
> >Adamantius
> 
> The only recipe in the entire medieval corpus that comes with an
> illustration, and he's still not happy with it.

Yeah, some people are never satisfied ;  ).

> The relevant part of my interpretation (from the Miscellany) is:
> 
> Roll out as two 12"x15" sheets. Cut each sheet into 10 6"x3" pieces. Spread
> 1 T of filling on one piece and put another piece over it, making a
> sandwich of dough, filling, dough. Using the back of a thick knife, press
> the edges together to seal them, then press along the lines shown in the
> figure, giving a 6"x3" "cake" made up of fifteen miniature fruit filled
> ravioli, joined at their edges. Boil about 4 minutes, then broil at a
> medium distance from the burner about 4 minutes a side, watching to be sure
> they do not burn.
> 
> That is at least consistent with the picture.

That is pretty much what I figured on. The only problem is that the
recipe essentially forces you to indulge in a intuitive speculation: I
am quite familiar with how ravioli is made, but the problem is that the
diagram is really the only clue that the process is very similar. For
instance, no mention is made of a second piece of dough, either as a
12"x15" sheet or as a piece the size of your hand, as I believe the
recipe specifies. So, while they could be made like modern ravioli, they
could also be made as square turnovers 3" on a side, especially since
the recipe states , as well as I can recall, that each  cake is a
portion. This could be interpreted as meaning that one piece of dough is
required for each. 

Another possibility is that the instructions are given in the wrong
order (which happens occasionally elsewhere) and that the intent is for
the filling to be portioned out on the sheet of dough, then topped with
a second sheet, sealed around the filling, and then cut into portions
along the seals, if we want to take the ravioli comparison to its
logical conclusion.
 
Also, no mention is made of whether they are turned over in the roasting
process, so they could end up being along the lines of Chinese guo tie,
with one crisp side and one boiled side. I have made them with only one
crisp side and actually prefer them that way, although it's hard to tell
which is intended. 

So no, in spite of the diagram, I'm not satisfied, and although your
interpretation makes sense, I think there are other avenues to explore,
which is what I've been doing, instead of (figuratively speaking)
sleeping.

Now if only we could thresh out the whole mosserouns yflorys issue, I
could die a happy man ;  ).

Thanks very much for the description! 
Adamantius


Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 07:54:28 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - cream puff's

Kerry Romano wrote:
> So, I'm confused.  Are cream puffs or at least the dough, period?
> 
> Linneah

Technically choux paste is what is known as a panada with eggs, which
may have been eaten as some kind of pudding or porridge, since panadas
were originally bread-crumb-based (as the name suggests) porridges. The
idea of using flour instead of bread crumbs is probably at the tail end
of period, which may or may not have much relevance unless you were
thinking of boiling the stuff.

What we are pretty sure of is that baking a flour-based panada with eggs
so that it puffs up dramatically is apparently an eighteenth-century
innovation.

Puff pastry (as in laminated dough-butter amalgam), by the way, appears
to be period. Recipes appear in several English sources from the late
16th century on, and there are some earlier ambiguous recipes and
references to a pastry similar to it in some Andalusian and Spanish
sources, I believe, which seem to keep it pretty distinct from what we
call phyllo dough or barrak.

Summary: Choux paste or cream puff / eclair paste, which is really a
batter, is probably not period for practical purposes. Puff pastry dough
almost certainly is (I just found a reference to it in the Forme of
Cury, under the name Payn Puff).

Everything you never wanted to know about it...;  )

Adamantius 


Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 21:33:54 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - pie beans?

Mark Harris wrote:
> What are *pie beans*? Are these some kind of special synthetic bean-like
> item made for this purpose? Or do you mean just use a pile of uncooked
> beans?

Pie beans are either any dried beans, or small aluminum pellets that are
made specifically for the purpose of putting into an empty pie shell to
help hold its shape, and hold its bottom down flat while it bakes, since
modern shortcrust pastry (which is what most piecrusts are today) has a
tendency to puff up a bit, and sometimes quite a lot, while baking, if
our friend gravity isn't kind to us. You can buy the aluminum ones (at
least I THINK they're aluminum) in the supermarket, a baking supply
store, or a five-and-dime. Regular beans come from the supermarket.
Either type is sometimes used in conjunction with an empty pie plate,
which you put inside your pie shell, and then weight down with the
beans. 
 
> What was the medieval solution since they didn't use pie pans? Or was
> their pie dough different enough that it didn't puff up? Or did they
> not pre-cook the crust as in this redaction?

They did use pie pans, apparently, at least some of the time. The
frequent instruction is to make a coffin (a pie shell) in a trap (a pie
plate of some kind).  

We're not too sure what their pie dough was like, as there are very few
period pastry recipes, especially in English, but based on its apparent
behavior, it was probably a variant on the hot-water-and lard pastry you
find English meat pies are generally made from, but often with the
addition of egg yolks, probably added during the kneading, to avoid
their being cooked by the hot lard and water. This type of pastry puffs
up a bit, but not as much as the types in which the shortening is rolled
or rubbed in, such as short crust or puff pastry, which have built-in
air pockets that are lovely places for steam to puff up the dough. Also
medieval pies were apparently baked longer, at somewhat lower
temperatures, that modern ones, so the effect would be less drastic.

Some recipes do call for the pie crust to be prebaked (they usually call
for the crust to be baked until it is hard), but many more do not. In
any case the recipes don't seem to allow for the pastry puffing up
unintentionally, so either it didn't happen, or the solution was so
obvious to period cooks it bore no mention. I honestly don't know which,
though.

Adamantius


Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 16:07:27 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - pickled fruit

>Bear wrote:
>>>I'll set up a rum pot this weekend in preparation for the holidays.
>This should make my fruit cakes and stollen even better.
>
>Could you share with us your recipe for stollen?  And (just to stay on
>topic<g>) does anyone know the origin and age of same, or a similar period
>item?
>
>Caitlin, who loves stollen

I'll have to find the battered old recipe box, but I'll be happy to post
at least one of my stollen recipes.  I have several, but two which I use
with any frequency.

There is a recipe for Banbury Cakes in Gervase Markham, The English
Hous-wife.  While this is not stollen, it is a rich yeast bread of
similar composition and spicing.  The chief difference is that the
Banbury Cake has the fruit kneaded into the dough and in my favorite
stollen, brown sugar and fruit are rolled in the center of three rolls
of dough and are braided.

If I can find it, I'll post that recipe also.

Bear 


Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 21:32:40 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: SC - Banbury Cakes and Stollen

I haven't made the Banbury Cakes, but they look interesting.  I think
there is a slightly different recipe in Elizabeth David's, English Bread
and Yeast Cookery.  When I get around to experimenting, I'll use David's
redaction to compare to the one listed here.

The Banbury Cakes are closer to a recipe I have for Dresden Stollen,
than they are to this version of Weinachtsstollen.  However, this is one
of the two versions I make with any regularity. 


                              Banbury Cakes

Recipe By     : Gervase Markham, The English Hous-wife

Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
- --------  ------------  --------------------------------
     3/4  cup           light cream
     1/2  cup           butter
     1/4  cup           sugar
   1      teaspoon      salt
   1      package       yeast
     1/4  cup           tepid water
   2                    egg
   1                    egg white
     1/4  teaspoon      nutmeg, freshly grated
     1/4  teaspoon      cinnamon
     1/4  teaspoon      cloves
     1/8  teaspoon      mace
   4 1/2  cups          flour, sifted
     1/3  cup           currants
   3      tablespoons   sugar, confectioner's
   1      tablespoon    milk
   1      dash          anise extract

1.  In a saucepan, scald cream.  Add butter, sugar and salt.  Stir to
dissolve.  Pour mixture into a large bowl and cool to lukewarm.
2.  In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water.
Lightly beat eggs and egg white together.
3.  Add yeast, eggs, and spices to cream mixture.
4.  In a large bowl, combine 4 cups of flour and currants, stirring
until currants are lightly coated.
5.  Add flour and currants to cream mixture.  Knead until dough is
smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary.
6.  Place dough in a greased bowl.  Cover with a clean, moistened towel,
and set bowl in a warm place for dough to rise until doubled in bulk.
This will take about 1 1/2 hours.
7.  Punch down dough; then knead it again for an additional few minutes.
8.  Shape dough into 14-16 2 1/2-inch balls and place them on a greased
cookie sheet.
9.  Cover "cakes" with a towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
10.  Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 degrees about 25 minutes or until
tops are golden.
11.  Remove cakes from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.
Optional:  Mix confectioner's sugar, milk and anise extract
12.  Frost with icing, if you wish.

Redaction by Sass, Lorna K.; To the Queen's Taste, pp. 114-115.

                   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

NOTES : To make a very good Banbury Cake.  Take four pounds of Currants,
and wash and picke them very cleane, and dry them in a cloth:  then take
three egges and put away one yolke and beate them, and straine them with
good barme, putting thereto cloves, mace, cinamon and nutmegges:  then
take a pinte of creame, and as much mornings milke and set it on the
fire until the cold bee taken away:  then take flower and put in good
store of cold butter and suger.  Then put in your egges, barme and meale
and worke them all together an houre or more:  then save a part of the
past, and the rest breake in peeces and worke in your currants:  which
done, mould your cake of what quantity you please:  and then with that
past which hath not any currants cover it very thin both underneath and
aloft.  And so bake it according to the bignesse.

From Gervase Markham, The English Hous-wife, as taken from Sass, Lorna
J., To the Queen's Taste; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976.
                     

                    Weinachtsstollen (Christmas Bread)

Recipe By     : 
 
  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
- --------  ------------  --------------------------------
     1/2  cup           raisins
   1      cup           candied fruit
     1/2  cup           hazelnuts, chopped
   4      cups          flour
     1/2  teaspoon      salt
   1      teaspoon      yeast, dry active
     3/4  cup           sugar
   1      cup           milk
     1/2  cup           butter
   2                    egg
     1/4  cup           butter, melted
     1/4  cup           brown sugar
   2      tablespoons   cinnamon, ground
   1      teaspoon      nutmeg
   1      cup           sugar, confectioner's
   2      tablespoons   water

If desired, soak fruit in rum or brandy for 1 hour.

Mix 1 cup flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
Warm milk and butter in a sauce pan to approximately 120 degrees F.
Beat milk into flour mixture. 
Add eggs to the mixture and beat. While beating, add enough flour to
make a soft dough.
Knead dough for 5 to 10 minutes.
Place dough in a lightly greased bowl.  Let rise until doubled (about 2
hours).

Punch down dough.  Turn out on a lightly floured board.
Split dough into 3 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into a rectangle 5 x
18 inches.  Do not roll too thin.
Brush melted butter onto each rectangle.
Mix cinnamon and nutmeg together.  Sprinkle spice mix lightly onto the
buttered rectangles.
Sprinkle brown sugar onto the buttered rectangles.
Beginning about 1" in from the ends, place the fruit and nuts down the
center of the rectangles.
Fold the sides over the fruit filling, so that they overlap and press
the dough together to seal.
Place the three rolls on a greased baking sheet.
Press one end of the rolls together.  Twist the rolls to form a braid.
Press the free ends together to finish the braid.
Brush the top of the loaf with melted butter.
Cover and let rise until doubled.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake until golden brown, approximately
25 minutes. 

After the loaf is cool, glaze it.
Mix confectioner's sugar and water to make the glaze just before
spreading.


Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 09:48:21 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: SC - Zitronenkuchen der Fugger

While this recipe alleges to be from the Fugger family of medieval
bankers, there was no provenance or original text provided.

I have found that rolling the dough thin and baking it to a hard,
cracker-like shell produces a better end product.  This was an accident
of my oven over heating.  I have not tried to reproduce this accident in
my new oven.

I suspect that the butter in the dough may be a "modernization" of the
original.

Bear

                        Zitronenkuchen der Fugger

Recipe By     : 
Serving Size  : 8    Preparation Time :1:00
Categories    : German                           Medieval 

  Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
- --------  ------------  --------------------------------
   1 1/2  Cups          flour
     1/8  teaspoon      salt
     1/4  Cup           butter
   1                    egg
   1                    egg yolk
   6      ounces        almonds, ground
   2/3    cup           sugar
   1                    lemon rind, grated
   2                    lemons, juice of
   2      ounces        almond slivers
					
   1      Tablespoon    water
   1                    egg white
                        or
   2      ounces        milk

Sift flour and salt in a bowl.
Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add egg and egg yolk.  Mix to form dough.
Refrigerate dough for 15 minutes.

Mix ground almonds, sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice for the filling.

Divide dough.  Roll out half into a thin circle.
Place dough in a 10 inch tart or springform pan.  Form a 3/4 inch rim.
Prick dough with a fork in several places. 
Spread filling evenly in the pastry shell.
Roll out second half of dough into a thin circle.  Place atop filling.
Crimp the edges of the top and bottom pastry shells to seal.  Prick
decorative patterns into the dough with a fork if desired.
Brush cake with milk or with egg wash.
Sprinkle on the slivered almonds and press gently into the dough.
Bake for 40 minutes in preheated oven at 350 degrees F.
Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
                   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

NOTES : Make the dough parchment thin.
Try baking this at 400.


Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 12:12:51 SAST-2
From: "Ian van Tets" <IVANTETS at botzoo.uct.ac.za>
Subject: SC - Puff pastry, sturgeon and mandrake

Antoine - there is a recipe for Payn Puff, which I will try to post 
later, in Furnivall's Early English Meals and Manners.  It's in the 
footnotes somewhere.  Prima facie, it looked just like normal puff 
pastry, but I will try to get it to you.

Cairistiona


Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 23:23:42 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: *puff pastry*  (was Unit alert!  was: SC - Long-Period food, bread, etc.)

Now the easy way ...  .

Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]
Andalusian p. A-60 - A-61

Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough without yeast.
Moisten it little by little and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes and
is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without severing
it. Then put it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When the pan has
heated, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on marble or a
board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter liquified over
water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then
twist it and beat it with your palm until it becomes like a round thin
bread, and if you want, fold it over also. Then roll it out and beat it
with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. Then put it
in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying pan with clarified
butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with butter]
little by little, and turn it around until it binds, and then take it away
and make more until you finish the amount you need. Then pound them between
your palms and toss on butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled, dust
it with ground sugar and serve it.

[end of the original]

2 c semolina flour	1/4 c clarified butter for frying	1/4 c
butter at the end
aprox 5/8 c water	1 T+ sugar	1/4 c honey at the end (or more)
1/4 c = 1/8 lb butter, melted

Stir the water into the flour, knead together, then gradually knead in the
rest of the water. Knead for about 5-10 minutes until you have a smooth,
elastic and slightly sticky dough that stretches instead of breaking when
you pull it a little. Divide in four equal parts. Roll out on a floured
board, or better floured marble, to at least 13"x15". Smear it with about 4
t melted butter. Roll it up. Twist it. Squeeze it together, flatten with
your hands to about a 5-6" diameter circle. If you wish, fold that in
quarters and flatten again to about a 5-6" circle. Melt about 1 T of
clarified butter in a frying pan and fry the dough about 8 minutes, turning
about every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (shorter times towards the end). Repeat with
the other three, adding more clarified butter as needed. Melt 1/4 c butter,
heat 1/4 c honey. Beat the cooked circles between your hands to loosen the
layers, put in a bowl, pour the honey and butter over them, dust with
sugar, and serve.  If you are going to give it time to really soak, you
might use more butter and honey.
- ---
I have done this at both Pennsic and thirty year. Unlike the Frankish
versions described by others, it does not require an oven--not even a dutch
oven. It gives you a puff pastry like effect--i.e. many very thin, crisp
layers, although not identical to puff pastry--as a frying pan pastry.

David Friedman


Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 20:50:55 -0600 (CST)
From: jeffrey s heilveil <heilveil at students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: SC - SC-SHORT BREAD AS PERIOD

Whilst planning this dessert feast, I stumbled across a seemingly period
shortbread.  The deal is that it was called "fine cakes."  The source is
taming of the Shrew (1594)
To make fine cakes  Take a quantity of fine wheate Flower, and put it in
an earthen pot.  Stop it close and set it in an Oven, and bake it as long
as you would a pasty of Venison, and when it baked it will be full of
clods.  Then searce your flower through a fine sercer.  Then take clouted
Creame or sweet butter, but Creame is best: then take sugar, cloves, mace,
saffron and yolks of eggs, so much as wil seeme to season your flower.
Then put these things into the Creame, temper all together.  Then put
thereto your flower.  So make your cakes.  The paste will be very short;
therefore make them very little.  Lay paper under them.  (John Partridge
[The widowes Treasure] in Lorna J. Sass's "To the Queen's Taste)

Her redaction is as follows:
6oz butter (room temp)
.5 cup sugar
1 egg yolk, beaten
1.75 C sifted flour
.5 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp mace
pinch ground saffron
Egg white

1.  In a bowl, cream butter.  Add sugar and beat until fluffy.
2.  Add egg yolk and beat until thoroughly blended.
3.  In another bowl, combine sifted flour and spices, stirring to
distribute evenly.
4.  Sift dry ingredients into bowl containing butter-and-sugar mixture.
Combine by stirring or with hands.
5.  Press mixture into a 9-in square baking pan.
6. Brush top lightly with egg white.
7. Bake at 325 for 45min or until cake feels firm when pressed lightly in
the center.
8. Cut into squares while still hot.
9. cool in pan on wire rack.

I was told this redaction is tasty too.  I don't know if this helps,
but...

Your servant,
Bogdan din Brasov


Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 00:52:51 -0600 (CST)
From: jeffrey s heilveil <heilveil at students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: SC - More on Shortbread

I wish to make a minor addition to the previous note I sent out on the
Shortbread.  Having just been loaned the book tonight I had not tried the
shortbread.  Upon arriving home, I was able to make it in about an hour
and 20 minutes, and with the luck of cold weather, cool it quickly.  The
Shortbread is wonderful, and I highly recommend the recipie.

Your servant,
Bogdan din Brassov


Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 14:33:03 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - SC-SHORT BREAD AS PERIOD

>Whilst planning this dessert feast, I stumbled across a seemingly period
>shortbread.  The deal is that it was called "fine cakes."  The source is
>taming of the Shrew (1594)
>To make fine cakes  Take a quantity of fine wheate Flower, and put it in
<snip>

Sass's adaption may make a perfectly fine short bread, but it really
doesn't match what the recipe says.

First, the flour is baked.  This should coagulate the gluten, so that
when the flour is sifted, it will become granular and remain roughly
granular in any dough into which it is mixed.

Second, the spices are mixed into the sugar combined with egg yolks and
creamed into the butter or clotted cream.  A modern version would
probably use 2 cups of the spiced sugar to 1 cup of butter and a couple
of egg yolks.  I've never worked with clotted cream, but I suspect it is
more liquid than butter and will use more dry ingredients and blend the
flavors better.

Third, the flour is then added to the creamed mixture to form a paste.
For the modern version I postulated, this would be approximately 2 cups,
depending on the quality and dryness of the flour.  The flour is added
primarily to thicken the dough and reduce the surface butter fat.
Personally, I would work in flour enough to make a ball of dough that
doesn't slump and leave it at that.

Fourth, the recipe says nothing about glazing the cakes, but I would
consider that a matter of choice.

Fifth, the recipe says nothing about baking these, but I would.
Probably 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.  I
would expect the result to be a somewhat crumbly spice cookie.

This is a fairly simple recipe, so I think I'll give it a try over the
next few days, time permitting.

Bear


Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 20:52:08 -0500
From: dangilsp at intrepid.net (Dan Gillespie)
Subject: SC - pumpkin pie redaction

To add to all the tantalizing recipes that folks have offered from their
holiday cooking experiments, here's one that I made for an appetizer for
Thanksgiving dinner from the 1607 Arte de Cozina.

On an English empanada of pumpkin

        Take the pumpkin & clean it very well, & cast it to cook, & after it
is well cooked, take & cast it  on a board; & then drain off any water, that
it remains quite dry, & take parsely & mint & onion in large quantity, & fry
it all in fat, & chopped garlic, very well fried, & cast it all in the
pumpkin after you have it well dried, mixing everything, the onion with the
others, parsley & mint & chopped garlic, mixing everything with the pumpkin;
& take verjuice & spices, clove, pepper & saffron, & nutmeg well ground, &
salt, because pumpkin is by its nature insipid, & when you have seasoned it
well with the spices & verjuice; so that it is sweet & sour, take the eggs
that seem right to you, & beat them very well, & cast them to the pumpkin, &
put it in a casserole, & put it on the fire, & put fire below & on top, as
you would cook a sauce (of pounded nuts & spices) & take & make "french
toast" (bread dipped in egg or wine with sugar & fried in oil), & have your
dough kneaded with fat & eggs & white wine & sugar & let the dough be fine,
& then stretch your dough, & put your chunks & strips of bacon, & marrow &
yolks, & cast enough sourness, & make your pastry, & cook it with a small
fire, & give it a crust of eggs & sugar, as with meat pastries.  And it is a
highly regarded dish, if you know how to make it.

