Fine Cakes

I have made these little gems for years!  They make good gifts for friends, visiting royalty and relatives alike.

Medieval Recipe from The Widowes Treasury by John Partridge, 1585 and redacted by
Cindy M. Renfrow, author of Take a Thousand Eggs or More and A Sip Through Time as found here

To make fine Cakes. Take a quantity of fine wheate Flower, and put it in an earthen pot. Stop it close and set it in an Oven, and bake it as long as you would a Pasty of Venison, and when it is baked it will be full of clods. Then searce your flower through a fine sercer. Then take clouted Creame or sweet butter, but Creame is best: then take sugar, cloves, Mace, saffron and yolks of eggs, so much as wil seeme to season your flower. Then put these things into the Creame, temper all together. Then put thereto your flower. So make your cakes. The paste will be very short; therefore make them very little. Lay paper under them.

Baked flour: Take some flour (4 cups, unsifted, made enough) and bake, covered, at 350F for about 1hr 15min, until slight color change and a nutty smell.

To every 3 cups of sifted baked flour, take the following:
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon clove powder
1/4 teaspoon mace powder
1/2 pinch saffron, crumbled
3 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the spices and egg yolks, and beat to mix thoroughly. Add the flour, and beat until smooth. Use a non-stick cookie sheet, or line a cookie sheet with baking parchment. Take the dough, 1 level teaspoonful at a time, and roll into small balls with your hands. (Resist the temptation to make them larger -- they won't cook in the middle if they're too big.) Flatten the balls slightly, and place them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and golden around the edges. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Urchins recipe

 

Quick Soft Cheese Class Handout

The production of cheese for food is ancient. The definite origins are unknown though there are many theories.

It is a versatile and tasty byproduct of 'too much milk'. Many factors govern the final product including the kind of milk used, what you use to set the curd (Rennet or other acid), cultures and other flavoring additions and further processing including bacteria and mold introduced or just in local conditions.

Quick Farmer's Cheese

1 quart of whole milk

2-4 Tbsp lemon juice

butter muslin or a clean tea towel with a tight weave

salt and herbs

Heat your milk slowly in a non-reactive pot, stirring with a wooden spoon to 175 F (about 80 C). It will look 'foamy' around the edges. once you've made this cheese a few times, you can use this as a sign of when to add the acid without a thermometer.

Stir in the lemon juice and let the curds 'set' 15-20 minutes.

Pour into a colander lined with cheese cloth and let drain an hour to an hour and a half.

If you're in a hurry you can pick up the bundle and squeeze out the whey out with gloved hands.  Careful, it's hot!

Add salt and herbs. Form into a button.

Serve it forth or chill to use in the next week.

Substitutions:

Farm fresh milk is best. You may use cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, reindeer, camel, yak, etc.

Store bought pasteurized milk is acceptable as long as it's not 'ultra pasteurized'.

To set the curds you may also use other citrus juices or acids like vinegar or rennet.

If you soak it in cold water for a few hours then press it under a slab you have made Paneer.

Paneer (also Panir or Paner) is an acid set, non-melting farmer's cheese.

What to do with the whey (other than converting it to bacon by feeding it to the pigs)? The whey is the liquid strained away from the button.

Original recipe from Platina: De Recocta. We heat the whey which was left from the cheese in a cauldron over a slow fire until all the fat rises to the top; this is what the country-folk call recocta, because it is made from leftover milk which is heated up. It is very white and mild. It is less healthful than new or medium-aged cheese, but it is considered better than that which is aged or too salty. Whether one is pleased to call it cocta or recocta, cooks use it in many pottages, especially in those made of herbs.

- Andrews, E. B. trans. Platina. De Honesta Voluptatae. L. de Aguila. Venice, 1475. St. Louis: Mallinckrodt, 1967.

Redaction: Save the whey, slowly heat to over 185F to precipitate the milk solids. You will see it happen! Strain through cheese cloth, salt and use in other recipes or eat plain!

Or... some recipes use more acid (vinegar or citrus) to make ricotta and other products.

YIS

Adrienne d'Evreus. 207-651-5837 adrienne.devreus@gmail.com 

Heathen Peas

Heathen Peas or “Heidenische Erweiz”

2 cups sliced almonds
2/3 cup honey
A squeeze of lemon or lime
1 tsp water
"Good" spices-
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp black peppercorn
Pinch mace
1/2 pinch clove
1/2 pinch freshly grated nutmeg
Method:
1. Whisk honey, water and lemon in a small sauce pan. Simmer on low, stirring occasionally, until it caramelizes.
2. Grind almonds in a food processor until they are very fine and look a bit oily.
3. Grind pepper, add all spices to almonds and pulse to incorporate.
4. Add almond mixture to caramelized honey and bring back up to hard ball stage (250-266F).
4. Pour out onto granite or cutting board.
5. When it's cool enough to handle, roll into small balls.
6. Enjoy!


