Yellow Cake Mix Expermients or Uranium Pancakes

I have a confession to make.  I don’t like pancakes.  I really, really want to like pancakes.  It is cake you can have for breakfast.  It is portable cake that you can cover in all sorts of other goo.  How can I not like pancakes?

But the thing is that pancakes aren’t really cake.  The ratios of fat to starch and dry to liquid as well as the variance in leavening really make this an entirely different animal.  But, I order pancakes expecting them to taste like yellow cake and they never do.  I have tried all sorts of variations and recipes, and while I have made some fairly tasty pancakes, they don’t ever taste like what I want them to taste like…yellow cake.

My husband and I were discussing this, and he asked me the question that has been staring me in the face all this time…Why don’t I just make pancakes out of cake batter?  He has a point.  I mean really what is the worst that can happen.  If it doesn’t work, I can just pour the rest of the batter in a cake pan and throw it in the oven.  I would still have cake, and I may even discover a pancake I would actually like.

I decided I would do this with a cake mix because I wasn’t certain I wanted to invest the time it takes to make the cake batter from scratch.  As mentioned above, I am also aware of the differences between cake and pancake batter.   For one thing, cake batter is significantly thinner than pancake batter.  I really didn’t want to have cake batter running all over my griddle and the counter and the floor, etc when I poured into the pan.  

I opted to do a little research into the differences and see if there is a way that I could balance the batter without losing the yellow cake essence.  I started looking at recipes in my trusted sources (Alton Brown and Joy of Cooking)*.    Pancakes require a starch (all-purpose flour or a blend of flours  or what have you), some sort of fat, some sort of liquid, a leavening agent, and a binder (well and a flavoring agent but that really isn’t all that necessary with pancakes).  Cakes have similar requirements.  In the end though, the method by which heat is applied to each to create the chemical reactions necessary for either to turn out as intended is drastically different.  So the ratios and types of ingredients is going to change.

Cakes rise because of the leavener (generally some combination of baking soda and baking powder) ; however because of the slower cooking time, they don’t need as much as the pancakes do.  This is because the other thing that makes them rise is the steam that builds up inside the cakes.  The starch helps hold these pockets of steam until the protein in the eggs heats and binds together forming a spongy network that holds it shape even after the steam evaporates (I couldn’t find my chem paper for college a few years ago so I am probably not explaining that entirely correct).

Pancakes heat much faster.  It is the reason pancakes don’t use butter.  Butter is where the water to create the steam often comes from in cake recipes.  Butter melts too fast in pancakes so you end up with fat and no water (it already evaporated) before the pockets have formed.  Essentially it’s a great big mess, and pancakes really need to hold their own shape while heating.   The steam thing happens differently so more chemical leavening is required to get the necessary rise in the shorter-hotter cooking time.  Many of the ingredients also need to do a little double duty.  For instance many pancake recipes call for buttermilk as it adds fat and moisture at the same time and also helps with the leavening process.

While I understand the process, neither my chemistry or my algebra skills are really strong enough to determine what exactly I needed to do to give this experiment its best possible hope for success.  And, then I remembered that most ideas have been probably already been thought by someone else before you.  In the age of almost ubiquitous internet, someone has also probably blogged about it.

And it’s true.  The sites I had read confirmed my suspicions from above and provided some handy ratios.  I wasn’t willing to invest in a grocery store run for experimental breakfast, so I took their ratios and combined them with what I had in my pantry to come up with the following:

1 yellow cake mix

1-1.5 cups flour

Almost 1 tsp more of baking soda, about a tablespoon of sugar, and some extra salt (maybe a pinch or two)

2 cups vanilla almond milk

½ cup sour cream (I had some I wanted to use up)

2 eggs

A splash of vanilla

Cake mix is really clumpy and I ended up needing to use a hand mixer to get this to break down.  I worried this would over process the batter a bit, but it needed to be done.  Sifting might be a better option.

It actually worked pretty well.  I ended up with pancakes that tasted like yellow cake.   

These are a little too sweet to really be a breakfast food but they aren’t a bad snack.  It makes A LOT of batter so I ended up pouring the rest in a bundt pan with some chocolate chips and popping it in the oven.  I am not sure that these have converted me to a pancake eater, but I certainly had an enjoyable scientific experiment this morning.

*Yes, it is bad science to add too many variables.  I am however not looking for publication in a scientific journal or a prize for innovations in cake making, so I am not really troubled by this

Snow Day and other February Updates

So I am a little behind but better late than never I suppose. Work has been difficult as of late. It is manageable over all, and while I don't really want to go into it, i hit my breaking point in early February and opted to take a personal day before I made a stupid decision based on my mood.

It turned out to be a brilliant stroke of planning as we ended up getting blizzard conditions and the city shut down. I have lived in Wisconsin my whole life and have seen my share of winter storms, but this was a new experience for me. It wasn't really the snow that was the issue. We only had about 4-6 inches. It was the wind. I got caught out in it briefly coming home from bus stop. The force o the wind left me a little disoriented on a few times and I occasionally couldn't open my eyes because of all the debris it picked up. It only got worse from there. At one point I looked out the window at the howling wind and was a little unnerved by the scene outside. It was like something out of a sci-fi/fantasy movie.

The weather made for a perfect day to stay in my pajamas and get stuff done around the house. I got all my laundry done AND folded. This is almost unheard of for me. I got the kitchen cleaned and promptly made a mess again. I have been long to make this caramel-apple pie and had some apples to use up, so I decided to tackle it.