Pumpkin Pie Turnovers

Take 1/2 a large butternut squash, & peel, seed & chop it in cubes; about 3
cups cubed squash.   Boil the squash  in a little water for 10 minutes, or
til tender.  Drain it in a colander.  Saute 4 medium onions in 2 Tbsp of
olive oil, til they are browned.  Add 3 cloves of minced garlic & saute with
the onions for a few minutes.  Add 3 Tbsp minced parsley & 1 Tbsp finely
minced fresh mint leaves & saute a minute longer.  Add onion mixture to the
pumpkin.  Stir in 1/4 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp verjuice (or to taste), 1/2 tsp
pepper, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, & 2 tsp honey (to make it sweet &
sour).  Beat 2 eggs & mix this into the pumpkin mixture & stir it all well.
The pumpkin should be mostly mashed.
       I made a plain pie crust recipe to make individual turnovers.  I cut
squares about 4 or 5 inches on a side & filled with 2 or 3 teaspoons of the
filling.  I put a small piece of turkey ham on top of the pumpkin filling;
cooked bacon or ham would also work.  Moisten 2 edges of the square with
water, fold the extra dough over & seal the edges to form a triangle. Bake
at 400 for 10 or 15 minutes.  I made about one dozen turnovers & used the
rest of the filling to make a one crust pie.  Overall, it took about 3 or 4
single batches of pie dough to make all of the pastries.
        I was not quite sure what the pieces french toast were supposed to
do in the recipe, so left that out.  I also skipped the sugar coating on the
pastries, as this was for a mundane dinner.  Similarly, the marrow slices &
egg yolks were omitted.  I am not sure whether the egg yolks are raw or
cooked.  Sliced egg yolk might be decorative & would seem to go along with
the sliced bone marrow.  I did not feel taht it was necessary to prebake the
pumpkin & egg  mixture before inserting it in the pie dough.
        All thoughts on this redaction are most welcome.
                                        Antoine
Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA


Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 14:16:22 -0600 (CST)
From: jeffrey s heilveil <heilveil at students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - A bit bland...

On 12 Dec 1997, Marisa Herzog wrote:

> <snip>
> I have recently whipped up an almond tart, which is remarkably period,
> <snip>
>
> RECIPE?!  please, please!!!
> -brid

Okay, first off, the peach perserves did the trick [as a topping], 
and the thing is
edible, and even tasty.  Thank you to all for your assistance.    For the
recipe I worked mainly from the original, but I will put the redaction
with it.  Once again it is from "To the Queen's Taste", by Lorna Sass.
The recipe itself is out of The good Huswives handmaid, which is 1588.

To make a tart of almonds Blanch almonds and heat them, and strain them
fine with good thicke Creame.  Then put in Sugar and Rosewater, and boyle
it thicke.  Then make your paste with butter, fair water, and the yolks of
two or three Egs, and so soone as ye have driven your paste, cast on a
little sugar, and rosewater, and harden your paste afore in the oven.
Then take it out and fill it, and set it in againe, and let it bake till
it be wel, and so serve it.

"Paste":
1/4 # butter
1 1/2 C flour
egg yolk
Ice water,
Teaspoon confectioners sugar,
teaspoon rosewater

mix, cool for an hour on wax paper, after it is shaped into a ball, then
roll in the paper, and transfer to the pie plate, then removing the paper.

Tart:
1 1/2 C blanched almonds, coarsely ground
1 1/2 C heavy cream
1 tbs + 1tsp sugar
4 tsp Rosewater

Bake paste at 425 for 10 min, then reduce to 350 and bake an additional 5
minutes.  Let cool.
Combine ingredients in a heavy saucepan, boil gently for ten minutes,
stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens to the consistency of a
pudding.
Fill paste.
Bakea t 350 for 30min or until top is golden
Cool on wire rack, refrigerate for at least two hours.


Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 16:20:44 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - A bit bland...

><snip>
>
>Tart:
>1 1/2 C blanched almonds, coarsely ground
>1 1/2 C heavy cream
>1 tbs + 1tsp sugar
>4 tsp Rosewater
>
><snip>
>
>That doesn't seem like very much sugar for that much nuts and cream?  Most of
>the nut pie recipes I have made or seen would hav closer to a qtr or half cup
>of sugar, if not more.  That might help with the blandness a bit, tho the
>addition of jam sounds quite good too.
>thanks for the recipe.
>-brid

I think you are correct about the sugar, but I would start with the
above measures and sweeten it to taste.  Since the filling is cooked to
thicken it before baking, small amounts of sugar can be stirred into the
filling as it cooks.  Taste testing will let Bogdan decide when to stop
adding sugar and determine if more rosewater needs to be added.

Bear


Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 13:16:33 +0000 (GMT)
From: Daniel Serra <lzu97ds at reading.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: SC - pie crusts--??

Piecrust...I seem to remeber a rather easy recipe from "the medieval
cookbook" Maggie black

225 g of flour
65 g butter
40 g lard

mix them together, add water until the right texture is achieved

bake for about 20 min in ~200 Celsius....with dried peas to keep the
bottoom from rising , take out remove peas...another 5 minutes at 160
degrees

(that is if you shall add the filling after the crust is baked)

Daniel Serra (No SCA-member, but interested in cooking of this period)


Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 13:06:40 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - pie crusts--??

>Does anyone have a pie-pastry recipe? If I'm planning to learn how to
>make meatpies, I'd like to have one, especially for the ones that call
>for a pastry on top of the pie. Merci beaucoup!
>
>Isabelle de Foix
>College of Misty Mere
>Kingdom of Meridies

Off the top of my head, basic pie dough is a 3-2-1 dough; three measures
of flour to two measures of fat to one measure of liquid.

So to do this, cut 2 cups of flour into 1 1/3 cups of shortening
(butter, lard, etc.).  I usually use a dinner fork to stir the mix (the
tines cut through the shortening and force the flour into it), but there
are tools specifically designed for this.  The result should look like a
bunch of large crumbs.  Add 2/3 cup of water and work the dough until it
forms a ball.

If the dough won't stick together in ball, add a little more water
(about a tablespoon at a time).  If the dough sticks to the bowl, add a
little more flour (no more than 1/4 cup at a time).

Most pie doughs are variations on this theme; changing the ratios of the
ingredients slightly, adding eggs or spices, using milk for the liquid.

Bear


Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 01:23:29 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - pie crusts--??

At 12:52 AM -0500 12/16/97, MISS PATRICIA M HEFNER wrote:
>Does anyone have a pie-pastry recipe?

Let me answer on a tangent, by asking a different question:

Does anyone have good information on when medieval pie crusts were pastry
(i.e. a dough with significant amounts of shortening) and when they were
basically flour/water (like a pizza crust) or something else? My impression
is that while you may occasionally get instructions for the crust, most of
the recipes simply tell you to make a coffin or whatever. We do most of
ours as pastry, but I have a strong suspicion that many should be
flour/water--perhaps all that do not specify additional ingredients. The
earliest explicit pastry shell recipe that comes to mind is, I believe,
16th century.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 17:38:08 -0600
From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at ptd.net>
Subject: SC - Pie Pastry

>>Does anyone have a pie-pastry recipe?
>
>Let me answer on a tangent, by asking a different question:
>
>Does anyone have good information on when medieval pie crusts were pastry
>(i.e. a dough with significant amounts of shortening) and when they were
>basically flour/water (like a pizza crust) or something else? My impression
>is that while you may occasionally get instructions for the crust, most of
>the recipes simply tell you to make a coffin or whatever. We do most of
>ours as pastry, but I have a strong suspicion that many should be
>flour/water--perhaps all that do not specify additional ingredients. The
>earliest explicit pastry shell recipe that comes to mind is, I believe,
>16th century.
>
>David/Cariadoc

I have found that most of the manuscripts consulted for original recipes
contain recipes for BOTh tarts and Pies. My observations of the pastry
phenomenon in English cooking  manuscripts goes something like this:
In general (and there are plenty of holes in the theory)--
A recipe that calls for raising a coffin or shaping a paste will require a
stiff coffin-type dough that is capable of standing on it's own, even when
filled with the fairly stiff and heavy fillings of that era. In general, the
earlier one  looks, the more frequently one finds recipes encased in free
standing pastry (I believe it is because of the general expensiveness of
using tart tins---it is far cheaper to cok a dish that requires no container
whatsoever. Tins, like any other cooking utensil, do wear out, and in the
case of metal pie pans my observance is that the cutting in the tin serves
to hasten it's demise). In addition, Self-enclosed foods are handy, and keep
for longer periods of time.
These foods are Pies (Pyes, etc..). I use a stiff hot-water based pastry
since I have never found a period recipe for coffin-dough, and I use salted
butter, which hardens nicely, giving the pastry additional strength. The
practice of stiff doughed, free standing pies continues to this day. I have
a copy of an 18th century newspaper account of a "raised" game-pie baked so
large that a platform with wheels was made to ship it to London by train,
where it was unloaded and later served at a dinner gathering, being wheeled
around to the guests, who helped themselves to the parts they wished.

Tarts (tartes, etc...), on the other hand, are mostly made with
short-pastry, and the pastry lines a tin or pan of some sort. Taillevant has
a recipe for Parma Tarts which are raised, however, but do not have a lid.
Most of the tart recipes I have come across in English/French manuscripts do
not contain red meat unless it is left-over or cut-up, pre-cooked, or
hashed. They usually do not have an upper crust.

So we get to the question of timing----we know both types of pies existed
from the High Middle ages onwards. So the question is this: how early does
the first Tart make an appearance? We know that it is fairly common/standard
in 1375 because of Taillevant. Does anyone have much earlier evidence? Do we
know where it originated in the world? Apecius has a recipe for Ham in
pastry, so we know that pastry existed fairly early.  The question remains
whether the pastry was used in pie-shell form early on, and if so, when and
where?

Aoife


Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 22:04:23 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - introduction

At 3:55 PM +0000 2/3/98, Yeldham, Caroline S wrote:

>BTW, my area of interest is England and sometimes France - so
>although I use northern European sources I try to avoid southern Europe and
>points south.  My period is late 15th century and 16th century.

>There appears to be a big change in pastry in the 16th century.  All I can
>find evidence for before is hot water pastry, by the end of the 16th century
>we've even got puff pastry.  Does anyone else see this, does anyone know
>why?  Has anyone got evidence of anything other than hot water pastry before
>the 16th century.

In my experience of the 14th/15th c. English/French, what the pastry is
usually is not specified. Off hand, I cannot think of any that specify hot
water. One 16th c. recipe that uses butter and does not specify hot water
is:

To Make Short Paest for Tarte
 A Proper Newe Book p. 37/C10

Take fyne floure and a curscy of fayre water and a dysche of swete butter
and a lyttel saffron, and the yolkes of two egges and make it thynne and as
tender as ye maye.

One of my interests is Islamic cooking. In the 13th c. sources you get
flour/oil/water pastry (for khushkananaj, for example) and you get
something rather like puff paste (I think; I don't do modern French
cooking) with lots of very thin layers. The recipe is:

Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]
Andalusian p. A-60 - A-61

Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough without yeast.
Moisten it little by little and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes and
is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without severing
it. Then put it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When the pan has
heated, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on marble or a
board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter liquified over
water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then
twist it and beat it with your palm until it becomes like a round thin
bread, and if you want, fold it over also. Then roll it out and beat it
with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. Then put it
in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying pan with clarified
butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with butter]
little by little, and turn it around until it binds, and then take it away
and make more until you finish the amount you need. Then pound them between
your palms and toss on butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled, dust
it with ground sugar and serve it.

David/Cariadoc


Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 00:03:43 EST
From: Swthrt13 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Maid of Honor Tarts

A couple of days ago, someone was discussing a recipe for "maid of honor"
tarts.......Unfortunately, I do not have the person responsible for this
rendition originally.  I purchased a set of 20 recipes at the Kansas City
Renaissance Fair in Sept. 1996.  This card was included in the set.  None of
the recipes had author or redaction information, and I am re-typing it
verbatim from the card.

Maids of Honor Tarts (sometimes called, Queen of Heaven Tarts)
    Introduced into Catherine of Aragon's household by her ladies.  The name
"Maids of Honor" is rumored to have been attributed to the Queens' archrival,
Anne Boleyn, who supposedly baked them to please King Henry VIII.  The King is
thought to have named them after Anne, maid of honor to Queen Catherine.

20 tartlet shells, done but not brown
1/4 c softened butter
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs (yolks only)
2 tbsp heavy cream
rind of 1/2 lemon, grated
1-1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2/3 c ground, lightly toasted almonds
1/2 c currants
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg yolks, one at a time, then cream
again.  Add other ingredients and blend well.  Spoon into shells, leaving 1/3
of the shell empty at the top.  Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.  (Longer if
larger tarts are made.)

* * * * * * * * *
As I said, I have no knowledge of the authenticity or the originality of this,
but I ran across this card looking for other ideas for a feast that I have
coming up the first part of May.


Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:22:41 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - Piecrust debate continues...

> From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
> Subject: RE: SC - Cheesecake  and Lent
>
> At 1:01 PM -0600 2/22/98, Decker, Terry D. wrote:

> >       If you are willing to accept Karen Hess' scholarship that Martha
> >Washington's Booke of Cookery dates to the Elizabethean period, there is a
> >cheesecake recipe (108) using a curded custard filling of a style common to
> >medieval cooking (the recipe is very similar to the one noted above), but
> >uncommon in 17th century cookbooks, which says:
> >
> >       "...yn take a quart of fine flowre, & put ye rest of ye butter to it
> >in little bits, with 4 or 5 spoonfulls of faire water, make ye paste of it &
> >when it is well mingled beat it on a table & soe roule it out ..."
>
> I am not sure I see the relevance. At the earliest, the recipe you are
> citing is considerably more than a century after the recipe we are
> discussing, on the other side of a fairly major shift in culinary style.
> Even if the filling is similar, there is no reason to suppose that the
> crust is.

True. The simple fact _appears_ to be that we don't really know in any
detail what medieval pie crusts were made of, although there are a few
hints. The only certainty appears to be that several methods were
employed, and there may have been a logical system for determining which
method was used in given circumstances, but we don't seem to be able to
figure out what it was.

>From various recipes, what we seem to be able to deduce is that medieval
pie crusts were largely used as containers, and even if they were
palatable, they probably weren't eaten much. Some medieval recipes
(although I have no references available just now, so I'm working from
memory) caution that a "paast" should be made tender with yolks of eggs.
Bearing in mind the soft, non-glutinous nature of most Northern European
flours of the period, this doesn't seem too difficult. Egg-yolk pastry
tends to get a bit rubbery at times, but is tasty and easily chewed.
Yolks have enough fat in them to act as an effective shortening given
the low glutein and glutenin content, and certainly are rich enough for
the nabobs above the salt.

I also have a vague recollection of a post-period recipe (probably in
Kenelm Digby) that makes a point of stating that the method uses no
butter, which would indicate that butter was used often in other
recipes. The recipe in question calls for cream instead, added to flour
that had been dried in the oven, which would tend to compensate for the
fact that butter contains less water than cream. There may have been
eggs or egg yolks involved also, but I don't remember for sure. If they
were, the result wouldn't be too far from a modern tart pastry recipe
(although presumably less sweet).

Gervase Markham also talks about pastry crusts, but as I recall, he does
only that: he talks about them, but doesn't give recipes, IIRC.
Basically he tells us what types of flour to use for different types of
pastry. I believe he recommended all-rye flour for certain types of meat
pasties, for example, and whole wheat flour pastry for others. He does,
however, specify, IIRC, puff pastry for tarts, which would presumably
use the method Sir Hugh Plat describes in a slightly earlier source:
essentially a modern method.

> And I thought Karen Hess' claim was only that the earliest recipes in the
> book were Elizabethan--although I haven't checked.

Agreed. Hess doesn't say that the recipes are all late-medieval /
Renaissance, she just says that some of the recipes are probably that
old, based on the likelihood that the manuscript had been passed through
several generations. She goes on to say that some of the dishes seem to
use a more archaic cooking style than some of the others, and that they
may well be part of earlier versions of the corpus. The same argument,
probably with greater justification, is made for Elinor Fettiplace's
Receipt Book. The point is that we don't really know for sure which is
which.

My inclination would be to use a relatively tough container-type pastry
for the early-period Great Pies, and a more tender egg-yolk or
almond-milk paste for chewets and tarts of that period. For later
recipes I'd use a tender tart-like pastry or puff pastry for most
purposes, except perhaps for big showpieces like those enormous venison
pies that are meant to keep for a while.

Then, of course, there's the peri-oid method I've used in the past,
which has gotten excellent results, looking like many of the
illustrations for medieval pies, in other words like a slightly domed
hatbox. For that I made a cylindrical container of hot-water/lard paste,
about 4-6 inches high, and covered the meat filling with a circle of
puff pastry, laid on top but not attached (sealing edges with egg wash
or water tends to limit the puffiness of puff pastry). The resulting pie
is pretty spectacular in appearance, being a cylinder with a high domed
lid, usually around eight inches or more in height.

Adamantius


Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 11:21:54 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: SC - Payne Puff

At 10:11 AM +0000 2/27/98, CHRISTINA van Tets wrote:
>5.  Pastry:  I did post this some months ago, but it seems that it is
>needed again.  Payne puff is mentioned (line 497) in John Russell's
>Book of Nurture (Harl. MS 4011), c. 1452, given in F. J. Furnivall's
>Early English Meals and Manners, Early English Text Society, London,
>1868.  His footnote states that the last recipe in the Forme of Cury
>is for payn puff.  His quote, unfortunately, does not appear to be
>complete, or to give adequate directions for the pastry.  What he
>does provide is this:
>        Payn puff, Forme of Cury, # 196
>
>        Eodem modo fait payn puff.  but make it more tendre 6e past,
>and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye.
>
>Perhaps someone else can help further?

_A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_ has a recipe for Panne Puffe (p. 27); I
don't know if it is the same thing or not.

Take the stuffe of Stock frytters and for hys paest take a quantitie of ale
and a lytle yest and Suger, Mace and Saffron, than heate it on a
chavyndysche and ut it to youre floure with the yolcke of a rawe agge, and
so after this maner make up your paest.

To Make Stock Frytoures

Take the same stuffe that you take to a vaute and that same paest ye take
for pescoddes, and ye maye frye them or els bake them.

To make Pescoddes

... and make youre paeste as fyne as ye canne, and as shorte and thyn as ye
canne, ...

David/Cariadoc


Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 10:04:35 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Payne Puff

> > From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
> >
> > At 10:11 AM +0000 2/27/98, CHRISTINA van Tets wrote:
> > >5.  Pastry:  I did post this some months ago, but it seems that it is
> > >needed again.  Payne puff is mentioned (line 497) in John Russell's
> > >Book of Nurture (Harl. MS 4011), c. 1452, given in F. J. Furnivall's
> > >Early English Meals and Manners, Early English Text Society, London,
> > >1868.  His footnote states that the last recipe in the Forme of Cury
> > >is for payn puff.  His quote, unfortunately, does not appear to be
> > >complete, or to give adequate directions for the pastry.  What he
> > >does provide is this:
> > >        Payn puff, Forme of Cury, # 196
> > >
> > >        Eodem modo fait payn puff.  but make it more tendre 6e past,
> > >and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye.
> > >
> > >Perhaps someone else can help further?
> >
> > _A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_ has a recipe for Panne Puffe (p. 27); I
> > don't know if it is the same thing or not.
> >
> > Take the stuffe of Stock frytters and for hys paest take a quantitie of
> ale
> > and a lytle yest and Suger, Mace and Saffron, than heate it on a
> > chavyndysche and ut it to youre floure with the yolcke of a rawe agge,
> and
> > so after this maner make up your paest.
>
> Interesting how slight textual variatons can make a big difference. The
> version of FoC in Curye On Inglysch contains the following:
>
> "203. The pety peruaunt...
>
> <I'll omit the filling ingredients for a fairly typical medieval custard
> tart with fruit and marrow>
>
> ...and loke (th)at (th)ou mak (th)y past with (y)olks of ayren 7 (th)at
> no water come (th)erto; and fourme (th)y coffin and make vp (th)y past."
>
> Followed by # 204:
>
> "Eodem modo flat payn puff, but make it more tendre 6e past,
> and loke 6e past be rounde of 6e payn puff as a coffyn & as a pye."
>
> Either meaning, 'in the same way flat payn puff', etc., or 'in the same
> way make payn puf', assuming "flat" to be an error, and that "fait" was
> intended.
>
> Anyway, it's not really clear, for certain, whether any other shortening
> is included. All other things being equal, the only way I can think of
> to make the pastry more tender, without adding shortening or sugar
> (neither of which is mentioned for the pastry) is to add more egg yolks
> (i.e. more liquid and more egg yolk shortening), making the dough
> softer, or else to knead it less, or to knead it to the point where the
> gluten is fully developed and then begins to break down. That's quite a
> bit of kneading...maybe Bear could tell us more about that?
>
> Adamantius
> troy at asan.com

I'm afraid all I can say about over-kneaded, unleavened dough is that it
gets leathery when baked.  Since this is a finished product I try to avoid,
I haven't really experimented with it.  When working with any kind of pastry
dough, I tend to mix the ingredients and knead only enough to get the
desired consistency, not that I'm any great expert with pastries.

Looking at the egg and flour dough recipe, I wonder if this may not have
been a common, utilitarian dough in the 14th and 15th Centuries.  In Maggie
Black's The Medieval Cookbook, she quotes Harleian 279 for a recipe for
Cruste Rolle, which is a griddle cake:

"Cruste Rolle.  Take fayre Flowre of whete; nym Eyroun & breke ther-to &
coloure the past with Safroun; rolle it on a borde also thinne as
parchement, rounde a-bowte as an obyle; frye hem and serue forth; and thus
may do in lente but do away with the eyroun, & nym mylke of Almaundys, and
frye hem in Oyle, & then serue forth."

The egg and flour pastry dough would certainly yield a better tasting
product than flour and water.  I would also expect a dough that could be
used for boiling, frying or baking, depending on the thickness of the dough
and its contents.

While it is not mentioned in the recipe, another trick that could be used to
make the pastry tender is to add sour cream to the mixture, which would add
semi-liquid and butter fat.  Modern pelemi dough uses sour cream in a
standard pastry dough and produces a smooth dough which is easy to roll and
to work.  I will add the caveat that I think using sour cream in this manner
is a recent practice, although I would love to be proven wrong.

