food-gifts-msg

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food-gifts-msg - 1/15/09

Period food items that make good gifts.

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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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From: "James L. Matterer" <jmattere at weir.net>

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 04:47:14 -0700

Subject: Re: SC - sc - food gifts

>I am looking for period recipes that would make food I could give as

>gifts. I already have a honey-almond candy recipe and Caridoc's hais

>recipe. I am looking for cookies, cakes, possibly breads, preferably

>things that last a while but that's not a requirement, definitely

>things that don't require refrigeration.

>Thanks, Clarissa

How about period gingerbread - as in Forme of Curye and in the modern

Pleyn Delit? This is, basically, honey cooked with breadcrumbs and

spices (sometimes with ginger, sometimes without), thickened to the

point of malleability and then rolled into small balls or cut into small

squares. It's quite yummy. Would you like a recipe?

Master Ian

Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 00:22:33 EDT

From: DianaFiona at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - Flavored honey

Mordonna22 at aol.com writes:

> The recipe also mentions that this

> could be done with other "aromatic herbs." What would be other aromatic

> herbs I could use?

============================================================= >>

Rosemary, thyme, basil (Lemon, especially!), tarragon, hyssop, anise hyssop,

lemon balm, lemon verbena, rose--and my number one choice, lavender! ;-) Then

you could start in with the spices and go from there........... Can you tell

I've been thinking about this for a while? It's been on my "possible Christmas

present crafts" list for several years. Hummmm, it's about time to start

looking at that list again, and I do need to visit my beekeeper friends

soon................... (G)

Ldy Diana

Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 01:38:30 -0400

From: mermayde at juno.com (Christine A Seelye-King)

Subject: SC - Christmas Gifts

<snip> It's been on my "possible Christmas present crafts" list for

>several years. Hummmm, it's about time to start looking at that list

>again, and I do need to visit my beekeeper friends

soon...............(G)

> Ldy Diana

Hmm, good question. I have a large household, so the only way to

cover everybody is to do gifts from home. Last year we cleaned out my

parent's house, and I raided my mother's basket collection. Everybody

got their presents in baskets last year, and for many of them, the basket

itself was the best part!

But, I have made mustard, Grilling Marinade, flavored vinegars,

flavored oils, spice mixtures, herbal eyewash packs, Bug Bite Lotion (#1

requested "Please make this again for Christmas!"), soap, and various

other gifts of time and love. What to do this year? I have seen gift

baskets with an entire dinner for 2 enclosed, for example, like pasta,

sauce, clams, wine, olives, cheese, crackers. Perhaps 'dinner' baskets

with a period flavor? Maybe include some period spices (saffron, cubebs,

grains of paradise) a recipie, some mead, candied flower petals, etc.

What do you think? What would make a good basket for 2? How

about a family with kids? Hmm, this bears thinking on!

Christianna

Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 13:13:44 -0800

From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Christmas Gifts

Christianna described how she makes Christmas gifts in her kitchen and

asked for suggestions for gifts with a period flavor.

How about Duke's powder for making hypocras?

Hippocras

Menagier de Paris

To make powdered hippocras, take a quarter of very fine cinnamon selected

by tasting it, and half a quarter of fine flour of cinnamon, an ounce of

selected string ginger, fine and white, and an ounce of grain of Paradise,

a sixth of nutmegs and galingale together, and bray them all together. And

when you would make your hippocras, take a good half ounce of this powder

and two quarters of sugar and mix them with a quart of wine, by Paris

measure. And note that the powder and the sugar mixed together is the

Duke's powder. [end of original]

4 oz stick cinnamon 1 oz of ginger

2 oz powdered cinnamon 1 oz of grains of paradise

"A sixth" (probably of a pound: 2 2/3 oz) of nutmegs and galingale together

Grind them all together. To make hippocras add 1/2 ounce of the powder and

1/2 lb (1 cup) of sugar to 2 quarts of boiling wine (the quart used to

measure wine in Paris c. 1393 was about 2 modern U.S. quarts, the pound and

ounce about the same as ours). Strain through a sleeve of Hippocrates (a

tube of cloth, closed at one end).

