[Sca-cooks] A Cinnamon Tart

[Mark.S Harris]

Serena da Riva said:
> Normally, upon joining a list such as this, I would lurk for a month or two
> before letting out even a single peep regarding the subject matter being
> discussed. I find that this usually allows me to learn the etiquette that is
> generally accepted by the group.

Welcome to SCA-Cooks. While this list has not been free of controversy,
it has generally been free of the flamewars that plague some mail lists
and newsgroups. The main things I remember for etiquette on this list,
are to not assume when someone asks for the evidence for an assertion
that they are trying to argue with you. They most likely are simply
asking for some evidence to back up your assertion. Also, rather than
ask whether someone wants a recipe, just go ahead and post it. Most
likely someone will.

> OK, on to the question. I prepared the below item and entered it into our
> local A&S competition (at that point I had not found the German, I had only
> the English translation by Valoise Armstrong). One of the questions that was
> brought out by the judges was regarding the almonds.
>
> The way I read the receipt it did not specify that the almonds be blanched -
> it just says ground. So I ground unblanched, skin on almonds and it provided
> a lovely flavor. The judges questioned weather or not the blanching would be
> a matter of course. I am not certain how to figure out the answer to this
> question - would the almonds have been blanched or not?

I think almonds may have been used both blanched and not. There may be
some regional variation or time period that would affect this, though.
I think the best way to check this is probably to look at similar
recipes and see if any of them specify that the almonds be blanched
or not. I doubt we can know for sure, but this would help increase
the odds of making the right decision. If the food is a light colored
food, such as almond milk, then they would probably have been blanched
to preserve the white/pale appearance.

I assume that since this was for an A&S project and not a feast, that
saving labor was not your reason for blanching the almonds or not.
However, we have discussed ways to easily skin almonds. You might
find some of the comments in this file in the FOOD section of the
Florilegium to be of interest:
almond-milk-msg   (57K)  7/ 7/00    Making almond milk. Recipes.
Deskinning nuts
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/almond-milk-msg.html

> I am also curious to know how extensively the Weslerin text has been cooked
> from. I just recently "discovered" it and have enjoyed everything that I
> have tried out of it.

For more sources, including some translations, original text and
redactions, you might also like these files:
fd-Germany-msg   (106K)  6/ 1/01    Medieval and Period German food.
Cookbooks.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BY-REGION/fd-Germany-msg.html
online-ckbks-msg  (23K)  4/11/01    Online versions of period cookbooks.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BOOKS/online-ckbks-msg.html

Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net