[Sca-cooks] Re: Early Pastries

[Elise Fleming]

Finnebhir wrote:
>I was looking for general info really. I had run  across some
references to
>"subleties" and was interested if that  meant  something out of
marzipan,
>pastillage, or jellies. I read that they were typically shaped to
depict
>scenes and was wondering what materials were used, and how they
were
>kept/stored, if they were eaten or just displayed like modern
pulled/blown
>sugar pieces.

Some were meant to be eaten, or parts of them were.  Some were kept,
and there is an account of one in Spain that still is in one of the
churches/monasteries.  As to being a "scene", some were and some
weren't.  Usually a soteltie, subtlety...etc., etc., was something
that looked like something else.  Court records in England list the
mottoes or sayings that usually accompanied the feast subtleties.