frittours-msg – 3/28/20

Period fried pastries. Recipes. Serving frittours large crowds in the SCA and period.

NOTE: See also the files: fried-foods-msg, eggs-msg, pastries-msg, fried-breads-msg, French-Toast-msg, fried-cheese-msg, cooking-oils-msg, pancakes-msg.

KEYWORDS: fried batter frittour fritter pancake

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 18:04:50 +1000
From: Kiriel & Chris <kiriel at cybergal.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Frittours

With things like Fritters, I find that if I dry fry them; ie, in a
non-stick frypan with no oil, then they both freeze and reheat well.
You can make a gigantic batch either before the day, on during the day,
and just heat them up in the oven, or even the microwave.

Kiriel


Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 09:56:13 +0100
From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>
Subject: RE: SC - Frittours

> From: LrdRas [SMTP:LrdRas at aol.com]
> << However, I am puzzled by fritters, which are a common recipe ->>
> Common? Please share sourses and/or recipes, please. :)

        Common as in frequently occuring.  I did a quick look through the
recipe books to hand last night and came up with:

   Cindy Renfrew   

Apples in batter                 Harlean MS 4016
Leche Vyandez (apples in batter) Harlean MS 279
Brown Fryes (bread in batter)    Harleian MS 4016
Leche Vyandez (apples, figs, haddock and almonds in batter)
                                 Ordnance of Pottage
Samacays - cheese and elderflowers in batter
Long Fryturys - cheese in batter
Lombardy Fritture - meat and cheese
        Pleyn Delit                             
Parsnips FC 149
Frytor of herbes FC 151
Crisps (fried batter) Harlean 4016

Kings Taste - L Sass from Forme of Cury
        Apple, Parsnip or Skirrit Fritters
Queens Taste - L Sass - spinach and date fritteurs from Thomas Dawson

        Some of these may be duplicates (in that they come from the same
manuscript) but there are signficant variations in the source, so may
represent variations of the recipe in the manuscript.

        Lots of variety, frequently occuring (and I'm not even counting
endoring using a batter over, say, meat balls).

> Last Clash of the Peons, I did, or rather tried to do apple frittour-like
> thingies and found that it was impossible to keep up with the demand. So I
> would tend to believe that tyhey were not served to the masses but rather used
> at more formal intimate get togethers although I have no documentation for
> this.

        I've done cheese, apple and parsnip fritters (separate) on different
occasions, and on each occasion found it very difficult to keep up with
demand.  The last time I served parsnip fritters I think they would have
kept on eating as long as I produced them!  I think they were either served
only to the top table or privily, I wondered if anyone else had any
views/evidence.

        On the other hand, quite a lot of the recipes we have are for the
sick, so presumably weren't served at generally, but in small quantities to
the sick room.  Perhaps fritters were to tempt the appetite?

        Caroline


Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 22:36:01 -0700From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>Subject: Re: SC - FrittoursAt 8:50 AM -0400 5/12/98, LrdRas wrote:>Common? Please share sourses and/or recipes, please. :-)There is a whole heap of fritter/fried pastry recipes in the Miscellany;original sources include 14th and 15th c. English, Platina (he calls themfricatellae), and (depending on how you define fritter) Islamic.>Last Clash of the Peons, I did, or rather tried to do apple frittour-like>thingies and found that it was impossible to keep up with the demand. So I>would tend to believe that tyhey were not served to the masses but rather used>at more formal intimate get togethers although I have no documentation for>this.>>RasThe largest feast I have done fritters for was about 50 people, I think,and that worked.  For more people, you might have a fritter assembly linerunning in the kitchen, with servers whisking them away as soon as they areready, starting with high table; you would need a fair amount of availablecooks' time and a free stove to manage this.Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 19:57:15 +1000
From: Robyn Probert <robyn.probert at lawpoint.com.au>
Subject: Re: SC - Frittours

At 08:50 AM 12/05/98 EDT, Ras wrote:
><< However, I am puzzled by fritters, which are a common recipe ->>
>
>Common? Please share sourses and/or recipes, please. :-)

The Original Mediterranean Cuisine has recipies for Cheese fritters, Onion
and herb fritters, Pancetta dn herb fritters, The Emperor's fritters
(ricotta and pine nuts), Apple fritters and Rice frtters.

I've tried the last three, all of which were good.

Kiriel's make in advance and reheat system is the only way to serve large
numbers, but I reheat in a high oven, rather than a microwave which can
toughen the texture. If you have access to a professional kitchen (ho ho),
I'd undercook, then use the deep fryer to reheat and recrisp.

Rowan


Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 09:08:29 +1000
From: Robyn Probert <robyn.probert at lawpoint.com.au>
Subject: RE: SC - Frittours

At 01:36 PM 14/05/98 +0100, Caroline wrote:
>Sorry, I meant 'how were they served in period - ie under period
>conditions', not how to serve large quantities today!

Ah, sorry I misunderstood you my lady. I guess there might be several answers...

(1) With a large number of kitchen staff you could have several people
making frittours at once and serving them forth as they were made. Certainly
the  woodcuts/pictures of large kitchens seem to be well stocked with staff.
(2) Although I agree they are best hot, they are still good warm and they
can be kept warm while other batches are being cooked
(3) How many people were being fed anyway? Frittours for 50 is not too bad
with 2 people, it's hot frittours for 300 that's the problem.
(4) Why should our "hold and reheat" ideas be modern and not used earlier,
even if they used different re-heating options? (although deep frying was
used then as now even if microwaves were not :)

Rowan


Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 04:29:42 GMT
From: korny at zikzak.net (Kornelis Sietsma)
Subject: Re: SC - Frittours

On Fri, 15 May 1998 09:08:29 +1000, Robyn Probert wrote:
>(3) How many people were being fed anyway? Frittours for 50 is not too bad
>with 2 people, it's hot frittours for 300 that's the problem.

Definitely.  We did frittours for 70 people, with a production line
approach - one person made them from the mix, one person fried them, and
one person served them to each table as soon as a batch were done.  They
didn't come out all at once, but they didn't take all that long - and
anything deep fried is much nicer when eaten hot, imho.

- -Korny
- --
William Bekwith MKA Kornelis Sietsma | http://zikzak.net/~korny


Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 23:28:23 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: RE: SC - Frittours

Rowan asks:

>(4) Why should our "hold and reheat" ideas be modern and not used earlier,
>even if they used different re-heating options? (although deep frying was
>used then as now even if microwaves were not :)
>
>On the last, has anyone come across such instructions in period recipes?

I've just looked through our worked-up fritter recipes.  Almost all of the
ones with any serving instructions say "serve it forth hot."  In the one
exception, you take the fritters after frying, pour over a honey-wine
mixture, and bake; I assume this is to let the honey soak in while keeping
it hot.

Frytour Blaunched
Curye on Inglysch p. 132 (Form of Cury no. 153)

Take almaundes blaunched, and grynde hem al to doust withouten eny lycour.
Do therto poudour of gyngeuer, sugur, and salt; do thise in a thynne foile.
Close it therinne fast, and frye it in oile; clarifie hony with wyne, &
bake it therwith. [end of original; thorns replaced with th]

1/2 lb blanched almonds
1/2 t ginger
1 T sugar
scant 1/4 t salt
pastry: 2 c flour, water
oil
2/3 c honey
1/4 c Rhine wine
Grind almonds thoroughly: 1/2 lb = 1 1/2 c whole = 2 c ground. Stir
together with ginger, sugar and salt. Mix flour with enough water to make a
slightly sticky dough. Roll out dough very thin and cut into 2" squares.
Place a heaped teaspoon of ground almond mix on each dough square. Fold
corners to center and seal. Fry in 1/2"-1" of oil in a frying pan until
brown, drain on paper towels, then place in baking pan. Heat honey and wine
together; pour over fritters and bake at 350° for 10 minutes.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 11:10:23 -0400
From: Christi Redeker <Christi.Redeker at digital.com>
Subject: RE: SC - Frittours

Ras,

How could you forget my Ham fritter discourse about a month and a half ago.
The Original Mediterranean Cuisine has an excellent recipe for Ham fritters
and we fried em up and served them in a second course of a feast.  Everyone
loved them!

Just so you all know I am not a spoon tease I don't have the recipe on hand
but it was I believe, pancetta, fresh cheese (we used ricotta), good herbs,
eggs and flour.  Use enough flour to stick them together and this is a
wonderful recipe!

Murkial


Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 17:32:35 +1000
From: Robyn Probert <robyn.probert at lawpoint.com.au>
Subject: RE: SC - Frittours

At 11:10 AM 15/05/98 -0400, Murkial wrote:
>Just so you all know I am not a spoon tease I don't have the recipe on hand
>but it was I believe, pancetta, fresh cheese (we used ricotta), good herbs,
>eggs and flour.  Use enough flour to stick them together and this is a
>wonderful recipe!

Barbara Santich's erdaction in her book used:
3 Tbsp chopped cooked ham
100 g ricotta
2 Tbsp each chopped parsley, mint, basil
1 Tbsp flour
1 egg white, lightly beaten
oil for deep frying

Rowan (who now has half her SCA cooking library at work...)


Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 18:22:32 -0500
From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)
Subject: Re: SC - period snack foods? (was corn chips)

>How about fritters?  Lots of those in a number of sources.

Here's one, a little late, from LaVarenne, that you should like, as you
were looking recently, for frog recipes.  Is this the precursor of
buffalo wings????  This is from the Falconwood Press Reprint.

Fritters of frogs.

        Choose the finest and the biggest, dress them cherrie like, that
is to say, scrape the thigs (sic) of your frogs, so that the bone be
clean at one end, whiten them a very little, and dry them; make a paste
with flowre, salt, milk, white cheese, of each a very little; stamp all
in a mortar, and make it liquid, untill it be like a paste for fritters;
take your frogs by the bone end, and dip them in, and put them in very
hot butter, fry them as fritters, and serve garnished with fryed parsley.

Allison


Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 23:38:39 EDT
From: DianaFiona at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - OOP & OT - The Twins!!!

"Frytour Blaunched

Curye on Inglysch p. 132 (Form of Cury no. 153)

Take almaundes blaunched, and grynde hem al to doust withouten eny lycour. Do
+ erto poudour of gyngeuer, sugur, and salt; do + ise in a thynne foile. Close
it + erinne fast, and frye it in oile; clarifie hony with wyne, & bake it +
erwith.

                Ldy Diana


Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 07:13:16 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - period snack foods? (was corn chips)

> Aren't frittours served warm or hot? I was thinking of cold snack foods.
>
> What is a good definition for frittours? I started a file on frittours
> after the messages on here about them. But as I've started fileing stuff
> in there, I've realized I don't have a good idea of what makes something
> a fritter (or frittour) or not. A pancake-like thing with lumps of
> something else mixed in? :-) If it isn't mixed in, wouldn't that be
> a crepe?
> Stefan li Rous

The chief differences are in technique and goals.  Fritters are deep fried,
while crepes are cooked on a light oiled pan.  Crepes are pan breads made
from batter to be filled, fritters, in general, other foods dipped in
batter.  Modern fritters would likely include battered mushrooms, breaded
zucchini and cheese sticks.

Bear


Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 21:39:54 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - period snack foods? (was corn chips)

Mordonna22 at aol.com writes:
<< Hmmm, I don't know what medieval cooks called a frittour.
 But I suspect it was quite a bit like what my Aunt Ruth calls a fritter and
my Big Mama called a fried pie, >>

This may be a regional aberration. I looked through all of my cookery books
and without fail a "frittour" was basically a batter with meat, vegies or
fruit mixed in which was then fried or deep fried. I found no reference to any
wrap around dough being referred to by this term.

