[Sca-cooks] non-sweet Elizabethan dishes

[P. A. Stonnell]

At 04:36 PM 11/11/02 -0600, you wrote:

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>Here are recipes for three dishes which provided nourishment for our local
>vegetarians.  They have sugar, but they are not necessarily "sweet,." and
>the level of sweetness can be altered.
>
>Fettiplace may be later than you want to use, but I think the recipe for
>sweet potatoes is Elizabethan or Jacobean in origin.
>
>Bear

I have a question about the first two recipes.  In both the orginal versions,
there is rosewater.  Why was this ingredient left out of the redations?

Isobel fitz Gilbert

>
>
>Spinach Tart
>
>A Spinnage Tart. Take a good store of Spinage, and boyl it in a Pipkin, with
>White Wine, till it be soft as pap; then take it and strain it well into a
>pewter dish, not leaving any part unstrained; then put to it Rose-water,
>great store of Sugar and cinamon, and boyle it till it be thick as
>Marmalade. Then let it coole, and after fill your Coffin and adorn it...
>
>Gervase Markham
>The English Hous-wife, 1615
>
>1 pound spinach (fresh or frozen) cleaned and chopped
>1/2 cup white wine
>1 cup water
>1/3 cup sugar (or more)
>1 teaspoon cinnamon
>Boil spinach in wine and 1/2 cup water until very soft.
>Press through a colander or run through a food processor to mince large
>pieces of spinach.
>Combine sugar and 1/2 cup water in a pan and bring to a boil.
>Stir in spinach and cinnamon.
>Reduce heat to medium and cook until almost dry.
>Put spinach into pie shell. Cool.
>After cooling the tart can be adorned with fruit, powdered sugar, crystal
>sugar, etc. One tester suggested sliced hardboiled eggs.
>
>Notes:
>
>One third cup of sugar sweetens the spinach without being cloying.  A cup of
>sugar would make a thicker syrup and make the spinach closer to the
>marmalade of the original recipe.
>
>One teaspoon of fresh cinnamon provides a nice bite without being
>overpowering.
>
>Fresh spinach may require additional water or wine in the first boil. I used
>frozen spinach for availability and speed. I used Malavasia wine, which is
>fairly strong, and cut it with water for expedience. The spinach absorbed
>much of the liquid.
>
>
>Sweet Potatoes
>
>To butter Potato roots. Take the roots & bole them in water till they bee
>verie soft, then peele them and slice them, then put some rosewater to them
>& sugar & the pill of an orenge, & some of the iuice of the orenge, so let
>them boile a good while, then put some butter to them, & when the butter is
>melted serve them. This way you may bake them, but put them unboiled into
>the paste.
>
>Elynor Fettiplace
>The Receipt Book of Ladie Elynor Fettiplace, 1647
>
>Note: Elynor Fettiplace was an Elizabethan lady who began compiling her
>recipes in 1604 after many years in the kitchen.
>The book was passed to her niece in 1647.
>
>2 lbs sweet potatoes
>1/2 cup water
>juice of 1 orange (4-5 Tablespoons)
>1 Tablespoon of sugar
>1 teaspoon ground orange peel
>1/2 cup butter
>
>In a pan, cover the sweet potatoes with water and boil them until very soft,
>about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
>Remove the sweet potatoes from the pan. Cool slightly.
>Peel and slice.
>Mix the water, orange juice, sugar and orange peel in a pan and heat
>stirring.
>After the sugar dissolves, add the sweet potato to the syrup, seperating the
>slices.
>Stir the mixture gently to prevent burning, turning the sweet potato to coat
>the slices with the syrup. Add water if necessary.
>When the syrup has cooked down, remove the pan from the heat and add the
>butter. Stir gently until the butter is melted and blended into the sweet
>potatoes.
>Put the sweet potatoes into a serving dish and present to the table.
>
>Notes:
>
>Two pounds of sweet potato will fill an 8” or 9” pie pan.
>
>In cooking for 160 people, rather than try to mash the sweet potatoes by
>hand, I whipped them slightly in a Hobart

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