SC - Seeking period recipes & sources...

[david friedman]

At 4:49 PM -0400 5/2/98, Kallyr wrote:
>I am seeking period recipes, documentation and sources for the following:
>(Have already looked through the Florigeum  :)  )
>
>Asparagus

Mentioned in Kenelm Digby (mid-17th c. English) Savory toasted cheese
recipe, also in 13th-c. Andalusian cookbook.

>Fennel (fresh as a veggie, not as a spice)

Fenkel in soppes, in Curye on Inglysch (specifically, Forme of Cury), 14th
c. English.  I think there is a worked-up version in Pleyne Delight.

>Lombardy Chicken

I'm not familiar with this; what is it?

>A Honey Pine Nut candy

"They are often eaten with raisins and are thought to arouse hidden
passions; and they have the same virtue when candied in sugar. Noble and
rich persons often have this as a first or last course. Sugar is melted,
and pine kernels, covered with it, are put into a pan and moulded in the
shape of a roll. To make the confection even more magnificent and
delightful, it is often covered with thin gold leaf." from Platina, 15th c
Italian; worked-out version in the Miscellany.  This is a sugar candy; our
experience with honey candies is that they come out sticky whatever you do.
Also:

Payn ragoun
Curye on Inglysch p. 113 (Forme of Cury no. 68)

Take hony and sugur cipre and clarifie it togydre, and boile it with esy
fyre, and kepe it wel fro brennyng.  And whan it hath yboiled a while, take
vp a drope Ýerof with fyngur and do it in a litel water, and loke if it
hong togydre; and take it fro the fyre and do therto pynes the triddendele
& powdour gyngeuer, and stere it togydre til it bigynne to thik, and cast
it on a wete table; lesh it and serue it forth with fryed mete, on flessh
dayes or on fysshe dayes.  [end of original; I've substuted th's for
thorns.]

>Marchpane (is it other than marzipan?)
>Pate
>Porridge or soup made with dried peas, and whether split peas are period.

There are lots of pea recipes in the English/French 14th-15th c sources,
and it isn't clear to me which are dried and which fresh.  For a recipe
where we interpreted it as split peas:

Longe Wortes de Pesone
Two Fifteenth Century p. 89

Take grene pesyn, and wassh hem clene, And cast hem in a potte, and boyle
hem til they breke; and then take hem vppe fro the fire, and putte hem in
the broth in an other vessell; And lete hem kele; And drawe hem thorgh a
Streynour into a faire potte.  And then take oynones in ij. or iij. peces;
And take hole wortes, and boyle hem in fayre water; And then take hem vppe,
And ley hem on the faire borde, And kutte hem in .iij. or in .iiij. peces;
And caste hem and the oynons into that potte with the drawen pesen, and
late hem boile togidre til they be all tendur, And then take faire oile and
fray, or elles fressh broth of some maner fissh, (if thou maist, oyle a
quantite), And caste thereto saffron, and salt a quantite.  And lete hem
boyle wel togidre til they ben ynogh; and stere hem well euermore, And
serue hem forthe. [end of original; I've substuted th's for thorns.]

1 c split peas	wortes: 1/2 lb chard	8 threads saffron
1 whole onion = 5/8 lb	1/4 c olive oil (or fish broth)	1/2 t salt

Wash peas, put in 4 c of water, simmer 50 minutes covered, squash the peas
with their liquid through a potato ricer, let cool.  Cut up the onion into
eighths. Simmer onions covered in 3 c water for 20 minutes. Add chard,
cover again, cook 10 minutes more. Remove chard, cut in quarters, combined
everything with peas. Add salt, saffron.  Bring to simmer and add oil,
simmer, stirring constantly, another 10 minutes.

>Butter Cream Mints  (sigh, but maybe they aren't period)

Sorry about that.
>
>Thanks for any assistance.
>~~MinnaGantz <KALLYR at aol.com>

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


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

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".

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