Recipes from a Baronial Investiture - Part 4

Recipes from a Baronial Investiture - Part 4

By Lady Angharad Gam, Barony of Innilgard, A.S. XLVIII

Strawberry Gelly

29. To make gelly ouf Straw-berries, Mulberies, Raspberries, or any such tender fruit.
Take your berries, and grinde them in an Alabaster Mortar, with foure ounces of Sugar, and a quarter pint of faire water, and as much Rose-water: and so boil it in a posnet with a little peece of Isinglasse, and so let it run through a fine cloth into your boxes, and so you may keepe it all the yeere.
Delightes for Ladies

The making of jelly by boiling up hooves and heads, or certain kinds of fish, was well known throughout period, but because of the process involved these kinds of jellies tended to be savoury, containing wine, stock and spices. In the 16th century the English began making sweet jellies using isinglass, a gelatine like material obtained from fish. It was made from the dried swim bladder of the sturgeon, and was probably available much as gelatine is today – as a dried powder. Today it is still used in fining beer.

250gm strawberries
100gms sugar
1tblsp (14g) gelatine (approx)
250mls water
1 tsp rosewater essence (optional)

Hull the strawberries and cut them into smallish pieces. Put in a large saucepan and bring to the boil with the water and sugar. Cook gently until the strawberries are mushy. (Alternately grind all
together in a food processor). Pass through a fine sieve to remove the seeds and any remaining solid pulp. Add the rosewater if you wish.

For each 500ml of liquid you will need one tblsp of gelatine. Take ½ cup of the liquid in a small bowl, and sprinkle the gelatine on top. Leave 5 mins until spongy. If the liquid is still warm, stir the gelatine in until a smooth mixture is obtained. If the strawberry liquid has cooled then place the bowl in a larger bowl of hot (not boiling) water and stir until fully dissolved.

Mix the gelatine mixture into the remaining strawberry liquid ensuring it is well incorporated. Allow to cool a little, then pour into a baking tray to make a layer at least one inch deep. When set, cut into cubes. Note that gelatine sets at 20°C so it may or may not need refrigeration depending on the ambient temperature. You can keep this in the fridge for about a week.
Serves 10.


Trifle

To make Trifle: Take a pinte of thicke creame, and season it with Sugar and Ginger, and Rosewater, so stirre it as you would them have it, and make it luke warme in a dishon a chafingdishe and coals, and after put it into a silver peese or a bowle, and so sserve it to the boorde.
The good huswife’s Jewell

If the ‘so stirre it as you would them have it’ is intended to mean whipping the cream, then heating it afterwards is not a good idea, as this will cause the cream to melt and liquefy. Whipping foodstuffs (cream or eggwhites) to thicken them is not a technique that was used in the Middle Ages, but it arguably makes an appearance in the sixteenth century. You could therefore equally think of this as a cold whipped cream dish, or a warm cream sauce-like dish. I chose to interpret it as the former for the purposes of this feast.

3.5l whipping cream
2-3 tblsp sugar
2 tsp rosewater essence
Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. As it is beginning to thicken, add in the sugar and rosewater (you may want to add more or less to taste).
This is more than enough cream for 100 people.


Bizcocho

Take a dozen eggs, and ten of them without whites, and beat them in a kettle with one hand, and after they are well beaten cast in a pound of well ground sugar, and beat it well together with the eggs, and cast in a pound of very well sifted starch, and a little anise, and salt, and beat it a good while, and have a little oven, well-tempered, and make your squares of papers with your wafers underneath, and cast them there; and powder them with sugar on top, and watch them moment by moment, until they are done, and before watching them prick them with a knife, and if it comes out wet they are not cooked.
Libro del Arte de Cozina, by Domingo Hernandez de Maceras, translated and redacted by Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

Although these are described as having anise in them, anise is one of those things people either love or hate, and when they hate it , they really hate it. For this reason, I often make bizcocho cinnamon flavoured instead. There is also another period bizcocho recipe in which they are flavoured with orange flower water.
The sort of cheap cornflour that is made from wheat, not corn, is a useful substitute for wheat starch here, however you can make these with rice flour without any change in taste/texture and this has the benefit of being gluten free.

