[Sca-cooks] Selene's Files

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Sep 29, 2005, at 2:26 AM, Susan Fox wrote:

> This has an interesting measurment!  You boil the apples and sugar  
> as long
> as it takes to say the prayer called "Manus Christi."  I’m not sure  
> how long
> that is, but I let it get good and thick.

FWIW, it's my vaguely recalled understanding that Manus Christi is  
not a prayer, per se, but rather another confection boiled to s  
specific temperature/density. I believe there are recipes for Manus  
Christi, which may or may not be more specific than the one you're  
using.  There are several recipes for sugar confections that speak of  
boiling a syrup to Manus Christi height, and since, as I recall,  
there's some dispute as to exactly what that is, this apple recipe  
probably tells us more about Manus Christi than Manus Christi does  
about this apple recipe. Okay, that sounds a lot more fatuous than I  
intended, but I believe it's true. Working between the dual  
imperatives of getting an apple paste that'll hold its shape when  
cool, and not burning the stuff, that's _reasonably_ specific when  
you don't have a thermometer.

Wonderful job, though, on the pamphlet. I especially like the part  
about the good news being that there are nasty foods that weren't yet  
discovered in the Middle ages (Yay!) and cool foods that weren't  
invented yet (Boo!).

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04