Bear


Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 16:25:40 -0800
From: "Crystal A. Isaac" <crystal at pdr-is.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #639

The herb and cheese pies (quiches) are nice for lunches, as long as you
have a way to transport them. Look in Elizabeth and Cariadoc's Micellany
for reliable ideas. The tart for Ember day is very good. I seem to
recall a really good spinach and cheese pie as well.

You could also try Pastry of Artichokes. For your needs, little turnover
sized pastries might be better than a 9 inch pie. You might consider
reducing the liquid to 1/3 cup if you make individual pie servings.

Pastry of Artichokes is a late-period recipe for a vegetarian pie. I
found it in _Acquired Taste: The French Origins of Modern Cooking_ by T.
Sarah Peterson.  Published by Cornell University Press, Ithaca. 1994.
ISBN 0-8014-3053-4.  Ms. Peterson cites Cristoforo di Messisbugo's
Banchetti: Compositzioni di vivande e apparecchio generale (1549 CE)
modern edition by F. Bandini. Venice: Pozza, 1960 as her source.

"First make a rectangle of pastry.... Then in the bottoms put butter and
a little pepper, and marzolino (a cheese) cut very, very small. Then you
will have three artichokes almost cooked and well trimmed of their
spikes, with the heart well cleaned off of hay. Put into the pastry
adding pepper, butter and marzolino cut small in the same way. Then take
two egg yolks, two ounces of sugar, and half a cup of verjuice, and a
little bit of fragrant herbs cut fine with knives. Mix everything
together and put into the pastry. Then put on its cover and put to
cook...."

Modern adaptation:
1 nine inch pie crust, plus top crust
2 12oz cans of artichoke hearts, very well drained and chopped
3 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated
2 tablespoons butter, grated (It is easier if you freeze the butter
first.)
2-3 pinches ground black pepper

Sprinkle a layer of cheese and butter on the bottom of the pie pastry.
Add a pinch of pepper. Place a layer of well-drained and chopped
artichokes on the layer of cheese. Add another layer of cheese and
butter; then another layer of artichokes. Add another pinch or two of
pepper.

When all is layered and ready, mix together:

2 egg yolks
2 ounces of sugar (about 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar*
1/4 cup grape juice*
fragrant herbs and salt

For "fragrant herbs" I placed a 1/4 teaspoon of the following into the
mortar and ground it fine: salt, dried rosemary, sage, tarragon and
parsley. Next time, I will use more spices*. Evenly drizzle the
resulting sticky mixture over the pie. Put on top layer of crust. Prick
or slash the crust top. Bake at 350?F until the crust is done, (about an
hour).

*A later version of this pie, using 1/2 cup verjuce and triple the
spices was much better.

Crystal of the Westermark
(mka Crystal A. Isaac, crystal at pdr-is.com)


Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 05:54:36 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - "Cutting in" egg yolks, etc.

> From: "Mark.S Harris" <rsve60 at email.sps.mot.com>
>
>> Euriol said:
>> Cutting ingredients into the
>> flour for a pie crust minimizes the activation of the gluten, then
>> only at end press it together to form a ball and then roll it out.

> Cutting it into the flour???? For us newbie cooks, what does this
> mean? What is the differance between cutting it in and stirring it
> in? One you use a spoon and one you use a knife? :-)

Uh, yeah. Some people advocate using the fingers (but not the palms,
since the warmth of your hand is generally considered a Bad Thing where
pastry is concerned). Using the fingers enables you to use a certain
amount of tactile Search and Destroy, um, tactics, specifically going
after lumps of unmixed yolk. You just sort of go in there and pinch to
obliterate  the larger lumps.

I suspect that cutting in is a technique that works best for the
hyrdogenated / saturated shortenings, such as lard, butter, and Crisco,
though, since they will hold their shape when cut. Also, I'd recommend a
good gluten rest, of half an hour or so, preferably in the fridge  or
other cool spot, after kneading the dough for the first time, or
whatever you want to call the process where it gets compressed into a
ball, then a shorter rest (15-20 minutes) after each rolling/forming
operation. For this type of dough probably one additional rest, after
forming your pie, is adequate.

Cutting in yolks won't _hurt_ , of course, but for what it's worth, I
suspect, based on the other period pastry recipes I've seen, that the
hands would likely have been used. Whether or not the utensil makes much
difference in this case I'm not so sure.

Adamantius


Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 00:13:46 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Quince  chestnut fritters

William Bekwith MKA Kornelis Sietsma quoted the Menagier's recipe for
Rissoles and wrote:
>
>Hmm - on re-reading this again, it *does* mention dough - and note [104]
>says :
>[104]A 15th-century English recipe for dried-fruit rissoles gives more
>detail on making them: ...

Here is that recipe; spelling modernized:

Ryschewys Closed and Fried  (Two Fifteenth Century p. 45/97)

Take figs, and grind them small in a mortar with a little oil, and grind
with them cloves and maces; and then take it up into a vessel, and cast
thereto pines, saunders and raisons of corinth and minced dates, powdered
pepper, canel, salt, saffron; then take fine paste of flour and water,
sugar, saffron and salt, and make fair cakes thereof; then roll thine stuff
in thine hand and couch it in the cakes and cut it, and fold them in
ryshews, and fry them up in oil; and serve forth hot.

And here is the recipe of Master Chiquart (Du Fait de Cuisine, 1420), who
never uses one word when ten will do:

51. Again, rissoles: and to give understanding to him who will make them,
according to the quantity of them which he will make let him take a
quantity of fresh pork and cut up into fair and clean pieces and put to
cook, and salt therein; and when his meat is cooked let him draw it out
onto fair and clean tables and remove the skin and all the bones, and then
chop it very small. And arrange that you have figs, prunes, dates, pine
nuts, and candied raisins; remove the stems from the raisins, and the
shells from the pine nuts, and all other things which are not clean; and
then wash all this very well one or two or three times in good white wine
and then put them to drain on fair and clean boards; and then cut the figs
and prunes and dates all into small dice and mix them with your filling.
And then arrange that you have the best cheese which can be made, and then
take a great quantity of parsley which should have the leaves taken off the
stems, and wash it very well and chop it very well in with your cheese; and
then mix this very well with your filling, and eggs also; and take your
spices: white ginger, grains of paradise-and not too much, saffron, and a
great deal of sugar according to the quantity which you are making.  And
then deliver your filling to your pastry-cook, and let him be prepared to
make his fair leaves of pastry to make gold-colored crusts(?); and when
they are made, let him bring them to you and you should have fair white
pork lard to fry them; and when they are fried, you should have gold leaf:
for each gold-colored crust(?) which there is, have one little leaf of gold
to put on top.  And when this comes to the sideboard arrange them on fair
serving dishes and then throw sugar on top.

>So maybe I should have made them in pastry after all :)

I think when Menagier says "and make your rissoles" he is assuming you know
what rissoles are like, just as the English recipe assumes you know what
"fold them in ryshews" means (I make a circle of dough, put filling on
off-center, fold my circle in half and seal--but I have no idea if this is
right).

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 15:24:56 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cheesecakes

Joshua mentioned an Anglo-Norman recipe and Allison asked:

>I'm not familiar with "Tardpoleyn".  What language is it in, and where is
>it located, or reprinted? And what year(s), please?

The source is Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from Brotosh
Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii. by Constance B.
Hieatt and Robin F. Jones, Speculum 61/4 (1986), pp. 859-882.  The language
is French and it is 13th c.  Here is their translation of the recipe:

Here is another dish, which is called tardpolene.  Take and combine flour
and sugar, and mix into pastry with almond milk; make cases of this pastry
two fingers in height; then take pears, dates, almonds, figs, and raisins,
and put in liquid and spices and grind together; add egg yolk and a piece
of good, soft, cheese, not too old, and plenty of whole eggs; then put them
to cook; brush the tops with egg yolk; then serve.

They comment that the "them" in "then put them to cook" means "the pastry
cases filled with the above mixture".

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 10:13:52 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry

>I tried making a coffin pastry using the recipe from Traveling Dysshes
>but ended up with crumbs - nothing stuck together.
>My jinx with pastries continues!  I don't know a lot about working with
>doughs/pastry but it seems that the liquid dry ratio isn't
>right.  The recipe calls for 4 c. flour with 1/2 c. butter and 1/4 c.
>water boiled and then added to the flour.  Even though I adjusted the
>liquid, it still didn't work.  Any ideas on what might have happened or
>better recipe?  I couldn't find anything in my limited library that
>seemed similar.
<snip>

Here is a recipe for Hot Water Crust Pastry.  It makes enough for one
6-inch by 3-inch raised pie.

1/3 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons lard
1 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sift the flour & salt into a bowl, & make a well in the center.  Put the
lard in the water & stir till it melts.  Pour the hot liquids into the
flour well & stir to make an elastic dough.  Add more boiling water if the
dough is too dry.  Knead the dough on a floured board until smooth.
Reserve one-third for a lid.  Shape the rest into a cylinder.  Fill with
your already-prepared filling (holds about 1 1/2 cups) and cover with the
pastry lid.  Poke a steam vent in the lid.  Bake at 400 degrees F. for 25
to 30 minutes, or until done and golden.

This is a modern recipe, but there is a period one in Sabina Welserin's CB.

Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"


Date: Fri, 12 Jun 98 11:13:44 -0600
From: upsxdls at okway.okstate.edu
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry

     My regular pastry dough is 3 C. Flour, 1 C. Butter (or lard), pinch of
     salt, beat one egg with 1 Tbsp vinegar and add cold water to make one full
     cup.  The dough must be refrigerated at least one hour before trying to
     roll out.  Mama told me that reducing the butter will cause a tougher dough
     (that's why grandmother's pie crust was as tough as boot leather, she
     didn't want to waste the butter - and you better not let her CATCH you
     feeding the crust to the chickens!  ;)

     Looking at what you used, I would suggest 4 cups flour, 2/3 cup butter, and
     1 1/3 cup water.

     Leanna McLaren of Sparrowhaven


Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 13:38:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gretchen M Beck <grm+ at andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry

I'd add a couple of egg yolks -- several period and just post period
coffin recipes call for them, and I've found that they add a lot of
structural integrity to your paste.

toodles, margaret


Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 18:45:16 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Coffin Pastry

upsxdls at okway.okstate.edu writes:
<<  My regular pastry dough is 3 C. Flour, 1 C. Butter (or lard), pinch of
      salt, beat one egg with 1 Tbsp vinegar and add cold water to make one full
      cup.  >>

This pastry sounds very nice and potentialy flakey but the pastry for coffins
was intended to be  a dish to hold food in rather than something that was
eaten in and of itself. Boiled pastry makes a very good "clay" for structuring
coffins especially since the sides can be built up  rather thickly allowing
for the formation of rather large constructions. OTH, flaky pastry does not
allow for the stength needed for large free-standing vessels.

Ras


Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:10:45 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: Frying (WAS: SC - Elizabethan buffet (long))

At 12:51 PM -0400 10/22/98, Margo Hablutzel wrote:
[the original question was whether cookie dough was a fair interpretation
of "a fine paste" to be filled and either fried or baked.]

>Most "fine paste" I have seen is more like piecrust than shortbread.
>
>Note that dough used for frying, whether on its own or wrapped around some
>filling, needs to have a fairly small ratio of fat to the dough, if any. If
>the percentage of fat is too high, it will melt into the frying grease and
>you get an icky mess.  A regular "flaky" pie dough should not be used for
>frying, and I have seen some recipes where the surrounding dough has no fat,
>is just flour and water (and maybe salt) kneaded together until smooth and
>elastic.

Here is an example from somewhat earlier than the recipe in question (and
Epulario is 16th c., I think, but its Italian original is 15th c.) of a
"fine paste" meant to be filled and fried which lists the ingredients for
the pastry:

Ryschewys Closed and Fried
Two Fifteenth Century p. 45/97

Take figs, and grind them small in a mortar with a little oil, and grind
with them cloves and maces; and then take it up into a vessel, and cast
thereto pines, saunders and raisons of corinth and minced dates, powdered
pepper, canel, salt, saffron; then take fine paste of flour and water,
sugar, saffron and salt, and make fair cakes thereof; then roll thine stuff
in thine hand and couch it in the cakes and cut it, and fold them in
ryshews, and fry them up in oil; and serve forth hot. [end of original;
spelling modernized]

Note that the pastry is sweetened, but has no fat in it.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 22:58:38 -0800
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <acrouss at gte.net>
Subject: Re: OT - Re: SC - Filo Dough Things

Hi all from Anne-Marie

we are asked about using canned fruit fillings for tarts and "filo dough
things" :)

My experience says that canned fruit works very well, as long as its not in
heavy syrup. Take the fruit, drain and put in a large saucepan. Add just
enough of the canning liquid to cover. Simmer the crap out of it until most
of the liquid is evaporated and the fruit is the consistency of good jam.
The drier the better. Stir in a pat or so of butter.

Spread a prebaked tart shell or your phyllo dough with this and bake. Yum!
FYI, this version with pear is from la Varenne (1651 French). I assume he
used fresh fruit, but with the "canned in its own juice stuff", I figure
that there shouldnít be much difference after all that boiling.

- --AM
PS, there's several fun middle eastern PERIOD recipes out there that use
"dough in leaves", etc, if you want to play with them...


Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 13:31:54 EST
From: Varju at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - filo dough

tsersen at browser.net writes:
<< I thought a strudel dough was more like a sweet bread dough than a
 pastry, like filo. >>

The Hungarian re'stes, which is usually translated as struedel, uses a special
version of puff pastry dough.  The versions I saw most often in bakeries
were filled with apple, walnut, poppyseed or cheese fillings.

Noemi


Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:33:35 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - filo dough

Linda Peterson wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Jan 1999, Diana Haven wrote:
> > I had posted an apple strudel recipe on this list a while ago...and the
> > dough comes out like a phyllo dough.  very nice and buttery.
> >
> > That may be what you are looking for.  Ask Stefan if he has a copy. 
>
> Are we all talking about the same stuff here? All the filo dough I've ever
> used, usually for Middle Eastern cooking, comes as a thin sheet of plain
> dough-if you boiled it, it would be a noodle. No butter. Usually you add
> the butter and layer it manually while assembling a dish. What y'all are
> describing sounds more like puff pastry?
>
> Mirhaxa
>   mirhaxa at morktorn.com

I think the above reference to strudel dough being buttery refers to the
finished product, although some strudel dough has butter knreaded into
it from an early stage. I expect we most of us know the differences
here, but just to be on the safe side, and on the same terms:

Phyllo dough is a paper-thin sheet of cooked pastry, made from flour and
water, which is almost invariably served layered with butter or oil and
rebaked. It's usually factory-made using a machine with heated steel
rollers that press and cook at the same time. Some Asian spring roll
wrappers are made somewhat similarly, by pressing a ball of dough onto a
heated griddle and pulling away the excess, so what sticks to the
griddle cooks as a sheet.

Puff pastry is made in layers, uncooked, then filled (or whatever) and
baked. It's basically laminated like Damascus steel by layering butter
or other fat between layers of dough, folded and rolled out, then folded
again. It is then allowed to rest and chill to relax developed gluten
strands, then the process is repeated as many times as will give the
desired number of layers - anywhere from around 600 to a couple of
thousand, depending on usage, as I recall.

Strudel dough is a single layer, like phyllo, except it is used from its
raw state, usually rolled around a filling, either with butter or the
filling itself separating the layers, depending on whether the filling
is in a lump or spread out on the dough.

Adamantius the Arbiter
ÿstgardr, East


Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 11:11:46 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - filo dough

> Are we all talking about the same stuff here? All the filo dough I've ever
> used, usually for Middle Eastern cooking, comes as a thin sheet of plain
> dough-if you boiled it, it would be a noodle. No butter. Usually you add
> the butter and layer it manually while assembling a dish. What y'all are
> describing sounds more like puff pastry?
>
> Mirhaxa
>   mirhaxa at morktorn.com

Filo dough is made from water, flour and salt and a lot of practice.  It is
cut into sheets which are commonly buttered and layered together to form a
pastry shell or wrap.

Strudel dough is made from water, flour, salt and a small amount of melted
butter.  Most of the butter is added during the rolling to keep the dough
elastic and damp.  Once rolled out it is trimmed, cut and folded around a
filling to produce a layered effect.

Puff pastry is made from water flour and salt.  The dough is chilled and
rolled out into a square.  Cold butter are pounded to the consistency of the
dough.  The butter is formed into a square about 3/4 inch thick and centered
on the rolled out dough.  The corners are folded in, the dough is rolled
into an elongated rectangle.  A third of the length is folded over each
other and then rolled back out into the rectangle.  The dough is worked and
chilled until the desired number of laminations has been created.  The
butter must stay solid during the process.  The dough is then wrapped around
a filling.

One of the confusing points is that commercially, puff pastry is oftend used
to make strudels, rather than using tradional strudel dough.

Bear


Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 10:21:33 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - favorite sweet

One of the simplest and tastiest sweets is Judges Mouthfuls from  al-Baghdadi
(1226 CE). It is simply a raised dough from which pieces are pinched and
dropped in hot fat to cook. They are drained and dipped in honey. Think
glazed doughnut holes from raised doughnuts.

Ras


Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 11:10:46 -0500
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Kataif

At 9:06 AM -0500 9/9/99, Decker, Terry D. wrote:
>I have a reference from the 1920s to 10th Century kataif as a confection of
>banana, almonds and honey doused with nut oil.  The work is a history of the
>banana and displays solid historical references in most regards.  The
>comment about kataif appears to be explanatory fill in a reference to
>Masudi, the poet and historian.
>
>Modern kataif (also known as ataif and gatayef) is a coarse, shortened dough
>stuffed with nuts or cheese then baked and served with syrup.
>
>Does anyone have any idea whether I am dealing with an author's error or
>with the evolution of a recipe or with a change in the useage of the word
>kataif?
>
>Bear

>From _Manuscrito Anonimo_ (13th c. Andalusian)

Sift white flour three times, take the choicest part, mingle it with butter
and knead it with egg yolk and put into the dough some saffron and salt.
Put clarified butter into an earthenware frying pan, boil it and take one
kail of honey and one of dough and throw them into the melted butter until
it is cooked. Before it is thickened, put in blanched almonds and
pine-nuts, sprinkle it with pepper and present it.

The Making of Qat‚if
Put a potful of water on the fire until it boils, and throw in coarsely
ground semolina, and cook it on the fire until it becomes pudding ('asÓda).
Then take it out of the pot and put it in a dish; boil honey and pour it on
top, with pepper, and present it, God willing.

[This is an aberrant recipe. Qataif are basically crepes, very thin breads
or things made from them.]
[the note is by Charles Perry, the translator]
- ---
Recipe for Abbasid Qat‚if

It is made from the pierced musahhada that has already been mentioned. Take
peeled almonds, pound them and let them dry until they are like semolina.
Add as much again of sugar, spikenard, cloves, and Chinese cinnamon. Then
take a flatbread (raghÓf) of the aforementioned musahhada, free of burns,
and sprinkle it with those almonds and ground sugar aplenty. Sprinkle it
with rosewater in which some camphor is dissolved, and fold it until it is
a half circle. Glue the edges with dough wetted in rosewater, and put it in
a frying-pan full of fresh oil. Boil it, and then take it out immediately
and remove it so it drains of the oil. Let if float in a syrup of roses or
julep or skimmed honey. You might make raghÓfs on raghÓfs, filled inside,
and glue the margins together, and they will turn out circles and halves.
- ---

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 01:02:44 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Rosquillas (recipe)

I've been doing some more baking.  Below is a period Spanish recipe
(and my redaction) for rosquillas.  The name means "little rings".
Modern rosquillas are generally leavened with baking powder, fried, and
glazed.  (I understand that in the Spanish-language version of "The
Simpsons", Homer's constant cry is, "Oooh.... rosquillas!").  Period
rosquillas are sweet egg-leavened rings, which are boiled, then baked.
One of my friends commented, "I like them, but they're confusing.  They
look like bagels and taste like biscotti!"

Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del Arte de Cozina_, Spanish, 1599

Translation and redaction: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

PARA HAZER ROSQUILLAS -- To make <italic>rosquillas</italic> (little rings)

For forty egg yolks, a pound of ground sugar, and as much white wine
as will fit in the shell of an egg, and a little anise, and a little cinnamon,
and a little cow=92s butter, and a little orange flower water. Knead
everything with fine flour, and cast in what should be necessary to
conform to the quantity of eggs.  Knead with a light hand, so that you
do not break the dough, which should not be very hard, nor very soft, but
well pummelled, and being good, make the rosquillas the size that you
wish.  Have on the fire a kettle of water, and when it begins to boil, cast
the rosquillas within, in such a manner that they do not go one on top of
another, and cast them in until they ascend.  Upon ascending they are
cooked.  Put them in some kneading troughs, and being cooled, remove
them and send them to the oven to cook, which should be quite
temperate.

Rosquillas

20 egg yolks (medium or large)
1/2 pound sugar (1-1/4 cups)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon white wine
2 tablespoons orange-flower water
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground anise
5 to 5-1/4 cups all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Fill a large, wide pot with water, at least 4-5
inches deep, and bring it to a boil.  Adjust the heat so the water is at a
constant simmer.

