[Sca-cooks] Forme of Cury: pears in comfit??, etc.

[Philip Troy]

On Monday 22 October 2001 04:14, RenfrowCM at aol.com wrote:

> Regarding 'powder of galentyn', the recipe for pears in confyt in Forme of
> Cury reads (roughly):
> xx.vI. xII.
> Take pears and pare them clean. take good red wine & mulberries or sanders
> and seethe the pears therein & when they are sodden, take them up, make a
> syrup of greek wine, or vernaccia with white powder or white sugar and
> ginger powder & put the pears therein. seeth it a little & mess it forth.
>
> Is this the recipe the original poster was asking about? If so, the recipe
> does not call for "powder of galentyn", it says "powdo~ gyng~ ", with the
> squiggles above the last letter in each word.

Which I would interpret as powdered ginger, not as powder of galantine...

> If it had said powder of galentyn, I would read it as "the same spices used
> to make sauce galentyne". In FOC there are 5 recipes for something in
> galentyne:
>
> -Laumpreys in galyntyne, xx. vi. vi, uses vinegar, wine, bread crusts,
> ginger powder, galyngale powder, canel (cinnamon) powder, clove powder,
> currants, blood, lamprey fat.
> -Laumprons in galyntyne xx.vi.vii. uses broth, ginger powder & salt.
>
> -Fyletts in galyntyne c.xvii, uses pepper, saunders, parsley, hyssop, red
> wine or white grece (probably a misspelling of Greek) & raisins.
>
> -sowps of galyntyne xx.vi.ix uses galyngale powder,sugar & salt.
>
> -galyntyne xx.vi.xviii. uses galyngale powder, canel  (cinnamon) powder,
> ginger, salt, and vinegar.
>
> Is this of any help?

Raggum fraggum. I'm having some trouble finding it, but _some_where, I have
an article by, IIRC, Constance Hieatt, and based on research by our own late
Terry Nutter, of beloved memory, in which she discusses the similarities and
differences between galantine recipes, looking for a thread of galantine-ness
common to all of them. She evidently didn't find one, at least not anything
reliably true of all or even most of them. Some were just spiced,
concentrated broths, intended to be served cold (i.e. jellies, possibly),
others were served hot and thickened with breadcrumbs. Some contained
galingale, but many did not, etc.

This just makes life more fun by confusing the issue... . ;  )

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