An original Subtlety
This subtlety project started as another redaction recipe in the book “Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi”. Had I presented just the twist, without any decoration the taster would enjoy and amazingly complex dish of fruit, wine and spice; however they would have been visually underwhelmed with the presentation. Think cow patty but tasty. The shape lends itself well to a crown or coronet. I could have gone with this idea by gilding the pastry, studding it with pearls and lapis stones, inserting rock candy sugar “diamonds” but I didn’t think that was going to be visually impressive enough. Then I thought of doing two snakes eating the other snakes’ tail, while doing painted scales of dough and painting dragon heads; however Scappi was very insistent that this was a rolled pastry. I wanted something that fit the shape of the twist while giving the viewer the sense of something not of land. A true subtlety. The idea of an underwater dessert was born.
A few elements were added to the twist for this to work. A larger “opening” for where a sea creature could enter and exit. The shell would need to be painted. Some period coloring is too poisonous to use so alternatives found. Instead, I decided to add a few things found around the larger “shell” like smaller marzipan seashells, coloring them with spices. Then using special sugar for sand. The final touch was the idea of forming seaweed. I had first thought of doing marzipan seaweed, but I already had marzipan seashells. Next I thought of doing a spinach pastry but I wanted everything to be edible. After a few days of entertaining wilder and wilder imagery, sugar became my go to for the rescue. The Scappi Twist as a dish grew into a subtlety, not because of its original beauty and shape, but something more than the original.
Subtlety – A short overview of food as art:
The intention of a subtlety is to create an experience rather than something given as a gift or sold. The subtlety it not durable, it spoils, it has a fixed life-span that ends when it is eaten. The subtlety entered the dining hall in motion: the scene is wheeled in, fire blazing out of the mouths of beasts and the actors are put into life-like poses animated by other performers or the imagination. (Martins)
Monarchs put the feasts to good use as ways to make a vivid point, i.e. the inducing of guests to pledge allegiance to a planned crusade. An example: Philip the Fair, at the Feast of the Pheasant, showcased a giant Saracen entering the feasting hall leading an elephant (there is a question about the edibility of said pachyderm), with a knight (Oliver de La Marche) playing the role of the captive Eastern church. (Wheaton, pg. 8/Martins). Another example: Henry VIII. George Cavendish wrote about a feast sponsored by the great Tudor king in such waxing enthusiasm for the feast “…I do both lack wit in my gross old head and cunning in my bowels to declare the wondrous and curious imaginations in the same invented and devised.” (Henisch, pp. 236/Martins) The feasting was a display to move men and women into wondrous thoughts, glossing over the harsh reality of court life or a grand and compelling gesture.
A subtlety could be simple items. A redressed peacock on proud display or stuffed fowl riding roast piglets; or as elaborate as a full pastry castle with trees containing candied fruit, glazed and stuffed mythical beasts, and musicians. Allegorical scenes were not uncommon, with themes like “Castle of Love” or “Lady of the Unicorn”. A subtlety could made of just the edible, such as a re-skinned peacock, or as a combination of paper mache and lumber to accent the food in the display. These decorative subtleties were for powerful displays and less about eating, with the production being done by carpenters, metal smiths and painters and very little with chefs. Horace Warpole describes a banquet given in honor of the birth of Duke of Burgundy, where the centerpiece was of wax figures moved by clock work at the end of the feast to represent the labor of the Dauphiness and the happy birth of the heir to the monarchy. (Martins/Craig, pp. 17)
Creating a display:
Creating a display seemed to rely heavily on allegorical content from myth, fantasy or biblical content, such as the Pegasus from myth at the Roman table (Scully, pp. 107) or Lady of the Unicorn. The thought process that goes behind making a display was how each animal was viewed in allegorical terms.
“…the horns of an antelope might get caught in a bush in the same way humans might get caught in a life of sin. The nightingale represented love, the elephant implied chastity, the ape, lewdness and lust and the peacock, the purity of someone who never turns to sin.” (Martins).
The main display item, per these views should play upon the strength of the subjects or as humorous joke on the subject matter presented.
The seashell motif is made in the nature of humor, an underwater seascape, and miles from the ocean in a semi-arid landscape, eaten by those who do not breathe water. And should the items be introduced to water, they would either melt or come undone by that which the represented items live in.
Seashells in Italian Artwork:
Searching for Italian seashell artwork wasn’t difficult. The first image that came up is Sandaro Botticelli’s famous work “The Birth of Venus” 1485
Image 1 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sandro-Botticelli by Sandaro Bottecelli
This is an amazing piece of work with an allegory for every image painted. The painting used tempera – a method where water and egg yolk mixed with pigment. Sometimes whole egg with or without glue or milk were also used. The picture is canvas instead of wood. (http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/old-masters/botticelli.htm). Aphrodite’s shell is not the type of shell I need for my display, just a representation that seashells did appear in Italian paintings of the 1500.
Image 2 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220957925439888372/
Aguamanil de Nautilus ,1570. Colección Francesco I de Medici. H: 30 cm. Palazzo Pitti, Museo degli Argenti, Florencia, Italia.
This artwork, featuring a nautilus shell, shows the shell type for which my subtlety is based on. Unfortunately, due to the weight of the twist and the pastry shell’s fragility, there is no way I can stand the twist on its side. The twist has to be shown lying down.
Method/Technique:
For an Italian themed event, I wanted to do something very Italian. Scappi is the go to for any good period Italian dish. The twist was just the thing. The first few times I made this, I did not like how the dish turned out. The taste is amazing, but the look is pure cow patty. It needed an overhaul.
