SC - Payn Ragoun - 2 redactions

[david friedman]

At 3:23 AM +1000 6/28/00, Lee-Gwen Booth wrote:
>I have just finished making Payn Ragoun (it looks like it is going to be
>really nice!  My Lady comes home tomorrow, and now I have a welcome home
>gift for her!) according to a redaction I found on-line.  The same recipe
>appears in Pleyn Delit, but the redactions are different.  I am curious to
>see what some of the experienced cooks here have to say about the two
>redactions.  (Oh, and I am curious to know whether there are any similar
>sweets which use different spices - I do know some people who can't
>eat/don't like ginger and I wonder if cinnamon or nutmeg might work - while
>remaining period - in its place.)
>
>This is one of the originals which appear on the on-line reference (the
>second differs only on a few minor points, AFAICS)
>
>"Payn Ragoun PD (131)
>"Take hony and sugur cipre and clarifie it togydre, and boile it with esy
>fyre, and kepe it wel fro brennyng. And wha it hath yboiled a while, take up
>a drope perof wip py fyngur and do in a litel water, and loke it if hong
>togydre; and take it fro the fyre and do perto pynes the thriddendele &
>powdour gyngever, and stere it togyder til it bygynne to thik, and cast it
>on a wete table; lesh it and serve forth with fryed mete, on flessh dayes or
>on fyssshe dayes."
>
>This is her redaction:
>
>1/2 cup honey
>1/2 cup sugar
>2 tsp. ginger ground.
>Boil honey and sugar together until it forms reaches soft ball stage. Add
>powdered ginger and set out to cool. This makes a gingered flavor fudge-like
>candy.


She has omitted a major ingredient--pine nuts. That's the "do perto 
pynes the thriddendele" part.

And, of course, "perto" is "thereto," with the "p" representing a thorn.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/