[Sca-cooks] Apple Pillows, Chicken Buns, Oil Choices, oh my.

[Dragon]

Ursel Stegerin sent the message below at 11:17 PM 6/13/2008:

<snip>

>** So the oil thing. I was at a loss of what to use to "fry/roast "
>them in. Should it have been a dry fry? I fried in about 1/4 inch of
>liquid. I went with butter for the flavor, and canloa oil for the
>ability to take the heat.  So now, I'm wondering how do i get to a
>closer choice  as to the appropriate oil. Trade documents to see what
>was imported? Household records?

Where is the recipe from?

Knowing that will probably be a good indicator of what to fry in. Be 
aware that a lot of animal fat was used (butter, lard) and vegetable 
oils were pretty rare. Olive oil was available in some places but not 
always used as food (much was used for lighting fuel and some for 
religious purposes).

>The Apple pillows were simple. Apple, cut in quarters dipped in batter
>of  1/2 c flour (freshly milled wheat) 1/2 water, 2 eggs.  Then
>dropped into oil to fry slowly till cooked. These were good, but I'll
>admit that the lack of sugar surprised me, and my family appreciated
>them more when i  "accidentally" tapped a little powdered sugar  over
>the batch. Its clear that as a fried item these will not work for our
>lunch tomorrow. I'll have to go with apple tarts instead.

Remember that sugar was an expensive and luxurious ingredient 
originally imported from India and Asia just like all the other 
spices. It may not appear in the original recipe simply because of 
that simple fact.

<snip>

>Lastly, with the Dyuerse Bake Metis, I used ground pork and decided
>that with the leanness of todays pork I'd add extra fat. I realize now
>that bacon was a bad choice because of the smoke flavor. Would lard
>work?  Or am i  nuts to add extra fat ?


Like sausage (which are just meatballs in casing), meatballs benefit 
from an addition of fat, especially with the pork today having so 
little intramuscular fat in it. Don't use lard. Lard is rendered fat 
and will simply melt away on you. Get some fat back or pork belly and 
grind  or mince it fine and add it to your meat balls. You want the 
fat to be in the form it came off the animal, not already cooked 
down. The reasons are several, first it isn't just going to melt away 
on you (as already mentioned), second, the connective tissue is going 
to help immensely with the texture. And lastly, it makes a huge 
difference in the flavor, remember that fat is a flavor multiplier, 
it carries and enhances many flavors and also has a distinct flavor 
of its own (dependent on the source).

Dragon

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  Venimus, Saltavimus, Bibimus (et naribus canium capti sumus)
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