[Sca-cooks] Fun and ignorance - The Response

[david friedman]

>Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>>>OB food Content: I'm increasingly sure that the 'cookies of joy' in the
>>>Physica are not actually cookies but troches or pills.
>>
>>What makes you think this?
>
>I always thought of them as pastilles, sorta like large, herbal
>confits. The thing is, Stefan, that the modern recipe, which has
>become kind of common in SCA settings, is, as I recall, a lot like a
>modern cookie recipe, using techniques and ingredients that are
>probably pretty uncharacteristic of medieval cookery techniques. Now
>this doesn't preclude the possibility of some kind of accidental
>similarity, like the flour-thickened milk-based garlic sauce we did
>at EK 12th Night, which turned out to be a lot like milk gravy with
>saffron and garlic, for example, but which _was_ a period dish.
>
>But as I recall (and I could be wrong), Hildegarde's herbal lumpy
>recipe has been greatly modernized by some editor-type, and has been
>nudged in the direction of a modern cookie, and away from its
>original form.

That's a considerable understatement. The following is from the Miscellany:
-----
Hildegard von Bingen's Small Cakes

Some time ago I found on the web a fictitious-I am tempted to say
fraudulent-recipe entitled "St. Hildegard's Cookies of Joy." I gather
that versions can be found offline as well. It is a modern spice
cookie recipe, including baking powder, sugar, butter and egg.

The original on which the recipe claims to be based, from a 12th
century book on healing, consists of two sentences from the entry on
"nutmeg." They read as follows:

"Take some nutmeg and an equal weight of cinnamon and a bit of
cloves, and pulverise them. Then make small cakes with this and fine
whole wheat flour and water. Eat them often. ..."

As you can see, this not only does not contain baking powder, which
had not yet been invented, it does not contain sugar, butter, or egg
either.

The following is an attempt to reconstruct what Hildegard actually
intended. The only addition is salt-my justification for that being
Platina's comment in his cookbook to the effect that he doesn't
mention salt because everyone knows to add it.

1 t cinnamon	1 t nutmeg	1/2 t cloves
1 c whole wheat flour	1/4 c water	1/4 t salt

Mix the spices with the flour, stir in the water and knead until it
smooth. Divide into four equal portions, roll each into a ball,
flatten it a little. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 300° for 30
minutes, turning them over after the first fifteen.

It is clear from context that the cakes are intended mainly for
medicinal purposes; as Hildegard writes:

"It will calm all bitterness of the heart and mind, open your heart
and impaired senses, and make your mind cheerful. It purifies your
senses and diminishes all harmful humors.

It doesn't taste bad, either.

--
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/