A Bevy of Swans Pluming Their Feathers For Aphrodite: A case for the elusive, yet tasty, period creampuff swan.

 My first A&S entry came as a bit of an afterthought.  You see, Endewearde's Tourney O' Love was yesterday and there was a call for desserts.  Then someone suggested that desserts that were period could be documented and entered in the A&S competition.  My original dessert idea had been to make cream puff swans to go with the romance angle of this very fun tournament and that made me wonder, are creampuff swans period?  It turns out, with a couple of very small changes to the recipe, they are.  Here, in all it's glory, is my documentation for my A&S entry at Tourney O' Love titled A Bevy of Swans Pluming Their Feathers For Aphrodite: A case for the elusive, yet tasty, period creampuff swan.

Entrant: Christiana Crane
Category: Food
Specific art form: Soteltie

Entry Contents: Six creampuff swans on a platter, plus more in reserve for dessert.

Background
    When the call went out for desserts for the Tourney o’ Love, I was more than happy to lend a hand.  Then, it was suggested that entries could also be submitted to the A&S exhibit.  My mind immediately went to the soteltie.  As I considered options for the dessert, I started thinking about swans.  Swans have long been associated with grace and elegance and love.  The Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, is often depicted with swans.  My original thoughts were of a dessert made from crisp merengue, but in researching the idea, I stumbled across a modern recipe for cremepuff swans.  It seemed like the exact sort of thing that would have delighted the medieval epicurean, and I began to wonder, could there have been such a thing as a period creampuff swan?

Description 
    Sotelties or Subtleties are a well documented part of medieval feasting. Early sotelties were simple, yet colorful and exotically spiced, filler dishes between courses.  By the 14th century, the soteltie had evolved into much more elaborate presentations, often putting the cooked animal into a lifelike pose, or redressing an animal, notably birds, in their original plumage.  English cooks were particularly fond of playing with pastry, using it to form all manner of objects for the delight of their diners. (1)

The Pastry: The invention of  Choux pastry is attributed to Pantarelli, the pastry chef of Catherine d’Medici, in 1540.  Pantarelli used the dough to make small cakes in the shape of women’s breasts, called Popelins.(2)  The dough was originally used to create a cake, called Pâte à Panterell, but chefs soon found other uses for the versatile dough.

    Head chef to Pope Pious IV, Bartolomeo Scappi published a series of seven cookbooks in 1570, which contained over a thousand recipes.  The fourth book, Quarto Libro, Dellimbandire Le Vivande is a collection of menus for each month of the year.  Among the menus for October, he mentions works of “empty pastry”. His fifth book, Quinto Libro, Libro Delle Paste, contained numerous recipes for pies, tarts, brioche, and fritters, but none specifically called “empty pastry”.  In spite of this, there are recipes which very closely resemble our modern choux pastry that he specifically notes can be baked instead of fried (see Preparations and Deviations below).

 The historical base for the swan pastry comes from the 1584 cookbook, The Book of Cookrye:

To to make Bennets. Put butter and water over the fier in a faire pain, and when it boyleth put therto fine Flower and Salte, and so let them boyle, but stir them well for brenning, and when it is wel thick, put it into an earthen pan, then break Egs into it and boyle them so togither, than boyle a good quantitye of Butter clarified over the fire, and with a spoone put in your other stuffe and so frye them till they be browne, and that doone, serve them foorth with Sugar on them. (3)

The Custard:  Both savory and sweet custards have a long and well documented culinary history.  Most recipes with custard were used to make pies or quiches, but there is a recipe for a non-baked custard in Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks by Thomas Allen, called “Creme Boylede”.(4)

Take creme or mylke, and brede of paynemayn, or ellys of tendre brede, and breke it on the creme, or elles in the mylke, an set it on the fyre tyl it be warme hot; and thorw a straynour throwe it, and put it into a fayre potte, an sette it on the fyre, an stere euermore: an whan it is almost y-boylyd, take fayre yolkes of eyron, an draw hem thorw a straynowr and caste hem ther-to, and let hem stonde ouer the fyre tyl it boyle almost, an till it be skylfully thikke; than caste a ladel-ful, or more or lasse, of boter ther-to, an a good quantite of whyte sugre, and a litel salt, an than dresse it on a dysshe in maner of mortrewys.

