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

[Elise Fleming]

His Grace wrote:

 >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.

Well, it _is_ possible to do it without tremendous pain.  Some tips are 
using only a tiny amount of syrup and being careful about the 
temperature of the bottom of the pan where the seeds are.  If you drop 
in the sugar onto the seeds, and the sugar bubbles, DON'T use your hand; 
use a wooden spoon or scraper.

About four years ago I attended an Ivan Day course where we learned to 
make comfits over a charcoal brazier.  Ivan uses a wok, which is similar 
in shape to the period pans in which comfits were made.  I've used a 
frying pan years ago, but have found the wok to be better.  Two years 
ago I attended another Ivan Day workshop and asked about some of the 
problems I was having with my comfits.  Armed with more detailed 
information, I've made more, with great success - if I do say so myself. 
  This spring (at another Ivan course) I took my new comfits and showed 
them to him.  He said that they were very good!  (Big smile on my part!)

So, here are some comments

 >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, ...  .

I am curious how vigorously the seeds must be being stirred for them to 
squirt out of the pan.  Were they being stirred with enthusiasm or with 
soft patience?  How many seeds were in the pan?  Perhaps there were too 
many.  In my wok, depending on the size of the seed, I can use one of 
those small containers which have less than an ounce.  However, once the 
sugar coating has begun to build up, I find that I need to divide the 
seeds into two or three different batches.  If you have a wok, try that 
but be sure that the bottom of the wok is not sitting directly on the 
heat source.  Use a "wok ring" or something to elevate the bottom off 
the direct heat.

Also, the recipe that you cited mentions taking the pan off the heat 
from time to time.  That keeps the pan within a temperature range where 
you can stir the seeds without burning yourself.

 >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.

Yes, a nice white is the desired color.  Some problems are that when the 
sugar coating (the "charge") is initially applied, care must be taken to 
continue moving the seeds in the warm/hot pan until they are thoroughly 
dry.  Adding charge after charge to a not-thoroughly-dried seed will 
result in a grayish color.  If you got brown, then as you mentioned, you 
may have had too hot a syrup.

How hot _was_ the syrup?  If you are aiming for a ragged comfit, then 
the syrup is hotter than for a "smooth" comfit.  The testing is in the 
sugar stage. I'm going to refer you - and anyone else - to my web site 
(http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/articles/articles.html) where there are 
two articles that may be of interest or of use.  One is "Sugar 
Temperatures Compiled".  I've pulled together a number of references to 
sugar temperatures and the testing methods.  The second is "Historic 
Comfits Using Modern Equipment" where I've tried to set out all the 
information about making comfits so that a person can be successful 
(having been notoriously UNsuccessful myself!).  At this point, I'm 
trying for smooth comfits since those are harder (I think) to achieve 
than ragged comfits.  My last batch was what Ivan said was "good".

The recipe you cited says "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."  Here's a description of their 
test for the desired sugar stage.  (I've seen Ivan do this, but he 
admits that he has "asbestos fingers".)

 >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.

Saunders is indeed what is called for in later recipes when red is 
wanted.  I've successfully gotten green from parsley, but it's not a 
"green green" and the color fades after some months.

For a good color, I started adding the coloring agent to the sugar for 
the first charges rather than putting on a number of coats and then 
adding the color to the final charges.

(Emphasis...) THIS IS NOT A SPEEDY PROCESS!  One can put on 10 or so 
charges the first day.  Then the seeds are put out in a warm, dry place 
to let them fully dry.  The second day another 10-15 charges are added. 
  Then, they are put aside to dry fully again.  The third day they can 
get another 10-15 charges.  Perhaps a full day's drying isn't needed; I 
don't know if any recipes specify.  I have gotten 70 charges on my seeds 
which ended up the same size as the original ones that I made with 20 
charges.  I had added too much sugar each time I ladled on the syrup.

The recipe that you cited would seem to have a goodly amount of syrup 
added since this appears to be a one-day process.  Don't rush the drying 
process in the pan.  As you continue to move the seeds around, you 
should notice that they change from a grayish color to a whitish one. 
The dryer they get, the whiter they get.

Let us know how today's batch goes!

Alys K.
-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/