Elizabeth/Betty Cook

Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 11:46:01 EDT

From: THLRenata at aol.com

Subject: SC - Re: Christmas Gifts

Master Huen asked:

>>This, of course, has got me seriously wondering about the many different

types of Medieval candies and sweets that there are! Does anyone have any

favorites they'd like to share, or have any suggestions I could send my

English friend?<<

"Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book" by Hilary Sperling has a large number of

late period (16th Century, maybe 17th) conserves and candied fruit recipes.

Also, see my article on making sugar plums in Stefan's Florilegium files or I

can e-mail you the recipe. One can make sugar apricots, peaches, figs, etc.

this way.

Renata

Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 02:10:43 -0500

From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)

Subject: Re: SC - Honey storage. . .

When my children were babies, and money was non-existant, I saved all the

baby food and junior food jars, sterilized them and their lids, and

painted the lids. I used a gold paint with a stencil of a P for

Parkinson and gave people wild grape jelly for Christmas. Find a friend

or neighbor who has a child at that age and beg the jars. They are a

nice size for gift baskets. You could use Corwyn's idea of heraldry as

the lid painting.

For larger jars, check house sales in older neighborhoods, estate sales,

and flea markets. There should still be some before snow flies.

I think the liquid in the honey might ooze stickiness through the cork,

even if it didn't spill.

Allison

allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA

Kingdom of Aethelmearc

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 08:02:10 -0700

From: "Schumacher, Deborah (AZ15)" <Deborah.Schumacher at iac.honeywell.com>

Subject: RE: SC - additional period food gift ideas wanted

Stefan had said

>I'd throw this out for discussion and see if anyone has any

>new period food gift ideas to add to those in this file.

With all my friends and family elsewhere I am sending lots of foodie kinda

gifts. This years big project was the millennium mead that we made and is

going to friends local and not so local if we can figure out how to legally

ship across state borders (international would be nice to, but I don't think

that's going to happen.)

The other item that is getting sent is orange syrup and lemon syrup, based

on the lemon syrup recipe from the Miscellany. The syrup is always nice to

have for those friends who event, and it is really good over ice cream too

for those who don't. (Plus citrus is cheap down here right now: 5lbs of

oranges for a buck)

We are also considering including bottles of Sekanjabin.

Other ideas?

Spice rubs based on medieval spices (similar to Gunthar's suggestion earlier

in the week)

Quince paste and suckets (When are Quinces in season?)

Preserved Cherries and Preserved Pears

Orange marmalade (Delights for ladies has a marmalade in it I think, I can

post it later if you wish)

Just some ideas off the top of my head,

Zoe

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 11:22:17 EST

From: DianaFiona at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - additional period food gift ideas wanted

Deborah.Schumacher at iac.honeywell.com writes:

<< The other item that is getting sent is orange syrup and lemon syrup, based

on the lemon syrup recipe from the Miscellany. The syrup is always nice to

have for those friends who event, and it is really good over ice cream too

for those who don't. (Plus citrus is cheap down here right now: 5lbs of

oranges for a buck)

We are also considering including bottles of Sekanjabin. >>

I did both the orange syrup and sekanjabin a couple of years ago. I added

suggestions for the orange syrup on the gift tag, but one of the recipients

used it to glaze a poultry dish, and said it worked very well indeed! So

that's another use to add to the list.......... ;-)

Ldy Diana

Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 09:42:26 -0700

From: Sue Clemenger <mooncat at in-tch.com>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: period recipes for holiday gifts

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Anyone have a good period recipe that can be made as gifts for the

> upcoming holidays?

> Andrea

You betcha!

How about mustards or Elizabethan wash balls (okay, so those aren't

edible, but it still takes a recipe!) I mostly "do" mustards for gifties

for royalty to give out, but they're quite popular. I put the stuff

into little 4 oz. jelly jars and water bath 'em to seal them.

Or Cider Sauce (I'm actually making that one for local friends this

year). This might be a little more problematic to mail out.

Or spice blends! Hippocras powder, or Powder Forte, or Powder Douce.

Or maybe a basket with enough of the right kind of goodies in it to make

a small "feast" for 2 or 4 (like those ethnic baskets one often sees

this time of year).

--maire

Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 10:33:09 -0800

From: lilinah at earthlink.net

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period recipes for holiday gifts

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

I make a mix of the Specia Negre e Forte that Francisco Sirene posted

to this list a while back and give that to folks in nice glass jars.

