[Sca-cooks] comfits? (long)

[johnna holloway]

Johnnae llyn Lewis sends greetings and
observations.

Near as I can remember comfit making was a pain
in the you know where... But I have done it upon
occasion. Anyway I note that the feast that you
cite says that the comfits were adapted from the
recipe by Dame Hauviette d'Anjou. I went back and
looked at her original recipe.

A Recreated Recipe  by Dame Hauviette d'Anjou
( from her article Sweets and Treats of the 14C
found in the Florilegium or at
http://www.netcolony.com/arts/mkcooks/14sweets.html)
     1 cup/6 ounces granulated white sugar (very
     finely ground in a food processor  or
     mortar) or fruit sugar or castor sugar (10X
     sugar)
     1/2 cup/ 3/4 ounce (approx.) coriander seeds (or
     any other suitable seed or nut
     i.e. anise, caraway, fennel, pine nuts, almonds
     are the most commonly
     mentioned in period)
     food colouring (optional)
     1/2 cup hot water

The recipe you cite gives a recipe as follows:
1 C sugar
1/2 C (approx.) coriander seeds (or any other
 suitable seed or nut i.e. anise, caraway, fennel,
 pine nuts, almonds are commonly mentioned in period)
1/3 C hot water.

These are not the same proportions.

So, I checked Peter Brears
who gives a recipe of:
10 ml (2 tsp) seeds
450 g (1 lb) cane sugar
275 ml (1/2 pt) water.

He says gently heat. Stir until dissolved. Quit stirring and
raise heat. Cook until it reaches 110 degrees C (225 degrees F).
Brears says remove the syrup from the heat and dip the bottom
of the pan in cold water to stop it cooking.
He then instructs you to use a small omelette pan over low heat
to warm the seeds up in. You then add the syrup a teaspoon at a time
to the seeds in the omelette pan while keeping it over very low heat.
You then candy the seeds and stir and seperate and dry them over the
low heat, adding more syrup to build up the layers. Repeat until
they are the size desired and then dry them in the same pan over
low heat. See All The King's Cooks for recipe and picture.

Laura Mason in Sugar-Plums and Sherbet discusses Hugh Plat's
recipe for comfits and notes that it came to be the practice
that "pearl" or irregular comfits had sugar cooked to 103-107
degrees C with smooth comfits boiled to 102 degrees C. She
describes the use of the brazier skillet that Brears uses. The
important part was the keeping the seeds in motion over low heat
while the syrup was added. They whitened, she says, as they dry,
so they should be stirred until dry and cool in the pan.

I would suggest trying to get the proportions more in line with
Brears' suggestions. Use a candy thermometer and cook to 225 degrees F.
Then try candying them in a second small skillet, letting them coat and
dry while keeping them stirred.

(I can remember coating whole cloves on racks and pouring syrup over
them,
and turning them. It was a pain for the amount of candied cloves we
ended up with. I am wondering if an electric skillet might
not be the way to go for the actual coating of the seeds, a la Brears.)

Hope this helps.
Johnna Holloway

jenne at fiedlerfamily.net wrote: snipped.....
> I'm experimenting with making comfits...starting from the
> instructions Gwen Cat put up for her feast, at:
> http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_ASnovfeast.htm )
> But instead of being white, the sugar is sort of off-grey. Is this a
> sign of crystallizing? Did I cook the sugar too long? When you heat the
> syrup, is the idea to increase the temperature gradually or just get to
> the soft-ball stage as soon as possible? I used both enamel and stainless
> steel pots, it didn't seem to make a difference.> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa