Lettuce (was Re: SC - Citron and Potato)
Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
Tue May 4 17:36:45 PDT 1999
This is the other recipe I mentioned.
Source: Libro del Arte de Cozina (Spanish, 1599)
translation: mine
CARNE DE LIMON, Y BATATAS -- Flesh of Lemon and Sweet Potatoes
The lemons must be mature, and divided in the middle, and cast them
in brine, which should be temperate, and after eight days have passed,
remove them and have boiling water, and without washing off the brine,
cast them in, and cook them with much fire, until they are extremely
tender, and when they are so, set them aside from the fire, and lower
them in another [change of] tepid water, and not that in which they were
cooked, and hence in a little while, remove them from the water, and
wash them very well, and if they should not be very tender, give them
another boil, and if it should not be necessary, take them out, and
squeeze them, and pound them in a mortar of stone. The sweet potato
must be washed in two [changes of] water, and have on the fire a boiler
of boiling water, and cast them in, and cook them well, until they are
easily peeled, and then clean and pound [them], and then weigh out a
pound of sweet potatoes, and another of lemon, and to those, two and a
half of sugar, and if you wish them cast in two dozens of almonds, and
very well pounded, it will be smoother. When this meat is combined,
the sugar must be very clarified, and instantly, not in the manner as for
peaches, and it being so, cast it within, and cook on a mild fire, and
when the bottom of the kettle is made white, it is cooked, and set it
aside from the fire, and cast in your musk, and let it cool a little, and
cast it in your boxes, and set them in the sun three or four days, and if
you have to make morsels, you do not have to cook it as much as for a
box.
Note: the mention of peaches seems to refer to an earlier recipe for
peach preserves, in which the clarified sugar is allowed to become tepid
before the fruit is added. I understand this to mean that you must add
the lemon-sweet potato mixture promptly to the clarified sugar while it is
still hot, rather than allowing it to cool as it does in the peach recipe.
The mention of cooking until the bottom turns white discredits my earlier
speculation. When the phrase appeared in the citron recipe, I thought it
might be partial proof that the potatoes in question were white. Since
the phrase also appears here, in a sweet potato recipe, perhaps it only
refers to the syrup turning opaque? Any preserve makers care to
comment? This is not an area of cooking I have ever dealt with, in the
SCA or in mundane life.
Brighid
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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