[Sca-cooks] Hartshorn Re: Reasons why period cakes aren'tmoderncakes

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Sat Oct 5 10:06:25 PDT 2013


Millet is not a leavening agent anymore than wheat, rye, oats, etc. are 
leavening agents.  Like any grain, when wet, the starch in millet is 
hydrolyzed into sugars by an amylase reaction.  The sugars feed yeasts and 
lactobacilli producing a fermentation.  The starter formed by the 
fermentation can be used as a leaven.

In the case of the particular recipe under discussion, there are no 
particular instructions that would suggest that the product is to be used as 
a leaven.  Only the possible mistranslation of the title as "How to make 
hartshorn" leads one to consider that it might be a leaven and the 
instructions as written won't produce the ammonium carbonate the title 
suggests.  Under the new translation, the fact that honey, gingerbread and 
millet are being boiled together makes me think this might be a porridge or 
a polenta.  In fact, the instructions are close to what I did to produce 
millet and honey polenta many years ago.

Bear


>
> And since millet has been used as a leavening agent since the Romans, that 
> seems especially likely.
>
>
>
> Jim Chevallier
> www.chezjim.com




More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list