SC - Re: Questions
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alysk at ix.netcom.com
Mon Dec 20 13:13:19 PST 1999
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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