Essentially, you make the crust, the apple filling, and the caramel sauce all separately, assemble them together, and then bake it in the oven to meld them all together. I am utter rubbish at sauces so the caramel sauce didn't turn out quite as caramel-ly as I had hoped for texture wise but the flavor was there. It was a lot of fuss (and a lot of dirty dishes), but overall I think it turned out well if slightly too sweet.

Because my husband can't have apples, I also made a cake for him. Nothing special; just a quick mix. Of course, domestic bliss was short-lived when I burnt dinner while I was on the phone talking to my mother and ignoring the simmer that had turned into a boil.

I applied for school for this fall, got some knitting done, and even played some video games. It was exactly what I needed as far as days of go, and because I was so productive, I could spend Saturday with my friends drinking tea and knitting. I am only 2 repeats away from finishing the lace scarf. Hooray!

Later on in the month I came down with a nasty respiratory infection. Normally when I am sick, I hunker down with some tea and string and bad movies and fell sorry for myself. However, I was so sick and feeling so lousy the best I could manage was to prop up a book on my pillow and lay in bed. (This was probably a good thing because I was reading the Mortal Instruments series and couldn't put them down. I would have been completely non-functional until I had finished them, so while I hated being sick, I had a good reason to stay in bed reading). The URI knocked me completely low. I ended up needing an inhaler to help me breath for a bit.

And I love love loved the Mortal Instruments series. It was angsty or sure and occasionally annoying that nothing good ever seemed to happen for these characters until the end of the 3rd book. But I couldn't put them down. I am debating whether or not I want to read the 4th book which is coming out in April. They were so dark for so long and the 3rd book had such a satisfying ending I am afraid to jinx it.

Green of indefinable wrongness...

Isn't that just wrong? Absolutely and completely terrifyingly wrong? It is of course why it had to be done. I stumbled across a recipe for Mountain Dew Jelly while searching for something else. I immediately shared it on a social networking site and my wonderful friends being who they are asked if I wanted to come over and make some. My friends are awesome! We made two separate pots of jelly so we added green food coloring to one hence the different colors. It actually doesn't taste horrible. I am not quite sure what you would eat it with, but that really wasn't the point. I think I might try root beer or cherry coke next.

What else has been going on since I last wrote...Well I had my first LARP experience in early November. It was unbelievably cool and I am actually traveling to Chicago tomorrow for another one (different designers).

There hasn't been much on the crafting front. We finally found bookshelves to suit our purposes and so much have my time has been spent unpacking. We have only two boxes left and if I am lucky those should be mostly dealt with this afternoon. Hooray for being moved in to our wonderful new home.

I did a lot of playing around with recipes from the Artisan Bread cookbook. Not all successes but some good experiments.

We are having a party on New Years day so I have been playing with recipes for that. I just made some roasted red pepper hummus as well as some edamame hummus (soy beans replace the traditional garbanzo beans). I bought a small food processor (I don't like them in general because of the noise but I thought it might be handy to have a small one around) last year and thought this was a good excuse to play. They didn't turn out too badly though I don't think I am a hummus convert as of yet. The second recipe came from one of the cookbooks I got for Christmas that is written by the local agricultural society. There are all sorts of neat things in this cookbook and I am actually going to make the orzo stuffed peppers for dinner tonight. Wish me luck. I also got a fondue pot and I am disturbingly excited to play with that as well. Inaugural melty goodness this weekend.

I have been home this week and it has been so wonderful to get more time to make meals. I made vanilla belgian waffles with strawberries and chocolate coffee this morning. There is a small part of me that wishes I could stay home and cook all the time.

Bread!

I made bread! No really, I realize this doesn't sound like anything monumental but it is vastly encouraging for me. I have never had much luck with it. I follow all the rules, I read all the instructions, and I can just never make it work. I have a 50/50 chance with focaccia but those just aren't very good odds. I have learned to accept the fact that if there is yeast in the dough there is a high likelihood for fail if I am the one making it.

However, at the Cooks Collegium last weekend I was presented with what seemed like a pretty fool proof bread recipe. I was enchanted with the idea of beautiful fresh baked bread, and I had to give it a shot.

And it worked. I made bread! Granted I have only made it once and it is possible that this will become the 50/50 sadness of my previous "reliable recipe" bread attempts. I remain hopeful. I am also excited about experimenting because a lot of the recipe is based on ratios so you can alter the dry to wet ingredients you use as long as you maintain the ratios and still have success. Hopefully there will be future happy bread posts. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I love cooking events...I always come home with such exciting recipes and kitchen ideas. I have a couple of others waiting for me in the kitchen I can't wait to try.

With the bread, I also took some pointers from the Good Eats bread episode (I have been watching these a lot lately...they are uber helpful), and I think between the two of them I had a good approach. One of them in particular is the proper temperature bread is supposed to reach in order for it to be considered done. I think that this is why I don't like a lot of homemade breads because a lot of times they end up really dry. Turns out the bread should be between 205 and 210 degrees F. Any hotter and it reaches the boiling point so all the water boils/evaporates away.

I should have put it on a rack instead of cutting board though. The steam all settled at the bottom and loaf got a little soggy there. I also cut into it too early and it didn't have enough time to set. It was still a little dough-y. Fresh baked bread is a challenge in patience.

Torta Bianca (updated)

Previously I posted a recipe for Torta Bianca a couple years ago. I felt that the recipe needed some work and just have not taken the time to make the corrections that I wanted to. I decided that I wanted to make this tart for a potluck at the Middle Kingdom Cooks Collegium that took place last weekend.

