To Make a Paste of......How to Make Fruit Paste

Paste of quince (amber), apricot (yellow) and strawberries (red)

Baronial 12th Night Plum Paste 

Late last year I started working with making fruit paste. My earliest experiment was a paste made of quince.  Since then I have expanded my experience by making Spanish Marmalade (a truy decadent confection made from dates with powdered pearls and gold leaf), and pastes made from apples, raspberries, strawberries and apricots. The most recent event that I was able to participate in included assorted fruit pastes.

Fruit paste was a very common item to find as part of an Elizabethan Banqueting course. It was a way of preserving a fruit so that it could be enjoyed year round.  Some of the earliest recipes for fruit pastes were made of quinces.  The recipe for Chardequynce below indicates that the past was to be used for the stomach. Sugar was believed to have medicinal benefits, and to "close" the stomach and help with the digestion of food.

Chardequynce         C. 1444

Chardecoynes that is good for the stomach is thus made: take a quart of clarified honey and 2 ounces of powder of pepper and meddle them together, and then take 20 quinces and 10 wardens (a kind of pear) and pare them and take out the kernels and the cores and seeth them in a clean [ale]-wort till they be tender and then stamp them in a mortar as small as thou mayest and then strain them through a strainer and that that will not [go] well through put in again and stamp it oft and oft drive it through a cloth or strainer, and if it be too dry put in half a saucerful or a little more [or wort?] for to get out the other the better and then put it to the honey and set it on the fire and make it seeth well and stir fast with a great staff and if there be 2 stirrers it is the better for both: if it be [not] strongly stirred, it will set [stick] to the vessel and then it is lost; and seeth it till it [be] sodden thick and then take it down off the fire and when it is well nigh cold put in 1/4 ounce of ginger and as much of canell [cinnamon] powdered and mddle them well together with a slice and then let it cool and put it in a box; this manner of making is good, and if it [is] thus made it will be black; if thou wilt make more at once, take  more of each one after the proportions, as much as though list.

Another manner of making and is better than the first: for to put in 2 parts of honey and 3 parts of sugar and then shall this be better than the other, and in all other things do as thou did before, for thou mayest well enough seeth thy quinces in water, and it is good enough though put no wort thereto, and if thou wilt, thou mayest make it without wardens, but it is the better with wardens.

The third manner of making is this, and is the best of all, and that is for to take sugar and quinces alike much in weight, and no honey nor pears and in all other things do as thou didst before, and this whall be whiter than that other, in asmuch as the sugar is white [so] shall the chardequynce be.

A Leechbook, Royal Medical Society MS 136

To make drie Marmalade of Peaches     C.  1587

Image taken from: A.W. A book of Cookrye (1587)

Take your peaches and pare them, and cut them from the stones, and mince them very finely, and steep them in rosewater, then strain them with rosewater through a coarse cloth or strianer into your pan that you will seeth it in: You must have to every pound of your peaches half a pound of sugar finely beaten, and put it into your pan that you do boil it in: You must reserve out a good quantity to mould your cakes or prints withall of that sugar, then set your pan on the fire and stir it till it be thick or stiff that your stick will stand upright by itself, then take it up and lay it in a platter or charger in pretty lumps as big as you will have the moulds or prints, and when it is cold print it on a fair board of sugar: and print thereon a mould or what knot or fashion you will, and bake it in an earthen pot or pan upon the embers, or in a fair cover, and keep them continually by the fire to keep them dry.

A. W., A Book of Cookrye (1587)

To make Marmalade of Damsins or Prunes     C. 1573

TAke Damsins, which ar ripe, boyle them on the Fyre with a lyttle fayre water tyll they bee softe, then draw them through a course Boulter as ye make a tart set it on the Fyre agayne seeth iton height with sufficient sugar, as you do your Quinces, dash it with sweete water. &c. and box it.  If you wil make it of Prunes, euen likewise doo put some Apples also to it, as you dyd to your Quinces.

This wise you may make Marmylade of Wardens, Peares, apples, & Medlars, Seruits or Checkers, strawberys euery one by him selfe, or els mixt it together, as you thik good.

Partridge, John., The treasurie of commodius conceits (1573)


The method that I use to make fruit paste is very simple although it can be quite time consuming to get the paste to the proper thickness and also to dry appropriately.  I have found that the paste can be quite sticky, and I roll it in sugar before serving.  This gives the pastes a very pretty jewel like quality.

