A Thing-A-Week Part 32: A New Hat

One of my assignments is to make a hat. This is my first attempt. I couldn't really find any instructions on how to make it so I guessed. It turned out vaguely hat shape so I count that as a win. I am not really into big extravagant hats but I always liked this style and hoped it would help me keep the veil and wimple actually on my head. Despite my best efforts circlets pop off my head and veils fly away. I am not so devoted that I want to staple it down so I am hoping some extra weight will help. I have an oddly shaped head, fine hair, and apparently eyebrow muscles with a purpose so most hats find comical ways to be anywhere but on my head. This has lasted a half hour so we shall see this coming weekend how well it works.

I didn't do that great of a job (this is a prototype for a better hat hopefully someday) as my sewing skills are really not all that functional. Yes, I know I embroider but embroidery and sewing are not the same thing in my universe. If I mess up embroidery I just end up with an ugly thing and some lost time. If I mess up sewing I could potentially end up naked. But I continue to try because better garb makes me feel more comfortable at events. And, I really don't like showing modern hair so starting with a hat seems like a safer step.

I know this sounds like a kind of grumbly post but I really am sort of excited about my little hat... imperfections and all.

A Thing-A-Week Part 31: Cloth bag

I finally finished the bag I wanted to make for carrying things to events. Baskets can be so awkward.

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

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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.

Adventures in Knitting

Yesterday I had a lovely day spent with a good friend hanging out and knitting. She took me to Lakeside Fibers in Madison which was my first non-chain knitting store experience. It was absolutely beautiful. The store was huge, with a varied selection and wonderful layout. A lot of thought went into that store. There were all sorts of lovely things I would have loved but I am waiting to expand my collection until I have more experience.

We then stopped at Hilldale Mall and picked up some chocolates at David Bacco Chocolates. They were wonderful. I especially liked the Exotic Caramel and the Cardamom Ganache Cube. After that we browsed the mall a little bit and went to dinner at Imperial Garden.

When we got back to her place we watched Creature Comforts (yay talking amoebas!) and did some knitting. She attempted to help me make a small sock in order to show me how they work but the pattern I found for free was a little difficult to understand and it didn't work very well at all. I sort of understood how it worked though and I am going to try again with a different pattern. I really enjoy knitting in the round and there is a wealth of wonderful yarns out there that I would like to play with beyond just making lumpy squares so I am willing to try making socks. I am still rather intimidated by it.

A Thing-A-Week Part 26: Sushi

Saturday I went to get groceries and also stopped at Brennan's and got a bunch of produce. I was feeling adventurous and wanted to try making sushi. They aren't very pretty but it was a first attempt. These are avocado and cucumber.

Also with my produce selection I chopped up and roasted some veggies and made some baked chicken for lunches this week. And, on my health kick, I packaged up some snacks for myself to help with portion control which is one of my biggest problems.

One of the things I like about Brennan's is that they have samples. I had what I thought was a mango while at the store. I thought I didn't like mangoes but this was wonderful. It was sort of creamy like coconut and fruity like peaches and pineapple. So I bought one. I wasn't really sure I picked up the right one as there seemed to be two different fruits labeled the same thing and I think I grabbed the wrong one. *sigh* It was not yummy. I didn't get yummy fruit.