"Everything Imaginable Made of Sugar"
Translation of the third course of
The first banquet for Emperors for the early meal on a meat day, and
re-creation of a selection of said third course from
Ein New Kochbuch by Marxen Rumpolt
© 1999 by M. Grasse

As entered in the
Kingdom of the Outlands Queens Prize Competition 1998
By Gwen Catrin von Berlin

Erste Keyserliche Bancket zum Frümahl / am Fleischtag
The first banquet for Emperors for the early meal on a meat-day.

Ende deß ersten Keyserlichen Banckets zum Frümahl / am Fleischtag
End of the first Emperors banquet for the early meal on a meat-day.

Documentation:
Ein New Kochbuch by Marx Rumpolt was published in 1581. Several facsimile pages of the original cookbook are posted on the Web by Duke Cariadoc (Thank you very much!) I chose to translate a section of this cookbook into English, and then document and re-create select items from the translated portion of the cookbook. Because I have a special interest in sweets, I chose to concentrate on the third course "the fruits" most of which are elaborate sugar subtleties.

In Rumpolt's Ein New Kochbuch I was intrigued by items 14 - 20 (sugarcoated nuts and seeds) and thought others might be interested in tasting them also. I found documentation and instructions for the sugar coated seeds in Recipe #54 of Delights for Ladies… - "The art of comfet-making, teaching how to cover all kinds of seeds, fruits or spices with sugar."

The sugar plate or sugar paste I used to create the small items (28, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 47, 49, 51, 57, 59, 60, 63, 68, 69, 74, etc…,) is listed in several sources including A Taste of History - 10,000 years of Food in Britain which lists a recipe from A good housewife Jewel by Thomas Dawson; and.in Delights for Ladies… There are two recipes: #10 "A most delicate and stiff sugar paste, whereof to cast Rabbets, Pigeons, or any other little bird or beast, eyther from the life or carved mould;" and #13 "The making of sugar-paste, and casting thereof into carved moulds…." Unfortunately, recipe # 13 and the recipe in A Taste of History include raw egg white, and modern science has alerted us to the dangers of salmonella, so I chose to substitute meringue powder as a safer alternative. I have no indication as to whether the original third course had the items in real-life size or in a small scale. I chose to use small scale (about 1'=1") to provide bite sized items for folk to taste (often one is reluctant to cut, break or damage an item for a taste, so a single-bite sized sample is preferable).

The colors used to color the sugar plate are from period ingredients and created by using period methods. Sir Hugh describes in his recipe #38 "How To color Sugar Plate with several colours"; and in recipe # 14 "A way to make Sugarplate both the colour and taste of any flower." Based on these sources I chose to use colors that would impart a pleasant flavor to the sugarpaste:

In the Summer 1992 issue (#103) of Tournaments Illuminated, Alys Katharine of Ashthorne Glen (Elise Fleming) wrote a very comprehensive article on "Sugar Paste: A Cook's Play Dough." I also accessed A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks compiled by Duke Cariadoc of the Bow and The Duchessa Diana Alena wherein I found period recipes and instructions in Delights for Ladies… by Sir Hugh Plat; specifically in his section on "The Art of Preserving."

Item 61 on the list: "A Castle made of sugar, and everything therein made of sugar" was created using Delights for Ladies recipe # 43 "Casting of Sugar in partie moulds of wood." I interpreted this to be a similar technique as that used to create the sugar eggs sometimes seen at Easter. This item only is designed solely for visual appeal, it is not intended to be eaten. The gold leaf on the roof is NOT 24 carat.

To give a complete cross section of selections from the third course (and to provide a way for folk to wash a taste sample down) I included item 12 (an apple juice).