A'aql (pronounced Ras)


Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 15:46:41 -0800From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>Subject: Fritters (was: SC - period snack foods?)Mordonna described what her family calls fritters, and Ras responded:>>This may be a regional aberration. I looked through all of my cookery books>and without fail a "frittour" was basically a batter with meat, vegies or>fruit mixed in which was then fried or deep fried. I found no reference to any>wrap around dough being referred to by this term.>I am curious if any one has any info along these lines. Thanks in advance.For a period example:Frytour BlaunchedCurye on Inglysch p. 132 (Form of Cury no. 153)Take almaundes blaunched, and grynde hem al to doust withouten eny lycour.Do therto poudour of gyngeuer, sugur, and salt; do thise in a thynne foile.Close it therinne fast, and frye it in oile; clarifie hony with wyne, &bake it therwith. [end of original; thorns replaced with th]1/2 lb blanched almonds1/2 t ginger1 T sugarscant 1/4 t saltpastry: 2 c flour, wateroil2/3 c honey1/4 c Rhine wineGrind almonds thoroughly: 1/2 lb = 1 1/2 c whole = 2 c ground. Stirtogether with ginger, sugar and salt. Mix flour with enough water to make aslightly sticky dough. Roll out dough very thin and cut into 2" squares.Place a heaped teaspoon of ground almond mix on each dough square. Foldcorners to center and seal. Fry in 1/2"-1" of oil in a frying pan untilbrown, drain on paper towels, then place in baking pan. Heat honey and winetogether; pour over fritters and bake at 350° for 10 minutes.Elizabeth/Betty Cook

Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 07:50:21 -0400From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>Subject: Re: Fritters (was: SC - period snack foods?)Mordonna22 at aol.com wrote:> ddfr at best.com writes:> <<>  Grind almonds thoroughly: 1/2 lb = 1 1/2 c whole = 2 c ground. Stir>  together with ginger, sugar and salt. Mix flour with enough water to make a>  slightly sticky dough. Roll out dough very thin and cut into 2" squares.>  Place a heaped teaspoon of ground almond mix on each dough square. Fold>  corners to center and seal. Fry in 1/2"-1" of oil in a frying pan until>  brown, drain on paper towels, then place in baking pan. Heat honey and wine>  together; pour over fritters and bake at 350° for 10 minutes.>>  Elizabeth/Betty Cook>   >>>> YES ! ! !> Or use stewed fruit, or fruit jam, or freshly sugared fruit, or savory meats> instead of the almond paste.>> MordonnaI think this falls into the "exception-that-proves-the-rule"category...fritters are named for the fact that they are fried, andtechnically, anything fried could be called a fritter. Unless there areseveral more examples such as the one you describe above, then dishes offritters wrapped in dough, being called fritters, are in the _extreme_minority compared to fritters made from various batters. If you isolatethe dishes made wrapped in dough, you'll find they are more commonlyknown as ryschews or rissoles in English or French. Which is interestingbecause in some ways the recipe above sounds more like something out ofEin Buoch Von Guter Spise...probably the final baking that brings it tomind: it sounds a bit like a krapfen.Adamantius


Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 11:31:35 -0600
From: "Jennifer D. Miller" <jdmiller2 at students.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Platina - questions

>For keeping fritters hot, I wonder if you could use an electric roaster
>on warm, or low, with the fritters in layers separated by paper towels,
>or brown paper?  Our Barony has 3 of the ovens, my Event Steward has 2,
>and a good friend has 3.  I'm not very experienced using them; used to a
>stove.  Would it work as a warmer?  Things shouldn't dry out under the
>glass lids, as they might in an oven, should they?  Has anyone done this?

>Allison

When I was very young we used to eat at a local pancake house that came
around to all the tables with apple fritters dusted with powdered sugar.
They were hot and very delicious.  However, they never served them all at
once as a dish, (they were not on the menu), they just sent around a few
waiters with trays of fresh fritters.  The waiters simply returned to the
kitchen for fresh ones when they ran out (which was usually very quickly).
Why not just serve the fritters continuously throughout the feast instead
of making it a course to be served at a specific time?  This will of course
depend upon having servers willing to keep mingling with the feasters and
someone to be the "fritter master" that keeps on frying up the yummy
things.  Could work....

Ilyana Barsova (Yana)


Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 18:22:48 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - [Fwd: [Apicius] must cakes & doughnuts]

> From:         Marilyn Traber[SMTP:margali at 99main.com]
> this is from a followup post, i dont have the book she refers to so i
> dont know how it stacks up in the grand scheme of documentation

Giacosa's "A Taste of Ancient Rome" seems to be a good source.  It contains
a number of the Apician recipes and recipes from other Roman works, in this
case Cato's On Agriculture.

The recipe and translation from Giacosa are:

Globi

Globos sic facito.  Caseum cum alica ad eundem modem misceto.  Inde quantos
voles facere facito.  In abenum caldum unguen indito.  Singulos aut binos
coquito versatoque cerbro duabus rudibus, coctos eximito, eos melle unguito,
papaver infriato, ita ponito.

Make globes thus:  Mix together equal amounts of cheese and alica.  Then
shape (the globes) as large as you like.  Drop them in hot fat in a copper
pan.  Cook one or two at a time, turning them often with two paddles.  When
they are cooked, remove, cover them with honey, sprinkle with poppy, and
serve thus.

Giacosa refers to globi as fritters, suggest making them of flour and
ricotta, and says that frying them in lard is the traditional method of
cooking.  The glossary defines "alica" as semolina or coarsely ground spelt.

I suspect what we have here are cheesy hushpuppies made with wheat meal
rather than corn meal.  Regular flour very likely makes the end product too
dense.  Cooking in olive oil rather than lard likely makes them soggy.  I
don't see any need for leavening if you are using coarse meal and hot fat.

If I have some time this weekend, I may grind up some wheat I have sitting
around and see what a coarse meal does for this recipe.

Oh yeah, the root of globi and globule is "globus," meaning ball or sphere.

Bear

> Decker, Terry D. wrote:
> > I would really want to see the original recipe for the "globi", before
> > committing, because this version of the must cakes leaves off the fat and
> > cheese found in the original recipe.
>
> What about trying Roman doughnuts? Also from Cato, they are called
> 'globi' in Latin - not quite so appealing, but they taste great. Make up
> a dough from about 1 cup flour and 1/4 cup grated cheese (I use a fairly
> mild cheddar, but do experiment). Again, use yeast, as it works better
> if you do.
>
> I tried the Globi from Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa's "A Taste of Ancient
> Rome". From memory (I am not near my references at the moment) it was a
> 1 to 1 mix of flour (I used plain, not self-raising) to cheese (by
> volume, I think) and I used ricotta (as suggested by her) and that was
> all.  The moisture of the ricotta was enough to blend in the flour. The
> translation from the latin that she gave said to use lard to deep fry
> small balls of the stuff (I surmise, possibly inaccurately, that it is
> from the same root word that our term 'globule' is derived) but I used
> olive oil as I had it handy - does everybody else get thru as much of it
> as I do?
> They were well received by the taste crew but I think that they need to
> be served fairly quickly after cooking.  The few left over were hard and
> unappetising 2 days later after being fridged.


Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 23:58:06 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: RE: SC - [Fwd: [Apicius] must cakes & doughnuts]

And it came to pass on 24 Feb 99,, that Decker, Terry D. wrote:

> Make globes thus:  Mix together equal amounts of cheese and alica.  Then
> shape (the globes) as large as you like.  Drop them in hot fat in a copper
> pan.  Cook one or two at a time, turning them often with two paddles.
> When they are cooked, remove, cover them with honey, sprinkle with poppy,
> and serve thus.

This somewhat resembles a Spanish recipe for cheese fritters,
although it is definitely leavened, and also includes eggs.

(Anticipating Ras' mantra):

>From _Libro de Guisados_ (1529)

TORONJAS DE XATIVA QUE SON ALMOJAVANAS -- "Grapefruits"
of Xativa Which are Cheese Cakes

You must take new cheese and curd cheese, and pound them in a mortar
together with eggs.  Then take dough and knead those cheeses with the
curd cheese, together with the dough, and when everything is
incorporated and kneaded take a very clean casserole, and cast into it a
good quantity of sweet pork fat or fine sweet oil, and when the pork
grease or oil boils, make some balls from said dough, like toy balls or
round oranges, and cast them into the casserole in such a manner that
the ball goes floating in the casserole, and you can also make fritters of
the dough, or whatever shapes and ostentations you wish, and when
they are the color of gold, take them out, and cast in as many others; and
when everything is fried, put it on plates, and cast honey upon it, and
upon them honey, ground sugar and cinnamon.  However note one
thing: that you must put a bit of leaven in the cheeses and in the eggs,
and in the other put flour, and when you make the balls, grease your
hands with a little fine oil: and then they go to the casserole, and when it
is inside, if the dough crackles it is a signal that it is very soft; and you
must cast in more flour until it is harder; and when the fritter is made and
fried, cast your honey on it and sugar and cinnamon on top as is said
above.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 22:52:20 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - Attn Henry: Mincebek fritters

Hullo, Henry of Maldon and the list!

Was it you who was working on English and Italian versions of
nysbeke/myncebek fritters, as tough as any lime or perhaps sorbet?

I ran across this today, thought you might be interested in a recipe
that specifies only that it should be of a pourable/extrudable consistency:

>From MS BL Additional 32085, fols 117v-119v, late 13th century:

"4. Mincebek. E une autre viaunde, ke ad a noun mincebek. Pernez amydon
e myncez le en un morter, e si vos n'avez ceo, pernez flur demeyne; e
pernez let de almaundes ou ewe teve, e metez dedenz un poi de gest ou un
poi de past egre; e puys festes temprer; e pernez une esquele e festes
un pertez parmy, e festes culer le mincebek parmy cel pertuz en oile ou
en gresse; e puys pernez sucre e festes sirop boiller; e festes bainer
le myncebek dedenz, e metes du cel desus; e puys les dressez."

Constance Hieatt's and Robin Jones's translation, from "Two Anglo-Norman
Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional
32085 and Royal 12.Cxii", Speculum v. 61, October 1986, pp859-882.

"4. Mincebek [fritters]. Here is another dish, which is called mincebek.
Take wheat starch and crumble it in a mortar, if you do not have any,
take best white flour; and blend (the starch or flour) with almond milk
or tepid water, and a little yeast or sourdough; take a bowl and make a
hole in it, and pour the mincebek through the hole into (hot) oil or
grease; and then take sugar and boil up a syrup; immerse the mincebek in
this, and sprinkle with salt, and then serve."

It's fun to see how recipes for similar dishes evolve over time and
strange things get added to simple recipes. Perhaps I should mention:
there's a cuskynole recipe in the same MS that appears to predate the
one in Curye On Inglyshe by around 75 years...heh heh heh!!! Which, BTW,
is _not_ the only recipe in that MS that has a diagram with it...

Adamantius


Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 01:38:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: cclark at vicon.net
Subject: Re: SC - Attn Henry: Mincebek fritters

Adamantius  wrote:
>>From MS BL Additional 32085, fols 117v-119v, late 13th century:
>
>"4. Mincebek. E une autre viaunde, ke ad a noun mincebek. ...

Okay. This is the original of the recipe that appears in a period
translation in _Curye on Inglysch_, Part V. The period translator forgot to
mention that tepid water could be used instead of almond milk, but the rest
is the same.

Thanks for mentioning this. Now I'm going to have to look up that article.