    The ingredients and methods to create this pudding-like custard are not dissimilar to modern pastry cream.

Preparations and Deviations
Exact quantities of ingredients are not given in the above recipe for the bennets recipe, so a modern recipe containing the same ingredients and methods was used for correct proportions.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 425º. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

In a large saucepan, bring butter, water, and  salt to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove pan from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir quickly until all the flour is incorporated, about a minute. Return to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, for another minute or two.

Transfer the dough to the bowl. Either by hand or with a mixer beat at medium speed for 1 minute to cool the dough down a little.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; beat until the dough loses its “slimy” look, and each egg is incorporated. The dough should be thick, too thick to be a batter, but too thin to be a kneedable dough.

Pipe into small balls (or in my case, the bodies and necks of swans) and Bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375º and bake until puffed up and light golden brown, about 25 minutes more.

Let cool on the baking sheet.

    Liberties were also taken with the cooking method based on alternative methods recommended by Scappi.  While doughs of this nature are often fried, he mentions in a couple of recipes that the dough can be baked, especially if forming shapes.  His recipe is as follows:

To make various types of fritters, and first to make Venetian fritters. Put to boil six pounds of goats milk, in a tin lined casserole, with six ounces of fresh butter, four ounces of sugar, four ounces of rose water, a little saffron and enough salt.  When it is boiling and starts to rise one adds to it two pounds of fine flower a little at a time, mixing constantly with a wooden spoon.  Mix until it becomes firm, like bread dough, then empty it from this pan and put it into a marble mortar.  And pestle it for a quarter of an hour then take it out and put it into a copper or ceramic  bowl.  Then mix it with a wooden stick or your hands until it is cool.  Then have 24 fresh eggs and put them into the paste one at a time, mixing constantly with the wooden spoon or with your hands, until this pastry becomes liquid.  When you have finished adding the eggs beat for another quarter of an hour, until it makes blisters (?).  Then let it rest for a quarter of an hour, covered, in a warm place and then beat another time.  Then have ready a frying pan with hot lard in it and take this mixture and put it over a knife, and with the mouth of a carafe, bathed in cold lard, or with a canon of white iron*4 cut the fritters and put them into the lard.  Give them a gentle heat and several times move the pan so that the fritters turn in the lard, without touching them.  And when the fritters begin to be cooked they will wrinkle, because by nature they expand and become like the skin of medlars, and many times they turn by themselves, and one can see that they have taken enough color.  And serve them hot with fine sugar above.  With this pastry one can make various works with the syringe but you want to make the dough a little firmer than that for fritters for it to be good with the syringe, let them cook in an oven which is not too hot for half an hour and serve them with fine sugar on top. (5)

    I chose instead to use the bennet recipe over Scappi because of the quantities of ingredients that Scappi suggests.  Six pounds of goat milk, two pounds of flour and two dozen eggs are a lot of ingredients for a first time experiment, and as such, I opted for the similar recipe.  When spring comes and I have access to goats milk, I will try scaling back this recipe and see how it comes out.

    The custard recipe used was a modern equivalent of the 15th century Creme Boylede recipe, found in Cariadoc’s Miscellany, a modern translation of Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook.

5-10 slices torn-up white bread
1 quart light cream
8 lightly beaten egg yolks
6 T melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 t salt

Soak bread in cream. Heat until hot to the touch but not boiling. Pass through a coarse sieve or mash thoroughly. Heat again, stirring constantly. When almost boiling, stir in egg yolks. Keep heating, stirring, not boiling, until it thickens. Stir in butter, sugar, salt. Serve in bowls.

