[Sca-cooks] Re: Manus Christi

[Johnna Holloway]

Hess suggests that pearls were used at times and not gold. Recipe
S110 is the same recipe as the S107 To Make Manus Christi except it has
no gold in it. So I suppose they might be Aromaticum Lozenges, if I
make them without gold.
I think however there are different kinds of confections that share the 
same name.
Laura Mason when quoting that elusive York archival document says
that one gets manus Christi if one omits the honey from the paste ryall 
recipe
and cuts the mixture into gobbets. It's a mixture of sugar and egg 
whites flavored by spices.
That might be its earliest appearance in a manuscript in fact. That one 
doesn't contain gold.
So when did gold become a needed part of the recipe?
I'll try and run a search on the term through some online collections
in the am. Right now it's not connecting.

Johnnae

Elise Fleming wrote:

>Johnnae asked:
>  
>
>>Will they be Manus Christi without the gold? Have to see and compare.
>>    
>>
>
>I _think_ manus christi is defined by containing gold.  I don't recall
>seeing a manus christi recipe without the gold, but I haven't seen
>everything that exists and my memory is weakening!  But, I believe a
>defining factor of a sugar gobbet - or rather, that which changes a sugar
>gobbet into manus christi - is the use of gold.
>
>Alys K.
>
>  
>