Adam Balic

These are" Kissing Comfits" or "Muscadines". Gum paste flavoured with rosewater and musk (sans musk in this case). They make your breath smell nice, which is dead sexy and hence the kissing bit. From Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. FALSTAFF: My doe with the black scut! Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'; hail kissing-comfits and snow eringoes; let there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here. Eringoes are Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum), in this case the candied roots of the sea holly, which look phallic, which is sexy. Potatoes refer to sweet potatoes, which were relatively new, exotic and phallic (sort of), also candied and considered sexy. In the image I posted are some sugary orange blobs, these are candied potatoes similar to what Falstaff is talking about.

I think that would be fun. We could take turns picking a recipe of the month for people to play with? ← Well I guess pick a period then or make a list of potential dishes. I am happy to do anything from Medieval to Victorian. Another idea would be to pick a dish that has some type of continous history through these periods. Blancmange is an idea, as are various pies.

Yes, I'm talking about the earlier version of Gingerbread, which isn't baked, just moulded. Gervase Markham's "The English Hous-wife" (1615) "Take a quart of Honey clarified, and seeth it till it be brown, and if it be thick, put it to a dish of water: then take fine crumbs of white bread grated, and put to it, and stirre it well, and when it is almost cold, put to it the powder of Ginger, Cloves, Cinnamon, and a little Licoras and Anniseeds: then knead it, and put it into a mould and print it. Some use to put to it also a little Pepper, but that is according unto taste and pleasure." So there is a heating step, but this is to get the honey reduced to stage where is will form a dough when mixed with the bread crumbs. In my experience the mixture still comes out soft, but firms up nicely in a month or so of storage. The braided cake looks good. Reminds me of Jumbals. Maybe we should do a Period cook off thing?

I'm not sure that the idea of this type of marinade is to penetrate the flesh? Maybe just to flavour the outside? Anyway, I have been part of this type of pig marinade thing and what we did was to put them in a body bag (Veterinary department, during my Ph.D.) and roll it about in the cool room for a few days, Failing body bags you could use big tough bin liners. What does brining add to the flavour of a spit roasted pig? Cooking pig/lamb like on a spit is done quite a bit in my family and the pig always comes out butter tender, so I can't see any advantage in the brining for tenderisation and does it not create a ham flavour, rather then a pork flavour? Another possiblity is to use a mix like what was originally suggested to baste the meat as it cooks. I think a slighly smokie lemongrass flavour sounds interesting (But I would prefer a plain roast pig at the end of the day).

If you look in the image above you will see a vaguely goldfish shaped golden brown lump. This is gingerbread and is essentially the same as you Al-andalus recipe (Apart from the inclusion of wine). Basically, bread crumbs will spice, honey and wine.

Actually, they are likely to be quite closely related. Images of silphium indicate the it is part of the ferula genus (most likely), the giant fennel group. Asafoetida is Ferula asafoetida. lSilphium I have seen another species of giant fennel in Sicily and also an abortificant, which is a pity as it had a fantastic scent, like across of regular fennel fronds and tarragon.

Can you post this recipe? ← Bit of a bastard of a classic. I did by eye, so I can't be too exact. One cup of fish stock (made from giant halibut bits) was reduced with 1 1/2 cups of Normandy cider and a finely chopped shallot to about 3/4 of a cup (until is was thickened and looked a little glossy). One cup of creme fraiche was added to this and further reduced until there was a cup of sauce. This was strained. It should be a pale blonde sauce, but the cider changed colour during the reduction, so it turned out a little brown. Sauted mushrooms are added later (and traditionally, mussels, of which the juices can be used to enrich the sauce). Fish is cooked in whatever way you see fit. I find that for me the best way is to loosely wrap in in foil with butter, aromatics and wine/cider and steam it in the fish kettle. In the oven also works well. Wrapped in wet newspaper and cooked on a BBQ is also excellent. Anyway, I used the former method as I wanted moist flesh and the skin intact. Any juices can be added to the sauce, which is corrected for salt and used at this point. That's it, takes less then an hour.

Sorry - I have no idea of the Vietnamese name for these as I am not lucky enough to have shops that sell them. The best thing to do would be to ask the people in the shop to write down the name or even suggest a recipe.

Thanks for both of the references. Unfortunately, $25 is currently the "prohibitively expensive" boundary right now for a food item. But that book's pretty much what I was looking for! I'll be making a couscous dish, but I will not be making actual couscous (sprinkling water over semolina, sieving it, baking it, etc) ← I understand. I actually don't like it, but a month ago I could have posted you a supply. Never mind, another time.

Tiny shrimp. I have seen these sold all over Europe in various forms. At the Rialto market in Venice, I have seen them hopping like fleas as they are packed into paper cones, but here are two examples from the last few months of eating. Morecambe Bay Potted Shrimp. Potting was once a great art in the UK. This method of preservation was used for beef, fish (especially char from the Lake district) and these shrimp. The shrimp cooked in butter and spices before being potted. shrimp fritters from Sanlucar (Andalucia). These shrimp are mixed with chickpea and wheat flour then fried in olive oil

Ooh a new book to read on roman food. somehow I missed this one. one tiny quibble. Most of what we're discussing is roman literature, which would certainly have it's various agendas, but we've also mentioned De Re coquinaria(apicius), which I certainly wont say is agenda-free (no cookbook is) but is at least a different type... ← Not sure how trust worthy Apicius's book is either, in terms of representing Roman food. Basically, there are three Roman epicures with the name Apicius, the most famous one (Marcus Gavius Apicius) lived in the 1st century AD. His name became proverbial with 'high living'. De Re coquinaria most likely was published in the fourth century AD, so who knows if Apicius had anything to do with the book at all and how much the recipes altered over time. Any book which uses the name Apicius is going to be politically loaded though. I note that the book refers to silphium/laser, which was extinct by the 4th century. Either the book is old and out of date, the ingredient is still mentioned as a prestige ingrdient or it refers to Asafoetida which was used as a later substitute.

Kevin - I look forward to this as I enjoyed the food of Sicily very much (apart from the shitty tourist stuff that seemed more common then I would have hope). Malvasia is a type of grape and the wine it makes is named after it (it is also the 'Malmsey' wine of English lit, and is used to produce Malmsey Maderia). It is a white grape and is funny in that it produces a wide range of wines styles, from sweet dessert wines, to fairly dry styles. You could substitute Muscat type wines or other aromatic styles. Don't use the maderia made from this grape, as the style is radically different. As for the Bottarga. Yes the Italian stuff is very expensive. But the Spanish product is quite cheap and the stuff I saw in Andalucia was good quality. You might try this Amazon dried mullet roe Also, this book is quite interesting. Sicilian Food: Recipes from Italy's Abundant Isle (Paperback) by Mary Taylor Simeti Amazon book link Are you going to make couscous?

Tiined sweet corn in salads seems ubiquitous in Tuscany, yet the corn on the cob when sold, while being maize, is not particularly sweet and is mostly used for animal food. On the one occasion when I ate fresh corn it was BBQed at a communist fair, I found it un-edible. My sister-in-law that lives in Tuscany found this lack of fresh sweetcorn to be a problem so she brought back some seeds with her from Australia. Her Italian father-in-law grew the corn for her and they got a very good crop, but none of her Italian friends or relatives would eat it. Far to sweet and 'funny' tasting.

The are two species of scallop harvested commercially in Scotland, the Great Scallop (Pecten maximus and the Queen Scallop (Chlamys opercularis). The former is the one in the photograph. These have shells that are mostly 10 -16 cm wide (but bigger specimens can be found), the muscle meat is typically 1-1.5 inchs across. Queenies are much smaller. Interesting difference between USA an UK/Australia. We are told that if you are serious about getting quality scallops, always buy them in the shell, the issue being that shucked scallops absorb water and this is a bad thing. In Melbourne, the markets will advertise scallops as being 'un-soaked/wetted', and these have cream coloured flesh, rather then the white flesh of the soaked scallops. Do you think it makes any difference?

So can you buy diver caught scallops like these?

Finally got to read your thread. Excellent! I really love scallops and we get very good scallops in Scotland. Unfortunately, not everybody in the household likes them so I don't get to eat them often. I very much like the roe, but it does cook more quickly then the muscle. I take it that the scallops are always removed from the shell for sale in the USA?

Mmm! Can you post this recipe!!! ← I will see. I have a cookbook produced by some of the local ladies of Sanlucar, that may have a recipe.

Pan - hessian is cloth made from jute, very common as for producing sacking material etc. Also refered to as burlap.

Although, I have posted this before, I now have some extra images and information to add. Yesterday I attended the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace. Amoughst, numerous attractions was a demonstration on the traditional production of Arboath Smokies. The fish are lightly salted, then dried and hung in pairs on poles These are then hung over barrels which are set into the ground, the fish are then covered with wet hessian and smoked for approximately 40 minutes, depending on the wind. We ate then hot from the smoker and in this form they are one of the UK's best food products, well deserving of its geographic protection.

From the Market in Jerez (Andalucia) The market Baby Dover Sole and Mullet roe. The latter is what gets salted to and dried to produce 'Bottarga/Botarga' in Spain and Italy Chub mackerel Various crustacean (and some snails), including spider crab in the top right and scampi in the bottom left. Porbeagle shark Intact (shark on the left) at the Sanlucar market Topped and tailed Skinned and ready to section into slices

Thanks for the suggstion. I have Davidson's Mediterranean Seafood and North Atlantic Seafood. Both are completely invaluble. Although, my copies are old, so maybe I need to update to the new editions. SE-Asia seafood I haven't got, but should, just for interest and the identification of the odd SE-Asian fish that makes it to Scotland.

Jack - that looks wonderful and will definately inspire me to use the Scottish fruit that is arouns at the moment. A quick question. Do you think that it would be possible to use gooseberries to make a similar dessert? I was thinking that gooseberry and elderflower miight be nice, but I have no yardstick to judge by.

From Samlucar (Andalucia). Live fiddler crab with samphire. Fiddler crab claws as a tapa Clams in a burnt onion sauce Hake roe salad Buying fish at the wonderful Sanlucar market Which included Weever fish Red mullet, cuttlefish and baby sole

The white lumps in the foreground are almond comfits from a 17th century meal I did a while ago. I will post the recipe when I remember what box it is in. Details on comfit making

As far as I can tell it is an Americanism. As you know Jordan dervives from Jardin (garden) and refers to a type of sweet almond, nothing to do with Jordan. In the UK the almond confits would be called sugared almonds, sugar plums or lambs tails (a rough textured comfit). I imagine that the change occured through 'to sugar jordan almonds' being reduced to to 'jordan almonds'.