First we start with the kitchen, where the food art was made. Scappi’s kitchen, as seen in Plate 1, shows a large spit with a smaller side area of pots, possibly soups, sops or sauces.
Plate 1: Main Kitchen
Plate 2: Pastry Kitchen
Plate 2 shows the second kitchen (Scappi, pp 636, 637) for pastry making. The wood burning section was put above the pastry oven for better control of heat. Different heats were used. By varying the amount of coals allowed under any one dish or dishes. The heats Scappi used ranged from gentle heat, slow flame, hot heat or sprightly flame. There are descriptions calling for dishes to have heat of glowing coals or under hot ash. (Scappi, pp 54) With the heat evenly distributed over the top of the ovens, this gives an almost modern ability to control the heat for pastries.
This varies slightly in how the Tudor ovens have been shown. The fire oven per period cooking show Hampton Court Palace Tudor Kitchen (https://blog.kathrynmcgowan.com/tag/hampton-court-palace-tudor-kitchens/) shows the oven heated with lots of wood and the resulting coals scrapped out. Once the coals are scraped out, dishes of raw food are placed in the oven at various times (as the oven cools) and a wooden door is placed over the opening after each round of dishes goes in. I do not have a wood fire oven. An oversight of the homeowners association I’m sure! I will bring this up at the next meeting. The nerve not to allow fire ovens. Have they no sense of period?! Having not outdoor or even indoor fire heated oven, I set my electric oven at 350 and cooked for 45 minutes.
Scappi wrote on the different types of pastry he used. The kind that was sturdy but discarded. A second pastry made lighter and flakier by the liberal use of butter, eggs and with herbs and/or spices.
Scappi is particular about the pan used for the twist. “Have a Tourte pan…” I did have a nice metal pie pan, similar to the one described by Scappi (Page 644), with a flat bottom and straight sides.
Plate 12: Torte Pan(s)
For the first part, I cut up the dates, mixed in the currants and golden raisins, poured in the wine and added spices into a metal pan. A nice Italian red wine, not period (I wouldn’t trust a 500 year old wine as drinkable no matter how good the vintage). The dried fruit cooked for 30 minutes. Scappi didn’t specify type of wine, just wine. He does reference wines with descriptions of sweet whites, or reds as pleasant or robust. (Scappi, pp 61) I prefer robust reds for their flavor. Cooking diminishes the wine flavors slightly, hence my use of a robust red.
A quick note on Scappi’s recipe:
He called for currents and Corinthian raisins. It is possible that the Corinthian raisins called for were currents however, my believe this is a mistranslation. If Scappi had wanted currants, currants and dates, he would have said Double the amount of currants to the amount of dates used. Hence the use of raisins instead of double the amount of currants.
Next we start with the dough. My daughter was unwilling to be my child slave labor even though I asked nicely. She laughed at me. Ungrateful child, I tell you! Everything mixed well together, with the heavenly scent of rosewater. I was almost able to knead for 15 minutes…maybe, knead until the dough is as smooth as a baby’s bottom. After making this dough many many times, all I can say is you will build up arm muscles.
I let the dough rest for a few minutes while I used a metal colander to strain the excess wine from the fruit. There wasn’t a lot left over, even with the use of an entire bottle, less than a cup of fruity wine. Scappi shows a metal colander in Plate 11. His is a bit shallower than the one I have, also made of metal.
Plate 11: Colander
The pastry dough was rolled out onto the counter. If I did this every day for 10 hours a day, I’d be buff as all get out. Next I spread the wine soaked fruit on top of the dough, and sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon. The rolling was nerve wracking. This was done in one long snake like roll. The ends, due to the space left at the edges will be flaccid, making it easier to roll into a spiral. This leaves the other end open. I could have pinched off the edges and painted them down with butter into the main body or form the opening of a shell. I opted for the shell opening using a stone carved bowl while cooking. I do know the stone bowl was heat resistant and enough of a rounded both to form the “mouth” of the shell.
When the twist came out of the oven there was a split in the pastry. I was on my fourth try in 24 hours. I was out of time and out of supplies. I had to go with what I had. My “fix” was to put a hard sugar coating to contain and cover the art work before painting. This is where I think Scappi would have two or three twists going at a time for a head table. I think my issue with this twist was a yeast split in the dough while cooking. Everything else was on point and on recipe.
For the marzipan, I used molds and hand forming. For the molds, I couldn’t use wooden molds or even metal used in period, they just aren’t available. My skills in carving are nonexistent, nor do I know anyone who has the tools to make these items. I could have attempted to carve the shells by hand with sugar and Arabic gum paste but again I can’t carve worth a darn. Not enough band aids in the world for me at this time and place! I had to go with silicone for the 3D effect.
I was trying for something I hadn’t done before, a pastry style subtlety. For the seaweed, I originally was going to use spinach, egg and flour mixture or possibly another bit of marzipan. The spinach sheets cut into wavy forms then wrapped around wine bottles for the upright seaweed or laid out on a towel for the flat seaweed bed illusion. This idea fell by the way side.
After a bit of research, I found that the wedding of Lucrezia d’Este to Gioavnni Bentivoglio in 1473 Bologna, there were sugar sculptures of gigantic size. The forms ranged from castles, ships, people to animals. (https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wedd/hd_wedd.htm) This means sculpting of sugar is something known during the 1500’s in Italy. So doing sugar sculptures is by no means a stretch of the imagination for this type of artwork.
