[Sca-cooks] Selene's Files

[Volker Bach]

Am Donnerstag, 29. September 2005 12:26 schrieb 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.

IIRC 'Manus Christi' refers to a gesture - palm out, fingers together, thumb 
spread away from them - that is typical of Christ in medieval iconography and  
signifies what we'd call the 'thread' stage, tested between the thumb and 
forefinger.

But I'm no sugar cook, I only know this by theory.

Giano


		
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