SC - Lady Seaton's Project

[david friedman]

At 10:53 AM -0500 3/14/00, RuddR at aol.com wrote:

>I have been serving dishes "in manner of mortrewes", by molding them and
>turning them out for serving.  There is do direct evidence for this in the
>recipes themselves, but in _Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books_ , the
>recipes that call for serving in manner of mortrewes (fride creme of
>almaundys (p. 7), creme boylede (p. 8), tayloures, (p. 15), mortrewes itself
>(p. 70), blamanger (p. 85), and others), are to be made "thikke".  Now I know
>this is not proof, only justification, but modern blancmange is a molded dish
>made or flavoured with almonds.  The medieval blamanger mentioned above
>featured almonds as a key ingredient.  Might it also have been molded?  And
>might serving a thick dish molded be "manner of mortrewes"?  I admit this is
>conjecture upon conjecture, but it can easily be done without deviating from
>the source recipes one jot.  (Besides, serving an elegant, garnished mold to
>the table looks nice.)

A very interesting conjecture. Certainly "in manner of mortrewes" 
ought to mean something. Now if somebody can just find the feast 
scene showing it ...  .

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/