Life intervened and I did not end up getting the chance to make cheese as I did before and I was just going to use cream cheese. However, my traveling companion is quickly becoming a cheese goddess and made some neufchatel for me to use. This had a much better texture than the cheese I usually make and worked perfectly.

One of the things that I was hoping to correct was the 'oily' texture my original tart had to it. I thought that it was just an issue of too much fat being added but decided to do a little research. By research, I mean watch the Good Eats episode on cheesecake :)

Turns out that one of the issues may have been that I didn't allow the pie shell to cool enough before adding the filling. The shock of heat caused the butter to separate and created the slimy texture. This made a lot of sense given my general impatience. I also approached the recipe as a cheesecake rather than just a recipe with some instructions. I wiped the cheese longer and to a much smoother texture than I did previously. I slowly incorporated the wet ingredients. And by using just ginger this time I improved the likely hood of snow white tart.

It is one of the interesting things about period redactions...the way you approach things can change what you ultimately get.

Anyway here is the new recipe:
12-16 ounces homemade cheese at room temperature (depends on what type of cheese you use. It should be a soft white cheese. You can also use 16 ounces of cream cheese)
6 egg whites
1 cup of sugar
4 tablespoons of butter, softened
1 tsp ginger
1 cup milk
salt (to taste)
Rosewater/additional sugar

I beat the cheese and butter together until smooth, added the sugar, salt, and ginger. I mixed the egg whites and milk together and gradually beat these into the cheese mixture. This was poured into a pie shell and baked at 350-375 (depending on your oven) for 1 hour.

Sprinkle lightly with rosewater and sugar.

Pears Poached in Port

This originally compiled circa 2000 I believe (I am transferring data from my original website). Not my best work but again an effort to help me mark my progress.

Poached Pears
Pears appear in a multitude of forms throughout medieval cooking and their use dates back thousands of years before period. They were often served at the end of a meal with other sweets and were thought to have medicinal properties. Chiquart’s "On Cookery" includes instructions for baking pears that were thought to help the sick, and scribes from circa 2750 BC recorded medical prescriptions that include a poultice made of pears, figs and thyme. In Siena, in 1326, candied pears were served at the end of every meal of one particular knighting ceremony, and the lower classes of Rome sometimes ended their meals with a dish of grapes, pears, and apples.
Recipes for pears cooked in wine and spices appear throughout English manuscripts. Surprisingly, there are few examples of similar dishes in French, Latin or Italian manuscripts. There was mention in some French and Italian menus of "Pears with Hypocras" however, a recipe did not appear until the 1400s. In fact, Le Ménagier de Paris mentions that they were "like turnips." This is different from sweet pear desserts of the English.
Pears were pureed, baked, or poached with spices in wine. With the poached recipes particularly, there are many variations, almost all include wine, pears, sugar, and cinnamon. Other ingredients include anise, cloves, mace, dates, currants, and vinegar. Also, salt or ginger was used. (Ginger can sometimes be an interesting alternative when trying to cut salt from ones diet). In "Forme of Cury", there is a recipe called Peeres in Confyt which adds mulberries to enrich the color and has the final dish served with the cooked pears in a pyramid shape with the syrup poured over top. This created an interesting variation of color when serving.
Color was important in medieval cooking. The authors of The Medieval Kitchen: recipes from France and Italy state that color "defined dishes an were an element in the cooks choice of ingredients." Meaning, that the kind and color of sauce determined which spices to use to preserve the integrity of the dish—for example, a yellow sauce may have used saffron, etc. The recipe from which mine is based, Perys en Composte from Harleian MS 279 Potage Dyvers, includes the addition of "Sawnderys" or sandalwood. Sandalwood, sometimes called dragon’s blood, adds an old rose/reddish color to dishes. The Boke of Godecookery website recommends the use of red food coloring instead, as the affect is similar without the difficulty of trying to find the spice and the unpleasant taste that sandalwood can sometimes add.
The following is the modern variation that I use when making poached pears:
2 cups of red wine (I prefer port)
1 tbsp sugar
4-6 pears
3 cinnamon sticks
a couple drops of food coloring
pinch of salt
powdered cinnamon to taste
In saucepan, heat through the wine, sugar, food coloring, salt and cinnamon sticks. I let mine simmer slightly to thicken a bit and to remove as much alcohol as possible. Remove cinnamon sticks. Peel and slice pears. Add these to wine mixture and heat at low. When pears are translucent (this may take awhile depending on how many pears and how firm they are), taste and add sugar and powdered cinnamon to your liking. Pears may be served warm or chilled. Keep refrigerated.
While many recipes call for the pears to be parboiled, this isn’t as necessary with modern pears as they are probably sweeter and softer than those available in period. While slow cooking wasn’t really a possibility in a medieval kitchen (hence the parboiling), it can break the pears up too much. I find the flavor to be better when they are simmered with the wine to soften them. For authenticity, or for particularly hard pears, you may wish to parboil them.
Also the original recipe called for 2 tbsp of powdered cinnamon to be added to the simmering process rather than cinnamon sticks. This can make the mixture gritty and requires straining of the cinnamon. For ease and for a subtler flavor I used cinnamon sticks. As mentioned above, you can also add dates or currants along with other spices.
Enjoy!

Bibliography
Hieatt, Constance B, Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler. Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks 2nd Edition. Canada: University of Toronto Press, Inc, 1996.

Matterer, James L. "Perys en Composte." 2000. .