Using organic cane sugar as opposed to the modern sugar, I had to work with boiling sugar to form the seaweed forms. Each batch had to be carefully poured or risk damaging the kitchen and serious burns to myself and others if they were nearby. Boiling sugar is not something you can just casually toss around, can cause second degree burns. I have personally witnessed the damage done and scars left by boiling sugar. In short words, the skin was melted off as the sugar hit the bone even when water was poured over to cool the hot mess. Boiling sugar is as close to home made napalm as “most” people can make and I excise full caution every time.
What I love about using organic sugar for this project, it boils to the hard crack stage so much faster. I don’t know why, but with in minutes I would have another batch ready to pour for my sea weed. The color was always good (unless I added weird things like snap dragons…hey it was an experiment!). I seriously suggest any cook doing sugar candy use the organic if they have any availability for this item.
A quick notation on sugar –
“Large and prosperous households bought their white sugar in tall, conical loaves, from which pieces were broken off with special iron sugar-cutters. Shaped something like very large heavy pliers with sharp blades attached to the cutting sides, these cutters had to be strong and tough, because the loaves were large, about 14 inches in diameter at the base, and 3 feet high [15th century]…In those days, sugar was used with great care, and one loaf lasted a long time. The weight would probably have been about 30 lb. Later, the weight of a loaf varied from 5 lb to 35 lb, according to the moulds used by any one refinery. A common size was 14 lb, but the finest sugar from Madeira came in small loaves of only 3 or 4 lb in weight…Up till late Victorian times household sugar remained very little changed and sugar loaves were still common and continued so until well into the twentieth century…” (David, pp. 139)
This is as close to modern sugar as we can go without trying for the heavily molasses unrefined for the head table.
The “paints” were brushed onto the shell and marzipan seashells for a more authentic look and feel. I used spices (cinnamon and turmeric) with egg white as the binding. Using spices for paint wasn’t as good as I had hoped. Next time mixing the marzipan with the spices then layering the colored marzipan into the mold, would work better than trying to paint spices on to the already formed dough. My daughter loved the idea of helping me with this part. When she wasn’t sneaking a seashell to eat she was painting as garishly period as possible with the edible paints provided. My seashells are a tad bit tamer by comparison. But they are all lovely and tasty!
The majority of techniques used were by hand or with items as close to period as possible, other than the molds and paint brushes. Neither were available in wood or metal forms. Necessary variations to keep from poisoning those eating the food with non-food grade coloring agents used.
Materials:
Edibles:
Almond meal – Blanched ground almonds. Almonds originated in southwestern Asia as an edible seed and pressed into oil, eaten raw or ground into a flour type consistency. This versatile seed is used as a drink, a flour base for desserts or sugar coated. The almond is grown in Asia, US, Marcona, Spain and Greece. (https://www.britannica.com/plant/almond)
Butter – I used a commercial butter. I have not researched the type of cows for the Italian period (it’s on my list of papers to do!) I could have made my own butter with a blender; however I’m not up for standing for a long time and churning, though I do know how the technique of a butter churn or butter horse.
Cinnamon – Indigenous to the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and successfully replanted to grow in Northern India, East Java and the Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles. The word Cinnamon started from the Greek word for spices with the prefix Chinese. This spice traveled over various routes passing through the hands of Phoenicians and Arabs on its lengthy journey to become a dominant spice in the spice trade wars. (Czarra, pp. 10-12)
Cloves – Native to Moluccas in Indonesia, while successfully growing in Madagascar, Zanzibar and Pemba. Harvested by hand when the clover flower buds turn pink at their base. (Czarra, Pp 12-13)
Corinthian Raisins – Not having access to Corinthian Raisins, I used golden raisins for their coloring and sweetness. The dates and currents were already a lot of brown on the inside, a bit of golden would go well.
Currants – Found in the Greek city of Corinth. Also referenced as Ribes, corinthes, corans, currans, and bastarde corinthes. There are 150 species found in Europe, Asia and North America ranging from black currants, ornamentals, golden currants to gooseberries. (https://ag.umass.edu/sites/ag.umass.edu/files/fact-sheets/pdf/currants.pdf)
Eggs – As this is an Italian dish, the most likely chicken eggs used for this would be the Sicilian Buttercup. Don’t let the name fool you, these chickens roam free because they hate to be caged and are very fierce. Not good pets but excellent eggs and taste. (https://www.americanbuttercupclub.org/about-the-breed.html)
Dates – Originating in the Near East and North Africa, a short distance from Rome, making them easily transported. Aristotle compared the dates to daktylos (fingers) giving them their name. High and sugar, eaten fresh or dried, sometimes ground into a meal or made into a syrup. (Toussant-Sumat, pp. 675-676)
Flour – Ground wheat. Ground grain of any sort can be made into flour. Scappi calls for “Make a dough of two pounds of fine white flour…” (Scappi, pp. 488-489) hence the ground white. The finest grade of flour was made by boulting, a process in which part of the wheat kernel is discarded (out layer) so that only the inner layer is ground. This ground flour is not the “white” flour of today but whiter than the whole wheat flour that would have been available with the grind of the entire wheat kernel. (https://oakden.co.uk/medieval-flour-and-pastry-article/)
Nutmeg – Native to the Banda Islands of Indonesia, nutmeg is the actual kernel of the fruit. Nutmeg can be stored for a long time in airtight containers. The outer fruit/lace of the nutmeg fruit is called mace. (Czarre, pp. 16)
Powdered sugar – Finely ground Sugar.