The translation from: https://guoterspise.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/recept-63-heidenische-erweiz/
http://amostpeculiarmademoiselle.blogspot.com/2013/08/heathen-peas-14th-century-sweets.html
Recipe from: http://www.food.com/recipe/heathen-saracen-peas-199187
and another https://eldrimner.wordpress.com/tag/almonds/


The first time I tried to make these I attempted, by weight, to redact the translation of the mid 14th c German text.  "A third as much honey" So... 12 oz almonds, 4oz honey?  It didn't work, so I went back to the internet and found other attempts, redactions and recipes.  Using these gentles trials, errors and successes as a basis, I made my own.  Several times.  People liked it!  As funny as these little balls looked, they put them in their mouths and said "yum!".

It won Queen's Choice at fall Crown A.S.XLIX.

Quick Farmer's Cheese

The production of cheese for food is ancient. The definite origins are unknown though there are many theories and oral histories.

It is a versatile and tasty byproduct of 'too much milk'. Many factors govern the final product including the kind of milk used, what you use to set the curd (Rennet or acid), cultures and other flavoring additions and further processing including bacteria and mold as well as local conditions.

Quick Farmer's Cheese

1 quart of whole goat milk

2-4 Tbsp lemon juice

cheese cloth

salt and herbs

Heat your milk slowly in a non-reactive pot, stirring with a wooden spoon to 175 F (about 80 C). It will look 'foamy' around the edges.

Stir in the lemon juice and let the curds 'set' 10-15 minutes.

Pour into a colander lined with cheese cloth and let drain an hour to an hour and a half.

If you're in a hurry you can pick up the bundle and squeeze out the whey.

Add salt and herbs. Form into a button.

Serve it forth or chill to use in the next week.

Substitutions:

Farm fresh milk is best. You may use cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, reindeer, camel, yak, etc.

Store bought pasteurized milk is acceptable as long as it's not 'ultra pasteurized'.

To set the curds you may also use other citrus juices or acids like vinegar or rennet.

If you soak it in cold water for a few hours then press it under a slab you have made Paneer.

Paneer (also Panir or Paner) is an acid set, non-melting farmer's cheese.

What to do with the whey (other than converting it to bacon by feeding it to the pigs)? The whey is the liquid strained away from the button.

Original recipe from Platina: De Recocta. We heat the whey which was left from the cheese in a cauldron over a slow fire until all the fat rises to the top; this is what the country-folk call recocta, because it is made from leftover milk which is heated up. It is very white and mild. It is less healthful than new or medium-aged cheese, but it is considered better than that which is aged or too salty. Whether one is pleased to call it cocta or recocta, cooks use it in many pottages, especially in those made of herbs.

- Andrews, E. B. trans. Platina. De Honesta Voluptatae. L. de Aguila. Venice, 1475. St. Louis: Mallinckrodt, 1967.

Redaction: Save the whey, slowly heat to over 185F to precipitate the milk solids. You will see it happen! Strain, salt and use in other recipes or eat plain!

Or... some recipes use more acid (vinegar or citrus) to make ricotta and other products.

YIS

Adrienne d'Evreus.

Heat your milk slowly in a non-reactive pot.  Gently stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to help distribute the heat evenly.

You will witness the milk begin to steam and form little bubbles around the perimeter of the pot.

 

Confirm that an adequate temperature has been achieved with a thermometer if you'd like.  Between 175 and 180F or around 80C should be sufficient.

 

Remove from the heat.  Pour in your acid or rennet and wait for the curd to set.  The process begins instantly and looks like curdled milk.  Let it sit and react for about 10-15min.

 

Once the curd has set, strain the whey away from the curds through cheese cloth over a strainer set in a pan if you want to save the whey.  If you've only used 2 Tbsp of the lemon juice the whey will still be milky.  If you want to process it further, remember not to strain it into the sink!

You may hasten the process of straining the whey by picking up the cheese cloth by all four corners together and hanging it over the pot or even holding the four corners of the cloth in one hand and  squeezing it with the other.  Let it cool a little before you do this or wear a clean, protective glove.

 I ground coarser salt with a mortar and pestle to make my own cheese salt.

Pinch, wash and chop fresh herbs to liven up your lemony cheese.