    Instead of serving them the custard in bowls, it is, of course, served in the pastry.  In addition, I substituted the white bread for very fine bread crumbs, which were what I had on hand at the time.

    To assemble the swans, I used a sharp serrated knife and sliced off the top third of the pastry.  This top was then cut in half, so that each side formed a “wing”.  The bottom of the pastry was then filled with the custard and the “head and neck” were inserted into the custard and the “wings” were arranged on the back.

Closing Notes
    What began as a somewhat humorous exercise to justify creampuff swans revealed some decent evidence that such a soleltie could have existed in the later years of the SCA period.  Certainly, variations of the modern creampuff components were being prepared prior to 1600 and with the well-documented fondness for illusion foods, I think the creampuff swan would have been a not unfamiliar yet welcome addition to the medieval table.

References
(1) Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. 1995.  pg. 104-109
(2) The Chefs of Le Cordon Bleu. Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie and Baking Foundations. Delmar, Clifton Park, NY. 2012.  pg 7
(3) A.W. The Book of Cookrye. Edward Allde, London. 1584.  Online source used. http://jducoeur.org/Cookbook/Cookrye.html
(4) Allen, Thomas.  Two Fifteenth Century Cookery-Books. N. Trubner, London.  1888  Online source used.  
      http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cme;cc=cme;rgn=main;view=text;idno=CookBk
(5) Scappi, Bartolomeo, Quinto Libro, Libro Delle Paste, translated June 2006 by Mistress Helewyse de Birkestad.
      http://www.medievalcookery.com/helewyse/pastavoto.html

Tourney O' Love - Endewearde

With an old Unitarian church as the backdrop for this event, I have to say that it's come a long way from the Tournament De L'Amore  from my youth.  Not only do people competing for the time-honored pink baldric have to win at both heavy list and rapier combat, they must now also submit an Arts and Sciences entry - and Endewearde is not fooling around with the A&S. 

I had a small entry which was really more for dessert than to take home any prizes.  Some of the items put out on display were just amazing.

My contribution to the event was this scroll, based upon this 15th century Rosary with Virgo Lactans that really caught my eye.  The latin text is from a work by Thomas a Kempis, a late 14th/early 15th century German copyist and writer.  The translation reads: Love flies, runs, and leaps for joy; it is free and unrestrained. Love gives all for all. Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds. Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil, attempts things beyond its strength; love sees nothing as impossible, for it feels able to achieve all things. Love therefore does great things; it is strange and effective; while he who lacks love faints and fails.

This year's Champeen O'Love was Master Julien de la Pointe.

Unfortunately, the weather took a nasty turn and we had to leave before we were snowed in for good.  We missed out on what was sure to be a delicious feast.  Hopefully my cream puff swans were well received.

Autocrat gift - Lady Agatha Wanderer

Lady Agatha Wanderer of Endewearde is the autocrat of Tourney of Love in a couple of weeks.  House Fulton is giving her a gluckhaus board complete with snail themes as we have been informed that she is quite fond of snails.

Gluckhaus is a late mideval German gambling game.  Directions for how to play can be found here.

Toys For The Royal Toy Chest

Queen Thyra put forth a request for toys for the Royal Toy Chest.  As the kidlet has been given the opportunity to choose a toy donated by some generous individual, I felt like I should create something to give back.  Plus, I really like making toys.

I made these wooden soldiers.  The knights are dressed in the colors of the east, but the one in green is based off pictures of King Edward at his crown tourney.  Her Majesty later commented that she really wanted to keep that one for herself, so there are plans to do another one for Her amusement.

I also did a soft doll with a lovely embroidered face and a simple dress and, much to my dismay, I  didn't get a picture of it.  I hope that whichever child received her will think she's pretty cool for a toy that doesn't light up.

Period Gift Giving

This is a bit of art and an article I wrote for the December 2012 issue of Northern Watch, the newsletter of Endewearde.

