SC - Re: Illusion food

[Cindy Renfrow]

<snip>
>Incredibly careful. It sort of spoiled the surprise a bit, but I made
>the booke available at the door, and those with allergies read them, and
>the adventurous ones didn't. It worked out quite well, especially the
>frittered chittlings- realistically you take chunks of the organ meat,
>thread them into intestine, twisting between the meats, battering and
>deep frying, I found a reference in Thousand eggs to the warner version
>which was dried fruits threaded into the intestines and frittered. That
>is what gave me the idea in the first place. I still would like to do it
>for a spring coronation, preferably  mine[lol]
>
>margali

Hello!  I've been following this thread - illusion foods are a keen
interest of mine.  I've done 2 whole feasts devoted to them & have been
collecting references for many years.

[Quick note:  the reference to mock intestines, or Trayne Roste, in "Take
1000 Eggs or More" calls for NO organ meats.  It is simply fruits & nuts
strung on a string, battered & roasted. (I substituted frying in oil.)
Other recipes for illusion foods in "Take 1000 Eggs or More" include
- -pomedore, "apples" made of batter-roasted meatballs;
- -Appraylere, a pitcher made of pork & cheese stuffing;
- -Eyroun in Lentyn, blown eggshells stuffed with almond cream;
- -Cokyntryce, half-pig, half-capon sewn together "in the waist overthwart",
roasted & glazed with 2 colors;
- -and Yrchouns, mock hedgehogs made of stuffed pig's stomachs poked with
slivered almonds.]


Here are a few refs. for illusions of one sort or another:

"Item  To MAKE BLUE JELLY, take of the aforesaid broth, be it of flesh or
fish, and set it in a fair pan and boil it again on the fire, and get from
the spicer two ounces of tournsole and set it to boil therewith until it be
of a good colour, then take it off; and then take a pint of loach and cook
it somewhere else, and spread the loach on your dishes and let the broth
run onto it as above and then leave it to cool.  Item, thus is made a blue
jelly.  And if you would make armorial bearings on the jelly, take gold or
silver, whichsoever pleaseth you best, and trace [your design] with the
white of an egg on a feather, and put the gold thereon with a brush." Le
Menagier de Paris, Power's translation.  Note:  Le Menagier, in French, is
being posted (slowly) to http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/

"How to make Strawberries.
Take the paste of Massepain, rowl it in your hands into the shape of
Strawberries, then dip them in the juice of Barbaries, or of red Corants,
and stir them well, after this, put them in a dish, and dry them againe
three or four times in the same juice." From The French Cook, by Francis de
La Varenne, 1653, Englished by I.D.G., 1653.

"#169. TO CAST ALL KINDE OF FRUTAGE HOLLOW IN TURN'D WORKE & TO PRINT THEM
Take your double moulds and wet them in cold water, then tie e of ye
greatest peeces together, & poure yr sugar into them, & clap them one upon
another quickly. then put ye third piece upon ye holes & turne ye moulds
round in yr hands, & your fruits will be hollowed. then take them out of
the moulds & culler them. leamon or an old pippin must be cullered with
saffron & rosewater together. for A pear, amber, for a green apple, indien
lake, & for A cowcumber sap green." From "A Booke of Sweetmeats", Martha
Washington's Booke of Cookery (17th century), edited by Karen Hess, p. 330.
Note:  some of these coloring agents are poisonous.  Also, there are some
very nice illustrations of the tools & molds required for this type of work
in Diderot's Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades & Industry, 18th c., Vol. 2,
plates 480-483.  Dover Publ, ISBN 0-486-27429-2


[To make Apples look like Oak Leaves and Plums]
"Take Pippins pared and coared, and cut in pieces, and boiled tender, so
strain them, and take as much Sugar as the Pulp doth weigh, and boil it to
a Candy height with as much Rose-water and fair water as will melt it, then
put the pulp into the hot sugar, and let it boil until it be as thick as
Marmalet; then fashion it on a Pye-plate, like oaken leaves, and some like
half Plums, the next day close the half Plums together; and if you please
you may put the stones and stalks in them, and dry them in an Oven, and if
you will have them look green, make the paste when Pippins are green; and
if you would have them look red, put a little conserves of Barberries [see
insert] in the Paste, and if you will keep any of it all the year, you must
make it as thin as Tart stuff, and put it into Gallipots." From A Queen's
Delight, by W.M., 1671; facsimile edition by Prospect Books, 1984, page 63.


"Trout Eggs Prepared so that People Think They Are Peas." When trout eggs
have been half-cooked and are taken from the pot and divided into little
morsels, to make the juice seem lumpy pass bread crumbs with it through a
strainer or, if there is any pea-juice to be had, take a sufficient amount
of that. With this, add spices, saffron, parsley and cut up mint, and again
cook the eggs. You would declare you were eating peas." From On Honest
Indulgence (De honesta voluptate), Platina, 1475, Book Seven.

"Being a Pythagorean and an abstainer from animal food, he made an ox out
of myrrh, frankincense, and the most costly spices, and divided it among
the people who came to the festival."" Athenaeus, Book 1, p. 13.

Someone asked about aspic.  IMHO, the ultimate aspic illusion is to be
found in Sabina Welserin's Cookbook, 1553.  It is a fish aspic poured onto
a wagon wheel (inside a platter).  The aspic sets between the spokes (& the
platter is removed), & the wheel is re-attached to its axle & set upright
on another aspic of different colors.  This is used for a centerpiece.
She also includes recipes for mushrooms made of marzipan; a fence made of
piped butter & cinnamon sticks, which is to encircle a roast; & simmered
birds hidden in hollow rye breads.

If you wish, I'll re-post my illusion feast notes.

Yours in haste,

Cindy/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net


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