[Sca-cooks] Eleanor Fettiplace, was: Re: The purpose of SCA-Cooks from Isabella de la Gryffin and a Culinary Question

[Huette von Ahrens]

Hi Renata!

There are two editions of Fettiplace.  The one that is easiest to find is the bad one.  It is not
just what Eleanor Fettiplace wrote, but there are recipes added to it for several generations
thereafter.  And, unfortunately, Spurling doesn't date the different recipes at all.  She does
make mention of this in her foreward, but there is no way to know which are the 1604 recipes and
which are not.  The reason that I bring this up is that quite a few years ago we had someone post
that she had found a period recipe for chocolate mousse.  We thought that she had been kidding, so
we asked her where she found said recipe.  She said she found it in Fettiplace.  And it is there,
but it dates actually from the 18th century.  If you have the multi-volune edition, you can see
that it is from a later addition to Fettiplace.  Unfortunately, the single volume version doesn't
have this distinction and I hesitate to recommend this book to anyone unless they understand that
there are many recipes in that book that are _not_ even remotely period.

Huette

--- silverr0se at aol.com wrote:

> 
> Isabella askes:
> 
> >>SO, that being said, Here's a culinary question I've been pondering:
> Could anyone recommend some good sources for period confectionary? I'm
> willing to start with marzipan, but I'd like to move past that. And, is cane
> sugar period?<<
> 
> Try "Eleanor Fettiplace's Receipt Book" bu Hilary Spurling. The original book was written in
> 1604 and was passed down in Hilary's husband's family. She has redacted some of the recipes and
> adds things of interest from the an Elizabethan country house. Most of the redacted recipes are
> confectionary and are pretty easy, if time-consuming. Edward Spurling has published a facsimile
> version of the whole book with no redactions or commentary.
> 
> Cane sugar is in our period - IIRC the plant is native to India. Many recipes form our period
> have instructions on "scumming" the sugar to purify it.
> 
> Also check out "Visions of Sugar Plums" in the Floriligium.
> 
> Renata
> 
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My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel;   King Henry VI, part I: I, v 
http://www.twoheartsentwinedpottery.com/


       
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