Title: chocolate-msg
Subject: History of chocolate. Recipes
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, chocolate, origin, drink, cocoa, history, bean, nib, peppers, spice, New World

chocolate-msg – 6/20/17

History and description of early chocolate.

NOTE: See also the files: fd-New-World-msg, candy-msg, Cypriot-Sugr-art, gingerbread-msg, sugar-msg, sugar-paste-msg, Sugarplums-art, Roses-a-Sugar-art, peppers-msg.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I  have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with separate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the individual authors.

Please  respect the time  and  efforts of  those who have written  these messages. The  copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this time. If  information  is  published  from  these  messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: marian at world.std.com (marian walke)
Subject: Re: hot chocolate
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 1994 01:46:01 GMT

Phyllis_Gilmore at rand.org (Phyllis Gilmore) writes:
>(Andrea Marie Habura) wrote:
>>Yes, mole sauce is made with unsweetened chocolate. I am not particularly
>>fond of it, but my husband thinks it's dynamite with chicken, so I make
>>it occasionally. I think it tastes better the more chili peppers you 
>>put in. I very much doubt it's period. 
>>
>Actually, Alison, I too doubt it's period.  I was really only hoping to
>confirm that this sauce is an example of a combination of chocolate and
>chili peppers--which you and others have done. 

Actually, Phyllis and Alison, it appears to be just barely in period, if you 
think period goes to 1650, and if you're refering to the Iberian penisula.  
The following is a quote from _Food_in_History_ by Reay Tannahill (New York: 
Stein and Day, 1973), pp 287-289:

    "In Spain by 1631, the preparation of a cup of chocoalate had
  become a major operation. 'For every hundred cocoa beans, mix 
  two pods of chili or Mexican pepper...or, failing those, two
  Indian peppercorns, a handful of aniseed, two of those flowers
  known as "little ears" or *vinacaxtlides,* and two of those known
  as *mesasuchil*...Instead of the latter one could include the 
  powder of the six roses of Alexaundria [an apothecaries' formula]...
  a little pod of logwood [a dye], two drachmas of cinnamon, a
  dozen almonds and as many hazelnuts, half a pound of sugar, and
  enought arnotto [a dye] to give color to the whole.'"

This is footnoted as "Antonio Colmenero, quoted in Franklin, Vol XIII, 
pp. 161-162." By Franklin, she means Alfred Franklin, 
_Vie_privee_d'autrefois,..._12e_au_18e_siecles. (27 vol. Paris, 1887-1902).
Vol XIII is titled: "Le cafe, le the, et le chocolat." [Francophiles, 
forgive me, I don't know how to make the accents correctly without my 
ASCII cheatsheet handy.]  Antonio Colmenero wrote a book on "On 
chocolate" which was first published in Madrid (in Spanish) in 1631.  By 
the end of the 17th century it had been translated and 
published in French, Italian, and English.  I don't remember the exact 
dates and titles of the translations, but I can look them up if anyone 
really cares.

Tannahill goes on to say that "by the early seventeenth century, a 
considerable amount of chocolate paste was being exported to Italy and 
Flanders, but it was not until 1659 that the new drink became widely 
known in France."

This may be more than anyone *really* wants to know about drinking hot 
chocolate in period...but you *did* ask...

--Old Marian
(marian at world.std.com) 

From: ddfr at best.com (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate (was Re: bu
Date: 25 Apr 1996 05:31:11 GMT

> I had heard Mistress Alys Katherine from the Middle Kingdom say that she had
>  a recipie for chocolate marzipan that was done in period.
> 
> Mistress Alys are you out there???
> 
> Juelda
> Calontir

I'm not Alys Katherine, but in case she doesn't pick up on this ...  .

I suspect what you are remembering is a reference by her to one of the
recipes in the modern Italian secondary source that I mentioned earlier in
the thread. I think (my Italian is not very good) that it is claiming its
chocolate recipes are fifteenth century, which is pretty nearly
impossible. My own guess is that the recipes are either badly misdated
(they are said to be from the archives of one of the Italian cities, and,
as I remember, there are no exact dates given) or mistranslated, with some
other term converted into the modern Italian for chocolate. But I could be
wrong.

David/Cariadoc
-- 
ddfr at best.com

From: alysk at ix.netcom.com(Elise Fleming )
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate (was Re: bu
Date: 25 Apr 1996 22:12:34 GMT

>I had heard Mistress Alys Katherine from the Middle Kingdom say that
>she had  a recipie for chocolate marzipan that was done in period.
>
>Mistress Alys are you out there???
>
>Juelda
>Calontir

Yes, I'm here, and I thought I was doing a nice job of staying out of
this thread!  :-)  I have three purportedly period recipes using
chocolate mixed with sugar.  One is chocolate mixed with sugar,
marzipan, and cinnamon into something like a cookie.  (Delicious!) 
Another is a chocolate and pear tart, if I recall correctly.  The third
mixes chocolate, sugar, cinnamon and boils it before using it with a
(cookie?) dough.  These were printed in a modern Italian book on
Renaissance cooking, and were implied to be from the early 1500s.  
David Friedman referred to this book in an earlier post.  The source is
the "Carta (sp?) Bardi II" in the archives in Florence, Italy.  The
finder of the source is an Australian baroness who was a PhD candidate
in Italy a few years ago.  While we began a brief correspondence, she
stopped early on and never answered any information about the dates of
the Carte Bardi manuscripts.  In the modern book all of the other
manuscripts have dates except this one.  

I posted two, I believe, of the recipes when a similar thread ran about
9 months ago.  I have the material in a "text only" file so I can send
the marzipan one, at least, to anyone interested.  I also have a file
for the "Mayan" recipe which should probably read "Aztec."  It works
out to something like a gingerbread.  Baroness Annejke, the Compleat
Anachronist editor, gave me a copy of the recipe.  If interested,
e-mail me and I will send it/them.

I am _really_ interested to see what "justin at dsd.camb.inme" has!

Alys Katharine

From: justin at harp.camb.inmet.COM (Mark Waks)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Chocolate
Date: 9 Sep 1996 11:28:09 -0400

Cindy Renfrow replies to Cariadoc:
>> More precisely, the evidence (so far as I know it) suggests that chocolate
>> as food was not known anywhere in the old world pre 1650. I also don't
>> think that any chocolate drink much like what we call cocoa existed
>> anywhere pre 1650, although I am less sure about that.
>
>Hello!  Please check out http://www.inmet.com/~justin/chocolate.txt
>He's posted a partial MS from 1652 with recipes for sweetened chocolate.

[Published book, not MS, actually.]

Well, it should be pointed out that the cocoa recipe there is *quite*
different from modern cocoa, so people shouldn't draw over-broad
conclusions from it -- I think that that's what Cariadoc means when he
says that there wasn't anything "much like" modern cocoa. And while it
does indicate that sweetened hard chocolate was *known* to Europe,
it's not entirely clear that it was actually *used* there. The
evidence is still pretty inconclusive, I'd say, although not as
negative as often portrayed.

BTW, I've just recently stumbled across a 1640 English edition of the
same book. (Unfortunately, the microfilm reader broke at just that
moment, so I only have the title page, but I plan on getting the whole
book shortly.) So I now have more confidence that the period version
of hot chocolate was more-or-less popularly known in England by 1650,
although probably still pretty expensive...

                                -- Justin

From: gswitzer at loop.com
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate & Authenticity
Date: 9 Sep 1996 06:37:28 GMT

        I haven't found a copy yet, but I read a review of a new book entitled:  "The True History of Chocolate"
by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe (Thames and Hudson: $27.50, 288 pp.) in the August 25th LA Times Book
Review Section that might just finally answer the question once and for all.
        But then again, is any question on rec.org.sca ever answered once and for all?  :)

        Ishido Matsukage

From: Darlene Mielke <mielke at interlog.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate & Authenticity
Date: 10 Sep 1996 04:40:43 GMT

natalyadef at aol.com (NatalyaDeF) wrote:
> Forgive me for jumping into the middle of things, but my understanding of
> authenticity is that "it" had to be in existence and in use before 1650
> (yes, I'm one of THOSE).  So, if some nobles in France, England, or Spain
> were drinking the bitter stuff, it is authentic.  I don't recall anywhere
> in SCA law that someone (real) had to declare it fashionable.  On the
> other hand, neither does this give us license to add sugar, serve it as
> dessert, and declare it authentic. -- Natalya de Foix

I just love this one.  I've found several references to chocolate/cocoa,
when it came to Europe from the New World, and although I haven't (yet)
found a recipe, apparently there were 2 versions of a drink used by the
natives of Mexico:  one being hot and spiced with chillies, and another
which was sweetened (and much preferred by the Europeans).  Spain, and
parts of Italy (Naples comes to mind as it was a Spanish holding for a 
time) would have been aware of these drinks.  England and her allies
would not really become knowledgeable of these (as well as the tomatillo,
, the potato - specifically the sweet potato, and even the predecessor of
coffee) until much later - Spain would not be willing to share her
'finds' with the enemy you know.

True, serving chocolate, or any of the above mentioned items, in forms
known and loved today is not 'period', but the hunt goes on for the 
early (earliest) forms of them.  Which, I believe is one of the things
the SCA is all about.

Saludos,
Mercedes Heloise d'Abelard

From: ottokarvs at aol.com (Ottokar vS)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate & Authenticity
Date: 10 Oct 1996 04:12:31 -0400

I have come accross a book that gives a 1631 recipe for drinking chocolate.
The recipe is by Antonio Colmenero who states that he got it from a
physician in Marchena.  It calls for "of white sugar, one pound and a halfe"
and yes "of long red pepper 14". The book also notes that Spain and Italy were the first to accept the drinking of cocoa.  Cortes has the basic honor in approximately 1520-1530 of introducing the Spanish courts to this drink, who tried to keep chocolate a secret for as long as possible.

The book is
                    "Chocolate, the Food of the Gods"
                     by Chantal Coady
                     Chronicle Books, CA
                      Copyright 1993

This book has several primary and secondary references listed in the
bibliography ranging from 1640 to 1987.

Ottokar von dem Schwarzwald

From: ottokarvs at aol.com (Ottokar vS)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: CHOCOLATE
Date: 26 Oct 1996 06:36:48 -0400

EHAV at oro.net (Eric S. Haverberg) wrote:
> Not too long ago, someone was kind enough to post a recipe for an
> Aztec Cocoa beverage. All I remember was that it contained Cocoa and
> some kind of Chile extract. If anyone has it, I'd appreciate very
> much. 

I here is the recipe I have from 1631 published by Antonio Colmenero who
had taken it from a Marchena physician;

            700 cocoa beans
            1 1/2 lbs. white sugar
            2 ozs of cinnamon
            14 long red peppers
            1/2 oz of clove
            3 cods of logwood or Campeche tree - similar to fennell
                 or instead use
            the weight of 2 reals (or a shilling) of anniseeds
            as much Achiote to give it the color of hazelnut

I don't know what some of these measurements are so I will
leave that up to some one more knowledgable then I.

I should also note that cornmeal was usually added to absorb the oil of
the cocoa bean and to bind it all together.  Also this would be made up
into solid blocks so that when there was a feast these blocks would just
be added to the water at that time instead of making it that day.

This would be served cold.

You can find some of this information in "Chocolate, the Food of the Gods"
by Chantal Coady, 1993

               Ottokar von dem Schwartwald, AoA
               Shire of Blackhawk
               Middle Kingdom

From: OttokarvS at aol.com
To: markh at risc.sps.mot.com
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 01:18:43 -0500
Subject: Re: CHOCOLATE

Greetings Lord Stefan,

Here is the information you requested.

      A Curious Treatise of the Nature and Quality of Chocolate
           Antonio Colmenero
           publisher(?) J. Oakes  1640

Note since I have not seen this book first hand, that I can only assume
that Chantal Coady has noted an earlier date on this book then what was
given above.

Some other reference given by Coady are;

      A New Survey of the West Indies
           Thomas Gage, 1648

Note that the author for this reference had been smuggled into New
Spain in a bisuit barrel because only the Spaniards were allowed in at
that time.

      The Indian Nectar
           Henry Stubbe
           publisher Andrew Crook, 1662

Ottokar von dem Schwartwald, AoA
Shire of Blackhawk
Middle Kingdom

From: "H. R. Haines" <"Phrhaines at hrhaines" at mail.interlog.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Chocolate Reference
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 17:34:42 -0800

I remember a while ago there was a discussion over the "periodness" of chocolate.  In my other studies I recently came across the following reference for anyone still interested in the subject.

Relaciones de Yucatan, Coleccion de documentos ineditos relativos al descubriemiento conquisto y organizacion de las antiquas posesiones espanoles de ultramar, 2nd series, v 11-13.  Madrid 1898-1900.  v. 1 pp 369, 373

Records that in 1579 the Zoque (cultural group in Aztec Empire) were forced to include cacao in their tribute payments to the Spanish, for the purpose of export to Spain.

Sincerely,

H. R. Haines
Institute of Archaeology

From: gray at ibis.cs.umass.edu (Lyle Gray)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate Reference
Date: 20 Feb 1997 21:38:14 GMT
Organization: CMPSCI Department, UMass Amherst

My wife was doing a search in the local college library catalog, and came
across this book.  Note the last comedy title.

Five comedies of Medieval France - Contents: The comic drama in the middle
ages, by Oscar Mandel/  The play of Saint Nicholas, by Jean Bodel /The Play of
Robin and Marion, by Adam de la Halle / Peter Quill's Shenanigans, by
Anonymous/ The Washtub, by Anonymous /The Chicken-pie and the Chocolate Cake,
by Anon (French drama to 1500)  PQ1342.E5  F58 1982

I'm going to take a look at this book tonight.  It may just be that the
translator substituted a modern equivalent... ;-)
------------------------------------------------------ NON ANIMAM CONTINE
Lyle H. Gray                                gray at cs.umass.edu (text only)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Barbara L. Hunter" <ami at prostar.com>
Subject: Re: Chocolate Reference
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Date: 20 Feb 97 17:22:23 GMT
 
> > cacao in their tribute payments to the Spanish, for the purpose of
> export to Spain.
> 
> But how was it prepared and consumed once in Spain?
> 
One refernce I have is from a book called California Mission Recieps...it
lists how drink of cocoa was prepared.  You ground up your cocoa bean in a
mortar and pestal and added it to boiling warer...different spices were
added like cinnamon....(I don't have the reference here at the moment.) and
others....Europeans added honey to it because it was so bitter...I have
also found references to this effect in a few other books dealing with 16th
century Spain.

Thanks
Barbara

From: nc-kk at Sun.COM (Kevin Kellog)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: mail order cocoa bean web sites (was: Re: Chocolate Reference)
Date: 21 Feb 1997 23:21:02 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., San Diego CA, USA

Bruce Mills (millsbn at mcmail.cis.McMaster.CA) wrote:
: Where can one get cocoa beans?  I haven't been able to find any up here 
: in the Great White North.

        Try <URL: http://www.staarcom.com/cocoa>, <URL: http://
urgento.gse.rmit.edu.au:80/untpdc/news/eto/africa/>, <URL: http://
www.cbn.com.sg/ascii/search/data/C310.html>, or <URL: http://
ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/quetzal/>

                Avenel Kellough

From: jesst2+ at pitt.edu (Julia E Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate Reference
Date: 24 Feb 1997 15:43:42 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

Anyone interested in chocolate, in period or not, ought to read:

Sophie Coe 1996 (I think) _The True History of Chocolate_.  The author has
a PhD in Mesoamerican anthropology and was (she is recently deceased, I
believe) married to Michael Coe (a very well known archaeologist who works
on the ancient Maya).  It is a superb book, giving translations of several
recipes and descriptions (for those of you who don't read Nahuatl,
Spanish, Italian, etc.) as well as the references to the originals for
those who do.

It also has a great bibliography of 16th and 17th century stuff.  You
won't regret it.  

Juliana de Luna
Julia Smith
jesst2+ at pitt.edu

From: plburton at mail.goodnet.com (Sue Thing)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Chocolate Reference
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 1997 20:43:39 GMT-7

Chocolate was introduced into Spain in 1520. The cocoa beans were roasted and 
ground, then mixed with sugar (Cortez had extensive sugar plantations at 
Cuernevaca), cinnamon, and vanilla, and formed into tablets. The tablets were 
then mixed with hot water to form a thick liquid, which was then frothed with 
the *molinillo* -- a wooden whisk with an artichoke-shaped end piece and 
diamond-shaped spikes. Modern versions of the *molinillo* are found in Mexico 
to this day, as are chocolate tablets. When chocolate was introduced into the 
French court at the end of the 16th century, the French decided to make the 
drink with milk instead of water.

(Information from _The Heritage of Spanish Cooking_ Rios and March, 1992)

Clea

Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 09:30:43 -0500 (CDT)
From: "J. Patrick Hughes" <jphughes at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
To: sca-arts at listproc.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Request for Chocolate Help (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 07:03:53 -0600 (CST)
From: Julia Smith <julias at cariari.ucr.ac.cr>
To: "J. Patrick Hughes" <jphughes at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: Request for Chocolate Help (fwd)

On Mon, 28 Apr 1997, J. Patrick Hughes wrote:
> Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 11:39:29 -0600
> From: Jennifer Edwards-Ring <jener at macomb.com>
> To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
> Subject: Re: Request for Chocolate Help (fwd)
> 
> >There is a lovely book:
> >Coe, Sophie
> >1995 The True History of Chocolate.  Put out by some university press.
> 
> Sophie Coe is one of the best researchers into Aztec and New World culture.
> Her stuff is excellent.

Unfortunately, Sophie Coe *was* one of the best researchers into New World
cuisine.  If you read the introduction to _The True History_, you will
discover that she did not survive long enough for it to see the light.

> >This book has an extensive collection of information about early uses of
> >chocolate, as well as some recipes.  But for a quick set of comments:
> >        - sugar seems to have come into use quickly by Europeans (the
> >        Aztecs drank it as a spicy drink rather than a sweet one)
> 
> They usually added chili and ground corn to the mixture, sometime vanilla
> flowers or other flowers. Sometimes honey was added to make it sweeter. I'm
> assuming it was just a matter of taste.

They also added several other things, including some funguses.  What's
your basis for the assertion that they used the flowers of vanilla rather
than the beans?

> >        - use water, not milk as a base
> The Aztecs had no milk.

Of course.  However the combination of chocolate and milk is really late
(like 19th century!).

> >        - use baking chocolate, which has cocoa butter, rather than cocoa
> 
> Good suggestion, processed cocoa has much of the fat taken out.
> 
> >        - make it frothy (beat it well -- the Aztecs did it by pouring it
> >        back and forth between two cups, but the Europeans quickly started
> >        using those Mexican chocolate stirrers)
> 
> This is essential.
> 
> >One final curious note (your post made me think about it): there are some
> >early descriptions of parties in colonial Mexico which state that
> >chocolate was served *to the women*, with the implication that the men
> >were drinking alcohol instead.  So, I find it interesting that your
> >Chocolate House was where the governor's wife entertained.  This was not
> >true in Europe; several Baroque (and maybe earlier) recipes are attributed
> >to noblemen.
> 
> This is interesting because in the Aztec world, chocolatl was only served
> to men. Women ate separately from the men and had their own special drink.

Isn't it though?  

Juliana de Luna
Julia Smith
julias at cariari.ucr.ac.cr
in exile in that land that Columbus mistakenly named Costa Rica

From: "Marisa Herzog" <marisa_herzog at macmail.ucsc.edu>
Date: 16 Jun 1997 12:09:14 -0700
Subject: Re: SC - chocolate

"mexican chocolate" is a brick made of chocolate, ground almonds, spice
(sometimes hot) and sugar, that you smash or grind the heck out of and then
beat into hot water or milk- absolutely nothing like Hershey's or Quick, and
not nearly as sweet also.

From: nweders at mail.utexas.edu (ND Wederstrandt)
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 15:21:27 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: SC - chocolate

The best brand of Mexican chocalate that I like is Abuelita's and don't
forget your molina to whip it up.  If anyone lives where you cannot find it
send me your address and I will send you some.  Mexican chocalate is really
good on a cold day.

I read some where that the Spaniards drank it without milk, they just added
water and that it was not sweetened or sweetened much.  I have also read
where chocalate was sometimes mixed with cornmeal and served that way. I
have also had it with hot milk and beaten egg.  I can't remember where
maybe Diana Kennedy's books.

Clare St. John

From: "Sue Wensel" <swensel at brandegee.lm.com>
Date: 17 Jun 1997 09:29:34 -0500
Subject: Re(2): SC - chocolate

If you can't get Mexican chocolate bricks (which really are wonderful), then
get some *unsweetened* baking chocolate.  Nestle makes 100% pure chocolate --
not cocoa, not cocoa butter:  chocolate!  I put enough chocolate in a pot of
boiling water to make it slightly thinner than hot cocoa.  Add cinnamon, a
touch of jalapeno, voila.  It's also good by itself, no spices.

Derdriu

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 19:22:53 -0400
Subject: Re: Re(2)- SC - chocolate

> Why jalapeno? From what little I've read, which doesn't include the originals,
> they seem to be talking about chili peppers, not jalapenos. They don't taste
> the same.
> 
> Stefan li Rous

Jalapenos are the only chili some people know [not intended as a comment
on Derdriu, who I doubt has this problem with recognition] and perhaps
the interpretation of chili or red pepper got distorted from primary to
secondary, or tertiary, source.

My money would be on serrano chilies, chiles anchos, or, for the truly
psychotic, chipotles. This in spite of the fact that chipotles are a
form of jalapenos, anyway. All of the above would presumably have been
dried for such usage, and then ground.

Adamantius

From: justin at inmet.COM (Mark Waks)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Chocolate
Date: 14 Jul 1997 15:47:32 -0400

Ranvaig asks:
>This cookbook doesn't have any references. Is there a source for this?
>Is it true?   Could late period, Spanish feasts serve a slightly gritty
>chocolate beverage as a delicacy?  Does anyone have a recipe?
>Where would you get cocoa beans?

It's somewhat true, but you have to be careful.

"Chocolate", as in hot chocolate, is certainly period, if quite late
and exotic. The nobility of Spain had it in the 16th century, and by
at least the first half of the 17th century it was spreading more
widely. (For those who believe the SCA extends to 1650, chocolate is
pretty widespread by the end, albeit still expensive, I believe.)

*However*, I'm a bit skeptical about the Godiva descriptions of
compounding. I haven't seen any references to vanilla, and all the
recipes I have seen are considerably more savory than the description
implies. Hot chocolate appears to have typically had a range of spices
added, usually including some form of hot pepper. (However, at least
by late period, it *was* apparently sweetened.)

I have excerpts from an end-of-period English book on hot chocolate,
which is a translation of a slightly earlier Spanish work, on the
Web at:

        http://www.inmet.com/~justin/chocolate.txt

Take a look at that for a better idea of typical recipes...

                                -- Justin
                                   As for where to get cacao beans, I haven't
                                     succeeded yet, although I have some hope

Subject: ANST - Chocolate Documentation!
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 98 17:12:47 MST
From: "Mike C. Baker" <kihe at rocketmail.com>
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG

As I am all too aware due to relatively recent studies, there is a
near overwhelming belief in the SCA that that most divine of
indulgent foods, to whit CHOCOLATE, is not appropriate to pre-1600
pursuits and must therefore be declared by Royal Whim as permitted
or preferred.

The following location reproduces a secondary source which brings
documentation of chocolate AS A CONFECTION arguably to 1631ce
(1652CE English translation of 1631ce Spanish manuscript). In which
source, the Dames of Mexico purchase chocolate compounded with sugar
as one would any other sweatmeat at shops in the streets.

Also includes a range of recipes for the form of drinkable hot
chocolate that includes hot red chili pepper):

http://www.inmet.com/~justin/chocolate.txt

O.K., so even the Spanish manuscript would be in the "grey area" as
far as even the A&S documentation standards of several years ago are
concerned. But this source does provide pre-18th century European
usage of chocolate candy ("Dames of Mexico" presumably being the
European colonials and not the peasantry, based upon the titulary
usage of the term...)

Amra

Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 21:57:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Fw: ANST - Chocolate Documentation!

Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard) / Mike C. Baker wrote:
> ... has anyone got comments upon a source printed in
> 1920, by A.W.Knapp, titled (approx.) _Chocolate and Cocoa_? I've
> seen only the reference in Brittanica [1960 ed] that refers to a
> multi-page bibliography available in this book so far, would like to
> avoid repeating over-trod ground if I can...

Not that particular book, but anyone interested in the history of
chocolate, as well as coffee, tea, and tobacco, might enjoy
_Tastes of Paradise: a Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and
Intoxicants_, by Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Pantheon 1992.  That's the
English translation by David Jacobson; the original German is
_Paradies, der Geschmack und die Vernunft_.

                                        mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch

Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 19:41:02 -0500
From: "Mark Waks, AKA Justin du Coeur" <justin at intermetrics.com>
Subject: SC - Re: Fo: your fame spreads

My lady forwarded this to me:

Jane Waks wrote:
> I am not sure where or when I got this url, but I found it most
> interesting..  unfortunately I have not had the time to follow up the
> references, has anyone else seen this before and done any background
> investigation?
>
> http://www.inmet.com/~justin/chocolate.txt

What sort of background are you looking for? The book comes from the STC
microfilm collection (basically a microfilm set of all books published
in English prior to 1700); I stumbled across it while looking for gaming
sources.

Like the top of the file says, it seems to be a 1652 English translation
of a 1631 Spanish book on hot chocolate. It doesn't really contain any
*big* surprises: it's well-known that the Spanish nobility were well
acquainted with the new-world drink by the very tail end of period.

It's useful in that it has a few concrete recipes. I haven't gotten
around to trying to concoct it myself, but I gather that some others
have. (I seem to recall that Juana in the West was doing some work on
hot chocolate.) The drink is clearly fairly spicy, but sounds
potentially pretty decent. It's a mild nuisance to reconstruct, mainly
because it is written in terms of number of cacao beans.

The only real surprise in the book is a pretty clear reference to solid
chocolate; however, this has to be taken with a grain of salt. The
source makes it sound like this was only done in Mexico, and it isn't
clear that the practice was known pre-1600. Still kinda interesting,
since most descriptions of early chocolate only talk about the drink.

There's more to the book, of course; it's some 40 pages, mostly on the
subject of medicine. I've typed in all the practical cooking sections;
if I get some time, I'll probably type in the rest. (Not before May,
though...)

                                -- Justin du Coeur
                                   Carolingia, East
                                   Avid period cookbook collector

Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 10:31:28 +0100
From: Christina Nevin <cnevin at caci.co.uk>
Subject: Re: SC - "Chocolate in a Period Form"

        Adamantius wrote:
        It does seem unlikely, but the contest people may be referring to
the possibility of edible pastilles of cacao and sugar, little tablets that
could be dissolved in hot water for chocolate, or eaten as is. I vaguely
recall seeing a reference to this habit, but am pretty sure the point of the
researcher bringing up the diarist's passage was that these pastilles appear
not to have reached Europe in period.

>From "Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke." London, 1652, by Capt. John
Wadsworth. Apparently a translation of a book by Melchor de Lara, "Physitian
General for the Kingdome of Spaine", 1631.
 " ...with a spoone take up some of the Paste <which is made up of
chocolate, chilli, aniseed, sugar and various other spices>, which will be
almost liquid; and so either make it into Tablets; or put it into Boxes; and
when it is cold it will be hard. To make the Tablets, you must put a
spoonfull of the Paste upon a piece of paper, the Indians put it upon the
leaf of a Plantentree, where being put into the shade, it growes hard; and
then bowing the paper, the Tablet falls off, by reason of the fatnesse of
the paste. But if you put it into any thing of earth, or wood, it sticks
fast, and will not come off, but with scraping, or breaking. "  and goes on
to speak of the habit of also drinking chocolate hot or cold as well as in
tablets.

Whether this can be backdated to pre-1600 is one of those never-resolved
debates I think.

Cordialmente,
Lucretzia

Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 11:03:01 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - FW: Fields of Gold information

> "<snip>
>
> This Tasting is designed to bring out the Grandiose.  Many would argue that
> Chocolate is not period, But I say that Spain landed in the new world in
> 1492, and if you found Chocolate, would you share?????  This is a display
> contest designed around the premise "To the most decadent (with a period
> flair) go the Spoils"  Imagination definitely counts, and be not shy with
> thy presentation......
>
> Pass it on
>
> In Service, Ld Random"

Whimsical, but scholastically fallacious.

What the Conquistadors brought back were cacao beans or, more likely, cocoa,
which is produced  by fermenting, curing and then roasting the pods of the
cacao tree (Theobroma cacao).

It was definitely not found in 1492.  It was found in Mexico on Hernando
Cortez's expedition of 1520.  The beans were probably not delivered to Spain
until 1527 with the end of the Conquest or 1528, when Cortez was relieved of
command and returned to Spain.  Apparently cocoa as a drink became popular
in Spain about 1580 and spread to the rest of Europe early in the 17th
Century.

Chocolate is made with cocoa from which most of the fat has been removed,
sugar, cocoa butter (to return the fat), and milk solids.  Chocolate, as
opposed to cocoa, the powder or the drink, appears to be of 17th Century
origin.  The process for milk chocolate was perfected in 1876.

There may be some proof of the use of cocoa or chocolate in Late Renaissance
Italy based on the Carta Bardi II manuscript in the Florentine archives.
However, this has been referenced only in passing and I have seen nothing to
date the manuscript or describe its contents.

Frankly, I'm sorry I can not attend this event and present my interpretation
of the "Confection of ground nuts and cocoa" as recorded in the Casablanca
documents of Chef Le Bruin.  (With an appropriate bittersweet ganache).
[This last paragraph is sarcasm, and there is no such recipe, just in case someone is wondering – Stefan]

Bon chance

Bear

Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 23:33:22 +0200
From: "ana l. valdes" <agora at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: SC - Chocolate

The nahuatl word is cacahuatl. From it we transformed to some barbaric
aception as cacahuete (peanut) in spanish and cocoa.
But the nahuatl word, in the dictionaries the munks made to translate
the Bible and other sources, was cacahuatl to the beans and xocolatl to
the drink.

