SC - Crown Touney/Queen's Tea

[Stefan li Rous]

For many of us, apple cider is widely available right now, so here's 
a period recipe that uses it.  It has the texture of honey, and a 
wonderful sweet-tart flavor.  Note to non-U.S. cooks: sweet apple 
cider is a non-alcoholic unfiltered apple juice.

I do not know what this sauce was intended to be served with.  It 
can be spread like jelly on bread.  I suspect it would go well with 
pork or duck.  I also suspect that it would be a good candidate for 
canning, though I have no practical experience in that area.  
Refrigerated, it keeps for at least a month, probably longer.


CIDER SAUCE

Source: Diego Granado, Libro del Arte de Cozina, 1599
Translation & Redaction: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain


                Para hacer salsa de zumo de manzanas
                To make sauce of the juice of apples

Take the apples, and without peeling them, grate them and extract the 
juice from them, as we said of the quinces; adding a little vinegar, and 
white wine, and take the clearest part, and for each pound of juice, put 
eight ounces of sugar, and cook it like the juice of the quinces, with the 
same spices.


And two related recipes:

                       Para hazer salsa real
                        To make royal sauce

Take three pounds of fine sugar, and two quarts of white vinegar without 
roses, and a quart of white wine, a little whole cinnamon, and make it boil 
all together in a new glazed pot until it is cooked, and have the pot 
covered, so that it cannot exhale, and to know if it is cooked, the sign will 
be that, in falling, a drop will congeal, so that touching it with your hand 
does not make it come apart.  Serve it cold, and take care that it does not 
burn.  When you cook it, you can add nutmeg, and cloves, and in place 
of the pot, you can make it in a casserole.


               Para hazer salsa de zumo de membrillos
               To make sauce of the juice of quinces

Grate the quince lightly with a grater, without peeling it, and put it inside 
the woolen cloth, and press it until it has yielded all the juice, and put it 
in a flask until the thickest part goes to the bottom, and take the clearest 
part, and put it in a glazed casserole or pot, and for each pound of juice 
put eight ounces of sugar, and two ounces of vinegar, and one ounce of 
wine of San Martin, and cook it in the manner that the Royal Sauce is 
cooked, as described above, with a quarter [ounce] of whole cinnamon, 
half a nutmeg, and four cloves.


Apple Cider Sauce

2 cups		sweet apple cider
8 ounces	sugar
1/4 cup		white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons	white wine
1/2  ounce	cinnamon sticks
1/2		whole nutmeg
4		whole cloves

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat 
about 45 minutes, until the volume is reduced by half and a candy 
thermometer reads 220F (105C).  Strain through cheesecloth.  Pour into a 
clean glass jar.  Refrigerate.  Makes about 1 cup.



Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net