[Sca-cooks] Pancakes and Fruitcakes was Happy Shrove/Fat Tuesday

[Terry Decker]

Take a look at panforte.  Panforte is a fruitcake from Sienna that predates 
the pampepato from Ferrara.  Panforte Scuro is the version that has 
chocolate as an ingredient.  I suspect that there are also pampepato recipes 
without chocolate.  Traditional panforte is made without leavening and I 
suspect that traditional pampepato probably is also.  The result is similar 
to the German lebkuchen recipes of the 16th Century.

Bear

> 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