Ana

Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 19:51:28 -0700
From: varmstro at zipcon.net (Valoise Armstrong)
Subject: RE: SC - FW: Fields of Gold information

Bear wrote:
>It was definitely not found in 1492.  It was found in Mexico on Hernando
>Cortez's expedition of 1520.  The beans were probably not delivered to Spain
>until 1527 with the end of the Conquest or 1528, when Cortez was relieved of
>command and returned to Spain.  Apparently cocoa as a drink became popular
>in Spain about 1580 and spread to the rest of Europe early in the 17th
>Century.

The popularity of a cocoa drink among Spanish nobility may have taken off
pretty quickly. There is an anonymous novel called _Lazarillo de Tormes_
that was first published in 1554. In it the main character, a street
beggar, enters the house of a down-on-his-luck nobleman and notes that:

"I hadn't seen anything but walls, not a chocolate grinder or a block for
chopping meat or a bench or a table..."

Would seem to imply that by 1554 a chocolate grinder would be expected to
be among the most basic furnishings of the minor nobolity.

Valoise

Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 12:30:39 -0500
From: Virginia Gatling <vgatling at ectisp.net>
Subject: SC - Chocolate..Period or not...

FYI.....
This is a passage on chocolate from my WD encyclopedia of cookery vol.3
printed 1966, even though this is not a "period resource" it may help
with the chocolate lovers documentation "chuckle".. Quote
.."CHOCOLATE-Chocolate and its brother, cocoa, are made from the beans
of the cacao tree, a perennial evergreen tree of the cola family,
botanically called Theobroma, or "food of the gods." The cacao tree is
native to the hot humid forests of the Amazon basin, and it flourishes
only in tropical climates. Chocolate is a mixture of roasted cocoa,
cocoa butter [also obtained from the cacao bean], and a very fine sugar.

It is truly a product of the New World. The word comes from the Mexican
Indian choco, "foam," and alt, "water." It is said that Columbus brought
some home to Spain with him, but the first Europeans to see it used were
the Spaniards who invaded Mexico under Cortez in 1519. There they found
chocolate in common use, flavored with spices, but unsweetened. It was
the royal drink of the Aztec: the Emperor Montezuma drank his chocolate
from golden ceremonial goblets. Cocoa beans were also used as money.
Cortez introduced chocolate as a hot drink to Spain, where sugar and
vanilla flavoring were added to it. By 1580 it was in common use and
extremely popular. The Spaniards tried to hold on to their monopoly of
the cocoa bean and the chocolate drink, and managed to do so for a
hundred years. But in the middle of the 1600's, when the Spanish
princess Maria Theresa married  Louis XIV, the French  stared using
chocolate. At about the same time cocoa began to be cultivated in the
British West Indies and advertised in London. Chocolate shops sprang up
throughout Europe, and the fashionables of the day sipped and gossiped
in them."..... End of quote, and it goes on... I don't know how this
holds up for truth but it is interesting.

 Regina

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 01:45:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: cclark at vicon.net
Subject: Fat in chocolate (Re: SC - Sharing an even announcement...)

>chocolate was first invented"  (ha ha) it didn't contain that *other* magic
>ingredient FAT  (cocoa butter? butter fat? ) It was a bitter tasting drink
>that was at first used medicinally.
>Phillipa Seton

I might as well get started on this list by setting a record straight. It's
what I do compulsively anyway. :-/

Chocolate has always contained fat. Unsweetened baking chocolate tends to
have just a bit of added fat (cocoa butter), and most sweetened chocolates
(especially candies, and coating and couverture chocolate) have even more
fat (either cocoa butter, clarified butterfat, or vegetable oil). Cocoa
powder, on the other hand, has had most of the fat *removed* from it,
leaving it at about 10% fat by weight. Unseparated chocolate is almost half
fat by weight.

As far as I know, only unseparated chocolate was known in period, unless
they might have used some inefficient means of separating out a little of
the cocoa butter. In any case, mostly defatted cocoa powder is more modern.

My main sources for the above info are _Chocolate_Heaven_ by Elizabeth Wolf
Cohen and Valerie Barrett, _On_Food_and_Cooking_ by McGee, the nutritional
information on the several brands of cocoa that I have at the moment, and my
own liveware memory banks.

The other other magic ingredient in chocolate, sugar, was of course already
well known in Europe, and was often used to sweeten drinks. Though I don't
know when it was first used to sweeten chocolate.

Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark

Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 17:33:19 EST
From: DianaFiona at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Chocolate

mermayde at juno.com writes:
<< >     Off topic--Christianna, would you like the redaction of that 
 > slightly-post-period-Spanish-chocolate-drink that I came up with for 
 > Aedan's 
 > feast, or have you already done your own long ago? (G)
 >             Diana
 
 How far off-topic can chocolate ever be?  Don't be a spoon tease, woman!
 Yes, please, send it along.
 Christianna >>

This came from the webpage at: 
http://www.inmet.com/~justin/chocolate.txt, which is an excerpt from an 
English translation of a Spanish treatise on chocolate. The translation is 
from 1652, and the original was written in 1631, so both are out of period, 
but the original, at least, is fairly close. 

    I was concocting this to the preferences of our feastcrat, and might have 
done it a little differently for myself--he vetoed any hot peppers, for 
instance, which I would have enjoyed. I also left out any nuts since I knew 
of at least one chocolate loving lady there who is sensitive to them, and 
wimped out on the anise, since neither I nor most of the Shire folk whose 
preferences I know are fond of it. The more exotic stuff I didn't think I 
could get quickly, nor thought it would add much to the flavor--any of you 
dyers actually *tasted* logwood? So, it ended up being a pretty basic spiced 
hot chocolate, but it was certainly tasty enough, to judge by the comments 
received....... ;-) We served it cold at the feast and the leftovers hot the 
next morning. I do intend to try a few batches soon with at least some of the 
other ingredients, just for my own satisfaction..........
    Here's a couple of paragraphs of the treatise:

"The Receipt of him who wrote at Marchena, is this: Of
Cacaos, 700, of white Sugar, one pound and a halfe, Cinnamon,
2. ounces; of long red pepper, 14, of Cloves, halfe an ounce: Three
Cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree; or in steade of that, the weight
of 2 Reals, or a shilling of Anniseeds; as much of Agiote, as
will give it the colour, which is about the quantity of a
Hasellnut. Some put in Almons, kernells of Nuts, and
Orenge-flower-water.

Concerning this Receipt I shall first say, This shooe will not fit
every foote; but for those, who have diseases, or are inclining to
be infirme, you may either adde, or take away, according to the necessity,
and temperature of every one: and I hold it not amisse, that Sugar
be put into it, when it is drunke, so that it be according to the
quantity I shall hereafter set downe. And sometimes they make
Tablets of the Sugar, and the Chocolate together: which they doe
onely to please the Pallats, as the Dames of Mexico do use it; and
they are there sold in shops, and are confected and eaten like other
sweet-meats."

    I didn't try to go with the proportions listed in the first paragraph, 
not having ready access to cocoa pods to figure out how they might be 
equivalent to the unsweetened chocolate we would be using. There are other 
proportions given in other parts of the treatise, too, so obviously it was 
somewhat a matter of taste. What I finally came up with was:

    1 oz unsweetened chocolate
    2 Tblsp sugar
    1/2 tsp cinnamon
    1/8 tsp (Pinch) cloves
    1 cup water or milk (Milk is one alternative listed later on, though 
possibly by the translator.)

    Mix the sugar and spices in a saucepan, add milk or water. Heat, then add 
chocolate and stir until dissolved. I found I needed to use a blender to get 
this thoroughly incorporated, which also did a decent job of frothing the 
liquid as instructed in other parts of the original manuscript. One of the 
proper Mexican tools (a molino?) for that job should also work, I just don't 
have one. Serve hot or cold--room temperature is more accurate than cold, but 
I don't like it that way myself.........I found I liked the water version 
best hot, while the milk version was good either way. Plus, I could increase 
the amount of milk to chocolate a bit and still have a good drink. The water 
seemed to need the larger amount of chocolate to still be tasty.

    Well, there's the basic proportions I came up with--feel free to play 
around with it as you please, of course! Just make sure to offer me a taste 
if you should happen to bring any to an event I'm at............ ;-) 

            Ldy Diana

Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 10:03:01 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: SC - Chocolate Drink - 1615

I'm trying to work out the following slightly out of period recipe 
for a Chocolate beverage for personal use. As it is rather late, 
being a bit OOP, it has quantities of ingredients, but even so, i 
have questions...

- ---------------------

 From "Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke." London, 1652, by Capt. John Wadsworth.
Apparently a translation of a book by Melchor de Lara, "Physitian 
General for the Kingdome of Spaine", 1631.

ORIGINAL LIST OF INGREDIENTS

"The Receipt of him who wrote at Marchena, is this:

Of Cacaos, 700
of white Sugar, one pound and a halfe
Cinnamon, 2. ounces
of long red pepper, 14
of Cloves, halfe an ounce:

Three Cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree;
or in steade of that, the weight of 2 Reals, or a shilling of Anniseeds;
as much of Agiote, as will give it the colour, which is about the 
quantity of a Hasellnut.

Some put in Almons,
kernells of Nuts, and
Orenge-flower-water.

MY QUESTIONS

1.)
Cacao pods or nibs are not easy to get and prepare, so i would like 
to substitute something more readily available while i'm 
experimenting with the recipe, such as:

Unsweetened Baking Chocolate

How much would i need to equal 700 cacao nibs?
Maybe some day i'll buy 700 cacao nibs and pound them up myself. 
After all, there's a delicious chocolate bar that has crunchy 
fragments of cacao in it, so it's a possibility. But while i'm in the 
development stage, i'd rather use something easier to get and use.

2.)
1-1/2 lb sugar
2 oz cinnamon
14 long red peppers [dried - see preparation, below]
1/2 oz cloves

These quantities are clear in the recipe, assuming the measures 
haven't changed much in 350 years. Is there a significant difference 
in what constitutes a pound and an ounce by weight between then and 
now?

3.)
3 Cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree
or
the weight of 2 Reals, or a shilling of Aniseeds; and Achiote/Annato, 
as much as will give it the color, about the quantity of a Hazelnut

I can get logwood from natural dye suppliers.
(a.) Is it safe to consume in small quantities?
(b.) How much is "3 cods"? is this a volume or weight measure?

(c.) How much does a shilling or 2 reals weight?

(d.) Is "a hazelnut of achiote" likely to mean by weight or by volume?
(e.) Has the size of a hazelnut changed significantly since 1650?

4.)
Some put in Almonds,
kernels of Nuts [Walnuts?]
Orange-flower-water

a.) I assume from the wording that the above are optional. Am i 
interpreting correctly?

b.) At this time period is the word "nuts" here likely to mean 
"walnuts", or nuts in general. I am under the impression that it 
refers to walnuts, as it does in French. But i read an interpretation 
that called for hazelnuts.

I can work out quantities by myself, once i resolve (a) and (b).

- ---------------------

ORIGINAL PREPARATION
[paragraph breaks mine for ease of reading]

The Cacao, and the other Ingredients must be beaten in a Morter of 
Stone, or ground upon a broad stone, which the Indians call Metate, 
and is onely made for that use: But the first thing that is to be 
done, is to dry the Ingredients, all except the Achiote, with care 
that they may be beaten to powder, keeping them still in stirring, 
that they be not burnt, or become black; and if they be over-dried, 
they will be bitter, and lose their vertue. The Cinamon, and the long 
red Pepper are to be first beaten, with the Annisseed; and then beate 
the Cacao, which you must beate by a little and little, till it be 
all powdred; and sometimes turne it round in the beating, that it may 
mixe the better: And every one of these Ingredients, must be beaten 
by it selfe, and then put all the Ingredients into the Vessell, where 
the Cacao is; which you must stirre together with a spoone; and then 
take out that Paste, and put it into the Morter, under which you must 
lay a little fire, after the Confection is made. But you must be very 
carefull, not to put more fire, than will warme it, that the unctuous 
part doe not dry away. And you must also take care, to put in the 
Achiote in the beating; that it may the better take the colour. You 
must Searse all the Ingredients, but onely the Cacao; and if you take 
the shell from the Cacao, it is the better; and when you shall find 
it to be well beaten, & incorporated (which you shall know by the 
shortness of it)

then with a spoone take up some of the Paste, which will be almost 
liquid; and so either make it into Tablets; or put it into Boxes; and 
when it is cold it will be hard. To make the Tablets, you must put a 
spoonfull of the Paste upon a piece of paper, the Indians put it upon 
the leaf of a Plantentree, where being put into the shade, it growes 
hard; and then bowing the paper, the Tablet falls off, by reason of 
the fatnesse of the paste. But if you put it into any thing of earth, 
or wood, it sticks fast, and will not come off, but with scraping, or 
breaking.

In the Indies they take it two severall waies: The one, being the 
common way, is to take it hot, with Atolle, which was the Drinke of 
Ancient Indians (the Indians call Atolle pappe, made of the flower of 
Maiz, and so they mingle it with the Chocolate, and that the Atolle 
may be more wholsome, they take off the Husks of the Maiz, which is 
windy, and melancholy; and so there remaines onely the best and most 
substantiall part.) Now, to returne to the matter, I say, that the 
other Moderne drinke, which the Spaniards use so much, is of two 
sortes. The one is, that the Chocolate, being dissolved with cold 
water, & the scumme taken off, and put into another Vessell, the 
remainder is put upon the fire, with Sugar; and when it is warme, 
then powre it upon the Scumme you tooke off before, and so drinke it. 
The other is to warme the water; and then, when you have put it into 
a pot, or dish, as much Chocolate as you thinke fit, put in a little 
of the warme water, and then grinde it well with the molinet; and 
when it is well ground, put the rest of the warme water to it; and so 
drinke it with Sugar.

MY SIMPLIFIED INTERPRETATION
The recipe calls for drying the ingredients. This appears to be what 
i call dry roasting which i do in a wok or skillet with no oil on a 
medium-low fire, stirring constantly until things seem right (color, 
smell, texture).

Grind everything but the chocolate to a powder; sieve to assure it is 
well powdered and to remove fibers. Crush cacao nibs, then grind them 
near a fire, which will make a paste (If i use unsweetened baking 
chocolate, can i just melt it?). Stir powdered ingredients into cocoa 
paste and mix well.

Make tablets by taking a spoonful of paste and putting it on paper or 
plantain leaves (i used to have access to banana leaves in LA, as 
these are often planted as ornamentals, but i don't see them here in 
Berkeley :-) and letting it harden.

To drink: (1) mix a tablet into atole (mmm, i like atole - used to 
make it when i lived in LA); or (2) mix with water, warm, and beat, 
and add sugar to taste.

- ---------------------

Thanks for any assistance,

Anahita al-shazhiyya

Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 11:22:44 -0700
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Chocolate Drink - 1615

I just bought a small packet of cacao nibs, about one ounce or so, at Whole Foods Market in Los Angeles [high-end yuppie organic grocery, formerly Mrs. Gooch's]. Baking chocolate =might= do, but consider it pre-powdered and pre-roasted.  Annato seeds are readily available here as well.  I'm not sure what logwood is nor how it affects the flavor so I guess we go with the anise seeds.  I will perform the experiment, albeit on a small scale, and get back to you.

But for the spice seeds and chili pepper, this seems to closely resemble the
ingredients list of Mexican chocolate tablets, which contain chocolate nibs, sugar, cinnimon and sometimes vanilla.  I have a vile habit of eating them straight, but I also make a pleasant sweet bread with them based on a cocoa bread recipe from a breadmaker book.

Selene

Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 14:06:04 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Chocolate Drink - 1615

A cod in this case is a seed pod.

A shilling is 1/20th of a pound sterling equaling 12 penneyweights Troy
approximately equaling 18.6 grams or slightly over 1/2 ounce U.S. Customary
Measure.

Bear

> I'm just trying to figure out what some of those measurements are, 
> like cods and reals. I know a real is a coin, but how much does it 
> weigh? but i don't think a cod in this context is a fish :-)
> 
> Anahita al-shazhiyya

Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 15:21:01 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Chocolate Drink - 1615

> MY QUESTIONS
> 
> 1.)
> Cacao pods or nibs are not easy to get and prepare, so i would like 
> to substitute something more readily available while i'm 
> experimenting with the recipe, such as:
> 
> Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
> 
> How much would i need to equal 700 cacao nibs?
> Maybe some day i'll buy 700 cacao nibs and pound them up myself. 
> After all, there's a delicious chocolate bar that has crunchy 
> fragments of cacao in it, so it's a possibility. But while i'm in the 
> development stage, i'd rather use something easier to get and use.

I haven't found any information on how many beans it take to make a pound of
chocolate.  The average number of beans to the pound probably varies
depending on variety of tree and where the beans are in the process.  One of
the industry sites gives the following:  1 lb cocoa paste requires 1.25 lb
beans, 1 lb of cocoa butter requires 2.67 lbs of beans, 1 pound of cocoa
powder or cake requires 2.35 lb beans.

>From http://www.hhhh.org/cloister/chocolate/history.html

By the mid 1600s, some chocolatiers were preparing a primordeal sort of
chocolate bar, consisting of the chocolate paste, sugar, and spices. The
product was a very coarse one at best, and because of the expense of cocoa
beans, probably contained more spice than chocolate. The closest thing
you'll find on the market today is probably Ibarra chocolate. Chocolate
drinks at that time were generally made from one part chocolate paste, two
parts sugar, 8 parts water, and spices.

I have no idea where this site got the ratios.  

If both sets of ratios hold true, and that's a big IF, then 700 cocoa beans
represent 15 oz. avoirdupois or 11.25 ounces Troy depending on which system
was used for the recipe.  Which is then converted into 3/4 lb of cocoa
paste. 

Just as guess, I would use about 3/8 lb of baker's chocolate or cocoa powder
to begin experimenting with the understanding that these have been processed
beyond the basic cocoa paste stage and may not represent the cocoa in the
drink accurately. 

> 2.)
> 1-1/2 lb sugar
> 2 oz cinnamon
> 14 long red peppers [dried - see preparation, below]
> 1/2 oz cloves
> 
> These quantities are clear in the recipe, assuming the measures 
> haven't changed much in 350 years. Is there a significant difference 
> in what constitutes a pound and an ounce by weight between then and 
> now?

If someone has not converted the recipe to modern measure, then these would
probably be apothecary weights (Troy measure). 

> 
> 3.)
> 3 Cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree
> or
> the weight of 2 Reals, or a shilling of Aniseeds; and Achiote/Annato, 
> as much as will give it the color, about the quantity of a Hazelnut
> 
> I can get logwood from natural dye suppliers.
> (a.) Is it safe to consume in small quantities?
> (b.) How much is "3 cods"? is this a volume or weight measure?

Logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum) is a member of the pea family.  A cod is
a seed pod.  The toxicity is unknown, but I would point out that our
ancestors seem to have survived it.  Also the wood is primarily used as a
dye stuff.
 
> (c.) How much does a shilling or 2 reals weight?

Shilling = 1/20 pound sterling = 12 pennyweights Troy = 3/5 ounce Troy =
slightly over 1/2 ounce U.S. Customary Measure.
 
> (d.) Is "a hazelnut of achiote" likely to mean by weight or by volume?
> (e.) Has the size of a hazelnut changed significantly since 1650?

Achiote or annatto (Bix orellana)in this instance is the seed of a New World
evergreen, so an annatto seed about the size of a hazelnut.  I don't think
hazelnut size has changed much.

> 4.)
> Some put in Almonds,
> kernels of Nuts [Walnuts?]
> Orange-flower-water
> 
> a.) I assume from the wording that the above are optional. Am i 
> interpreting correctly?

I would agree with your interpretation.

> b.) At this time period is the word "nuts" here likely to mean 
> "walnuts", or nuts in general. I am under the impression that it 
> refers to walnuts, as it does in French. But i read an interpretation 
> that called for hazelnuts. 

What nuts were commonly available in Spain at this time?  Seems to me
walnuts and hazelnuts grow further north, but I'm real sketchy on this.

> I can work out quantities by myself, once i resolve (a) and (b).
<recipe clipped>

> Anahita al-shazhiyya

So have fun and tell us hov it goes.

Bear

From: "Christine Seelye-King" <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2001 16:43:43 -0400
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Chocolate (was Corn Bread)

> The making of chocolate is neither simple nor obvious (nor
> pre-17th century, unless I'm mistaken). IIRC, the pre-17th century use of
cocoa by
> the Spanish was as part of a medicinal beverage based on observations of
the Mayan
> pharmaceuticals, and it was made of ground, roasted cocoa beans, ground
> capsicum, and hot water. Stimulating, yes, but hardly pleasant.
> Unfortunately, my collection of post-Columbian herb and medical
> documentation, where I picked up these trivial tidbits, is packed away.
>
> If any of these folks has solid evidence of these ingredients being widely
> used in pre-17th century Spanish culture, I'd be very interested.
>
> Thomas Longshanks

	Well, I agree with just about everything you said here, but I had to jump
in here, just because I could. :)  The infamous Mexican/Spanish source about
chocolate does give us what looks to be like a sweetened, spiced, bar or
tablet of chocolate to be eaten as a confection or used in other foods.  Not
widely used, not pre-17th century, but a chocolate bar, nevertheless.
Christianna

[From "Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke." London, 1652, by Capt. John
Wadsworth. Apparently a translation of a book by Melchor de Lara,
"Physitian General for the Kingdome of Spaine", 1631.]
The Cacao, and the other Ingredients must be beaten in a Morter of
Stone, or ground upon a broad stone, which the Indians call Metate,
and is onely made for that use: But the first thing that is to be
done, is to dry the Ingredients, all except the Achiote, with care
that they may be beaten to powder, keeping them still in stirring,
that they be not burnt, or become black; and if they be over-dried,
they will be bitter, and lose their vertue. The Cinamon, and the long
red Pepper are to be first beaten, with the Annisseed; and then beate
the Cacao, which you must beate by a little and little, till it be
all powdred; and sometimes turne it round in the beating, that it may
mixe the better: And every one of these Ingredients, must be beaten
by it selfe, and then put all the Ingredients into the Vessell, where
the Cacao is; which you must stirre together with a spoone; and then
take out that Paste, and put it into the Morter, under which you must
lay a little fire, after the Confection is made. But you must be very
carefull, not to put more fire, than will warme it, that the unctuous
part doe not dry away. And you must also take care, to put in the
Achiote in the beating; that it may the better take the colour. You
must Searse all the Ingredients, but onely the Cacao; and if you take
the shell from the Cacao, it is the better; and when you shall find
it to be well beaten, & incorporated (which you shall know by the
shortness of it)

then with a spoone take up some of the Paste, which will be almost
liquid; and so either make it into Tablets; or put it into Boxes; and
when it is cold it will be hard. To make the Tablets, you must put a
spoonfull of the Paste upon a piece of paper, the Indians put it upon
the leaf of a Plantentree, where being put into the shade, it growes
hard; and then bowing the paper, the Tablet falls off, by reason of
the fatnesse of the paste. But if you put it into any thing of earth,
or wood, it sticks fast, and will not come off, but with scraping, or
breaking.

And sometimes they make Tablets of the Sugar, and the
Chocolate together: which they doe onely to please the Pallats, as
the Dames of Mexico do use it; and they are there sold in shops, and
are confected and eaten like other sweet-meats.

From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 13:16:21 -0700
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks]  Chocolate (was Corn Bread)

Gwynydd wrote:
>1) What is 'Achiote'?

Achiote is the same as Annatto, a somewhat pyramidal seed used to
give a red, orange, or yellow color (depending on how much you use).
Available in markets that sell Caribbean and/or Latin American
products

>2) If I used pre-powdered cocoa (given that I am not sure that I can even
>get cocoa beans), how would I get the paste - the addition of cocoa butter
>(if one can even buy this commercially in Tasmania) or something like it,
>perhaps?

Mix with a little cocoa butter (if you can find it) or substitute
another mono-unsaturated fat like coconut oil or even a little butter
- obviously it will effect the flavor a bit, but you really don't
need much fat.

Sometimes gourmet stores sell "cocoa nibs" - this is what you'd use
if you want to get closer to "from scratch". I bought some but
haven't made the drink yet... You can probably order some over the
internet, but i don't know if it would be worth the expense.

>3) Is granulated white sugar appropriate for the sweetened version?  Or
>should I be looking at something else?

White sugar would be quite suitable for a late period Spanish recipe.

>4) Can someone explain this sentence please?  It has me rather confused.
>'You must Searse all the Ingredients, but onely the Cacao; and if you take
>the shell from the Cacao, it is the better; and when you shall find
>it to be well beaten, & incorporated (which you shall know by the
>shortness of it)'

Dunno. Searse usually means to sift, i think. But then it says to
sift all the ingredients, but only the cacao, which doesn't make much
sense. I guess "the shortness of it" means you can see that the
ingredients are incorporated with the cocoa fats...

Anahita / Subaytila

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 13:58:11 -0400
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks]  Chocolate (was Corn Bread)
From: Elizabeth A Heckert <spynnere at juno.com>

Gwynydd wrote:
>2) the addition of cocoa butter
>(if one can even buy this commercially in Tasmania)

        Try your local natural foods store.  By-pass the food and go
straight to the cosmetic counter.  Cocoa butter is used as an emmolient.
There is an American natural foods company, called Spectrum Naturals,
which produces non-hydrogenated, expeller-pressed oils for cooking.  They
also produce food-grade coconut oil and cocoa butter for cosmetic
purposes.  Now I realize that Tasmania is half a world away from the US,
but the natural foods industry is fairly international.  If your local
store does not carry Spectrum, they might carry an Australian or New
Zealand brand that is food-grade.

      Elizabeth

From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 17:04:10 -0400 (EDT)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks]  Chocolate (was Corn Bread)

> Do you know if achiote adds any very distinctive flavour as well as the
> colour?  I have never seen it for sale anywhere here, I don't think
> (although, I will ask at the local spice shop) so I wonder if I can get away
> with not using it.

It has a distinctive, yummy scent that is stronger than the flavor, but it
does have a distinctive flavor.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa

From: nikkicmiller at yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 16:15:30 -0700 (PDT)
To: Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] achiote source

> Do you know if achiote adds any very distinctive flavour as well as the
> colour?  I have never seen it for sale anywhere here, I don't think
> (although, I will ask at the local spice shop) so

Achiote has a very earthy favor with a brilliant color.
Available mail order at www.penderys.com.  They are
also a wonderful source for all your dried capsium
needs.  And do offer herbs and spices as well. They
are located in dallas.  I highly recommend them.

phebe
Barony of the Steppes

Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 12:11:13 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] period "hot" chocolate

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Pardon me if this sounds harsh. But why do you think this resembles
> anything a late period Spanish lady would have? Pictures? descriptions?

Pictures you want pictures---

Ok I spent some time doing an
image search on this just to see what can be found:

The chocolate pot under discussion is made
by Pillivuyt of France.
You can find it at Williams-Sonoma or
here is a larger picture at:
http://www.welltemperedkitchen.com/louisxvichoc.html

W-S is cheaper.  This is a Louis XVIII which would
make it the 19th century design.
-----------------
A Molinillo and chocolate pot can be seen
in the 1652 still-life
Still Life with an Ebony Chest
Pereda, Antonio de.

I will put that info in a different posting.
-------------
http://www.chocomusee.com/acquerir_eng.html
also sells them.
They sell one for 129,95$ which if quoted
in Canadian dollars would be cheaper than the
Williams-S one. And they sell an earlier one
than the Louis XVIIIth one.
-------------------
http://fantes.com/chocolate.htm#pot
carries one that is cheaper of a simpler design.
   Porcelain  Chocolate Pot With Molinillo
$49.95
---------------------
http://www.chocolate-artistry.com/recipes.php
Elaine Gonz=E1lez shares her
CHOCOLATE RECIPES for the drink
and discusses it.
--------------------------
Lastly you may get a kick out of this
site-----If you go to
http://floridafrontier.com/

and click on the 16th Century kitchen.
The next screen in that series will take you
to the following---- described as:
Above is a chocolate pot
   and a wooden frother called a molinillo.

Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway

Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 12:14:53 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Molinillos was period chocolate pot

When searching for illustrations earlier I
alss searched for information on the
molinillo.

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/molinillo.htm
has an interesting page on the molinillo.
It talks about the European versus the
Mexican method of making the drink.

One thing that I found interesting is that most of the websites
state that the molinillo seems to have been  invented by the  colonists
in Mexico around 1700.  Prior to the invention of the molinillo,
chocolate was frothed by pouring it from one cup to another.

The first molinillos were made to fit into a container with the handle
  extending out of the top. The molinillo was then rotated between
the users two hands placed palm-sides together. The twisting
  motion frothed the chocolate.

Ok --There is an illustration of an Aztec woman pouring the drink from
one pot into another. One can find that illustration in Ruth Lopez's
Chocolate The Art of Indulgence on page 28.

What she also includes is a 1652 still-life by Antonio de Pereda
y Salgado that shows a chocolate pot and a molinillo, so obviously
they date from before 1700.
That picture Still Life with an Ebony Chest
                        Pereda, Antonio de.
                        Oil on canvas. 80x94 cm
                        Spain. 1652
can be found at the http://www.hermitagemuseum.org
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/quickSearch.mac/ 
gallery?selLang=English&tmCond=Pereda+Antonio+de

Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway

Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:39:45 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] period "hot" chocolate

Take a look at:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/molinillo.htm
has an interesting page on the molinillo.

http://fantes.com/chocolate.htm#pot
carries one that is cheaper of a simpler design.
   Porcelain  Chocolate Pot With Molinillo
$49.95

If you want to have one made take a look at those
pages.

Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway

Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:53:33 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] hot chocolate
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Hey, here's a site that might be interesting (reviewed by the
Librarian's Index to the Internet):

Rediscover True Hot Chocolate
This history of hot chocolate is accompanied by historical recipes for
the drink, including Mayan hot chocolate, Mexican hot chocolate, hot
chocolate made from milk chocolate candy bars, and the recipe for hot
chocolate from the Angelina Cafe in Paris. From a cookbook author.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/HotChocolate.htm
-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 

Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:52:16 -0500
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] No Italian Chocolate
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Greetings.  Back in 1993/94 there were rumors of some Renaissance Italian
recipes using chocolate.  I was able to track down one of the folk who had
found a book with chocolate recipes and just recently Helewyse (Louise
Smithson, Midrealm) received an answer from the Florence Archives about
dating the source.  Viviana de Castelloza (Australia) sent me the recipes
which she found in _Cucina Fiorentina fra Medioevo e Rinascimento_ but she
couldn't prove the dates.  Helewyse inquired about dating the recipes from
the Carte Bardi II and was told: "In referecent to your letter regarding
the Bardi archives, second series A116, this actually has the signature
(proper name): Bardi archives, second series, 129 and is titled "A Telling
of varies recipes to make dishes sweet and perfumed."  From the inventory
this manuscript is taken from the 18th century."  

Helewyse commented: "So there is our answer.  While the Bardi archives do indeed start in the 15th century the section she took those recipes from appears to be some time in the 18th century.  At the earliest the recipes may have been used in the 17th.  So no chocolate in Italy in the 16th."

This doesn't necessarily negate chocolate being used as a beverage, since I
believe there is a reference to the Italian Church which ruled that priests
who drank chocolate were not breaking their fast before serving Mass.

So, Duke Cariadoc had written to me saying "I think you are being hasty in
assuming the recipes are both genuine and correctly dated without having
seen even the secondary source."  The recipes are genuine, but from a much
later period than the SCA's.  Helewyse's cursory examination of the _Cucina
Fiorentina..._ does not impress her with the author's "scholarly" credentials.

Alys Katharine

Elise Fleming

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:05:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Cioccolato di modica
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Cc: alysk at ix.netcom.com

From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Gianotta wrote:
> In researching my rebuttal I came across mentions of chocolate
> made in Modica, Sicily. (snip) Allegedly chocolate-making came
> to Modica when the town was under Spanish rule in the 16th century.

What's the source for this?  Is it primary or secondary or...?  

Alys Katharine

=================================================
I say "allegedly" because I obtained info from various Websites.

Here is the one for the Antica Dolceria Bonajuto Website, a shop  
started in 1880:

http://www.bonajuto.it/_bonajut2.html

All the chocolate makers of Modica (the county, not just the city)  
claim that Modican chocolate is "created according to a very ancient  
method that has been handed on for centuries among families of  
confectioners in the County of Modica."

Modica was the seat of Spanish domination in Sicily. Here is an article  
about chocolate from one of the tourism Websites, with photos:
http://www.copai.it/ing/articoli/cioccolata-modicana.htm

Something from the University of Masschusetts about Sicilian food that  
mentions Modican chocolate:

http://www.umass.edu/journal/sicilyprogram/sicilianfoodhistory.html

Outside of Modica, this chocolate was not known, it seems.

Gianotta (off to order some Modica chocolate from Amazon.com)

Date: Tue,  5 Apr 2005 09:41:04 -0700
From: elisabetta at klotz.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

My chocolate research indicated that chocolate was available to  everyone (not
just nobility) as a spice and drink before 1600, but in very limited areas.

St. Esprit, the Jewish ghetto of Bayonne, France
Bralizian colonies, both French (like Recife, 1550s?) and Porteguese
Mexico

Ok, granted only one is in Europe, and since I don't speak French my research is
at a stand-still. The Musuem of Bayonne does have records, which one day I hope
to see translated versions of them. Long story short, Jews fled from the
Inquistation. The Jews in the New World (mostly conversios), who became known
for chocolate and sugar production, sent goods over to family members still in
Europe. The Jewish encylopedia has more on Jews in Bayonne:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=445&letter=B

One of the businesses they opened up in Bayonne was chocolat houses. Supposedly
there are church records condemning the local Christains who went to "the wrong
side of the tracks" for chocolat. The church looked at chocolat like our
government looks at pot. These treatise, and trade manifests, are what I am
interested in, because they will at least prove that people were eating a form
of chocolat prior to 1600 in Europe.

Where I have not found any proof of pre-1600 use of chocolate in Italy, there
are history rumors that Spanish Jews who moved to both Holland and Italy
brought the chocolate recipes with them, and that a chocolate bread-type cake
might have existed pre-1600 in Italy.

My advice is to see if there was an influx in the Jewish communities, and look
at those records. If I find anything concrete on Italian chocolate, I will
forward it on.

:)
Elisabetta

Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 11:33:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Chocolate
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

<snip>
Where I have not found any proof of pre-1600 use of chocolate in Italy, there
are history rumors that Spanish Jews who moved to both Holland and Ital
brought the chocolate recipes with them, and that a chocolate bread-type cake
might have existed pre-1600 in Italy.

My advice is to see if there was an influx in the Jewish communities, and look
at those records. If I find anything concrete on Italin chocolate, I will
forward it on.

:)
Elisabetta

============================================================

Elisabetta,

I am getting closer on this. The Spanish ruled Sicily in the 16th  
century; I found references to chocolate being brought to Sicily not  
too long after 1528, at least according to the food writer Faith  
Willinger, who says that chocolate began appearing in Sicilian dishes  
at that time. Faith Willlinger also says in the 18th century in Modica,  
there was a type of entrepreneu called a "ciucculattaru, a  
professional cocoa-bean processor who schlepped his stone tools,  
preroasted beans, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon door-to-door. He blended  
chocolate to order, mixing it over a stone that was just warm enough to  
melt the cocoa butter, but not so hot that the sugar fully dissolved  
(that would be just above 40°C/104°F). The resulting bars were studded  
with sugar crystals." She believes that chocolate came to Modica  
"through the church network, an important route of cultural exchange,  
before the Spanish monopoly on cocoa beans was broken in 1606."

Now, this I know for a fact: in Sicily, nunneries supported themselves  
by making pastries and cookies and cakes, for the nobility who didn't  
have their own pastry chefs and for those who could afford such  
luxuries. In fact, I found a few references that one bishop in the  
1590s instructed nuns to stop making cassatta during Lent, because it  
was distracting them from their prayers. Cassatta remains a very  
popular desert today, and contains chunks of bittersweet chocolate.  
Here's the biggest problem: until very recently, none of these recipes  
were ever written down, and each nunnery guarded the knowledge about  
their specialty recipes jealously.

What I have asked folks in Italy to find out for me is if anyone in  
Modica has household account records (for the nobility) of purchases of  
cocoa beans and the services of a chocolate maker. If there were  
door-to-door chocolate makers in the 18th century, there had to be a  
practice of chocolate-making earlier than that. I have written to the  
Euro chocolate folks and I hope someone gets back to me with their  
insights. I can speak and read enough Italian to get by, although the  
Sicilian dialect is a real struggle for me.

Gianotta

Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 16:04:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>>>
Supposedly there are church records condemning the local Christains who went to "the wrong side of the tracks" for chocolat. The chrch looked at chocolat like  our government looks at pot.
<<<

I think what you are looking for is the restrictive act issued by the
Society of Jesus in 1650 which barred the use of a chocolate drink by
Jesuits during periods of fasting. Since the sweetened chocolate drink has
some nutritional value, its extensive use by the monks was seen as a form
of "cheating".

I don't know of any other official sanction against chocolate by the
Church of the period. There were individual clerics who preached against
its use. Some even went as far to claim that the invigorating effect was a
result of demonic influences.  This was never (to my knowledge), however,
a Church doctrine.

Pax,
Aoghann

Date: Tue, 05 Apr 205 23:28:06 +0200
From: agora at algonet.se
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

In Lima, Peru, the wives of the Conquerors asked the bishop dispense to drink
chocolate during Lent. It was in the 16th Century.

Ana

Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 18:21:14 -0400
From: <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
Subject: FW: FW: [Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate
To: "SCA Cook" <Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I've been forwarding the comments about chocolate along to THLady Temair
(Tara), who long ago lost the time tokeep up with this list.  She has,
however, been working on a chocolate project, including a wonderful  
table
with examples of her work at our Midwinter A&S event last month.  She  
wrote
back with some comments, which I thought would be of interest back ere.
Christianna

-----Original Message-----
From: Terri Spencer [mailto:tarats at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 6:06 PM
To: kingstaste at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: FW: [Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate

--- kingstaste at mindspring.com wrote:
> More on this -
> Christy

Interesting.  A few comments:

> The history of Modica chocolate starts long ago and far away, with the
> meeting “ manqué ” between Cortez and Montezuma in 1519. As the story

> goes, as a sign of friendship the Aztec leader offered a drinkmade
> of coarsely ground cocoa seeds, water, corn flour, chilli, cinnamon
> and aniseed.

The story is almost right.  Cortez writes of cacao, and in 1519 was
offered a ceremonial chocolatl beverage that probably contained cacao,
water, masa, chilis, achite, vanilla and other flavorings.  It could
not have contained cinnamon or aniseed.  Those were later Spanish
additions.

> The Spaniards found the drink disagreeable because it was bitter,

Almost every European who wrote about Aztec chocolatl found it
disagreeable.  Which probably didn't help the attempted ritual welcome.

> their first innovation was to add cane sugar to it.

Doubtful.  They were soldiers.  They might have had sugar, but I doubt
they added it to this strange spicy native beverage.

The addition of sugar is attributed apocryphally to the nuns of
Salamanca (Spain), the Spanish via the Arabian sweet-tooth influence on
the Iberian peninsula, or the women of Mexico.  The last were 2nd+
generation creole wives and daughters who developed a fondness for the
sweetened drink.  I don't have my timeline here at work, but it
includes an account of a 16th c. celebration in Mexico City of a treaty
between France and Spain.  The ladies are described as nibbling
sweetmeats and sipping chocolate from golden cups.  Another source
credits the creation of chocolate bars (not modern milk chocolate, but
hardened sweetened cacao paste, to make quick hot chocolate) to the
Mexican women.  Sophie Coe disagrees, citing a reference to a filling
paste of ground cacao and masa used as travel rations for Aztec
warriors - without the sugar, of course.

