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suckets-msg



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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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NOTICE -

 

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

 

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

 

I  have done  a limited amount of  editing. Messages having to do  with separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed to save space and remove clutter.

 

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the individual authors.

 

Please  respect the time  and efforts of  those who have written  these messages. The  copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this time. If  information  is  published  from these  messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

 

Thank you,

    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous

                                          Stefan at florilegium.org

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Date: 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

 

<the end>



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
All other copyrights are property of the original article and message authors.

Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org