[Sca-cooks] Hartshorn Re: Reasons why period cakes aren't modern cakes

[Stefan li Rous]

Bear said:
<<< Oil of hartshorn is produced by destructive distillation, where antler is
sealed in a container and then heated to break down the antler into
constituent molecules.  It is pyrolitic process similar to coking or
cracking.  Salt of hartshorn, a mix of sal ammoniac and ammonium carbonate,
is the extract of the condensate from distilling oil of hartshorn without
additional liquid (dry distillation).  Salt of hartshorn is the original
chemical leaven.  Also, there is the question of dating the use of these
processes to produce hartshorn in period.  Modernly, ammonium carbonate,
baker's ammonia, is produced by mixing ammonia and carbon dioxide. >>>

Thank you. Since I didn't think actual harts horn was dissolvable in water, I was going to ask how you would distill it. This clarifies things.

I have a 15th C recipe for making hartshorn in the leavening-msg file, but I'm not sure if I have any period recipes that actually call for hartshorn. That file has some previous comments from you about hartshorn. Thank you for this additional information.

Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****