[Sca-cooks] Mirrauste

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 6:30 PM, Craig Daniel <teucer at pobox.com> wrote:
> From De Nola:
>
> "Sauce for mirrauste is made in this manner.  Take a pound of
> almonds, and four ounces just for five dishes and then toast the
> almonds, and grind them; and then take a crustless piece of
> bread which should be soaked in good broth; and then grind it
> with the almonds, and strain it, that it shall be quite thick;
[snip]
> I have a little bit of trouble believing the proportions in this
> recipe.

I think there are two sets of proportions here.  The basic recipe is
for an almond milk sauce made from a pound of almonds and an ounce of
cinnamon.  A smaller quantity, for 5 birds, is made with 4 ounces of
almonds, and the other ingredients would be proportionally reduced.

I made two versions of mirrauste from de Nola years ago for an
artisan's demo event.  One of them was made with chicken, and it did
not give specific proportions.

MIRRAUSTE IN ANOTHER WAY
"Cook a hen, and then cut it up; and take unpeeled almonds, slightly
toasted, and grind them; and extract the milk from them and cast them
in a kettle; and cast in ground sugar and cinnamon, and cook the milk
a little. And then take the hen, and cast in within, and cook it a
little; and then, take a little grated white bread and cast it within;
and after it is thick, set it aside; and on the dishes cast sugar and
cinnamon."

The other was a Lenten version, Mirrauste of Apples.  Instead of fowl,
it was made with peeled, quartered apples.  The apples don't taste
like chicken, of course, but they do look a lot like serving pieces of
chicken when coated in a thick sauce, and they are yummy in a sweet
cinnamon sauce.

Brighid ni Chiarain