[Sca-cooks] Green and Golden Apples

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Here's what i sent to my friend. She comes from a family of amazing
cooks - 7 siblings, 3 of whom are professional cooks, 4 are amateur
cooks, and her mother is quite a cook. Below is what she answered.

>>  To The Queen's Taste
>>  To Make Green and Golden Apples
>>  I expected this recipe to make pretty round meatballs that I could endore
>>  and they would make a pretty conceit. I was even planning on getting little
>>  apple stems with leaves from a friend's apple trees and painting them gold
>>  to further the effect! But instead the pretty round meatballs I
>>expected were
>>  ugly cracked misshapen things. And to get the endoring paste yellow enough
>>  and thick enough to stick sufficiently resulted in an overpowering
>>saffron smell
>>  that everyone who ate it (I had 6 testers!) found unpleasant, but everyone
>>  liked the un-endored ones. Has anyone here made endored meatballs
>>  successfully? Should I try simmering the meatballs instead to prevent
>>  cracking? Would I be considered a bad apprentice for using yellow food
>>  coloring in the endoring paste to boost the yellow color with having to use
>>  so much saffron? Should the meatballs be wrapped in pastry first and then
>>  endored? Argh, that'd be a lot of work...
>
>BTW, she baked them *and* she made them the size of crab apples...
>
>The recipes in "To the Queen's Taste" may not be the same as the one
>you used. It is not a "period" cookbook, per se, but it's a modern
>cookbook that contains recipes from a number of "period" sources...
>
>Anahita

------- Begin Forwarded Message -------

So, here's what I did.

I used the recipe directly from the Harleian Ms., which I found on
the following website:
http://home.earthlink.net/~smcclune/stewpot/recipe_pommesd1.html

I used the Pome-Garnez recipe. I didn't use her redaction, because I
think you should do your own when you're competing.


Harleian MS 279 (c. 1420)
xxiij. Pome-Garnez.
Take lene Raw Pork, & lene raw Flesshe of hennys, & raw eyroun, &
rent the flesshe fro the bonys, & hew it smal; take thanne Salt,
Gyngere, & Safroun, Salt, Galyngale, ther-of y-now, & caste it in a
morter, & bray it smal; take than thin fleysshe, & caste it in-to
that morter to the Spycery, & that it wyl y-grounde; thanne make
ther-of pelettys, as it were Applys, be-twene thin hondys; loke thou
haue fayre panne sething ouere the fyre, & do ther-on thin pelettys,
& late hem nowt sethe to swythe, & than lat hem kele; & whan they ben
cold, gif hem a fayre spete of haselle, & be-twyn euery, loke ther be
an ynche, & lay hem to the fyre: & than make thin baturys, the on
grene, & that other yelow; the grene of Percely.

Translation:
23. Pome-Garnez.
Take lean Raw Pork, & lean raw Flesh of hens, & raw eggs, & rend the
flesh from the bones, & cut  it small; take then Salt, Ginger, &
Saffron, Salt, Galingale, thereof enough, & cast it in a mortar, &
bray it small; take then thine flesh, & cast it into that mortar to
the Spicery, & that it is well ground; then make therof pellets, as
it were Apples , between thine hands; look thou have a fair pan
seething over the fire, & do theron thine pellets, & let them not
seethe too quickly, & let them cool, when they are cold,  give them a
fair spit of hazel, and between every, look there be an inch, & lay
them to the fire: & then make thine batters, the one green, & that
other yellow; the green of Parsley.


My Redaction

Meatballs:
Salt
Ginger
Saffron
Galingale  - I don't have any, so I left this out.
ground fresh pork (about a pound)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, ground (or ground chicken)
eggs - I used 3 egg yolks
Broth or water (I used water. They'd be better in broth)

Batter:
Egg yolk
Water
Flour
saffron

Put the spices in a mortar, and pound them till they're small. Add
the meats and eggs, until everything is well ground and mixed in.
Roll the meatballs into apple shapes.

Put the broth over a medium fire, and when it's simmering, add the
meatballs. After they're cooked, cool them. Put them on skewers. Put
them over the fire, then make the batter.

The recipe kind of stops here, and doesn't say what to do with the
batter. I'm assuming it's a batter, and not a sauce. (There's also no
recipe for the batter, so I'm winging it.)

Once the meatballs are warmed, dip or paint them with the batter. Put
them back over the fire till the batter is cooked. They should look
like golden apples.  I'm skipping the green batter, because for this
presentation, I only want golden apples.

I had a really hard time getting the batter to stick to the
meatballs. And I cooked them on top of the stove, because my oven is
broken.


Here's the rest of the stuff that didn't get into the doc:

I made mine about the size of grapes, and was surprised to see that
they expanded when I simmered them. (Ok, so I don't make meatballs
all that often) They were kind of lumpy, but they were small enough
that they didn't look too bad.

I was not at all pleased with the batter.  I tried it thinner, I
tried it thicker, it wouldn't stick. I tried painting it on with a
pastry brush, I tried immersing them. I cooked a them a little, and
re-battered them.  I couldn't bake them because my oven is broken,
and whenever I turned them, the batter mostly fell off. Re-battering
helped the most.

My sister suggested that perhaps rolling the meatballs in flour or
corn starch before battering might work better.
My other sister thought that perhaps deep frying would work better.

And I think you could easily skip the saffron in the meatballs, since
there's so much in the batter. I used 2 little vials of saffron for
this dish, and I thought it was a bit too much. The judges didn't
think so, though. (I tasted them warm, they tasted them cold)

I didn't salt the batter, and it needs it.

I don't think they're at all pretty enough to serve on their own,
although multiple batter dippings, or deep frying might  help with
the appearance.

And now, (if you're still reading) I'm not familiar with the
translation - Did you cook them in broth or water? A rich chicken
stock, with a lot of gelatin in it might ease the cracking problem.
Did you batter them when they were cold? How hot was the oven?


If I made this recipe 4 or 5 more times I might be a little more
help. :-) Feel free to ask me if you have any more questions.


Gianetta del Bene


------- End Forwarded Message -------

BTW, the remark about gelatin is the natural gelatin that cooks out
of the skin and connective tissue, etc. of the chicken.

If you have more questions, Madhavi, i'll forward them to Gianetta
and pass her info back.

Hope this helps,
Anahita