With the winter holiday season now upon us, we find ourselves bombarded with advertising for gift-giving ideas. It can make these last months of the year a delight or a hectic nightmare. One of the great parts about the SCA, though, is just how easy it can be to find that perfect token of admiration and affection for anyone else who partakes of our hobby, and often without breaking the bank.

Gift Giving is Period

While Christmas as we celebrate it today is a decidedly modern invention, the roots of its gift-giving custom can be traced back to the Romans. Roman poet and satirist Marcus Valerius Martialis, known to English-speakers as Martial, wrote two books on the customs of the winter festival Saturnalia, one of which is solely on gifts. It was Martial's opinion that you could judge the quality of a friendship by the gifts that were given. Close friends were given token gifts of low value while more grand presents were given to those people with whom a friendship was not so intimate. 1

The practice of presents continued into the middle ages, with New Year's Day being a common day for gift-giving. The 14^th century poem, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, begins on New Year's day as King Arthur and his court exchange gifts and wait for the feast to begin. On New Year's of 1376, King Edward III gave his daughter Isabella a complete set of chapel furnishings, two saddles, and a dozen ornamental bowls. ₂ It was during this time, however, that the practice of giving gifts also became corrupt. City officials would make the rounds to people in their jurisdiction to collect tokens of holiday “generosity”. Demands for presents were so bad that in 1419, Henry V of England issued regulations ordering sergeants, officers of the mayor, sheriff, and city not to beg for gifts. 3

By the 1600's, many of the Christmas traditions were discouraged or banned by Puritan governments. In the United States, the holiday fell out of favor until the mid-1800s, when Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol breathed new life into winter holidays.

Gift Ideas

The question of what to give for holiday gifts is an old one. Gifts were often of a practical nature. Pins, money, gloves, socks, food, and pomanders were all acceptable gifts throughout the years that make up the SCA period. The Romans also enjoyed joke gifts. Gaius Valerius Catullus, in his poem Carmen 14, laments a book of bad poems given to him as a gift. He writes, “If I did not love you more than my eyes, most delightful Calvus, I would hate you with a Vitinian hatred because of that gift of yours: for what did I do or what did I say, why do you ruin me with so many bad poets?” 4

History provides some great suggestions for gifts for SCAdian friends and family, and while an oil flask of rhinoceros horn might not be practical or easy to come by, the token gifts, the small things of no great monetary value, will bring a smile to just about any medievalist's face.

Food and Drink. As popular a gift now as it was hundreds of years ago, food and drink are great for giving because we've all got to eat sometime. Its enjoyment is fleeting, but the memory of a tasty morsel won't take up valuable shelf space and doesn't require dusting. Recipes for medieval fig tarts, savory hand pies, fried cracker-like breads, fruit puddings and sweet honey candies are all available online. Check medievalcookery.com and godecookery.com for historical recipes and innatthecrossroads.com for historical-ish recipes with drool-worthy photos inspired by George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books. Brewers often have a ready stock of home-made gifts waiting on their shelves. For folks who love to cook, consider giving them potted herbs, nuts, or bottles of spices that they might not buy for themselves, such as saffron, grains of paradise, or cardamom. Though they have a shorter shelf-life, presents like sausages, roasts, fruits and vegetables are also interesting and period gifts for foodie SCAdians. Some of the larger grocery stores and many local farmers offer things like rabbit or duck, and fruits like pomegranate and orange are in season now and are perfectly period gifts.

Clothing. Very few of us would say no to a hand-stitched linen or wool heraldic garment, but that is a pretty serious time commitment. Still, there are lots of “detail” garments that are simple and quick to make that take the game to a new level. Headgear is not only a period gift but can improve the look of even the most basic t-tunic or gown. Coifs are useful for men, women and children and there is a great tutorial on making them at www.virtue.to/articles/coif.html. Headgear can be extended to veils for women - fashionable throughout much of our time period – and the unisex hood, which can be warm and worn in a multitude of ways. There is a basic hood tutorial at www.virtue.to/articles/hoodlum.html which has a pattern and some alternate ways to wear them.