Matterer, James L. "Apples & Peres." 2000. .

Redon, Odile, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Servent, and Edward Schneider. The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Tannahil, Reay. Food in History. New York: Three River’s Press, 1988.

A Cambridge Pudding

A Cambridge Pudding.

(John Murrell: A new booke of Cookerie; London Cookerie. London 1615) http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/1615murr.htm

SEarce grated Bread through a Cullinder, mince it with Flower, minst Dates, Currins, Nutmeg, Sinamon, and Pepper, minst Suit, new Milke warme, fine Sugar, and Egges: take away some of their whites, worke all together. Take halfe the Pudding on
the one side, and the other on the other side, and make it round like a loafe.
Then take Butter, and put it in the middest of the Pudding, and the other halfe aloft. Let your liquour boyle, and throw your Pudding in, being tyed in a faire cloth: when it is boyled enough cut it in the middest, and so serue it in.

My initial review of this recipe sounded like a boiled pudding. I have never had or seen one but I had heard of them so I did some online perusal. And found this:
http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=42205
While not identical it gave me some good ratios to start with. I opted to leave the suet out as I had some difficulty finding it and what I did find was in larger quantities then I needed. I wanted to try the recipe first and see how it tasted before investing in ingredients that might go to waste. I also found another pudding recipe from the same Murrell reference that gave the option “If it be a fasting day leaue out the Suit…”

1 ½ cups butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
½ cup warm milk
4 cups (280g) stale breadcrumbs (not dry)
1 cup (150g) wheat/white flour mix
1 cup (150g) currants
1 cup (170g) pitted dried dates, chopped
4 tsps cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp pepper

Combine dry ingredients and incorporate the wet ingredients until the dough holds its shape. Form into a round loaf. Tie up into cheese cloth. (I prepped the cloth by soaking it first and then sprinkling the center with flour to form a barrier to hold the moist pudding in and help form the skin needed for the pudding to hold its shape).



I slowly immersed the pouch into boiling water and tied the ends to the handles of the pot and put a lid over. This then boiled for six hours. I had to replenish the water periodically.



After 6 hours I removed the pudding and unwrapped it and allowed it to cool.



The pudding became more firm and darker in color as it cooled.



The flavor was good and I seemed to have found a good balance with the spices. I don’t think that anything is missing by not adding the Suet and since Coronation takes place during Lent in our modern year I decided to leave it out. It had a good flavor but needed a sauce. I couldn’t find anything else with in the same text but I decided I will serve with an almond cream which uses almonds, cream, mace and sugar.

A Thing-A-Week Part 34: Pan Perdy

28. To make the best panperdy
To make the best panperdy, take a dozen eggs, and break them, and beat
them very well, then put unto them cloves, mace, cinnamon and nutmeg, and
good store of sugar, with as much salt as shall season it: then take a
manchet, and cut it into thick slices like toasts; which done, take your
fryin pan, and put into it a good store of sweet butter, and, being
melted, lay in your slices of bread, then pour upon them one half of your
eggs; then when that is fried, with a dish turn your slices of bread
upward, and then pour on them the other half of your eggs, so turn them
till both sides be brown; then dish it up, and serve it with sugar
strewed upon it.

I started with:
6 eggs
2 tbsps sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each mace, clove, nutmeg.

I ended up with WAAYYY too much spice so I added 2 more eggs and some milk (I was bad I know but I just couldn't see making "french toast" without milk...I am weak!)

I also baked the toast more because I wanted a faster way to make a lot of it and I wanted to see if it would work so I put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees flipping half way through.

It was yummy and I got about a dozen slices. I wasn't true to the original recipe but if my next experiment goes well...I have breakfast!!! *fingers crossed*

A Thing-A-Week Part 33: Makshufa

A number of years ago Matthias of Rolling Oaks lent me all of his back issues of Tournaments Illuminated. From there I got a bunch of feast/recipe/cookery type articles that I periodically refer to mostly when I have feast planning questions. They have come in handy a number of times.

There was one from the Winter 92 by Elizabeth Cook on an Islamic Dinner. I wanted to find some thing sweet dessert type thing to serve with my lunch and one of the first recipes I tried might be the winner...Makshufa.

The recipe reads:
"Take equal parts of sugar, almonds (or pistachios), honey, and seasme oil. Grind the surgar and almonds, and mix together. Add saffron to color, mixed with rose-water. Put the sesame oil into a basin and boil until fragrant: then drop in the honey and stir until the scum appears. Add the sugar and almonds, stirring all the time over a slow fire until almost set: then remove"

I don't know about the authenticity of above but it looked interesting. I stuck with the original redactors proportions as they seemed reasonable. It turned out like an almond brittle (the rose water is a bit weird) but the rose water masks the caramel/buttery flavor. While strange at first I have to say it has really grown on me. And I can make it a week ahead of time. The only problem is that it has to stay cold or it is really sticky but that may be a fault on my part. I may have needed to cook it longer. I am thinking of making an almond, a pistachio, and a sesame variety for lunch.

Currently testing my kebab recipe and the lentil salad. More on that later.

