[Sca-cooks] Another Leeds Symposium review
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Thu Apr 5 18:05:31 PDT 2007
This one rather more period:
<I>'Banquetting Stuffe:' The fare and social background of the Tudor and
Stuart banquet.</I> edited by C. Anne Wilson. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1991)
This is, of course, papers from the first Leeds Symposium on Food
History and Traditions. Knowing that the attendees got to consume a
banquet in the Stuart style created by Peter Brears makes me
retroactively jealous. But reading the book helps.
The Table of Contents:
<UL><LI>Introduction: the Origin of 'Banquetting Stuffe', C. Anne Wilson
<LI>The Evolution of the Banquet Course: Some medicinal, Culinary, and
Social Aspects, C. Anne Wilson
<LI>'Sweet Secrets' from Occasional Receipt to Specialised Books: The
Growth of a Genre, Lynette Hunter
<LI>Rare Conceites and Strange Delightes: The Practical Aspects of
Culinary Sculpture, Peter Brears
<LI>Bowers of Bliss: The Banquet Setting, Jennifer Stead
</UL>
So, what, exactly, <I>is</I> 'banquetting stuffe'? Stuff to make a
banquet. What's that? A banquet, according to the authors, has 2
meanings, one of which is <I>The special final course of [an opulent
meal], comprising a wide variety of sweetmeats" (p.1-2) and often being
moved to a separate venue, i.e. a 'banquetting house'. This appears to
have developed from the spices, wafers and possibly fruits, eventually
called a 'voidee,' provided at the end of 14th and 15th c. high-class
meals. By 1600, banquets were served in a separate room from the main
meal, to the higher ranking guests, and served a combined function of
decorative subtlety and sweets course. Elements of the banquet included:
<UL><LI>Marzipan and Marchpane
<LI>Sugar Plate items (including, in some cases, dishware)
<LI>Spice comfits & Kissing Comfits
<LI>Fruits (fresh and dried)
<LI>Fruit conserves, including wet and dry suckets, marmelades,
chardquince
<LI>Cookie-biscuits, such as prince-biscuit and wafers
<LI>Gingerbread
<LI>Doucettes and Daryols, and milk leaches & custards
<LI>Tarts with decorative covers
</UL>
Post-1600 additions seem to include:
<UL><LI>Creams and butters of fruit, milk, etc.
<LI>Ice cream
<LI>Syllabub
<LI>Distilled cordials & waters
</UL>
Wilson gives an excellent introduction to the topic, which is followed
by Hunter's analysis of the development of cookbooks with
banquetting-stuffe recipes, and the change from 'secrets' to general
knowledge of candying and confectionery.
For cooks, the heart-- and the stomach-- of the book will be Brears'
section, where he discusses the nature of the banquetting stuffes, gives
examples and 16th and 17th century recipes of each type, with
redactions, followed by dishing instructions for each. Who could resist
his description:
<blockquote>The banquet course provided a unique opportunity for the
display of culinary skills, artistic flair, theatrical effect, and sheer
wealth. The combination of elaborate sculptural creations in sugar, with
sweetmeats, fruit and nuts all highly finished either in naturalistic
colours or gilded with gold leaf were the most magnificent assemblies of
dishes ever to have been presented on English tables.</blockquote>
For those who like doing subtleties, the marchpanes are key:
"In 1562 Queen Elizabeth's 'Surveiour of the Workes' gave her a
marchpane bearing a model of St. Paul's Cathedral; while from Robert
Hickes, Yeoman of the Chamber, came a 'very faire marchpane made like a
tower, with men and artillery in it', and from her Master Cook, George
Webster, a 'faire marchpane being a chessboarde'. Brears gives
instructions for marchpane collops of bacon, sugarplate eggs, sugarplate
ribbons, white gingerbread, and other decorative works. Cast sugar and
sugarplate could be made in molds for decorative purposes, or even used
for 'Plates, Dishes and Cuppes'. Brears gives a number of recipes for
butters and creams such as almond butter, orange butter, pippin-cream,
and sack-cream, though most recipes are well post 1600. The Jelly and
leach recipes he gives are post-1600 also but we do have recipes for
such stuffs from sources before 1600. He notes that decorative tops for
tarts might be baked separately, and used to replace the tops the tarts
were baked with. Jumbels, cracknels, and bisket bread, wafers and
gingerbread recipes are addressed. Preserved fruits of all kinds, dry
and wet suckets, etc. segue into plums made of cold-fashioned marmalade,
prunes in syrup, and even lemon-skins filled with colored layers of
aspic. Though the sweetened, dried cherries recipe he gives is
post-period, there are a number of sweetened dried fruit recipes before
1600, and when else should they be served but in the banquet?
Also discussed here are the sucket-forkes and spoons (especially spoons
with a sucket-fork on the end of the handle), the painted banquet plates
(one ate off the plain back), the order of presentation. Which brings us
to Stead's "Bowers of Bliss."
For those who are somewhat familiar with garden history, it's
fascinating to find out that banqueting houses were probably used for
these decorative dessert meals, and still more to realize that
banqueting-rooms also appeared in towers and on roof-tops, especially in
the 1600s. The bizarre case of the tree-house banqueting house at Cobham
Hall, Kent, is spentioned as well as other garden locations. For Pennsic
and other war venues, we could do worse than imitate this one:
<blockquote>"Temporary banqueting houses could be made wholly of green
and living stuff. Queen Elizabeth in the summer of 1560 gave a
tournament for the entertainment of the French Embassy. She had had
erected in Greenwich Park a banqueting house 'made with fir poles and
decked with birch branches, and all manner of flowers both of the field,
and of the garden; as roses, july flowers [gillyflowers/carnations],
lavender, marygolds [calendula], and all manner of strewing herbs and
rushes' wherein she gave a supper followed by a masque, and then a
magnificent banquet." p. 126</blockquote>
I suspect an experienced Sukkot-booth builder could be employed with
advantage in this process, and it could be paired with the temporary
garden described in Markham's <I>English Husbandman</I>. Apparently the
more permanent banquet-houses might be used as part-time garden sheds,
guest rooms, or assignation spots.
Stead also describes spice plates, spice trays, special spoons and
forks, before moving onto the late night <I>reresoper</I>. and the
sometimes outrageous behavior of the guests, including those at an
entertainment in 1606 for the King of Denmark. This masque "ended with
Victory slumped unconcious on the antechamber steps, while Peace
cudgelled courtiers' heads with her olive branch..." The supposed
aphrodisiac effects of the banquet ingredients are also detailed.
Reading about banquetting stuffe makes it plain that that enchanting
depiction of a reresoper in Keat's "Eve of St. Agnes" is a type of
banquet, so for anyone who's been entranced by
<blockquote>"While he from forth the closet brought a heap
Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd;
With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferr'd
From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one,
From silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon.
These delicates he heap'd with glowing hand
On golden dishes and in baskets bright
Of wreathed silver: sumptuous they stand
In the retired quiet of the night,
Filling the chilly room with perfume light."</blockquote>
And would like to do something of the sort (like, oh, me) will be
attracted to banquetting stuffe like a moth to a very sugary flame. In
short, I am inspired to learn sugar-plate and marchpane and make up a
banquet of my own.
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"I thought you might need rescuing . . . We have a bunch of professors
wandering around who need students." -- Dan Guernsey
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list