Rosewater – Scappi mentions rose water as a matter of course for dishes. (Scappi, pp. 42) I have made rosewater before and it was the most astringent tasting thing I have ever put in my mouth. Lovely color but useless for food in my opinion. I went with store-bought for edibility.
Sugar – I used organic sugar. Compared to the normal cane sugar, the difference is pretty startling. Organic sugar has just enough molasses to make the sugar seemed tinged with gold. Compared to actual dark brown sugar, with heavy molasses it seems almost pure white.
Saccharum officinarum “…considered a spice even rarer and more expensive than any other…pharmaceutical use…gives its species name of officinarum.” Considered very expensive till the late 1500. Loaf sugar given the name due to the conical shape derived from refining into a hard and very white refined form. Caffetin or Couffin (English equivalent of “coffer” or “coffin”) named for the form, packed in plaited leaves palm and from the city shipped from called Caffa in the Crimea. Casson a very fragile sugar also considered the ancestor to Castor sugar. Muscarrat considered the best of all sugars, reported to be made in Egypt for the Sultan of Babylon. The Italian name mucchera denotes that it had been refined twice. (Toussaint-Samat, pg. 553-555)
For a complete history on the spice trades via land or via water is a 50 page thesis paper or covered in multiple books such as Nathaniel’s Nutmeg (good story with at least one good fruit tart recipe), The scents of Eden (love this book). Spice: The History of a Temptation, The Spice Route, Dangerous Tastes. The Tastes of Conquest (another excellent book), Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (on my short list to acquire). The short version is spices were trade in ports and markets after long arduous and dangerous journeys via land or sea. Please see the notations on the spices on points/islands of origins.
Paints- Period but not always edible:
Cinnamon – Produces a lovely red coloring, though this does imparts a strong cinnamon flavor to the marzipan.
Cochineal – Spanish Conquistadors conquering Mexico discovered that the Mesoamericans had found the perfect red dye coloring. Dye comes from of a small bug found on cacti. 50,000 to 70,000 bugs are needed per pound of dye. The dye is produced when pouring boiling water over the dead bugs. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/bug-had-world-seeing-red-180961590/) This produces a strong red coloring. In other words, bug juice. I draw the line at knowingly eating this. Because I won’t eat this, I won’t put this in my edible artwork. Replaced with edible paint and cinnamon.
Lapis Lazuli – A mineral used as an expensive pigment in period paintings such as Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian. Considered expensive and used only by accomplished painters with rich patrons. (https://geology.com/gemstones/lapis-lazuli/) Produces lovely blue coloring. Not food grade. Because I could not verify if this was cut with something toxic I replaced the dye with blue edible paint.
Lead – Lead White used for paintings along with gypsum and chalk.(http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/artist-paints/renaissance-colour-palette.htm) Seen in “Miracle of the Slave”, 1548 by Tintoretto. Produces a fine white coloring. Toxic to poisonous. Replaced with white edible paint.
Malachite – A green mineral, found as early as 618 AD for paintings. (https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/5/201/htm). Seen in “Garden of Earthly Delights”, 1504 by Hieronymus Bosch. Produces an amazing green coloration. Not food grade. Because I could not verify if this was cut with something toxic I replaced the dye with spinach juice.
Parsley – Native to the mediterranean from the Apiaceaa family. Attempted use as a green coloring agent. Failure on dying sugar art green but makes a lovely, if interesting, sugar art display. (https://www.britannica.com/plant/parsley)
Pearl – Natural formed when a grain of sand (or other irritant) invades an oyster soft interior. The oyster coats the irritant with fluid called nacre. Many coats are used to smooth out the rough edges. (https://pearls.com/pages/how-pearls-are-formed) Used as early as Roman times for heart disease by grinding pearls. For black bile, ground pearls were mixed with musk. (King, pp. 314). Produces lovely pearlescent shimmer. Attempted to hand grind pearls in my pestle. This did not go well. Could not get a consistent sand like quality. Rough and gritty. Replaced with edible paint to replace gritty chunks.
Saffron – The usable part of the saffron plant are the three stamen. The saffron is part of the Iridaceae family, growing wild from Italy to Kurdistan. Produces a lovely red color and very expensive due to the quantity needed for dying. (ToussaInt-Samat, pp. 518)
Snapdragons – A flowering plant native to the Mediterranean and North America from the Pantaginacea family. Attempted use as a red dye for sugar art. A failure for coloring. (https://www.britannica.com/plant/snapdragon)
Spinach Juice – Spinach is chopped then boiled. The water reserved for coloring of sugar and painting onto pastry crust.
Note on Subtlety:
A subtlety could be made of just the edible, such as a re-skinned peacock, or as a combination of paper mache and lumber to accent the food in the display. These decorative subtleties were for powerful displays and less about eating, with the production being done by carpenters, metal smiths and painters and very little with chefs. Horace Warpole describes a banquet given in honor of the birth of Duke of Burgundy, where the centerpiece was of wax figures moved by clock work at the end of the feast to represent the labor of the Dauphiness and the happy birth of the heir to the monarchy. (Martins/Craig, pp. 17)
Paint brushes:
Per Cennini, paint brushes should be made from the middle hairs of cooked vair tails, trimmed then tied with thread or waxed silk thread before tucking them into a feather shaft. After this is complete find a twig/wooden handle to fit into the other end of the feather shaft. His preference for feather shafts was vulture, goose, chicken hen or dove. (https://www.medievalists.net/2016/08/how-to-make-medieval-artists-tools/) I went with store bought brushes as I am fresh out of vair tails, cat hairs, squirrel hairs and the dog hair available is to curly.
