SC - SC honey strawberry spread

[Elaine Koogler]

I did something similar recently for a feast, only I used walnuts.  The recipe
came from Scully's Early French Cookery, and was called "Confiture de Noiz" as
follows:

Confiture de noiz

Prenez avant la saint Jehan noiz nouvelles et les pelez et perciez et mectez en
eaue freshce tremper par .ix. jour, et chacun jour renoivellez l’eaue, puis les
laisser secer et emplez les pertuiz de cloz de giroffle et de gingembre et
mectez boulir en miel et illec les laissiez en conserve. – (Menagier de Paris
from Early French Cookery, Scully).

Yield—about 2 cups

Redaction—by Scully

1 cup liquid honey
10 - 15 whole cloves
2 Tbsp. finely sliced slivers of fresh ginger
8 oz whole or halved (or large pieces) walnuts

1.  Combine honey and spices over low heat.
2.  Let spices marinate in warm honey for 5 - 10 minutes.
3.  Add walnuts and bring to a boil.
4.  Cook, stirring occasionally until honey reaches soft ball stage.
5.  Spoon out walnuts (include some cloves & ginger), and set them to cool and
harden on tinfoil.
6.  Store in tightly sealed container.

VERY tasty!  And, as these were part of a dessert table served during the Grand
Ball, a very good kind of finger food.

Kiri


Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:

> 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
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