[Sca-cooks] Frog's eggs addendum

[Christiane]

>
>Message: 2
>Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:20:45 -0400
>From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] kitchen tips
>To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>Message-ID: <DE366C6A-902D-497D-BF83-A5B4040CAF44 at verizon.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
>
>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

This sound a lot like cuccia:
http://www.penitents.org/lucy.html

http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECIPES/Desserts/Cuccia.htm

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/main_cuccia.shtml

Of the recipes I have found, I like the last one the best for being the most "medievaloid."

Here's another version from Calabria; apparently the Italian food writer Calvalcanti says cuccia comes from the Byzantine Greeks, which makes a whole hell of a lot of sense, considering the Greeks (ancient and Byzantine) were the primary settlers of the region.

http://italianfood.about.com/od/piesandtarts/r/blr0642.htm

My father remembers my great-grandmother making cuccia with chickpeas in addition to wheatberries, and served sweet with sugar, cinnamon, and cream.

Gianotta (dragging you all back to Southern Italy once more)