[Sca-cooks] Egg Whites

[David Friedman]

>I saved about 7 gallons of egg white from the Atlantian 12th night feast
>this weekend. (the result of making custard) I am preparing a feast on Jan
>28th - any suggestions?
>1) I have freezer space to freeze them.
>2) I would love to make something OTHER than Divinity or angelfood cake if I
>can help it.
>3)  What would the period cook have done with them?  I have no pigs to feed
>them too :)

(From the Miscellany)

Cryspes
Two Fifteenth Century p. 44/61 (GOOD)

Take white of eyroun, milk, and flour, and a 
little berme, and beat it together, and draw it 
through a strainer, so that it be running, and 
not too stiff, and cast suger thereto, and salt; 
then take a chafer full of fresh grease boiling, 
and put thine hand in the batter, and let thine 
batter run down by thy fingers into the chafer; 
and when it is run together on the chafer, and is 
enough, take and nym a skimmer, and take it up, 
and let all the grease run out, and put it on a 
fair dish, and cast thereon sugar enough, and 
serve forth.

4 egg whites	1 c flour	3 T sugar
2/3 c milk	1 T dried yeast	1/2 t salt

Take egg white, milk, and flour and a little 
yeast and beat it together, being careful not to 
let the flour make lumps. Add sugar and salt. 
Pour into a pan of hot oil, so that they puff up 
and brown, turn them, drain them, sprinkle on 
sugar and serve them.

This can be done either as a pancake or as 
something more like a funnel cake; the latter 
seems to fit the description more closely. To 
make it like a funnel cake, I use a slotted 
spoon; the batter runs through the slots into the 
hot grease. Of course, you could always let thine 
batter run down by thine fingers instead-but make 
sure no one is watching.

Hulwa
Ibn al-Mabrad p.19

Its varieties are many. Among them are the sweets 
made of natif. You put dibs [fruit syrup], honey, 
sugar or rubb [thick fruit syrup] in the pot, 
then you put it on a gentle fire and stir until 
it takes consistency. Then you beat eggwhite and 
put it with it and stir until it thickens and 
becomes natif. After that, if you want almond 
candy you put in toasted almonds and 'allaftahu; 
that is, you bind them. walnuts, pistachios, 
hazelnuts, toasted chickpeas, toasted sesame, 
flour. [apparently alternative versions]. You 
beat in the natif until thickens. For duhniyyah 
you put in flour toasted with fat. As for ... 
(other versions.)

Sugar version:	Honey version:
1 1/4 c sugar	1 c honey
1/4 c water	1 egg white
1 egg white	2 1/2-3 c or more nuts
1 1/2 - 2 c nuts = ~10 oz

This makes 25-40 hulwa, depending on size.

Sugar version: Bring the water to a boil, stir in 
the sugar, continuing to heat. When it is 
dissolved and reasonably clear, turn it down to a 
simmer and put the top on the pot for two or 
three minutes (this is to let the steam wash down 
any sugar on the sides of the pot). Take the top 
off, boil gently until the temperature reaches 
the hard ball stage (250° -260° F). Beat the egg 
white until it is just stiff enough to hold its 
shape. Pour the sugar syrup into the egg white, 
beating continuously. You now have a thick white 
mixture; this is the natif. Mix it with chopped 
nuts (we have used almonds and walnuts) or 
toasted sesame seeds, or some mixture thereof. 
Squeeze the mixture into balls and set them aside 
to cool. Note that as the natif cools, it gets 
harder and less sticky, so you have to work 
quickly; the hotter you get the syrup before 
combining it with the egg white (and hence the 
less water ended up in it), the faster this 
happens and the dryer the hulwa ends up. If you 
get past 260°, the syrup may crystallize on you 
as or before you pour it; if so, give up and 
start over.

Honey version: Simmer the honey gently until it 
reaches a temperature of 280° -290° F. From that 
point on, the recipe is the same as for sugar, 
using the boiled honey instead of the sugar 
syrup. Note that honey requires a higher 
temperature than sugar to get the same effect. 
Also note that natif made from honey will be 
stickier than natif made from sugar (maybe you 
can solve this by getting the honey up to 310° 
without burning it; I couldn't). So use a higher 
ratio of nuts to natif and have the nuts chopped 
more finely; this helps reduce the stickiness. 
You may want to roll the honey hulwa in sesame 
seeds or ground nuts, also to reduce stickiness.

Dibs version (still experimental). Stir the dibs 
while simmering at medium heat about 1/2 hour+, 
until it gets to about 250°. If you do not stir, 
it may separate out. By 250° there is some 
problem with scorching.

Note: Dibs is date syrup, available from some Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Toasted Sesame: To toast sesame seeds, you put 
them in a heavy iron pot over a medium to high 
flame, and watch them carefully. When the ones on 
the bottom begin to to tan, start stirring. When 
they are all tan to brown, take them off the heat 
or they will burn.

-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com