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

jenn.strobel at gmail.com jenn.strobel at gmail.com
Tue Feb 24 11:19:21 PST 2009


Sandra,

You are correct about the cocoa being problematic. I failed to comment upon  
it and apologize for doing so.

I could find no recipes or other references to pampapato during our period  
of study other than the reference given. I've also seen claims that  
Pampepato came from the Middle East in the 1500's, originated in a convent  
in the 16th century, and both Terni and Ferrara Italy claims it as being  
from their area.

The Italian version of Wikipedia's entry on pampepato  
(http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pampepato) repeats the Duke d'Este  
information and says that the origins are in Umbria (Terni). My Italian is  
not so great, so I am probably missing something in that article. The  
Wikipedia article also links to an article (in Italian) about the origins  
of Pampepato  
(http://www.provincia.fe.it/download/scheda%20Pampapato.pdf?server=sd2.provincia.fe.it&db=/intranet/internet.nsf&uid=C1369A18523C9F0EC125702800372857)  
that I would need more time than I have to dig through for comprehension.  
These were not resources for me when I wrote the article, but may clarify  
things.

I'm not drawing any conclusions here, just adding more information onto the  
pile.

Thoughts?

Odriana

On Feb 24, 2009 1:56pm, Sandra Kisner <sjk3 at cornell.edu> wrote:





> Mistress Rachaol MakCreith found a reference to pampapati in Waverly


> Root's "The Food of Italy", sent it to me, and I ran with the information.





> The reference is: "The Christmas-New Years holidays are marked by the


> appearance in pastry-shop windows of pampepato di ciccolato, a very old


> Ferrarese sweet. It is a cake made of flour, cocoa, milk, honey (sugar if


> honey is not at hand), pepper, spices, almonds, and lemon peel with


> chocolate frosting powdered with sugar and tiny candies. It is of ancient


> lineage. Duke Borso d'Este served pampapati at a banquet on November 11,


> 1465, making them exceptionally appetizing by inserting a gold piece in


> each."





> 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).





> Respectfully,





> 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





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