whisks-msg - 9/4/06
Period whisks.
NOTE: See also the files: strainers-msg, utensils-msg, mortar-pestle-msg, ovens-msg, cooking-pots-art, p-stoves-msg, spits-msg, querns-msg.
************************************************************************
NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 16:29:42 -0400
From: Daniel Myers <eduard at medievalcookery.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] whisk
To: hlaislinn at earthlink.net, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:29 PM, Stephanie Ross wrote:
> Does anyone know if whisks are period and if there are any extant
> examples? Internet searches are bringing up nothing for me.
The answer is "sort of".
The recipe for "A dyschefull of Snowe" from "A Proper newe Booke of
Cokery" instructs the cook to make a primitive whisk by cutting the
end of a stick lengthwise into four parts.
"To make a dyschefull of Snowe. Take a pottell of swete thycke creame
and the whytes of eyghte egges, and beate them altogether wyth a
spone, then putte them in youre creame and a saucerfull of Rosewater,
and a dyshe full of Suger wyth all, then take a stycke and make it
cleane, and than cutte it in the ende foure square, and therwith
beate all the aforesayde thynges together, and ever as it ryseth take
it of and put it into a Collaunder, this done take one apple and set
it in the myddes of it, and a thicke bushe of Rosemary, and set it in
the myddes of the platter, then cast your Snowe uppon the Rosemarye
and fyll your platter therwith. And yf you have wafers caste some in
wyth all and thus serve them forthe."
[A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye (mid-16th c.)]
- Doc
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:50:59 -0500
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] whisk
To: hlaislinn at earthlink.net, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>, Daniel Myers
<eduard at medievalcookery.com>
Doesnąt the picture from scappi show a guy using a whisk? I'm thinking
of the one where he's making "sweet butter" or
something like that....there might even be whisk pictures in scappi,
now that I'm pondering...
--Anne-Marie
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 00:37:52 -0500
From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] whisk
To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks <SCA-Cooks at Ansteorra.org>
Aislinn asked:
<<< Does anyone know if whisks are period and if there are any extant
examples? Internet searches are bringing up nothing for me. >>>
Good question. I think horsehair strainers and such were often used
to get a similar result as we often use whisks for.
However, I finally found this in the dairy-prod-msg file in the
Florilegium:
<<< Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 20:09:47 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - Whipped Cream
> I've just recieved my copy of Pleyn Delit, and I love it : )
> There are a couple of question marks though - the authors repeatedly state
> that medieval cooks did not whip either cream or eggwhite. Does anyone
> know if this is really true?
> I find it hard to believe
>
> Lady Uta
Hello! I've got a recipe for Crustade Lumbard (Harl. 279, Dyuerse Bake
metis, #17) that says "Take gode Creme, & leuys of Percely, & Eyroun, [th]e
[3]olkys & [th]e whyte, & breke hem [th]er-to, & strayne [th]orwe a
straynoure, tyl it be so styf [th]at it wol bere hym-self..."
If the phrase "tyl it be so styf [th]at it wol bere hym-self..." is
referring to the cream, then this is the earliest mention of whipped
cream that I've found yet. (c. 1430)
There's an illustration from Il Cuoco Segreto..., 1570, showing a cook
whipping cream with a whisk. I posted that illustration here:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food-art/cheese_and_butter.gif
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net >>>
Although this may not be what you had in mind, there is also this
notation on whisks taken from a period document on controlling flies.
This can be found in the Pest-Control-art file in the ANIMALS section
of the Florilegium:
<<< Have whisks [little flat shovels rather like today's fly-swats] wherewith to
slay them by hand...Have your windows shut full tight with oiled or other
cloth, or with parchment or something else, so tightly that no fly may enter,
and let the flies that be within be slain with the whisk or otherwise as
above, and no others will come in'. >>>
Another bit of info from the eggs-msg file:
<<< Date: 19 May 2004 08:22:49 -0000
From: "Volker Bach" <bachv at paganet.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Meringues?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On Tue, 18 May 2004 12:43:49 -0700 (PDT), Huette von Ahrens
<ahrenshav at yahoo.com> wrote :
> According to the Oxford Companion to Food,
> "It sees to have been only in the 16th century
> that European cooks discovered that beating egg
> whites, e.g. with a whisk of birch twigs (in the
> absence of any better implement), produced an
> attractive foam.
I would dispute that statement, though 'rediscovered' might apply. Anthimus
'de observation ciborum', entry 34, describes a dish called 'afrutum',
apparently of greek origin or at least connections. he clearly states that
egg whites albumen de ovo) should be used to make it 'foamy' (quomodo
spuma) and that the result should be piled up in a dsh. THe dish looks
like a souffle, and I'd read it as clearly using beaten egg whites.
Giano >>>
Another from the utensils-msg file in the FOOD-UTENSILS section:
<<< Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 10:09:44 -0700
From: Curtis & Mary <ladymari at cybertrails.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Whisks
> Does anyone out there know if whisks had been invented by the mid
> sixteenth century? I am getting ready to make egg tempera paints and I
> know that it is vital to whip the white very well (a spoon will not do).
I beleive they used a twig or stick with the end split multiple times to
make a whisk.
Mairi, Atenveldt >>>
Hope these tidbits help. I found lots of hits on "whisk", but only
these few on the period use of whisks. Of course there might have bee
a different term used for this in period.
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas
<the end>