Beat the egg yolks lightly in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer equipped
with a dough hook.  Stir in the sugar, butter, wine, orange-flower water,
and the spices.  Add 3 cups of the flour and mix well.  Gradually add
flour, kneading continually, until you have a dough of medium firmness.
It will be sticky, and it will *not* form a ball on the dough-hook or clean
the sides of the bowl.  It will more closely resemble a sugar-cookie
dough than a bread dough.  Add just enough flour to make a dough that
can be handled and shaped.  Knead well, about 8-10 minutes.  The
dough will be fairly smooth.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a flat surface.  Cover with a damp
cloth so it does not dry out.  Roll a piece of dough into a ball about 1-
1/2 inches in diameter.  Flatten the ball slightly, and with your thumb
and forefinger, pinch a hole in the center of the disc.  Enlarge the hole
and shape the dough until you have a doughnut-like ring, about 2-1/2
inches in diameter and 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick.

When you have shaped several rosquillas, drop them, one at a time,
into the simmering water.  (You did get the pot of water ready, didn't
you?)  They will sink like stones to the bottom of the pot.  Watch out for
scalding-hot splashes, and make sure that the rosquillas do not settle
on top of each other.  They will begin to expand slightly, and to become
whiter and wrinkled.  In about 4-5 minutes, the rosquillas will suddenly
float to the surface of the water.  As each one rises, remove it gently
with a slotted spoon or a skimmer, and place on a rack to cook and dry.
Continue shaping and simmering rosquillas until all the dough is used
up.

When the rosquillas are cool to the touch, place them on an ungreased
cookie sheet, and bake 20-25 minutes at 350 F until lightly browned.
Cool on racks.  Makes about 2-1/2 dozen.

Notes:

My redaction is half of the original recipe, as it makes a quantity that 
is convenient for a home kitchen.  A quarter-recipe also works well.  I
made two test batches using my KitchenAid mixer.  One batch, which I
hand-kneaded for 10 minutes, did not turn out well.  They took twice as
long to rise in the water, and then they drifted up languidly.  After
baking, they were unpleasantly dense.  A long period of hand-kneading
would probably solve that problem.

I decided to conduct an egg size experiment.  After separating out the
yolks from 10 medium eggs, I weighed them.  The yolks varied in size,
but the total came to 165 grams (5-3/4 oz.) in weight.  I then started
weighing the yolks of large eggs, on the assumption that I would need
fewer of them.  These also varied in size, but 10 large yolks came to
166 grams.  I do not know how the yolks from larger or smaller eggs
would compare.

The anise and cinnamon flavors blended subtlely and pleasantly.  Even
my anise-hating husband pronounced the rosquillas acceptable.  I could
not detect the flavor of the orange-flower water, even when I increased
the quantity to 2 tablespoons.  I suspect it could be omitted if
unavailable, without much noticeable change.

The rosquillas are good for dipping in tea or coffee.  They would probably
keep for at least several days in an air-tight container.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 17:11:57 -0500
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: SC - Kadayif

AHH!  Young ladies' breasts. . . I too, know of these!  This pastry is made with similar ingredients to baklava as I recall:  shredded phyllo, cinnamon, ground walnuts, a nut in the center and a sugar or honey syrup.

>One of the two recipes posted so far calls for:
>1 lb kunafeh pastry, bought or homemade (shredded pastry)
>
>The other calls for:
>shredded phyllo(fillo)dough or
>   1 package (16 oz. size) Frozen Kataifi, defrosted
>
>The phyllo dough I'm familiar with comes in a roll of very thin
>sheets, not shredded. Is this shredded phyllo dough/kunafeh/kataifi
>something I will likely find in the grocery store? Or is there
>some other specialty store I should look for it at? Is it available
>fresh  or dried as well as frozen?
>
>Lord Stefan li Rous

You can find shredded phyllo in the freezer section near regular phyllo.  If not there, try a middle eastrn market or farmer's market. I don't find it in the supermarket stores often, but have seen it at a Kroger last year.  You can shred your own by making a chiffonade of phyllo with a SHARP knife (roll and make as thin a slice off the end as possible.).

niccolo difrancesco


Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 21:44:32 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: SC - Kadiyif recipes-OOP

KADAYIF -Olivia Hagopian
(Shredded dough) 

2 lbs. Kadayif dough
3/4 lb. butter, melted 

Syrup:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Boil together 10 minutes; add 1 tsp. lemon juice 

Place kadayif in a large bowl. Separate and loosen all shreds. Pour melted 
butter over it and coat all shreds well. Divide mixture in half, spread half 
on a lightly buttered pan (12 "xll"). Press gently. Spoon filling over this 
layer evenly, cover with remaining kadayif. Bake in preheated 425F oven for 
30 minutes or until delicately brown. Cool. Pour hot syrup over entire top. 
Cut into serving pieces. Let stand 30 minutes before serving. 

Serves 32-40 

Fillings: 

Cream Filling:
3 tbs.heavy cream
1/2 pt. light cream
2/3 cups milk
4 heaping tbs. cornstarch
3 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla 

Combine heavy cream, light cream and sugar in a pan. Bring to a boil. 
Dissolve cornstarch with milk, add to hot creams stirring constantly until 
thick. Boil slowly 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. 

Pour or spoon evenly over bottom layer of kadayif. Place remaining shreds 
over cream filling. 

Bake as directed in above basic recipe. 

Nut Filling:
1 lb. walnut meats, chopped fine
3 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

Cheese Filling:
1 1/4 lbs. Muenster cheese, grated
1/2 lb. Feta (Greek cheese} grated or crumbled
1/2 lb. cottage cheese
2 eggs, beaten 

- -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St. Gregory's 
Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.......................

EKMEK KADAYIF -Sonia Matulewicz
(Khadayif) 

4 eggs
1? cups sugar
2 cups yogurt
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 lb. butter, melted 

Beat eggs well, add sugar and yogurt mixing thoroughly. Add flour, baking 
soda and butter. Pour into 11" square Corning Ware. Bake in preheated 300F 
oven until brown. 

Topping: 1 cup boiling water 3 cups sugar 1 1/2 tbs. vanilla 

Boil thoroughly. Let cake cool a little. Pour topping over cake. 

Serve with whipped cream, if desired. 

Serves 30. -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St. 
Gregory's Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.....................

Tel Kadayif with walnuts
Ingredients:

750 gr. tel kadayif (pastry made into thin long thread-like strips; available 
at Turkish stores) 
1 1/2 glasses of margarine 
2 glasses of walnuts 
Syrup:

4 1/2 glasses granulated sugar 
3 3/4 glasses water 
1 teaspoons lemon juice 

Flake kadayif and place on a shallow cake pan, sprinkle crushed walnuts over 
evenly and spread the other half of the kadayif on top. Sprinkle melted 
margarine over and place in moderate oven to bake for 40 minutes. 
SYRUP: Meanwhile, put the granulated sugar, the water and lemon juice into a 
saucepan and boil until moderately thick. When golden brown, take kadayif out 
of oven and sprinkle boiling syrup over immediately. Cover and allow to cool. 
When cool, place a plate large enough over the top of the pan and transfer 
kadayif onto the plate by turning upside down. 

Small cakes of batter, fired, soaked in syrup (Yassi kadayif Cevizli)
Ingredients:

300 gr. yassi kadayif 
4 eggs 
1 1/4 glasses olive oil 
1 1/4 glasses ground wheat 
Syrup:

2 glasses granulated sugar 
1 1/3 glasses water 
1 teaspoon lemon juice 

Put sugar, water and lemon juice into a pan, and stir over moderate heat 
until the sugar melts, boil for 10 minutes until it becomes a syrup and leave 
aside.
Trim 1/4 inch from the edge of the yassi kadayif. Beat the eggs in a bowl and 
roll the kadayif in the beaten egg. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan then 
fry 3-4 kadayifs each time, fry both sides, remove from the pan and drain. 
Dip in and out of boiling water and place immediately into the prepared 
syrup. Repeat this for all pieces of kadayif. Cover with a plate and allow 
them to stand in the syrup for an hour. Place the kadayif on a serving plate 
sprinkle ground walnuts over and serve. -From Turkish Cuisine by Mehmet 
Yazgan, Editor, Yazgan Turizm Tic. Ltd. Sti.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/kandogan/FTA/TurkishCuisine/cuisine.html
.........................


Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 11:56:59 MST
From: "Harold Tackett" <htackett at eagnet.com>
Subject: Fw: ANST - recipe
To: <rlportwood at earthlink.net>
CC: <ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG>

> Does anyone have a recipe for Kadayif?  
> Ascelyn

I have made several versions of Kadayif or Kunafat (Shredded filo pastries).
The one that has gone over the best is Kiz Memesi Tel-Katayif , Shredded
Pastry Mounds(according to the book I use this translates to "young girl's
breasts"). I have made these for a class I taught at Gulf Wars last year on
Middle Eastern Pastries. The recipe I use comes from "Patisserie of the
Eastern Mediterranean" by Arto Der Haroutunian, ISBN # 0070266654

Dinah bint Ismai'l

Kiz Memesi Tel-Katayif
"Young Girls Breasts"
The name on this gets everyone the first time.  The name is translated
directly from the Turkish, and takes its name from its rather graphic
representation.
Makes about 12

1 lb kunafeh pastry, bought or homemade (shredded pastry)
1 cup Clarified buttered, melted
about twelve walnut halves
3/4 cup finely chopped blanched almonds

Syrup
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups water
1tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350'F
 Place the pastry in a large bowl and pull apart the strands , discarding
any coarse lumps you may find in some brands.  Shred the pastry very finely
with your fingers or pass it through a meat grinder.  Pour in most of the
melted butter and rub the pastry between you  palms until it is all coated
with butter.

 Lightly brush two baking sheets with a little of the remaining butter.

 To make this pastry the correct shape you need a soup ladle or container of
similar shape and size, about 21/2 inches in diameter.  Brush the inside of
the ladle with melted butter and put a walnut half in the bottom.  Fill the
ladle with shredded pastry and make a hole with your index finger into the
center of the pastry.  Fill the hole with 1-2 tsp of the chopped nuts and
then add a little more pastry to cover the nuts.  Press down firmly.  Place
your fingers over the mouth of the ladle, turn it over and slide the pastry
out.  Place on the baking sheet.  Continue until you have used up all the
ingredients.

 Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the syrup by
placing the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 10 minutes, then set aside.

 When the pastries are cooked, remove them from the oven.  Bring the syrup
back to a boil and ladle it over the pastries.  Set aside to cool before
serving.


Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 21:12:36 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Brighid's Spanish Cinnamon-Fruit Rolls

And it came to pass on 18 Jun 00,, that david friedman wrote:
> A while back, Lady Brighid posted the following recipe, which we have now
> tried out:
[snip]

I'm delighted that you did this one.  It looked very good, but I never got 
around to redacting it.  As it is, I bake far too much sweet stuff for my 
own good.

> Comments: good.  Too much filling per amount of dough for my taste, 
> but that's what the recipe says. The piece of dough it is put on 
> becomes part of the loaf, rather than remaining behind in the pan.

When I first posted the recipe, I recall someone mentioning a modern 
recipe for a similar pastry, which is a cone-shaped roll atop a flat piece 
of dough.  (Fluden?  Fladen?  Something like that.)  That gentle 
indicated that the two pieces normally fused together in baking.

> I rolled this up as I do cinnamon bread, and it didn't really fit the
> description: didn't twist by itself until it becomes like a snail; I can't
> make much sense of this. Anyone have any suggestions?
[snip]
> try rolling from the side of the rectangle rather than the end to see if
> I can get it more snail-like that way--maybe roll tighter ("more
> closed") at one end than at the other. 

This was my thought.  If you roll it like a cornucopia, perhaps pinching 
the small end together and leaving the wider end fairly loose, I think it 
would tend to flare out as the dough expands in baking.  I do *not* see 
that it would tend to curl into a spiral unless it was laid out that way.

> Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2000 17:11:57 -0500
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: SC - Kadayif

AHH!  Young ladies' breasts. . . I too, know of these!  This pastry is made with similar ingredients to baklava as I recall:  shredded phyllo, cinnamon, ground walnuts, a nut in the center and a sugar or honey syrup.

>One of the two recipes posted so far calls for:
>1 lb kunafeh pastry, bought or homemade (shredded pastry)
>
>The other calls for:
>shredded phyllo(fillo)dough or
>   1 package (16 oz. size) Frozen Kataifi, defrosted
>
>The phyllo dough I'm familar with comes in a roll of very thin
>sheets, not shredded. Is this shredded phyllo dough/kunafeh/kataifi
>something I will likely find in the grocery store? Or is there
>some other specialty store I should look for it at? Is it available
>fresh  or dried as well as frozen?
>
>Lord Stefan li Rous

You can find shredded phyllo in the freezer section near regular phyllo.  If not there, try a middle eastrn market or farmer's market. I don't find it in the supermarket stores often, but have seen it at a Kroger last year.  You can shred your own by making a chiffonade of phyllo with a SHARP knife (roll and make as thin a slice off the end as possible.).

niccolo difrancesco


Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 21:44:32 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: SC - Kadiyif recipes-OOP

KADAYIF -Olivia Hagopian
(Shredded dough) 

2 lbs. Kadayif dough
3/4 lb. butter, melted 

Syrup:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water
Boil together 10 minutes; add 1 tsp. lemon juice 

Place kadayif in a large bowl. Separate and loosen all shreds. Pour melted 
butter over it and coat all shreds well. Divide mixture in half, spread half 
on a lightly buttered pan (12 "xll"). Press gently. Spoon filling over this 
layer evenly, cover with remaining kadayif. Bake in preheated 425F oven for 
30 minutes or until delicately brown. Cool. Pour hot syrup over entire top. 
Cut into serving pieces. Let stand 30 minutes before serving. 

Serves 32-40 

Fillings: 

Cream Filling:
3 tbs.heavy cream
1/2 pt. light cream
3/4 cups milk
4 heaping tbs. cornstarch
3 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla 

Combine heavy cream, light cream and sugar in a pan. Bring to a boil. 
Dissolve cornstarch with milk, add to hot creams stirring constantly until 
thick. Boil slowly 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. 

Pour or spoon evenly over bottom layer of kadayif. Place remaining shreds 
over cream filling. 

Bake as directed in above basic recipe. 

Nut Filling:
1 lb. walnut meats, chopped fine
3 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

Cheese Filling:
1 1/4 lbs. Muenster cheese, grated
1/2 lb. Feta (Greek cheese} grated or crumbled
1/2 lb. cottage cheese
2 eggs, beaten 

- -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St. Gregory's 
Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.......................

EKMEK KADAYIF -Sonia Matulewicz
(Khadayif) 

4 eggs
1? cups sugar
2 cups yogurt
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 lb. butter, melted 

Beat eggs well, add sugar and yogurt mixing thoroughly. Add flour, baking 
soda and butter. Pour into 11" square Corning Ware. Bake in preheated 300F 
oven until brown. 

Topping: 1 cup boiling water 3 cups sugar 1? tbs. vanilla 

Boil thoroughly. Let cake cool a little. Pour topping over cake. 

Serve with whipped cream, if desired. 

Serves 30. -From Adventures in Armenian Cooking. Published in 1973 by St. 
Gregory's Armenian Apostolic Church of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts.
http://www.cilicia.com/armo_cookbook.html
.....................

Tel Kadayif with walnuts
Ingredients:

750 gr. tel kadayif (pastry made into thin long thread-like strips; available 
at Turkish stores) 
1 1/2 glasses of margarine 
2 glasses of walnuts 
Syrup:

4 1/2 glasses granulated sugar 
3 3/4 glasses water 
1 teaspoons lemon juice 
Flake kadayif and place on a shallow cake pan, sprinkle crushed walnuts over 
evenly and spread the other half of the kadayif on top. Sprinkle melted 
margarine over and place in moderate oven to bake for 40 minutes. 
SYRUP: Meanwhile, put the granulated sugar, the water and lemon juice into a 
saucepan and boil until moderately thick. When golden brown, take kadayif out 
of oven and sprinkle boiling syrup over immediately. Cover and allow to cool. 
When cool, place a plate large enough over the top of the pan and transfer 
kadayif onto the plate by turning upside down. 

Small cakes of batter, fired, soaked in syrup (Yassi kadayif Cevizli)
Ingredients:

300 gr. yassi kadayif 
4 eggs 
1 1/4 glasses olive oil 
1 1/4 glasses ground wheat 
Syrup:

2 glasses granulated sugar 
1 1/3 glasses water 
1 teaspoon lemon juice 

Put sugar, water and lemon juice into a pan, and stir over moderate heat 
until the sugar melts, boil for 10 minutes until it becomes a syrup and leave 
aside.
Trim 1/4 inch from the edge of the yassi kadayif. Beat the eggs in a bowl and 
roll the kadayif in the beaten egg. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan then 
fry 3-4 kadayifs each time, fry both sides, remove from the pan and drain. 
Dip in and out of boiling water and place immediately into the prepared 
syrup. Repeat this for all pieces of kadayif. Cover with a plate and allow 
them to stand in the syrup for an hour. Place the kadayif on a serving plate 
sprinkle ground walnuts over and serve. -From Turkish Cuisine by Mehmet 
Yazgan, Editor, Yazgan Turizm Tic. Ltd. Sti.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/kandogan/FTA/TurkishCuisine/cuisine.html
.........................


Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 21:12:36 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Brighid's Spanish Cinnamon-Fruit Rolls

And it came to pass on 18 Jun 00,, that david friedman wrote:
> A while back, Lady Brighid posted the following recipe, which we have now
> tried out:
[snip]

I'm delighted that you did this one.  It looked very good, but I never got 
around to redacting it.  As it is, I bake far too much sweet stuff for my 
own good.

> Comments: good.  Too much filling per amount of dough for my taste, 
> but that's what the recipe says. The piece of dough it is put on 
> becomes part of the loaf, rather than remaining behind in the pan.

When I first posted the recipe, I recall someone mentioning a modern 
recipe for a similar pastry, which is a cone-shaped roll atop a flat piece 
of dough.  (Fluden?  Fladen?  Something like that.)  That gentle 
indicated that the two pieces normally fused together in baking.

> I rolled this up as I do cinnamon bread, and it didn't really fit the
> description: didn't twist by itself until it becomes like a snail; I can't
> make much sense of this. Anyone have any suggestions?
[snip]
> try rolling from the side of the rectangle rather than the end to see if
> I can get it more snail-like that way--maybe roll tighter ("more
> closed") at one end than at the other. 

This was my thought.  If you roll it like a cornucopia, perhaps pinching 
the small end together and leaving the wider end fairly loose, I think it 
would tend to flare out as the dough expands in baking.  I do *not* see 
that it would tend to curl into a spiral unless it was laid out that way.

> Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


From: johnna007h at netscape.net
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 23:35:11 -0400
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Cream Puff Source dated 1604

Cream Puff Source dated 1604

With regard to the recent questions on cream puffs, there is apparently a 1604 source.

Barbara Wheaton in Savoring the Past. The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789, [1983, 1996] traces recipes for cream puffs or more properly pate a choux to a recipe in Lancelot de Casteau's Ovverture de Cvisine which was published in Leige in 1604. On page 33 and more fully on pages 176-177, she describes the wide assortment of pastry recipes found in Casteau, concluding that the fritter recipes are an =93exploitation of pate a choux for baking, frying and poaching=85=94 Wheaton includes Casteau's recipe for "Paste de bugnolle ou friture" (pages 248-9). Her adaptation includes four versions of preparation and cooking once the dough is made. One version is to form and bake at 350 degrees. [See PPC#8 for an examination of the history of the 19th century croquembouche, which is of course another far grander use of the dough.]

By the way, Casteau was reprinted in 1983 as Ouverture de Cuisine and was reviewed in PPC#15.

There is a recipe in Le Patissier Francois, which is often credited to La Varenne. It's found in chapter xix and is entitled "La maniere de faire des petits choux." [It appears on page 405 of the combined edition entitled Le Cuisinier Francois that Flandrin and the Hymans released in 1983.] I don't know whether or not the recipe appears in the "Englished" version of Le Patissier that was published in England as Marnette's The Perfect Cook in 1656. If it does, that could well be the earliest English recipe.

As to serving them at an SCA feast, I do know that cream puffs were served at the Midrealm Crown Feast, held in the Barony of Wurm Wald in May of 1974.  They were prepared in the classic manner, baked, then sliced in half, scooping out all the undone bits and then rebaked to get them crisp. For that feast, they were baked and then freshly filled during the late night & early morning hours to be served later that same evening. They were much appreciated.

Johnna Holloway


Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:59:34 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] anything like period fig newtons?

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Is there any evidence for period filled pastries, perhaps even
> something like a fig newton?

And the Tourteletes in fryture from Curye on Inglysch are very similar to fig
newtons:

157.  Tourteletes in fryture.  Take figus & grynde hem smal; do therein
saffron & powdur fort.  Close hem in foyles of dowe, & frye hem in oyle.
Claryfye hony & flamme hem therewht; ete hem hote or colde.

157.  Tourteletes in fryture(Ground figs in pastry).  Take figs and grind them
small; add saffron and poudre fort.  Enclose them in sheets of dough and fry
them in oil.  Clarify honey and baste them.  Eat either hot or cold.

Redaction: makes 16 pieces

10 Dried figs     1 egg white
1 pinch Saffron     1 tsp. oil
1/2 tsp. Poudre Fort    3 tsp. honey
16 Won Ton wrappers

1.  Grind figs, then add saffron and poudre fort.
2.  Place a tsp of mixture in the center of a wrapper, fold over and seal with
egg whites.
3.  Oven fry with oil until lightly browned.
4.  Remove from oven and drizzle honey over them.

Note:  As with the raviolis above, I have used won ton wrappers, as they are
approximately the same kind of dough, and are a major time-saver.

Also, instead of deep frying them, I have oven-fried them, again in the
interest of saving time, but it has approximately the same effect.

