[Sca-cooks] Mirrauste

[Craig Daniel]

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 7:13 PM, Robin Carroll-Mann
<rcarrollmann at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

Ah, that makes sense.

> 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."

Ooh, I didn't even spot that one in there. Handy comparison is handy.

> 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.

Yeah, I read that one as a sweet dish made in a similar fashion. It
looks delicious.

 - Jaume