[Sca-cooks] Obleys, wafers etc

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Mon Jun 18 22:08:59 PDT 2007


On Jun 18, 2007, at 10:42 PM, Suey wrote:

> Crutse rolles are in Harleian MS 279 on p. 46, No 61 and Frutours  
> is in
> Harleian MS 3016 on p. 73 with no number.

Yes, I realize that, but my point was that I could not find a recipe  
for oubleys in the Austin edition of those manuscripts. Just  
references and the one recipe for wafers.

>> Just out of curiosity, what's your source for that little factoid? I
>> ask because there's a piece of probable culinary fakelore from the
>> 15th century to the effect that a recipe for Shrewsbury cakes fell
>> out of the pocket of Richard III into the mud at Bosworth Field (this
>> is probably a 19th-century fabrication).
>>
> Blast have spent the day going through the files I have on disks  
> trying
> to find where I got the info the Ned IV over indulged in wafers. It  
> must
> be in a book I haven't brought from the other apartment yet. As he  
> over
> indulged in everything else why no wafers?
>     Lady Brighid welcome back and thanks for sharing Covarrubias 1609
> version, mine is from 1943. You quote:
>
> ". . . Oblea which are half twisted (medio torcidas) as called
> "barquillos". Those made "en ca?utos" (in tubes? in the form of  
> tubes")
> so that they are very folded (muy plegadas) are called  
> "supplicaciones".
> . ."
> In Don Quijote Part II Cap 47 we have canutillos de supplicaciones  
> when
> the doctor tells Sancho Panza:
>
>  . . . que ha de comer el senor gobernador ahora, para conservar su
> salud y corroborarla, es un ciento de cautillos de suplicaciones y  
> unas
> tajadicas subtiles de carne de membrillo, que le asienten el  
> estomago y
> le ayuden a la digestión. .  .
>
>   . . .what his worship the governor should eat now to preserve and
> strength his health and are obleys and some slices of quince that will
> sooth his stomach and help his digestion. . . .
>
> They also appear on the menu of the meal Philip II gave to to the
> Portuguese in 1580. My understanding is the term "suplicaciones" is
> obsolete today but that they bent (another meaning of plegar) or  
> rolled,
> i.e. barquillos today.
>     I am still stuck on the French nieules don't we have a word for  
> them
> in English or Spanish? Suey

Maybe the cake doesn't occur in Spain or England? For whatever  
reason, France seems to have so many regional foods that are  
completely different from what is eaten 20 miles away; I don't know  
if this is the case elsewhere, but between town and village  
specialties that cannot be legally produced elsewhere under that  
name, rivalries between municipalities, different dialects, etc., it  
may help not to look at these nieules as being a "French" thing, but  
as a specialty of the town of X. Further, is it not possible that  
there may be no counterpart elsewhere in France, let alone Spain and  
England?

Here's (again) what Larousse says about nieules, for what it's worth:

"NIEULE

"A small round cake with fluted edges from Flanders, made with flour,  
milk, a little butter, eggs, and sugar. In Moeurs populaires de la  
Flandre francaise (1889). Desrousseaux describes neiules as 'pastries  
shaped like large Communion wafers, made in a waffle iron' and says  
that they were made on feast days all over Flanders. The town of  
Armentieres claims to have originated nieules: in 1510, when Jacques,  
Duke of Luxembourg and lord of the town, was presiding at a banquet,  
he went out onto the balcony and threw the remains of a great cake to  
the children of the town. The event was such a success that it became  
an annual custom known as the 'Feast of Nieules'. The name is derived  
from the Spanish word, ñolas, meaning crumbs -- at that time,  
Flanders was ruled by Spain. The tradition survived until 1832, then  
fell into disuse. In 1938 Pierre Baudin, a pastrycook of the town,  
revived the custom for the carnival."

Adamantius


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