SC - Re:Crustade Lombarde, An Inspiration turned Sour

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

Crustade Lombard.....an enigma inside an ephemera, wrapped in a dream......

Mistress Sincgiefu,

In regards to an on-going off-list discussion about the most frustrating
receipt in the universe, and what in the world the interpreted directions
actually mean (posted because I thought some folks might like to see what it
is like to attempt to "redact" a recipe considered kind of hard---but we
learn by our mistakes)I have this to say: 

OK. I admit defeat. It won't work. All I got was parsley-flavored cream. I
used a cup of parsley to the pint of cream (I'm using store-bought cream.
When making cheese, the only difference is the amount of curd, the quality,
and the time frame. You should get curd just the same as with unprocessed
cream/milk, just not as much, not as nice, and not as soon). I had a
ridiculously small amount of clotting.... with a cream:parsley ratio of 2:1,
it would take far more parsley than the cream could hold to get it to
clot.The only concievable way this would work is with very old cream, which
is ready to turn anyway, and even then I doubt it.

I took the parsley cream (now strained) and tried to float an egg in it, and
the egg dropped like a stone. There is no way 'bere himself'  means float an
egg in the cream.

I had a brief moment of euphoria when I used my braun hand-blender to whip
this parsley-flavored cream (now an hour old)with 4 well beaten eggs. I got
a huge amount of froth. Unfortunately it deflated the moment I stuck the
whisk into it, to give the hand-blender a rest. So much for "so thik that it
woll bere him self".

I'm baking this mess anyway. We'll see what happens. I think I now have to
agree with your (Sincgiefu's)hypothesis about the whipped cream version. It
seems the most sensible (espescially since it actually worked!). If you like
I will go and get some fresh (un-processed)cream tomorrow AM and try the
clotting (clowting) thing, but I doubt fresh vs processed cream will make
too much difference, and it would then negate the instructions to "take the
lycour & putte ther-on, and fylle it vppe. This means that the directions
are out of order with the ingredients, something that is fairly commonplace
in medieval cookbook ms. 

As a side note, having re-read the receipts again, I think the beaten egg
thing might historically hold up, too, particularly if it was the yolks
(which won't quite create the volume of beaten whites, nor spill all over
your oven) that were beaten till thick and then the parsley, cream and egg
white added.  The receipts says " Eryoun, the yolkys & the whyte, & **breke
hem there-to**" which might mean to seperate them, then continues "&strayne
throwe a straynoure, tyl it be so styf that it wol bere himself."

I have now over-analysed this to a ridiculous point. Talk about your recipe
challenge! I surrender, I surrender.

Aoife

For reference, the receipt (earlier version):

Harleian MS 279, c. 1430 --Dyuerse Bake Metis

xvij. Crustade Lumbard. Take gode Creme, & leuys of percely, & Eyroun, [th]e
yolkys & [th}e whyte, & breke hem [th]er-to, &strayne [th]orwe a straynoure,
tyl it be so styf [th]at it wol bere hym-self; [th]an take fayre Marwe, &
Datys y-cutte in .ij or .iij & Prunes; & putte [th]e Datys an [th]e Prunes &
Marwe on a fayre cofynne, y-mad of fayre past, & put [th]e cofyn on [th]e
ovyn tyl it be a lytel hard; [th]anne draw hem out of [th]e ouyn; take [th]e
lycour & putte [th]er-on, &fylle it vppe, &caste Sugre y-now on, & Salt;
[th]an lat bake to-gederys tyl it be y-now; &gif it be in lente, lef [th]e
Eyroun & [th]e Marwe out, & [th]anne serue it forth.
 
All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.
				---Alexandre Dumas

Experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes.
				---Oscar Wilde

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