SC - Peppers-Info on

[LrdRas@aol.com]

Lady Meliora,
I'm happy to help.  

To Pickle Cloue Gillyflowrs Cowslips Burrage & Marrigoulds
Clip your flowers clean from ye whites & cover them over in white wine
vinegar, sweetned with sugar, & shake ye glasses you put them in often,
& when you discover your pickle to shrink, add more to it.

Hess notes that these flowers brought a sour-sweet fillip (?) to the
winter table when pickled.

Anoter Way For Keeping of Flowers Which Is Accounted Better Then ye
First
Take yr flowers & shread them a little, then take about halfe a pound of
lofe sugar, & beat it small & put it in a pewter dish with a little
water. boyle it up to a candy height, then put in yr flowers, giveing of
them a stir together. when they are cold, put your flowers into papers
made into bagtgs, & hang them neer ye fire. when you use them, put to ym
a little vinnegar, & soe serve them up.

Hess counsels that not all pewter is able to withstand direct heat so
don't be tempted.  

Both these are from the Booke of Cookery, page 171, recipes 166 & 167.

The Booke of Sweetmeats has a description of candy height:

To Know When Your Sugar is at Candy Height
When yr sugar is at a candy height, which is the second height it comes
to, it will draw between your fingers in great flakes like bird lime,
and then it is at a just height eyther to candy or for any other things.

Hess comments that bird lime is a viscous sticky substance prepared from
the bark of holly and used to catch small birds.  In Old English, she
further states, it meant any adhesive, but now it is only poetic (OED). 
She also comments that the temperature of this syrup is 220 degrees F.

Recipe from Booke of Sweetmeats, page 227, recipe 5.

Hope this helps.  Good luck.  Let me know how this turns out.  Our
flowers are long gone and currently sleeping under a blanket of snow. 
I'm envious that you have a splash of color in November.

Lady Clare

Meliora & Drake wrote:
> 
> Lady Clare,
> 
> I don't have a copy of Hess yet, so if you could post these recipes I would
> be exceedingly grateful.  However, they do not specifically mention
> cornflowers.  I must be going mad, I am sure I read them specifically
> mentioned somewhere !!
> 
> Lady Meliora.
> 
> At 03:06 PM 7/11/97 -0900, you wrote:
> >Greetings,
> >My Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and Booke of Sweetmeats has
> >three or four recipes for pickling and preserving flowers.  The names of
> >the flowers given are:  "cloue gillyflowers, cowslips burrage &
> >marrigoulds."  There is also a recipe called "Another way for keeping of
> >flowers which is accounted better then ye first" which doesn't specify
> >any particular type of flowers. Don't know if these are what you may be
> >looking for.  The recipes in this book aren't redacted, just the recipe
> >with comments by the transciptionis, Karen Hess.  If you would like them
> >let me know and I'll forward them to you.
> >Lady Clare
> >Canton Inbhir na da Abhann
> >
> >
> >
> >Meliora & Drake wrote:
> >>
> >> Greetings all,
> >>
> >> All of my cornflowers are currently out in bloom.  I remember reading (in
> >> Fettiplace I think) a recipe for pickling or preserving the flowers for use
> >> in salads in the winter.  However, in re-reading Fettiplace I cannot find
> >> the reference.  I found a recipe for preserving Clove Gilliflowers (Pinks)
> >> for the same purpose, but not the cornflowers.
> >>
> >> Can anyone help with references to using cornflowers in/as food ??  My main
> >> interest is early Renaissance but any time in "SCA period" would do.
> >>
> >> Thanks and regards
> >> Meliora
> >> meliora at macquarie.matra.com.au
> >>
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