SC - Kuskenoles (Part MMDCLXXVI or so)
Charles McCathieNevile
charlesn at sunrise.srl.rmit.edu.au
Mon Jan 26 00:40:27 PST 1998
Using the recipe published in 'Anglo-Norman CUlinary Collections',
Constance Hieatt and ?? Jones, the first manuscript, from the orignal (as
opposed to the published translation)
I read it a few times, then put it down and went into my kitchen to try
it out. That's how I cook now, and probably how a lot of people cooked in
the 13th century when the recipe was written. The major question I wanted
to answer was what form the thing took. It is certainly, to my mind, made
of egg pastry and fruit folded together.
When I first read the recipe I thought "aha. medieval jam roly-poly". But
the people who I had seen give modern versions said 'fruit ravioli' or
turnover.
So I made an egg pastry - 2 eggs, a dribble of oil, and as much flour as
it took to make a dough. then I rolled it flat, and cut four sections a
bit smaller than my hand.
I minced some dates and currants in the blender, and spread them over 3
of the four sections - they came out as a sort of paste, a bit like
crunchy peanut butter made in a machine at the market or healthy hippy
food shops.
one section I rolled up one way and then the other. It came out like a
ball, more or less. One section I folded in half and pinched closed.
I placed the unspread section over the last one, and rolled a plate over
it to create a sort of ravioli effect (but the pieces were still pretty
much together - just had break lines like toilet paper.
Then I therew all three items into a pot of pboiling water for about 10
minutes (maybe a bit less) then put them under the griller until they
went brown (By griller I mean what in a commercial kitchen is usually
called a salamander. never did figure out why the different terminology)
They all came out pretty well. I was afraid the pastry would end up being
gluggy, but in the roly-poly version it came out very thin except a lump
in the middle, which had been an end after the first rolling up. The
others had a similar feel - of them I preferred the ravioli type to the
turnover, as there seemed to be less pastry lump and it was easier to
eat, especially hot. The roly-poly was probably my favourite, but I would
happily eat any version - there is not that much to pick between them.
I realise that the filling is not what the recipe says, but I thought it
would be close enough to test the technique. Anyway, I am going to have
another go in a few days, using the recipe a bit more closely for filling
(Today I just grabbed what was in the kitchen)
Any thoughts?
Charles McCN/Ragnar
(I think I have posted the recipe to both lists. If not tell me, and I
can again)
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