I start with 1 cup of applesauce (I have found through trial and error that applesauce contains the correct amount of pectin to set the paste once it is cooked and enough water to dissolve the sugar without adding additional water.  To the applesauce I add from 1 1/2 to 2 cups of prepared fruit.  I then add equal amounts of sugar, or a mix of sugar and honey.

I like to "heat" the fruit, applesauce and sugar mix until the sugar has dissolved. At this point I will puree the fruit in a blender (yay for modern technology), and then strain it through a strainer returning  it to a pan set upon a medium to medium high heat.

Note: The pan you use *must* be non-reactive 

Heat the fruit mixture to 225 degrees F. and continue to stir at this temperature until the paste has thickened to the point that you can run your spoon through it and it leaves a trench behind in the pan.  You will also note at this point when you stir your fruit paste it comes away from the bottom and sides of the pan.  I have had the pastes come together in as little as 30 minutes and a batch that took almost 90 minutes to reach this point.

Once you have reached this point (and not before) pour your paste into a plan that has been prepared with parchment paper that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray (trust me on this).  I keep my fruit pastes in my oven with the light turned on until they are dry to the touch on top; I then flip them over till the other side dries. This has taken as little as 24 hours and as much as four days--again it depends on the kind of fruit and the humidity.

Once the paste is dry, you can cut it into shapes and roll it in sugar to serve.  OR--you can store it in a airtight container, wrapped in parchment paper and plastic wrap until you need it.  The longer it is stored the dryer it gets.  As near as I can tell, it stores indefinitely, but you should probably use it within two or three months of making it.

#medievalfood  #scafeast  #scacook  #historicfood #elizabethan

To Candy any Root, Fruits, or Flowers

Sugared Plums

Baronial 12th Night 

In preparation for serving the dessert course at an upcoming SCA event I have been working with preserving a variety of roots, fruits and yes...earlier this year I preserved flowers (see: To Candy Flowers). So the method I am using is based on the method below:

Dissolve sugar, or sugar-candy in Rose-water, boyl it to an height, put in your roots, fruits or flowers, the syrup being cold, then rest a little; after take them out, and boyl the sirrup again, then put in more roots, &c. then boyl the syrup a third time to an hardness, putting in more Sugar, but not Rose-water put in the roots &c the syrup being cold, and let them stand till they candy (Markham).

I am not using rose water in my candying. I personally enjoy the taste of roses, and I also enjoy the scent that the rosewater gives to food when you use it. However, rose water is not a taste most people are familiar with and it is very much one of those like it/hate it tastes. I am cooking for a wide audience, which is the reason I am not using rosewater. I am also not boiling three times. I did use a very similar method last year to glace cherries. The entire process took nine days and the flavor of the fruit was very deep with a honey like flavor. If you can go this route, please do. Here is the method I am using.

To candy any roote, fruite or flower.

Dissolue Sugar, or sugar candy in Rose-water, boile it to an height, put in your rootes, fruits or flowers, the sirrop being cold, then rest a little, after take them out and boyle the sirrop againe, then put in more roots, &c. then boile the sirrop the third time to an hardnesse, put∣ting in more sugar but not Rose-water, put in the roots, &c. the sirrop being cold and let them stand till they candie. The English house-vvife Containing the inward and outward vertues which ought to be in a compleate woman. As her skill in physicke, surgery, cookery, extraction of oyles, banqueting-stuffe, ordering of great feasts, preseruing of all sorts of wines, conceited secrets, distillations, perfumes, ordering of wooll, hempe, flax, making cloth, and dying, the knowledge of dayries, office of malting, of oates, their excellent vses in a family, of brewing, baking, and all other things belonging to an houshold. A worke generally approued, and now the fourth time much augmented, purged and made most profitable and necessary for all men, and the generall good of this kingdome. By G.M. Markham, Gervase, 1568?-1637.

Interpreted Recipe

1-2 pounds of peeled, cored and sliced fruit or roots (I have candied plums, apples, pears, cantaloupe, ginger, orange and lemon peels, dried figs, cherries, beets, parsnips, yellow and orange carrots)
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup honey or corn syrup
1 cup water

Heat your sugar, honey (or corn syrup) and water to 235 degrees. Add your fruit and cook for 20 minutes. Most fruits will become transparent in the process. Do NOT let your temperature rise above 235 degrees. After fruit has cooked for 20 minutes, remove from syrup and place on a screen to dry.