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon


Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 02:08:30 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Attn Henry: Mincebek fritters

cclark at vicon.net wrote:
> Adamantius  wrote:
> >>From MS BL Additional 32085, fols 117v-119v, late 13th century:
> >
> >"4. Mincebek. E une autre viaunde, ke ad a noun mincebek. ...
>
> Okay. This is the original of the recipe that appears in a period
> translation in _Curye on Inglysch_, Part V. The period translator forgot to
> mention that tepid water could be used instead of almond milk, but the rest
> is the same.

Yup. I thought it interesting that for practical purposes this seems to
be the same recipe found in both 13th and 15th century sources, while
both are much simpler (semantically or diction-wise) than the 14th
century version found in FoC. I also thought it significant that the
author of the recipe in this form didn't seem to find it necessary to
describe how thick the batter was to be in terms of another, possibly
undefined term. You just have a batter, and a bowl with a hole in it. If
it worked you knew you had it right.

Adamantius


Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 18:26:16 -0500
From: "Michael F. Gunter" <michael.gunter at fnc.fujitsu.com>
Subject: SC - I need a documentation source

That's probably the Fretoure recipe from harleian ms 279 (2 15th century
cookery books)

liiij Fretoure - Take whete flour, Ale zest, Safroun,& Salt, & bete all
to-gederye as {th}ikke as {th}ou schuldyst make o{th}er bature in
fleysshe tyme; & {th}an take fayre Applys & kut hem in ma'ner of
Fretourys, & wete hem in {th}e bature up on downne, & frye hem in fayre
Oyle, & caste hem in a dyssche, & caste Sugre {th}er-on, & serue forth

Here's my redaction:

      1 1/4 cup ale or beer
       1 Tbs. dry yeast
       1 cup flour
       optional: 1 egg or 2 egg yolks
       3-4 apples (e.g. Macintosh)
       1/2 tsp. salt
       oil or shortening for frying
       confectioners sugar

Heat the beer to lukewarm. Put the yeast in a medium sized bowl and add
1/4 cup of the beer; stir and let sit about 10 minutes. Mix in the
flour, egg yolks or egg if desired, salt, and remaining
beer. Beat the mixture and then cover the bowl. Leave in a warm place
for about an hour. It should at least double in bulk.

Peel the apples, core them and cut into wedges or rings. Put the apple
slices in the batter and stir to coat them. Fry quickly in oil or deep
fat. Sprinkle with sugar and serve.

Gunthar


Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 10:23:37 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Rec:  BUNUELOS

<< I understand there are fritters called buñuelos.   >>

from : A DRIZZLE OF HONEY

*****BUENUELOS*************
*dough*
1 pk yeast
1 1/3 C warm water
3 C white flour
2 eggs well beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1 T olive oil

*syrup*
3 C honey
1/4 C water

olive oil for frying   enough for a depth of 1"

*topping*
cinnamon
powdered sugar

Mix the dough:
1.Dissolve the yeast in 1/3 C warm water.  Let sit for 10 minutes
2. Place the flour into a medium bowl.  Stir the yeasted water, the beaten
eggs, salt, and olive oil intot he flour all at once.  Gradually add the 1 C
water to make a slightly tacky dough.
3. Cove and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour until doubled in bulk.

Make the syrup:
1. Mix the honey and the water in a saucepan and bring to a hard boil.
Reduce the heat to low.  Simmer for 5 minutes and then turn down to warm.  Do
not keep or return to the boil.

Fry the Fritters:
1. In a large, deep skillet or saucepan heat the olive oil to 375 F.
2. Dip a tablespoon into the oil to coat it. Dip out a scant teaspoon of
sough abd drop into the hot oil.  You can fry several Bunuelos at once but
don't crown them,
As they fry, turn them several times until they puff up and become golden in
color.... about 8 minutes
3. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels

Serve the Fritters:
1. Place Fritters on a plate.
2 Drizzle the hot honey syrup over them  and sprinkle them with cinnamon and
sugar


Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 22:24:46 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Bu=F1uelos_=28recipe=29?=

Granado has several recipes for buñuelos.  The first sounds as though it
would work well with those Scandanavian rosette irons.  The second is
a leavened fritter, and the third recipe ("different buñuelos") is for polenta
fritters.

Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del Arte de Cozina_, Spanish, 1599
Translation: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

PARA HAZER PASTA LIQUIDA, DE LA QUAL SE PUEDEN HAZER
TORTITAS, BUÑUELOS, Y OTRAS FRUTAS DE SARTEN
To make a liquid paste, from which can be made little cakes, buñuelos,
and other fritters

Take the best of the flour, and put it in a vessel of glazed earthenware,
or tinned earthenware, and knead it with water, white wine, cold oil, and
salt.  And color it with saffron, and beat it a great deal with the wooden
spoon, in such a way that it comes to be like melted glue.  Then have
molds of diverse shapes, and cause said molds to be heated in oil, and
dip them in the said paste, and return them to the oil.  Then separate
the paste, and cook the fritter in the oil, and when it acquires color,
remove it, and serve it with sugar on top. From this paste can be made
buñuelos of laurel leaves, dipping in it leaves of sage, of borage, and
sprigs of rosemary, adding to it raisins soaked in hot wine, a little
leavening, and sugar.  The paste having been in a warm place, it will be
better to make little cakes.  And all kinds of little cakes need to be
served hot with sugar and honey on top.

BUÑUELOS DIFERENTES
Different buñuelos

Take a quartillo[1] of milk in a little kettle, and with flour make polenta[2]
on a very small fire, and cook it until it is very hard.  Then set it aside,
and cast in the eggs which seem right to you, and beat it all well, until it
is soft, and then with a spoon cast them in to fry well.  And then smear
them with honey, and cast on your cinnamon, and sugar.

[1] A quartillo is one-fourth of an azumbre.  An azumbre is
approximately two liters.

[2] The Spanish word is “poleada”.   The 1726 _Diccionario de
Autoridades_ defines it as a kind of soft pap, and says the term derives
from the Latin “polenta”.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 19:42:22 -0500 (EST)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com
Subject: SC - Another Bunuelo Recipe

Greetings!  I just received a new (?) recipe source in Spanish.  I haven't had
any time really to check through but did notice a recipe for bunuelos for which I have done a rough translation.  (Robin, want to modify anything??)  The book has many "household" recipes and cosmetic recipes.  Here are the vitals...

Manual de mugeres en el qual se contienen muchas y diversas reçeutas muy buenas
(1475-1525)

Edited by Alicia Martinez Crespo, Educiones Universidad de Salamanca, 1995

Buñuelos:  A doce onças de massa, una libra de almendras blanquadas.  Las seis onças majadas y juntas con la massa, y las otras hechas leche.  Quando majardes las almendras para hechar con la masa, majaréis con ellas media libra de açucar:  y junto esto, juntad la massa con la leche en un lebrillo, e hazed la massa come se suele hazer para esotros buñuelos.  Y hecha la massa, freiréis los buñuelos con buen azeite.  E fritos, enmelarlos heis.  Ponedles después su açucar y canela por çima, y si quisiéredes poner piñones blanquados por çima será mejor.

To twelve ounces of dough, a pound of blanched almonds.  Six ounces ground and mixed with the dough and the others made into milk.  When the almonds are ground for the dough, grind with them half a pound of sugar.  Join it together, the dough with the milk in an earthenware tub, and make the dough like you would do for the other buñuelos (fritters).  The dough being made, fry the fritters with good oil.  And being fried, smear them with honey.  Afterwards put sugar and cinnamon on top, and if you wish, put blanched pine nuts on top to make them better.

Alys Katharine


Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 20:06:50 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re:  Another Bunuelo Recipe

And it came to pass on 9 Dec 99,, that alysk at ix.netcom.com wrote:
> Robin asked:
> >Oooh!  I've set the ILL wheels in motion.  May I ask how you got your
> >copy?  Is it available for sale somewhere?
>
> I received a photocopy of the book from a friend in the East.  She had
> asked if I had heard of it; I hadn't; she sent it.  There are 91 pages.
> The ISBN number isn't clear.

Thank you, but I got the ISBN off the Library of Congress catalog.
http://catalog.loc.gov/ for those who aren't familiar with it.  It's a great
source for identifying interesting books to get via inter-library loan.
While poking around there, I found another title to request:

Personal Name: Lobera de Avila, Luis, 1480-1551.
Main Title: Banquete de nobles caballeros / Luis Lobera de Ávila.
Edition Information: 1. ed.
Published/Created: San Sebastián : R & B Ediciones, 1996.
Description: 227 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.
ISBN:  8488947593
Subjects:
                   Gastronomy--History--16th century.
                   Cookery, Spanish--History--16th century.
            Series:
                   Coleccíon Textos gastronómicos ; 12.
      Variant Series:
                   Collección de textos gastronómicos ; 11

I know nothing about the book, except what you see above, but I'll see if
I can get hold of it.  I did a web search on the author, but all I could
discover is that he also wrote some kind of health manual for courtesans...

> Alys Katharine

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 12:07:22 EST
From: Mordonna22 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Apple Fritters, For submission to the Chronus Draconum

>From Mordonnaâ*™s Kitchen

    Here is a wonderfully tasty dish to enliven the usually bland, dull fare
of the upcoming Lenten season.

    From Take a Thousand Eggs or More: a colleciton of 15th century recipes :b
y Cindy Renfrew: a translation of medieval recipes from Harleian MS. 279,
Harleian MS 4016, and extracts of Ashmole MS. 1439, Laud MS.553, and Douce
MS. 55 from Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books  edited by Thomas Austin

Harleian MS. 4016
133 Lente ffrutours.  Take goode floure, Ale yeest, Saffron, and salt, and
bete al to-gidre as thick as o(th)er maner frutours of fflesh: and (th)en
take appels, and pare hem, and kut hem in maner of ffrutours, and wete hem in
(th)e batur vp and downe, and fry hem in oyle, and cast hem in a dissh, and
cast sugur (th)eron ynowe, and serue hem forth hote.

Lenten Fritters.  Take good flour, ale yeast, saffron, and salt, and beat all
together as thick as other manner fritters of flesh : and then take apples,
and pare them, and cut them in manner of fritters, and wet them in the
batter, up and down, and fry them in oil, and cast them in a dish, and cast
sugar thereon enough, and serve them forth hot.

My adaptation:

Apple Fritters for Lent
4 medium size apples 2 cups plain flour
8 ounces ale
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
a pinch of saffron
2 Tbs. boiling water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup confectioners sugar

Peel and core apples and cut into thin round slices.
Heat ale in a small pan until warm but not hot (body temperature).
Add the yeast to the ale.
Add the saffron to the boiling water.
Add the saffron mix to the ale.
Add the salt to the flour, then stir in the ale mix until it forms a batter
thick enough to cling to the apples.
Allow the batter to rest 20 minutes.
Heat the oil until a drop of batter sizzles and rises to the top when added.
Dip the apple slices into the batter and drop into the oil a few at a time.
Cook until golden brown.
Drain briefly on  brown paper
Place sugar in a bag, add cooked fritters a few at a time and shake to coat.
Serve hot..

Notes:  I prefer a good multi-purpose apple such as Gala to the imore insipid
eating apples like Red Delicious.
While modern confectioners sugar contains corn starch, it can be substituted
for the very fine sugar often used in dishes like this.

Mordonna The Cook is a late fifteenth century Irish Cook. She can both read
and write and has studied cooking all her life.  She is the alter ego of Anne
DuBosc, a fourteenth French Noblewoman who can neither read nor write and
never learned to cook.
Pat Griffin has been cooking in the SCA for four years and (almost) five
Estrellas.


Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 12:46:36 -0400
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Iscia ex Spondylis

> IIRC, I did this Apician recipe using scallops. However, my interpretation of
> the recipe was very different from what you describe. My was a patty (fritter
> like, IIRC).
>
> Could you post the translated recipe so I can be sure we are talking about
> the same recipe?
>
> Ras

My old standby, granted I have this from waaaaaaay back when all I had access to
was the Vehling:
[lightly] cook scallops remove the hard and objectionable parts, mince the meat
very fine, mix this with cooked spelt and eggs, season with pepper, [shape into croquettes and wrap] in caul, fry, underlay a rich fish sauce and serve as a delicious entree.

The shrimp is because I almost always have shrimp on hand, and I really like
shrimp, and I seem to remember back in our old discussions on the recipe that
spondylis was undecided.

I used the coarsegrained spelt because I just laid in my pennsic supply, and it
is a period roman grain.
I made the spelt into a really pastlike cream of wheat, thick enough to be fairly solid when cold. I pounded the shrimps in a small mortar [one of the 2 cup marble ones, that being what I have at home and doing a 2 person amount] then when they were a paste I glorped in the cream o'spelt and mixed it thoroughly, added egg and white pepper [being out of black, the penzeys run is next week] and fried in fat peeled off of the pork roast we did a few weeks ago and stashed in the freezer. There is not much difference, IMHO between round like meatballs, flat patties or any other form, as long as they are mouthful in size and don't fall apart when eaten with fingers ;-)

To whit:
1 cup cream o'spelt, cold [just sub in spelt semolina for the cream of wheat in a typical 3 serving batch]
8 oz shrimps, peeled and sightly cooked in water with a bit of worchestershire
sauce [my desired sub for garum]
4 whole medium eggs, beaten lightly
1 quarter tsp ground white pepper
3 tbsp pork lard

the sauce was fish sauce, wine, cumin, pepper and honey. I used some of the
poaching medium from teh shrimp boosted with a bit more of the worchestershire
sauce, and added preground cumin, white pepper and some barberone wine, tasted
and added just enough honey, in its capacity for augmenting flavor rather than
making it sweet. I simmered it down a bit to make it much less drippy, about a
one third reduction.

1 half cup poaching liquid
1 tbsp worchestershire sauce
1 quarter cup barberonne
1 quarter tsp pepper
1 quarter tsp cumin
1 tsp honey

I plated it with the sauce on the side in dipping bowls. I know that Vehling said to underlay it with the sauce, but I prefer dipping.

margali


Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 23:56:31 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - A Question on Fritters

And it came to pass on 21 Aug 00,, that Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> I think I'd put them in pastries, myself,
> because unlike most breads, a typical yeast-risen fritter is made from a
> batter, not a kneaded dough.

The cheese fritters (Pomelos) from de Nola have yeast in them, and the 
description specifies that they are made with dough.  So I would be 
inclined to categorize those as a fried bread.  (Alison, who has actually 
redacted this recipe, might want to jump in here.)  Other recipes, as you 
say, are more like pancakes or funnel-cakes, and would be closer to 
pastries.  Personally, I wouldn't try to fix a category until I saw the 
specific recipe.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 06:31:17 -0400
From: Marian Rosenberg <Marian at therosenbergfamilies.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fritters

#4 in a series of "help us plan a period menu for Pennsic."

From On Right Pleasure and Good Health, Platina (c 1470)

Since the last time I was going over food with my camp mates I came upon
an entire section of On Right Pleasure practically devoted to fritters.
The directions for these are fairly easy to follow and I only have real
questions about a few.

IX 4 Fritters with Sour Milk

Make sour milk pass through a fine strainer.  Mix the whey which is
pressed out with meal, egg whites, sugar, and rose water.  When it has
been mixed with a spoon, drop little by little into a pan boiling with
fat or butter.  These damage the nerves or eyes.

  Pennsic has an abundance of fresh milk, this means that getting
  soured milk is not too difficult a proposition.  How does one sour
  milk safely?  Can one sour milk safely in a camping environment?
  If the safety of the soured milk is unknown will cooking the end
  product get rid of any bad things?

IX 10 Elderberry Fritters for Lent

Pass crushed almonds or pine nuts which have been soaked in rose water
or pea juice through a sieve into a bowl.  Put in a little leavening
with elder flowers, as much coarse flour as is needed, and mix.  This
mixture, which you are going to use in the morning, ought to be prepared
entirely at night so that the fritters may be spongier.  Some put in a
little sugar in the morning and fry them however they wish.  They are
though to be useful in taking away burning of the urine.

  Other than yeast, what types of leavening did they have that could
  have been put in with the elder flowers?

  At first I got the impression that this entire section was dinner
  foods despite the fact that many of them correlate to modern
  breakfast foods.  Judging by the instructions to eat in the
  morning, this recipe is a breakfast food.  Is it safe to assume
  that the other fritter and fried egg recipes in this section are
  valid 15th c Italian breakfast foods?


Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 02:23:25 -0400
From: "Christine Seelye-King" <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Duh
To: "SCAFoodandFeasts" <SCAFoodandFeasts at yahoogroups.com>,	"SCA Cooks"
	<Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Ok, if I'd just scrolled down the page, I would have seen them.  My bad.
Here is the recipe for anyone who's curiosity I've peaked:

Counterfeit (Vegetarian) Isfî riyâ of Garbanzos

Andalusian p. A-1

Pound some garbanzos, take out the skins and grind them into flour. And take
some of the flour and put into a bowl with a bit of sourdough and some egg,
and beat with spices until it's all mixed. Fry it as before in thin cakes,
and make a sauce for them.

chickpea flour: 1 c
sourdough: 1/2 c
eggs: 4
spices:
2 t pepper
2 t coriander
16 threads saffron
2 t cumin
4t cinnamon
1/4 c Cilantro, chopped

Garlic Sauce:
3 cloves garlic
2 T oil
2T vinegar

Chickpea flour can be made in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder (a food
processor would probably work too). Pound or process until the dried
chickpeas are broken, then remove the loose skins and reduce what is left to
a powder. An easier approach is to buy the flour in a health food store; a
middle eastern grocery store might also have it. Use untoasted chickpea
flour if you can get it.

Crush the garlic in a garlic press, conbine with vinegar and oil, beat
together.

Combine the flour, sourdough, eggs, spices and beat with a fork to a unform
batter. Fry in about 1/4 c oil in a 9" frying pan at medium high temperature
until brown on both sides, turning once. Add more oil as necessary. Drain on
a paper towel.

note: The ingredients for the sauce are from "A Type of Ahrash [Isfî
riyâ ]". What is done with them is pure conjecture.


Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 09:07:23 +0200
From: Ana Vald?s <agora at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Duh
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Another variation of an old recipe from Ligurien, i Italy, eaten today 
in the north of Italy and in Nice, where is known as "socca". In Italy 
is known as "faina", in a dialectal word. (Outside Europe you can eat it 
in Rio de la Platas capital cities, Buenos Aires and Montevideo, where 
the Italian  inmigrants took the dish in the beginning of the century).

Pound garbanzos and make flour of them (or alternative buy the chickpeas 
flour)
Put the flour in a bowl and add olive oil enough to make a very thin 
dough, similar in consistence to the dough to make pancakes.
Add salt and black pepper.
Lay the dough in a flat oven pan and heat the oven to a very high 
temperature.
Let it bake in the oven until the thin cake have a brown and crusty cover.
Eat very warm powdered with blackpepper.

Ana
Christine Seelye-King wrote:
>>>
Ok, if I'd just scrolled down the page, I would have seen them.  My bad.
Here is the recipe for anyone who's curiosity I've peaked:

Counterfeit (Vegetarian) Isfî riyâ of Garbanzos

Andalusian p. A-1
<<<

Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 07:34:48 -0400
From: "Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Duh
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Also sprach Ana Valdés:
>>>
Another variation of an old recipe from Ligurien, i Italy, eaten 
today in the north of Italy and in Nice, where is known as "socca". 
In Italy is known as "faina", in a dialectal word. (Outside Europe 
you can eat it in Rio de la Platas capital cities, Buenos Aires and 
Montevideo, where the Italian  inmigrants took the dish in the 
beginning of the century).

Pound garbanzos and make flour of them (or alternative buy the 
chickpeas flour)
Put the flour in a bowl and add olive oil enough to make a very thin 
dough, similar in consistence to the dough to make pancakes.
Add salt and black pepper.
Lay the dough in a flat oven pan and heat the oven to a very high temperature.
Let it bake in the oven until the thin cake have a brown and crusty cover.
Eat very warm powdered with blackpepper.
<<<

The socca recipes I've seen also call for water, along with the olive 
oil. Authorities seem to differ on whether it should be paper thin or 
slightly thicker. Usually the cooking method is like that of a pizza, 
except the dough would be referred to in English as a batter. If you 
can pour it, and cannot pick it up in your hands without tools, 
that's a batter. With a couple of exceptions, but generally...

On an only marginally related note, the other big Provencale 
chick-pea-based street food (you generally don't see these on 
restaurant menus) would be panisse, which is a thick boiled porridge 
of ground chick peas, which is spread on a plate to cool and 
solidify, after which it is cut into strips and fried like French 
fries, in olive oil...

Adamantius


Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 13:47:30 +0200
From: Ana Vald?s <agora at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Duh
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Very right, I have eaten in Nice panisse made as "ravioli", with 
different fillings. And yes, you are oft course right about the most 
appropiate word is "batter", no "dough".
About the water in the socca it seems to be different schols, some add 
water and some use only oil.
Ana


Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2003 16:40:37 -0500
From: Ariane H <phoenissa at netscape.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Arancini, deep-fried Sicilian goodness.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

christianetrue at earthlink.net wrote:
> Apparently this is a traditional Sicilian street food. Arabs  
> introduced the combination of rice and saffron. Even better, I didn't  
> have to translate this one:
>
> Ingredients
> 500gr of rice,  100gr butter,  100gr parmesan cheese,  nutmeg,  
> saffron, parsley,  meat stock,  1 chopped onion,  100gr chopped ham,   
> 100gr peas,  1 glass white wine,  flour,  1 beaten egg,  grated bread,  
>  olive oil for frying,  salt and pepper.
>
> <snip recipe>
> In America, ground beef has been used as an acceptable and tasty  
> substitute, but the ham-pea combination feels more "period" to me.
>
> "Arancini" means "oranges," by the way, a very descriptive name for  
> the color the saffron and the frying gives the rice.
>
> Gianotta

I've had arancini before, they're excellent!  And check this out - I was
just looking through Scappi (Venice, 1570) and found what looks like the
period version (and sweet rather than savory) of this dish:

Per fare fritelle di Riso.  Cap. CXLII [Libro Quinto]
Cuocanosi libre due di riso con brodo grasso di carne, overo con latte
di capra, o di vacca, & zuccaro in modo che sia ben sodo; cavisi del
vaso, & lascisi raffreddare, pestisi nel mortaro con libra una di cascio
grasso, quattro oncie di zuccaro, & ott' ova fresche, & d'essa
compositione faccianosene palle, infarinisino in fior di farina, & poi
frigghisino nel strutto, e fritte che saranno si servino calde con
succaro sopra.

To make rice fritters.
Let two pounds of rice be cooked with rich meat broth, or else with
goat's milk, or cow's milk, and sugar in a way that it becomes quite
solid; pour it into a bowl, and let it cool, then let it be pounded in a
mortar with a pound of fat cheese, four ounces of sugar, and eight fresh
eggs, and let balls be made out of this mixture, floured in wheat flour,
and then fried in lard, and when they are fried let them be served hot
with sugar on top.

