[Sca-cooks] Marcellina's Hedgehogs (was: Marzipan Request)

[david friedman]

Marcellina writes:

>,,Kochbuch aus dem Inntal" (cookbook from the Inn valley), late
>1500/begin.1600, Bavaria. The german version is made by Danner,
>Ostbair. Grenzmarken 12/1970. That's all bibliographical information
>about the book I could find. I don't know if there is a version
>translated into english.
>
>As well as possible translated the recipe for hedgehock from almonds says:
>Put fine crunched Almonds into a clean pot and mix the stuff with a
>small stick (maybe cinnamon?).

Probably not--think of it as stirring with something like the handle
of a wooden spoon. Cinnamon was expensive enough that they would tell
you if you were using it.

>Put it on a cloth so it makes a heap and let it drip until it gets
>dry (That makes only sense if you made almond milk before. Otherwise
>there is no liquid to "drip"). Than put sugar over it.

I can't tell fom the English if this last "it" refers to the liquid
or the solid. Can you tell from the German?

>  Now take almonds, cut in 4th, colored with safran and stick with it
>the hedgehock. Put thick almondmilk to it and put it in a bowl.
>
>The question still is, did the put milk/water/wine to the crunched
>almonds and thisaway made almond milk or not. I tend to say, they
>did not. Because if you'd do that you would'nt get it dry enough
>anymore to take it away from where you worked and "put it in a bowl"
>without destroing your work.
>
>Whats your opinion?


To me it sounds as if you are making almond milk and mixing sugar
into it; this is presumably the "thick almond milk " mentioned at the
end of the recipe. There is then no description of how you make the
hedgehog itself, except for the spines, which are the almond cut in
fourths (presumably the long way). For comparison, here is a recipe
for hedgehogs from an English source:

Yrchouns.--Take Piggis mawys, & skalde hem wel; take groundyn Porke,
& knede it with Spicerye, with pouder Gyngere, & Salt & Sugre; do it
on the mawe, but fille it nowt to fulle; then sewe hem with a fayre
threde, & putte hem in a Spete as men don piggys; take blaunchid
Almaundys, & kerf hem long, smal, & scharpe, & frye hem in grece &
sugre; take a lite prycke, and prykke the yrchons, An putte in the
holes the Almaundys, every hole half, & eche fro other; ley hem then
to the fyre; when they ben rostid, dore hem sum wyth Whete flowre, &
mylke of Almaundys, sum grene, sum blake with Blode, & lat hem nowt
browne to moche, & serue forth. (from _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery
Books_, p. 38; thorns changed to th.)

To put that into modern English:

Urchins.--Take pig's maws, & scald them well; take ground pork, &
knead it with spices, with powdered ginger, & salt & sugar; put it in
the maw, but don't fill it too full; then sew them with a clean
thread, & put them on a spit as men do pigs; take blaunched almonds,
& carve them long, small, & sharp, & fry them in grease & sugar; take
a little prick, and prick the urchins, and put in the holes the
almonds, every hole half [an almond?}, & each from other; lay them
then to the fire; when they be roasted, endore [what is the right
modern word for this? glaze?]them some with wheat flour, & milk of
almonds, some green, some black with blood, & let them not brown too
much, & serve forth.

So you are making hedgehogs (or urchins--it means the same little
beasts) by stuffing pig's maws with a ground meat mixture,
spit-roasting them, sticking almond slivers into them to make them
look spiny, spreading them with an almond milk-flour mixture colored
green (maybe with parsley juice) or black with blood, roasting them
just enough more to set the almond milk without discoloring it, and
serving. Your recipe sounds like a very truncated version of
this--did you translate the whole thing, or is there more?

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook (getting caught up--only two
weeks behind the list)