SC - Re: Pine Nut Confection -- One Last Time

[Daniel Phelps]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG <sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG>
Date: Tuesday, January 05, 1999 6:52 PM
Subject: SC - Re: Pine Nut Confection -- One Last Time


>Renata wrote:
>>I know Alys Katharine has seen a picture of it, but where did the
>>original recipe come from?
>
>I found it in the modern book _The Elixirs of Nostradamus_,
>"Nostradamus' Original Recipes For Elixirs, Scented Water, Beauty
>Potions and Sweetmeats", edited by Knut Boeser, published by Moyer
>Bell, 1996.  This is a translation from a German book.  Nostradamus's
>book was published in French in 1552 and in German in 1572.  I'd have
>to read the Foreword to know which edition Boeser used.  The ISBN
>number is 1-55921-155-5.  The person who gifted the book to me said it
>was pretty hard to come by in the US.  (Devra?  Amanda?)
>
>The book's sweetmeat section includes recipes for preserving a variety
>of fruits as well as lemon peel and walnuts, clarifying sugar, making a
>transparent jelly from bitter cherries as well as a quince jelly,
>making a candied sugar, marzipan, and penide sugar.  He also has
>preserved limes.  OOOH!  I was told, when I did lime peels, that limes
>were OOP.  This would seem to indicate that they weren't...
>
>Alys Katharine
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Regarding limes; per "An Illustrated History of French Cuisine" quote:

"On October 25, 1599, Sir Edward Kennel, Commander-in-Chief of British Naval
forces, offered his ship's company a mammoth punch which he had prepared in
a huge marble basin on his estate.  He used 80 casks of brandy, 9 0f water,
20,000 large limes, 80 pints of lemon juice, 13 quintals  (1,300 pounds) of
Lisbon sugar, 5 pounds of nutmeg and a huge cask of Malaga wine.

"A platform had been built over the basin to shield it from the rain and the
famous beverage was served by a ship's boy who rowed around on the sea of
punch in a rosewood boat.  To serve the 6,000 guests one ship's boy had to
be replaced by another over and over, each boy becoming intoxicated by the
fumes from that lake of alcohol at the end of a quarter of an hour."

Any one what to redact this to say the scale of a wading pool?  Can anyone
identify the original quoted document the book I quote sadly does not?  This
reference if it proves out would suggest a substantial trade in limes
regardless of their source.

"Butter on the Bard" identifies 12 references to limes in Wm. Shakespear's
plays.

Let me
see thee, froth and lime.

        Host, The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1,3

Regarding lime's introduction into Europe assuming a post Roman Arab
introduction I  would  suggest either via Sicily pre and post reconquest by
Roger the Count and his son Roger the King, see "The Norman Fate"; Spain,
see "The Rise and Fall of Paradise" or around the eastern end of the Med.
Sea.  I would guess Spain.  Will check references further as "Food in
History" and "The History of Food" were no help.



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