Two Things: Cheese Tarts

Cheese Tarts:

95 Crustless "Sienese" Tart
Sienese tart. Take twenty almonds and blanch them thoroughly, and pound them as fine as possible. Then take half a libra of sugar, twelve eggs, and a fogletta of milk, two quatani of cinnamon, and the proper amount of salt, and half a quarto of fresh probatura cheese, pounded until it need be pounded no more. Then spread a mold with butter, and then flour it, and put the mixture on top. And set the mold or pan far from the fire, covered, with a moderate fire. And note that you can put into the mixture a ladeful of lasagne cooked in good broth. And when it is cooked put sugar and rose water on top. (bu 49v-50)
(recipe can be found here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/706842.html)

I didn't like the ratio that the tertiary source used so I went a different route with some of my ratios. I didn't want to use 12 eggs so I also tried to cut everything in half. I am not sure I interpreted the measurements correctly. I found differing sources on the web as to the meaning of some of the measurements so my reasoning on this is simply what sounded good to me. I also used a more coarsely ground almond as I don't have the equipment to do a fine grind on almonds (or anything really). I am curious what this recipe would be like with almond paste as ground almonds and sugar if mixed in a certain way (though recipes I have seen vary on this) make almond paste. I opted not to add the lasagna and broth.

a handful of coarsely chopped almonds
1 cup of sugar
6 eggs
1 cup milk
8 ounces of homemade cheese at room temperature
cinnamon
salt
rosewater and sugar sprinkled over the top after it has baked

I gradually whipped all the ingredients together and poured into a greased/floured springform pan (10 inch I believe) and baked at 325 for 45 minutes. the center was jiggly but maintained it's shape. It was a big custardy omelet. This was a little oily and I really don't know why. It was tasty even if the texture is something I don't usually enjoy. I would love to mold this in something next time I make it but I am concerned as to how it will seperate. The springform was just for ease of use but I wish I had some better kitchen molds for baking. My copper molds I have sort of collected from scattered second hand stores so while they all have neat shapes I don't think they are up for oven use.

94. Torta Bianca: White Tart
White Tart. Take a libra and a half of good fresh cheese and cut it up fine, and pound it very well; take twelve or fifteen egg whites and blend them very well with this cheese, adding half a libra of sugar and half an oncia of the whitest ginger you can find, as well as a half libra of good, white pork lard, or instead of lard, good fresh butter, and some milk as much as needed; this will be a good third of a boccale. Then make the pastry, or crust, into the pan, as thin as it ought to be, and cook it nicely with fire both below and above; and make sure that the top is a little colored from the heat of the fire; and when it seems cooked, remove it from the pan and put fine sugar and good rose water on top. (Ma 158)

For this recipe I actually followed a lot of the measurements that the teritary source I used redacted them as. The egg whites were halved but a lot of the other ingredient ratios also seemed to be halved as well so it worked out. I did make a few changes. I add more cheese then they originally wrote simply because I wanted to use it up and I used poudre douce instead of ginger because there was already ginger in the cheese and I wanted something to offset that a little. This meant that it wasn't going to be a truly white tart because the spices would be a little darker.

For the crust: I used flour, butter, salt, and water. I rolled it out and laid it in a pie pan to bake for about 15 minutes at a higher temperature before adding the filling.

12 ounces homemade cheese at room temperature
6 egg whites
about 2/3 a cup of sugar (I think I used a little more)
9 tablespoons of butter, softened
1 tsp poudre douce
1 cup milk
salt

I beat the cheese and butter together, added the sugar, salt, and spices, the egg whites, and then milk. This was poured into a pie shell and baked at 375 for 1 hour.

The top came out really brown and I was worried I had burnt it but the crust looked fine. When I cut into it, it was snow white. The flavor was actually really good and I don't like cheese cake or custard. It was a little oily and I think I will cut back on the amount of butter and maybe the milk as well as it seemed too runny when I poured it in the shell.

I did forget to put the rose water on this one after it baked. I need to remember to do that next time. I remembered with the first tart but forgot with this one.

x-posted

---
Redon, Odile, Francoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi. Translated by Edward Schneider. The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. University of Chicago Press. 1998.

A Thing-A-Week Part 28: Cheese!

I finally got around to trying the Cook-A-Long recipe for May...a soft cheese. I don't understand enough of the chemistry that goes into making cheese so I tried the original author's recipe as I wasn't brave enough to test a new cooking method and one that didn't have the safety net of portions. It actually isn't really difficult overall it is just somewhat time consuming and you have to really pay attention. I didn't understand what the instructions meant by how much of a curd needed to form before I stopped adding vinegar and I didn't find anything on the internet. I got a pretty soft crumb to my cheese so it doesn't hold together real well. I mashed it up into molds because my patties weren't holding together and I thought I remember reading somewhere that cheeses and butters were sometimes molded in period.

I didn't really like the ginger/honey combination for flavoring. In looking at some of the period recipes I have found I am surprised they didn't mix savory ingredients with their cheeses. Ginger, Cinnamon, Honey, Mace, and Pepper seem to be the common additives. I am also somewhat curious as to how it would work with the ale I see in a lot of recipes but I am not sure I am brave enough to mess with a formula that I know works until I have tried it a few times.

I believe I am going to take Merouda's suggestion of making the cheese into a tart because I think it would work really well. I plan on trying that this weekend. Actually, I spread some of the cheese on a piece of bread and covered it in the conserve I also made and it was mighty tasty.

All in all it wasn't nearly as terrifying of an experience as I thought it would be. I am very boring in my personal tastes I guess because for me my favorite cheese is a smoked mozzarella--salty, smoky, and yet simple and creamy. This wasn't quite to my tastes but I am definitely excited about experimenting.

I also wonder how this cheese would work in place of the goat cheese in a recipe I have for herb encrusted goat cheese.

I am thinking of hosting a cooks day at my place again after WW and having people make cheese and cheese based recipes.

