SC - Source for Gallingale

[rudin@okway.okstate.edu]

Hi all from Anne-Marie
Here's my version of a very late/out of period cake, from Kenelm Digby. It
is not the same cake in Cariadocs collection (there's several Very
Good/Excellent/Another Very Good cakes in Digby. Most confusing!) It uses
yeast to slightly aerate the heavy dough, and is well studded with fruit.
Pannetone? Hmmm. Maybe. At least its documented! We tried it with the ale
yeast and the regular store yeast and found little difference, no doubt due
to the short raising time.

The Text is from an impending cookbook on Elizabethan food I'm working on,
so please, if you want to use it, cite me and let me know you're using it
and in what.

Thanks, and enjoy!
- --AM, who really likes this cake and might makes some this weekend :)


ANOTHER VERY GOOD CAKE
Digby and other contemporary sources are full of recipes for cakes studded
with dried fruits and nuts, and this is no exception. The sack and nutmeg,
when the cake is warm give off a heady aroma. The cake is also very tasty
at room temperature, but it goes stale quickly, so you want to keep it in
an airtight container. Use a high quality sack or sherry, not cooking
sherry for this.

Another very good Cake (Digby p212)
Take four quarts of fine flour, two pound and half of Butter, three
quarters of a pound of Sugar, four Nutmegs, a little Mace, a pound of
Almonds finely beaten, half a pint of Sack, a pint of good Ale-yeast, a
pint of boiled Cream, twelve yolks, and four whites of eggs; four pound of
Currans. When you have wrought all these into a very fine paste, let it be
kept warm before the fire half an hour, before you set it into the Oven. If
you please, you may put into it two pound of Raisens of the Sun stoned and
quartered. Let your Oven be of a temperate heat, and let your Cake stand
therein two hours and a half, before you ice it; and afterwards only to
harden the ice. The ice for this Cake is made thus. Take the whites of
three new-laid eggs, and three quarters of a pound of fine Sugar finely
beaten; beat it well together with the whites of the eggs, and ice the
Cake. If you please you may add a little Musk or Ambergreece

.Another Very Good Cake from Digby p212 (amounts from original in
proportion, just scaled down)
3 1/4 c flour
2 sticks butter, softened
Cut in butter with fork/your hand until mealy (no lumps)
Add 1/3 c. sugar
2 t nutmeg
1/4 tsp mace
1 c currants
2/3 c. golden raisens
3/4 cup ground almonds
mix well to blend.
Beat well together:
1/2 c half and half, warmed to body temp.
1/4 c. sack (Dry Sack, available from the liquor store, NOT cooking
sherry!)
1 egg
2 egg yolks
Dissolve 1t yeast in 1/3 cup beer or warm water.. let it sit on the stove
with the oven on till it's a bit burbly and warmed up. Add to beaten egg
stuff. Mix well with a fork.Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. It's a heavy
dough, like cookie dough. Butter and flour a ring mold. Spoon the dough
into the ring mold, and cover with a towl. Let rise in a warm place 1/2
hour (it will not apprciably rise). Bake in a 350o oven for 1 hour 15
minutes. Do not overbake...check by sticking with a knife. It will come out
damp looking, but not gooey. Remove from ring mold onto a cookie sheet. Let
cool slightly. Drizzle with icing of 2 egg whites and 2 cups powdered
sugar. Return to oven for a couple minutes to harden icing. Serve warm if
possible.

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