[Sca-cooks] process approach to food history - custard

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

Jehanne sayeth:

> At 11:20 AM 12/11/03 -0600, Stefan wrote:
> >Lol. Now you see some of my problems in sorting foods into particular
> >files for the Florilegium and why I often ask questions about "what"
> >something is or how you would classify it.
> Yup!  Although in this case time was a factor, so I was being exclusionary
> rather than inclusive.  I still think a cheesecake or cheese tart is a
> _very_ different thing to a custard, though.
>
> >(The Elizabethans innocently mix cream _and_ almonds instead of
> >substituting, which I found rather amusing).
> >Which recipe are you using to say this? Recently we had a discussion on
> >"almond cream" similar to almond milk but thicker.
> Well, the two Gervase Markham recipes and the Robert May - all three are
> for cream tarts with almonds added, i.e. both cow's milk products and
> almonds.  Earlier recipes are for either cream/milk tarts OR almond milk
> tarts - there's no real point in both if the point of substituting is for
> fast day cooking.  The demonstration that the need for substitution had
> fallen away by Elizabethan times interested me.
>
Well, almond milk was frequently used as a milk substitute during fast
days and Lent. The Elizabethans weren't Catholic, they were Anglican
(which, I will grant, is still mostly the Catholic church without the
Pope). Does anybody know if the dietary laws were still being followed in
Elizabeth's time, or had they given that up?

Margaret