Kiri


Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:25:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Nikki McGeary <draculachanter at yahoo.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Figs

<And the Tourteletes in fryture from Curye on Inglysch
<are very similar to fig newtons.

I've made these and boy, are they tasty.  I used my
own pie crust dough, and it really sucked up the oil,
but they were delicious.  Reminded me of southern
fried pies...

Heloise


Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:06:35 -0500
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re:Cooking techniques-

Also sprach johnna holloway:
>See La Varenne for puff pastry.
>It appears as recipe 13 on page 192
>of the reprint of The French Cook which
>was originally published in English in 1653.

It also appears in Hugh Plat, c. 1609 CE, and probably existed
previously under other names. Plat's version is similar to a blitz or
Scottish puff paste.

Adamantius


Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:17:47 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re:Cooking techniques-

La Varenne's instructions don't call for
the eggs though and he clearly tells one how
to fold it over so that it layers where as
Plat seems to have one adding the butter as one
goes. So in terms of food chemistry, is this
the same process or not or two different methods?

Johnna


Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 21:27:08 -0500
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re:Cooking techniques-

Also sprach johnna holloway:
>La Varenne's instructions don't call for
>the eggs though and he clearly tells one how
>to fold it over so that it layers where as
>Plat seems to have one adding the butter as one
>goes. So in terms of food chemistry, is this
>the same process or not or two different methods?

I believe Plat (whose book I don't have in front of me, so take this
with a grain of unsalted butter) describes adding a second layer, but
eventually does a recognizable fold-and-roll method. He also uses
pats of butter, like the blitz method, rather than a block of butter.

The egg I assume to be connected to structural strength, which is now
sometimes compensated for by using bread flour, depending on which
modern recipe you look at.

Now I have to dig it (Plat) out ;-)

Adamantius


Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 16:49:1 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Make Fayre Paste (was: Medieval History
	Magazine...)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers) wrote:
> Below are the relevant recipes from Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery
> Books.  In them I can find references to pre-baking the coffin, to
> coloring it with saffron and egg yols, and to putting a top crust
> on it, but I do not see any notes about the thickness of the coffin
> walls, whether they were edible, or the ingredients or methods used
> for making them.
>
> Are there any other sources or recipes mentioned to document teir
> methods?  I am concerned that the "hot liquid fat poured into flour"
> way of making a crust is a (relatively) modern one that arose from a
> faulty source or assumption and is unintentionally being promoted as
> period without supporting evidence (.g. probably period because
> it's very rustic looking - thick and inedible).

(recipes snipped)

As far as I know, none of the pie recipes in Two Fifteenth-Century
Cookery Books tells you anything about how to make the pastry. The
only recipes I remember which do tell you are for pasty-types things
(at least, that is my guess about what they are) that are going to be
fried, and I am not sure how much of a guide that is to what pastry
you would use for something that is going to be baked. Here is one of
these recipes:

Ryschewys Closed and Fried. Take figs, and grind them small in a
mortar with a little oil, and grind with them cloves and maces; and
then take it up into a vessel, and cast thereto pines, saunders and
raisons of corinth and minced dates, powdred pepper, canel, salt,
saffron; then take fine paste of flour and water, sugar, saffron and
salt, and make fair cakes thereof; then roll thine stuff in thine
hand and couch it in the cakes and cut it, and fold them in ryshews,
and fry them up in oil; an serve forth hot. [spelling modernized]

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 12:32:47 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Hat was favorie cicada lymerics; YAK
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Olwen the Odd wrote:
> Olwen, who wants the recipe for the marzipan calzons.

The Marzipan calizonis recipe actually came from the Santich book on
Mediterranan cookery.  Here it is:

p. 51:  Pasties of Fine Sugar  (from Rupert de Nola, trans. Vincent 
Cuenca)

  Take a pound of peeled almonds and grind them dry without adding any
water or broth so that they become very oily; because the oilier they
are the better; and then take a pound and a half of well pulverized
white sugar, and mix it well with the almonds, and when it is all well
mixed and ground, if it is very hard soften it with a little rose water,
and when the mixture is softened a little grind a litte ginger over it,
at your discretion, well ground; and then take dough which should be of
flour, and knead it with good eggs and sweet oil which should be fine,
and from this dough make little cakes or small pasties or crusts and
fill them with the aforemntioned mixture, and then put a casserole on
the fire with very good sweet oil, and when it boils, put these little
pasties in and cook them until they turn yellow like gold, and when you
take them out sprinkle thinned honey over them, and sugar and cinnaon
over the honey.

Redaction from Original Mediterranean Cuisine, by Barbara Santich:

1/2  cup almonds, ground, blanched
1 1/2   cups sugar
1/4  teaspoon rose water
1/4   teaspoon ginger
1  cup flour
1   each egg
1   tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2   tablespoons water
oil for frying
caster sugar (Super or Very fine sugar)
cinnamon
honey

  Combine almonds, sugar, rosewater and ginger in food processor and
blend well (if the almonds are freshly ground the mixture should start
to hold together). Meanwhile make  soft pastry with flour, egg, olive
oil and water, knead lightly and roll out thinly. Cut into rounds about
3 inches in diameter. Place a small spoon of the almond mixture on one
half, brush edges with water, fold over and press edges together to 
seal.

 Heat oil and deep-fry pastries, a few at a time; drain, then toss in
caster sugar. Original calls for brushing with honey, then sprinkling
with sugar and cinnamon, which is what we chose to do.

Note, we made some of the pastry, but ran short of time and used gyoza
skins instead...worked out very well.   Again, one of my students made
these for the feast, though I had used them in an Italian feast I did
about 8 years ago.

Kiri


Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 03:48:34 -0500
From: Bill Fisher <liamfisher at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] canisoles
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 22:11:04 -0600, Stefan li Rous <stefanlirous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> I don't have a copy of Platina. And I just did a search in the
> Florilegium for "canisoles" and got no hits. So, could someone please
> post the recipe? Preferably a translation and any redactions they have?
> This sounds like a good item for the various holiday pot lucks coming
> up.
>
> And Cadoc, what do you mean by "spin some hot honey over them"? Are you
> actually spinning something or do you just mean drizzling honey over
> them? And for folks who have done this, does it help to warm the honey
> in a microwave first or do you just drip it out of the bottle?
>
> Thanks,
>     Stefan

I'm pretty sure I posted them to the list, but it was 5 or 6 years ago I
think.

A pound of almonds to a pound of sugar, ground into each other, then
spread over your flattened pie dough and rolled up, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
then baked till done.  I used more butter in my pie dough than usual 
for these.

I believe Platina calls for what Milham translates as "bun" dough for these.
Which is basically a fat, flour and water dough. (Like I said, no book yet, it is on order again *sigh* I can't remember who I loaned it to)

By spinning I mean sticking a spoon into hot honey and holding it way
above the food and moving it back and forth so that they get thin traceries
of honey on them evenly and  not in large drops.  The heated honey is less
viscous and sinks into the dough before cooling.  I used a water bath to heat
the honey in a bowl. I don't heat viscous fluids in the microwave.

Cadoc


Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 20:02:54 -0800
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spanish Vigil Food
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Anahita asked about food for the vigil of a Spanish-Islamic persona  
Laurel.

How about the stuffed tortillon, which is a
filled bread? (Recipe from our Miscellany below.)
I brought one to a Mists Investiture a year or
two back--I don't remember if you were there and
had a chance to try it.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook

Para Hazer Tortillon Relleno: To Make a Stuffed Tortillon
Diego Granado, Libro del arte de cozina, 1599
Tr.  Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

Knead two pounds of the flower of the flour with
six yolks of fresh eggs, and two ounces of
rosewater, and one ounce of leaven diluted with
tepid water, and four ounces of fresh cow's
butter, or pork lard which has no bad odor, and
salt, and be stirring said dough for the space of
half an hour, and make a thin leaf or pastry and
anoint it with melted fat which should not be
very hot, and cut the edges around, sprinkle the
pastry with four ounces of sugar, and one ounce
of cinnamon, and then have a pound of small
raisins of Corinth, which have been given a boil
in wine, and a pound of dates cooked in the same
wine, and cut small, and all of the said things
should be mixed together with sugar, cinnamon,
and cloves, and nutmeg, and put the said mixture
spread over the pastry with some morsels of cow's
butter, and beginning with the long end of the
pastry, roll it upwards, taking care not to break
the dough, and this tortillon or roll must not be
rolled more than three turns, so that it will
cook better, and it does not have to go very
tight.  Anoint it on top with fat, not very hot.
It will begin to twist by itself at one end which
is not very closed, in such a manner that it
becomes like a snail.  Have the pie pan ready
with a pastry of the same dough, somewhat fatty,
anointed with melted fat, and put the tortillon
lightly upon it without pressing it, and make it
cook in the oven, or under a large earthen pot
with temperate fire, tending it from time to time
by anointing it with melted cow's butter, and
being almost cooked, put sugar on top, and
rosewater, and serve it hot.  The pie pan in
which you cook the tortillones must be wide, and
must have very low edges. [end of original]

Translator's notes: All of the recipes which bear
the name "tortillon" have a rolled-up pastry with
some kind of filling.  If I had to translate the
Spanish, I would render it as something like
"roll-pastry". The noun "manteca" can mean either
butter or lard.  I have translated "manteca de
vaca" as cow's butter, "manteca de puerco" as
pork lard, and undifferentiated "manteca" as fat.

dough:
2 lb = 7 c flour
4 oz = 1/2 c butter
6 egg yolks
2 oz = 4 T rose water
2 scant T dried yeast
1 1/4 c lukewarm water
2 t salt

filling:
1 lb = 3 1/2 c currents
1 lb = 3 1/2 c chopped dates
3 c wine
1/4 c sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4+ t nutmeg
1/8 t cloves

to use in making loaf:
1/2 c sugar
1 oz = 3 1/2 T cinnamon
2 T butter
~3 T melted butter
1 t rosewater
1 T sugar

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl; mix yeast
with warm water, beat egg yolks with rosewater,
melt 1/4 c butter. Make a well in the center of
the flour and pour the liquids into it, stir
together with a wooden spoon, then knead for
10-15 minutes, until smooth. (The original says
half an hour, but the extra quarter hour doesn't
seem to make much difference.) Let rise an hour
and 20 minutes. To prepare filling, bring wine to
a boil, add currents and dates and let boil two
minutes; drain and add sugar and spices. When
dough has risen, pinch off about an eighth of it
and spread it out flat in the bottom of a greased
11" pie pan; spread 1 t melted butter over it.
Spread the rest of the dough out on a floured
board to a rectangle ~21"x18", spread with 2 t
melted butter, and sprinkle on 1/4 c sugar and 1
oz cinnamon. Spread the filling on top of that;
dot with 2 T of butter in pieces. Roll up from
the long side and pinch together to seal, so that
the filling won't all ooze out. Coil on top of
the piece of dough in the pan and spread another
2 t of melted butter over the top. Let rise
another 10 minutes or so and put in a pre-heated
oven at 350°. Bake 50 minutes or so, taking out
once or twice to spread with more melted butter.
After 45 minutes baking, sprinkle with rosewater
and sugar, then put back in oven for another 5
minutes.


Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 12:00:17 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks]  Suggestions Needed
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Martha Oser wrote:
> William de Grandfort wrote:
>> Almond Fingers / Assabih bi Loz (featured in medieval manuscripts
> as 'lauzinaj') these are little
>> 'cigars' of fila dough filled with almonds, pistachios, walnuts
> and sugar, and fried.
>
> Do you have a source for these?  I'd like to see it.  I make Assabi with
> shells of fried dough kind of like cannoli shells.
>
>  -Helena

There are several recipes for lauzinaj in "Medieval Arab Cookery". I
don't interpret them as being like cannoli (i *love* cannoli). I made
an adapted version for a feast several years ago - i used purchased
marzipan, not hand milled almonds, and phyllo for the wrapping.
Descriptions of the dough suggest to me something like, but perhaps
not as fine as, phyllo. Here's what i wrote in my website.

----- begin quote -----

Lauzinaj - Phyllo-wrapped rose-scented marzipan

This is a originally a Persian dish. References to it can be found in
pre-Muslim Persian literature. It was the only dish in the pre-Muslim
legendary history "King Khusraw and His Page" recommended as being
suitable for both summer and winter.

Isa ibn Hisham said, "Bring us some throat-easing Lauzinaj, for it
slips into the veins. Let it be... [fresh], the crust paper thin,
generously filled, pearled with almond oil, starry in color, melting
before it meets the teeth..."

Another writer said, "lauzinaj... in a wrapper as gossamer as
grasshopper wings."

Original Recipe:
Lauzinaj: One part almonds, pounded coarsely. Put a like quantity of
finely pounded sugar on it with a third as much rosewater, and melt
it with it. When it thickens, throw one part sugar on it and take it
from the fire. It is dry lauzinaj.

As For The Moist: It is that you take a pound of finely milled sugar,
and you take a third of a pound of finely milled blanched almonds,
and knead it with rose-water. Take thin bread such as sanbusak bread
- it is better if even thinner; the best and most suitable is kunafa
- and spread out a sheet of that bread and put the kneaded sugar and
almonds on it, then roll it up and cut it in small pieces. Arrange
them in a vessel and refine as much fresh sesame oil as needed and
put it on them. Then cover them with syrup dissolved with rose-water
and sprinkle them with sugar and finely pounded pistachios, and serve.

Another Variety: It is that you take starch [sc. flour?] and knead it
hard, and as much as it stiffens, thin it carefully so that it
becomes like fresh milk. Take the carved mirror and heat it and pour
in it with the "emptier" and take it up. Then roll up pistachios,
sugar, musk, and rosewater in it. Pack them snugly, cut them, and put
hot sesame oil and syrup on them, and sprinkle them with sugar. This
can be eaten right away.

al-Kitab Wasf al-At'ima al-Mu'tada (The Book of the Description of
Familiar Foods), 1373, has over 1/2 dozen Lauzinaj recipes - in
"Medieval Arab Cookery" on pp. 456-457.

----- end quote -----

The above, including my adapted, not really authentic, recipe is on my 
webpage:
http://home.earthlink.net/~lilinah/2001_Feasts/persianrecipes.html

Neither cannoli nor a number of other dough wrapper sound to me to be
"as gossamer as grasshopper wings" so i used phyllo.

It was my first experience using phyllo and i wrote out the process
in detail on my webpage, but the actual doing of it is far simpler
than it appears. One just has to work fast - the process is
repetitive and somewhat mechanical, so it goes fairly quickly. The
ones i made were all gobbled up, so i guess it turned out ok.

I now have a food processor and a friend with a food mill, so i'm
willing to grind my own almonds.

If i were a skilled pastry cook or knew one, i'd like to try making a
pastry closer to the original. What i'd really love to learn is how
to make Maghribi warqa, but i don't really know what they're like
when home-made (i guess i ate some in Morocco, but i wasn't studying
them with great care, as i was busy eating them :-)

Anahita


Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 19:21:50 -0500
From: "Martha Oser" <osermart at msu.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 19, Issue 29
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Stefan wrote:
>> Ataif / Aab Pancakes (mentioned in a 10th century poem written for
>> Caliph Mustakfi of Baghdad)
>> drizzled with honey or syrup.....can also be stuffed with 'new cheese'
>> or Ricotta.
>>
>> Almond Fingers / Assabih bi Loz (featured in medieval manuscripts as
>> 'lauzinaj') these are little
>> 'cigars' of fila dough filled with almonds, pistachios, walnuts and
>> sugar, and fried.
> These sound interesting and I don't think we've discussed these
> specific recipes before. Can you please post the recipes and your
> redactions if you have done them?

Here's my redaction for Asabi Zainab.  The original recipe is from "The
Description of Familiar Foods" found in _Medieval Arab Cookery_.  Enjoy!

Asabe Zainab (Fingers of Zenobia, 3rd century queen of Palmyra)  Take a
pound of flour and knead it with 3 ounces of sesame oil.  Then knead it with
hot water and put it on a cane and fry it somewhat.  Then take it out (and
remove the cane) and throw it in honey and take it up.  Stuff it with plenty
of pistachios and musk and rosewater and sprinkle sugar on it and it is
taken up.

Redaction by Lady Helena Handkorb

Syrup:
1 c sugar
1 c water
1/2 c honey
1 t vanilla extrace
1 t rosewater

Dough:
1 pound all-purpose flour (about 4 cups)
1/2 t salt
6 T sesame oil (the light, middle eastern kind, not the dark Asian kind)
1 and 1/2 c hot water (approximately)
oil for deep frying

Filling:
1/2 pound pistachio nuts, chopped
1 t ground cardamom (in place of the musk, which is expensive and rare and,
in some places, illegal)

Make the syrup first.  Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until
sugar is dissolved.  Add honey and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Remove from
heat, add rosewater and vanilla and cool to room temperature.

For dough, combine flour and salt, add oil and enough hot water to make a
smooth but not sticky dough.  Knead for a few minutes until smooth and
elastic.  It is not necessary to knead this as much as bread dough - just
bring it together somewhat.

Roll out sections of dough no greater than 1/16 of an inch in thickness -
the thinner the better.  Cut the dough to shape around the form you are
using.  Cut long rectangular strips of the desired width (probably no more
than 3 inches) and roll around the form (either a wooden dowel 1/2-3/4" in
diameter or small metal cannoli tubes).  Cut to desired length, overlap ends
and press firmly to close.  You may also cut circular pieces and seal around
forms.

Deep fry shells on forms for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown, turning if
necessary.

Remove shells from oil and allow to cool briefly (1-2 minutes) and remove
from forms.  Drop immediately into cooled syrup to coat.  Remove from syrup
quickly and drain out excess.  After shells have cooled completely, stuff
with chopped pistachios mixed with cardamom.  You may sprinkle with sugar or
drizzle with additional syrup if desired.

Makes about 60-65 asabi.


Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 20:26:20 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Asabi Zainab
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Martha Oser wrote:
> Here's my redaction for Asabi Zainab.  The original recipe is from "The
> Description of Familiar Foods" found in _Medieval Arab Cookery_.  
> Enjoy!
>
> Asabe Zainab (Fingers of Zenobia, 3rd century queen of Palmyra)  Take a
> poud of flour and knead it with 3 ounces of sesame oil.  Then knead it with
> hot water and put it on a cane and fry it somewhat.  Then take it out (and
> remove the cane) and throw it in honey and take it up.  Stuff it with plenty
> of pistachios ad musk and rosewater and sprinkle sugar on it and it is
> taken up.
>
> Redaction by Lady Helena Handkorb
>
> Syrup:
> 1 c sugar
> 1 c water
> 1/2 c honey
> 1 t vanilla extrace
> 1 t rosewater
>
> Dough:
> 1 pound all-purpose flour (about 4 cups)
> 1/2 t salt
> 6 T sesame oil (the light, middle eastern kind, not the dark Asian kind)
> 1 and 1/2 c hot water (approximately)
> oil for deep frying
>
> Filling:
> 1/2 pound pistachio nuts, chopped
> 1 t ground cardamom (in place of the musk, which is expensive and rare and,
> in some places, illegal)

SNIP

First, I'm curious why you made a syrup, since none is called for in
the original

Second, I'm curious why you used vanilla which was only discovered by
Europeans in the 16th century.

And third, i note hat there is no similarity that i can tell between
cardamom and musk. I understand that one cannot use musk, and i
appreciate your note that you used cardamom for that reason. I don't
recall cardamom being used this way in other pastry recipes in "The
Book of the Description of Familiar Food". I would think that some
seasonings that were used in other related pastries would be more
likely than cardamom.

Fourth, reading your recipe makes my mouth water. It doesn't quite
seem to reproduce the historic recipe, but it sounds luscious. Thank
you for sharing.

Anahita


Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 07:52:32 -0500
From: "Martha Oser" <osermart at msu.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Asabi Zainab
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Anahita wrote:
> First, I'm curious why you made a syrup, since none is called for in
> the original
>
> Second, I'm curious why you used vanilla which was only discovered by
> Europeans i the 16th century.
>
> And third, i note that there is no similarity that i can tell between
> cardamom and musk. I understand that one cannot use musk, and i
> appreciate your note that you used cardamom for that reason. I don't
> recall cardamom being ued this way in other pastry recipes in "The
> Book of the Description of Familiar Food". I would think that some
> seasonings that were used in other related pastries would be more
> likely than cardamom.
>
> Fourth, reading your recipe makes my mouth watr. It doesn't quite
> seem to reproduce the historic recipe, but it sounds luscious. Thank
> you for sharing.

Well, first of all, I'm glad the recipe makes your mouth water!  I made them
this past weekend for a class at the Cooks' Symposium and they went over
rather well.  People kept peeking into my classroom to see what I was
cooking and my mistress said they were the best I'd ever done so far.

I made the syrup because I tried just "throwing" them in honey as the recipe
calls for, and that didn't work out so well.  The honey was just too viscous
and made the shells really, really sticky.  I had thought that the heat of
the shells would help to liquify the honey and allow it to coat the shells,
but that didn't really happen.  Then, I considered heating the honey
somewhat to liquify it and make it easier to coat the shells, and that lead
me to making the syrup.  I thought it was a logical step.  The syrup worked
very well - it went right inside the shells and coated the outside and
inside without being too sticky and messy.

The vanilla, frankly, was just in the syrup recipe (it's the one I use when
I make baklava).  You could certainly leave it out and just use rosewater
instead, and I think that's the way I specified doing it in my handout, but
when I actually made the syrup in preparation for my class, I was on
auto-pilot and just put in the vanilla automatically.  However, as I have
used rosewater more, I'm finding that, honestly, I just don't really care
for the taste of it.  Its not so much the taste itself as the taste/smell
combination - the way the fumes hit the back of my throat and go up my nose
is unpleasant for me.  It's too perfume-y and has a kind of chemical
"flavor" for me.  In previous incarnations of this recipe, I made a simple
sugar/water syrup with rosewater added and didn't really care for it.  I
definitely preferred the honey syrup I made this weekend - the rosewater was
much more subtle and less overpowering.

