[Sca-cooks] Re: Marzipan Boxes

[Elise Fleming]

Stefan wrote, regarding the online painting:

>The review of the painting mentioned marzipan boxes. Which ones are 
>these? The round, very thin ones with tops? To me, those look very 
>much like the boxes you can buy in the hobby stores made out of very 
>thin wood. They look more like these in the painting are made of thin 
>wood, not marzipan. Or by "marzipan boxes" is the reviewer talking 
>about boxes made to hold marzipan items rather than that the boxes 
>are made of marzipan?

The boxes in the painting are wood and yes, they are pretty close to the
"Amish" boxes one can find in hobby and craft stores.  The reviewer
probably means that the box would hold marzipan.  Usually the reference is
to holding quiddony/quince paste/cotinignac, etc., or one of the "solid"
jellies.
 
>If the latter, what makes these particular boxes "marzipan boxes"? Do 
>we have other period (or close to period) texts which mention 
>"marzipan boxes"?

I don't recall seeing the term "marzipan box" but references may well have
said something like "and keep them in boxes ..."  I usually have seen that
reference to the fruit pastes which keep for months.  Would others agree
with my "off the cuff" supposition that marzipan items were made to be
eaten rather soon as compared to the fruit pastes?  Perhaps the reviewer
extrapolated modern packaging use back to the 1600s??

Alys Katharine

Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/