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

[Elise Fleming]

Bear wrote:
 >Ammonium carbonate and sal ammoniac (AKA hartshorn or salt of 
 >hartshorn) were originally derived from red deer (Cervus elaphus) horn 
 >by dry distillation.

That's what I found, too, on Wikipedia. However, I wonder if that was 
done in period. There was a query on a Twitter account (@tudorcook) that 
I follow where someone asked how hartshorn was prepared for use.

Tudor Cook mentioned that "most of the recipes seem to call for boiling 
6+ hours or...overnight before letting cool, straining then..." There 
also was mention of rasping, perhaps before boiling. The inquirer was 
Dr. Annie Gray and I don't know what the results of her experimentation 
were. If an actual answer to the experiment is wanted, I could try to 
find out."

Alys K.
-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alyskatharine at gmail.com
http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/
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