suckets-msg - 4/1/02
Spices, fruit or fruit peel in a sugar syrup.
NOTE: See also the files: comfits-msg, candy-msg, spices-msg, fruits-msg, candied-peels-msg, Sgr-a-Cnftns-art, Sugarplums-art, sugar-msg.
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This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 02:10:09 -0500
From: "Katherine Rowberd (Kirrily Robert)" <katherine at infotrope.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] green ginger upon sirop
Here's a recipe I've been wanting to try for a bit. It's from Plat's
"Delightes for Ladies" (1609):
48. To make green ginger upon sirup.
Take Ginger one pound: pare it clean: steep it in red wine and vinegar
equally mixed: let it stand for XII daies in a close vessell, and every
day once or twice stir it up and down: then take of wine one gallon, and
of vinegar a pottle: seethe all together to the consumption of a moity or
half: then take a pottle of clean clarified honey, or more, and put
thereunto, and let them boyle well together: then take halfe an ounce
of saffron finely beaten, and put it thereto, with some sugar if you
please.
I'm pondering a few things related to it, though, before I start.
First off, the recipe seems to be giving us two things: a sour ginger
pickle thing, and a sweet/sour syrup. Presumably they're meant to be
brought together at the end, but how?
Secondly, I'm presuming that the ginger available at this time would
have been dried. Since whole dried ginger's hard to come by, how could
this recipe be adapted for whole fresh ginger?
So here's what I'm thinking. My guess is that they would have started
with whole, dry ginger, and that the 12 days' soaking in wine and
vinegar is mostly to soften it up. Of course it would also impregnate
the ginger with the sour flavour.
So, perhaps I could settle for just soaking fresh ginger overnight in
a similar mixture, which should achieve some of the impregnation of
the sour flavour. Then I'd strain what's there and bottle it using
the syrup of wine/vinegar/honey/etc, perhaps made a little more tart
than necessary since the ginger won't have picked up as much vinegar
as it might otherwise have done.
Half an ounce of saffron!?!? Yow. I think I might skimp on that a tad.
And as for adding sugar, I'm not clear on why one might want to do that,
unless it's just that dishes of that period all seem to contain sugar
more as a matter of conspicuous consumption than as a necessary
sweetener. I'm guessing that the honey probably makes it adequately
sweet, but the sugar could be added if you had a really sweet tooth,
which I don't; also, see earlier notes on perhaps wanting extra
tartness.
Anyway, I think this ginger could be a really nice sweet/sour preserve.
Yum. Just my favourite sort of thing.
--
Lady Katherine Rowberd (mka Kirrily "Skud" Robert)
katherine at infotrope.net http://infotrope.net/sca/
Caldrithig, Skraeling Althing, Ealdormere
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 08:46:44 -0600
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: green ginger upon sirop
Stefan asked:
>Yes, just the "dainty" for a party of nobles. The fork was still not
>very common in England at this time, as far as I remember. Just how
>would you eat this dainty without them? Sounds a bit messy to pick
>up with your fingers.
Actually the sucket fork was in use by this time but only for the
sweets. It appears to have been a either two- or three-pronged
affair, often with a spoon on the other end. Two are pictured on
the cover of C. Anne Wilson's _Banquetting 'Stuffe'_. The forks,
which look like the tiny kind used today for canapes, appear to have
been smaller than the forks we know today. Even the one with three
tines is depicted smaller than the bowl of the spoon. The fork
would have been dipped into the syrup ("wet suckets") to remove the
fruit or peel. The spoon could be used to dip out syrup. However,
this use of the fork didn't seem to carry over to using forks as we
use them for carrying regular food to the mouth. And, I don't know
if the fork was merely for extracting the fruit, then placing it on
a plate, or for extracting the fruit and placing it directly into
the mouth. I would guess the former, but it's only a guess.
Alys Katharine
From: "Vincent Cuenca" <bootkiller at hotmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 16:35:40 +0000
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: green ginger upon sirop
I think the green ginger in question is a very fresh ginger, i.e. just dug
out of the ground. I seem to remember reading somewhere that ginger was
grown in England at some point, but it's fuzzy. There is a recipe for green
ginger comfit in the "Llibre de totes maneres de confits" that calls for
soaking the ginger in an acidic mixture for an entire year. Sheesh!
Vicente
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:08:46 -0400
From: Jane Boyko <jboyko at magma.ca>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Peaches?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
To Preserve Peaches
Of your fairest and best coloured peaches, take a pound, and with a
wet linnen cloth wipe off the white hoare of them: then perboyle them
in halfe a pint of white wine, and a pint and a halfe of running
water; and being perboyled, pill off the white skinne of them, and
then weigh them : take to your pound of peaches, three quarters of a
pound of refined sugar, and dissolve it in a quarter pint of white
wine, and boyle it almost to the height of a sirip, and then put in
your peaches, and let them boyle in the sirup a quarter of an houre or
more, if need should require : and then put them up, and keep them all
the year.
I like the wine idea and when the Ontario peaches come in I think I
will give this a shot.
Cheers
Marina
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