Vittoria


Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 23:11:39 -0400
From: Daniel Myers <edouard at medievalcookery.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Siege Cooking Competition
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteora.org>

On Aug 3, 2004, at 10:02 PM, Sharon Palmer wrote:
>> Here's a link to the rules of the recent siege cookng game:
>> http://www.westlaurels.org/Articles/Juan_Santiago_SiegeCookingAS2004.htm
>
> Team 8 made "Frutowre (fruit pancake), ".  Does anyone know the source
> for this recipe?

Probably a variant on one of the following:

[Source: Two Fifteenth-entury Cookery-Books", HARLEIAN MS. 279 (ab.
1430), & HARL. MS. 4016 (ab. 1450)]

Fretoure. Take whete floure, Ale est, Safroun, & Salt, & bete alle
to-gederys as thikke as thou schuldyst make other bature in fleyssche
tyme; & than take fayre Applys, & ku hem in maner of Fretourys, & wete
hem in the bature vp on downne, & frye hem in fayre Oyle, & caste hem
in a dyssche; & caste Sugre ther-on, & serue forth.

Frutours. Take yolkes of egges, drawe hem thorgh a streynour, caste
there-to faire floure, berme nd ale; stere it togidre til hit be thik.
Take pared appelles, cut hem thyn like obleies, ley hem in the batur;
then put hem into a ffrying pan, and fry hem in faire grece or buttur
til thei ben browne yelowe; then put hem in disshes, and strawe Sugur
on em ynogh, And serue hem forthe.

Fretoure owt of lente. Take Flowre, Milke, & Eyroun, & grynd Pepir &
Safroun, & make ther-of a bature; pare Applys, & ster hem, & frye hem
vppe.

Longe Frutours. Take Mylke And make faire croddes there-of in maner of
cheseal tendur, and take oute the way clene; then put hit in a faire
boll, And take yolkes of egges, and white, and menge floure, and caste
thereto a good quantite, and drawe hit thorgh a streynoure into a faire
vessell; then put hit in a faire pan, and fry hi a litull in faire
grece, but lete not boyle; then take it oute, and ley on a faire borde,
and kutte it in faire smale peces as thou list, And putte hem ayen into
the panne til thei be browne; And then caste Sugur on hem, and serue
hem fort.

Lente ffrutors. Take goode floure, Ale yeest, saffron, and salt, and
bete al to-gidre as thik as other maner frutours of ffles; and then
take Appels, and pare hem, and kut hem in maner of ffrutours, and wete
hem in the batur vp and downe, and fry hem in oyle, and cas hem in a
diss, and cast sugur theron ynowe, and serue hem forth hote.

- Doc 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
   Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
   http://www.medievalcookery.com/


Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:59:42 -0800 (PST)
From: Aurelia Rufinia <aureliarufinia at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Frittering Laurels (was Hard Liquor
	ingredients)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

--- Samrah <auntie_samrah at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Aurelia, how does one fritter a Laurel?
> Samrah
>
>> <aureliarufinia at yahoo.com> wote:
 [huge snip]
>> Aurelia, by night an SCA cook who fritters laurels,

It's in Platina.  Take a (fresh) bay leaf, fry it,
dunk it in batter (flour, sugar, eggs, saffron,
cinnamon I think) and fry again.

It's supposed to be good fr curing flatulence and I
made them for my feast a couple weeks ago.  THey went
over a lot better than expected.

Aurelia
=====
Baroness Aurelia Rufinia
House Iron Maiden, Barony of Carolingia,
East Kingdom, Northshield Ex-Pat


Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:20:37 -0800 (PST)
From: Aurelia Rufinia <aureliarufinia at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Frittering Laurels (was Hard Liquor
	ingredients)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-coos at ansteorra.org>

>OK....I have to ask...as this would be a wonderful thing to use for a
> Laurel vigil or reception...do they taste ok if served cold?
>
> Kiri

::chuckles::

I did them in batches of eight (number of people per
table) and sent 'em out right away.  I did eat one of
the leftvers myself about half an hour later, and it
wasn't bad... but I have no idea if they'd be better
fresh.

Aurelia
=====
Baroness Aurelia Rufinia
House Iron Maiden, Barony of Carolingia,
East Kingdom, Northshield Ex-Pat


Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 06:03:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: Heather Musinski <rachaol at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Subject: [Sca-cooks] Italian Fried Custards?
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

     I peeked into the Libro Novo to see and the only recipe that seemed  
close follows.

57D   TO MAKE FRITTERS WITH ELDERBERRY FLOWERS FOR SIX PLATTERS

    Take 4 ounces of flour, three blocks of fresh ricotta cheese or a  
pound of fresh cheese, and a half pound of grated hard cheese, and  
enough yeast as half an egg, and grind everything well in the mortar.  
And put six beaten eggs with them, and a glassful (app 7 fl oz) of  
milk, and 3 ounces of rose water, and mix everything well together. And  
if it appears that the named mixture is too hard, you shall measure a  
small amount of milk enough to be good, and 3 ounces of raisins, and in  
the summer you shall put an ounce of elder flowers to grind with them.  
And then with a tablespoon make your fritters, large or small to what  
you want. Then you shall cook them in sieved fat or butter, or 3 pounds  
of oil. And when they are cooked and ready for the banquet you shall  
put over them 4 ounces of grated sugar.

I don't have the original Italian with me, and it is going to say  
Fritelle di "elderflower" whatever the word is in Italian. Since it  
uses so much ricotta s seems reasonable choice. I would suggest using a  
mild or young hard cheese, not parmesan. I don't think Messisbugo,  
intends that the cheese be hard meaning actual texture, but hard  
meaning the process of making a hard cheese. (That's my theory, because  
I think parmesan, or a strongly flavored, hard texture cheese will ruin  
the flavor whether you have modern taste buds or Rennaisance Italian  
tastebuds.)

Rachaol


Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 18:28:12 -0700
From: Maggie MacDonald <maggie5 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: Subject: [Sca-cooks] Italian Fried Custards?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

At 06:03 AM 8/5/2005,Heather Musinski said something like:
> 57D   TO MAKE FRITTERS WITH ELDERBERRY FLOWERS FOR SIX PLATTERS

Okay!! I tried them tonight in a quick version.

I used ricotta, jack cheese (something with a really pale flavor, as
I was going for a dessert food), white flour, eggs, raisins, 1/2
package of yeast, milk, raisins.

Then I took about 1/3 of the batter and added a generous tablespoon
or so of black sambucca (I have no white around the house).

They were then deep fried, and sprinkled with that very coarse nearly
brown mexican sugar.

They were _very_ good.  However, I don't think I would do this as a
dish for 150-200 people.  I don't think it would hold well after
frying.  This is good for just cooking up for immediate serving, but
holding for more than 5-10 minutes is just out of the question.

I'll do some more tomorrow at Leodamus tourney in a dutch oven over  
coals.

Maggie


Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 21:50:00 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Italian Fried Custards?
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Maggie wrote:
> One of the requests/suggestions I've gotten is to do the fried
> custards that they mention in "The Stars Compel. by Michaela Roessner".
>
> I can't seem to find any references to it in the Scappi menus
> recommended by Helewyse, or in the Anonymous Venetian cookbook, or in
> libro del coch, or .. anywhere.
>
> I see lots of mundane references to fried ricotta as a dessert, but
> no references in the period cookbooks.

There's a Spanish recipe that is not a fried custard, but fried balls
made with a fresh cheese - ricotta could work...

And since the Spanish controlled a fair bit of Western Italy for a
fair bit of time - the Neapolitan cookbook is very Spanish, well...

I have a version on my website. I got the basic recipe from Brighid's
translation of de Nola
<http://home.earthlink.net/~lilinah/2002_Feasts/2002-Mists_Bardic/ 
2002Bardic5-Dessert.html>

133. TORONJAS DE XATIVA QUE SON ALMOJAVANAS
Oranges of Xativa which are Cheesecakes

ORIGINAL
Diego Granado, Libro del Arte de Cozina (1599)
trans. by Lady Brighid ni Chiarain

You must take new cheese and curd cheese, and grind them in a mortar
together with eggs. Then take dough and knead those cheeses with the
curd cheese, together with the dough. And when everything is
incorporated and kneaded take a very clean casserole. And cast into
it a good quantity of sweet pork fat or fine sweet oil. And when the
pork grease or oil boils, make some balls from said dough, like toy
balls or round oranges. And cast them into the casserole in such a
manner that the ball goes floating in the casserole. And you can also
make bu"uelos (Recipe 108) of the dough, or whatever shapes and
ostentations you wish. And when they are the color of gold, take them
out, and cast in as many others. And when everything is fried, put it
on plates. And cast honey upon it, and on top of the honey [cast]
ground sugar and cinnamon. However, note one thing: that you must put
a bit of leaven in the cheeses and in the eggs, and in the other put
flour. And when you make the balls, grease your hands with a little
fine oil, and then [the balls] go to the casserole. And when it is
inside, if the dough crackles it is a signal that it is very soft,
and you must cast in more flour [into the dough] until it is harder.
And when the fritter is made and fried, cast your honey on it, and
[cast] sugar and cinnamon on top as is said above.

Lady Brighid's NOTE:
While "toronjas" is the modern word for "grapefruits", the
Renaissance Spanish word for "oranges" was "torongas".

MY VERSION
2 dozen eggs
2 lb. farmer's cheese
4 containers ricotta cheese (about 3/4 lb. each)
unbleached wheat flour, as needed
non-sour "sourdough" bread sponge
mild cooking oil (like canola)
honey
ground sugar
ground cinnamon

     1. Beat eggs.
     2. Mix together farmer cheese, ricotta cheese, and eggs.
     3. Stir some flour into the cheese-egg mix.
     4. Put about 1/2 cup sponge into the cheese-egg dough, mix well,
and let rest at least 1/2 hour to rise. If the dough hasn't gotten
lighter, add another 1/2 cup sponge and let rest another 15 min.
Continue until you've added up to 2 cups of sponge, adding flour as
necessary to keep dough firm, not gooey.
     5. When cheese-dough is finally ready, heat oil in deep pan on high  
heat.
     6. While the oil is heating, make spherical balls from the dough,
not too large, about the size of a ping-pong ball, greasing your
hands with a little cooking oil to keep dough from sticking.
     7. When the oil in the pan is quite hot, drop in some of the
cheese balls. They should float on the oil.
     8. "If the dough crackles it is a signal that it is very soft, and
you must add more flour [to the dough] until it is harder."
     9. When the balls are golden, take them out with a slotted spoon
or Chinese wire scoop and put on a plate lined with paper towels to
drain, then add more uncooked balls into the oil.
    10. After they are drained, put them on serving platters.
    11. Drizzle with honey, then sprinkle with ground cinnamon and sugar.

NOTE:
As you can tell, this recipe is really sketchy. That's because i
forgot to bring the flour to the event, so we didn't cook them after
all. If i get another opportunity, i'll try them again.

PS. this was for about 80-100 diners. There were three other desserts
- bizcochos with non-alcoholic hypocras, persicate (a peach "soup"),
and non-period baqlawa (at the authocrat's request) All the recipes
are on the link above. The baqlawa was Syrian and it was superb. I am
now spoiled and i don't want soggy honey-covered baklava from shops.
It's not for no reason that there's a Syrian saying:
"There's an empty spot in my stomach that only sweets can fill."
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 01:03:44 +0200
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickpea fritters
To: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>,	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Am Donnerstag, 30. März 2006 22:57 schrieb Christiane:
> I have a recipe for a dessert fritter made in one Sicilian town for St.
> Joseph's Day on March 19 (apparently legumes feature very highly in these
> St. Joseph's Day menus). Boiled and mashed chickpeas are mixed with sugar,
> almonds, bits of candied citron, and currants (soemtimes bits of
> bittersweet chocolate are added), enfolded in dough, deep fried, and then
> sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.
>
> Wondering if there is an antecedent in Middle Eastern/North African,
> Greek/Mediterranean, or Spanish cooking for these fritters. Since the town
> is in the Western part of the island near Palermo, the traditionally "Arab"
> side of the island, I'm wondering if there is a connection. The chickpea
> filling seems unusual.