A Thing-A-Week Part 27: Conserve of Strawberries

From "Delights for Ladies"

50. To make conserve of Prunes of Damsons

Take ripe Damsons: put them into scalding water: Let them stand a while: then boile them over the fire till they break: then strain out the water thorow a colander and let them stand therein to coole: then strain the Damsons thorough the colander, taking away the stones and skinnes: then set the pulp over the fire againe, and put thereto a good quantity of red wine, and boil them well to a stiffenesse, ever stirring them up and down; and when they bee almost sufficiently boyled, put in a convenient proportion of sugar: stirre all well together and after put it in your gally-pots.

51. To make conserve of Strawberries.

First, seethe them in water, and then cast away the water and strain them: then boile them in white wine, and work as before in damson; or else strain them being ripe: then boile them in wine and sugar until they be stiffe.

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Redaction:

One of my favorite foods from the modern world are gummi style candies. While I know that it is unlikely that I will be able to ever document gummi bears as we know them today, I decided that it would be interesting to explore all the different way fruit was preserved in period from candying to conserves and gelatins.

I decided to make the conserve of strawberries mostly because it required few ingredients and they were all things I could find easily. I started by boiling the strawberries. I like to use frozen strawberries (I have found a high quality brand that delivers far better results then I am able to get in the produce section) but because the freezing process already weakens the berries cell structure the boiling step sort of became unnecessary. I realized I was loosing color by doing this so I strained them and mashed the fruit up instead so I would essentially have the desired fruit pulp from the conserve of damsons. To make up for the color lost I added a small amount of red wine with the white (I estimate that there was between 1.5 to 2 cups total wine added). I have seen this done in other fruit compotes from period to enhance color and thus felt it was an okay decision. I then boiled the fruit in white wine until it was completely broken down and
added 4 cups of sugar. The 4 cups I used was based on a modern jam recipe that didn't use pectin. My hope was to get something that was somewhat thick and I wanted to avoid too much trial and error. I brought it up to a rolling boil to thicken it and then removed it from the heat to cool. I poured it into a pan (thought it could easily be jarred) and also a small mold more to see how it held up. It didn't but I wasn't surprised. The flavor was excellent. Really amazing. The wine brought a flavor somewhat different from modern jams but it was still nice and rich. The color is beautifully dark so I may keep the red wine in for sheer aesthetic purposes.

A lot of jams I have made in the past have used lemon juice and it is amazing how differently the fruit tastes without this ingredient. I like lemon juice because I personally feel it enhances a fruits natural taste. This may have been why there was variation in using the wine.

A Thing-A-Week Part 21: For to make chireseye

For to make chireseye:

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

For to make chireseye, tak chiryes at þe feast of Seynt Iohn þe Baptist, & do awey þe stonys. Grynd hem in a morter, & after frot hem wel in a seue so þat the ius be wel comyn owt; & do þan in a pot & do þerein feyre gres or botor & bred of wastel ymyid, & of sugur a god perty, & a porcioun of wyn. & wan it is wel ysodyn & ydessyd in dyschis, stik þerin clowis of gilofre & strew þeron sugur.

- Hieatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century (Including the Forme of Cury). New York: for The Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1985.

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GODE COOKERY TRANSLATION: http://www.godecookery.com/mtrans/mtrans06.htm

For to make Cherries, take cherries at the feast of Saint John the Baptist, & do away the stones. Grind them in a mortar, and after rub them well in a sieve so that the juice be well coming out; & do then in a pot and do there-in fair grease or butter & bread of wastel minced, & of sugar a good part, & a portion of wine. And when it is well cooked & dressed in dishes, stick there-in clove flowers & strew there-on sugar.

I only had one big issue with this recipe and that was the translation of clowis of gilofre to clove flowers. It is a minor thing but clove-gillyflower in looking at the OED was used to reference both the spice or the gillyflower (an ancestor of the carnation) in period text and they are obviously very different things. Again this is a minor detail but it reinforces the point that it is good to look up unfamiliar terms.

I was redacting this recipe to see if it could be made in a crock pot. This meant I had to use some larger quantities then I normally would and I ended up making quite a lot of the chireseye.
I started with:

2.5 lbs frozen dark sweet cherries (cherries are not at their peak at this time of year and where they can be found they are a little expensive. I have generally found that frozen fruit that doesn't contain any additives or a "sauce" are of good quality and these were some of the sweetest cherries I have ever had).

1/2 cup butter (I am guessing this to turn out something like a pudding and many puddings are creamy. I thought adding a little more butter would help balance out the acidity of the fruit. And I had a lot of fruit so in comparison it wasn't really all that much)

2 cups unseasoned bread crumbs

1/2-3/4 cup sugar

1 cup of port wine

I began by mashing the fruit until it was almost a puree. I have neither a food processor nor a mortar and pestle large enough to really work this much fruit so I used a potato masher. It actually worked rather well overall. I opted not to sieve the fruit not because I didn't think it was important but more because I was testing the recipe more for viability for my class. I wasn't looking for a perfect redaction. I plan to bring cheese cloth to class and allow students to make their own choices as to what they want to do. I also wanted to leave the juice in as much as possible as I didn't want it to burn in the crockpot.

I then added a stick of melted butter, the wine, some sugar (this seemed like plenty at this point as the fruit was very sweet), and the bread crumbs. 16 ounces of bread is about how much I have seen for modern bread pudding recipes and it seemed like a good starting point. I personally don't like the texture of sauces thickened with bread crumbs so I tend to lean to the side of less rather than more. I also didn't know how much the bread would absorb and I needed to make sure that the recipe was thick but still moist so that it didn't burn.