Table Cloth and Dish (es):
For the table cloth I used a white linen cloth. Here are several examples of white linen cloth used in Italian art work during Scappi’s era.
Image 3 The Feast of Herod and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, by Benozzo Gozzoli
A second picture denoting white linen cloth for the table covering.
Image 4 , The Marriage Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese
Both artists depict a feast with white linen. So one can deduct that a white linen cloth for covering a table is, if not mandatory for good taste, at least acceptable for a feast.
Image 3 The Feast of Herod and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, by Benozzo Gozzoli
Here we see table ware of glass and not just metal plates. In the next painting, we see table settings of what looks to be silver or pewter.
Image 4 The Marriage Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese
The twist is served on a metal plate. All materials used were as close to period as possible with documentation of the inedible food paints and the use of substitutions.
Transportation of this artwork has been an absolute pain the arse. All pieces have to be individually wrapped with care for long trips. In period, this art work piece would have only had to travel a few hundred feet from kitchen to table which makes transportation to an event a logistic night mare of trying to transport pieces more fragile than fine crystal that could shatter with every bump, turn or stop.
Complexity:
Had I presented just the twist, without any decoration, the taster would enjoy and amazingly complex dish of fruit, wine and spice; however they would have been visually underwhelmed with the presentation. I wanted to do something more. The shape lends itself well to a crown or coronet. I could have gone with gilding, studding the twist with pearls and lapis stones with rock candy sugar “diamonds”; but I didn’t think that was going to be visually impressive enough. Then I thought of doing two snakes eating the other snakes tail, while doing painted scales of dough and painting dragon heads; however Scappi was very insistent that this was a rolled pastry. I wanted something that fit the shape of the twist, while giving the viewer the sense of something not of land. A true subtlety. The idea of an underwater dessert was born.
Italian Pastry Twist
Translation:
“…get a pound of currants that have been brought to a boil in wine, a pound of dates cooked in that wine and cut up small, and a pound of seeded muscatel raisins that have been brought to a boil in wine; combine all those ingredients and mix them with the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Spread the mixture out over the sheet of dough along with a few little gobs of butter. Beginning at the long edge of dough, roll it up like a wafer cornet, being careful not to break the dough. A twist like that needs only three rolls so it can cook well; it should not be too tight. Grease its surface with melted butter that is not too hot. Begin at one end to roll it up, not to tightly so it become like a snail shell or a bae. Have tourte pan on hand lined with a rather thick sheet of the same dough greased with melted butter and gently put the twist on it without pushing it down. Bake it in an oven or braise it with a moderate heat, not forgetting to grease it occasionally with melted butter. When it is almost done, sprinkle sugar and rosewater over it.
Serve it hot. The tourte pan in which the twists are baked has to be ample and with low sides.”
(Scappi, pp. 488-489)
Dough:
Make a dough of two pounds of fine flour with six fresh egg yolks, two ounces of rose water, an ounce of leaven moistened with warm water, four ounces of fresh butter or rendered fat that does not smell bad, and enough salt. That dough should be kneaded well for half an hour. Make a thin sheet of it, greasing it with either melted butter that is not too hot or with rendered fat. With the pastry wheel cut the edges one after the other, which are always quite a bit thicker than the rest. Sprinkle the dough with four ounces of sugar and an ounce of cinnamon.
(Scappi, pp. 488-489)
Dough Ingredients:
7 cups pastry flour
1 stick of butter
6 egg yolks
1 oz. of sour dough yeast (use sourdough starter or 2 package of regular yeast if sourdough is unavailable)
Melted butter to brush over pastry and pastry sheet
1 tsp salt
4 Tbsp. rose water
Dough Dusting:
4 Tbsp. of sugar
2 Tbsp. cinnamon
Filling:
3 C currants
3 C chopped dates
3 C raisons
1 bottle good wine
1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg
1 tsp rosewater
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 stick of butter, sliced thinly as needed for dotting
Optional:
2 sticks of butter (instead of 1)
1/3 C. rose water
Redaction:
Start with making the dough. Even though the rose water sounds excessive it isn’t. If anything
I’d add another Tbs. and another stick of butter.
I put the flour into the bowl first, with a bit of salt, and then add the butter mixing by hand. Once the butter was mostly incorporated, I slowly added the egg yolks, rose water and yeast. I had to add about a cup of water to help bring everything together.
When Scappi says moisten the yeast, I believe this is where he means add the yeast to a cup of water as this was the only way the dough was going to form. This forms the dough from rough to smooth elastic that is just amazing to work with. Here the finished dough is shown. As smooth as a baby’s bottom.
Note on Butter and Rose Water:
After making this recipe a multiple times, I added more rose water as I was unable to actually smell or taste with just 1 tsp as per Scappi. 1/3 C sounds like a lot and it is; however for this recipe I think a little excess is called for. The taste and smell is just divine!
As for the extra butter, this made the dough an even greater joy to work with. The taste was out of this world. If you want to make two versions, the original and then with the added butter and rose water, you won’t be disappointed!
After the dough was finished, I let it sit while I chopped the dates, and measured out the currants and raisins. Next the spices were measured out and a good red wine found.
A quick note on Corinthian raisins: He called for currents and Corinthian raisins. It is possible that the Corinthian raisins called for were currents however, my believe this is a mistranslation. If Scappi had wanted currants, currants and dates, he would have said Double the amount of currants to the amount of dates used. Hence the use of raisins instead of double the amount of currants.
