[Sca-cooks] Christmas Pudding

[Suey]

On 9/1/12 3:25 AM, sca-cooks-request at lists.ansteorra.org wrote:
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> Thank you so much for your imput. It is so important to me to publish correct info as you provided.
Suey
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:21:49 -0400
> From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Christmas Pudding Myth, Fact, Whatever
> Message-ID: <50412AED.5050908 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Next week the Medieval Spanish Chef will be publishing "chestnuts" as a
> topic on a couple of days. The Jewish recipe to be published on the 6th
> I believe is so good. Get togethers cannot be organized without it. It
> is a real competitor of Belgium chocolate served with coffee after meals.
> The other chestnut entry is roasted chestnuts. I think I shall just have
> to be content with telling the reader how to roast them without
> exploding in one's face but I have been combing my texts and internet
> for a chestnut pudding recipe.
> I am not in the market for publishing chestnut or Christmas pudding
> right now but - I feel that this week-end I should do something with
> these leftover chestnuts and other dried fruits because of the week's
> entries. Then if anyone is interested in me publishing their recipe, I
> would love to do so giving credits if and when.
> Does anyone have a good Christmas/Chestnut Pudding recipe?
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:40:57 -0400
> From: Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com>
> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Catherine of Aragon's Culinary Contributions to
> 	England
> Message-ID: <50412F69.4010600 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> In another medieval/Renaissance Group I mentioned that this could be a
> topic. My specialty is Spain before Isabel I so for me this subject is
> just a pastime after work hours, which is amusing for me but I do not do
> serious research in this area or others concerning Spanish influence in
> culinary aspects of Renaissance Europe.
> Someone replied to my remarks quite seriously asking if I am on the
> verge of declaring a Catherine of Aragon culinary turnover like
> Catherine of Medici.
> I shall write him back that the answer is no way on my part. This is
> after my period.
> It might be interesting for you specialists in Catherine's period to see
> and/or comment on what and who she took to England as dishes and/or
> personal cooks and if these were adapted by the English.
> We have stories about Mar?a Terese, daughter of Philip IV of Spain,
> taking sponge cake and celery soup to win the heart of Louis XIV, her
> husband, through the stomach.
> Taking a gander at Henry VII's, one might surmise that Catherine of
> Aragon could have influenced this area successfully . . .
> Suey
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:41:10 -0400
> From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
> To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Christmas Pudding Myth, Fact, Whatever
> Message-ID: <B129DEFC-DFB6-420B-BC97-C066F86A2EBD at mac.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII
>
> I'm afraid our Midwestern farm family made fruitcakes and not Christmas Puddings, but
> it so happens food historian Ivan day just did a blog entry on Christmas Puddings that
> you might like.
>
> http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/
>
> Good luck with the chestnuts.
>
> Johnnae
>
> On Aug 31, 2012, at 5:21 PM, Suey wrote:snipped
>> I am not in the market for publishing chestnut or Christmas pudding right now but - I feel that this week-end I should do something with these leftover chestnuts and other dried fruits because of the week's entries. Then if anyone is interested in me publishing their recipe, I would love to do so giving credits if and when.
>> Does anyone have a good Christmas/Chestnut Pudding recipe?
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:53:33 -0700
> From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
> To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Subject: [Sca-cooks]  More al-Warraq
> Message-ID: <50414E7D.2080208 at daviddfriedman.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Yesterday, for dinner, I made three different al-Warraq dishes. One
> (actually two versions of one) was an expected failure--a cold bean
> recipe which I suspect should be done with fresh favas. Not having any,
> I used it with dried fava beans soaked overnight--the result was edible
> but not tasty. I expect to try again when and if I see fresh favas for sale.
>
> A second was a "crumbly cracker" which is supposed to crumble in the
> mouth. It was tasty, but not all that crumbly. I expect to try the
> recipe again, making it a good deal thinner and cooking it longer at a
> lower temperature, on the theory that that might get the desired effect.
>
> The third was a recipe for mutajjana, a vinegary chicken dish
>
> Disjoint plumb pullets. Using a knife, cut open---from the inside---the
> chest and the back all the way down to the tail to be able to flatten
> the pieces. Wash them and put them in a pot. Pour about 1/3 ratl olive
> oil, a similar amount of water, and 1 dirham (3 grams) salt. Let the pot
> cook until all water evaporates.
>
> Add to the pot, 1/3 ratl (2/3 c) vinegar. Stir it continuously until
> meat is browned and vinegar is cooked. Pour in ? ratl (1/2 c) murri and
> sprinkle 1 mithqal (4 ? g) black pepper. Put the pot away from heat
> until needed.
>
>
> Cooking it until all the water evaporates took nearly an hour an a half,
> since the chicken itself gave up a good deal of liquid in the process.
> And the final stage of cooking never got it brown, although the dish did
> end up very tasty.
>
> I thought perhaps I should have boiled more vigorously in the first
> stage, so as not to get the chicken so thoroughly cooked--it ended up
> pretty much falling off the bones, which may or may not be what was
> intended. And for the final stage, the presence of the vinegar limits
> how hot the oil--olive oil plus chicken fat--which it is cooking in can
> get. I wonder if "vinegar is cooked" means boiled away--I find it hard
> to believe that vinegar, even very concentrated after boiling, can have
> a boiling point all that much above that of water.
>
> Suggestions? "Browned" could, of course, be an imprecision in translation.
>
> While on that subject, one very minor problem with the translation.
> Nasrullah routinely translates "ratl" as pound and "uqiya" as ounce. But
> there are 12 uqiya to the ratl, not 16--and modern readers will assume a
> sixteen ounce pound.
>
> I think I have about another fifty recipes to go, of the ones I have so
> far noted as worth trying. We'll do some of them at a cooking workshop a
> week from tomorrow.
>