SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #464

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

>	Dearest members:
>
>	I have tried to make Apricot Pastilles from the many tales of Kitchen
>Wench Whilda from Castle Gilliwick.  <snip>  Now that the stuff has cooled,
it is very leathery, and I can't envision cutting the "leather" into squares
without a fight. Any suggestions?? 
>	Thankyou ever so much!!
>	Caointiarn

Well, try kitchen shears (scissors). You should be able to get realtively
small bits or squares with that. Perhaps if you warmed it slightly, too,
you'd have better luck, since it seems from your description to have gelled
too much, and gelatine/pectin melts with heat.

I just located an OOP recipe for Apple paste from Mrs. McClintock's Receipt
Book (1736) which goes like this (but doesn't help you in your quandry): 

XCIX To Make Apple-Pafte, Red or White
Coddle the apples, put them thro' a search, to every lib. Weight of Pulp
take a Pound and a Quarter a lib. Weight of Sugar, make it in a Syrup and
clarifie it with the White of an Egg, and boil it to Sugar again, then put
in the Pulp, boil it on a flow fire till you fee it right from the bottom of
the pan, then pour it on fheets of White-iron, fet it on the Stove till it
dry: If you would have the Pafte red, colour it with Cochineel, or, the Giel
of Rizzers. If you would have it yellow, colour it with Saffron.


As you can see, there is no mention of what to do with it once it is dried,
but should give you an approximation of proportions. I cannot speak to the
methods of "Willihilda" as published in C.A. I understand from a previous
discussion on this list that the recipes are not necessarily period, nor did
the author intend them to be represented as such. Rather, somehow they were
mis-attributed or mis-defined in the printing process. So basically what I
am saying is that what you will have upon recipe completion may or may not
be period. If you don't care and that fact is not germaine to your
gift-giving (will your host really know?), then enjoy yorself. Can I have
the left-overs? Real fruit leather is perfect for kid-shut-uppers, since it
takes quite a while to masticate! I have three very gabby girls. The middle
one is going through that steam-of-consciousness phase (if it's in her brain
it comes out her mouth, more or less in an endless stream). Come to think of
it, I could whip up a batch myself, to have on hand "just in case" !
<<devilish cackle---will they figure it out or just thank me for the
windfall of candy?>>

Enjoy!

Aoife

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