SC - Summertime Cerulean Blue Sauce

[Meliora & Drake]

Greetings all,

I attempted to make this sauce for a recent event.  However, it didn't
turn blue - it stayed a blood-red colour. It also didn't set. I followed
the redaction to the letter - did I unknowingly do something wrong or is
this a joke recipe?  My lord Drake Morgan believes that as we bought
commercial fruit, they may have been sprayed with ascorbic acid to stop
the oxidisation and this would have affected the recipe.

Any comments?  Original recipe and redaction follow.

regards
meliora.



Sky-blue sauce for summer.  Take some of the wild blackberries that grow
in hedgerows and some thoroughly pounded alonds, with a little ginger.
And moisten these things with verjuice and strain through a sieve.
Martino, Meastro. Libro de arte coquinaria.

Notes and Redaction from "The Medieval Kitchen" y Odile Redon. Francoise
Sabban and Sivano Serventi. ISBN 0-226-70684-2

Toward the end of summer, when blackberries are at their best, this
cerulean blue sauce will add zest to your September meat dinners.  The
pectin in the berries helps the sauce set to a lovely midnight-blue
jelly that is a visual foil and a delicious accompaniment to white meats
such as veal and chickem.

1 quart (1 litre) blackberries
1/3 cup (50g) blanched almonds
2/3 cup verjuice or a mixture of two parts cider vinegar to one part
water [we used verjuice]
1/4 inch slice ginger, peeled
salt

Puree the blackberries in a food processor or food mill, and strain the
juice, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible.  In a mortar or
in a blender, grind the almonds and ginger, then mix with the blackberry
juice. Contact with the air will turn the mixture a dark blue.  Add the
verjuice and strain once more.  Season with salt to taste.

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