Unfortunately I don't have it handy right now, but the Liber de Coquina (Latin
compound MS composed c. 1310) has a recipe for sweet chickpea fritters called
'ganti'. No other ingredients are mentioned, though, just mashed chickpeas,
sugar (and IIRC flour, but I'm not sure about that any more). The second half
(including that recipe) is believed to go back to an earlier vernacular
Southern Italian/Sicilian text.

Giano


Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:34:39 -0500
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickpea fritters
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

There's also this one from al-Baghdadi, via Cariadoc's Miscellany:

Barad

Serving Size  : 50    Preparation Time :0:00

   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  ------------  --------------------------------
   2 1/2           cups  white flour
   2 1/2              t  dried yeast + 2 t water or 1/4 c sourdough
   2 1/2           cups  honey
   2 1/2           cups  water
   5                  T  rose water
                         sesame oil (about)

Make the flour and water into a smooth batter. Mix yeast and water, wait
about 10 minutes, then add to the flour-water mixture.

Let stand 2-3 hours (12-18 hours if your are using sourdough instead of
the yeast/water mixture).

  Heat 1 c of the sesame oil to about 300° in a large frying pan.  
Pour the
batter through a ladle or skimmer with small holes in it, so as to form
small balls in the hot oil. Cook to a pale brown (1-3 minutes), take  
out,
drain on paper towel. Add more sesame oil when it gets low.

Mix rose water and honey, cook to 250°. Pay close attention-you want it
almost but not quite boiling over.

As it cools, whip it; it eventually takes a sort of whipped butter
consistency, with a light color. Mix it with the fried dough, press down
on an oiled plate, press down from above with another plate or a  
spatula.
Chill before serving.

It has some tendency to come out a bit oily; you may want to use paper
towels during the pressing to absorb as much of the surplus oil as
possible.

Kiri


Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:56:54 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chickpea fritters
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

And don't forget the not at all sweet Southern French fried chickpea
cakes called Panisse

I loved them when i lived in Southern France. It didn't dawn on me
that they were Lenten fare.

Cook chickpeas until quite tender; pass through a sieve to puree and
remove skins; mix with a little water to a porridge-y consistency;
glop equal amounts onto saucers (so they'll be UFO shaped discs);
allow to set until quite firm.

To eat, heat olive oil in a skillet. Slip the panisse into the pan
and fry on medium heat until crispy.

As for those interesting sweet chick pea cakes... remember Sicily was
never really Italian. It was colonized first by the Phoenicians and
then by the Greeks. Apparently when what's-her-name wrote "Pomp &
Sustenance" there were still communities speaking archaic Sicilian
Greek.

I do agree with you that mashed sweetened chick peas with almonds and
candied fruit sounds like Sicilian meets Middle Eastern. I'll see if
i can find anything vaguely reminiscent in my period cookbooks.

Urtatim / Anahita


Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:26:45 -0500 (CDT)
From: Cat Dancer <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] fritters!
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Labor Day weekend was a demo/event for one of the WI shires. For the last
couple of years there's been a small "authenticity encampment" that I've
been part of. This year, because we had to re-season the Consort's
cast-iron potje (for reasons I will not go into but will readily admit
were my fault in the first place) we decided to do something fried in  
oil over the fire.

We did sage fritters and apple fritters from Platina. I managed to forget
to add the saffron (I blame the lack of sleep) but they were both
extremely tasty. Platina specifies frying the apple slices briefly and
then letting them dry before dipping them in the batter, so out of
curiosity I tried raw apple slices and fried apple slices. The tasters
voted the fried apple fritters as much better than the raw apple fritters.
The apple fritters are also delicious cold. The sage fritters are still
edible and reasonably tasty but *much* better fresh and hot.

I went with vegetable oil instead of lard, because vegetable oil was
substantially cheaper for the gallon + that was needed.

Apples were Granny Smith, because the owner of the potje has an
unreasonable prejudice against apples which are not crisp and tart.  Others
more knowledgeable about fruit than I have suggested that 14th c. apples
would have been less crisp and more sweet.

I used white unbleached flour for the batter, and ended up adding a
little water to make it more like batter and less like goo. Large eggs,
because that's what I had.

Due to a complete lack of measuring equipment, what I did was to crack
three* eggs in a bowl, mix them well, add some sugar and cinnamon and mix
well. Then I added flour in small amounts until it reached what I
considered an appropriate batter-like consistency, then I added that
aforementioned small amount of water so that the batter had a chance of
actually sticking to the sage and apples rather than just to itself.

*[I'd gotten out four eggs, so one was left sitting lonely on the table. I
buried it in the hot ashes for ten minutes or so, and then pulled it out,
let it cool, and peeled it. It was surprisingly like a hard-boiled egg.]

FRICTELLA FROM SAGE (from Milham's translation of Platina)

Dissolve meal with eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and saffron, and work it.  Put
in whole sage leaves, as broad as you want, and when they have been
steeped, fry them in a pan with liquamen or a little oil.  This is
nourishing and helps the nerves, although these are slow to be digested
and cause obstructions.

Frictella from Apples

Morsels of apple that have been cleaned and cored, you fry in liquamen or
a little oil, and spread them on a board so that they dry. Then roll them
in a preparation such as we described earlier and fry again.

*This is from the Miscellany--I actually used the Milham edition of
Platina. Not that this matters all that much. Anyway. I chose to interpret
"such as we described earlier" as the recipe directly above, which is the
sage recipe, thus allowing me to use the same batter for both. Next time I
try the cheese batter option from earlier in the chapter.

Margaret FitzWilliam of Kent


Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:39:12 -0700
From: Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fricadella of Fish from Platina
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On 3/19/07 8:12 PM, "Stefan li Rous" <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> Selene mentioned before Gulf Wars:
> <<< The first one I think of,
> particularly for UK consumption, is Fricadella of Fish from Platina,
> which is pretty much identical to fried fish today.  Chips came
> later! >>>
>
> Can someone post a copy of this recipe? And perhaps their redaction?
> My apologies if someone posted this after Selene's message. I'm still
> rather far behind in reading my messages.

I really should be more careful with conversational posts and quote
properly.  My apologies for my earlier unclarity, and let me offer some
proper period receipts.

I should really be quoting Martino here, rather than his too-ardent admirer
Platina.  Hereafter I quote THE ART OF COOKING:  THE FIRST MODERN COOKERY
BOOK by The Eminent Maestro Martino of Cuomo, edited and with an
introduction by Luigi Ballerini, translated and annotated by Jeremy Parzen.

Chapter Five covers "How To Make Every Type Of Fritter"

The one on fish is not all that "fish and chippy" but maybe related to
modern croquettes [or maybe crab cakes?].  No eggs, but keep in mind  
that this is under a category with Lenten dishes.

"Fish Fritters
"Boil the fish and crush its whitest flesh, and take a little thick almond
milk and a bit of sifted flour with some sugar, and thin all these things
with a little rose water or plain water, then give the fritters any shape
you wish and fry them in good oil."

On the other, non-Lenten hand, a more familiar form of batter is seen here.
Other recipes in the section refer back to this one, so this batter seems to
be usable for various, things, including Laurels, that is, Bay Leaves:

"Sage Fritters
"Take a little sifted flour, and mix it with eggs, sugar, and a bit of
cinnamon and saffron to make it yellow, and take some whole sage leaves and
dredge them one by one in this mixture and fry in rendered lard or good
oil."

Okay, are these 15th Century McNuggets?

"Almond Fritters
"Take some blanched and well-crushed almonds and pass them through a stamine
with some rose water and a little milk, and take a boiled pullet breast and
crush separately from the almonds, likewise, a bit of sifted flour, two or
three egg whites as needed, and mix all these things with a little sugar,
give these fritters any shape you wish and fry them slowly in good rendered
lard or butter and make sure you do not overcook them."

Selene Colfox


Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:29:49 -0400
From: "Barbara Benson" <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Garbonzo Bean flour ...
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

How about a period recipe:

Counterfeit Isf?riy? of Garbanzos
From The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, 13th Cen. Spain. Translated by
Charles Perry

Pound some garbanzos, take out the skins and grind them into flour.
And take some of the flour and put into a bowl with a bit of sourdough
and some egg, and beat with spices until it's all mixed. Fry it as
before in thin cakes, and make a sauce for them.
	
7 1/2 oz Chick Pea Flour
1 pinch Kosher Salt
1/4 C Warm Water
1 t Yeast
10 Threads Saffron
1 pinch Sugar
2 Eggs
1/4 t Black Pepper
1/2 t Coriander
1/4 t Cumin
1 t Cinnamon
2 C Canola Oil (for Frying)

Combine water, yeast, saffron and sugar and allow to proof. Sift
chickpea flour into a bowl and add spices, mix with whisk until well
combined. Beat eggs in a bowl and add to flour, add yeast mixture and
combine well. Roll out to 1/8 in thickness on a floured surface and
cut into 1" squares. Bring oil to a temp of around 375 F and hold
there. Fry several pieces at a time turning once. 1 - 2 minutes per
fritter. Remove to draining rack and sprinkle with kosher salt while
hot. Remove to paper towels.

They come out like puffy little chips - I serve them with a
pomegranate dipping sauce.
--
Serena da Riva


Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:19:03 -0400
From: "Barbara Benson" <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Garbonzo Bean flour ...
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 11:40 AM, S CLEMENGER <sclemenger at msn.com> wrote:
> Care to share the recipe for the dipping sauce?
>  I might have to try these...and the other ideas.  Have never  
> really made anything with garbanzo flour, although I've certainly  
> consumed more than my share of hummus, and I had a whole-grain  
> pasta this week that was made with garbanzo flour, in part.
>  --Maire

The sauce is completely extrapolataory, conjectural and all of those
fun things. I just really needed something to serve them with -
because on their own they are an acquired taste.
	
Pomegranate sauce for Chick Pea Fritters
Inspired by the The Baghdad Cookery Book.
			
1/2 C Water
3 T Pomegranate Molasses
2 oz Raisins, pureed
1 t Red Wine Vinegar
Sugar to taste

Puree raisins. Combine all ingredients in small saucepan, simmer and
stir vigorously until desired consistency is reached.

Believe it or not, in small quantities the easiest way to puree the
raisins is with a mortar and pestle. When I created this recipe the
only kind of pomegranate that you could easily and inexpensively come
by was the Molasses. With the increased availability of Pomegranate
juice I think you could come up with a better tasting sauce by simply
using Pomegranate juice instead of the Molasses/Water combo. I find
the molasses has a background bitterness/smokiness that I do not care
for.

Pretty much the goal is a pomegranate based, thickened sweet and sour
sauce for the fritters. The tangy/sweet balances out the heat that is
in the fritters. The fritters are also a bit dry and the sauce helps
with that.

If you make them, let me know what you think!
--
Serena da Riva


Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 10:04:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: wheezul at canby.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] What is a Spanish Fritter?

<<< I have been reading some cookbooks from the 1500's (mainly rumpholt) and in
there it refers to the Spanish fritter.  I have been looking for references
for a fritter, but mainly the information that I am finding is that it is
actually the enpanada.

Is there a difference between the 2 and where else could I look for more
accurate documentation?

