[Sca-cooks] Marzipan

[Richenda du Jardin]

I myself don’t like modern marzipan- I don’t like almond extract and think
it detracts from the flavor of the almonds and adds a bit of artificiality
to the treat. I do like a tiny bit of rose water in period marzipan-it
makes the marzipan leghter in flavor and a little fresher.

Richenda

On Sat, Dec 26, 2020 at 3:03 PM David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
wrote:

> I should have thought of asking Alys Katherine.
>
> The conclusion is that what I made and Rebecca liked is medieval
> marzipan. What she has had before and didn't like is modern marzipan. We
> suspect that the element she didn't like was the almond extract.
> Elizabeth commented that my marzipan in Becca's stolen was less sweet
> than what we had had in commercial stolen, and she liked it better. That
> again is consistent with Alys Katherine's account.
>
> I actually had some almond flour, didn't think of using it, but that
> would make the process trivial. The only question is whether blanching
> and grinding the almonds myself provides a tastier result.
>
> On 12/25/20 7:33 AM, Johnna Holloway wrote:
> > I think the fineness of the grind influences the mouth feel and then
> > there’s the matter of how much sugar there is to the weight of the
> > almonds.
> > And maybe even the type of sugar, be it icing, fine around or granulated.
> >
> > Then there’s always the question of the rose water. Use or don’t use?
> >
> > Here’s the classic article from Countess Alys.
> > http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/AboutMarzipan.html
> > <http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/AboutMarzipan.html>
> >
> > One of the more involved recipes (available only to us recently) is
> > this one:
> >
> > http://www.medievalcookery.com/search/display.html?trans:721:MRXPN
> >
> >
> > The one thing we have these days is the ability to readily buy almond
> > meal of varying sorts and at various price points. (All due to gluten
> > free demand.)
> > That makes the exploration even more of an adventure these days.
> >
> > Happy holidays.
> >
> > Johnnae
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Dec 25, 2020, at 3:11 AM, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> Commercial marzipan and almond paste often add binding agents, oil,
> >> egg, even corn syrup or sorbitol.  Sometimes they add almond
> >> extract.  And the price is ridiculous.
> >>
> >> Period marzipan tends to be as you describe.  Being lazy, I make mine
> >> with almond flour from Natural Grocers, where, when last I checker, I
> >> can get 2 or 4 pound bags at a reasonable rate.  For a coarser
> >> product (almond paste rather than marzipan), I use almond meal from
> >> Sprouts.  I store any unused marzipan as plastic wrapped and bagged
> >> one pound loaves in the freezer.
> >>
> >> Bear
> >>
> >> On 12/25/2020 1:12:36 AM, David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> I made some marzipan this evening to go in the stolen my daughter is
> >> making. Her comment was that it wasn't marzipan, it was khushkananaj
> >> filling which, unlike marzipan, she likes. The question is what is the
> >> difference — in particular, is this a difference between the period
> >> version and modern marzipan?
> >>
> >> I was working from the description in Martino, complicated by the fact
> >> that he was going on to combine it with wafers and do things with it.
> >> His initial process, which I followed, simply consisted of grinding
> >> blanched almonds, combining with an equal weight of sugar and some rose
> >> water and grinding it all together. Are there other ingredients in
> >> modern marzipan? In period marzipan?
> >>
> >> The one difference I observed was that I didn't get the almonds as
> >> finely ground as they are in marzipan I have had, but that should have
> >> only affected texture, and Rebecca's comment was about taste.
> >>
> >> --
> >> David Friedman/Cariadoc
> >> www.daviddfriedman.com
> >> http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
> >>
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> --
> David Friedman
> www.daviddfriedman.com
> http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
>
> --
> David Friedman
> www.daviddfriedman.com
> http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
>
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