SC - white drinks and other foods

[Woeller D]

> > I'm planning a feast to be
> > > > served in Mid-winter, that has a White theme (all of the foods served are
> > > > white, called white, or started out as white). Any ideas???
> > snip
> > a spread of some sort (i was thinking of serving the bread swan subtlety that was talked about a month ago, but I don't know what to fill the "back" with...butter seems just a bit too far from white)

> Soft cream cheese might go over well. How about a cheese with a white
> rind, like Brie? Or you could use whipped butter, which is more white
>than yellow.

> > Adamantius
> I saw somewhere on the web that cream cheese was close to a period
> cheese.  Then I read that it was not in any way period. (It was a >while ago, but I thought it was on this list?) Is it indeed period? >Perioid? Or just a suggestion because it's white?  Thanks,
> > Angelique
 
> "Philadelphia style" cream cheese, as manufactured today, couldn't
> possibly be period for Western Europe, what with the Philadelphia
> appelation and the emulsifying gums used to keep the butterfat from
> leaking out at room temperature. On the other hand, it may resemble
> cheeses made from cream in period. Certainly there are references to
> "cream cheese" in, or very shortly after, period, but they mean just
> that. Cheese made with cream, and sometimes not only cream. Digby's
> Slipcote cheese is a good example of such a cheese, which, BTW, makes 
> smashing cheese for Savoury Toasted Cheese. Trouble is, that unless 
> go to England and can find someone who still makes York cheese, you 
> to make it yourself.
> 
> Philly cream cheese really appears to be little more than "dairy sour"
> cream, a.k.a. sour cream or smetana, drained in a cloth, though. Of
> course, you'd need to determine the secret blend of eleven >preservatives and chemicals in order to duplicate it exactly. My reason >for mentioning all this is that it's likely that if one wanted to find >a period cheese made from sour cream, the place to look would probably >be Eastern Europe and Russia.
> 
> It could also be that there is no non-factory made original. It may
> simply be a modern invention. For example, when trying to find >Limburger cheese in its original form, as a wheel or block of cheese, >with an edible rind of mold, which I sort of assumed because it tastes >so much like Liederkranz, I discovered that for more than a century, >Limburger has been made in the USA, by blending a mixture of different >cheeses with cream. In other words, it's not that the original form is
> unavailable. It's that the stuff you can buy in the supermarket, in
> jars, IS the orginal form, more or less. The name, Limburger, is a
> German spelling of a place in Belgium, but the cheese appears to be
> American.
> 
> IIRC, there is a recipe for cream cheese in Elinor Fettiplace's >ReceiptBook, which involves letting cream sour overnight, and then >pouring it onto a large damask napkin, spreading it thinly. You leave >it to drain, and then roll it up like Lady Aoife's favorite, cabbage >cream.
> 
> Adamantius

I'm sorry, I'm still not sure if you are suggesting that the period
recipe should be made (for SCA feast use), that purchased cream cheese
would be 'close enough' to period, or did I misinterpret what your
'cream cheese' suggestion was? (Looking back, it looks like maybe you
meant brie, or similar.) Also, is sour cream period, or is that a
different breed of cat from period stuff, too?
Thanks for your patience with this game of "20 questions".
Angelique
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