[Sca-cooks] Pears in cream?

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Terri Morgan:
>It's one of those "seems right" sort of things so I never
>questioned it. Pare and slice the pears, then whip the heavy cream slightly
>while adding a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg and a dash of sweeting (sugar or
>honey), then heat and add the pear - heat without boiling and then serve hot
>or cold. Easy, tasty, and until just a few hours ago, never questioned. I
>hate it when I do that (the never questioned part).
>
>    I figured middle-Europe due to the use of cream and pears together and
>later-period because of the addition of sugar or sweetening, but beyond
>that... I'm beginning to fear that I was misinformed.

I'd be inclined to agree. If I were to try to back-document it, I'd 
say that the spicing and sweetening of wine to use as a cooking 
liquid for pears is fairly similar to hippocras, and that there is at 
least one late-period recipe for hippocras (I'm pretty sure) that 
involves cream along with the wine, spices, and sugar. So, if one 
assumes that some of the pears-in-red-wine-type dishes are actually 
pears conserved in hippocras, one might extend that to include some 
cream. It's not a lot to hang a set of documentation on, but it's 
something.

Another possibility is that, I'm fairly sure I've seen applemoy 
recipes that call for cream of almonds or of kine, the latter type 
being the important thing here. But that'd be apples, not pears. It'd 
still call for a certain amount of rationalization.

Flat-out? I've never heard of pears in cream. Thinking back, not even 
rampaunt peorrey (which is kinda like pastry cream made with pear 
puree instead of cream) makes the cut.

Adamantius

-- 
"As long as but a hundred of us remain  alive, never will we on any 
conditions be brought under English rule.  It is in truth not for 
glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are  fighting, but for freedom 
-- for that alone, which no honest man gives  up but with life 
itself."
	-- The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320

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