[Sca-cooks] kitchen tips

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Aug 22, 2008, at 1:23 AM, Terry Decker wrote:

> If the recipe under discussion is the one I'm thinking of, the  
> frumenty is wheat berries cooked in milk or cream.  It has a  
> decidedly different texture from frumenties made with meal or farina.


Most of the recipes I've seen involve the grains being cooked in water  
until they burst and release their starch; then it's generally cooked  
further, and very slowly, with milk, then eggs and things like saffron  
are added near the end of the process. Perhaps it's a matter of  
interpretation, but if done right, there's not a lot of easily  
discernible wheat berry structure left by the time you're done.

Using whole wheat berries will leave more fibrous berry structure in  
the mass, and there is a difference between that process and using  
coarsely-ground grain, but the difference is not huge, and since using  
coarse-ground grain is faster, less likely to burn, and also more  
appealing to many people (in my own experience, anyway), it's not a  
bad option when cooking for 400 people.

If I were doing a small quantity and authenticity were my main  
priority, rather than one of many, I'd use whole wheat berries.

Adamantius




"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter