SC - meringue

[Stephen Bloch]

Jean le Renard de Pyranees writeth:
> I have seen a recipe in the book "Elanore Fettiplace's Recipt Book" ...
> Hilary Spurling.  The book dates from medieval times, recipes having been
> passed through the hands of the females of the family to the author who
> published it.  The recipe is for 'white bisket bread'

I must confess, I haven't read _Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book_
carefully, but my quick glance at the introductory material doesn't give
any impression that the recipes existed before about 1600.  The recipes
did indeed "pass through the hands of the females of the family", but
that was _from_ the 17th-c. Elinor Fettiplace to the 20th-c. Hilary
Spurling.

> To make white bisket bread
> Take a pound and a half of sugar, and a handful of fine white flower, the
> whites of twelve eggs, beaten verie finelie, and a little aniseed brused,
> temper this all together till it bee no thicker than pap, make coffins with
> paper, and put them in the oven, after a manchet is drawen.

Yes, I believe other people have mentioned that one.  It's not
completely unambiguous as a meringue (the smoking gun would be something
like "beaten until the whites are stondyng", ideally accompanied by tips
like "be certain that not the slightest bit of yolk is in the whites" or
"chill the bowl in cold water before beating the whites"), but it's the
best candidate I've seen.

					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
					 http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University