[Sca-cooks] darioles

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach phoenissa at netscape.net:
>Darioles
>Take cream of almonds, or of cow millk, and eggs, and beat them well togeth=
>er; and make small coffins, and do it therein; and do thereto sugar and goo=
>d powders, or else take good fat cheese and eggs, and make them of divers c=
>olors, green, red, or yellow, and bake them and serve them forth.
>
>1) The modern version says to use 1 1/3 c. milk and cream.  Does that just =
>mean half-and-half?  Could I use all milk or all cream without it being a d=
>isaster?

Sure. It's a custard. The recipe seems to call for cream, but it
doesn't address the fat content, so it could easily be light cream,
up to and including really high-fat stuff, almost like Devonshire
cream. But it'll still be a custard if you make it with milk.
Half-and-half is a good compromise, though.

>
>2) Does "good powders" refer to that mix of cinnamon, ginger, pepper, etc. =
>also known as "poudre douce" or something like that?

Yup. Presumably whatever powdered spices you want. Ginger, cloves,
cinnamon, etc. Oh, maybe some nutmeg or mace.

>
>3) Saunders is the coloring agent suggests for the red tarts.  I don't have=
>  any, and don't have time to go shopping for it.  Could I use another ingre=
>dient which is more commonly available?  Would it be horribly wrong, for ex=
>ample, to use the juice of a couple strawberries for color?

I would worry about what color you'd finally end up with if you added
strawbery juice, once they were cooked. You might consider simply
making them green with parsley juice and yellow with saffron (they're
slightly yellow even without saffron, which I'm sure pleases His
Grace to no end...)

Adamantius