[Sca-cooks] Recipe for period gingerbrede
David Friedman
ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Wed Sep 9 12:59:19 PDT 2009
>i am liking this. how fine should the breadcrumbs be?
My recipe is quite different from the one Devra
posted, partly because I am using the 14th c.
version from (Curye) which, unlike the 15th c.
version in _Two Fifteenth Century_ contains
ginger (!), and partly because I don't think the
redaction that Devra used is very close to the
original it is based on. I use ordinary
commercial bread crumbs. My recipe (from the
Miscellany):
Gingerbrede
Curye on Inglysch p. 154 (Goud Kokery no. 18) (GOOD)
To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie
it on þe fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel
brede & grate it, & caste it into þe boylenge
hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse
þat it bren not to þe vessell. & þanne take it
doun and put þerin ginger, longe pepper &
saundres, & tempere it vp with þin handes; & than
put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe þeron suger, &
pick þerin clowes rounde aboute by þe egge and in
þe mydes, yf it plece you, &c.
1 c honey 1/4 t long pepper 30-40 whole cloves (~ 1 t)
1 1/4 c breadcrumbs 1/4 t saunders (or 5 t sugar, pinch powdered cloves)
1 t ginger 1 T sugar
Bring honey to a boil, simmer two or three
minute, stir in breadcrumbs with a spatula until
uniformly mixed. Remove from heat, stir in
ginger, pepper, and saunders. (If you can't get
long pepper, substitute ordinary black pepper.)
When it is cool enough to handle, knead it to get
spices thoroughly mixed. Put it in a box, cookie
tin, or the like, squish it flat and thin,
sprinkle with sugar and put cloves ornamentally
around the edge. Leave it to let the clove flavor
sink in; do not eat the cloves.
An alternative way of doing it is to roll into
small balls, roll in sugar mixed with a pinch of
cloves, then flatten them a little to avoid
confusion with hais. This is suitable if you are
making them today and eating them tomorrow.
The 15th c. recipe (replacing thorns with th--the
"jif" in the last line actually has an initial
letter sort of like a z whose name I have
forgotten):
Gyngerbrede. - Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, & skeme it clene ;
take Safroun, pouder Pepir, & throw ] ther-on ; take gratyd Brede, & make it so
hargeaunt that it wol be y-lechyd; then take pouder Canelle, & straw ther-on
y-now; then make yt square, lyke as thou wolt lecbe yt; take when thou
lechyst hyt, an caste Box leves a-bouyn, y-stykyd ther-on, on clowys. And
jif thou wolt baue it Red, coloure it with Saunderys y-now.
--
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com
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