[Sca-cooks] Stefan's wafers and snow (long)

[Stefan li Rous]

Late last week I asked for help on this list after my attempt at the
period "snow" recipe didn't seem to be working.

> > My question is, how long should you have to beat the egg whites (I
> > doubled the recipe) to get "stiff peaks"? I thought I was getting some
> > peaks and kept beating (with a whisk and and egg beater), what peaks
> > I thought I might have, went away. And no matter what I did after this
> > it never did get thick. When spooned up it would quickly run off and
> > fall back in the liquid, without leaving any evidence. Is it possible
> > to beat the eggs 'too' much?

Thank you everyone for your help. Here are some more details and how
things turned out. Since Adamantius' message covered most of the possible
mistakes, I'm going to use his here.

> Yes, it is, but not in the sense of overkneading dough until the gluten
> breaks down. Overbeaten egg whites become foamy to the point where they
> quickly dessicate in the air, crumble, and blow away in the breeze. More
> or less. The problem you seem to be having is more like whites that
> aren't beaten enough. There's no set time that it takes; they're beaten
> enough when they're beaten enough.

Maybe. I never did get much foaming and what little I did subsided. From
the comments here, I think I probably beat them enough.

> As has been mentioned by others, any trace of fat (including yolk) can
> prevent the whites from inflating; fat is shortening and it affects the
> ability of the protein molecules to form strands (polymers?), just as it
> would in bread dough.

This is probably the main culprit. When I was breaking the first egg,
I was doing well straining out the white from the yolk until I must
have caught the yolk on an edge of the egg shell as I shifted it
from one shell half to the other. Because the yolk broke and a few
drops fell into the white below. I fished out some, but left a few
drops, figuring that a few drops of yolk would impact it or be tasted
in all that white.

Okay. Now I know. Next time I don't try so hard to get that last
little bit of white out of the egg.

> Here are some things you can do to stack the odds in your favor:
>
> 1. I remember where you live. It's humid. If possible, turn on the A/C.

A/C was on.

> 2. Allow the egg whites to warm to almost room temperature before
> beating (which is the opposite of what you want to do with the cream, BTW)

Oops. No these were pretty freshly out of the refrigerator.

> 3. You might consider adding an acid component, such as a [very] few
> drops of lemon juice, or even better, 1/8 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar.
> Better living through chemistry.

Ok. I'll keep this in mind.

> 4. As has been mentioned, you don't want to add sugar right away.

Oops. No, as soon as the whites seemed to be well mixed I added the
sugar. Probably should have stirred more between spoonfuls and added
smaller spoonfuls.

> Remember the thing about yolks? Same deal. Wait until the whites are...
> well... white... before adding sugar.

Oops. No these were just mixed and pretty much still clear.

> Some people like to just loosen
> them up a bit with the beater before adding sugar, but if there's any
> doubt about it working successfully, I prefer to be on the safe side.
> Once the sugar has been addded p[roperly, it will actually help you in
> the later stages of the beating.
>
> > The whipping cream and rose water did seem to thicken some. What I
> > ended up with was sort of a thickish cream where waves and such would
> > stay for awhile on the surface. I've put it in the refrigerator, where
> > it was said to store it anyway, to see if it will thicken some more.
>
> And if I can make a little side bet, I bet it returned to being cream
> and rosewater, didn't it?

Nope. I don't think I saw any seperation either before or after the
cream/rosewater mixture was added to the egg/sugar mixture.

> There seems to be a point of no return for
> cream (which, as I say, should be beaten cold, unlike the egg whites),
> after which it is pretty stable. The trick is to reach that point
> without either beating it too stiff (it becomes un-shiny and a little
> grainy in texture), or turning it into butter, which, after that point,
> is pretty easy.
>
> > When the recipe says "stiff peaks" should that be like you see on
> > meringue pie?
>
> Yup.

Nope. Never got that thick. More like a thick, sweet cream.

> > Oh yes, tommorow night I'll be trying Adamantius' recipe for the
> > sweet wafers. I will probably decorate the "snow" with strawberries,
> > since they are in season, or with sprigs of mint from my new herb garden
> > and then arrange the wafers around the bowl of snow.
>
> Remember these continue to brown after they come out of the iron; try
> not to burn them.

Correct. And after I cooked these, I did remember I had used this wafer
recipe previously. They tend to brown much "patchier" than the other
redaction I've used from this list.

I made quite a stack of these. I would estimate the recipe made a
stack about 12 inches tall. I put the snow in a large bowl and placed
cut leaves from fresh English mint and Peppermint on top. An unexpected
side effect of this was that, even just sitting on top of the snow, the
mint flavored the snow. I then placed the bowl on an large metal oval
serving tray and then laid the wafers out in a circle around the bowl.

Unfortuantely, this was for a pot luck lunch that was served outside.
As the snow was already melting when we got to the site (an hour away)
even though I'd put it in an ice chest with ice, I placed the bowl
in the freezer in the event kitchen until the pot luck got going. Then
when it showed signs of melting, I'd periodically go put it back in the
freezer for awhile. One side effect of this, since people continued
snacking on the wafers even without the snow, was that the wafers
disappeared before the snow did. I have a partial bowl of the snow
in my refrigerator, but all the wafers were gone by mid-afternoon
of the event.

I expected folks to dip the wafers in the snow. Surprizing to me, the
first folks I watched were spreading the snow on the wafers and then
eating them that way.

So, even though I don't think the "snow" turned out as the period
recipe intended, I think both that and the wafers went over well and
a small part of Ansteorra has had another introduction to period wafers.

--
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****