SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #351

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Greetings all,

At 12:20 PM 14/10/97 -0700, you wrote:
>This is one example of MANYMANYMANY statements I've seen on here.  

<SNIP>

Mea Culpa, Mea culpa.  I am not a very experienced cook and this is my first
redaction done directly from the source material.

A White Leach (from Dawson, 1596) (from a posting by Anne-Marie)
Take a quart of newe milke, and three ounces weight of Islinglasse, halfe a
pounde of beaten sugar, and stirre them together, and let it boile half a
quarter of an hower till be thicke, stirring them all the while: then
straine it with three spoonfull of Rosewater, then put it into a platter and
let it coole, and cut it in squares.  Lay it faur in dishes, and lay golde
upon it.

My redaction (1/2 quantities of original)
550ml milk (1/2 quart)
30g islinglass in 50ml water (1.5 oz)
120g sugar (1/4 pound)
5 teas rosewater (~ to taste)

1. Place Islinglass in water for an hour or two.  It will swell up and form
a gum-like consistency.

2. Warm milk and sugar. Add islinglass. Stir.  As soon as the islinglass
starts being incorporated into the milk mixture it separates the milk.  (I
have tried this when the milk is hot, cold, warm, directly added the
islinglass crystals etc, the milk ALWAYS separates)

3. While stirring, boil the mixture for 7.5 minutes. (I ended up boiling it
for 15 mins).  During this time the islinglass will let off a VERY strong
(and IMHO quite distasteful) fish smell.  Also the curds will break up and
become very small.

4. Remove from heat and add Rosewater. Then Strain and let set overnight.  I
strained my curds and whey through cheescloth and made three batches.  One
of whey only.  One of curds only.  And one of a mixtue of curds and whey.

5. When set cut into squares and gild with gold.  (I deliberatly didn't
bother with this step).

The next morning, all three dishes had set into quite a firm jelly that
could easily be sliced.  It appeared firmer than gelatine, but that could be
accounted for in the quantity of islinglass I used.  They were all opaque
white (with a yellowish tinge).

The next night I took all three dishes to a local meeting and had 24 people
to taste-test them.  

The curds and the curds/whey mixture were both quite grainy in texture.  The
whey was quite smooth and creamy in mouth-feel.  Texture-wise the whey only
won hands down.  The grainy texture was considered far too alien to be
pleasurable.

Taste-wise, the curds tasted like "sweet fat".  The curds/whey mix and the
whey only tasted like "creamy and sweet with an aroma of rosewater and an
unidentifiable tang - lemonish but not quite". (Hmm, the slightly yellow
colour may have help attribute the unidentified taste as lemonish) The whey
only mixture was considered to be more silken in feel and taste and again
won hands down.

Of my 24 people, 19 prefered the whey, 5 refused to try any, and one
disliked the taste of all of them.

Actually there were two who did not like the taste.  The other was me!!
Unfortunately the tang in the dish reminded me of the rather powerful fish
odour while cooking. No-one else felt that the dish tasted even remotely
"fishy" and I have even been asked to make it for an event "someday".

well, YMMV with these notes.  But if anyone else wishes to do any
experimenting with this dish, please let me know.  I would love to hear how
anyone else tackles this !!!

Meliora
meliora at macquarie.matra.com.au

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