SC - Gold Leaf-A Use

[VEARLEY at aol.com]

I used gold leaf in a subtletie I made for a feast several years ago.  The
subtletie was a "partridge in a pear tree" (yes, I know the song's out of
period).  I used a variety of pear that grows only about 2-3" long.
 According to the research I'd done, and talking to a pro chef who had used
leaf, I could get the leaf to stick to the pear by using beaten egg whites.
 It didn't work for me, perhaps because the skin was smooth, so I ended up
using a very thin layer of melted chocolate (sorry Cariadoc) which did work.
 The chocolate was not visible and I couldn't taste it when we ate the pears.
 The leaf is very hard to work with because it is so thin.  I had to hold my
breath when I was near it so it didn't blow away.  It also tended to fold
over and stick to itself.  I didn't have to actually touch the pear to the
leaf - it seemed to be attracted as I brought the pear near it. I used the
back of a spoon to burnish the gold.

FYI the rest of the subtletie consisted of a tree branch attached to a wooden
base and spray painted white, mint-flavored green "lollipop" candy leaves,
and a quail because the grange didn't have partridges.  The quail was
terrified, and couldn't actually sit in the 'tree'. ( I took it back to it's
cage right away and we donated it to a local children's museum the next day).

At a modern wedding of some SCA people that I attended, the main decorations
at the end of the hall where the ceremony was done were potted trees hung
with gold fruit.  The fruit was molded chocolate covered with gold dust.  It
looked wonderful, but the people who ate the fruit ended up with gold dust
all over themselves!  I strongly recommend against using dust!

I have been at a feast where the cook put a sheet of gold leaf in the center
of the meat pies.  I  didn't think this was a good use of it - the gold
didn't stand out and it looked skimpy with it just in the center instead of
all over.

I buy gold leaf at art supply stores.  They seem to commonly stock it and
they're easier to find in some places than exotic food stores.  I expect that
you could also find it through professional culinary suppliers.

                          Verena
                           vealey at aol.com