[Sca-cooks] Jams and Jellies in period

[Volker Bach]

On Sat, 15 May 2004 21:53:34 EDT, Varju at aol.com wrote :

> A question came up on a message board I'm on about if there was anything 
> similar to modern jam or jelly in the Middle Ages.   I wasn't able to 
find any in 
> the small group of cookbooks I have, so I was wondering if you fine 
people 
> could give me a more definitive answer than that.

In German cookbooks, there are 'Mus' recipes that come somewhat close - 
basically boiled or baked and mashed fruit that are sweetened and thickened 
for storage. There is alaso one recipe that callsa for boiling fruit juice 
with sugar until it thickens and sets. The result can be used in 'pieces 
the size of a walnut', so I assume something like an old-style jelly. It's 
in an untranslated source, tho.

Renaissance 'Confect' arealso somewhat like that - fruit ot juices boiled 
with sugar, then poured into boxes to cool and set. Sometimes the jam/jelly 
is poured over whole fruit. Rumpoldt and de Rontzier both have those, but I 
recall similar things from British and French cookbooks, too. They are 
pretty international. 

A still life by Georg Flegel (1566-1638, probably dates to almost exactly 
End-of-Period) shows what they looked like. It really looks like someonwe 
poured jam into a box. Unfortunately I have no electronic medium of this. 
It is titled 'Grosses Schauessen' (Great Show Banquet) and may be found at 
the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Giano