SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #1894-Mundane Nobles

[helen]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 2/16/00 9:20:27 AM Eastern Standard Time, troy at asan.com
> writes:
> 
> << The fact that beaten biscuits are
>  made with a hammer not long after period would suggest it as a
>  possibility, too. >>
> 
> This is interesting. I occasionally make beaten biscuits but have never had
> cause to use a hammer for the beating and folding process. A heavy wooden
> spoon has sufficed so far. Do you have anymore information regarding this
> 'hammer' process'? Thanks in advance.
> 
> Ras

Let's see, now. The recipe I can _find_ is from William Woys Weaver's
"America Eats", and it calls for beating the dough for half an hour with
a heavy rolling pin, but says you can cheat with a biscuit break, a
device like a ridged laundry mangle, which you are supposed to run your
dough through between 300 and 500 times, depending on whether you have
guests or not ;  ) .

The hammer recipe must be in "Maryland's Way", or possibly "The
Hammond-Harwood House Cookbook" (or are these two titles the same book,
I forget, but in any case it seems to still be packed in a stack of
archive boxes, so no immediate access. As I recall, though, the recipe
called for beating the dough with a wooden mallet for either half an
hour or an hour.

BTW, Ras, I _very_ much recommend the Weaver book especially to you: it
is really about culinary folk art, early Amish redware pottery and such,
but there are quite a few rather old Deutsch-American recipes for stuff
like schnitz und gnepp.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com