[Sca-cooks] Frumenty.

[Ruth Frey]

	<Alys Katharine wrote:>
> What about an overnight cooking?  In a crockpot to minimize sticking
> to the pot?  Do we know whether cooks cooked up the grains that
> morning, or might it have been one of those things put on the side
> of the fire for a long, slow cooking?

	Actually, some of the recipes do mention pulling the
wheat off the fire and letting it sit for a while before adding
the milk and re-cooking it.  I found that does make a difference;
I got a good redaction down that worked OK done "straight", but
for my tournament entry, I cooked the wheat early in the morning
(so I wouldn't have the 2-hour prep time at the event), let it
sit in the fridge at the site for about 6 hours, then added the
milk and did the final cooking just before the tournament.  The
texture was noticably smoother and creamier, so sitting really
is a Good Thing for this recipe (though not necessary for an
edible result).
	Another thing that helped was trying another variety
of wheat; living in prime wheat-growing territory means I can
actually pick and choose.  I was working with 2 varieties,
"hard red" and "soft white."  Preliminary tests didn't show
a whole lot of difference between the two -- both cooked
to edibility in 45 minutes with 3 cups of water, with no real
difference in taste or texture.  However, with the longer
cooking times needed to get a nice, soft frumenty texture,
the soft white cooked considerably faster and absorbed much
more water than the hard red.  So, it pays to experiment.

		-- Ruth