[Sca-cooks] chemical leavening

[Stefan li Rous]

Even in my own creation of a pampapato recipe includes baking soda,
something that our medieval counterparts would not have had access  
to. What
I need to do is go back, not use any levener whatsoever in one batch and
use baking ammonia (which would be more appropriate for our period of  
study
as far as chemical leveners go).

Odriana vander Brugghe >>>

It's not just the chemical leavener that's OOP; notice the reference  
also
says the pampapato was made with cocoa and had a chocolate frosting  
and was
served at a banquet in 1465.  Unless the Duke had sent his own  
expedition
to the western hemisphere, chocolate wasn't known, much less used, in
Europe at the time of his feast.  Perhaps there's an older recipe for
pampapato somewhere that doesn't include chocolate.

Sandra
----------

I would agree on the chocolate, but not all chemical leavenings are  
out of period. Hartshorn, for instance. I'm not sure it's use was  
that widespread but using a leavening agent doesn't necessarily say a  
recipe is out of period. See this file in the FOOD-BREADS section of  
the Florilegium for some more details.

leavening-msg     (36K)  3/20/08    Period leavening agents other  
than yeast.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****