[Sca-cooks] Lebkuchen was EK Coronation feast analysis

[nickiandme at att.net]

I thought lebkuchen was supposed to end up as a intensely flavored taffy like item. In the case of recipe 151 I thought it referred to the flour made of the ground spices rather than actual flour.  In recipes 163 and 164 - I have never been able to get it to mold using such a small quantity of flour relative to the amount of honey and spices used.  Applying any kind of heat to the stuff makes it melt and spread thus losing its molded shape.  I've tried taking the honey up to hard crack, soft crack, hard ball, soft ball stages.  Nothing seems to help.  

A careful reading of Sabina brings up its usage in other recipes where a bit of lebkuchen is added to a sauce to melt in and add flavor.

I know the modern interpretation is as a german cookie as we know cookies today.  But, this is a misnomer to me.  I think that the name was applied to the cookie from the flavoring used -much like medieval gingerbread and gingerbread cookies today.  Akin, but not the same thing.

I'd like to know the proportions you used on the ingredients to get cookies out of it.

Kateryn de Develyn
recipes referred to follow.

151 To bake good Lebkuchen 

Take first a pound of sugar, a quart of clear honey, not quite a third quart of flour, take two and a half ounces of cinnamon, one and a half ounces of cloves, two ounces of cardamom. Cut the other spices as small as possible, the cinnamon sticks are ground as coarsely as possible. Also put ginger therein and put the sugar into the honey, let it cook together, put the flour in a trough, pour the cardamom into it first, afterwards the ginger and the other spices. 


163 To make Nürnberger Lebkuchen 

Take one quart of honey, put it into a large pan, skim it well and let it boil a good while. Put one and a half pounds of sugar into it and stir it continually with a wooden spatula and let it cook for a while, as long as one cooks an egg, pour it hot into a quarter pound of flour, stir it around slowly and put the described spices in the dough, stir it around slowly and not too long; take one and a half ounces of cinnamon sticks, one and a half ounces of nutmeg, three fourths of an ounce of cloves, three ounces of ginger, a pinch of mace, and chop or grind each one separately so that they are not too small, the cinnamon sticks, especially, should be coarsely ground. And when you have put the spices in the dough, then let the dough set for as long as one needs to hard boil eggs. Dip the hands in flour and take a small heap of dough, make balls out of it, weigh them so that one is as heavy as the others, roll them out with a rolling pin, and spread them out smoothly by hand, the smoother the prettier. After that dip the mold in rose water and open it up. Take four ounces of dough for one Lebkuchen. Be careful and get no flour in the molds or else they will be no good, but on the board you can put flour so that they do not stick to it. Let them set overnight. And when you take them to the baker, then see to it that you have another board that is thoroughly sprinkled with flour, so that it is very thickly covered. Put the board with its covering of flour into the oven so that the board is completely heated, the hotter the better. Take it out afterwards and lay the Lebkuchen on top, so that none touches the other, put them in the oven, let them bake and look after them frequently. At first they will become soft as fat. If you take hold of them you can feel it well. And when they become entirely dry, then take them out and turn the board around, so that the front part goes into the back of the oven. Let it remain a short while, then take it out. Take a small broom, brush the flour cleanly away from the underside of t
he Lebkuchen and lay the Lebkuchen, in the mean time, on the other board, until you have brushed off the Lebkuchen, one after the other, so that there is no more flour on the bottoms. Afterwards sweep the flour very cleanly from off the board. Lay the Lebkuchen on top of it again, so that the bottom is turned to the top. Take a bath sponge, dip it in rose water, squeeze it out again, wash the flour from the bottoms of the Lebkuchen. Be careful that you do not leave any water on the board, then they would stick to it. Afterwards put the board with the Lebkuchen again in the oven, until the bottoms rise nicely and become hard, then take the board out again. See to it that two or three [people] are by the board, who can quickly turn the Lebkuchen over, or else they will stick. Afterwards take rose water and wash them on top with it as you have done on the underside. Put them in the oven again, let them become dry, carry them home and move them around on the board, so that they do not stick. And when they have completely cooled, then lay them eight or ten, one upon the other, wrap them in paper and store them in a dry place, see that no draft comes therein, then they remain crisp. 


164 To make a large Nürnberger Lebkuchen 

Take a quart of honey and a quarter pound of sugar, prepare it as for the smaller Lebkuchen, take one quarter pound of flour and then the spices as follows: one half ounce of cinnamon, one ounce of cloves, one and three fourths ounces of nutmeg, four ounces of ginger, one fourth ounce of mace. Stir it carefully around, afterwards roll the dough out somewhat. Bake it as for the smaller Lebkuchen. 

7 To make a sauce in which to put a haunch of venison 

Lard it well and roast it and make a good sauce for it. Take Reinfal and stir cherry syrup into it, and fry Lebkuchen in fat and chop good sweet apples, almonds, cloves, cinnamon sticks, ginger, currants, pepper and raisins and let it all cook together. When you want to serve it, then pour the sauce over it. It is also for marinating a boar's head. Then cook it in two parts water and one third vinegar. The head of a pig is also made in this manner. 

43 To make a fig pudding 

Put wine in a small pot, and when it begins to boil, then put in grated Lebkuchen and grated Semmel. Put saffron, almonds, raisins, figs and some fat into it.