SC - PPC - Petits Propos Culinaires

[Rebecca E Tants]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:

> << The practice of starting out with a high temp and then reducing it is a
>  modern one I learned from my mother, but I thought it might simulate baking
>  in a wood fired oven where the temp would decrease a bit over the cooking
>  time. >>
> 
> I wonder how your observation that starting a baking project at a higher temp
> and lowering it is a modern one?  Especially since you mention in the next
> sentence that it simulates a 'wood' fired oven?
> 
> What you have described is a "modern' adaptation of a very ancient cooking'
> 'technique.  When ovens were heated with wood, peat, charcoal, coal or dung to
> the correct temperature during the MA they were extremely hot at the beginning
> of the baking process and lost their heat as the baking progressed.  Adjusting
> the oven temp from high to lower is a perfect example of a 'holdover' practice
> of the MA. being preserved and adapted to the kitchens of the Current Middle
> Ages. :-).

I'll go with that. As a bit of additional evidence, take a look at some of the
Elizabethan sources that include baking receipts: Elinor Fettiplace comes to
mind. Almost all of her baking receipts instruct the baker to put the pies in
after the manchets have been drawn, and the biskets after the pies, etc.
Taking all the receipts together it's possible to determine a sort of pecking
order for different baked goods, based on a slowly decreasing oven
temperature. For long-cooking items, like large pies, the oven temperature
would decrease over the sometimes several hours the pie is in the oven, while
a modern baker might well start in at a high temperature to get a good brown
crust and then reduce the temperature for the balance of the cooking.

Adamantius, being dragged off to look at dress forms ;  (
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================