Candied Figs, Ginger and Red Anise Seed Comfits

When I start the process of boiling the sugar I preheat my oven to the lowest temperature available and then turn it off when it is heated. After the fruit has been removed to the screen, I place the fruit in the heated oven and leave it overnight. Your fruit should be dry to the touch, if not, flip the fruit over on the screen and allow for continued drying. 

Some observations on the things that I have recently candied: 

Cantaloupe took four days to completely dry, pears and plums took three days.
If you are using dried fruit (like figs or apricots) you must first rehydrate them in warm water.
Make sure the fruit is dry when you add it to the sugar syrup.
A dip in temperature after fruit is added is normal.
The more humid it is, the less likely fruit will dry as expected-don't worry-it will get there.

Works Cited

Markham, G. (n.d.). Countrey Contentments, or the English Huswife: containing the Inward and Outward Vertues which ought to be in a Compleate Woman, 1623 London. Retrieved August 30, 2015, from LSE Library: http://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:heh898zor

Ladie Graies Manchets (1594) and Robert Mays French Bread (1685)

Manchet Bread -three loaves from one recipe

Can you imagine eating two to three pounds of bread a day? Or following it up with a gallon of ale? During the late medieval period, that was the standard ration of food given to individuals from nobility to castle garrisons. It is a staggering amount of bread to be eaten daily. Bread was an important staple of the medieval diet, in fact, it was the most basic and common element on every table.  

Bread could be produced as trenchers, which were used in lieu of plates, or as "table bread" or pain de mayne. The Menagier de Paris not only gives specific instructions on how trenchers are to be made, but even advises his wife that four-day old trencher bread would be the best to use for a dinner party.  

"Trencher bread, three dozen of half a foot in width and four fingers tall, baked four days before and browned, or what is called in the market Corbeil bread (Le Menagier de Paris)."

Table bread was produced from cereal grains and can be dated back to Ancient Mesopotamia.  Grains such as millet, wheat or barley were ground into flour, wet with a liquid, shaped and cooked.  With the addition of yeast, the dough would rise and the bread would become lighter.

Recently I have been experimenting with medieval bread recipes; specifically, two recipes found in Madge Lorwin’s “Dining with William Shakespeare”. Here are my thoughts.  First, our flour is much better ground then medieval flour.  Not far from here there is a stone mill that will mill flour for you, which means you can get the added benefit of a bit of stone with your meal. In lieu of purchasing stone ground whole wheat flour, I mix my flour 3:1 ration of unbleached white to whole wheat. No stones—BONUS!

The first recipe I worked with was Robert May’s French Bread, which is very different from what you would normally think of.  This recipe results in “buns” that are about the size of a hamburger bun, it’s salty, crusty and crumbly on the inside.

To make French Bread the best way.

Take a gallon of fine flour, and a pint of good new ale barm or yeast, and put it to the flour, with the whites of six new laid eggs well beaten in a dish, and mixt with the barm in the middle of the flour, also three spoonfuls of fine salt; then warm some milk and fair water, and put to it, and make it up pretty stiff, being well wrought and worked up, cover it in a boul or tray with a warm cloth till your oven be hot; then make it up either in rouls, or fashion it in little wooden dishes and bake it, being baked in a quick oven, chip it hot. (May, 1685)

Recipe

1 Cup lukewarm water

2 cakes fresh yeast or 2 Tbsp. dried yeast

1 Cup lukewarm milk

1 Tbsp. salt

1 egg white

6 cups sifted unbleached flour

Pour the water into a large mixing bowl. Crumble or sprinkle the yeast into the water and let it stand until the yeast softens and expands .Add the milk, salt, and egg white and beat until the egg white is blended in.

Stir in five cups of the flour, one cup at a time, until all is absorbed. Sprinkle the remaining flour on your work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Pat the dough back and forth between your hands until it is coated with flour. Then knead it for five minutes. Put the dough into a clean, warmed mixing bowl large enough to permit the dough to double in size. Cover with a clean cloth or plastic bowl cover and set to rise in a warm place or an unheated oven. When the dough has doubled in size—in 1 1 ½ hours—turn it out on a floured work surface and bread into a ball.

Divide the ball into twelve more or less equal parts, and knead each one into a ball. Flatten each ball with the palm of your hand to a thickness of ½ inch, and, with a sharp knife, cut around the circumference of the roll 1/8 inch halfway between the top and bottom.  Place the rolls two inches apart on a floured cookie sheet. Punch holes in the tops and set the rolls to rise—forty five minutes to an hour—until doubled in size.  Bake at 400 degrees for twenty minutes, or until golden brown.  Cool on a wired grill (Lorwin, 1976).

