SC - Subject: Trenchers Request

[Huette von Ahrens]

And it came to pass on 16 Jun 00,, that Serian wrote:

> OOH!  honey & ginger!  Well, that will be on my experiment
> list.

One of the recipes in the 14th century confectionary manual is 
Pinyonada de Mel -- a kind of nougat made by coating pine nuts with 
honey that has been heated to the hard-crack stage, and flavored with 
chopped fresh ginger, and a little powdered cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, 
and mace.

One of these days, I'll get back to trying this one.  I got tired of 
scorching the honey, and besides, I'm trying to take off the weight I 
gained over the winter.

If anyone else would like to give it a try, it's a pound of pine nuts to a 
pound of honey.  No quantities given for the spices.  The instructions go 
into a lot of detail about how to blanch the nuts and clarify the honey 
(which is unnecessary if you're starting with store-bought).  Heat the 
honey until a bit dropped into cold water breaks like glass.  Remove 
from heat, and stir in the spices and the nuts.  Cast it into boxes.    
(Although the recipe does not say so, it can also be shaped into little 
clusters, once it is cool enough to handle, but warm enough to still be 
soft.  There are other candied nut recipes in the same cookbook, 
including a pinyonada made with sugar-syrup, which are to be sliced 
and shaped into rounds as one pleases.)


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net