SC - Re: Lombardy Custard

[Philip & Susan Troy]

L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt wrote:
> 
> Mistress Sincgiefu quizzes us:
> >Does anyone have any insight into these instructions to "streyne hem all
> >[th]orgh a straynour till hit be so thik that it woll bere him self" ?  I
> >tried beating all together, but it never got as thick as described.  Could
> >this mean we are to make "whipped" cream, "so thik that it woll bere him
> >self", and then fold in the beaten eggs?  Has anyone tried this? (I ran out
> >of cream before I ran out of interpretations...)
> >
> Adamantius once gave us a concise explanation of "beating" egg whites by
> ladeling them a teacupful at a time through a fine mesh strainer. I would
> guess that this, using the entire egg, is the equivalent of eggs beaten
> until thick and lemon-colored. In a pinch (or now that I give this a
> once-over, I'd try this first anyway), I would beat the yolks only, which
> can get quite light and thick on their own. It would then be possible to
> fold them into beaten egg whites, but I fail to see how this would then make
> a custard. It would be more like a soufle. But that puts us in approximately
> the correct area of the world, right?

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. I would probably beat the eggs to a stiff-peak
stage, and then fold in unbeaten cream, which might well be more like
Devonshire cream (with a sort of mayonnaise-like consistency) than like
the UHT processed cream we buy in the supermarket. This would prevent
any further aeration or stiffening of the eggs, but it would introduce
the air already in the eggs into the egg-cream mixture, and effectively
producing a mixture similar to what you'd get if you folded together
soft-peak beaten eggs and lightly whipped cream. 
 
> >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.
> 
> Must have been a severe form of lenten observance, for Eggs to be left out.
> Marrow I can understand, but:  eggs are verboten, cream allowed?

I think many of us (myself, certainly) are a little shaky as to the
differences between Lenten, fish day, fast day, and Ember day
observances. They are all meatless, but there are areas where they
differ. They may well also have differed according to changes in time
and place.
> 
> >
> >Harleian MS. 4016
> >27 Custard lumbarde.  Take good creme, and yolkes And white of egges, and
> >breke hem thereto, and streyne hem all [th]orgh a straynour till hit be so
> >thik that it woll bere him self; And take faire Mary, And Dates, cutte in
> >ij. or iij. and prunes, and put hem in faire coffyns of paast; And then put
> >[th]e coffyn in an oven, And lete hem bake till thei be hard, And then
> >drawe hem oute, and putte the licoure into [th]e Coffyns, and put hem into
> >[th]e oven ayen, And lete hem bake till they be ynogh, but cast sugur and
> >salt in [th]i licour whan ye putte hit into [th]e coffyns; And if hit be in
> >lenton, take creme of Almondes, And leve the egges And the Mary.
> 
> After reading both, and thinking about it a little while, I think this
> recipe calls for two layers in your coffin (Is it or is it not a "Tarte"?):
> First prepare the "licuor", which is the custard: Beat the eggs until very
> thick with the cream and parsley if you like green custard, use heavy cream,
> and if it won't beat sufficiently to become incorporated, you'll have to try
> beating them seperately, and then combining them. I think you need to
> ananlyse how you're doing the beating. Failing the ability to strain as
> indicated, I think I'd go to the next most voluminous method: Copper bowl,
> room temperature ingredients, and a very large hand-held whisk.
> 
> Put the dried fruit, marrow, etc. into the coffin and give them a
> preliminary bake, until it forms a crust or skin. Then, pour on your
> 'licour' or custard mixture, to which has been added sugar and salt at the
> last minute. Then return to the oven.
> 
> This would give you a "black-bottom pie" effect, with a sweet heavy bottom
> layer and a light, fluffy custard layer.  Since there is no mention of a
> 'lid', I'll assume it's a tarte. Either way, I can see why you'd like to
> make the recipe work.

Sounds about right. Another possibility is that the fruit and marrow are
also added after baking. The instructions are rather ambiguous, and I
suspect it may have simply occurred to the author that the crust is
baked blind after he went into the fruit and marrow filling, and he
figured it would be obvious to himself and his assistants (andultimately
his successors), and saw no need to make the correction. This is not
unprecedented.

Just a side note regarding the whipping of cream. A couple of later
posts than Aoife's mention some apparently widely held idea that it was
impossible to whip cream in the Middle Ages. Where this might have come
from is beyond me. I imagine somebody might just have noticed that
recipes don't generally seem to call for cream to be whipped, or maybe
somebody reasoned that the job is more difficult without refrigeration.
In any case, I'd LOVE to see some real documentation for this
phenomenon.

Adamantius

______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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