SC - Need help redacting candy recipe

[cclark at vicon.net]

Brighid wrote:
>MEMORIA DE MELINDRES -- Memorandum of Sweet Cakes
>
>Take a pound of sugar, ground and sifted.  Take a white of fresh egg and 
>beat it with a cane, and cast in in the sugar, and knead it very well, and 
>if it should be soft, cast in more sugar, and take a dozen blanched 
>almonds, blanched and pounded, add it all together, and after kneading 
>them take this dough, and make some spirals as you wish, and cook 
>them in an oven with a basin.
> ...
> ... Maybe I should grind the almonds finer than powder, 
>to a more paste-like consistency?  Would the oilyness help spread the 
>flavor, or would it do Bad Things to the egg white?

I'd suggest starting out with powdered sugar, or *maybe* superfine or caster
sugar. The recipe says the sugar is to be sifted; I assume that this is to
make sure that it is all very finely ground. And as the recipe says in line
3, if it's soft, add more sugar. It might help to use a small or medium egg
white. I'd recommend thickening it to a texture similar to a lump of clay
that's ready to throw on a wheel.

Don't worry about the oiliness of the almonds. Oil is very bad for egg white
foams, but this is too thick to make a foam. I think the egg white is only
beaten to get it partly homogenized for purposes of mixing.

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon

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

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".

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