SC - Fwd: Cooks - Maids of Honor

[Decker, Terry D.]

> Can anyone on this list help Perronnelle?
> 
> Your help is much appreciated!
> 
> -- Suzanne
> 
> 
> Can you ask another question on the cook's list for
> me?  I'm looking for
> an original recipes for Maids of Honor tarts.  I have
> plenty of modern
> recipes, I'm just curious where they come from.
> 
> Thanks,
> --Perronnelle


Here are some excerpts from our discussion on Maids of Honor Tarts.

Bear


> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> MAID OF HONOUR CAKES
> Recipe adapted from The Good Fare and Cheer of Old England", by Joan
> Parry
> Dutton, published by Reynal
> 
> 1/2 pint whole milk
> 2 tablespoon fine dried bread crumbs
> 4 ounces butter, melted
> 2 ounces ground almonds
> 1/4 cup sugar
> 3 large eggs
> 1 lemon, zested
> 2 dozen round puff pastry shells, (1 to 2 inches in diameter)
> 
> In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine the milk and bread crumbs. Bring
> to
> a boil, remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes. In a mixing
> bowl,
> combine the bread mixture, butter, almonds, sugar, eggs and zest. Mix
> well.
> Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Fill each pastry shell with a
> tablespoon
> of the filling. Place on a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 12
> to
> 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Garnish with
> powdered
> sugar and serve.
> 
> Yield: 2 dozen
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Korrin S. DaArdain
> Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com
> Quondo Omni Flunkus Mortati
> (When All Else Fails, Play Dead.)
> 


Morgan wrote:
<<snip>>
>The www.FoodTV.com webpage has three of the recipes he used listed.  The
>Pottage comes from Platina (he uses a redaction) while the bread and tarte
>are not credited to period sources.  In fact, aren't "Maids of Honor" tarts
>at least 17th or 18th Century, possibly Victorian?

Actually, probably not. As the story goes, the original was whipped up by
Henry the eigth's cooks to serve Ann Boleyn and Friends, when she was a
"Maid of Honor" (lady-in-waiting) in the court of his current wife. The
tarts purportedly got their name when lecherous Henry wandered through the
gardens and noticed the pretty  young things munching on fruited almond
cheese tartes. Apparently he sampled both the young things AND the tarts, as
Ann Boleyn became his wife shortly thereafter. The tartes were as nice as
the babes, and so retained the nick-name of the ladies who ate them. The
original chef, named Richmond, IIRC, emigrated to another spot in England,
with a more genial class of aristocracy to serve, and his family held onto
the Richmond Maids of Honor recipe for centuries. All others are, according
to the family, poor substitutes.

I can't document a drop of all this. It could all be pure Richmond family
hype. But you can find a recipe for Richmond Maids of Honor (apparently a
great upspringing of similar recipes with the same name happened shortly
after the craze started) and the above drivel  can also be found in a
cookbook called farmhouse Cookery, Recipes from the Country Kitchen
(actually a pseudo-historic cookbook with some nifty woodcuts and
descriptions of historic kitchens from Medieval, Renaissance and Victorian
England ), by Reader's Digest London.

Cheers,

Aoife


In fact, aren't "Maids of Honor" tarts
>>at least 17th or 18th Century, possibly Victorian?
>
>Actually, probably not. As the story goes, the original was whipped up by
>Henry the eigth's cooks to serve Ann Boleyn and Friends, when she was a
>"Maid of Honor" (lady-in-waiting) in the court of his current wife.

Possible. But the earliest written reference to them dates from the latter
part of the 18th century.

Nanna


Nanna had it right, Aoife.  Or to borrow the standard cry of the list,
"Documentation, please?"  I *know* what the legend about the tarts is, but
we have no substantiation.  The recipe and the pastries are not prove-able
before the 19th Century.  It could be one of the charming little stories
that sprang up about almost everything in the Victorian era, when they
wanted to revive the chivalry and pageantry of the Middle Ages and
Renaissance.

                                ---= Morgan