LXXV. SPECIE NEGRE E FORTE PER ASSAY SAVORE.

Specie negre e forte per fare savore; toy mezo quarto de garofali e

do onze de pevere e toy arquanto pevere longo e do noce moscate e fa

de tute specie.

LXXV. A STRONG BLACK SPICE FOR MANY SAUCES.

Black and strong spice for making sauces; take half a quarter (an

eighth) of an ounce of cloves and two ounces of pepper and the same

of long pepper, and two nutmegs, and make them all into spice.

Ludovico Frati, ed., Libro di Cucina del Secolo XIV, Livorno:

Raffaello Giusti, Editore, 1899, p. 40. (from a 14th c. cookbook from

the Venetian region, not the city)

I have trouble with coarsely ground black pepper (something in the

skin), although finely ground works fine, so i use the very fine.

Since i have found my long peppers, i'll use them in this years batch.

Not having them in the past, i mixed black pepper, cubebs, grains of

paradise, nutmeg and cloves.

I use it where other people use black pepper. I think it's great on

scrambled eggs.

Anahita

Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:11:32 -0800

From: Ruth Frey <ruthf at uidaho.edu>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Holiday gift ideas.

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

> From: "D Wolff" <scadian at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Anyone have a good period recipe that can be made as gifts for

> the upcoming holidays?

For sending sweets, gyngerbrede (in one of its many incarnations),

comfits made from spices and nuts (not sure if the nuts are Period, but

people love 'em), and candied citrus peel top my list. They're all

relatively quick to make and last a loooong time, so they ship well.

They are also physically durable if your shipping agency isn't gentle.

I don't have specific recipes at my fingertips for any of those,

though I could look up my versions, if desired. But they're pretty

common in most historical cooking resources . . .

Some of the "jellies" would be good, too. I remember the recipe

for a very nice one off the top of my head: take equal weights of honey

and pureed or grated raw apples (the most flavorful you can get), and

cook them together over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until

the mixture begins to get stiff and comes away from the side of the

pan, forming a coherent mass. Mix in your favorite "sweet spices"

blend (apple pie spice would work great, though you could get more

period-specific if you wished), spread in a pan or on a baking sheet,

about 1/4" thick, and let air-dry/cure for several days. Cut into

squares, diamonds, whatever shapes you wish, dust again above and below

with your sweet spice mix, and it's ready to go. It keeps quite well,

and is totally delicious (like distilled apple pie!). The downside is,

it's at least a couple hours of cooking and constant stirring to get

the right texture. I couldn't tell you exactly *how* long, it will

depend on the juiciness of your apples, and the water content of your honey.

I adapted the above jelly from a Period recipe in Redon and

company's "The Medieval Kitchen" (don't remember what the original

source was at the moment), and those authors recommended using bay leaf

as a substitute for an undefined "leaf" in the Period sweet spice

mixture. They also recommend (and I can't remember if this has any

Period basis or not) layering the pieces of jelly with bay leaves for

storing/serving, which I have tried once. It seemed like a nice

presentation, and I was making the stuff for a formal feast, so I did a

decorative circular-pyramidal layout on the trays, arranging smaller

and smaller cirlces of jelly on top of each other, with dried bay

leaves and a sprinkle of spice in between. People were incredibly

impressed with it, though really the only hard part was the length of

cooking -- and dried bay leaves are really quite inexpensive. A high

per-pound cost, but you have to consider how many dry leaves are in a

pound!

Anyway, you could probably adapt that to packing the jelly in a

box layered with bay leaves, for a pretty presentation. But I'd only

ship it in cold weather, when the stuff didn't have a chance to melt

together into a solid lump! :)

Something else I have done for gift baskets is to make "frumenty

kits," with wheat berries, sugar (the little teeny sugar cones you can

sometimes get in the Mexican section of grocery stores are perfect for

gift baskets!), saffron, a good quality sea salt, and a recipe. The

recipients add water and milk. I picked frumenty in particular because

where I live (Palouse region of WA/ID in the US) is a major

wheat-growing area, so wheat is something of a "local" specialty. I

imagine you could come up with a similar "kit" for other grain-type

dishes.