Carres >>>

Oh goodie!  I have been wanting to discuss the word 'krapfen' which we
generally translate as fritter into English.  It's one of those words that
has multiple meanings now, and I have been collecting data to do a cross
comparison of all the kinds of variants.  They can be a fried fritter with
or without leavening, a crepe, a thin crusted fried filled pie made with
rolled out dough and further can be a type of ravioli or dumpling.  (Note
the similarities between rapf [raf]and ravioli [rav]). I haven't seen all
of the variants known, but usually a filling is implied with a krapfen.

I don't know what a Spanish fritter is, but since Rumpolt tells that the
stuffing can be prepared in a variety of ways - as a regular krapfen, and
one that is fried in butter as well as the Spanish variety, I wonder if it
is a kind of ravioli, but I am only broadly guessing.

Katherine
who is still giggling at the obscene meaning of krapfen (think nut filled
fried dough balls...)


Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 15:58:13 -0400
From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Spanish Fritter

An empanda is a breaded foodstuff, like breaded liver or Southern fried 
chicken.

A Spanish fritter is food rolled in pastry and fried. It is not a 
pancake in that the pancake is fried and after it is removed from the 
frying pan and a stuffing is laid on it and then the pancake or crepe is 
rolled around it. A Spanish fritter could be a glob of dough fried but 
most likely it is a turnover fried with a stuffing already inside it.

Suey


Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 16:10:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] What is a Spanish Fritter?

Look at Spanish Pastries in Sabina Welser. I was working with it for a feast when I realized it was an empanada. Since the instructions can be interpreted as to either fry or bake it, I think it can be prepared in advance, baked and frozen until needed.

Bear

--- On Wed, 5/12/10, Stephanie Yokom <sayokom at gmail.com> wrote:
<<< I have been reading some cookbooks from the 1500's (mainly rumpholt) and in
there it refers to the Spanish fritter.? I have been looking for references
for a fritter, but mainly the information that I am finding is that it is
actually the enpanada.

Is there a difference between the 2 and where else could I look for more
accurate documentation?

Carres >>>


Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 22:03:00 -0400
From: Sharon Palmer <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] What is a Spanish Fritter?

<<< would you be so kind as to send me both with the references, too!  PLEASE
<HUGE cheesy smile!> >>>

As far as I can tell, in Rumpolt, calling something a Spanische 
Pasteten or Spannische Krapfen  implies that they use a rough puff 
pastry, made by rolling out dough, spreading it with fat and rolling 
it up.  As opposed to Hungarian pies, which use layers of dough 
rolled out separately, more like homemade filo.

You can download my translation of Rumpolt from
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cooking_rumpolt/

Ranvaig


Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:44:09 +0930
From: "Claire Clarke" <angharad at adam.com.au>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

Hi all,
Having some issues with my frictelle de riso. The first time I tried them I
only had one egg in the house, and I thought that might be enough, also I
didn't cook the rice for quite long enough. They were a bit of a mess really
and stuck very badly in the pan. So the next time I put more eggs in, and
cooked the rice properly. But if anything, they stuck worse. So I got out
the non-stick frying pan (to which I otherwise have an aversion), and they
worked reasonably well in that. So while I have functional fritters, I don't
really have them functional via a period method (ye olde mediaeval Teflon).

The thing I noticed is that the fritters are quite fragile when half cooked,
so if they are not easy to turn over, they disintegrate very easily. I
didn't put any flour in as I thought the rice would provide starch enough,
but now I'm wondering if the gluten would make them a bit tougher. Any
thoughts?

Recipe follows:
Fa? cocere il riso molto bene ne lo lacte, et cavandolo fora per farne
frittelle observerai l?ordine et modo scripto di sopra, excepto che non gli
hai a mettere n? caso n? altre lacte.

Cook the rice very well in milk and remove it in order to make fritters
following the directions and method written above, except that you do not
need to put in either cheese or extra milk.

The previous recipe is for curd or junket fritters and the relevant part (to
my mind) reads:

...et con un pocho di fiore di farina, di bianchi d'ovo secundo la quantita`
che vol fare, col zuccharo et dell'acqua rosata mescolarai queste cose bene
inseme...

...and with a little flour of wheat, of egg whites according to the quantity
that you would like to make, with sugar and rose water mixing all these
things together well...

1/2 cup Arborio rice
1.5 cups milk
1.5 tablsps sugar
1 tsp rosewater essence
3 egg whites
Cook the rice in the milk until it is very soft. Stir in the sugar and
rosewater and leave to cool. Mix in the egg whites and drop dessertspoonfuls
onto a hot (non-stick) frying pan, greased with a little olive oil. Makes
about thirty fritters.

Angharad
(All of this from Libro de Arte de Coquinaria BTW)


Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:38:20 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

Is it a question of the rice being used and the starch?
So, what happens if you take regular cooked rice and make a fritter?
Would it work better with a long grained white rice?

Modern versions seem to drop into hot frying oil and fry them like a  
modern fritter.
They come out looking like small rounded balls.
http://www.tuscanrecipes.com/recipes/frittelle-di-riso.html

The Gillian Riley translation for this recipe instructs
"Using a spoon, make your
fritters small or big, as you please, frying them in
good lard or well-ripened butter."
(from the Octavo cd-rom Martino's Libro de arte coquinaria)

So in fact frying them in a good quantity of oil might be indicated.  
They certainly wouldn't stick in that case.

Johnnae


Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:39:17 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

Platina's recipe has you frying them in oil as well.

<<< Is it a question of the rice being used and the starch?
So, what happens if you take regular cooked rice and make a fritter?
Would it work better with a long grained white rice?

Modern versions seem to drop into hot frying oil and fry them like a 
modern fritter.
They come out looking like small rounded balls.
http://www.tuscanrecipes.com/recipes/frittelle-di-riso.html

The Gillian Riley translation for this recipe instructs
"Using a spoon, make your
fritters small or big, as you please, frying them in
good lard or well-ripened butter."
(from the Octavo cd-rom Martino's Libro de arte coquinaria)

So in fact frying them in a good quantity of oil might be indicated. 
They certainly wouldn't stick in that case.

Johnnae >>>


Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:48:50 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

None of the Martino Manuscript sources (including Platina) are specific in
the amount of fat that is used in frying any of the frictelle recipes but
most of them imply that there is some amount of fat (and it seems to be
liquid) used in making them.

There are quite a few frictelle recipes in the collection.

Eduardo


Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:04:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: wheezul at canby.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

I also immediately thought of cooking them in a sizable amount of oil but
then another thought occured to me.

The instructions say to 'remove' the rice which led me to wonder if it was
still covered with liquid at that point kind of like rice pudding and
rather wet?  Then it would make sense not to add additional milk and the
residual milk liquid would blend with the eggs and flour to make a
stickier pancake like batter helping to hold the mass together for frying.
What exactly does the 'remove' instruction mean?  Just thinking...

Katherine


Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:07:55 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 1:04 PM,  <wheezul at canby.com> wrote:
<<< The instructions say to 'remove' the rice which led me to wonder if it was
still covered with liquid at that point kind of like rice pudding and
rather wet? >>>

It might be cooking rice "pasta style" -- boiling it in an excess of
liquid and then draining it when it reaches doneness.

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:11:08 +0930
From: "Claire Clarke" <angharad at adam.com.au>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

------------------------------
Is it a question of the rice being used and the starch?
So, what happens if you take regular cooked rice and make a fritter?
Would it work better with a long grained white rice?

****
I don't think so. Short grained rice is generally starchier isn't it? And
the parts where the rice remains whole as opposed to starting to
disintegrate into a milky, ricey mush are the parts that seem to stick
worst.
****

Modern versions seem to drop into hot frying oil and fry them like a  
modern fritter. They come out looking like small rounded balls.
http://www.tuscanrecipes.com/recipes/frittelle-di-riso.html

*****
I did look at the modern versions, and wonder about the deep-frying aspect.
If I was to do this, I'd have to make the mixture a bit thicker I think.
****

The Gillian Riley translation for this recipe instructs
"Using a spoon, make your fritters small or big, as you please, frying them in
good lard or well-ripened butter."
(from the Octavo cd-rom Martino's Libro de arte coquinaria)

So in fact frying them in a good quantity of oil might be indicated.  
They certainly wouldn't stick in that case.

Johnnae
*****************************************
That part is from the preceding recipes for fritters of junket or curd. The
recipe before that for elderflower fritters (also made with cheese) also
suggests forming the fritters with the hands and then frying in lard or
butter or oil. This is making a picture of fritter dough that is relatively
thick at the very least.

Angharad


Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:33:59 +0930
From: "Claire Clarke" <angharad at adam.com.au>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Problems with frictelle

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

The instructions say to 'remove' the rice which led me to wonder if it was
still covered with liquid at that point kind of like rice pudding and
rather wet?  Then it would make sense not to add additional milk and the
residual milk liquid would blend with the eggs and flour to make a
stickier pancake like batter helping to hold the mass together for frying.
What exactly does the 'remove' instruction mean?  Just thinking...

Katherine

*****************************************
Interestingly the phrase used for remove in these recipes is more often
'cacciare fore' or similar, which means literally 'to chase forth'. This one
says 'cavandolo fore' where 'cavandare' means to dig or get out. This seems
to imply scooping out the rice. It doesn't say anything about straining the
rice.

Angharad


Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:14:08 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

My usual apple fritter recipe is Lente Frytoures from Two Fifteenth 
Century. It uses cut up chunks of apple in batter. I've always 
assumed that it's one chunk per fritter, but it isn't entirely clear 
that that's what is intended.

Are there any period recipes in which it's clear that you are taking 
grated apples, or small chunks, and frying something more like a 
modern apple fritter?

--On Thursday, September 02, 2010 7:19 AM -0700 Euriol of Lothian
<euriol at yahoo.com> wrote:
<<< I've made it both with an standard, off the shelf apple sauce and the
chunky  homemade sauce that was made at Pennsic. I though they both
worked rather well.  But I also only placed about a tablespoon of batter
into the oil for each  individual fritter to make sure that it would cook
thoroughly without getting  overcooked on the outside. The raising agent
in this batter was yeast, which I  added about an hour before dropping
the batter into the oil. These definitely  did not look like the large
apple fritters that I am familiar with at the local  doughnut shop. They
came out about the size of a ping pong ball. >>>

<< I've had some luck with apple fritters by grating the apples and mixing the
grated matter in with the batter. >>

toodles, margaret
-- 
David/Cariadoc


Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 18:44:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Euriol of Lothian <euriol at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

<<< The first part of of the recipe I used for this dish described an applesauce
being made. >>>

Source? Period? Recipe?

Our apples are coming ripe.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
===========

Here are my notes and recipe:

Euriol 

Original Recipe:
Maestro Martino: Libro de arte coquinaria (sec. XV).
-- Based on: Arte della cucina. Libri di ricette, testi sopra lo scalco, i 
trinciante e i vini. Dal XIV al XIX secolo. A cura di Emilio Faccioli. Vol. 1. 
Milano 1966, 115-204.
-- Digital version: Valeria Romanelli, 7/2004.
http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/martino2.htm
[Altre frittelle di pomi.]
Monda et netta le poma molto bene, et falle cocere allesso o
sotto la brascia, et cavatene fora quello duro di mezo pistarale 
molto bene et inseme gli mettirai un poco de lievito et un poco 
di fiore di farina, et del zuccaro; et fa' le frittelle frigendole in
bono olio. 

English Translation:
The Art of Cooking, Martino of Como (Pg 94)
Peel & clean the apples well and boil or cook under coals; remove the hard part 
from their middles and crush well; and add a little yeast together with a bit of 
sifted flour and some sugar; and prepare the fritters, frying them in good oil.