The cardamom came about because the first time I made the recipe, my husband
was working on a cardamom bread and it just smelled so good...  I didn't
have musk (still don't) and wanted something to season the nuts inside the
shells.  I know it's not called for in the recipe, but I thought it added a
pleasing flavor to the pistachio nuts.  If you can suggest something I might
use that is similar to the flavor of musk without the hassle, I'd surely
appreciate it.  I know there is a "musk seed" (which I also learned about at
the Symposium last weekend), but I haven't searched it out yet.  I'll have
to ask our local herbalist if she has any and whether I can smell it or not
to see if my nose approves

Thanks again for your comments!

  -Helena


Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 08:38:41 -0500
From: "Martha Oser" <osermart at msu.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 19, Issue 40
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Berelinde wrote:

<SNIP>
> Blend flour with oil until evenly dispersed. Add hot water
> to make a maleable, but not too sticky dough.
>
> Take gobs of dough and wrap them round the handle of a
> wooden spoon. Dip in hot oil until the dough puffs and
> starts to turn golden. The wooden spoon might not be good
> for much after this. If you had several wooden spoons, you
> could probably keep using them for this recipe, but tey
> would forever be greasy and/or singed.
>
> It's tempting to say "plunge the hot dough (while still
> around the spoon) into honey, but I think it might just be
> easier to slide it off the spoon when just warm and drizzle
> generously with honey.
<SNP>

I tried this the first time I attempted this recipe - daubing the dough on
the wooden dowel sections I was using as forms - and it didn't work too
well.  The dough was lumpy and the resulting shells were, to be frank, ugly
as all get-out and they didn't cook evenly.  I wouldn't have wanted to eat
them.  I have a much better result from making the dough smooth enough to
roll out with a rolling pin and cutting it to form around the dowels/cannoli
tubes.  It still puffs up quite a bit in the frying.

You are right in saying your wooden spoon won't be good for much after this
application.  The ends of the dowel sections I've been using are quite a bit
browner than they were when I started and have a definite, um, odor now.  I
wouldn't want t abuse my wooden spoons that way.  A 3-foot dowel that you
can cut down to the desired size is much, much cheaper.

You are also right that it is much easier to slide the shell off the form
before putting it in the honey.  If you wait very briefly (1- minutes at
most) the shells come off quite easily - I think it has to do with the form
cooling and shrinking slightly and the shell hardening as it cools.  It's
much easier to wait a minute or two than to try to slide them off the form
immediately.  Also, if you're using sections of dowel or metal cannoli
tubes, keep some pliers on hand.  Regular pliers give you a good grip on the
wooden dowel or needlenose pliers to grab the end of the metal tubes.  A
folded paper towel or just your kitchen towel works to protect the hand that
grasps the shell (gently!) to slide it off the form.

  -Helena


Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 13:19:09 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
	<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] puff pastry
To: Irmgart <irmgart at gmail.com>, Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Also sprach Irmgart:
> OK... I have no idea even where to start with finding the answer to
> this, so i thought I'd ask all of you educated cook type peoples ^_~
>
> Is puff pastry or a technique similar to puff pastry period?
>
> My gut instinct is "no." It has the feel of frou frou 19th c. French
> cooking to me, but I haven't done any deep research into it (I've
> googled but only spent about 20 min looking)
>
> Thanks!

There's a more-or-less-recognizable puff pastry recipe under that
name in Sir Hugh Plat's Delightes for Ladies, IIRC, which would put
it no later than the late-16th-early-17th centuries. There may also
be similar recipes in The Usual Suspects for the time period, Markham
and Digby. It's almost certainly at least as old in France, and may
have Arabic or Andalusian antecedents that are considerably older.

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 11:03:09 -0400
From: Micheal <dmreid at hfx.eastlink.ca>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] puff pastry
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>, Irmgart
	<irmgart at gmail.com>

> Also sprach Irmgart:
>> Is puff pastry or a technique similar to puff pastry period?
>>
>> My gut instinct is "no." It has the feel of frou frou 19th c. French
>> cooking to me, but I haven't done any deep research into it (I've
>> googled but only spent about 20 min looking)

That would be "new" pastry in Delightes for ladies 1605. As well as Florio
1598 Fogliata as puff paste. The good Huswifes Jewwell 1586 are a few off
the top of my head. I would have to actually crack a book to find more. But
I would estimate that Puff Pastry came into practice in the late 1400-1500
time line long enough that some one finally wrote it down some where in the
1500 hundreds.

  Okay straight out of A booke Cookery
" Puff Pastry is thought to been perfected by the brilliant chefs to the
court of Tuscany, perhaps in the fifteenth century .  --- One of the
Difficulties in Tracing the history arises from its Italian Name Pasta
sfoglia , and its French name pate feuilletee."

  Which tends to make me think it was around slightly longer in rougher
forms because they had to work get the idea from some where to 
developed.

  Da.


Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:26:31 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] puff pastry
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Micheal wrote:
> That would be "new" pastry in Delightes for ladies 1605. As well as
> Florio 1598 Fogliata as puff paste. The good Huswifes Jewwell 1586 are
> a few off the top of my head.

Plat is of course 1600. We do have a surviving copy dated as such.
The 1602 and 1603 have been microfilmed and are on EEBO, so
1605 is perhaps the 4th edition.

Johnnae


Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:20:29 +0930
From: metaphor <metaphor at senet.com.au>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Recipe including Cubebs
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Mushroom Pastry/Pastys
After Le Menagier de Paris
by Don Alexandre Lerot d'Avigne

The source is Le Menagier De Paris, and dates to roughly 1395. It is worth
noting that the recipe I am working from is not technically a primary
source. Le Menagier is a primary source, but I have a translation -- Janet
Hinson's, from Cariadoc's collection. In translation, the recipe reads:

"MUSHROOMS of one night are the best, and are small and red inside, closed
above: and they should be peeled, then wash in hot water and parboil; if
you wish to put them in pastry, add oil, cheese and powdered spices."

That's pretty straightforward, actually. I looked around in my store and
couldn't find any small red mushrooms. So I settled. I used your basic
everyday white button mushrooms. I decided not to peel them since it is 
a) difficult and b) time- consuming. Since the purpose of peeling would be 
to either clean the food or to remove a tough rind, and neither is an issue
with these little 'shrooms, I don't think it will be a problem.

Instead, I sliced them thin, then dropped them into boiling water for just
a moment before removing. I grated a bunch of gruyere and a bunch of
cheddar cheese (Sigh. Measurements, ok. 1/2 pound of each, and not quite
two pounds of mushrooms.) Powdered spices. I went pretty basic: salt,
pepper and, since I had them and have been wanting to try them, cubebs.
Say, 1 to 2 tablespoons salt, half that in pepper and in cubebs. Give or
take. I added enough canola oil to the mixture to give it a little
consistency and the filling was done.

Pastry is not one of my strongest suits. That means I usually fall back on
some variant of this recipe, which is taken from Ex Porcinate, the cookbook
of the Barony of Caerthe, and which is credited to Mistress Keridwen
Gwennmarch. Paraphrased: cut 2/3 cups lard and 1/2 cup diced suet into 3
cups flour and 1/2 t salt. Stir in about 1/2 cup cold water, shape into a
ball and let rest, covered, about an hour. Roll out and cut into circles. I
actually used crisco rather than lard 'cause I couldn't find lard at the
warehouse-style store where I was shopping. Suet, rather surprisingly, was
not too difficult to find.

Moving on. I actually made a double batch of pastry and it worked out about
right for the amount of filling I had. Cut out circles, say 5" in diameter.
Put some filling in the middle and fold over the top. Crimp shut with a
fork or by some other method you favor. Place them onto a greased cookie
sheet and cook for half an hour or so. I actually did the first ten minutes
at 425, then reduced the heat to 375, but that was probably unnecessary.

And there you go! A period, portable, pasty.

Recipe: Filling
1/2 lb cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 lb swiss-style cheese, grated
2 pounds mushrooms, sliced or chopped or something
2 T salt
1 T pepper (or a bit less)
1 T crushed cubebs (or a bit less)
vegetable oil
Parboil mushrooms by dropping into boiling water, then removing pretty
quickly. Mix everything together.

Recipe: Pastry
1 1/3 cups lard or shortening
1 cup diced suet
6 cups flour
1 t salt
1 cup or so cold water
Cut lard and suet into flour and salt. Add water and form into a ball. 
Let rest, covered, about an hour. Roll out and cut into 5" circles.

Fill pastries and bake at 375 for 1/2 an hour or so on a greased cookie
sheet. If the pastry is done, the filling probably is, too. Eat hot or 
cold.

--- ALd'A


Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 12:43:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spiesskuchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooksansteorra.org>

--- Martinsen at ansteorra.org, "Kerri  
<kerrimart at cablespeed.com>" at ansteorra.org wrote:
> Hello!  I'm working on a redaction of Rumolt's Gebacken
> Recipe #20 for Spiesskuchen.  I've got the recipe
> translated and am now researching similar recipes for a
> basis for the redaction.
>
> The Baumkuchen (Tree cake) may be close and the references
> I've found date back 500 years, but I don't have anything
> hard and fast yet.  Granted I've just started.
>
> Right now I'm looking for verification (encouragement)
> that I'm on the right track.  I'll try to remember to post
> the recipe translation tonight.
>
> Vitha

Wow! So close and yet not so close.

Here is my translation:

Take warm milk and beat eggs into them.  Make a dough with good white flour. Take a little barm and add butter to it. Let it stay a little while under the oven until  it rises.  Punch it down. Add a little salt. Roll it out cleanly.  Throw black raisins there on.   Take a warm rolling pin and smear it with butter and lay [or roll] it over the dough. {Probably  to work the raisins into the dough.}  Wrap the dough therewith and bind it with a piece of cotton together so that is does not fall off.  Lay it on the fire and turn slowly about so that it is  evenly baked.  And when it is brown, take a basting brush [or stick] and stick it in hot butter and smear the cake with it until it is a good brown is and when it is baked, take out the rolling pin spit and wrap it [the cake] with the clean cloth so that the heat thereby remains, so let it remain until it become cool. So present it cold to the table when it becomes crisp and good.  And one calls this spitcake.

This could be an ancestor of baumkuchen in that it is cooked on a spit,  
but that is the only likeness that I can see.

Baumkuchen, which I have not been able to trace farther than the early 19th Century, is a batter cake which is poured layer by layer over the spit.  Each layer gets browned and cooked before the next layer is poured on.  This is why it is called "baum" or tree cake, because it has rings like a tree when you slice it open.  I would love to know where you found references to baumkuchen that are earlier than the 19th Century.  Would you share please?

This spit cake is a yeast cake which is rolled out and has raisins added to the dough.  I have not found a baumkuchen recipe that uses raisins.  It presumeably has only one layer, although I am sure the dough gets wrapped multilayered around the rolling pin, but each layer doesn't appear to get browned separately, so it doesn't appear to create a ring effect.

This recipe does sound delightful in and of itself.  It appears to get served as a tube, but the recipe doesn't say if anything gets put inside the middle, like you would a canole.

Huette


Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:05:18 -000 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spiesskuchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> On the Baumkuchen -
> I'm waiting on some responses from companies that make
> them, but the earliest reference I've got is from these
> folks:
> http://www.eitelbach.com/about.htm
>
> They brag about a 500 year history.  I've emailed them to
> ask for details. More later.

I wrote about baumkuchen on this list several years ago and Stefan put  it in the Florilegium. I have received a couple of e-mails about it since, the latest being  last week, where a man asked if Baumkuchen was Polish, as he remembered his Polish grandmother making it.  I have found three books that talk about Bamkuchen.  The first  one, which spurred my previous question, is "The Cuisines of Germany" by Horst  Scharfenberg.  He says that Baumkuchen originated in Stettin, the capitol of Pomerania.  I wrote the man back and told him that since Stettin is now Szececin in Poland, it is  possible that is where his grandmother got her recipe.  I have also found recipes and some description of Baumkuchen in "The Cooking of Germany" in the Time-Life cookbook series, and in the book, "Culinaria: Germany".  All recipes given are not for the spit cooked  Baumkuchen, but a derivation of it as a torte, in that you pour your batter into a  springform pan, bake it and keep adding layers.

I would very much like to hear/read what you get from Eitelbach.  And  please let me/us know the results of your experiments with the rotissary.  It probably will  be a while before I get one.

Huette


Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 21:42:55 -400
From: Kerri Martinsen <kerrimart at cablespeed.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spiesskuchen
To: SCA Cooks <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

As Promised:  Here is m translation:

             Take warm milk/ and beat eggs in it/ make a dough with nice white flour/ take a little yeast and butter in it/ let it sit a while behind the oven/ it will rise/ and mix a little salt in/ lay it on a clean  smooth wood / put blck raisens in it.  Take a (Walger)/ the smooth (warm)/ and spread it with butter/ and set it on the table/ knock the table about  it/ and tie it around with a thread/ so it doesn¹t fall down/ put it in the fire/ and turn it over nice and slow/ so it nicely bakes.  And when it  is brown/ take a brush/ and push in hot butter/ and brush the cake with  it/ so it will become nicely brown.  And when it is brown/ run it through with  a wood skewer/ and push the two holes with a clean cloth/ that it stays  hot/ le it rest/ until it becomes cool/ so put it on a table cold/ it will  be nicely mellow and good. And that is how one makes a spearcake. 

It is pretty rough.  I haven't been doing this very long.

And the German:

20. Nimb warme Milch/ vnnd schlag Eyer darnter/ mach ein Teig an mit scho:enem weissen Mehl/ nimb ein wenig Bierhefen vnd Butter darzu/ laß  jn ein weil stehn hinder dem Ofen/ daß er vber sich steiget/ mach jn wider zuhauff/ vnd saltz jn ein wenig/ walg jn darnach fein sauber auß/ wirff schwartzeosein daru:eber. Nimb ein Walger/ der fein warm/ vnnd mit  Butter geschmiert ist/ vnd leg jn auff den Teig/ schlag den Teig daru:eber/ vnd bindt jn mit einem Zwirnsfaden zusammen/ daß er nicht herab fellt/ legs  zum Feuwer/vnd wendts fein langsam vmb/ so irt es sich sauber braten. Vnd  wenns braun wirt/ so nimb ein Pensel/ vnd steck jn in heisse Butter/ vnd  bestreich den Kuchen damit/ so wirt er scho:en bra:eunlicht. Vnd wenn er  gebraten/ so thu jn von dem Walgerspieß/ vnnd steck beyde Lo:echer zu mit subern Tu:echern/ daß die Hitz darbey bleibt/ laß also bleiben/ biß ku:el  wirt/ so gibs kalt auff ein Tisch/ so wirt es fein mu:erb vnd gut. Vnd man  nennet es Spießkuchen. 


Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 00:38:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks Spiesskuchen
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Yes.  You need a better German dictionary.  I use the New Cassell's German Dictinary.  It is actually old, from 1965, but it has a lot of cooking terms and it gives phrases to help you decide the meaning.

--- Kerri Martinsen <kerrimart at cablespeed.com> wrote:
> As Promised:  Here is my translation:
>
>             Take warm milk/ andbeat eggs in it/ make a dough with nice
> white flour/ take a little yeast - Bierhefen - actually means barm or 
> brewer's yeast.

Since the period source for yeast is barm, it is better to say barm.  Since barm isn't easy to get nowadays unless you are  brewer or know one, I would use 
normal yeast and add a tablespoon of beer to the recipe to approximate the barm flavor.

> and butter in it/ let it sit a while behind

I believe that hinter is an old word for under, not behind.

> the oven/ it will rise/ nd mix a little salt in/ lay it on a clean 
> smooth wood

I am not sure where you got the wood part.  Walg is probably from wälger which
means to roll pastry, so that is why I wrote "roll it out cleanly"

/ put black raisens in it.  Take a (Walger)

awalger is an old term for wälgerholz, which is a rolling pin

/ the smooth (warm)/

fein does not mean smooth.  There is a current colloquiel German phrase "es ist fein warm hier"  It is nice and warm here.  So this should read "Take a 
rolling pin, which is nice and warm."

and
> spread it with butter/ and set it on the table

Teig is not table, Teig is dough.

/ knock the table about it/

schlag can mean knock , but "knock the dough with it" doesn't make sense.  Then
I found an old term where schlag mens to bend, which makes more sense when you
consider the next phrase.  So that is why I said "wrap it around"

> and tie it around with a thread/

Zwirnsfaden means "a piece of cotton or thread"

> so it doesn¹t fall down/ put it in the
> fire/ and turn t over nice and slow/ so it nicely bakes.  And when it 
> is brown/ take a brush/ and push in hot butter/

steck means to stick, so you stick the brush into the hot butter

>  and brush the cake with it/ so it will become nicely brown.

bra:eunlicht mens brownish

>  And when it is brown/ run it through with a wood skewer/

No, again Rumpolt uses "walgerspeiss".  It means the opposite "take out the rolling pin spit". You have just bake the cake on your rolling pin and now you have to take out the rolling pin i.e. spit.

>  and push the two holes with a clean cloth/

Actually on my translation, I got this wrong also, it means to cover both holes (of your cake, since you now have a hollow tube) with a clean cloth

>  that it stays hot/

so that the heat remains

> let it rest / until it becomes cool/ so put it on a table cold/ it 
> will be nicely mellow

Although mu:erb can mean mellow, I am inclined to believe it means "well-cooked"
instead.  I originally put crisp, which it can mean also, but I think "well-cooked" might be the better meaning.

> and good. And that is how one makes a spearcake.

"man nennet" means one names or one calls

While spiess can mean spear, it also means spit.  Since spit is a cooking term, I am inclined to believe it means spit over spear.  So the last sentence is 
"And one calls this spit cake".

> It is pretty rough.  I haven't been doing this very long.

But you are doing very well and, with a better dictionary, you will do 
even better!

Huette


Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 12:39:24 +0000
From: nickiandme at att.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] recipe from the Libro Novo
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org (Group-SCACooks)

Well I tried out the puff pastries Sunday.

Libro Novo (Banchetti) by Cristoforo Messisbugo from the 1557 edition  
of the Libro Novo printed in Venice as translated by Master Basilius  
Phocas (MKA Charles A. Potter)

47 B	TO MAKE TEN PLATTERS OF CHEESE PASTRIES

Take two pounds of rich grated hard cheese, and a pound of grated hard cheese,
and ten eggs, and a half pound of raisins, and four ounces of sugar, and a ounce
of rose water, one sixth ounce of pepper, and three ounces of butter, and mix
everything well together.

Then take four pounds of white flour, and six egg yolks, and rose water, three
ounces of butter, and make your pastry dough, and make the pastry sheet somewhat
big.  Then you shall load with butter that is a little hard, and you shall wrap
another turn and you shall load in the same manner with butter, and you shall do
this for three or four turns, enough till that you shall have distributed a
pound of butter, and you shall make your pastry.

My first effort:
Filling:
1 cup grated asiago
1 cup grated parmesan
2 eggs
1 cup raisins,
1 tablespoon rosewater
1/2 teaspoon grated pepper
2 pats of butter - melted

I mixed these together and then covered and stored in the refrigerator while I
worked with the pastry.

Pastry:
2 cups flour,
2 eggs,
2 tablespoons rosewater
1 pat of melted butter
1/2 cup cold water

I mixed these ingredients together.  Then floured my rolling surface generously
with flour.  I rolled out half the dough into a large rectangular shape.  It was
still a fairly thick dough - less than a quarter inch - more than an  
eighth thick.  Then I took a stick of butter and shaved the butter off  
of it unto one side (half) the rolled out dough.  I folded it over, and  
then folded the ends in again.  So that there were three folds.  Then I  
rolled it out again.  And added the shaved butter into the center half  
of the dough. Folded the sides over until they met in the middle and  
then folded the whole thing over once more.  And repeated this once more.

Then, I rolled it out once last time and cut it into three roughly equal
rectangles.  I place one of the pieces of dough on my baking stone and as evenly
as possible I spread half of the cheese mixture over the dough.  I placed the
next layer of dough on top and spread the last of the cheese mixture onto in.
And I topped this layer with the last piece of dough.

I trimmed up the sides to make it more even looking.

Then I baked it in a 350 degree oven for about half an hour.  The top didn't
look browned as it came out.  I may need to think about added a butter coating
on it as it bakes.

It tasted alright warm.  A bit bland.  The dough was very flaky. You  
could see the layers and even peel some of them off. Not really what I thought it would be for puffed though. I was thinking croissant layers - but maybe my  
expectations are just a tad to high?  I didn't do the modern method of  
refrigerating the dough and the butter until both were hard - because  
the recipe didn't call for it.  Although in reading my Joy of Cooking  
on puff pastries - they explain to use the same method of folding and  
turning as I ended up using to make the pastry.

So, next renditions:  I will try unsalted butter to roll into the dough. And I
think I will switch to a pecorino Romano or pecorino Parmesan because they are a
saltier more flavorful cheese than what I used.  The supermarket wedge of
parmesan was not very good - it was perhaps aged too long as it has a large
discolored edge that wasn't even grateable and had no flavor.  So, back to the
gourmet cheese store for really good stuff.

I also forgot to grind my raw sugar crystals down again.  So, I need to  
do that.  And perhaps plump up the raisins in a rosewater and water  
mixture for an hour before use.

