[Sca-cooks] Yet more on cheese for turnips

[Kathleen Madsen]

My first foray into the world of cheese was back in
'99 at my first feast in the West.  Everything was
carefully researched for historical accuracy for the
feast, and then they plunked down a plate of cubed
colby and monterey jack cheese in front of us.  It
bugged me so much that I started making my own and
researching it.

For the armored turnips recipe that Urtatim referenced
(see below) the author calles for a "cacio" cheese. 
There is a family of italian cheeses called
caciocavallo, of which provolone is a member.  This
family contains any aged, pulled-curd cheeses and have
a variety of flavors from mild to sharp.  The younger
it is the milder it tastes, the older it is the
sharper it tastes.

As far as getting a young parmesean, there is no such
thing allowed to exist.  The Parmigiano Reggiano
Consortsium oversees all aspect of the cheese
production and aging and in order to keep the cheese
DOP certified an inferior product isn't released, it's
usually destroyed.  Parm is released at 24 months,
minimum.  Yes, there are copies released at younger
ages but they are made to a smaller size, usually
about 20-30 pounds as opposed to 90 pounds, and age
faster.  They are trying to copy the texture of a 24
month parm but moving it through their facilities at a
faster rate.

Personally, I'd be tempted to use a young manchego
(like a tierno, 4-5 weeks old), a young edam or a
young provolone.

Eibhlin

**********

Cook the turnips in the hot cinders or boil them whole
and uncut, 
>and slice them as thickly as the blade of a knife,
and have good 
>moist cacio [type of cheese] cut in slices as big as
the turnip 
>slices, but thinner, and take sugar, pepper and sweet
spices and mix 
>these together, and arrange in a pan in this order
starting at the 
>bottom, slices of cheese to make a crust, and on top
a layer of 
>turnips with the said spices and much good fresh
butter; and so on 
>in this way arrange the turnip, and the cheese until
the pan is 
>full, and cook this for a quarter of an hour or more,
like a tart. 
>And this dish should be served after the others.

Martino calls for a moist cheese - i.e., not a dry
cheese like most 
aged Parmesans in the US - but something younger and
softer

Ingredients: turnips baked or boiled - good moist
cacio cheese - 
butter - sugar, pepper, and sweet spices

The Anonymous Venetian has:
>LXV Armored turnips
>To make armored turnips, put the turnips to cook in
the fire 
>(embers) and when they are cooked peel them and cut
into thin 
>slices.  Take sweet cheese and make thin slices. 
Between each slice 
>of turnip put one (slice) of cheese and let them melt
well together. 
>If you want you can put them with a hot lid above and
they will be 
>done, then powder them with sugar, etc.

Since "douce" in French can mean "sweet", "mild", and
"soft", i 
wonder if the reference here is to a fresh cheese,
which will be 
soft, mild, and sweeter than aged cheese. (yes, i
realize this was 
written in Italian, but there are some close
relationships between it 
and French)

Ingredients: turnips baked - sweet [soft?] cheese -
sugar, etc. [i 
suppose this would include sweet spices]

-----

So, nothing like Cheddar or aged Parmesan is mentioned
(unless one 
uses a young Parmesan - and i don't know if we can get
that here in 
the US). Rather, soft, fatty, possibly young cheeses
are called for.

I'm sure that if properly made, Armored Turnips can be
delicious - if 
the turnips are precooked and period-type cheeses are
used. I guess 
i'll have to experiment. I'd think a bit of Brie or
such-like would 
be good, along with some full-cream fresh cheese. And
the spices can 
be played with... since Martino calls for sweet
spices, a little 
cinnamon and ginger. Nutmeg sounds like it would be
good here, too. 
And I wonder how galangal would be in this...
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita