[Sca-cooks] Anneys in Counfyte: The Recipe Was Right

David Friedman ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Fri Sep 18 22:04:36 PDT 2009


We are doing a cooking workshop tomorrow, and one of the ingredients 
for one of the dishes is "colyaundre in confyt rede." Our grocery 
store doesn't carry candied corriander seeds, but Goud Kokery, number 
V in _Curye on Englysche_, has a recipe "to make Anneys in counfyte. 
" At the end, it adds that it can be used with a variety of other 
things--including "colyandre." What more could I ask?

It's a puzzling recipe in a variety of ways. You are combining seeds 
with melted sugar. The recipe repeatedly tells you to "stere in the 
panne wyth thi flatte hand sadly." "Sadly" means slowly, but one's 
first reaction reading it is that if you are stirring melted sugar 
onto seeds with the flat of your hand, you are going to be very sad 
indeed.

It turns out that the recipe is right. What you want to end up with 
are a lot of individual seeds, each coated with sugar. The problem is 
that when you stir melted sugar into the seeds, they clump up. The 
solution is to melt the sugar in one pan--probably the "ladell" 
referred to in the recipe (see below)--then add it to the seeds in 
another, the latter being at a very low heat. As soon as the 
combination is cool enough to touch, you rub the clumps of seeds 
against the bottom of the pan, using a circular motion with your 
spread out palm. That breaks the lumps up into individual candied 
seeds. You want a thicker coating than you get with one application, 
so you keep repeating the process.

It was the first time I did it and it didn't work perfectly, but it 
worked. One piece of advice--your pan should be a dutch oven or 
equivalent. If you use a frying pan, the process of rubbing the seeds 
against the bottom to break up the lumps also squirts seeds out of 
the pan onto the stove, kitchen counter, floor, ...  .

One of the things I don't think I got quite right was the color. I 
suspect, from the comment at the end of the recipe, that the candied 
seeds are supposed to come out a nice white. I let the sugar get  a 
little too hot, so it ended up pale brown.

The recipe that we are using them in wants them to be red. I don't 
know if that means "brown," in which case I 've got just what they 
asked for, or if their candied coriander seeds used something 
additional, perhaps saunders, for color.

Here's the recipe, copied from the Florilegium:
---
To mak anneys in counfyte.  Take ii unc of fayre anneys & put them
in a panne & drye them on the fyr, euermore steryng them wyth 3owre
hand, till thei ben drye.  Put them than owte of the panne into a
cornes and take up thi suger in a ladell the montynance of a unc and
sett it on the fyr.  & ster thi suger wyth a spatyle of tree, & whan
it begynneth to boyle take a lityll up of the | suger betwene th
fyngers & thi thombe, & whan it begyneth any thyng to streme than it
is sothyn inowe.  Than sett it fro the fyre & stere it a lytyll wyth
thi spatyll, and put thin anneys than to the panne to the suger, and
euermore stere in the panne wyth thi flatte hand sadly, euermore on
the bothum, tyl thei parten.  Bot loke thou ster them & smertyly for
cleuyng togedyr.  & than sette the panne ouer the forneys ageyn,
euermore steryng wyth thi hand, & wyth that other hand euermore tourne
the panne for cause of more hete on the othyr syde tyl thei ben hote &
drye.  But loke that it mel no3t be the bothyn.  And al so as 3e see
that it ges ageyn in the bothym, sette it fro the fourneys and
euermore stere wyth 3oure hand, and put on the fourneys ageyn tyl it
be hote & drye.  And in this manere schull 3e wyrke it vp til it be as
grete as a peys, and the gretter that it waxes the more suger it
takys, and put in 3oure panne at ilke a decoccioun.  And 3if 3e see
that 3oure anneys wax rowgh and ragged, gyf 3oure suger a lower
decoccioun, for the hye decoccioun of the suger makys it rowgh and
ragged.  And 3if it be made of potte suger, gyf hym iiii decocciouns
more abouen, and at ilk a decoccioun ii vnc of suger: and it be more
or lesse, it is no forse.  And whan it is wroght vp at the latter
ende, drye it ouer the fyre, steryng euermore | wyth thi hand, and
whan it is hote and drye sette it fro the fyre and stere it fro the
fyre wyth thi hand sadly att the panne bothym til thei ben colde, for
than will thei noght chaunge ther colour.  And than put them in
cofyns, for 3if 3e put them hote in cofyns thei will change ther
colour.  And in this maner schull 3e make careawey, colyandre, fenell,
and all maner round confecciouns, and gyngeuer in counfyte; but thi
gynger sud be cote leke a dyce in smale peses, fowr sqware, and gyf
thi gynger a litill hyar decoccioun than thou gyffes the other sedys.

-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com


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