I used a nice Italian red.
I went with a good red as cooking will leach a bit of flavor out. This red was amazing. Make sure you use one you’re willing to drink and serve to friends. It really makes a difference! Once plump, roughly 30 minutes, pour the fruit into a sieve and let the excess wine drain out. When the fruit mixture is cool enough to handle we get the dough ready for stuffing.
Note: Scappi’s recipe could read to incorporate the spices with the fruit in the wine mixture, or wait till the re-hydrated fruit is finished cooking then mix once you are ready to spread over the dough. My first try at this recipe, I added the spices to the fruit and wine.
I thought about doubling the above recipe to start. That is unnecessary. This recipe will take care of filling all the dough you need.
Roll the other half out and cut into a circle that fits into a pie pan, brush with melted butter the bottom of the pan before putting on the bottom layer of dough. Then brush the dough in the pan with butter. Do not skip the bottom dough layer! This keeps the twist from burning on the bottom.
Roll out the first half of the dough into a thin sheet, trimming the edges to form a nice rectangle. Then lay the mixture on top of the dough leaving ½ inch at the edges. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture. Dot with butter.
Starting from the long edge, roll three times.
Then coil the pastry.
Place on top of the 2nd sheet of dough that is at the bottom of round metal pie tin. Brush with melted butter.
Heat the oven to 350 until done, roughly 30 minutes. When it comes out of the oven dust with sugar and rose water.
For the opening to the Nautalis portion of this subtlety I added a stone dish for the opening. GREASE the dish before you wrap the dough around it… I didn’t do this the first time and the dough cooked onto the stone bowl so that I had to present with the bowl stuck inside. I tried to pass it off as part of the dish but it was still noticed.
Marzipan:
Marzipan is an almond thick paste that can be formed into flowers, trees, birds etc. In period the marzipan would be colored with saffron, cinnamon etc. to produce colors that would sometimes override the flavor of the candy. Sometimes the color was more desired then the flavor and the spicing used would overpower the dish so much so as to be less sumptuous then a less colorful dish. Vivid colors, Wheaton explains, were highly prized and were often achieved at the expense of flavor (Wheaton, pp. 15/Martins) Taillevent also suggested more common spices for green coloring such as parsley, sorrel and winter wheat still green. Gold and silver leaf was brushed onto the surfaces of food i.e. pastries for a greater visual impact. (Martins)
Ymages in Sugar:
And if ye will make any ymages or any other thing in suger that is casten in moldys, seethe them in the same maner that the plate is, and poure it into the moldes in the same manere that the plate is poured, but loeth youre mold be anoyntyd before with a litell oyle of almaundes. (Heiatt, pp. 142)
While this is a great notation that marzipan was used in period, it’s not big on ingredients, so I went to Scappi…and was severely disappointed. Per the notations in Book III. Lean Dishes: Egg dishes (275.1) “Scappi does not give a recipe for pasta di marzapae.” So I had to keep looking for a recipe with ingredients.
It took a few moments but I did find a recipe with ingredients and period.
To make Marzipan. Take almonds appointed as above, & flatten the paste as for making a tart, then form the marzipan as fancy as you want, then take sifted sugar & mix with rose water, & beat it together that it is like a thick batter, cast there a little on the marzipan, & flatten with a well held knife until the marzipan is all covered, then put it into the oven on paper: when you see that it boils thereon & that it does like ice, tear apart from the oven, when it doesn’t boil, & sprinkle on nutmeg: if you want it golden, make it so. (http://www.medievalcookery.com/)
Translation:
And if you will make any images of any other thing in sugar that is cat in molds make them in the same manner that the plate is, and pour it into the molds in the same manner that the plate is poured, but let your mold be anointed before with a little almond oil.
Ingredients:
2 C. Blanched ground almonds
2 C. Powdered sugar
1 Egg white
2 tsp Rose water
Redaction:
I mixed the almond meal and powdered sugar together, being sure to get out all the clumps. Next I added the egg yolk and rosewater so that all would gel together. I had to make two batches as this is just an amazing tasting not-cookie. The fact that I get to form fun images with it is just a bonus. I will note that my powdered sugar was bought instead of taking regular table sugar and grinding finer in a mortar and pestle.
Once the dough had a chance to rest, I pressed it into the shell molds.
The images were allowed to harden a bit more overnight, then painted with spices (Cinnamon and Turmeric). My painting skills are laughable. Egg white was used as the binder for keeping the powdered spices on the marzipan, though I have read that a clear alcohol could also be used; however, I haven’t read of clear alcohol being used in period for a binding only egg white.
I also painted a few with edible paints instead of using actual ground period pigments. The use of spices as paint is interesting but my artwork wouldn’t win at “Cake Wars”. Next time I will try with the spices being incorporated into the dough and the colored dough pieces then pressed into the molds. A learning curve as it were.
I made extra marzipan to make small flower corals that stand upright with multiple branches. Here I rolled out the marzipan and made small twisted strands, colored with cinnamon and turmeric. These strands were attached to a base, and then an egg white wash used to attach the strands together. Here I used cinnamon and turmeric as the contrasting colors. Tasty and beautiful. They do well to compliment the varying heights showing in this display.
My daughter helped me paint the remaining 50 sea shells using more modern paints. She was in the mind set, the bolder the better.
I have to say I love this edible. I could snack on this all day, which is probably why it was so popular in medieval cookbooks.