Gloves, belts, hose, aprons, and shoes are all great gifts to consider for the holidays for both men and women and provide those little details that make a garment feel more like clothing and less like a costume. http://www.dagorhir.com/forums/index.php?topic=15949.0 provides a detailed walk-through of how to make a medieval turn shoe while earthandliving.blogspot.com/2008/08/viking-shoes-tutorial-sort-of.html has an earlier shoe design tutorial. Hose were worn from the 11^th to the 15^th centuries and have a fairly simple construction, provided you have access to your giftees leg. A basic tutorial for them can be found at historiclife.com/Essays/howto_hose.html. Smocked aprons may be more time-consuming than busy schedules will allow for, but they do look stunning: catrijn.blogspot.com/2009/05/smocked-apron-part-1.html and there are plenty of much simpler aprons for men and women. Of course, with cold weather here, who wouldn't like a pair of gloves or three fingered mittens? http://www.renaissancetailor.com/demos_gloves.htm has an interesting piece on making gloves which can be modified to make three-fingered mittens like those at http://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2012/01/winter-is-coming.html

Games. Much like today, people in period enjoyed boardgames and many of them are quite easy to make. There is a well-documented collection of period games from a lady from Meridies, as a part of the Arts & Sciences 50 Challenge. Her blog, http://janinwise.blogspot.com/2010/06/50-challenge-medieval-board-games.html, has great print outs of dozens of games that could be made of fabric, leather or wood.

The “Elements” of Projects. Anyone with an interest in the arts and sciences can be a very easy person to find gifts for since he or she will probably have nine or ten projects going at any given time. Calligraphers can always use paper, inks, pen nibs, and gouache. Fabric, cording, beads and trim are welcome gifts for any garb-maker. Period embroidery kits can be put together inexpensively as shown here, http://coblaith.net/PeriodPresents/SewingKit/ Brewers can always make use of ingredients and a beautiful golden jar of honey has a shelf-life of years. Experienced brewers can put together mead or beer kits as gifts for people who are just starting out. Blacksmiths using coal might be the only people to appreciate it in their stocking along with some steel rod, of course. Armorers never seem to have enough rivets or buckles and anyone who has ever tried their hand at chainmail will tell you that links are most welcome. No matter the craft, keep an eye out in workshops and sewing rooms and see what items get consumed frequently. Or make note of the projects that your gift-receiver mentions they'd like to start. The crafting side of the SCA is a gift-giver's blessing when it comes to ideas.

Bits and Bobs. The SCA is often a hobby about collecting gear for a whole second life in a different century. As events happen weekends and the occasional extended stay during the summer, the need to gather the trappings of a medieval life can proceed slowly when it's not vital to the modern world. Feastgear is one of the early acquisitions for most SCAdians, but table linens, candlesticks, candles, salt cellars and even small liquor cups for sampling offerings at events make excellent period and practical gifts. Arrow tips, sticks of rattan, and duct or electrical tape are less historically accurate, but always useful for folks interested in the martial pursuits. Combs, sealing wax, cloak pins, knives, veil pins, lamps, perfumes, fans, masks and jewelry are all historical gifts and can be made or purchased easily. Bards and musicians can make recordings of their best pieces to give on CD.

It seems likely that children have always been fond of winter gift-giving holidays. Why not give a period toy or game this year? Sure, most modern kids want something noisy and blinking but leather or cloth balls, toy swords, dolls, wooden soldiers or animals, rattles, and whistles are period gifts that even most modern children will enjoy despite the lack of “on” switches.

When all else fails, books are rarely a waste. From DIY to historicals, SCAdians are some of the most book-hungry people around and are forever adding to collections.

Let's Not Forget the Wrapping

So you've found or made the perfect gift for someone, but printed wrapping paper and tape are 20^th century inventions. Fabric and ribbon will certainly cover your gift, but consider that cloth or leather pouches, wooden boxes, and baskets can all do double duty as both wrapper and secondary bonus gift. If you aren't inclined to make boxes and baskets, the big-box arts and crafts stores often carry inexpensive models of both that will easily accommodate most small gifts.

