[Sca-cooks] An interesting proposal...

[Volker Bach]

Am Freitag, 17. Februar 2006 16:44 schrieb Susan Fox:
> Dear Volker.  I could lap this stuff up all day.  Love your translations
> and redactions, they are in really accessible modern English [unlike
> some translators].  I think I will make the sauce of tart cherries at
> the other end of the year when cherries are in season.  On the other
> hand, Lent will be upon us soon, might try out those sausages on my
> friends.

Make sure to also check out the Inntalkochbuch then, it has recipes for fish 
sausages for Lent.

> It's worth mentioning for the benefit of USAns that what most of Europe
> calls "pimento" is what we call "allspice" rather than the sliced mild
> red peppers in a jar that we usually see labelled "pimentoes".

Oh, b***y hell, cahn't you Yanks talk like normal people once in a 
fortnight?! :-)

> Volker Bach wrote:
> >Meister Hans also hasd a recipe for multicoloured almond layercake that
> > kids love, and pressed dried apples with honey to die for.
>
> Recipe please?  I don't want to die! but I know kids [of all ages] who
> need almond love.

The recipe is rather lengthy and at times obscure (Meister Hans 38 "Ain 
frömbdes pachens" - a strange / foreign baked food), but the basic outline 
is: 

You are making a 'Gebackens' (baked food) of seven colours.

You need four wafers for each colour. 

You are told to make a 'filling' or seven colours, and further down a white 
'mus' with good spices, and at the end he adds 'sweeten it with sugar'. I'm 
reading that as a thick almond 'mus' with sugar, dyed in various colours (no 
instructions as to which, or with what, though at other places he mentions 
cornflowers for blue, saffron for yellow, and parsley juice for green)

The filling of each colour is to be spread on four wafers, and those are to be 
stacked atop each other. Once you have a stack of four wafers of the first 
filling, make four with the second and stack them on top of that, until all 
wafers are stacked on top of each other in seven coloured layers of four 
each. 

He then adds that if you think it doesn't look large enough yet, start from 
the beginning again and add layers. 

Place the stack on a flat surface (a board or table) and weigh it down with 
something 'the weight of two bricks'. Leave to harden overnight. 

To serve it, cut it with a knife and arrange it so you can see the colours.

He adds in the final sentence that this should be made 'of all  kinds of 
things, throughout the year' and I'm not sure whether this just means to use 
seasonal colours and dairy, or if he really wants this made out of all kinds 
of 'Mus', including meat, poultry, fish or vegetable. 

I've tried it as follows:

square, thin wafers (we get large ones around Christmas for traditional 
'Lebkuchen' baking, and I always lay in a year's supply)

A 'Mus' made from blanched, ground almonds and sugar, combined in a blender 
with either hot wine/water mixture or hot milk, enough to get a thick, gooey 
consistency. Seasoned with a touch of cinnamon and bit of citron, it is 
separated into as many parts as you have colourants on hand (last time, I had 
four, but clearly if you work for the Duke of Wurttemberg, seven is the 
number you're shooting for). 

Then proceed as outlined above. You get an interesting, layercake-y confection 
that looks really surprising and tastes very pleasant and marzipanish. Cut it 
with a sharp, smooth, slightly moistened knife to avoid streaking or 
crumbling. 

There is also a roughly similar 'funny dish' in Staindl's 16th century 
Künstlich Kochbuch, though here they use jelly layers:

(very rough translation:)

How Jellied Almonds Can Have the Colors You Want

xviii) Almond paste is white by itself. You can make it yellow with saffron 
and green with parsley. Red can be had from an apothecary's store. Something 
called /farbtüch/ (?) from the apothecary's store should be taken and boiled 
to make the water red. With that you can color the almond paste, but you must 
boil /Hausenblase (a gelling agent made from bladder of fish. Gelatin can be 
used as a substitute) with it and sugar it well, just like with the almond 
cheese.

xix) Brown color you make thus: Take ground almond paste and put /Weichsel 
salssen/ (?) into it and the almond paste will turn brown. To make black you 
take cloves, /gstüp/ (?) and water that has been boiled with /Hausenblase/. 
Boil peas in it and strain them through a cloth, and sweeten it with sugar. 
It will be black.

To Make Red Color

xix) (the number occurs twice) Make it thus: Take water in which /Hausenblase/ 
(a gelling agent made from the bladder of fish. Gelatin is a good substitute) 
has been boiled, sweeten it and strain it through a cloth. Then take red 
color from a sworn (i.e. guilded) apothecary, let the abovementioned water 
cool and stir in the color. Pour it soon, as it will gel. You can pour it 
into any mould you want.

To Make an Almond /züger/ (?) that has as many Colors as You Want

xx) Make it thus: Pour the abovementioned (liquid) into a cup a finger high 
and let it gel. Afterwards, pour another color into it, not hot, only cold, 
or it will flow together with the other. Pour in as many colors as you want 
until the cup is full. After it has all boiled and gelled, steep the cup into 
hot water, but take it out again soon and turn it into a bowl and you will 
have all the colors. Cut the almond paste lengthwise so that all the colors 
may be seen in a row.


If I ever have a year or so to spare, I'll make a translation of Meister Hans. 
It's a fascinating source, but exasperatingly complicated and fearfully long. 
Anyone know of scholarship programmes for this?

Otherwise, hey, it's just thirty-five-odd years to what they call 
'retirement'...

Giano





	

	
		
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