The name bizcocho is used in modern Spanish for various kinds of cakes, and in Latin America for the sort of pastries that we would call danishes.

1 whole egg
4 egg yolks
250 gms rice flour (or wheaten corn flour)
250 gms caster sugar
2 tsp cinnamon (or ground aniseed)
Pinch of salt

Put the eggs into a large basin and beat well with a whisk. Add the sugar and continue whisking until the mixture is thick, pale and fluffy. Then beat in the flour and spice (you may find a wooden spoon more useful than a whisk for doing this as the mixture will become very thick).

Line baking trays with non-stick baking paper, and drop teaspoonfuls of mixture onto them. These quantities will make 50-60 small cookies this way, or you can use dessertspoonfuls and make 25-30 larger cookies. Bake at 160°C for 10-15mins.

Use a thin metal fish slice to slide the cookies very carefully off the paper, as they can stick even to non-stick baking paper, and place onto a wire rack to cool. They may seem a little soft, but they will firm up as they cool. You can keep these in an airtight container quite happily for a couple of weeks.
Note that if you make bizcocho in more than one batch you need to give your baking trays a chance to cool down before you put the next lot of mixture on or the cookies will not rise.


Caliscioni

Prenderai simil pieno o compositione quale è la sopraditta del marzapane, et apparichiarai la sua pasta, la quale impastarai con zuccharo et acqua rosata; et distendi la ditta pasta a modo che si volesse fare ravioli, gli mettirai di questo pieno facendoli grandi et mezani o piccioli como ti pare. Et havendo qualche forma de ligno ben lavorata con qualche gentileza et informandoli et premendoli di sopra pariranno più belli a vedere. Poi li farai cocere in la padella como il marzapane havendo bona diligentia che non s'ardino.

Take the same filling or mixture which is the above said marzipan, and array on your pasta, the which is made with sugar and rosewater; and stretch the said pasta in the way that you would make ravioli, putting some of this filling making it large and medium or small as you like. And having some wooden form worked well with gentleness and shaping it and pressing it over ?evenly? more beautiful to see. Put to cook in the padella like marzipan having good care that it is not burned
Libro de Arte de Coquinaria

The marzipan recipe referred to in the original calls for an equal weight of ground almonds to sugar, along with a small amount of rosewater. Note that this is the proportion used in high quality marzipan today, although marzipan can be made with as little as 30% almonds. Another version of these pastries, from a Spanish source, is fried.

The name calisiconi is the ancestor of the word calzone. In the town of Aix in southern France, however, they still make a kind of almond sweetmeat called a callisson.
Grinding almonds is not particularly difficult or onerous, and you will get better results if you start with whole almonds and grind them yourself (and the fresher the almonds the better too). However you can certainly take the shortcut of using pre-ground almonds without losing too much. A little almond essence will help to bind it together and give it that marzipan flavour. You can omit this if you do not like a strong marzipan flavour.

100gms almonds or ground almonds
100gms sugar (use caster sugar if you are using ground almonds)
1 tsp almond essence (optional)
1 tsp rosewater essence
4 sheets commercial shortcrust pastry

If you are starting with whole almonds then grind them together with the sugar in a food processor or a large mortar. Then mix in the essences. If you are using the ground almonds, mix together all the ingredients. If you are grinding the almonds the mixture may begin to clump together in a paste, but it probably won’t if you are using ground almonds.

Cut each sheet of pastry into 16 pieces. Place a teaspoon of marzipan mixture on each piece and carefully seal it up. Place on a greased baking tray and bake for 10-15mins or until lightly browned. Makes 64 pastries.