SC - Recipe: Peach pits

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

::sigh:: I had just finished writing this, when my email program crashed.

These are the sweetmeats I brought to the Pennsic potluck.

Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del Arte de Cozina_ (Spanish, 1599)
Translation: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

Huessos de duraznos -- Peach pits

Take half a pound of almonds, and blanch them, and grind them, and 
take a pound of sugar, ground and sifted, knead it with the almond until 
it is well kneaded, and if it does not stay very firm, cast in a little more 
almond, and take an ounce of very fine cinnamon, and two adarmes of 
red sanders, all very well ground and sifted, cast it in the paste, and 
knead everything very well, until it takes on a good color, and the dough 
being well-tempered, which is not soft, sprinkle it on top with sifted 
sugar, so that it doesn't stick, and make pieces, and in each one put an 
almond, or a half, and sprinkle them with sugar, and put them in your 
molds and remove them, and set them to dry.

Notes:

2 parts sugar to 1 part almond made a mixture to crumbly to work with.  
I wasn't measuring carefully (and I was using almond meal mixed with a 
little almond oil), but I think I wound up with 6 ounces almond to 8 
ounces sugar.  1/2 ounce of cinnamon was about 7 teaspoons.  Since I 
was using cassia, not Ceylon cinnamon, the taste was stronger than it 
would be otherwise.  An adarme is 1/2 drachm or 1/16 oz.  I estimated 
1 TBS.  My sanders was old and dark; the stuff I bought this Pennsic is 
brighter red, and I think will give a more realistic color to the mix.  Sugar 
did help with the sticking-to-the-mold problem, but even so, I had to 
remove them very carefully and there were a few casualties.  When they 
first came out of the molds, they were wonderfully detailed, with very 
clear ridges and whorls.  Those of you who saw them after they'd 
survived 400 miles driving and several days of Pennsic heat did not see 
them at their best.  The half recipe I made was enough for about 60 pits. 
 I look forward to getting my earthenware molds, so I can continue the 
experiments.


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