SC - Ave Maria runtime and sugar - long

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Cindy Renfrow wrote:

> 13 To make suger plate. Take a lb. of fayr clarefyde suger and put it in a
> panne and sette it on a furneys, & gar it sethe. And asay [th]i suger
> betwene [th]i fingers and [th]i thombe, and if it parte fro [th]i finger
> and [th]i thombe [th]an it is inow sothen, if it be potte suger. And if it
> be finer suger, it will haue a litell lower decoccioun. And sete it [th]an
> fro the fyr on a stole, & [th]an stere it euermore with a spature till it
> tourne owte of hys browne colour into a [3]elow colour, and [th]an sette it
> on [th]e fyre ageyn [th]e mountynance of a Aue Maria, whill euermore
> steryng wyth [th]e spatur, and sette it of ageyne, but lat it noght wax
> ouer styfe for cause of powrynge. And loke [th]ou haue redy beforne a fair
> litel marbill stone and a litell flour of ryse in a bagge, shakyn ouer
> [th]e marbill stone till it be ouerhilled, and [th]an powre [th]i suger
> [th]ereon as [th]in as it may be renne, for [th]e [th]inner [th]e platen
> [th]e fairer it is. If [th]ou willt, put [th]erin any diuerse flours,
> [th]at is to say roses leues, violet leues, gilofre leues, or any o[th]er
> flour leues, kut [th]em small and put [th]em in whan [th]e suger comes
> first fro [th]e fyre. And if [th]ou wilt mak fyne suger plate, put [th]erto
> att [th]e first sethying ii unces of rose water, and if [3]e will make rede
> plate, put [th]erto I unce of fyne tournesole clene waschen at [th]e fyrst
> sethying."

I think I see what's happening here. We are treating this recipe like a modern
candy recipe, most of which tend to involve making a syrup of sugar and water,
and cooking it to a certain stage/temperature. I don't believe that's what's
happening here. I ran across this same problem when experimenting with anise
in confit, from, incidentally, the same manuscript source as this appears to
come from.

What this recipe tells us to do is not to make a syrup, which might well take
20-30 minutes or more to cook to the hard crack stage, or whatever the
original cook/author has in mind. It tells us to melt the sugar, which could
admittedly take a long time over very low heat if we want to avoid burning or
even excessive caramelization. I gather pot sugar has more water and
impurities in it than finer grades, which might mean fine sugar needs to be
cooked a little less, hence the reference to the lower decoction.

We are then to remove the candy pot from the fire, allowing it to cool a bit,
stirring it, probably, so a) it cools evenly, b) so air bubbles can get in it
and make it a bit on the opaque side, and c) so tiny crystals will form in it,
finishing the job of making the syrup an opaque yellow goo instead of a clear
colorless or amber syrup.

By this time we have a pretty stiff, taffy-like goo. Not something we can
easily pour into molds or on a slab. What do we do? We put it back on the
fire. If the rather similar instructions in the confit recipe are anything to
go on (they also fail to mention adding any water, and apparently call for a
rather brief cooking time), we only need to heat our goo until it is
semi-runny again. As in, maybe half a minute or less. We stir it constantly to
detach solid bits from the pan and keep it from burning. 

This brings us back to the Ave Maria, which takes, coincidentally, half a
minute or less to recite. (I've been unable to find a Catholic, including a
local parish priest, aware of a Marian ritual or anything else that might
require 25 or 30 minutes to run through.)

By this time the syrup, which is still quite hot after all, if not at its
original 225 degrees or above, Fahrenheit, will most likely be pourable.

Now, this recipe does mention the addition of some water, but it is an
optional step, and what it would affect is the time for cooking our goo in the
initial stages, which is determined, more or less, by the test of whether it
will spin a cleanly snapping thread from the fingers. This test is something
I've seen before in candy recipes. (BTW: you are supposed to dampen your
fingers before doing this, unless you want a serious burn!) By the time we get
to our Ave Maria stage, our cooked sugar mass is pretty close to being
anhydrous, so I can't imagine why cooking it for 30 minutes more would have
any desired effect.

Adamantius
Østgardr, East 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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