Sugar Sculpture:
With words by Rodinson, we see that many countries had a way to make and shape sugar.
“: A dish found in every cookery book of the middle ages, called lozenges, losinges, lesynges etc. These different names ended up meaning, in French or neighboring languages, the geometric term losange or lozenge which displaced the word rhombus in Franc, England and, to a varying extent, other countries…It seems…found the recipe translate in Latin and Italian cookery books from the end of the thirteenth and fourteenth century …round plates of sweets cut into rhomboids, which is easier than cutting into rounds …” (Rodinson, pp. 210)
The original recipe is simple a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water I took 1 cup sugar to ½ water and boiled to the softball stage. Coloring is added with the water so as to not disrupt the water ratio. Here I pour the softball sugar onto a pan covered with wax paper. I have seen other sugar confections poured onto marble countertops and holding forms to keep the liquid inside, without any table top covering for the marble. I used what I could period wise and available.
The first 5 tries were abysmal. The first two wouldn’t set up at all. The next three were squishy and couldn’t stand. They were slow melting puddles. The first two I used a candy thermometer and the next three I did the softball stage test with ice water. Not going to lie. I got a bit upset, even shed a few tears as I trashed my failures away. I did get one set of semi usable sugar “seaweed”. The results are sticky but very malleable and unable to stand upright. This is not what I wanted at all! The sea weed was so bad my roommate asked if Shrek had sneezed all over my working space.
I had to change things up and put my big girl panties on after spending a night thinking of different things to fix this mess. I went back to my first experiments with straight up lozenges and ditch the water and went with honey as the main liquid. Better results were achieved.
Recipe:
1 C. Sugar
1 Tbs. rose water for scent
Coloring spice
¼ C. Honey
I ran out of spinach water for green coloring and had to use green food dye. Not pleased with this but after 6 cups and 3 bundles of boiled spinach I was done cooking spinach for the next 4 months. Cochineal was used in an attempt for several other “coral” sugar sculptures until I ran out of bug juice. Again I had to substitute food coloring and cinnamon. I did a few with saffron. This was an expensive experiment but resulted in lovely pieces.
Real Cochineal (bug juice for dying). I didn’t have much so ran out quickly. Once I ran out, I decided I wasn’t willing to eat bug juice and no one else should have to either. I draw the line at this and nonfood grade colors i.e. lapis lazuli and malachite even those were considered good coloring agents.
I laid out parchment paper onto cookie sheets. Rose water was added because I love the smell. It could just as easily have been another type of spice instead of rose water i.e. cinnamon, cardamom, saffron. Then I took the sugar and honey mixture to a hard boil. This is where I can make a smooth line on the back of a wooden spoon with another spoon and the liquid does not fill in the resulting gap.
No candy thermometer used, just period know how or when sugar is at the hard candy break. I had to judge by eye for a certain type of “frothiness” and by the scraping of the liquid off the back of a wooden spoon with another. If the scraped area did not fill in the sugar was ready to pour.
The sugar mixture is carefully poured onto the parchment paper. This is like homemade napalm. Do NOT let this get on your skin or you will have severe burns. Once the melted sugar is cool enough to handle and still malleable, I formed seaweed over coffee mugs. The hardened sugar is as fragile or more so than dried egg shells.
A second type of sugar art was attempted. This time I took the sugar mixture off the stove and let it cool for 60 seconds. I put two bowls of ice next to my work station. Here I slowly poured the liquid sugar over the ice. This will do two things. The sugar will harden into small short, non-formable, sculptures or melt into the ice water that forms. I had both things happen.
I attempted to make one other type of food art for the underwater scene. I tried to make a “lace coral” using a simple recipe of water, oil and flour. Three tries with varying amounts of oil/cochineal colored water/flour ratios and I had to let this experiment go.
The resulting mess wasn’t edible (even before the bug juice) and I had reached my quota of failures for the week.
Conclusion:
This piece of food artwork was 90% new to me. I have never done the Scappi Twist before. So redacting the fruits, the dough and the art idea were 100% new. The marzipan, I had used many years ago but not to the extent of forming and painting. A new skill learned. I have never worked used sugar to form tall, long pieces of artwork. I’m going to be really blunt, there was a lot of swearing and a few tears as things shattered, broke, tore and burned; however I learned a new skill. This subtlety was a lot of new for me and I loved every minute of it.
Is it period? As much as modernly possible with everything that could be made using period ingredients and available period techniques. I do know that I used/and worked with as period ingredients and recipes, with a few exceptions made for health and supplies, that were available.
Is it large enough? For a full 100 person feast, several twists would have been made to serve everyone; however the grande artwork piece would have been reserved for the head table. Here I need to add that a subtlety could made of just the edible, such as a re-skinned peacock, or as a combination of paper mache and lumber to accent the food in the display. (Martins/Craig, pp. 17)
Let’s talk failures:
This project as I’ve noted is not just a one and done type of cooking entry. New skills were learned along with a new recipe. New work arounds were tried for various coloring agents while trying to perfect the art of sugar. The sugar coloring used both period and modern. I tried cochineal, parsley, saffron, and spinach, turmeric, cinnamon, and snapdragon for period coloring. When I ran out of the period ingredients (mostly green) I had to turn to modern food coloring. Some experiementing was better than others. The parsley as a food coloring agent was so so. It made a beautiful work of sugar glass that was a little green with bits and pieces of the actual herbage. Very lovely and usable. The snap dragon (red) made the most amazing pink sugar, until heated up. Once the snap dragon sugar mixture heated up the snap dragons went from red to black and the sugar was just an almost brown. Not pretty and not usable. This made me sad.