Ingredients 
1 pound Apple sauce 
1 package Yeast 
1 1/2 cup Flour 
1/2 cup Sugar 
Oil for frying

Instructions
Combine apple sauce, yeast, flour & sugar until well mixed. Let rest for 10-30 
minutes in a warm spot. Deep fry in oil until dark golden brown.


Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 20:12:57 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

I tried Martino's fritters this evening. 3/4 lb apples, peeled, 
simmered about 20 minutes, then everything but the core mushed, 
combined with 1/4 c flour, 1 T sugar, and some sourdough (I assume the 
yeast should be beer or wine sediment, which I don't have) and fried. 
Assuming that I ended up with 1/2 lb of apple mush, I was using a 
much lower ratio of flour and sugar to apple than Euriol did.

It came out too much like applesauce with a cooked crust for my 
taste--not as good as my usual Lente Frytoures. At the end I added 
more flour, which made it a bit better. The original has "a bit of 
sifted flour," which makes me reluctant to use Euriol's quantity, 
which works out to about half as much flour as apple sauce by 
weight-but I suspect it would have come out better if I had. I may 
try it again with much more flour.

<< Here are my notes and recipe:

Euriol

Original Recipe:
Maestro Martino: Libro de arte coquinaria (sec. XV).
-- Based on: Arte della cucina. Libri di ricette, testi sopra lo scalco, i
trinciante e i vini. Dal XIV al XIX secolo. A cura di Emilio Faccioli. Vol. 1.
Milano 1966, 115-204. >>>


Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 07:49:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: Euriol of Lothian <euriol at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

I'm curious, how hot was your oil for frying and how long did you let it set 
after you added the sourdough before frying?? 

When I first tested this recipe I added flour in by the 1/2 cup until I got it 
to a consistency that I thought would work. Then I waited about 45-60 minuets 
before frying. I used an electric deep fryer with the temperature set to 375F

Euriol 

----- Original Message ----
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>

I tried Martino's fritters this evening. 3/4 lb apples, peeled, 
simmered about 20 minutes, then everything but the core mushed, 
combined with 1/4 c flour, T sugar, and some sourdough (I assume the 
yeast should be beer or wine sediment, which I don't have) and fried. 
Assuming that I ended up with 1/2 lb of apple mush, I was using a 
much lower ratio of flour and sugar to apple than Euriol did.


Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 23:58:08 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

Cariadoc said:
<<< It came out too much like applesauce with a cooked crust for my
taste--not as good as my usual Lente Frytoures. At the end I added
more flour, which made it a bit better. >>>

So you think it should have less moisture? Or more crust/bread 
compared to the fruit portion?

I'm comparing it to two things--Lente Frytoures, which are slices of 
apple in batter, and modern apple fritters, which are a pastry with 
pieces of apple in it. I expected a solider result.

Looking though most of the apple fritters saved in the Florilegium 
they seem to be done with apple chunks or slices and not with apple 
mush or apple sauce. This is the only one that seems to be from 
those. Hardly a comprehensive survey, though.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
  Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com


Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2010 11:10:31 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

<<< I'm curious, how hot was your oil for frying and how long did you let it set
after you added the sourdough before frying?? >>>

I was using olive oil in a small frying pan, so didn't have good 
temperature control, but I did use a thermometer to check. It seemed 
to work best at about 350 degrees F.

I doubt it had more than hour or so to sit before I made it. In 
recipes like that, I'm often unsure whether the yeast is actually 
used to raise the batter-it usually doesn't say anything about 
leaving it for a long time-or if it's sediment from wine or beer 
making used as an ingredient.
-- 
David/Cariadoc


Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:09:33 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

On Sep 2, 2010, at 12:14 PM, David Friedman asked:
>>> Are there any period recipes in which it's clear that you are taking  
grated apples, or small chunks, and frying something more like a  
modern apple fritter? >>>

These are rather fun to look up. In this recipe, the apples are pared  
and cut thinly.

Frutours. Take yolkes of egges, drawe hem thorgh a streynour, caste  
there-to faire floure, berme and ale; stere it togidre til hit be  
thik. Take pared appelles, cut hem thyn like obleies, (Note:  
sacramental wafers) ley hem in the batur; then put hem into a ffrying  
pan, and fry hem in faire grece or buttur til thei ben browne yelowe;  
then put hem in disshes, and strawe Sugur on hem ynogh, And serue hem  
forthe. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books

Here's a good instructive text: "and than take fayre Applys, and kut  
hem in maner of Fretourys" so I guess one must know what one is doing  
before one attempts the making.

liiij - Fretoure. Take whete floure, Ale 3est, Safroun, and Salt, and  
bete alle to-gederys as thikke as thou schuldyst make other bature in  
fleyssche tyme; and than take fayre Applys, and kut hem in maner of  
Fretourys, and wete hem in the bature vp on downne, and frye hem in  
fayre Oyle, and caste hem in a dyssche; and caste Sugre ther-on, and  
serue forth.  Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books

From the 17th century

To make Fritters.
Make your Batter with Ale, and Eggs, and Yest, season it with Milk,  
Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Salt, cut your Apples like Beanes,  
then put your Apples and Butter together, fry them in boyling Lard,  
strew on Sugar, and serve them.

There's also this fried apple treat.

To fry Applepies,
Take Apples and pare them, and chop them very small, beat in a little  
Cinnamon, a little Ginger, and some Sugar, a little Rosewater, take  
your paste, roul it thin, and make them up as big Pasties as you  
please, to hold a spoonful or a little lesse of your Apples, and so  
stir them with Butter not to hastily least they be burned.

Kent, Elizabeth Grey, Countess of, 1581-1651.A choice manual of rare  
and select secrets 1653

To make Fritters.
Make your Batter with Ale, and Eggs, and Yest, season it with Milk,  
Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon, Nut|meg, and Salt, cut your Apples like  
Beanes, then put your Apples and Butter together, fry them in boyl|ing  
Lard, strew on Sugar, and serve them.

Kent, Elizabeth Grey, Countess of, 1581-1651.A true gentlewomans  
delight. 1653.

There are a number of others.

Johnnae


Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:21:27 +0200
From: "Susanne Mayer" <susanne.mayer5 at chello.at>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

UH OH, Krapfen,.....

Unfortunately Krapfen and all the various spelling of same does mean all of 
what you and Stefan mentioned,....

rolled out and filled dough, fruit (mostly pear and Apple) between pieces of 
(white) bread and then pulled through a batter, Batter with something (fruit 
chunks, dried orange peel,...) Batter alone, .....

BUT the main thing in common all is FRIED SWIMMING in Lard, oil or rendered 
butter fat.

I have not found an omlette or crepe in the german cookbooks I have yet, and 
the main difference would be the crepes/omlett type of things is not fried 
swimming in fat but normaly just with a little fat.

I will have to go through my stuff to find examples, that will take some 
while. I know we made something like arme Ritter/french toast with apple 
inside from the book of Doris Aichholzer Wildu machen ayn guet essen

I would say fritters are a good translation for Krapfen.

Katharina

Katherine wrote:
<<< I have been translating 'krapfen' the apparent German variant as 'fritter'
while I think the meaning *might* closer to 'crepe/crisp' in period.  For
a while now it has been bugging me because it is pretty clear that often
the recipes for krapfen are more like cuskenoles (oh noes!), ravioli or
fried/baked pies with rolled out dough than either of the two things
Stefan suggests above.

Another project - investigate the types of krapfen and continue to try to
figure out the nuance of the word that makes them related to the 16th
century mind and perhaps find a better translation word.  Quick, somebody
hand me an apple fritter to give me some brain power!  Donut power
activate :)

Katherine >>>


Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:44:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: wheezul at canby.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] apple fritters at Pennsic

While looking at the historical meaning of fritter in English, I'd
probably agree on that as an equivalent name.  Although the modern
connotation is somewhat different.  But I'm not sure that every recipe
specifies frying in fat, though most do.  I think I want to find all the
recipes I can and try a side by side spreadsheet comparison.  Can you say
geeky?

I thought I saw a German recipe where one was instructed to swirl around
the batter in the pan, much like a crepe.  [Insert lack of concordance
frustrated ahhhhhhh!!!! and bemoaning of aging neurons here :D]

Thank you for the insight.  They ALL sound delicious!

Katherine

UH OH, Krapfen,.....

<<< BUT the main thing in common all is FRIED SWIMMING in Lard, oil or
rendered butter fat.

I have not found an omlette or crepe in the german cookbooks I have yet, and
the main difference would be the crepes/omlett type of things is not fried
swimming in fat but normaly just with a little fat.

I would say fritters are a good translation for Krapfen.

Katharina >>>


Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:14:02 +0930
From: "Claire Clarke" <angharad at adam.com.au>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fritters (was: An almost final Feast Menu)

Just gotten back from eight days at an interstate event and I missed the
discussion on the feast menu. But I did want to make a comment about
fritters. I very frequently include fritters of some kind in my feasts. I
usually swear afterwards 'never again' and then do it anyway, because they
are yummy! The 'never again' is because standing in front of a frying pan
for a couple of hours is hot, unpleasant work. But I've never shied away
from it on the grounds that the results are unpleasant. 

You can cook enough small fritters for 100 people in a couple of hours, and
they don't become soggy or cold enough to become yucky in that time. You do
have to time things so that you cook them pretty much right before they are
due to be served. Large electric frying pans are particularly useful in this
regard, especially if you have a kitchen with a small amount of stove space.

You can also pick and choose your fritter recipes. I was surprised that
there was any issue with the herb fritter recipe as in my experience these
are more like small pancakes and the crispy/soggy issue is not really an
issue at all. 

Angharad
(who made fried marzipan pastries and apple fritters whilst up to her ankles
in mud while she was away)


From the fb "SCA Cooks" group:

Keirin Lazauskas-Ralff
July 18 at 3:22 PM

I'm considering adding a fritter of some sort - most likely of parsnips - to a menu for a German winter lunch I'm in charge of. I was wondering if you could point me towards some period recipes that could be interpreted as a kind of fritter.

I know Sabina Welserin includes recipes for "apple puffs," and "apple pillows," which I would consider in the fritter family. And I know Rumpoldt has a recipe for mushroom fritters. Ultimately, what I'd like to do is offer a fritter that is either composed of shredded or diced parsnips and spices that have been mixed into a dough base and then fried; or something akin to a potato pancake. The aforementioned recipes involve using larger pieces of the fruit or veg that are then covered in batter.

I was hoping to have a few recipes with different options -- my feeling is that the two options I've mentioned here would be the easiest to put together, but I would really prefer to be able to document at least the technique. I know there are recipes for things like "filled buns" and such. I guess I'm just curious to see your thoughts and interpretations on the matter, and I'm curious to know if you've all seen something I haven't yet.

Edelvrouw Lijsbet de Keukere

Tammy Thompson 
Form of Cury has a recipe for frytours that mention parsnips, carrots and apples. Basically chunks fried in batter I think

Yonnie Travis 
My experiments created a pancake that was doughy. I was disappointed because I expect fritters to be fluffy cakelike treats similar to modern day fritters.

Urtatim Al-Qurtubiyya 
A batter of pancake consistency may be fine, or perhaps a little thinner. You may have needed more oil to cook it in. A modern fritter is usually deep fried. I'm not certain that things were deep fried in period - i would say the fat should come at least half or 2/3 of the way up your fritter so if it isn't completely submerged at least most of it is. Your fritter needs to be floating in the fat, not flat against the bottom of the pan. The fat needs to be pretty hot when the fritter goes in because it will cool the fat somewhat before it comes back up to temperature.

Jennifer 'pixel' Getty 
Modern fritters generally use a chemical leavening in their batter. There are a few period fritter recipes that call for leavened batter but you need to use yeast or a sourdough starter instead.

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