-- Ruth

Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 13:20:36 -0500

From: "Sharon Gordon" <gordonse at one.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Gifts in Jars and Baskets

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

***Gifts in jars or some ingredients in jars***

(everything to include recipes and instructions)

1) Flour, Yeast, Herbs (other ingredients) for bread

2) Beer ingredients

3) Mead ingredients

4) Cordial or spiced wine ingredients

5) Mustard flour and roughly ground mustard, dried herbs, vinegar, wine for

making mustard

6) Vinegar and dried herbs for making flavored vinegars

7) Olive oil and dried herbs for making flavored oil. Include a warning

that people should make only as much as they will use for that dinner that

day and keep it refrigerated to avoid botulism.

8) Olives, dried herbs, olive oil (all separate) for making spiced olives

9) Oatmeal, dried fruits, honey for a festive breakfast

10) A spice mix typical of a particular region and several recipes to use it

with. This might be a spice mix you create based on a collection of spices

repeatedly being used together where you have figured out consistent

proportions in a variety of recipes.

11) Herbs, vinegar or wine, oil, etc for a particular grilling marinade

12) Conserves, and can it according to latest canning safety info

13) Syrups. May want to can them too.

14) Colorful seed packets for a 2005 garden

15) Soups with dried peas, grains, herbs, vegetables. May want to mix 2

colors of peas to add extra sparkle.

16) Homemade dried pasta. Sauce ingredients.

17) Homemade canned pickles.

18) Dried fruit

19) Sourdough starter

20) A short illuminated cookbook (nicely printed or photocopied if you want

to do this for lots of people) featuring an ingredient and a jar of the ingredient.

21) Potpourri for sitting around or simmering made from a region's

strewing herbs or medically oriented aromatic herbs.

***Gifts in Baskets***

1) Elongated basket with plastic liner planted with live herbs. I

sometimes give this as is and sometimes with a bottle of olive oil so people can

make freshly herbed bread dipping oil.

2) Homemade bread, cheese, olives, wine, dried fruit

3) Decoratively arranged dried/candied fruit and nut platter

4) Soup ingredients for a particular recipe that includes lots of basket

friendly ingredients: Peas, lentils, chickpeas, canned broth/paste/bullion,

grains, dried mushrooms, herbs, spices, nuts, garlic, root vegetables,

cheese, wine/beer/ale, dried fruit, dried vegetables, olive oil, honey,

sugar, vinegar. Homemade bread.

5) Health basket (anti-flu basket with more positive name). Elderberry

syrup/wine, ingredients for anti-flu soup, strengthening herbs, several

high thread count finely woven embroider linen handkerchiefs.

Sharon

Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 10:51:12 -0500 (CDT)

From: Cat Dancer <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Twelfth Night Gifts

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005, Sharon Gordon wrote:

> With the weather becoming a bit cooler, I've started thinking more

> about upcoming holiday events? What are some of your favorite gifts

> to give (or receive) for Twelfth Night that are food or broadly

> food related? What's on your holiday wish list or dream holiday

> wish list :-)?

When I had money, I gave glass jars of hypocras spices that I'd mixed up

to specific people, and just carried around a basket of Ghirardelli

Squares: http://www.ghirardelli.com/products_sq.html to hand 'round to

whomever I ran into.

This year I might make marzipan fruit, because I already have the almond

paste, and I can assembly-line the fruit now that I've picked up the trick

of it. If I can find spare time.

Margaret FitzWilliam

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 09:39:10 -0500

From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Favorite Food Gift Ideas

To: <grizly at mindspring.com>, "Cooks within the SCA"

<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I like panforte. It keeps well wrapped in a cloth and doesn't need

refrigeration. Of course, most of the ones I've given haven't lasted

the night. The recipe is in the Florilegium.

Bear

> I will ceertainly check the florilegium for articles, but I am also

> interested in people's recent ideas of nmostly non-perishable food items

> used as gifts. Also slow to perish items. I am building some gift ideas

> for a gift closet for my wife and me to dole out for apprciation gifts, and

> am stuck for NEW ideas. I have the following ideas that I use over and

> again:

> powder forte, poder douce, hypocras spice, various mustard sauces, and whole

> spices such as long pepper, ceylon cinnamon and saffron (for those who have

> never used them especially)

> What other very simple food-related gift ideas has anyone recently used that

> connects to our food hobby. Food, generosity, appreciation and gifting to

> me are all intertwined, so I live with them that way.

