[Sca-cooks] 16th C Portuguese Convent Sweets documentation so far

[Robert Downie]

I've been perusing the Covent Sweets books I got from Portugal, and 
surfing the web in hopes of documenting them specifically.
(I've also got a couple more on order: À MESA COM LUÍS VAZ DE CAMÕES - 
the romance of Portuguese cookery in the Age of Discovery & DOCE NUNCA 
AMARGOU (O) - history, decoration and recipes of Portuguese sweets... 
I'm not sure how much useful historical info I'll find in the second 
volume, but it'll be a fun read and good modern reference anyway).

I found this in one of the Alfredo Samargo volumes:
There exists writen record of D. João II (1481-1495) ordering several 
items from convents in Évora for the wedding of his son, prince D. 
Afonso to the princess of Castela:
-7 arrobas of " confeites" (confits)
-5 arrobas of "tâmaras" (dates)
-50 basins of "fritos doces" (fried pastries)
-30 basins of "fartens" (sweet fruit paste wrapped in pastry, I think)
(an arroba is equal to 14.688 KG)

The author goes on to say that D. Manuel I (crowned in 1495) requested 3 
trays of sweets each day during his stays at the convent.
Filipe II considered the sweets of Évora and Beija to be the best he had 
ever had.  Filip III  visited the various convents in Évora, where he 
sampled various delicies, and in Santa Monica attended a repast where 
the sweets were laid out over two tables "the size of 2 men laying down"

The bad news: no real names are specified (there are lots of different 
fried pastry types, fartens may be the "fartos" referenced in the 
extant15th C.Portuguese cookbook "Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. 
Maria")  The recipe section of each book has lots & lots of recipes, but 
although most are conjecturally period based on ingredients, none of 
them are dated specifically.  We are told which convents each recipe 
originated from, and when those convents were established, but that's 
it.  However, I do get hungry after scanning the recipe pages!  I'm 
thinking of also going through the pastries in the 15th C. "Livro de 
Cozinha" and seeing how may similar recipes I can find in the convent 
recipes.

My webcrawling also yeilded some interesting results:
Gaspar Frutuoso records in his "Saudades da Terra", a chronicle of the 
history of the islands (Azores and Madeira), the splendors of sugarworks 
in the embassy of Simão Gonçalves da Câmara to Pope Leão X in 1508 which 
consisted of:

"muitos mimos e brincos da ilha de conservas, e o sacro palacio todo 
feito de assucar, e os cardiais todos feitos de alfenim, dornados a 
partes, o que lhes dava muita graça, e feitos de estatura de hum homem".
(many gifts and earrings (?) of the island of preserves, and the sacred 
palace all made of sugar, and the cardinals all made of alfenin, gilded 
in parts, and made in the stature of a man). *I'm not sure if by 
"stature of a man" they mean life -sized.  If so, I'm very impressed!

This is a modern recipe, but probably unchanged from the original, which 
is supposed to have originated from the Moors
Alfenim
1 Kg sugar
1 T white wine vinegar
buter to grease the bowl

Bring the sugar to a boil with 400 ml of water and the vinegar and let 
it boil until it reaches the soft-ball stage.  Pour the syrup into a 
greased metal  bowl which is placed in a larger container filled with 
cold water.  As the sugar starts to set around the edges, you will need 
to pull it back towards the center of the mass with a knife.  As soon as 
it cools down enough to handle, start kneading it with your hands, 
pulling it out and stretching it, folding it and stretching it until it 
becomes very elastic, opaque and white.

Divide the paste into sections, cutting it with scissors, and work it 
while it is still warm.  To keep the alfenim pieces moldable (ie not 
allowing them to cool completely), keep them near the mouth of a warm 
oven or the intermittent warmth of an electric radiator.
With the alfenim you can mold animals, flowers, etc.  It can also be 
eaten like candies.

There are some really neat subtlety like desserts in the recipe sections 
of the books that I really wish I could document to SCA period (they may 
very well all be that old, I just haven't been able to document them yet):
-Pombinhas de Alcorce e Caroços de Alcorce ( little doves and peach pits 
form Alcorce)
-Lampreia de Ovos (lamprey of eggs)
-Peixes (faux fish)
-Sardinhas Albardadas (faux egg fried sardines)
-Nuvens do Ceu (clouds from the sky)

and there are so many others that just look so tasty, and all have 
_conjecturally_ period ingredients... sigh, so close and yet so far...

Faerisa