SC - period poultry feed

[Stefan li Rous]

> Ras,
> Matzoh is made from wheat flour.  And, yes, BOY ARE THEY BLAND!
> :-)
> Phillipa

Well, I'm having similar problems making some savory wafers. I've
finally got a sweet wafer recipe that I can depend upon although I'm
trying others. Unfortunately, I did not stick to my test recipe for
the pot luck at work today. I decided to make savory wafers. Afterall,
this would be a testcase for my Royalty lunch at Candlemas at which
I was thinking of serving savory wafers.

Here is the flyer I printed up to go with the dish:
Gauffres (A medieval savory wafer)

Original recipe from Le Menagier de Paris  (late 14th Century):

Wafers are made in four ways. One is to beat eggs in a bowl, then add 
salt and wine and throw in flour and mix them; then put  [the batter], 
a little at a time, between two irons, each time as much as the size 
of a slice or strip of cheese, and press between the two irons and 
cook on both sides.

Modern recipe from Pleyn Delit, Modern Cookery for Modern Cooks by 
Constance B. Hieatt, Brenda Hosington and Sharon Butler.

2 eggs
1/4 cup flour (I had to add more)
3 T grated cheese (Parmesan)
1 T sherry
1/2 tsp salt

As I found this blander than I anticipated, I have added garlic salt, 
parsley and pepper.

Cooked by: Mark S. Harris
- ---------

Hieatt just has you blend the ingredients together and cook in the pizzelle
iron. She does mention that they are likely to be soft and that this can
be handled by placing them in a low over for awhile.

They were soft and I did heat them in a low oven for awhile. Using Hieatt's
recipe I also had a rather thin batter so I added more flour to create a
thicker batter. I think I added about another 1/4 cup.

However as mentioned above they tasted bland so I sprinkled them with a
garlic salt with parsley mixture and a pepper mixture. Unfortunately, since
the wafers were so dry, little or none of the salt stayed with the wafers.
How would the better cooks handle this? If I had had a spray bottle of
olive oil I might have tried misting the wafers first and then sprinkling
on the seasonings.

However the main problem was they were quite bland. Also at least when I
served them, the one I ate seemed old, stale, even though I had cooked them
the night before and kept them in a sealed bag overnight. It was also too
chewy.

I used the recommended cheese and it is period. And I used grated parmesan
cheese and not the stuff that comes out of the can from Kraft. Perhaps a
stronger tasting cheese would help? Feta, perhaps? Or a blue cheese? I
did add a little oil to the batter to help avoid any sticking, but I doubt
that caused these problems.

Comments? Suggestions? Has anyone cooked savory as opposed to sweet
wafers? Did you use this recipe/redaction?

As I said this is for a Royal lunch at our Candlemas event. This is
supposed to be a sideboard where the food is set out and the Royalty
can get to it as they can. The quantity is only for a dozen people. I
am also competing for kitchen facilities with the crew cooking for the
big feast that night, so the more I can produce ahead of time and only
heat up if needed at the site the better. I may fall back to the
sugar wafers I've had success with already. If anyone has any dish
suggestions, particularly for a beginning cook, please let me
know.
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
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