This all went into a crock pot on low for a little over an hour. I stirred it frequently to make sure it didn't burn. It also thickened a lot as the bread absorbed the juice from the fruit and I ended up adding some more cherry juice to balance a bit. I also noticed that it became more tart as it cooked so I ended up adding a little more sugar (about 1/2 to 1 cup). It still tasted rather grainy/starchy but I found that this improved with a night spent in the fridge. I warmed some up this morning with a little cinnamon/sugar sprinkled on it (as it really needs a little spicy zing) and had it for breakfast.

For my class I am going to bring in whole cloves and try to find some candied flowers.

A Thing-A-Week Part XVIII: A Pie of Parsnips

As part of this month's Cook-A-Long I also tried to make the Pie of Parsnips.

To make a pie of fresh Parsnips. Take the parsnips well washed, & put them to boil until they are cooked, then take two or three chopped onions & fry in butter, a salted lemon in pieces, nutmeg, & pepper, a little chopped mint, & put all together in the pie, & butter enough.

Note it is necessary to cut the parsnips into pieces, when the pie is half cooked put therein a little Spanish wine.

I was somewhat skeptical about this recipe only because it didn't seem like something that would appeal to my own particular taste preferences but part of this experience is trying new things.

I started by peeling and dicing the parsnips and putting them into water to boil. I decided to season them as they were boiling so that the flavor would be more incorporated so I added some salt, pepper, and about a 1/4 tsp of nutmeg. While that boiled, I zested a lemon and brined the peel in salt water and lemon juice. I had forgotten to salt my own lemons ahead of time and hadn't located any commercially. This may have overall impacted the final product. Once the parsnips were cooked I removed them from the heat and drained them before mixing in onions fried in butter, the brined lemon zest, and the mint. I baked this in a crust made of butter, flour, salt, and water for about 45-60 minutes at 375 degrees F. I didn't have any wine on hand either so there again I missed a step which may have impacted the overall product.

Having tasted the pie I am still not particularly crazy about it. There are definitely a lot of flavors going on...the onions and nutmeg added some sweetness, the parsnips seemed sweet and woodsy at the same time but had an interesting bite to them. The lemon and mint kept hitting me at different points throughout. Part of my opinion may have been changed by the ingredients I didn't have access to while I was making this. I also wonder if this would work better as pasties rather than a whole pie so that all the flavors sort of come together at once in a more concentrated way rather than in a larger pie. I am also thinking that pairing this with a creamier dish or a spicy meat might complement it. Overall it was an interesting experience and I am glad I gave it a try.

A Thing-A-Week Part VII: Fine Cakes

Fine Cakes
"To make fine cakes; take a pottle of fine flour, and a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a little mace and a good store of water to mingle the flour into a stiff paste, and a good season of salt and so knead it, and roll out the cake thin and bake them on papers."

Sometimes the recipe redactions one finds on Gode Cookery are fantastic and sometimes they are really off the mark. This one wasn't too bad but I went a different direction with it.

A pottle equals about 2 quarts (8 cups) and that is an awful lot of cake to be stuck with if the recipe doesn't work out so well so I halved it and then halved the recipe again and ended up with this:

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
4 oz of sugar
2 cups of flour
less then a tsp of mace (I am guessing I used about a half teaspoon)
pinch of salt
enough water to make it all come together.

I mixed all of the dry ingredients together and cut the butter into it with a fork or pastry blender. I then slowly added water to it (I am guessing about a cup but this will vary so go slow) so that it came together. I think I may have added too much water to it as it was rather sticky. I decided to press it into a stoneware pan I have for making shortbread. Bake at 350 F for about an hour. I had to watch it.

I think next time I am going to roll it out as directed. It didn't really bake evenly and didn't pick up the pretty design from the shortbread mold. It might be kind of nice cut into circles with a biscuit cutter and served with a fruit compote. And, the mace was certainly an interesting flavor. I am glad I didn't add any more (I thought I was being a little skimpy) because the flavor really enhances when it bakes and permeates the whole dish. This is something I need to play with a little more. I think I might try a little poudre douce next time. I have seen some similar cake style dishes in Markham that used cinnamon and ginger for flavor and that is something I might enjoy a little more.


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Markham, Gervase. Best, Michael R (ed). The English Housewife. McGill-Queen's University Press. London: 2003. (page 117)

Thing-A-Week Part IV: Fake Fish

Fake Fish:
I don't have a mortar and pestle large enough to crust the apples so I had to be creative using a bowl and a meat tenderizer I don't actually use for tenderizing meat. It worked fairly well actually. I was not ambitious enough to try this with gingerbread as I didn't want to make gingerbread ahead of time and couldn't find an acceptable substitute at the grocery store. I just used the crushed almonds instead. In fact, I used the strained almonds left from an almond milk experiment earlier this week so as not to be wasteful. I mixed all this with a little sugar, cinnamon, and ginger and baked it in a happy fish shaped shell. (It is supposed to be a catfish for the local SCA group's heraldry.) About 10 minutes before I took it out of the oven I brushed on an egg wash with some crushed saffron for a nice golden color. The flavor was very scrumptious and I certainly will be making this again.

