[Sca-cooks] Bizcochos, was At the Metropolitan Museum
Lilinah
lilinah at earthlink.net
Tue Jun 3 08:28:30 PDT 2008
Vittoria wrote:
>Obligatory food content: Everything we ate on vacation was delicious, but
>none of it historical. Instead, here's a food-related request on behalf of
>the bf's parents, who are coming out to California for his elevation (in two
>weeks!!). They love to cook and bake and volunteered to bring something for
>his vigil. I was going to send them a selection of recipes to choose from
>-- some late-16th c variations on biscuits/biscotti/cookies, something that
>would survive a plane ride from NYC without refrigeration. I am
>particularly fond of Digby's excellent small cakes (yeah, I know, that's
>17th c!) and Granado's (I think?) bizcocho. Anyone else have any favorites
>to recommend?
Well, i'm helping cook for the Tavern... but let
may pipe in and say i don't like the bizcocho
recipe with anise seeds. There's one with orange
flower water i'd prefer. But, hey, it's not my
Vigil and not my Tavern, i'm just sayin'...
ORIGINAL
Diego Granado, Libro del Arte de Cozina (1599)
trans. by Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Take twelve eggs, and remove the whites from four
of them, and with a little orange-flower water
beat them a great deal, and grind a pound of
sugar, and cast it in little by little, always
beating quickly, and cast in flour, or powdered
wheat starch, and beat it with force. Having cast
in the said flour, when they see that it is
necessary, and very fine, and the dough must
remain white, just as for fritters, and then cast
it in your pots, and carry them to the oven, and
when half-cooked remove them, and dust them with
well-ground sugar, and cut them to your taste,
and return them to the oven, and let them finish
baking a second time: and if they wish when they
beat them, cast in as much white wine as an
eggshell, it will be good.
The Recipe Broken Out
(not a modern redaction)
8 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
some orange flower water
an eggshell of white wine
1 pound sugar (about 2-1/4 cups)
(not sure how much) white wheat flour (1 lb = about 4 cups)
powdered sugar, as needed
1. Preheat oven to 450° Fahrenheit
2. Beat eggs and orange flower water together
well, adding an eggshell of white wine.
3. Add sugar little by little, beating constantly.
4. Add flour and beat with force.
5. Put the dough in a baking pan - it should make a loaf a couple inches high.
6. Bake them to the oven.
7. When half-cooked remove them, and dust them
with well-ground sugar, and slice them to your
taste.
8. Then return them to the oven, and let them finish baking a second time.
Anyway, i'm not a frequent baker, so i'm not sure
how much flour should be in this...
But this sounds much better than bizcochos with anise (patooey!).
Plus, bizcochos are meant to be hard, really
hard, because they are meant to be dipped in wine
(or some other beverage). When i made some,
people did not read the card i placed on the
bizcocho tray and complained about how hard they
were - and i had the hypocras right next to them!
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah
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