SC - cream

[Marisa Herzog]

At 12:17 AM 8/20/97 -0500, Adamantius wrote:
>I suspect we might be looking at the results of instructions out of
>sequence. After having worked with both eggs and cream, I feel pretty
>sure that the eggs are what is beaten, more or less, to stiff peaks. I
>suppose the cream could be beaten, too, although my gut instinct is that
>it is only the eggs. If the eggs are reasonably warm (either by keeping
>them in a warm kitchen, or warm from the hen, or perhaps by warming them
>deliberately, as is often done for things like sponge cakes) they can be
>beaten, whole, to stiff peaks. The only problem is that the addition of
>cream (specifically butterfat or other shortening) changes the dynamic
>quite a bit: you'll find that your ability to beat whole eggs, or egg
>whites, to stiff peaks, is pretty much eliminated when you add liquid
>cream in the beginning. 


The truth about this recipe hit me in a blinding flash while unpacking from
Pennsic (mindless jobs being the preferred medium for intense cogitation):

We're making a cheese custard here. The parsley is there to curdle the cream
to a small extent. The straining is necessary to eliminate the whey (and
make it thick/strong enough to "stand" ie: can be thick enough to mold, or
hold a shape when dropped from a spoon, which requires only a small amount
of curdling : very small curds, of perhaps a grainy consistency, or similar
to ricotta, or should perhaps be only partially curdled.). The eggs are then
added to make a thick liquor, which is poured into the pre-baked coffin
containing the marrow/fruit . 

Why parsley as a thickening/curdling agent? Any sour substance would be
contraindicated, because this is a sweet pie, and no sugar is added to the
custard mixture: rather, it is sprinkled on top. Medievally speaking, it is
quite economical to make, being lacking in expensive spices, with only a
little sugar at the end.

Cookbook manuscripts from that period onwards frequently have making the
cheese as the first step in a recipe that contains fresh cheese. That, I
submit, is the case here, just as Adamantius suggested that some of the
procedure is given to us out of sequence.

We have allowed our fascination with the whole whipping/straining issue to
cloud our ability to read the recipe as printed. So yes, Katherine was
right. There is no beating going on here. We are draining curdled cream to
make a cream cheese custard (not in the modern sense of cream cheese, though
Philadelphia Brand might do in an extreme emergency, since this cream is not
actually being soured to any great extent). I suspect our strainer is lined
with something such as linen or cheesecloth. As a cheesemaker and a cook,
I'm rather ashamed that this concept didn't hit me before now.

The next step is to see how much parsley it takes to curdle cream. This may
seem peculiar to some, but you can curdle milk and cream with any number of
things, not just vinegar, lemon juice, rennet, or an active culture like
yoghurt. Parsley, being somewhat acidic, would do the job to a mild degree,
and wouldn't leave behind the soured/bitter tastes some of the other agents. 

Aoife, running out to see if the post-drought rain has made any positive
effect on her parsley bed (having already bought the marrow, cream, prunes,
dates, etc. I shall have to blame you all if I become a candidate for
quadruple by-pass ;^D).
"Many things we need can wait. The child cannot."
				---Gabriela Mistral, Chilean Poet 1889-1957

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