[Sca-cooks] Re: Dembinska book/"Food and Drink in Medieval Poland"

[Stefan li Rous]

Ruth commented:
> The one recipe from that book that I've personally
> made is the one for saffron wafers, which recommends beating egg whites
> to either soft peaks or stiff peaks (can't remember which) -- a rather
> iffy bit of technique for the Medieval era, from what research I've
> done (egg whisks and heavily-beaten egg whites didn't really come into
> use till the late 17th century or later, according to other sources).
> 	While an egg white emulsion would give you the nicest wafers
> possible, theoretically, I compromised and just beat the egg whites well
> with a fork (a few bubbles floating on top, but not at all an emulsion)
> and then cooked up the wafers.  They turned out quite nice, with far less
> work than the "coulda" recipe indicated.

How did your wafers turn out? Did you use the particular type of
flour they recommended?

The reason I ask is that the wafers recipe is the only recipe I've
tried from that book so far. Though they tasted good with a strong
taste of saffron, I couldn't get them to stick together well enough
to use them. when I opened the wafer iron, half of the wafer would
stick to the upper portion and the other to the lower portion. Or
the wafers would crumble.


And it wasn't due to the wafer iron, as it was a non-stick one and

I believe there was oil in the recipe (not a common oil if I

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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