> niccolo difrancesco

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:16:16 -0400

From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Favorite Food Gift Ideas

To: grizly at mindspring.com, Cooks within the SCA

<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Cookbooks are good. Pottery too. Spoons, aprons,

cool kitchen magnets. promises to do dishes, etc.

Johnnae

grizly wrote:

> interested in people's recent ideas of nmostly non-perishable food

> items used as gifts. snipped

> niccolo difrancesco

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:01:48 -0400

From: "Stephanie Ross" <hlaislinn at earthlink.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Favorite Food Gift Ideas

To: "SCA-Cooks" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Niccolo wrote:

<<< I am building some gift ideas for a gift closet for my wife and me to

dole out for apprciation gifts, and am stuck for NEW ideas.>>>

What about Shrewsbury cakes? People love them, they keep awhile, they can

be flavored with different spices/extracts and decorated as you see fit

also. My lord and I received a seasoned salt as a gift from the Crown

recently. How about lavender or rose flavored sugars? A small bag of

comfits? Candied ginger, lemon or orange peel etc.(called "suckets" in

Martha Washington's Cookery)? Sugared or spiced nutmeats?

Are hard candy suckers period?

~Aislinn~

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:19:27 -0400

From: "Sharon Gordon" <gordonse at one.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Favorite Food Gift Ideas & mix idea

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Mix of simple and more complex ideas

Olive Oil

Vinegar

Flavored vinegars, but not flavored oils

Wine/Beer/Mead

Verjuice

Cheese

Breads with fruit in it

Rose hips

Live herb plants

Garlic

Ginger

Some really good apples or pairs

Live heirloom fruit or nut trees/shrubs/plants or similar modern variety

Live rose plants with good rose hips

Heirloom seeds for period or period-looking vegetables

Honey, honey with comb

Period food cookbooks

Period herbals

Modern herbals for safety checks

Books about period dishes/pots or kitchens

Books about period gardens

Books about period or natural dyes

Books on period or modern beekeeping

Pottery

Glassware

Silverware

Cooking utensils

Iron cookpots

Grates, pot supports, raised fire pans

Dried fruit

Dried vegetables

Sourdough starter (dried or fresh)

Linen napkins

Linen tablecloths, embroidered or not

Fruit syrups

Less common bottled fruit juices

Baskets for holding produce, picnics, or shopping

Cloth for straining items or making cheese (not the cloth labeled

cheesecloth)

A basket with the nonperishable ingredients for a meal and the recipe

Mortar and pestle

Beeswax candles

Candle lanterns

Candle lantern hangers

Hand salves

Food safe firewood

Cookfire tools

Nuts

Marzipan

Commercially dried meat or fish

Food safe string

Linen pouches for food storage

Linen dish towels

Pennsic camping kitchen, cabinet, or chest

Trestle or folding table, folding chairs

Natural sea salts

Nut cracker and nut picks

Copies of redactions plus originial recipe) you have worked out and tested

Natural food dyes

A selection of 3-7 packets of herbs/spices on a theme

Another thing that I think would be really fun is to make up spice mixes or

just add water and a perishable food mixtures. I would love to hear

different ideas for these and what you'd name it if you were the marketing

guy/gal in the middle ages.

Take Bear's version of Brodo of red chickpeas for example

*******************************

Brodo of red chickpeas. To make eight platefuls: take a libra and a half (1

libra = about 10 1/2 oz. (300 g.)) of chickpeas and wash them in hot water,

drain them, the put them in a pot in which they will be cooked. Add half an

oncia (1 oncia = about 1 oz. (30 g.)) of flower (of wheat), a little good

oil, a little salt and about 20 crushed peppercorns and a little ground

cinnamon, then thoroughly mix all these things together with your hands.

Then add three measures of water, a little sage, rosemary and parsley roots.

Boil until it is reduced to the quantity of eight platefuls. And they

are nearly cooked pour in a little oil. And if you prepare this soup for

invalids, add neither oil nor spices.

