[Sca-cooks] Acids to Cut Fat: Was Cinnamon in German cooking, esp knodeln

[Elise Fleming]

Ilsebet wrote:

 >I can believe, though, is that period vinegars were sharper than ours.
 >I have noticed that almost all vinegars I buy are  5% acid - something
 >I doubt occurs naturally. The recipes *may* turn out too sour to HIS
 >tastes, but a sour sauce or whatnot makes sense to me - the point of
 >acid is to cut through the rich fat of a recipe, right?

I hadn't thought about acids cutting through rich fats, but I noted it 
when I made "chicken in like paste" both times.  The 15th-century recipe 
calls for approximately 12 oz. butter in the pastry which will envelop 
the chicken, and an additional 12 oz. butter placed on top of the 
chicken before being wrapped up and baked.  The recipe then calls for a 
sauce of verjuice and egg yolk which is to be poured over the chicken 
when it's finished.

I'd poured some into the pastry case with the baked chicken and it 
"softened" the excessive fattiness of the butter and chicken juices. 
The sauce, however, was too tart to use by itself.  For the second 
attempt, I poured all of the verjuice over the chicken and the result 
was scrumpdillyicious!  IIRC, the cooks at Hampton Court didn't use the 
sauce part of the recipe, but I can't see ever omitting it.  Acids and 
butter and chicken...Oh, my!

Alys K., not generally a cook but a confectioner
-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alyskatharine at gmail.com
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