SC - Whipped Cream

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Anna Jartin wrote:
> 
> I've just recieved my copy of Pleyn Delit, and I love it : )
> There are a couple of questionmarks though - the authors repetedly state that medieval cooks did not whip either cream or eggwhite. Does anyone know if this is really true?
> I find it hard to believe

It appears to have been largely true, but not without possible
exception. While I'm not aware of any truly medieval whipped cream
usage, I've seen some suspicious cases of egg whites being run through a
strainer, and I think there's a reference to whites being run through a
strainer till they're as thick as pap or some such. I could be wrong. It
is a fact, though, that pumping egg whites through a strainer will
aerate them as effectively as beating them, if you repeat the process
enough times.

In "A Newe Proper Boke of Cokery" (1594, I think) there is a recipe for
a dish of snow, which is made by beating egg whites and cream
_together_, which violates everything I was taught about how adding fats
will mess up the extensibility of albumen and make the egg whites foam
proof. Be that as it may, you beat them together, and instead of turning
it all into a creamy foam, a foam forms on top of the mass which you
then lift off and drain.

This might be one of the earliest cases in English of using this technique.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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