I didn't have red chickpeas, so I substituted dried yellow. The soup was

To feed 24, so I cleaned and soaked 4 cups of chickpeas overnight. Should I

prepare this again, I'll use 5 cups of chickpeas per 24 people.

I crushed about 25 peppercorns and stirred them, about 4 tablespoons of

flour, and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon into a 1/4 cup of olive oil. I

drained the chickpeas and mixed them and the spiced oil in a large pot. I

covered the chickpeas with water and brought it to a boil. A gray-brown

scum formed on the surface and was skimmed off. I had to add more pepper in

the cooking, so if I make this quatity again, I'll start with about 40

peppercorns. The heat was set set to low and the soup simmered for about

two hours.

I added a teaspoon of rubbed sage, a teaspoon of rosemary needles crushed

into the pot and 3 tablespoons of fresh parsley (no root available). Toward

the end of the cooking I added about a teaspoon and a half of salt for seasoning.

The soup is rich and flavorful. Everyone at the dinner tried it and the

majority found it to be excellent. It reheats well. I would be tempted to

use this recipe at a feast. As I prepared it, the recipe makes just under a

gallon or one cup of soup per person. Using 5 cups of chickpeas per 24

people insures that everyone will get fed without having to scrape the

bottom of the pot.

****************************

For the gift you could have a glass jar with chickpeas in the bottom. For

visual interest you might even mix red and yellow chickpeas if you can find

some of the same size. Very different sizes are likely to result in the

smaller ones being overcooked. In tightly woven small fiber foodsafe

unbleached cloth pouches:

Pouch 1: peppercorns

Pouch 2: flour, cinnamon, sage, reosemary, chopped dried parsley root

Instructions on an illuminated recipe sheet in an easy to read calligraphy

hand (color photocopied) that tell how to make it and how much olive oil,

water, and salt to add. Sheet folded, and tied to jar with string.

Sharon

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:35:28 -0600

From: "Sue Clemenger" <mooncat at in-tch.com>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Favorite Food Gift Ideas

To: <grizly at mindspring.com>, "Cooks within the SCA"

<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

What about various fruit things? Dried fruits, marmalades, fruit pastes,

preserved fruits? Or pickled veggies (ISTR recipes in Fettiplace for

mushrooms and asparagus)? Or comfits? (sugared seeds, etc.)

Or biscotti-like cakes/cookies? Or something along the lines of those gift

mixes to which one just adds egg or whatever--why not use period recipes,

for, oh, say, Shrewsbury Cakes?

Other long-term keepers would be flavored vinegars, or small bottles of

sekanjabin or other drink syrups.

I've used many of these over the years as contributions to various largesse

chests, although my standards tend to be Lombardy Mustard, and either

Pomegranite Jelly or Cherry/Rose Jelly, all of which go rather nicely into

little 4-oz. sealable jam jars. I'm thinking of expanding into other

mustard forms (like some of the dried kinds), and am working on making small

linen bags to hold the salt crystals I'm planning on starting to give away

as Pelican tokens of appreciation (the laurel side of me gives little glass

leaf charms away).

--Maire

Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 09:52:32 -0400

From: "Sharon Gordon" <gordonse at one.net>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Medieval Mix Market

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

If you were an early ancestor of McCormick, Sauer, Knorr, or Dean and

DeLuca, what would you have in your line of value added foods? For

example you could create a spice mix of herbs and spices that are

commonly used together, a linen pouch with a bread mix, some pasties

for your deli-like stall, flavored drinks, pickles, flavored

vinegars, sauces for meats, dried soup mixes, etc.

Here's an example of how I might turn Bear's version of

Brodo of red chickpeas into a mix.

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Brodo of red chickpeas. To make eight platefuls: take a libra and a half (1

libra = about 10 1/2 oz. (300 g.)) of chickpeas and wash them in hot water,

drain them, the put them in a pot in which they will be cooked. Add half an

oncia (1 oncia = about 1 oz. (30 g.)) of flower (of wheat), a little good

oil, a little salt and about 20 crushed peppercorns and a little ground

cinnamon, then thoroughly mix all these things together with your hands.

Then add three measures of water, a little sage, rosemary and parsley roots.

Boil until it is reduced to the quantity of eight platefuls. And when they