[Sca-cooks] Pretzels and Rock Candy

[Stefan li Rous]

Brangwayna asked:
> Passing along two questions from shire members not on the list:
>
> 1. Our A&S mistress believes that she has seen a recipe for pretzels from
> within our period of study, but cannot find it again.  She'd like to give it
> to our mistress of children to use with the kids in a newly formed children's
> activity group.  Can anyone point me to such a beast?


Here is a bit of info on period pretzels, but unfortunately, no period
recipes. Yet.

pretzels-msg      (25K)  9/27/00    Period pretzels and pretzel-like breads.

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BREADS/pretzels-msg.html


> 2. I seem to remember someone saying something about rock candy being
> donelate in our period of study.  Does anyone have anything on that?  That
> would also be a good thing to do with kids.
Well, the following message is from my food2-msg file. Perhaps someone

can check these recipes out? The other times that "rock candy" turns
up in a Florilegium search tend to be saying something is or isn't like
rock candy.


Stefan
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

> From: greg at bronze.lcs.mit.edu (Greg Rose)
> Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
> Subject: Re: Another Cypriot Candy
> Date: 24 Jun 1993 06:00:12 -0400
> Organization: MIT LCS guest machine
>
> Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.  Bertram asks about almonds
> candied in sugar and grape juice.  I can't precisely reproduce this one,
> but I can come close.
>
> Hugh Platt has several recipes (#33 and 42 are particularly relevant) for
> candying.  The two cited use a thick syrup of sugar and rosewater (and in
> one case gum arabic).  Substituting grape juice for rosewater is a little
> of a stretch, but not a serious one.  The things to be candied in the
> Platt recipes are, in 33, "Nutmegs, Ginger, or such like", and in 42,
> nutmegs, ginger, mace, flowers, fruits, and "&c" (following the nutmegs
> and mace).  So: how big a reach is it to substitute almonds?
>
> Well, in the recipe for making confits, he says, "Worke upon Ginger, Cloues,
> and Almonds, as upon other seeds."  This seems a reasonable basis for say-
> ing that in recipes involving building a confection around some center,
> Platt considered almonds to be "like" ginger, and so to fall into the category
> of 33, and by extension (and similarity of recipe) of 42.
>
> BTW, 33 and 42 are for candying in rock candy, which I gather is more or
> less what Bertram had.  If he had something more like confits, then almonds
> are explicitly allowed, but the coating is far more complex, and so is the
> procedure.  The one he describes is a whole lot like #33 and #42.
>
> Except that Platt does them individually, not in strings, but that sounds
> like a convenience detail to me.
>
> I'm off to my mother's, and from there to Interkingdom War Practice; so no
> time for more.  Back to you all some time next week.
>
> Cheers,
>
> -- Angharad/Terry