[Sca-cooks] Holiday

[Stefan li Rous]

Christianna replied to me with:
=======
Stephen asks:
Steamed puddings are post-period, Georgian, right? Do most steamed puddings
use a hard sauce, or is that the most traditional?

Mostly post medieval period, although there are certainly pudding type foods
in period, the blancmange for example could be considered a pudding. 
=======

That’s why I specified “steamed” puddings. I guess I’ll have to take another look at blancmange. I thought it was just cooked in a pot as a more or less loose mass of rice and other stuff.

=====
 I am aiming for the one described in A Christmas Carol, although I made this one
in a mold and not in a pudding cloth.  
=====

Yep, that is the kind of thing I was thinking of. 

======
I have the cloth, but I have yet to
try pouring a wet batter into a square cloth and tying it up, suspended in a
pot full of steaming water to cook.  
======

Oh! I thought this meant holding the pudding bag or organ or whatever, in the steam above the boiling water. Or is this done in the boiling water? If the latter, why is it called a boiled pudding, rather than a boiled pudding?

======
That's next I think.  This one was
fantastic, and we got lots of pics. I'll be blogging about it soon, and
perhaps making another one next week for a class on the History of Christmas
Foods.  
======

I assume this is post-period Christmas foods?  Still interesting though.

=======
I cored them and stuffed them with a mixture of raisins and dried
cranberries, oatmeal, honey, a poudre douce mixture and some apple cider.  I
just ate one that came home with me.  Pretty yummy :)
======

That’s what I had in mind, but definitely a different set of ingredients. How did you get all of that in one apple? :-)

<<< there is a large turkey in the fridge that will
be injected and spatchcocked (even I think that sounds dirty - and I know
I'm using perfectly appropriate cooking terminology ;) ) that will get
cooked up sometime over the weekend. >>>

Okay, what does it mean?

=======
For some reason the technique of 'spatchcocking' a bird has been all the
rage this season, and I've gotten several requests to teach the process.  
=======

Apparently I’m not part of the in crowd. My family talked about deep-fried turkey, but no one mentioned this spatchcocking.

=====
It means to bone the bird in the middle, removing just the rib cage and keel
bone, leaving the wing and leg bones, then splaying the bird open
(butterflying).  It allows for more even cooking and a shorter cooking time.
=====

Ah, half a turkdunken. Most of the hard work, but no stuffing and only one animal. This idea of removing the bones without tearing up the meat is still way beyond me. I don’t know how folks can do it.

======
Allow me to take this opportunity to again thank you Stephen, for all the
work you do on the Florilegium maintaining what I have come to depend on as
a fantastic resource.  I am grateful for that service, and happy to know
you.  
======

I’m honored. I’ve often wondered if the Florilegium was past its time with all the other stuff available on the web and with how many of my mail lists have dried up, like the newsgroups before them. Lately, I’ve been concentrating on adding interesting articles when I can find and get permission to add them.

Unfortunately, some great sounding articles have been lost, because of the authors having disk crashes or other problems. At least while the Florilegium exists, that gives you a backup. hint. hint. Remember you can update an article at any time.

I would love to hear, by email, how you use the Florilegium. It would help me know where I should concentrate my limited resources.

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