SC - White Leach using Isinglass - FOUND IT !!!

[Drake & Meliora]

Greetings all,

I have had trouble accessing the Florilegium for over a week but Stefan and
his technological friend helped me get this working this morning.

I found my notes in the illusion-foods file in the "Food" section.

Hmm, I knew I had doen this a couple of years ago, hadn't realised it was
this long ago.

Mel.




Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:18:42 +1000
From: Meliora & Drake <meliora at macquarie.matra.com.au>
Subject: SC - Islinglass jelly notes (long)

Greetings all,

<SNIP>

I am not a very experienced cook and this is my first redaction done
directly from the source material.

A White Leach (from Dawson, 1596) (from a posting by Anne-Marie) Take a
quart of newe milke, and three ounces weight of Islinglasse, halfe a pounde
of beaten sugar, and stirre them together, and let it boile half a quarter
of an hower till be thicke, stirring them all the while: then straine it
with three spoonfull of Rosewater, then put it into a platter and let it
coole, and cut it in squares. Lay it faur in dishes, and lay golde upon it.

My redaction (1/2 quantities of original)
550ml milk (1/2 quart)
30g islinglass in 50ml water (1.5 oz)
120g sugar (1/4 pound)
5 teas rosewater (~ to taste)

Place Islinglass in water for an hour or two. It will swell up and form a
gum-like consistency.
Warm milk and sugar. Add islinglass. Stir. As soon as the islinglass starts
being incorporated into the milk mixture it separates the milk. (I have
tried this when the milk is hot, cold, warm, directly added the islinglass
crystals etc, the milk ALWAYS separates)
While stirring, boil the mixture for 7.5 minutes. (I ended up boiling it for
15 mins). During this time the islinglass will let off a VERY strong (and
IMHO quite distasteful) fish smell. Also the curds will break up and become
very small.
Remove from heat and add Rosewater. Then Strain and let set overnight. I
strained my curds and whey through cheescloth and made three batches. One of
whey only. One of curds only. And one of a mixtue of curds and whey.
When set cut into squares and gild with gold. (I deliberatly didn't bother
with this step).
The next morning, all three dishes had set into quite a firm jelly that
could easily be sliced. It appeared firmer than gelatine, but that could be
accounted for in the quantity of islinglass I used. They were all opaque
white (with a yellowish tinge).

The next night I took all three dishes to a local meeting and had 24 people
to taste-test them.

The curds and the curds/whey mixture were both quite grainy in texture. The
whey was quite smooth and creamy in mouth-feel. Texture-wise the whey only
won hands down. The grainy texture was considered far too alien to be
pleasurable.

Taste-wise, the curds tasted like "sweet fat". The curds/whey mix and the
whey only tasted like "creamy and sweet with an aroma of rosewater and an
unidentifiable tang - lemonish but not quite". (Hmm, the slightly yellow
colour may have help attribute the unidentified taste as lemonish) The whey
only mixture was considered to be more silken in feel and taste and again
won hands down.

Of my 24 people, 19 prefered the whey, 5 refused to try any, and one
disliked the taste of all of them.

Actually there were two who did not like the taste. The other was me!!
Unfortunately the tang in the dish reminded me of the rather powerful fish
odour while cooking. No-one else felt that the dish tasted even remotely
"fishy" and I have even been asked to make it for an event "someday".

well, YMMV with these notes. But if anyone else wishes to do any
experimenting with this dish, please let me know. I would love to hear how
anyone else tackles this !!!

Meliora
meliora at macquarie.matra.com.au