SC - Unhistoric things we serve WAS:Shepherds Pie

[CBlackwill at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/11/00 1:45:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time, allilyn at juno.com 
writes:

> I've got cookbooks full of them!  Almost every corpus has at least one
>  French toast recipe, and the varieties of crepes and pancakes are
>  endless.  They don't call for maple syrup, or baking powder, but
>  otherwise are basically the same food, after all these centuries.

I'm not sure how period it is, or if it pertains to the recipes for pancakes 
mentioned here, but you can get just as good a rise out of the batter if you 
whip your egg whites stiff before folding them in.  No need for baking powder 
in a pancake recipe if you use this method.  They puff up very light and 
airy.  I have used this method for years.  I also, sometimes, omit the baking 
powder in my biscuits, and instead beat the dough with a leather mallet for 
about 30 minutes.  This works well, also, and if I am not mistaken (and if I 
am I will certainly hear about it) this is the way folks in the southern US 
made biscuits before Baking Powder came into practical use.  It doesn't puff 
up quite as much as with chemical leavening, but does produce a biscuit with 
a very good texture, IMO.

Balthazar of Blackmoor

Complacency Breeds Contempt