Thing-A-Week Part III: Flownys in Lente

Flownys in Lente:

“For to make flownys in lente, take good flour and make a good paste; take good almond milk and rice flour or other starch[i] and boyle them together that they be well chariand. When it is boiled thick, take it up and lay it on a fair board so that it be cold, and when the coffins (pastry crusts) have been made, take a part[ii] and do upon the crusts, and carve them in slices[iii] and do in them good almond milk and figs and dates and carve it in four parts and do it to bake and serve it forth.”

I think my problem with doing redactions is that I am far too literal when I try to translate things. The “ands” in this recipe kept throwing me off. I started by making a flour roux and then adding this to a pot with the unstrained almond milk and a couple tablespoons of rice flour. I cooked this over medium low heat stirring fairly constantly. I ended up with a thick almond porridge. The redaction found at the same source as the original text had taken this mixture and spread it in a thin layer and when it cooled breaking it up into pieces. I can kind of see where they got this interpretation out of the original recipe and as this was the part that was a little muddy for me I tried it this way. I super-cooled this in the freezer to save me some time.

Iohanna had come over to experiment with me and she thought that perhaps the “take good flour and make a good paste” referred to the pie crust itself and so she tried a batch of strained almond milk (we used commercial to try this first before using the limited quantity of “real” almond milk) to see if getting it to boil would have made it more candy/brittle like. However, the rice flour separated a lot and it didn’t seem to thicken. We strained it after a while and set it on a plate in the freezer to cool. It did thicken a bit but became rather blob like and not something that could be sliced.

When the almond porridge had cooled, I was able to break it into soft pieces and lay this in the bottom of the crust. I covered it in diced figs and dates and poured the ½ cup of strained almond milk we got after pressing the thicker stuff. This I baked in the oven for about 40 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

I think the next time I try this I will pour the almond porridge directly into the base of the pie shell as the stuff that I cooled turned back into paste at room temperature. The flavor was interesting. I am not much for custard but I really liked the almond goo. I still am not a big fan of dates or figs but some other dried fruits might be heavenly in this instead.

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[i] “Amydon”. Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition 1989. Oxford University Press. 9 Sept 2008.

[ii] “Perty” is generally thought to be pretty however later in the same recipe “perty” seems to be used to reference parts as in cutting into “fowre pertys” so I chose this translation.

[iii] “Shive”. Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition 1989. Oxford University Press. 9 Sept 2008. I could not specifically find references to “schiueris”; however, I found “shiues” and “schyves” both quoted from similar time periods referencing slices or discs and this seemed appropriate to the recipe.

Thing-A-Week Part II: Almond Milk

In preparation for the cooking fun at my place this weekend I made some almond milk. I tried this recipe:
"Take blake sugre, an cold water, an do hem to in a fayre potte, an let hem boyle to-gedere, an salt it an skeme it clene, an let it kele; than tak almaundus, an blawnche hem clene, an stampe hem, an draw hem, with the sugre water thikke y-now, in-to a fayre vessel; an yf the mylke be noght swete y-now, take whyte sugre an caste ther-to.

- Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. Harleian MS. 279 & Harl. MS. 4016, with extracts from Ashmole MS. 1429, Laud MS. 553, & Douce MS 55. London: for The Early English Text Society by N. Trübner & Co., 1888.

http://www.godecookery.com/nboke/nboke57.htm

I translated it to:

"Take pale sugar and cold water and add them into a fair pot and let them boil together, and salt it and skim it clean, and let it cool. Then take almonds, and blanche them clean, and stamp them, and draw them with the thickened sugar water into a fair vessel; and if the milk be naught sweet enough, take white sugar and caste there-to."

I took about a cup of sugar and 1-1/2 cups of water and an extremely small pinch of kosher salt (I used this ratio from the candied almonds I make. I know it makes a good syrup which, while I did not interpret it as the intent, I wanted to make sure there was enough liquid to dissolve the sugar and have it thicken a bit) I put this on high heat and stirred it until it just came to a full boil. I didn't let it reduce to a syrup but it seemed a little thicker then before. I took this off the heat.

I decided against blanching and grinding the almonds as I don't have the right modern tools and not enough patience to do it the period way. I generally buy pre-ground almonds. It saves me time and hassle and I accept it as a substitute. I added the sugar-water to 10 oz of ground almonds. I added about a cup more cold water to this as I thought it seemed a bit thick though I am not sure of the exact propotions. I ended up with 4 cups of almond "milk". It is really thick and very sweet (I am glad I am using this in a custard as I don't think it would be very good with chicken or anything but who knows). I did not need to add any more sugar. I kept wanting to go back for spoonfuls.

I have also been working on my recipe redactions. I have a good idea what I want to do for the Fake Fish but I am having problems with the Flownys in Lente. I read the other redaction but I really want to decide for myself which direction the recipe is going. I am very much enjoying one of the perks of my job being access to the online OED. I am not finding everything I need though and the last little bit doesn't make sense.

I get that I am making a very thick almond milk--almost a cream or custard. This is going in some sort of pie crust with figs and dates. I can kind of see where the original redaction was going with the cooling the milk (like a 'brittle' I think) and laying it in slices in the pie crust and then pouring more milk over top of it and some fruit but that seems sort of silly to me. I can kind of see that in the recipe but I also don't think that is what it is saying either. I just can't figure out what I think it is saying.

I am probably thinking too hard. Redaction isn't something I do much of. I usually read old texts and compare it to someone else's work and go with the recipes seem the most viable as compared to the old text. It is kind of hard to sit down and really think about things but I suppose that is sort of the point. I am worrying too much and should go to bed now.

EDIT: 2 cups of almond milk when squeezed of all the almond pulp made about 1/2 a cup of actual "milk"