SC - Hauviette's Confits

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> << Have you tried this on an open fire arrangement?  >>
> 
> Not all cooking was done on an open fire or even in a fire place in the MA.
> There are pictures of a large centralized flat surfaced cooking areas with
> places underneath where the fire was started to heat the flat surface. It
> would be my assumption that this type of cooking area would have been more
> appropriate for the is type of recipe.

The 15th-century English recipe (which I've seen posted on this list,
but which I don't think I have on disk, and the seventeenth-century
recipe is just too flamin' long to input just now) specifies either a
furnace (in other words, a small, enclosed heat source; too high a heat
would caramelize the sugar before it fully melted) or a stove, similar
to a furnace in medieval cooks' terms but with even gentler heat.
 
> Also, keep in mind that we might better be served in looking for methods of
> 'manufacturing' these candies (which were in fact 'medicines' added to a dish
> to adjust the humoral qualities of the dish). Home production was highly
> unlikely. Even Chiquart emphasizes that the cases of 'dragees' he needed to
> sprinkle on the finished dishes should not be forgotten when the rest of the
> supplies were bought for his feasts. Red and White sugar coated almonds, rock
> candy and gold/silver coated sugar beads are all still readily found in most
> supermarkets. And some specialty shops carry various candied coated spices.

I wondered about that. I get the impression Chiquart would have made
them if he couldn't get them in sufficient quantity commercially. He
suggests he knows how, but doesn't give a recipe. A possible pitfall to
avoid, though, in connection with candied almonds. Scully says (and he's
right) that if you go to a French confectionery today and ask for
dragees, you'll get candied almonds, but that the period category of
dragees did not include them. They may have eaten sugared almonds in
various places in period, but properly they shouldn't be called dragees.
 
> Of course, someone interested in making these medicines themselves should by
> all means try to perfect the technique. Candy making is an art in itself.
> IIRC, Dame Alys has made an extensive study of this area and has published
> several articles on it.

Yes indeed. IIRC, though, she mentioned experiencing the "rough and
ragged" phenomenon too. While I'm not glad about that, I guess it's good
to see that I'm not the only one who had this problem.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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