SC - Re: Questions

[alysk at ix.netcom.com]

Phillipa wrote:

>" During the evening in the hall the company enjoyed a banqueat of  70 
>dishes.  And after a *voidee* of spices and subtleties with 30 plates."

>What is a voidee and does 30 plates refer to 30 seperate choices of food?

A "voidee" is the dessert course, also called a "banquet".  Thirty separate
choices of sweets would not be inappropriate.  One dish could be candied coriander;
another candied ginger; another candied anise...  Here is part of an article I
wrote about "banquets".  -- Alys Katharine

Gervase Markham (The English Huswife, 1615) wrote a brief section on "The Ordering of Banquets" wherein he describes an ideal dessert 
course.  "...I will now proceed to the ordering or setting forth of a banquet; wherein you shall observe that the marchpanes have the first place, 
the middle place, and the last place; your preserved fruits shall be dished up first, your pastes next, your wet suckets after them, then your dried 
suckets, then your marmalades and goodinyakes, then your comfits of all kinds; next, your pears, apples, wardens baked, raw or roasted, and 
your oranges and lemons slices; and lastly your wafer cakes."(13)  He continues by saying that this is the order in which to organize them prior 
to sending them out to the dining hall.  When the diners are ready, "dish made for show only" preceeds everything.  The following is a 
compilation of a number of "dessert" items listed in a variety of cookery books as proper for a "banquet."



Fruits

fruit pastes: quince, peach, green pippins			pomegranate seeds
fruit, fresh 						prunes
preserves, dry and liquid 					barberries					
succade (suckets): orange peel, lemon peel			lemons
sitrenade 						sweet oranges
marmalade 						cherries conserved
pears in syrup						raisins
dates in composte					orengat (orange peel candied in honey)
dates in confit						chitron (candied citron)
dates


Nuts, seeds, and spices

nuts, sugared								coliander (coriander)
marzipan (ground almonds mixed with sugar, rosewater, and egg whites)	nutmegs
marchpane (marzipan baked)						licoras
pepper, white and brown							ginger
saffron									anis vermeil (red-colored anise)
aniseeds									noisette confites (candied filberts)
cinnamon								pine nut comfits
ginger comfits								cubeb comfits
cumin comfits								coriander comfits
	

Sugar Items
   
Sugar paste (see an accompanying article)				rose sugar (sucre rosat)
sugar "reliefs," sculptures						violet sugar
sugar, melted and moulded					dragees, large and small (round drops of sugar)
sugar, spun							candich (crystalized sugar gobbets)
comfets (see specific listing above)
Manus Christi (boiled sugar gobbets with gold leaf added) 
rusen, red and white (poured into moulds, usually fruit shaped)



Baked goods, cookies, pies, cakes

biscuits: there were a number of varieties
   * light, dry biscuits, biscuit breads, diet breads.  Some had egg, others did not.
   * rich short cakes, the paste being mixed with butter or cream
   * raised with ale yeast; usually spiced with aniseeds, caraway, coriander.
   * "biskatello"
almond macaroon
jumballs (a kind of cookie twisted into fanciful knots
wafers
shortcakes: Shropshire
                  Shrewsbury
gingerbread: red (dried bread crumbs, red wine)
                    white (gum tragacanth, ginger, sometimes almonds)
payne puff
corneseli
marchpanes (baked marzipan, set on a wafer, frequently decorated with comfits, or a shiny white icing)


Custards, milks, miscellaneous

doucettes							leach (milk and gelatine)
dariols (custard tarts)						jellies
leach (egg and milk custard)					cheese
leach Lombard (dates, breadcrumbs, cream or almond milk)		creams


                                                                                                                                                                  
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