[Sca-cooks] Snacks

[DeeWolff at aol.com]

Here are a couple of things I scanned out from the florilegium (Thanks Stefan 
and the contributers!) I recommend them highly.
Andrea MacIntyre

Sukkariyya, a Sugar Dish from the Dictation of Abu 'Ali al-Bagdadi
Andalusian p. A-23
 Take a ratl of sugar and put in two qiyas of rosewater and boil it in a
ceramic pot until it is on the point of thickening and sticks between the
fingers. Then take a third of a ratl of split almonds, fried, not burnt,
and pound well and throw the sugar on them and stir it on the fire until
thickened. Then spread it out on a dish and sprinkle it with ground sugar.
[end of original. ratl = ~lb, 12 qiyas = 1 ratl]
 2 c sugar 5 oz = 7/8 c slivered or sliced almonds
5 T rosewater 1-2 T more sugar for sprinkling at the end
 Toast the almonds in a hot (400) frying pan for 3-5 minutes, stirring
continuously. Then crush them with mortar and pestle to something between
ground and chopped. Cook sugar and rosewater mixture on medium high until
it comes to a boil, reduce to medium and continue cooking to a temperature
of 275, about ten minutes. Combine syrup and nuts in a frying pan, cook
at medium to medium high, stirring constantly, for another nine minutes,
turn out on a plate and sprinkle with sugar. An alternative interpretation
of the original recipe is that you cook the syrup and nuts together only
long enough to get them well mixed; the binder is then sugar syrup rather
than carmelized sugar. Both ways work.
 Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook



SHREWSBERY CAKES
Beebe, Ruth Anne. Sallets, Humbles & Shrewsbery Cakes. Boston:
Godine, 1976. p.64
 To make Shrewsbery Cakes
Take a quart of very fine flour, eight ounces of fine sugar
beaten and sifted twelve ounces of sweet butter, a Nutmeg grated,
two or three spoonfuls of damask rosewater, work all these
together with your hands as hard as you can for the space of half
an hour, then roll it in little round Cakes, about the thickness
of three shillings one upon another, then take a silver Cup or a
glass some four or three inches over and cut the cakes in them,
then strew some flower upon white papers & lay them upon them,
and bake them in an Oven as hot as for Manchet, set up your lid
till you may tell a hundredth, then you shall see the white, if
any of them rise up clap them down with some clean thing, and if
your Oven be not too hot set up your lid again, and in a quarter
of an hour they will be baked enough, but in any case take heed
your Oven be not too hot, for they must not look brown but white,
and so draw them forth & lay them one upon another till they bee
could, and you may keep them half a year the new baked are best.
 2 c. flour
4 oz. (1 c.) sugar
6 oz. (3/4 c.) butter
2 T rosewater
1/2 t. nutmeg
 Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter as for pie crust. Moisten
with rosewater. Work with your hands until well blended. Roll out
1/8-1/4 in. thick Cut with a round cutter ca. 3 in. in diameter,
stamp with a floured cookie stamp. Bake at 325 15-20 min., until done,
but not browned.


From _A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_ (16th c.):
 To make pyes of grene apples
 Take your apples and pare them cleane and core them as ye wyll a Quince,
then make youre coffyn after this maner, take a lyttle fayre water and half
a dyche of butter and a little Saffron, and sette all this upon a
chafyngdyshe tyll it be hoate then temper your flower with this sayd
licuor, and the whyte of two egges and also make your coffyn and ceason
your apples with Sinemone, Gynger and Sugar ynoughe. Than putte them into
your coffin and laye halfe a dyshe of butter above them and so close your
coffin, and so bake them. [end of original]
 So this is a covered sweet pie; except for the details of the crust, and
the absence of cornstarch to thicken the juice, it isn't too different from
my mother's apple pie--assuming you cut up the apples, which it doesn't
ever say. It could also be like the medieval quince pies, where you core
the quince from the top, fill up the hole with sugar and sometimes ginger,
stand three quinces in a pie shell, cover, and bake.
 Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook


A Redacted Recipe- Pommes Dorre
 1 lb boneless pork (butt ends seem to have enough fat, loin is too
 lean) or for convienence, ground pork
 2 egg yolks
 2 cloves
 1/8 tsp ground cloves
 1 tsp ground white pepper
 3-5 strands of saffron, crushed
 2 tsp sugar
 1 tsp currants (optional)
 Endoring paste
 5 egg yolks
 5 strands of saffron (gold) or 1/4 cup pureed parsley (green)
 1/8 cup unbleached all purpose flour
 If using ground pork, eliminate the roasting and grinding.
 Roast the pork steak for 10-20 minutes at 350 degrees so that it is half
 cooked. Cut into chunks. In a food processor, finely grind the meat. Add
 the egg yolks, spices, and if using, the currants. Blend well.
 Bring a pot of water to boil and form 3 inch balls of the meat mixture.
 Carefully drop the balls into the boiling water, allow to come to a boil
 again and cook for 3 minutes. Remove and thread onto either a metal or
 bamboo skewer.
 Brush the egg paste onto the meatballs, allowing to cook between coats.
 Roast the meatballs well to ensure that the egg paste is cooked. Serve hot 
or
 cold. Makes 25-35 meatballs.




If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be 
a merrier world.
<A HREF="http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/J._R._R._Tolkien/">J. R. R. Tolkien</A> (1892 - 1973)