[Sca-cooks] Synonym Assistance
Lilinah
lilinah at earthlink.net
Wed Sep 10 13:53:12 PDT 2008
I wrote:
> Yerasimos uses the French gelee (literally jelly) in a number of
> places.
(SNIP)
> The one i'm having trouble with is the application of gelee to Paluze.
> This is a dish made of fruit juice, sugar, and wheat starch, cooked
> until thick, then poured onto a marble slab to set, then cut into
> pieces. Descriptions in other sources say it is chewy, and make it
> sound as if it's almost like fruit leather, but not so tough.
>
> I know that the English often say "jelly", where we USAmericans would
> say jello, but that's a brand name; it's clearly not gelatin, since no
> gelatin is involved; and i don't want to say fruit leather, because it
> isn't quite.
>
> For the moment i have "fruit gel", which isn't quite right either.
And Antonia responded:
>Sooo... what's wrong with just calling it a jelly?
Jelly means different things to English speakers in different places.
I am guessing that since you're in New Zealand, you lean toward the
British form...
In the US where i am, jelly is a relative of jam. Juice and sugar are
cooked to a soft spreadable state with enough pectin to set up a bit,
like jam but without the pulp. Can't be cut into pieces.
As far as i understand, in Britain jelly is what we in the US call
jello, a semi-solid jiggly translucent sweet dish made with a base of
gelatin (i suppose one could also use agar, for something that won't
melt in heat) sugar, and, theoretically, fruit juice. I would not
describe jello as chewy, since it dissolves in one's mouth.
I also get the impression that jelly might apply to some other
desserts for which we would use different names in the US, but i'm
not sure which ones. (hey, here's a "teachable moment" :-)
Neither form of jelly is like the item in question, which is cooked
down longer than US jelly, and is somewhat chewy and seems to be,
mmm, flatter, than jello/jelly, although not as flat, dry, and tough
as fruit leather.
I guess i will go with fruit paste. I guess that's as close as i'm
going to get. Thanks to all for your suggestions.
I have still not found wheat starch, and i ransacked several smaller
Chinese markets and a large one in Oakland's Chinatown and a couple
gourmet type shops. I do have a couple boxes of organic non-GMO corn
starch. How differently does it behave from wheat starch when cooked
in food?
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
http://home.earthlink.net/~al-tabbakhah
menus and recipes from my SCA feasts
(Greco-Roman to Persian to German), and
additional period recipes & articles on food.
My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah
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