I had four failures of the twist in a 24 hour stretch. Each time I made a twist something went wrong, didn’t look like and they all had large “cracks” form on the outside, leaking the wine soaked fruit. These tries weren’t presentable.
Not a big deal, unless the cost of the dried fruit, spices, and wine at $50-80 per round begin to add up. I have gone through multiple bottles of wine and more dried currants, dates and raisons than expected. I’ve had to fix cracks in the main entry by using sugar instead of making another twist because there was no more time allotted. Unfortunatly the twist wasn’t going to handle a 5 hour drive anywhere even with the sugar glass “glue”. I had to give up and wait for another day/time.
I believe my error was doing the dough first then the soaking of the fruit. This allowed the dough to rise. The first few times I did the twist, I did the fruit first then the dough and had no cracks. The next four, I did the dough first then the fruit and had cracks. This was my mistake. I had no sleep and was stressing over the long drive with fragile foods. I should have caught my error sooner. I didn’t. Next time though!
The sugar seaweed broke, cracked or just didn’t set properly. The stands for the sugar seaweed ate part of the seaweed glass and didn’t form. Almond paste was a good semi holding base but some of the sugar glass fell over due to the weight of the “sea weed”. I tried making a sugar glass base to hold the sea weed. The base was to hot or not deep enough. The hot base ate the sea weed by inches rendering the sea weed into stubs also known as useless.
I consider myself pretty accomplished in the kitchen doing period recipes; this subtlety was probably the most painful in cost, time and broken parts. Would I do it again….ask me in a few weeks when the freshness of the failures have worn off.
As a modern society, we have become obsessed with watching modern cooking shows like Cake Wars that we forget that SCA cooks are hobbies in normal kitchens, smaller budgets and usually one person. There are no fancy kitchens. No aides other than significant others or children “helping”. There is no fancy equipment as the cook is trying to go as period as possible. Ovens, stove tops and possibly kitchen aids with a few smaller silicone items on hand are as about as fancy as it gets. Please remember that for the truly fancy stuff…
“These decorative subtleties were for powerful displays and less about eating, with the production being done by carpenters, metal smiths and painters and very little with chefs. Horace Warpole describes a banquet given in honor of the birth of Duke of Burgundy, where the centerpiece was of wax figures moved by clock work at the end of the feast to represent the labor of the Dauphiness and the happy birth of the heir to the monarchy. (Martins/Craig, pp. 17)”
Could I have done more? If I were actually willing to risk people’s lives by including lapis lazuli, malachite, and lead powders for paints, probably. I just don’t think people should be poisoned for food art. I enjoyed making something like the twist into an underwater scene. It brings a flare of cooking an amazing dessert with the flare of unusual creativity in art work. Well worth the time and skills learned.
References:
Craig, Elizabeth. English Royal Cookbook. (1953). New York Press
Czarra, Fred. Spices, A Global History. (2009). Reaktion Books Ltd.
David, Elizabeth. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. (1977). Grub Street Cookery
Hansen, Marianne. And Thus You Have a Lordly Dish: Fancy and Showpiece Cookery in an Augsberg Patrician Kitchen. Medieval Food and Drink. (1995). St. University of NY Press.
Henisch, Bridget Ann. Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society. (1976). Pennsylvania State University Press.
Hunter, Lynette. Sweet Secrets from Occasional Receipts to Specialized: The Growth of a Genre; as cited in Banquetting Stuffe. (1986) Edited by C. Anne Wilson. Edinburgh University Press.
Hieatt, Constance, Hosington, Brenda, Butler, Sharon. Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks. (1979) University of Toronto Press.
King, Anya H., Scent from the Garden of Paradise: Musk and the Medieval Islamic World. (2017) Koninklijke Brill.
Rodinson, Maxime., Arberry, A.J. Medieval Arab Cookery. (2001) Prospect Books.
Scappi, Bartolomeo. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi. (1570). (2008). Translated by Scully, Terence. University of Toronto Press.
Scully, Terrence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. (1995). The Boydell Press, Woodbridge.
Tirel, Guillaume. The Viandier of Taillevent: and edition of all extant manuscripts. (1988). Translated by
Scully, Terence. University of Ottawa Press.
Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne. A History of Food. (2009). Blackwell Publishing, LTD.
Wheaton, Barbara. Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789. (1996). Simon & Schuster Inc.
Image 1 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sandro-Botticelli
Image 2 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220957925439888372/ Aguamanil de Nautilus ,1570. Colección Francesco I de Medici. H: 30 cm. Palazzo Pitti, Museo degli Argenti, Florencia, Italia.
Image 3 http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-6/sub-page-05/narrative/
Image 4 https://eclecticlight.co/2016/01/31/the-story-in-paintings-a-feast-of-veronese/
Image 5 http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-6/sub-page-05/narrative/
Image 6 https://eclecticlight.co/2016/01/31/the-story-in-paintings-a-feast-of-veronese/
http://www.reference.com/browse/subtlety/Patrick Martins/nyu
Tags: Historic Italian, Historic Redacted Period Italian Recipe, Italian Medieval Food, Scappi Subtlety
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There’s a line or two about how Hampton Court’s oven are different from the pastry ovens depicted in Scappi. That’s because Hampton Court’s ovens aren’t pastry ovens; they’re roasting ovens. The pastry kitchens (and confectionery kitchen) no longer exist.
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Thank you! I appreciate the helpful knowledge!
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