Happy holidays!

1. Ruurd R. Nauta, Poetry for Patrons: Literary Communication in the Age of Domitian (Brill, 2002)
2. Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror, (Knopf 1978)
3. William White, Notes and Querries, Vol 46 (John C. Francis, 1872)
4. Cataullus, Carmen 14, translated by David Kimmel, http://rudy.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e14.htm

A Treasury of Winter Holidays

Winter has always been a grand time for holidays and festivals. With the harvest complete and short, often cold days, there is no better time for some lighthearted merriment. With this in mind, there is a day for gift-giving for every persona.

Saturnalia – A ancient Roman holiday celebrated beginning around December 17 and lasting a week.

Kalends – A Roman holiday from around 45 B.C. And celebrated beginning January 1 and lasting until January 5

Twelfth Night – The Twelve Days of Christmas begin December 26 and stretch to January 5, the day before Epiphany. Though the familiar gift-receiving carol was first published in 1780, the origins of the song are believed to be much older and suggest that presents were given every day from Christmas to Epiphany, as both an English and French custom. German tradition gives small gifts on January 5.

Epiphany – January 6 is the celebration of the visit of the Wise Men to Jesus and is a popular day for giving gifts, especially in Spain.

Saint Nicholas Eve – St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children, and students and his feast day is celebrated on December 6. As a bringer of gifts, children in France, Italy, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium put out socks or shoes in hopes that he will bring presents.

Yule – The winter holiday celebrated by ancient Germanic people on or around the winter solstice.

New Years – January 1 has long been a traditional gift giving day across Europe.

Purim – While coins (or gelt) were given on Hanukkah, the giving of Hanukkah gifts is a new tradition. Purim, which falls sometime between the end of February and the beginning of March, was the more common day for gift giving in the period Jewish community.

Christmas Eve – Another popular time for the exchanging of gifts, particularly in France, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, Poland, and Belgium.

Huva or St. Birgitta's Cap

Finally finished up my huva thus bringing my garb one step closer to being better.  The hardest part of this process was the pattern, which turned out to be not hard at all with a talented friend like Lady Elgiva available.  She basically held fabric up to my head and sketched out the curve and voila!  Cap Parts!

The whole piece is hand sewn, which I'm quite proud of, and if you're interested in making one for yourself, the Maniacal Medievalist is the site you need.  She breaks down the documentation and then takes you step by step through the process of making one and how to wear it.  There are even links for the interlaced herringbone stitch in the center of the piece, should you decide to make one with embroidery in the middle.

Of course, my modern short haircut means I'll have to have a filler at the bottom to get it to sit right on my head and I still have to find good veil material to finish off the look for fancy occasions.  It was super easy to do though and is quite comfortable to wear.  I highly recommend this project for any of the 13th and 14th century SCA ladies who are looking to add headgear to their garb.

Yule - Stonemarche

We had a wonderful visit with our neighbors to the west for a Yule event in Stonemarche.  It was a very family oriented event, with lots of activites for the kids.  It was also a pot luck affair, so I put three meat pies together and brought those to contribute.

The event itself was quite small.  There was no A&S or martial activities, but there was a station where kids could cover pine cones with peanut butter and then roll them in birdseed to make rustic bird feeders and a station where they could decorate their own cookies.  Guess which activity the kidlet wanted to do? 

Lady Sine Ruadh Friseal organized a wonderful light event.  There was even a St. Nicholas to give presents to all of the children and who later turned into Krampus to steal the children and sell them back to their families for cookies.  Stonemarche really is full of some wonderful people.

My only regret for this event was that we didn't get our act together and give our customary house gift to Lady Sine for her fine work at this event.  Being so close to Christmas, there wasn't enough time to get it done. With luck, we'll get a chance to see her sometime in the new year and remedy this.