Honey/Almond CheesecakeRecipe from Handout1 cup sugar1/4 lb. butter 1 lb. cream cheese 1/4 cup flour, sifted 1/4 cup honey 5 eggs, separated, whites beaten stiff not dry 1/2 cup half and half 1 tsp. almond extract 1/2 cup almonds, ground (a coffee grinder works wonders for this) Cream butter and sugar until well blended. Add cream cheese until mixture is fluffy. Blend in flour and honey. Blend in the egg yolks. Beat well. Add cream and extract. Lightly fold in egg whites. Fold in ground almonds with a few strokes. Pour into well-buttered 9" springform, set on a low rack in preheated 325 oven. Bake 1 hour. Turn off heat & allow to cool in oven with door closed for one hour. Remove from pan and chill. Source for Recipe PresentedHow to Cook Forsoothly. Mistress Katrine de Baillie du Chat, O.L.; 1979. Raymond's Quiet Press (I don't think it is available any longer.)Notes and additional versionsThe above recipe is really more of a modern cheesecake recipe with flavorings that were available in period, though even finding some other period dessert recipe that puts them together isn't as easy as you would think. For one thing, there are plenty of sweet almond custards or desserts, but they are sweetened with sugar not honey.Sugar versus Honey: Ingredient Use in 13th to 15th Century England by Terry Nutter Period cheesecake recipes result in dishes with a different flavor and texture than the "New York" style cheesecake which is what the above recipe more resembles, and can be found throughout the period, all the way back in ancient Rome and in many versions in the very late period cookbooks. The above recipe is extremely delicious and pleasing to the modern palate, but the state of research in SCA cookery has advanced quite a bit since 1979. Remaining notes still in incomplete form... Florilegium Thread on Cheesecakes, including several redactions Savillum(Poppy
seeds glazed ricotta cheesecake) from de
Agricultura by Cato the Censor This is from Harleian MS. 279, circa 1420. It is a *curd* cheesecake, typical of the period, and contains bone marrow for added richness. There is a variation using strawberries which has been redacted in Pleyn Delit. Cheesecakes which use cream cheese are *not* period. [th] has been substituted for "thorn". xl. Daryoles. Take croddys of [th]e deye, & wryng owt [th]e whey; & take yolkys of Eyroun nowt to fewe, ne nogt to many, and strayne hem bo[th]e to-gederys [th]orw a straynour, & [th]an hard [th]in cofynne, & ley [th]in marew [th]er-in; & pore [th]in comade [th]er-on, an bake hem, & serue hem forth. >From Forme of Cury, Sambocade. Dry cheese curds, sugar, egg whites, and dried elderflowers, baked in a crust. Forme of Cury 179 Sambocade: Take and make a crust in a trap & take
a crudd and wryng out Şe wheze and drawe hem Şurgh a straynour and put it
in Şe crust. Do Şerto suger the Şridde part & somdel whyte of ayren
& shake Şerin blom of elren & bake it up with eurose & messe
it forth. Take and make a crust in a trap & take curds and wring out
the whey and draw it through a strainer and put it in the crust. Add
thereto sugar the third part & some egg whites. Shake therein blooms
of elderflowers & bake it up with rosewater & serve it forth.
Redactions: Lady
Beatrix zum Dunklenturm - a cross between the one from Forme of Cury
and The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby, Opened. >From Cato: Savillum. Cheese, flour, an egg, honey, poppy seeds, baked in a pan without crust. >From Platina: White Torte. Fresh cheese, egg whites, ginger, milk, butter, lard, sugar and rosewater, baked in a crust. White Torta Platina p. 135 (book 8) Prepare a pound and a half of best fresh cheese, chopped especially fine. Add twelve or fifteen egg whites, half a pound of sugar, half an ounce of white ginger, half a pound of pork liquamen and as much fresh butter. Blend in as much milk as you need. When you have blended this, put it into a pastry crust rolled thin and put it all in a pan and set it to bake on the hearth with a gentle flame. Then, to give it color, put coals on the lid. When it is cooked and taken from the pan, sprinkle ground sugar over it, with rosewater. Cariadoc's redaction of White Torta >From de Nola: Flaones. Fresh cheese, ricotta, eggs, rosewater, mint, and honey, baked in a crust. 15th-century Catalan Libre del Coch: 136 De flaons Take fresh cheese and curds that are well [drained?] and pound them well in a mortar together with as much eggs. And [fold?] a bit of fat cheese which is grated and minced together with the curds with a bit of [pols] of dried mint. And then put in the mortar a little rosewater, not too much but rather in [appropriate] measure. And then make dough from good farina and knead it with very fine oil, kneading it well so that it becomes very firm. And then make of the dough [coffins?] to place the cheeses. But before filling, heat the dough a little, so that it becomes firm. And then fill it with the filling. And before they are all done, take some forks or [pincers?] and [crimp?] the edge. And then take it to the fire to cook. And when it's cooked, and [the top is browned?] a bit, then [from edge to edge?] put on honey or a syrup of sugar and rosewater. From Guisados1 Tardpoleyn or Tardpolane: custardy/cheesy cheesecake with almond-milk pastry possible fillings of figs, dates, apples, pears, and almonds mixed into a cheese-egg-liquid filling. Constance Hieatt and Robin Jones' "Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.xii", Speculum, v.61 October 1986, pp 859-882 : "11. TARDPOLENE [custard tarts with fruit]. Here is another dish, which is called tardpolene. Take and combine flour and sugar, and mix into pastry with almond milk; make cases of this pastry two fingers in height; then take pears, dates, almonds, figs, and raisins, and put in liquid and spices and grind together; add egg yolk and a piece of good, soft cheese, not too old, and plenty of whole eggs; then put them [the pastry cases filled with the above mixture] to cook; brush the tops with egg yolk, then serve." To Make Cheesecakes Digby p. 214/174 Take 12 quarts of milk warm from the cow, turn it with a good spoonfull of runnet. Break it well, and put it in a large strainer, in which rowl it up and down, that all the whey may run out into a little tub; when all that will is run out, wring out more. Then break the curds well; then wring it again, and more whey will come. Thus break and wring till no more come. Then work the curds exceedingly with your hand in a tray, till they become a short uniform paste. Then put to it the yolks of 8 new laid eggs, and two whites, and a pound of butter. Work all this long together. In the long working (at the several times) consisteth the making them good. Then season them to your taste with sugar finely beaten; and put in some cloves and mace in subtle powder. Then lay them thick in coffins of fine paste and bake them. Cariadoc's redaction of Digby's To Make Cheesecakes To make Cheese-cakes (A True Gentlewomans Delight, 1653): Cheesecake made of cream, eggs & currants To make Cheese-Cakes, the best way (The Accomplish'd Lady's Delight In Preserving, Physick, Beautifying, and Cookery, 1675): Freshly made cheese baked into a cheesecake Epulario To make Tartes in flesh time, and first to make a white Tarte. Take two pounds of good new Cheese and cut it smal, and them stampe it, then take fifteen or sixteen whites of egges, and temper and mixe them with the Cheese, putting thereto a pound of Sugar, halfe a pound of faire white Ginger, halfe a pound of sweet Butter, and some milke as much as wil suffice, then make your paste and let it be somewhat thin, and let it bake with a soft fire both under and ouer it, and let him bee somewhat browne, and when hee is baked straw Sugar and Rosewater upon it. Redaction Migliaccio is a classic Neapolitan specialty. Its flavor is reminiscent of pastiera di grano [another Neapolitan sweet, made with ricotta and grain] Other:
Updated September 9, 2002
|