I read somewhere, and I wish I had kept a record of where I read it, that to imitate ale barm, you use a mixture of ale and yeast.  This is one of the areas I diverted from the recipe.  I used some of my son’s homemade ale ¼ cup to 2 tablespoons of yeast. I also added a tablespoon of sugar and 1 cup of the 3:1 ratio flour to my starter.  I allowed the starter to proof….ok….I went to a movie, and then shopping for groceries…you get the idea. I threw all of the rules out the window…and I was pleasantly surprised at the sponge that I had when I returned home. At that point I followed the recipe exactly.

The other bread that I have been experimenting with is Manchet. There are several variations of the recipe available.  Manchet was the most common kind of bread eaten. The loaves are made with the best flour, they should develop a good crust, with a soft, dense interior when completed.

The making of manchets after my Ladie Graies use.

Take two peckes of fine flower, which must be twice boulted, if you will have your manchet verie faire: Then lay it in a place where ye doe use to lay your dowe for your bread, and make a litle hole in it, and put in that water as much leaven as a crab, or a pretie big apple, and as much white salt as will into an Egshell, and all to breake your leaven in the water, and put into your flower halfe a pinte of good Ale yeast, and so stir this liquor among a litle of your flower, so that ye must make it but thin at the first meeting, and then cover it with flowre, and if it be in the winter, ye must keepe it verie warm, and in summer it shall not need so much heate, for in the Winter it will not rise without warmeth. Thus let it lie two howers and a halfe: then at the second opening take more liquor as ye thinke will serve to wet al the flower. Then put in a pinte and a halfe of good yest, and so all to breake it in short peeces, after yee have well laboured it, till it come to a smoothe paste, and be well ware at the second opening that yee put not in too much liquor sodenlie, for then it wil run, and if ye take a litle it will be stiffe, and after the second working it must lie a good quarter of an hower, and keep it warme: then take it up to the moulding board, and with as much speede as is possible to be made, moulde it up, and set it into the Oven, of one pecke of flower ye make ten caste of Manchets faire and good.

(Wallace, 2011)

Recipe

¼ cup ale or beer lukewarm + lukewarm water to equal 2 cups

2 tbsp. dry yeast

1 tbsp. salt

2 cups whole wheat flour

4 cups all-purpose flour

Makes 6 “Elizabethan” size rolls or 8 dinner rolls or two medium sized loaves - 1 large loaf

Peck = 14 pounds

Mix the yeast and the ale together and add water to equal 2 cups.  Mix the two flours together, and when the yeast has softened, add the salt and stir in flour to form a dough (this will take anywhere from 4 ½ to 5 cups).  Knead until it becomes elastic and dough has formed. Cover and let dough rise until doubled in bulk.  This will take anywhere from an hour to two hours.

Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead into a smooth ball.  At this point you can divide it into two loaves, 6-8 “rounds”, or 12 small rolls.  Flatten your dough with the palm of your hand and cut ¼ “all the way around the side between ½ and ¾ of the way between the top and the bottom of your roll.  You can also slash the top in a decorative pattern if you choose.  Let them rise until doubled in bulk.

Bake your bread in a 400 degree oven until golden brown.  It should sound “hollow” when you pick it up and thump it on the bottom.

This bread is dense and heart and has become the favored bread in our house.  When I make bread, this is the one “the fam” asks for.  It is a very forgiving sort of bread.  I have made the sponge by adding a cup of flour to the yeast and ale mix and walking away, and running errands for several hours and then returning to complete the bread.  I prefer to make six hamburger bun size rolls, or, if I’m feeling especially lazy, two big round loaves. I have varied the flours and have added eggs and milk at times also.

Works Cited

Le Menagier de Paris. (n.d.). Retrieved June 5, 2015, from http://www.daviddfriedman.com/: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/

Lorwin, M. (1976). Dining with William Shakespeare. New York: H. Wolff.

May, R. (1685). The Accomplisht cook, or the Art & Mystery of Cookery. Retrieved May 16, 2015, from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22790/22790-h/main.html

Wallace, S. (2011, March). The good Huswifes Handmaide . Retrieved August 30, 2015, from http://www.staff.uni-giessen.de/gloning/ghhk/