SC - preserved fruits

[L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt]

>
>Looking through several late-period cookbooks, I'm finding lots of recipes
>for preserving fruits, and have the following questions:

Congratulations on finding my mini-hobby within sca-cooking! I find fruits
and preserves are vastly under-represented at our feast tables (preserved
food in general is under-represented). Preserved fruits are not necessarliy
hard to make if you have a little cooking experience, and the flavor they
deliver is worth the trouble. All in all, I have never had a bad experience
when serving a preserved fruit at a feast table.

You will have to be a little creative when using these preserved fruits. I
have noticed that there are numerous recipes for preserving fruits, but few
(almost none) using preserved fruit in a recipe. In some cases it is OK to
use the preserved fruit as you would fresh fruit (the character of the dish
will change slightly), but in others it just won't work.


>
>- - I read or was told by someone (wish I could remember) that Pippins
>referred to a specific type of apple which is no longer available. Anyone
>know if this is true? If so, what is the best sort of apple to replace them
>with. What about Costers, another (earlier?) term for apples? Are they also
>a specific type, or a generic term?

Small, round, red and hard (not to mention hardy). Less sweet (see large
amounts of sugar added to them for preservation). As for substitutes, I'd go
for the bags of cooking macs, ida reds or some such, wich are smaller, have
better flavor than the enormous ones, and more closely mimic a period sized
apple. Stay away from those so-called delicious varieties. They aren't.

>
>- - Several recipes call for "Pear-Plums" while others just say "Plums". How
>do these differ from each other?

Pears are pears. I suspect there was a fruit that was a plum, but lighter in
color (ie:green). Can anyone support this?

>
>- - Same for the terms "Pears" and "Wardens". Are Wardens a specific type of
>pear?

A warden is a very hard type of pear. Your firmer-type eating pears would do
fine here, but be warned that they do not cook quickly. I once had to resort
to pulverising in a food processor when making a recipe for apple moyse that
called for wardens.

>
>- - How about "Damsins" and "Plums"?

A Damson (Damsins) is a type of plum you may be able to find today. 


>
>- - Rasberries, raspiss, respass, rasps (all terms found in a single book)?

Raspberries are larger now. Wild raspberries (which were frequently hedgerow
fruits in period) make a good substitute. These are all words for the same
fruit.

Hope this helps


Aoife

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