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 little queen of the East

Known in song as the quick little queen of the east, Alexandre Saint Pierre and I wrote these words for Duchess Anna's scroll:

An Eastern Tiger in Truth

All hear tell of Anna Ophelia
Halloway Tarragon.
Mother, duchess, equestrian.
She is a shining beacon,
a paragon of virtue,
an example for us all
in either peace or war.
Thus we, Brennan & Coailfhionn
swiftly name her a Tyger of the East
on this xxx of January, a.s. l.



Which were quickly and deftly translated into Latin by Steffan ap Kennydd

Tigris Orientalis Vero

Omnes cognoscant Annam Opheliam Holloviam Tarragon.
Matrem, ducissam, caballariam.
Haec est ignis nitidus, specimen virtutis
Exemplar pro nobis omnibus
Et in pace et in bello
Itaque Nos Brennan et Caolfhionn
Eam dicimus velociter
Tigrem Orientis
Hoc die XXX [tricesimo] Januaris anno Societatis L [quinquagesimo].

Phrase of the Month

alenda lux ubi orta libertas

Light [is] to be nourished where liberty [has] arisen. Or "let learning be cherished..."

Cardweaving, beginner class.

Cardweaving, beginner class.

History

Card woven finds as early as the 3^rd century. Edging fabric in the 6^th century. Bands have been found woven of wool, linen, silk, cotton, and combinations of these. Cards have been found made of wood, ivory, bone, leather and other substances with 4-8 holes.

Weaving

The only thing you need for card weaving are cards and thread. Other aids include shuttle, beater, comb and loom.

Patterns

Warping pattern and the turning pattern control the final result. The weft will only show a bit on the edges and diagonally. The kits are warped for this pattern with 16 blue, 10 red and 14 tan:

From Card Weaving by Candace Crockett. Isbn 0-934026-61-0

A common turning pattern is four turns forward and four turns back. Mix it up by turning in sets of six. You could turn all in one direction but ultimately you will either end up twisting the warp threads so much there will be no room to turn the cards or reversing the direction so they unravel.

Formula for warp length = 1.2 x final length + 50 cm http://www.stringpage.com/tw/basictw.html

Weaving the kit

Thread the cards in your pattern from front to back. Tie the four threads from each card in a knot and move on to the next card until they're all threaded in a stack spaced several inches from the knots. In your next project you can experiment with threading some of the cards from the back to the front (S vs Z threading) alternately or half of your pattern.

When you have threaded all the cards tie them all together at one end. Comb the threads with your fingers as you hold your cards, smooth them out as much as you can (a wide toothed comb can be helpful here) and trim and tie the other end in a knot as well.

Fasten your weaving so that it's under tension. One end tied to a doorknob or stationary object, the other end tied to your waist is one option.

Make sure all the cards are aligned with A-D on the top and you can put your hand in the space in the middle (the shed). Put your weft thread through this space and let it dangle about 4” out the other side. Turn your cards ¼ turn away from you. Slide your cards a little forward and back if you need to to clear space for the beater or your hand in the new shed and beat down the threads. Pass the weft back through the new shed and repeat until A-D is on the top again (you will have completed 4 turns. Now do 4 turns toward you. Repeat this 4 away and 4 toward once more and check to see if you like the pattern.

Happy Weaving! ~Adrienne d'Evreus adrienne.devreus@gmail.com 207-651-5837

SCA Scroll Layout, Introduction and References

Scroll Layout for SCA Awards

By: Adrienne d'Evreus

Adrienne.dEvreus@gmail.com 1.207.651.5837

In the East Kingdom, awards are often accompanied by scrolls. Scrolls are made by volunteers given assignments by the East Kingdom Signet. I am one of those volunteers and I hope someday soon you will be too!

When planning a scroll, the first place I start is with the assignment itself, the recipient's name and title, the award being given and any information about the reason for the award if it's available. I reach out to the contact I have been given and research the information I have received about the recipient including the nationality and time period of their persona.

Cennino Cennini, a 14^th century artist says, "Strive and delight always to copy the best things you can find, made by the hand of great masters." (Broecke 47) This medieval craftsman teaches us to make tracing paper (Broecke 46). I delight in the fact that copying was traditional and tracing paper was used by some medieval scribes. Remember, you are a volunteer, this should be fun! We're here to learn about history and re-create it. These scrolls should enrich your life as well as the life and home of the recipient.

So, in books and online, find sources that fit your recipient's persona and modify them with information from the Scribe's Handbook and information from Ygraine'shandout to lay out your design.

Based on frame sizes at Michaels, Alexandre Saint Pierre put together this table, which I find very helpful.

Mat Opening Size	Maximum Artwork Size
3.5x5"	3x4.5"
4x6"	3.5x5.5"
5x7"	4.5x6.5"
6x8"	5.5x7.5"
8x10"	7.5x9.5"
8.5x11"	8x10.5"
10x13"	9.5x12.5"
11x14"	10.5x13.5"

From the Scribe's Handbook we can see some common frame sizes:

4x6", 5x7", 8x10", 8.5x11", 10x20", 11x14", 12x16", 16x20"

Thank you for your time and interest in re-creating medieval and renaissance pieces of art. Have fun and feel free to contact me with questions or for help.

References:

Broecke, Lara. Cennino Cennini's Il Libro Dell'Arte, A new English traslation and commentary with Italian trascription. 2015.

Brown, Jamin. Personal communication with Alexandre Saint Pierre

Kell, Susan. Scroll Layout for SCA Awards by Mistress Ygraine of Kellswood. 2002, 2007.

http://signet.eastkingdom.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/EK-Scribes-Handbook-2015.pdf

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