[Sca-cooks] A Sugar Dish Question

[Lilinah]

Adamantius wrote:
>On Oct 30, 2006, at 11:01 AM, Lilinah wrote:
>>  Slices of Gammon
>  > Le Cuisinier Francois
>  > La Varenne
>>
>>  p. 232
>>  Take some pistaches stamped by themselves, some
>>  powder of roses of Provins by themselves, allayed
>>  with the juice of lemon, and some almonds stamped
>>  also by themselves, and thus each by it self.
>>  Seethe about one pound and a half of sugar as for
>>  conserve; after it is sod, sever it into three
>>  parts, whereof you shall put and preserve the two
>>  upon warm cinders, and into the other you shall
>>  powre your roses, and after you have allayed them
>>  well in this sugar, powre all together into a
>>  double sheet of paper, which you shall fold up
>>  two inches high on the four sides, and tie it
>>  with pines on the four corners. After this, when
>>  this first sugar thus powred shall be half cold,
>>  and thus coloured, take of your almonds, mix them
>>  into one of the parts of sugar left on the warm
>>  cinders, and powre them over this implement, and
>>  do the like also of the pistaches. Then, when all
>>  is ready to be cut with the knife, beat down the
>>  sides of the sheet of paper, and cut this sugar
>>  into slices of the thickness of half a crown.
>>
>>  -----
>>
>>  But i wonder how this would stand slicing...
>
>I imagine that the instruction to boil as for conserve (as opposed to 
>candy) is significant; to me it suggests some unspecified "candy 
>height" lower than that of the modern hard crack stage. You 
>presumably want something somewhat fudgey, or maybe at the upper end 
>of that range, but definitely something that can be sliced, at least 
>while warm. It would be speculation to suggest boiling your syrup to 
>the soft-to-hard-ball range, but I think in this case form is
>supported by function.

I am sugar clueless. I don't care a great deal for sweets, so i've 
made very few in the recent past - just for feasts i've cooked. And 
i've never made jams or preserves. And i don't think i've made fudge 
since i was in high school... Lately i've been making beverage syrups 
(and i goofed and cooked the last one a little too long - it's still 
syrup, but rather, mmm, dense). So this sugar candy stuff is all new 
to me.

Would this benefit by the addition of pectin?

BIG SNIP

Thanks for the various suggestions.

>  > and
>>  cut this sugar into slices of the thickness of
>>  half a crown.
>
>I'm not sure how thick a mid-17th-century half-Crown is, and I'm also 
>curious as to what La Varenne was actually referring to, because it 
>could be an assumption of the translator or some specific knowledge
>that La Varenne's equivalent coin or measurement would be the same...

It's the 17th C. English translation and i don't know if it was 
accurate here - but it seems that it would be rather thin, in any 
event...

See, with a meat or vegetable or fruit dish, i can test cook a couple 
servings. But with sweets, i don't want to be making quantities of 
the stuff that i'll just be tossing out - especially if it uses 
expensive items like pistachios...

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita