[Sca-cooks] Marzipan creations, like onions...

[Volker Bach]

Mike Macchione schrieb:
>
> >
> > Trust me Misha, opening a can of almond paste and mixing it with sugar and
> > rosewater is SOOOOOO much easier than blanching and grinding almonds and
> > THEN mixing with sugar and rosewater.  I do think the experience is worth
> it
> > though.
> >
> > Since I use 60 to 80 pounds of marzipan (at least) a year I would be
> > grinding almonds in my spare time and my sleep if I did not use the cans.
>
> I've been thinking about this all throughout this thread, and this thread
> just prompted me to ask....  Just how common were marzipan subtleties in
> period. As has been said, making it from scratch is a pain...  and I would
> assume that would be using a food processor...And I know that sugar wasn't
> as common as it is today.  would people in period want/be able to make large
> or numerous marzipan pieces?  What sized things would they have made? and
> for what occasions?

I don't know about sotelties, but the late period
cookbook (Staindl, second half 16rth century) I'm
currently trying to get hold of the rest of has a
first chapter full of recipes that call for
considerable amounts of ground almonds and
mentions an 'almond mill' (Mandelmuel) as a common
kitchen implement (though it makes allowance for
cooks not having one, telling them to use a mortar
instead). Given the prevalence of almond milk in
period cooking, grinding up almonds must have been
common enough to make the idea of marzipan in
large amounts at least not too outlandish. As to
sugar being less comon - yes, but not that much
less, at least in late period (I doubt whether the
court of Charlemagne consumed much marzipan, but I
am fairly sure that that of Emperor Charles V
did). Marzipan probably was not as comparatively
cheap as it is today (I can get a 250-gram chunk
for the same price as a decent one-pound loaf of
bread!), but a culture of ostentation that would
burn cinnamon in braziers just to show you could
would not stop at using expensive ingredients.
think of it as a big bowl of caviare.

Giano