I will slice the baked rectangular pastry into small diamond shapes for
serving.

On reheating or eating cold the next two days - they were wonderful.   
So, the flavors tended to improve as the finished product aged.  But, I  
didn't see where they might have served them cold.  So, I want to go  
for a more flavorful just out of the oven end-product.  Although it is  
good to see that the leftovers are mighty tasty - so there won't be any  
waste there.

Kateryn de Develyn
writing this day from the Barony of Coeur d'Ennui
in the Kingdom of Calontir


Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 09:33:52 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
	<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] recipe from the Libro Novo
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Also sprach nickiandme at att.net:
> It tasted alright warm.  A bit bland.  The dough was very flaky. You
> could see the layers and even peel some of them off. Not really what
> I thought it would be for
> puffed though. I was thinking croissant layers - but maybe my
> expectations are just a tad to high?  I didn't do the modern method
> of refrigerating the dough and the butter until both were hard -
> because the recipe didn't call for it.  Although in reading my Joy
> of Cooking on puff pastries - they explain to use the same method of
> folding and turning as I ended up using to make the pastry.

It's possible your expectations of this as puff pastry were too high.
Modern puff paste recipes generally call for anywhere from half as
much to equal parts butter to flour, usually equal parts. This recipe
calls for one-quarter as much butter as flour, or half of what we'd
think of as the low end of the scale for modern puff pastry, although
it looks like what you actually used was more like half as much
butter as flour: a quarter pound of butter to half a pound of flour
(approximately)?  Modern puff pastry is also usually baked at a
higher temperature than 350 degrees F, at least at the start, to
achieve the benefits of "oven spring", in which the butter melts (or
other moisture is present) to provide simultaneous lubrication
between layers and a quick shot of steam inside the pastry structure.
Another consideration is that you say you didn't give it the chilled
rest periods most puff paste recipes call for: this may be assumed,
since I suspect the recipe is written for cooks with at least a basic
knowledge of pastry-work, and experience quickly shows when a pastry
is getting overworked, and what one should do about it. When you work
with something frequently, you become more sensitive to the signs.

So you assembled this like a napoleon, but before baking? That might
be another reason it may have behaved in an unexpected manner.

I'm a little surprised to hear that it was bland, though. Maybe, as
you suggest, you need a different combination of cheeses...

Adamantius


Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 11:52:35 -0500
From: Martinsen at ansteorra.org, Kerri"
	<kerrimart at cablespeed.com>" at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Baumkuchen - Forward
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Here's the response from the Baumkuchen bakery.
  Interesting...very interesting....

(I've started my 1st 2 attempts this morning for the
Spiesskuchen.  Will post results tomorrow.)


Vitha
------------------
Dear Ms. Martinsen:

Thank you for your e-mail.

Sorry about the late reply, I was trying to find some
references for you, but could not locate the information.
Baumkuchen is a German word and it translates to"
treecake". It is baked on a rotisserie by adding a thin
layer of batter and baking it before adding the next
layer, etc..
When the cake is cut, it has the appearance of a cut tree
trunk with its annual rings.
I have not heard of it being referred to as Speisskuchen,
even though Spiesskuchen would be a possibility because a
rotissery rod would be Spiess in German.
But have not heard it being called that.
Baumkuchen first appeared in literature in the 15th
century, where it is described in an Italian cook book
(sorry, I could not find this reference for you, even
though I know we have it somewhere in our archives).
Initially it was baked for European royalty and today it
is still the symbol of their German confectionary trade, an
illustration of the Baumkuchen being part of its logo.
Because of this it is still known as the "Cake of Kings
and King of Cakes". Today it is still very popular in many
parts of Europe, mostly German speaking parts and in
Skandinavia, and in Japan, where it is called by its
German name Baumkuchen.

For reference please contact the publishers of "Konditorei
& Cafe", the official Trade Magazine of the German
Confectionary Trade.
Matthaes Verlag GmbH, Olgastrasse 87, 70180 Stuttgart,
Germany, Mailing Address: Postfach 10 31 44, 70027
Stuttgart,
e-mail: koca at matthaes.de, web-site: www.matthaes.de. Hope
they can help you.

With best Regards, and much success with your research,

Hans J. Hens
President
Eitelbach Baumkuchen Pastries Ltd.

sales at eitelbach.com


Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 09:45:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] alfajores/al-hasu
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

--- Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com> wrote:
> These are cookies with filling of Arab origin. In Spain they date back
> to the 8th Century, although Argentineans declare them as a national
> creole dessert but they are thought to date back to the 19th only there.
> That is odd as the conquistadors brought Hispano-Arab concubines with
> them to the new world who in turn brought their recipes. Spanish
> alfajores (al-hasu in Arabic) are square not round as in South America.
> The idea is to fill them with quince. Now the question is does anyone
> have a dependable recipe for them and/or any more news on their history?
> Sue

Where did you find this information?  It doesn't match any information that
I have seen or read.  It sounds very much apocryphal to me.

The filled alfajores that I know of are only 19th century.  The Spanish
alfajores are entirely different and are a small cake make with honey
and almonds/  The only connection that they have is their name.

Having checked "An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century"
Translated by Charles Perry.  I have found no recipe named Alfajores or
al-Hasu.  I did find this recipe, which seems to be close to the Spanish
version, but not the South American version.


Making Stuffed Isfunj
Take semolina and sift it, and take the flour and put it in a dish. Take
water and sprinkle it lightly on the semolina. Then put your hand in it
and gather it all up and cover it with a second dish, leaving it until
it sweats. Then uncover it and mix it until it becomes like white flour
[that is, the durum ground wheat should resemble soft wheat flour].  Throw
oil in it, and mix it, and put in leavening and eggs, throw in a measure
of five eggs and then mix the dough with the eggs. Then put it in a new
pot, after greasing it with oil, and leave it until it rises. Then take
almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and pistachios, all peeled, and pound in a
mortar until as fine as salt. Then take pure honey and put it on the fire
and boil it until it is on the point of thickening. Then take the almonds,
walnuts, pistachios and pine-nuts that you have pounded, and throw all this
upon the honey and stir it until it is thickened. Then take the semolina
dough that was put in the pot, and make a thin, small flat cake (raghîf)
of it, and put on it a morsel of this thickened paste. Then take the raghîf
with your hand and turn it until it is smooth and round and bite-sized.
[This sentence is in Huici-Miranda's Spanish translation but not in the
published Arabic text] Make all the dough according to this recipe, until
the filling is used up. The dough should be only moderately thin.  Then take
a frying pan and put oil in it, and when it starts to boil, throw in a piece
of isfunj and fry it with a gentle fire until it is done. And if you wish to
thicken with sugar, do so, and if you with to throw almonds, ground sugar,
and rosewater into the filling, do so and it will come out aromatic  
and agreeable.

Huette
Caid


Date: Fri, 05 May 2006 18:00:37 -0400
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] alfajores/al-hasu
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

	Luis Benavides Barajas in _Nueva-Clásica Cocina Andalusí_ page 265  
provides a recipe for the what appears to him to be the most ancient  
alfajores containing flour, eggs, yeast and butter. They are baked  
and they can be make into any shape desired and served with one on  
top of they other with mermelade or syrup in between. Unfortunately  
Benvadies never gives his source but his alfajor appears to be the  
forefather of /alfajor carioca/ found in South America today**.  
Covarrubias defines alfajor as a Moorish pastry made with  
breadcrumbs, honey, /alegrías/ (Prince's feather seeds I think)and  
spices. Antonio Nebrixensis defines /alaxú/ or /alfaxú/ as preserves  
made with honey and bread crumbs. He does not mention that the word  
means stuffing and Benavides'are not stuffed.

	As per Dulces navidad.qxd <http://www.auladelafarmacia.org/docs/AULA% 
20delafarmacia%20N10%20-%20El%20arte%20culinario%20desde%20la% 
20Rebotica.pdf> at www.auladelafarmacia.org/docs/Spanish alfajores  
were first documented in the 14th Century where they are defined as a  
spice for hypocras. They are traced back to Medina Sidonia, the haven  
of Moorish desserts and here they are described as cylinder or  
croquette shaped, 11  cm high but the ingredients listed include  
almonds and hazelnuts which we are trying to avoid.  Too we are after  
a Spanish version not a South American one. Benavides recipes are ok  
but I sure there is a better one somewhere. 	


From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
>>>>
Where did you find this information?  It doesn't match any information that
I have seen or read.  It sounds very much apocryphal to me.

The filled alfajores that I know of are only 19th century.  The Spanish
alfajores are entirely different and are a small cake make with honey
and almonds.  The only connection that they have is their name.
<<<<<


Date: Sat, 06 May 2006 09:40:16 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] alfajores/al-hasu
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Suey wrote:

>     Luis Benavides Barajas in _Nueva-Clásica Cocina Andalusí_ page 265
> provides a recipe for the what appears to him to be the most ancient
> alfajores containing flour, eggs, yeast and butter. They are baked and
> they can be make into any shape desired and served with one on top of
> they other with mermelade or syrup in between. Unfortunately Benvadies
> never gives his source but his alfajor appears to be the forefather of
> /alfajor carioca/ found in South America today**. Covarrubias defines
> alfajor as a Moorish pastry made with breadcrumbs, honey, /alegrías/
> (Prince's feather seeds I think)and spices. Antonio Nebrixensis
> defines /alaxú/ or /alfaxú/ as preserves made with honey and bread
> crumbs. He does not mention that the word means stuffing and
> Benavides'are not stuffed.

There is a recipe in the "Manual de Mugeres", a late 15th/early 16th c.
Spanish household manual.  One recipe is "Conserva de Alhaju".  Whenever
I make them, I describe them as honey-nut cakes.  They're made with
crumbs*, honey, almonds and walnuts, and spices. It's a tasty recipe,
but by no stretch of the imagination is it stuffed.

You can find an English translation here:
http://www.geocities.com/karen_larsdatter/manual.htm
...and the original Spanish here:
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/ 
01371074322363763092257/index.htm

* There may be other recipes that call for breadcrumbs.  This one says
to make a firm, well-kneaded dough with flour, oil, and water; make thin
"cakes" of it which are baked, then ground fine and sifted.  I make
something like pie-crust with olive oil, and bake it in a large, flat
piece on a cookie sheet.  A brief spin in the food processor produces
very fine crumbs.
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom


Date: Sat, 06 May 2006 15:20:20 -0400
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: alfajores/al-hasu
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Oops I have a typo here, my apologies. I guess I am too wrapped up with
Ziryab:

"These are cookies with filling of Arab origin. In Spain they date
back to the *8th* Century."

  From what I can find so far is that they are first documented in the
*14th* C. as a spice for hippocras (which makes no sense to me). The
next mention is that the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1487 asked the Mayor
and City Council of Medina Sidonia to send some to the king and queen at
their military camp in Malaga. They are mentioned again in Dr. Andres de
Leon's "Practica del Morbo Galico" in 1605 and as Robin Carroll-Mann
points out there are obviously other references which I cannot lay my
hands on so far. Curious Granado has no recipe for them as far as I can
see. The pith of the matter is that Benavides does not cite his sources.
Here he says: 'every Andalus place has a different recipe for this
reason here is the most ancient' and he goes on to give it with NO nuts,
which is driving me nuts! I am missing the Manual de las Mujeres in my
research material, splendid info that there is a alfajores recipe there
but as you see it contains nuts! Shall get a hold of a copy as soon as I
get to Madrid but I have to give the talk and complete the alfajores
recipe for the chef tomorrow without almonds or any other nuts or the
Cultural Center will chop off my head :-! .
Cheers,
Sue

> From: David Friedman: . . .that the evidence is that the date back  
> to the 8th century in Spain? I'm pretty sure there aren't any  
> Spanish cookbooks.

From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius": ...somebody's estimation  
of when anything found in Spain, introduced by the Moors, showed up...

> From: Robin Carroll-Mann
> There is a recipe in the "Manual de Mugeres", a late 15th/early 16th c.
> Spanish household manual.  One recipe is "Conserva de Alhaju".   Whenever
> I make them, I describe them as honey-nut cakes.  They're made with
> crumbs*, honey, almonds and walnuts, and spices. . .


Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:06:01 +1000
From: Margaret Rendell <m_rendell at optusnet.com.au>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Seeking Period pie Crust
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Tomasia wrote:
>
> "The Custard Paste"
> The original comes from Libro di Cucina - Recipe "C"
> 3# white flour
> 1# Almonds
> 1/2# hazelnuts, toasted, ground
> 1/4 c. butter melted
> 2T sugar
> 2-3 T almond milk
> Make almond milk from your almonds. Drain milk
> reserving nuts and chop them well. Mix the almonds
> with the flour and the hazelnuts. Add sugar and butter
> until your dough forms. This dough works out better if
> you press it in the pan, however, if you roll slowly
> on a WELL floured surface this will work. Place in
> your pie pan. Fill. Bake. Yield: 2 crusts

Greetings Signora Tomasia

I, also, have been gathering period pastry recipes, but I'd missed this
one - thank you!

I was wondering, why do you put the hazelnut meal in the pastry? I
didn't read it that way.

This could be because I'm working from a translation (I can't read the
original), or if you are too maybe they are different ones. I have only
seen the translation by Helewyse de Birkestad
at

http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/libro.html

which says "Take the most white flour that you have, in the amount of
three pounds, and take two ounces of sugar, a pound of almonds and
thirty six hazel nuts, half a pound of raisins, twenty five dates, half
of a quarter of an ounce of cloves.  Take a good quantity of almond
milk, and take the flour that you have, well mixed with water so that it
is thick.  Take a frying pan which is well greased with oil and with
this flour make a crust, and powder it with the sugar and the said
spices, add the crushed hazel nuts, finely chopped dates, well washed
raisins and ground cloves and save a portion of the crust and put it
above each part of these things and it is a tart."

I can read this as a crust made of flour and water, or maybe flour and
almond milk, but the hazelnuts seem to me to be part of the filling,
along with the raisins and dates.

Although it sounds yummy whichever way :)

Margaret Rendell/Emma de Lastone
Krae Glas, Lochac/Melbourne, Australia


Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 00:35:39 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Question about flour
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

<<< On Jan 4, 2007, at 11:01 PM, Elaine Koogler wrote:

> I am going to be baking a Middle Eastern cookie called "Virgins Breasts".
> However, the recipe calls for semolina flour.  How different is from the
> unbleached plain flour I already have?  Is there a great diference
> between the regular unbleached flour I already have and the semolina?
>
> Kiri

Semolina flour is traditionally coarser in grind and higher in gluten
than regular bread or AP (or what the British call "plain") flour...

Adamantius  >>>

There's a traditional Italian cookie called "Minne de  
virgine" (Virgin's breast). Usually made by Sicilian bakers for  
consumption on St. Agatha's Day (she whose boobs were cut off in  
martyrdom). I am wondering if the Middle Eastern cookie was inspired  
by the Sicilian, or vice versa. Today's confection is quite baroque;  
iced white with marzipan and cherry nipples.

The semolina flour we usually can get in the states is coarser in  
grind; think Red Mill's flour for pasta (which also makes good rustic  
bread). Semolina comes from durum, or hard, wheat. Our white flour is  
made from soft wheat, and that is what we usually use in baking.  
However, in Italy and other places you can get a finer-ground durum  
flour, which can be used for cakes and pastries (today's baker  
prefers the soft wheat flour for cakes and cookies, though). It will  
take more liquid and the final result will be coarser crumbed. If you  
have an Indian grocery store near you, look for pane puri, which is  
ground finer than the typical pasta semolina from Red Mill, or maybe  
a gourmet specialty store will carry finer-ground durum wheat flour.

Gianotta 


Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 15:25:45 EDT
From: Sandragood at aol.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Period Baklava
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

In a message dated 4/4/2007 12:05:42 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
sca-cooks-request at lists.ansteorra.org writes:

> Now,  does anyone have a source for this isifunj Anne-Marie speaks  of?


I don't have a reference for isifunj, but in the Medieval Arab Cookery Book
there is a reference to Lauzinaj.  There are several variations of this  dish.
  It is not exactly like baklava, but one could interpret the version  below
into something similar.

Here's how it reads.

Take a pound of finely ground sugar.  Take a third of a pound of  peeled
almonds, and grind them fine also, and mix them with the sugar and knead  with
rose-water.  Take some thin bread, like sanbusaj bread, the thinner the better;
the most suitable is kunafa bread.  Spread out a sheet of that  bread and put
the kneaded almonds and sugar on it.  Then roll it up like a  belt, cut it in
pieces and arrange them on a vessel.  Refine [viz. by  frying with spices] as
much fresh sesame oil as needed, and put it on  them.  Then cover them with
syrup to which you have added rose-water, and  sprinkle them with sugar and
pistachios, both pounded fine.  And if the  pistachios are fried and  
thrown in the syrup, it is a marvel.

Most modern references list this dish as marzipan,  stuffed or  
wrapped in a "tube" of thin pastry.

Depending on how you interpret the "rolling up like a belt and cut in
pieces" could alter the appearance of the final dish.  One could easily  visualize a "thin sheet of bread" spread out before you as you spread the almond   
sugar mixture over it.  You could then roll it up like one would a belt   
much like the jellyroll fashion then cut.  This would then give you many   
layers to the end product.

THL Elizabeth


Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 15:38:41 -0400
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Baklava
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I've served lauzinaj at two feasts now, and it is even better received than
baklava would have been.  We used wonton wrappers one time and puff pastry
the second.  We rolled them into tubes around marzipan, baked it, poured a
honey-rosewater mixture over it and sprinkled ground pistachios over that.
Yummmmmmmmm.....

To be honest, I thought we had long since established that baklava,
especially when made with phyllo, is out of period.  I do have a recipe for
a precursor to baklava that I found in a listing of Persian recipes that
appears in the introductory material in "Soup for the Qan".  Essentially,
it's a series of very thin pancakes with a mixture of walnuts and spices in
between each pancake, then a honey mixture poured over the top.  We did this
for our last ME feast, and it was a howling success as well.  If you're
interested in either of these, I can provide the recipes for you.  I
redacted the proto-baklava recipe, and Dame Hauviette d'Anjou did the
Lauzinaj.

Kiri

On 4/4/07, Sandragood at aol.com <Sandragood at aol.com> wrote:
> I don't have a reference for isifunj, but in the Medieval Arab Cookery Book
> there is a reference to Lauzinaj.  There are several variations of this  dish.
> It is not exactly like baklava, but one could interpret the version  below
> into something similar.


Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 17:41:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Isfunj
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
	
Here's the recipe from Cariadoc's Miscellany, which is from the  
Anonymous Andalusian cookbook:

Making Stuffed Isfunj
Take semolina and sift it, and take the flour and put it in a dish.  
Take water and sprinkle it lightly on the semolina. Then put your  
hand in it and gather it all up and cover it with a second dish,  
leaving it until it sweats. Then uncover it and mix it until it  
becomes like white flour [that is, the durum ground wheat should  
resemble soft wheat flour]. Throw oil in it, and mix it, and put in  
leavening and eggs, throw in a measure of five eggs and then mix the  
dough with the eggs. Then put it in a new pot, after greasing it with  
oil, and leave it until it rises. Then take almonds, walnuts, pine  
nuts and pistachios, all peeled, and pound in a mortar until as fine  
as salt. Then take pure honey and put it on the fire and boil it  
until it is on the point of thickening. Then take the almonds,  
walnuts, pistachios and pine-nuts that you have pounded, and throw  
all this upon the honey and stir it until it is thickened. Then take  
the semolina dough that was put in the pot, and make a thin, sm

Essentially, I think you're going to need an egg-enriched yeasted  
semolina bread dough for your "doughnuts." We're not talking light  
and fluffy here, especially after it's deep fried and doused in honey  
and rosewater syrup!

Gianotta


Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:01:29 -0500
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Isfunj
To: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>,	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

yep, that's the one!

we did a version many years ago that was little semolina crust  
tartlets, filled with a honey and
nut mxiture. not really isfunj, but dang tasty, none the less....hmm.  
I wonder where that recipe went? (it was a VERY long time ago...)

--Anne-Marie

On Wed Apr  4 15:41 , Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net> sent:

> Here's the recipe from Cariadoc's Miscellany, which is from the  
> Anonymous Andalusian cookbook:
>
> Making Stuffed Isfunj


Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 17:13:18 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Baklava
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> In a message dated 4/4/2007 12:05:42 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> sca-cooks-request at lists.ansteorra.org writes:
>
> Now,  does anyone have a source for this isifunj Anne-Marie speaks   
> of?

From the Andalusian cookbook (13th c.)

Making Stuffed Isfunj

Take semolina and sift it, and take the flour and
put it in a dish. Take water and sprinkle it
lightly on the semolina. Then put your hand in it
and gather it all up and cover it with a second
dish, leaving it until it sweats. Then uncover it
and mix it until it becomes like white flour
[that is, the durum ground wheat should resemble
soft wheat flour]. Throw oil in it, and mix it,
and put in leavening and eggs, throw in a measure
of five eggs and then mix the dough with the
eggs. Then put it in a new pot, after greasing it
with oil, and leave it until it rises. Then take
almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and pistachios, all
peeled, and pound in a mortar until as fine as
salt. Then take pure honey and put it on the fire
and boil it until it is on the point of
thickening. Then take the almonds, walnuts,
pistachios and pine-nuts that you have pounded,
and throw all this upon the honey and stir it
until it is thickened. Then take the semolina
dough that was put in the pot, and make a thin,
small flat cake (ragh? f) of it, and put on it a
morsel of this thickened paste. Then take the
ragh? f with your hand and turn it until it is
smooth and round and bite-sized. [This sentence
is in Huici-Miranda's Spanish translation but not
in the published Arabic text] Make all the dough
according to this recipe, until the filling is
used up. The dough should be only moderately
thin. Then take a frying pan and put oil in it,
and when it starts to boil, throw in a piece of
isfunj and fry it with a gentle fire until it is
done. And if you wish to thicken with sugar, do
so, and if you with to throw almonds, ground
sugar, and rosewater into the filling, do so and
it will come out aromatic and agreeable.

Tharda of Isfunj with Milk

Make isfunj from white flour and make it well,
and fry it. Add to it while kneading as many eggs
as it will bear. When you are finished making it
and frying it, cook as much fresh milk as is
needed and beat in it eggwhites and fine white
flour, and stir carefully until cooked. Then cut
the isfunj into small pieces with scissors and
moisten with the milk until saturated. Then melt
butter and throw on the tharid,  and sprinkle
with sugar and use, God willing.

(there's a worked out version of that one in the Miscellany)

Making of Elegant Isfunja ("Sponge")

You take clear and clean semolina and knead it
with lukewarm water and yeast and knead again.
When it has risen, turn the dough, knead fine and
moisten with water, little by little, so that it
becomes like tar after the second kneading, until
it becomes leavened or is nearly risen. Take a
small new jug, wet it in water and then in
clarified butter or fresh oil until it is soaked.
Then take a fat reed. Cut off a length to reach
to the bottom of the pot. Grease the reed with
oil and put the lid on the pot and seal (the lid
to the pot) with clay with the reed inside, and
put it in the oven with bread, and let it be in
the middle of the bread. When the bread is done,
know that it (the "sponge") is also ready. Take
it out, remove the clay and take out the reed.
Take fresh or clarified butter and honey. Heat
them [p. 74, verso] and pour them into the pot in
the place where you removed the reed and leave it
until the "sponge" soaks it up. When it has
absorbed it, add butter or honey until it soaks
up more. Then break the pot away from it, put it
on a platter and cut it as you would cut
watermelon. Chop almonds and walnuts and pine
nuts and pistachios and lump white sugar and
sprinkle it over it ...[about two words
missing]... with cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon or
the like, if God wishes.

None of them sound to me much like baklava.
Something a little closer, that I often make at
Pennsic:

Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]
Andalusian p. A-60 - A-61 (GOOD)

Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a
stiff dough without yeast. Moisten it little by
little and don't stop kneading it until it
relaxes and is ready and is softened so that you
can stretch a piece without severing it. Then put
it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When
the pan has heated, take a piece of the dough and
roll it out thin on marble or a board. Smear it
with melted clarified butter or fresh butter
liquified over water. Then roll it up like a
cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then twist it
and beat it with your palm until it becomes like
a round thin bread, and if you want, fold it over
also. Then roll it out and beat it with your palm
a second time until it becomes round and thin.
Then put it in a heated frying pan after you have
greased the frying pan with clarified butter, and
whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten
[with butter] little by little, and turn it
around until it binds, and then take it away and
make more until you finish the amount you need.
Then pound them between your palms and toss on
butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled,
dust it with ground sugar and serve it.

2 c semolina flour	1/4 c clarified butter
for frying	1/4 c butter at the end
~ 5/8-3/4 c water	1 T+ sugar	1/4 c honey at the end (or more)
1/4 c = 1/8 lb butter, melted

Stir most of the water into the flour, knead
together, then gradually knead in the rest of the
water. Knead for about 5-10 minutes until you
have a smooth, elastic and slightly sticky dough
that stretches instead of breaking when you pull
it a little. Divide in four equal parts. Roll out
on a floured board, or better on floured marble,
to at least 13"x15". Smear it with about 4 t
melted butter. Roll it up. Twist it. Squeeze it
together, flatten with your hands to about a 5-6"
diameter circle. If you wish, fold that in
quarters and flatten again to about a 5-6"
circle. Melt about 1 T of clarified butter in a
frying pan and fry the dough about 8 minutes,
turning about every 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (shorter
times towards the end). Repeat with the other
three parts, adding more clarified butter as
needed. Melt 1/4 c butter, heat 1/4 c honey. Beat
the cooked circles between your hands to loosen
the layers, put in a bowl, pour the honey and
butter over them, dust with sugar, and serve. If
you are going to give it time to really soak, you
might use more butter and honey.

For regular flour, everything is the same except
that you may need slightly more water. You can
substitute cooking oil for the clarified butter
(which withstands heat better than plain butter)
if necessary.

It doesn't have the nuts of baklava, but it does
have the many layers of thin pastry effect.

> I don't have a reference for isifunj, but in the Medieval Arab Cookery Book
> there is a reference to Lauzinaj.  There are several variations of this  dish.
>  It is not exactly like baklava, but one could interpret the  
> version  below into something similar.

The problem is that "thin bread," even if "the
thinner the better," doesn't sound much like the
phyllo sheets used for baklava.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com


Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 07:37:11 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Baklava
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Apr 4, 2007, at 10:57 PM, David Friedman wrote:

> In a previous post I gave the recipe for the leafy dish, which
> exactly fits your description except that it is fried rather than
> baked and is from the 13th century.

Yes, I realize that. And you can make various varak-like pastry
sheets and use it like phyllo, but phyllo, under that name, is made
by a machine that pours a thin batter over hot rollers that bake the
batter, scrapes the pastry off the rollers, and stacks the result to
allow the steam escaping from the pastry to render it flexible. Yes,
very similar to the leafy dish, also very similar to the process for
making the wrappers for Shanghai spring rolls, and not all that far
from some versions of oatcakes, either.

My point being that while antecedents may be substantially
(structurally and even functionally) similar to phyllo, they may have
sufficient conceptual dissimilarities that they become, on some
levels, something else. I haven't seen (although there may be)
evidence that phyllo, under that name, predates the mechanical
process used to make it, so I have to wonder about the extent to
which some of these antecedents are really linear antecedents.

Yes, we're getting a bit forensically chi-chi here, but it's sort of
unavoidable. Let's try this: a very small spearhead and a large
arrowhead are similar in a lot of ways, sometimes indistinguishable
to the naked eye, used in a reasonably similar manner, made of the
same materials, but still not completely the same thing. This would
be an example of substantial similarities and some conceptual
differences.

Parched grain and various flattened grain products have been around
for centuries, but the market for Kellogg's Corn Flakes did not arise
from a bunch of people standing around wishing someone would come up
with an industrial process for creating a new flattened, parched
grain product. Rather, the corn flake was invented -- using a process
not too different from that for phyllo, and not too far off in its
date, either --, and people's eating habits were altered to create a
niche for the product. I'm not sure if this is entirely untrue of
phyllo, which is why I suggested that it probably had clear period
antecedents, but may, itself, be post-period.

I suppose when we look at the antecedents for phyllo, it's easy to
suppose that the Turks are a likely bridge between Middle Eastern
varak and Greek phyllo. Do we have any reason to believe the Greeks
were eating a phyllo-like pastry before, roughly, 1453? Is it an
early example of a marketing campaign altering a national cuisine?

Adamantius, too early in the morning and not enough caffeine...


Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 09:16:50 -0400
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 12, Issue 16
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On 4/4/07, Stanza693 at wmconnect.com <Stanza693 at wmconnect.com> wrote:
> Oh, yes, please!  That Lauzinaj sounds quite interesting, especially, but
> I'd love to have both recipes if you don't mind sharing.
>
> Constanza Marina de Huelva

No problem....here you go:

*7.      **Gullach*

Mix evenly egg white, bean paste and cream [to make a dough].  Spread out
[dough] and fry into thin pancakes.  Use one layer of white powdered sugar,
[ground] pine nuts and [ground] walnuts for each layer of pancake.  Make
three-four layers like this.  Pour honey dissolved in ghee ["Muslim oil"]
over the top.  Eat.

2 Egg whites
1/2 cup soy flour
1/2 cup table cream
1/16 cup water
3 tbsp. Powdered sugar
1/2 cup Pine nuts, ground
1/2 cup Walnuts, ground
1/2 cup Honey
3 tbsp. Ghee

Mix egg white, bean paste and cream together to form a batter.  Spread out
the batter onto a griddle and fry into thin pancakes.  Place one pancake on
a dish, covering it with a layer of white powdered sugar, ground pine nuts
and walnuts.  Place a second pancake on top and repeat layering until there
are three or four layers.  Melt honey with ghee and pour over stack of
pancakes.

NOTE:  According to Dr. Buell,  this  is, in all likelihood, the precursor
of baklava, that wonderful dessert so common throughout the Middle East.  This
view is also supported by Duke Cariadoc of the Bow, well known throughout
our Society as an expert on period cookery and Middle Eastern culture.

*These actually came from a monograph on Muslim culture that Paul wrote.  But
I include them here because I saw them in the recipes that you listed.  The
ones below are the ones I actually pulled from "Soup".*

* *
Lauzinaj

superfine sugar
almonds or almond flour -- finely ground
orange flower water
thin  pastry
sesame oil
syrup/rosewater
finely ground pistachios

Grind almonds small (or we may use almond flour)

Mix almonds and superfine sugar together, moistening with rosewater.  This
makes the marzipan.

Roll pastry out thin and put on it the almond/sugar/rosewater mixture.

Fold pastry over the mixture, making a long roll.  Then cut it into  
pieces.

Add fresh sesame oil.

Cover with orange flower water/syrup mixture and sprinkle with ground
pistachios.

Original Recipe: Take a ratl of sugar, and bray fine.  Take one-third of a
ratl of peeled almonds, and likewise bray small; mix with the sugar,
moistening with rose-water.  Take bread made thin like the crust of
sanbusaj, or thinner if possible; roll this loaf out, and place on it the
almonds and moistened sugar, fold round strip-wise, cut into small pieces
and lay out.  Refine fresh sesame-oil as required, and add; then cover with
syrup to which rose-water has been added.  Sprinkle with fine-ground
pistachios.

                        --The Description of Familiar Foods

Note:  we actually used puff pastry and ready-made marzipan which we
purchased by the can from a restaurant supply place.
Both of these are very good and were very well-received at our feast.  As I
indicated earlier, I redacted the Gullach recipe and Dame Hauviette d'Anjou
did the Lauzinaj.  Sorry about the lack of quantities in the latter one.  We
just sort of did it by "the seat of our pants!"

Kiri


Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 20:03:08 -0700
From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period baklava-like pastry was: Period Greek
	Recipes
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Vitaliano Vincenzi asked about baklava...

Baklava - you don't cook it in the kitchen where the feast is. You
cook it ahead of time, like the day before. If you don't drown it in
syrup (all that sugar or honey makes me gag, i think less syrup is
better), it should still be crisp.

I think part of the problem is that we have a certain idea of what
"bread" is, and when a recipe calls for flat bread, our preconception
takes over. Yet lavash is a kind of flat bread and it is usually
about as thick as thick paper or the thin cardboard on the back of a
writing tablet. Yeah, that's thicker than phyllo, but it's thinner
than just about any other bread i know.

Now, i can't, but my Austro-Hungarian great-grandmother Josephine
could make strudel dough by hand and it was nearly transparent. So
there's no reason something approximating phyllo couldn't be handmade.

And when i was in Morocco i watched the mother of the family my
daughter was living with for her semester abroad make a wide variety
of traditional Moroccan "bready" items. Many were quite thin and
nearly transparent and if they'd been baked instead of cooked on top
of the stove in a pan, they'd be an awful lot like thick phyllo.

Additionally, poetic diners said that wrapper of lauzinaj was as
transparent as a grasshopper's wing, and, as Isa ibn Hisham said,
"Bring us some throat-easing Lauzinaj, for it slips into the veins.
Let it be... [fresh], the crust paper thin, generously filled,
pearled with almond oil, starry in color, melting before it meets the
teeth..."

Sure, they didn't have phyllo, but i suspect that the "bread" they
used was quite thin.

Below are three original recipes for lauzinaj. These recipes are from
The Book of the Description of Familiar Foods, translated by Charles
Perry, which has over 1/2 dozen Lauzinaj recipes on pp. 456-457;
there are also some lauzinaj recipes in al-Baghdadi on p. 84. Both as
found in "Medieval Arab Cookery".

Lauzinaj: One part almonds, pounded coarsely. Put a like quantity of
finely pounded sugar on it with a third as much rosewater, and melt
it with it. When it thickens, throw one part sugar on it and take it
from the fire. It is dry lauzinaj.

As For The Moist: It is that you take a pound of finely milled sugar,
and you take a third of a pound of finely milled blanched almonds,
and knead it with rose-water. Take thin bread such as sanbusak bread
- it is better if even thinner; the best and most suitable is kunafa
- and spread out a sheet of that bread and put the kneaded sugar and
almonds on it, then roll it up and cut it in small pieces. Arrange
them in a vessel and refine as much fresh sesame oil as needed and
put it on them. Then cover them with syrup dissolved with rose-water
and sprinkle them with sugar and finely pounded pistachios, and serve.

Another Variety: It is that you take starch [sc. flour?] and knead it
hard, and as much as it stiffens, thin it carefully so that it
becomes like fresh milk. Take the curved mirror (probably a cooking
pan of some sort) and heat it and pour [thin batter] in it with the
"emptier" (probably a ladle) and take it up. Then roll up pistachios,
sugar, musk, and rosewater in it (the cooked batter). Pack them
snugly, cut them, and put hot sesame oil and syrup on them, and
sprinkle them with sugar. This can be eaten right away.

Again, i suspect that the word translated as "bread" (and it's
"khubz" the Arabic word for bread) may imply in this context
something quite unlike what we might think of as bread, since i know
i wouldn't call the wrapper for sanbusak/samosa "bread", and the item
used for lauzinaj should be even thinner than that for sanbusak.

Let me note here that there are still modern desserts in the Near and
Middle East made of thin dough (in Morocco, it's warqa, which is made
in small pieces, then overlapped) in which the filling is rolled up
NOT like a jelly roll, in the crispy outer layer. One is L'Hancha,
"The Snake", which seems to me to be an awful lot like lauzinaj.

And finally, here's my version. Since i'm not much of a baker, i used
phyllo, rather than make extra thin sanbusak wrappers or try my hand
at warqa.

1 package phyllo / filo dough sheets
5 pounds almond paste (almonds, sugar, bitter almonds)
several bottle capfuls of rose water - i used Cortas brand
1 cup light sesame oil or clarified unsalted butter
[do NOT under any circumstances use roasted sesame oil]
1 cup honey
1 capful rose water or more to taste
6 ounces shelled natural (i.e., uncolored) pistachio nuts

The directions look complicated, but this was actually a rather
simple and easy procedure!

Thaw and prepare phyllo according to package directions - thaw for
several hours then place on a clean plate, cover with waxed paper and
then with a clean damp towel. Do not let the towel touch the phyllo.

Put marzipan in a large bowl and with the hands work rose water into it.

Prepare a clean dry surface large enough to hold 10 marzipan snakes
about 1/2 inch in diameter as as long as the largest dimension of
your phyllo sheets. Cover with waxed paper.

Then with the hands, roll the marzipan into "snakes" no more than
1/2" in diameter and as long as the longest dimension of your phyllo
sheets, then place them on the waxed papered surface. Make ten
"snakes".

Prepare a clean dry baking sheet about the size of a phyllo sheet -
cover with baker's "parchment" - this is a type of paper available in
baking and gourmet shops. It will keep the pastry from sticking to
the pan.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Cover another clean dry surface the size of a phyllo sheet with waxed
paper. Fold back the damp towel and the waxed paper, very carefully
and gently remove one phyllo sheet, and place on prepared waxed paper
surface. Recover remaining phyllo sheets.

With a pastry brush, gently brush phyllo sheet with sesame oil or
melted clarified butter, being sure to get the edges very well.

Again, gently take a phyllo sheet from the pile, lay it on top of the
first prepared sheet, and brush well with sesame oil.

Then place one marzipan "snake" about 1" from the long edge of the
phyllo sheets. Carefully draw up the one inch margin over the
"snake", then roll "snake" in the dough.

Gently remove phyllo-wrapped "snake" to parchment  covered baking
sheet and brush well with sesame oil.

Continue process of brushing phyllo sheets with oil or butter,
layering them, and rolling marzipan "snakes" in them, then
transferring them to baking sheet and brushing outer surface with
oil. Repeat until you have make ten "snakes".

Although my directions look long, this whole process went rapidly
with me and one assistant.

With a sharp knife mark the top "snake" into ten equal pieces. Then
with the knife, cut through all ten "snakes" so that you have one
hundred pieces. Size will vary depending on size of phyllo sheets.
Mine were 18 inches in the largest dimension, so each cut piece was
approximately 1-3/4 inches long.

Put baking sheet in center of oven and bake for about 5 minutes.
Check to see if pastries are browning evenly. If not, turn pan so
paler pieces are in the warmer part of the oven.

Bake for several more minutes and check again. The phyllo will brown
fairly quickly and you don't want to over cook them. Most ovens don't
heat exactly accurately, some being hotter and some cooler, and also
having hot and cool spots, which is why it is important to check
frequently.

When pastries are a medium golden-brown, remove from oven and let
cool on heat-proof surface.

If you decide they aren't brown enough, you can reheat them before  
serving.

Just before serving, gently and carefully remove pastries from baking
sheet onto serving plates, drizzle with warm honey mixed with a
little rose water, and sprinkle with crushed pistachio nuts.

NOTE: I used three large baking sheets as work surfaces - one covered
with waxed paper for the marzipan "snakes", a second covered with
waxed paper to hold unfolded phyllo sheets and on which "snakes" were
rolled in phyllo, and a third on which to actually bake the
phyllo-wrapped marzipan. All the sheets were approximately 18 inches
long and 12 inches wide.

I made the Lauzinaj ahead of time and i've made it for two feasts now.

-----

A delicious modern baklava recipe:

Conchobhar, the Bard of the Mists, specifically requested Baklavah
for the feast i cooked for him. This recipe looked good, so i tried
it. It was *FABULOUS*!!! And it wasn't all that hard to make. We made
it on-site, but it was an indoor kitchen with two ovens.

Baqlawa min Semsem wa Fistuk
Baklava with Sesame Seeds and Pistachios [literal translation]

Modern, Syrian-Lebanese, adapted from:
page 16
Patisserie of the Eastern Mediterranean
by Arto Der Haroutunian
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1989
ISBN 0-07-026665-4

My recipe made 100 small pieces

MAKE SYRUP:

3-1/2 c. sugar
3 cups water
juice of 3 lemons
2 Tb. rose water
2 Tb. orange flower water

Put sugar in water with lemon juice on medium fire. Stir.
Raise heat and bring to boil, stirring.
Lower heat and simmer 10 min., until syrup coats the spoon.
Remove from heat, stir in flower waters, and let cool.

ASSEMBLE BAQLAWA:

small amount of butter to grease pans
2 lb. phyllo
3 Tb. butter
2/3 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup raisins, soaked about 15 min. in warm water
about 1/2 lb. each almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1 tsp. powdered cinnamon
1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
2 cups melted butter
2 cups shelled pistachio nutmeats, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Grease two 12 X 8 X 2 pans with a little butter.

Place phyllo sheets on a large plate, open them out halfway, cover
top with waxed paper, then a damp towel.
In 3 Tb. butter, fry sesame seeds until golden, stirring constantly.
Remove sesame seeds from heat and stir in raisins, chopped mixed
nuts, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Put one sheet of phyllo in pan, cut in half.
With a wide pastry brush, spread with about 1 tsp. butter. Continue
adding half sheets, buttering every second sheet, until there are 6
to 8 half sheets stacked in the pan.
Scatter half of  nut-raisin mixture evenly over the pastry.
Repeat with another 6-8 sheets of phyllo and butter, then sprinkle
with the remaining nuts-and-raisins.
Top with another 6-8 sheets of phyllo, buttering every second sheet.
Butter top.
Pour any remaining butter over all.

Carefully cut into pieces  (about 1-3/4") without crushing. Be sure
to cut through to the bottom of the pan.
Sprinkle all over with chopped pistachios
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 min.
Lower heat to 300 and bake an additional hour - check occasionally to
make sure it doesn't burn.
Remove from oven and let cool about 15 min.

Pour cold syrup evenly over all.
Let cool completely.
Loosen all pieces with a sharp knife, and transfer very carefully on
serving dishes.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 03:23:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Warqa  was: African dish
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

It is interesting because Claudia Roden in her book Arabesque says that Bstilla is made with "trid" which she says is "an oily puff pastry made by pulling an  
elastic dough until it is paper-thin and layering it."

In another section of her book, she has a section called "Warka or  
Brick for Bstilla and Briwat".

"Large, ever-so-thin pancakes called warka are used to makd large round pies called bstilla (or pastilla) and small ones called briwat.  There are made in the shape of cigars, triangles, corners, and square parcels with a variety of fillings and are deep-fried.

"Making warka is a highly skilled operation and these days it is left  
to specialists.  A dough is made with hard-wheat (or bread) flour, a pinch of salt, and warm water, and then kneaded for a long time as more water is worked in to obtain a soft, very moist, spongy elasticity.  Then the dough is left to rest for an hous, covered with a film of warm water.  Lumps the size of an egg
are picked up with one hand and dabbed onto the oiled surface of a round tray placed bottom side up over a fire.  As the dough touches the tray with repeated dabs, a thin, almost transparent, film of pastry is built up and gradually expanded into a round about 12 inches in diameter."

So I am somewhat confused by her use of "trid" with the recipe and the use of "warka" elsewhere. However, it sounds to me that "warka" isn't really the same as phyllo/fillo, although she does advocate it as a substitute.

Huette

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Edited by Mark S. Harris	pastries-msg	Page 84 of 84