> My chocolate research indicated that chocolate was available to everyone (not
> just nobility) as a spice and drink before 1600, but in very limited
> areas.

I agree - but only for the last decade before 1600, as it was imported
commercially to Spain in 1585.  I don't know that it was available to
everyone, but certainly to those who could afford it.  Before that,
importation would have been in small quantities, wit those who funded
the voyages most likely to have access - i.e. church and court.

> St. Esprit, the Jewish ghetto of Bayonne, France
> Bralizan colonies, both French (like Recife, 1550s?) and Porteguese
> Mexico

Certainly anyone in the New World had access.  Cacao beans were used as
currency, and were common in most South and Meso-American markets.

I have doubts about St. Esprit/Bayonne.  Casual googling reveals
several sites with a tale of Jews settling there after fleeing the
Spanish Inquisition of 1492, bringing their chocolate secrets with
them.  How they knew about chocolate in 1492, before Columbus returned
from the New World, would indeed be a great secret.  There is also a
tradition that in 1609 Spanish-Jewish chocolate-makers settled in
Bayonne and a miraculous ship of cacao appeared.  However, local
archives do not mention chocolate-making until 1687.  In 1691 there was
an injunction against Jews selling chocolate to private customers
within the town walls.  In 1761 a guild was created, and in1780 the
first chocolate factory in the world opened there.

> “chocolate”, which quickly spread throughout Europe, where royal
> courts considered it an elite, unconventional, healthy and dietetic
> drink.

Healthy, yes, it was cited by Aztecs and Europeans as a reviving,
strengthening beverage, and Montezuma supposedly drank it before
visiting his wives.  It was also used to mask flavors of other
medicaments.  However, I'm not sure what is meant by dietetic.  Most
described it as 'nourishing', which I've come to interpret in medieval
diet texts as fattening.  And there are remarks that those who drank a
lot of it (once sugar was added) grew corpulent and corrupt.

> Cocoa seeds were crushed with an implement the Aztecs called a
> metatl , a curved stone resting on two cross-bases, using a special
> stone rolling pin.

Well, almost right.  They called it a metlatl.  Today's metate and
mano, of volcanic stone, used to grind cacao as well as maize, chilis,
tomatoes, etc.  I want a set for the 'late period caffeine addicts'
class I'm developing.  I found at Midwinter A&S and Coronation that the
coffee mill cannot really grind it fine enough because the cocoa butter
bogs it down, and I have to stop before the thing overheats.  But the
metate y mano I've found o far are more than I want to spend.

> Supposedly
> there are church records condemning the local Christains who went to
> "the wrong
> side of the tracks" for chocolat. The church looked at chocolat like
> our government looks at pot.

Hmmm - maybe at first, but it was established fairly early that
chocolate was a vegetable product, and thus an allowable lenten luxury.
  The great debate was whether it broke the fast.  The apocryphal
version is that pope Pius V ruled in 1569 that when made with water it did not, and in 1664 Cardinal Brancaccio affirmed that, like wine, it
was a drink and not food.  There are tales of those so addicted to the
drink that they had it brought to them during divine services, which
predictably earned the wrath of the church.  but the drink was not
condemned, and became the breakfast-in-bed of the decadent nobility.

OTHO, the church probably did not appreciate them lounging in bed
drinking chocolate late into the morning before even thinking of
attending Mass. (Remember the medieval condemnation of bedside Mass to
allow breakfast in bed?)

I think this also might be coming from the 18th century coffee vs.
chocolate ethic.  Coffee became the drink of coffeehouses, merchants
and workers.  That caffeine boost replaced morning ale ad fueled the
industrious and the industrial revolution.  Which did not appreciate
the previously mentioned lounging decadent chocolate-drinkers.  And see
who won?  America gulps down coffee each morning (I know I do) and hot
cocoa is for kids and the occasional winter indulgence.

I can almost feel this cacao project turning into a research paper. Not
that you'd do anything to encourage that.  :P

Tara

Date: Thu,  7 Apr 2005 09:14:06 -0700
From: elisabetta at klotz.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 23, Issue 15
To: sca-cooks at ansteorraorg

Broken up by comments...

>  Elisabetta mentioned:
>> My chocolate research indicated that chocolate was available to
>> everyoe (not
>> just nobility) as a spice and drink before 1600, but in very limited
>> areas.
>
> Hmmm. "available to everyone"? Yet  "in very limited areas"? Perhaps
> this depends upon how far down you go in the social ranks from
> nobility. But since the chcolate has to be imported, I wonder how its
> use could go deep across the social ranks and yet still be narrow
> geographically. Upon what are you basing your statement?

This is something that always baffled me. So one day some noble Spainish person
wok up and there was hot chocolat in his cup? Someone has to import it, roast
it, grind it, prepare it...it's not that easy. I've done it. It's part of my
period chocolate class. It is time consuming and hard to grind cocao nibs,
especially by hand. And ten to prepare it into chocolat takes a lot of effort
also. There had to be servants who knew how to do this. Or specialists who were
trained in preparing chocolat.

My theory is that these people introduced into small communities. Like Nuns
and the clergy. And possibly Jews. Two enclosed communities.

>> St. Esprit, the Jewish ghetto of Bayonne, France
>> Bralizian colonies, both French (like Recife, 1550s?) and Porteguese
>> Mexico

Bralizian colonies, both French (like Recife, 1550s?) and Porteguse, AND
Mexico

Sorry for the confusions, that was a list. :)

>> Where I have not found any proof of pre-1600 use of chocolate in
>> Italy, there
>> are history rumors that Spanish Jews who moved to both Holland and Italy
>> brought the chocolate recpes with them, and that a chocolate bread-type cake
>> might have existed pre-1600 in Italy.
>
> Interesting. I thought such use would have to wait until the
> development of milk chocolate well out of period. Any idea if this
> would have been done by adding ground up chocolate nibs to the
> bread/cake or whether it was supposed to have been done by adding the
> brewed chocolate drink to the bread/cake? It might well be that one of
> these (or both?) techniques wouldn't work.

Since it's historical rumor, I have no actual proof of this. My guess is that
they used chocolate like spice, grinding it like nutmeg or hazelnut or other
nuts, and adding into batters as a powder. I'm also assuming that it was not a
modern chocolate cake, but type of spice cake that has chocolate as one
ingredient. It would have been so bitter I can't imagine anyone using it alone.
Maybe adding it with honey and cinnamon. Hmmm...honey cinnomon
chocolate bread.

I have looked in the Florilegium before, but I think the article you mentioned
post-dates my research. Thanks for the tip- I'll look again.

:)
Elisabetta

Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 20:57:06 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chocolate...
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>> Alys had mentioned:
>> I am _really_ interested to see what "justin at dsd.camb.inme" has!
>
> Alas, Justin's website is long gone...
> I'm not one of those people who can't live without chocolate for a
> weekend, but i am curious... and all this took place in 1996, several
> years before i joined the SCA.
> Can anyone share these recipes or point me to the sources?

You can get there--- It just takes work and some luck.

Go to the Wayback Machine
http://www.archive.org/

Then search this
http://www.inmet.com/~justin/chocolate.txt
<http://www.inmet.com/%7Ejustin/chocolate.txt>

and then choose one of the 11 pages in the archive that
it lists.

The one from December 2000 lists this recipe given below.

Johnnae
(another hot day here today)

[From "Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke." London, 1652, by Capt. John
Wadsworth. Apparently a translation of a book by Melchor de Lara,
"Physitian General for the Kingdome of Spaine", 1631.]

[pg. 15, middle]

The Receipt of him who wrote at <i>Marchena</i>, is this: Of
<i>Cacaos</i>, 700, of white Sugar, one pound and a halfe, Cinnamon,
2. ounces; of long red pepper, 14, of Cloves, halfe an ounce: Three
Cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree; or in steade of that, the weight
of 2 Reals, or a shilling of Anniseeds; as much of <i>Agiote</i>, as
will give it the colour, which is about the quantity of a
Hasellnut. Some put in Almons, kernells of Nuts, and
Orenge-flower-water.

Concerning this Receipt I shall first say, This shooe will not fit
every foote; but for those, who have diseases, or are inclining to
be infirme, you may either adde, or take away, according to the necessity,
and temperature of every one: and I hold it not amisse, that Sugar
be put into it, when it is drunke, so that it be according to the
quantity I shall hereafter set downe. And sometimes they make
Tablets of the Sugar, and the <i>Chocolate</i> together: which they doe
onely to please the Pallats, as the Dames of <i>Mexico</i> do use it; and
they are there sold in shops, and are confected and eaten like other
sweet-meats.

[This paragraph, and subsequent, go into a long discourse on the
medicinal qualities of the various ingredients. Note, however, this
last bit -- it seems to indicate that, contrary to usual reports
(and my own prior belief), chocolate *was* consumed in
solid form, not just as hot chocolate.]

[pg. 25, bottom]

[After a long digression, the following tidbit:]

> From whence I gather, that it is better to use <i>Chocolate</i>, after
it hath beene made some time, a Moneth at the least. I believe this time
to be necessary, for breaking the contrary qualities of the severall
Ingredients, and to bring the Drinke to a moderate temper.

[pg. 28, middle]

<h2>The Third Point.</h2>

Having treated in the first poynt of the definition of <i>Chocolate</i>,
the quality of the <i>Cacao</i>, and of the other Ingredients; and in the
second Point, of the Complexion, which results from the mixture of them;
There remaines now in the third poynt, to shew the way how to mingle
them: And first I will bring the best Receipt, and the most to the
purpose, that I could find out; although it be true which I have said,
that one Receipt cannot be given, which shall be proper for all; that
is to be understood of those, who are sick; for those that are strong,
and in health, this may serve: and for the other (as I have said in the
conclusion of the first Poynt) every one may make choyse of the
Ingredients, as they may be usefull, to this, or that part of his
body.

<h3>The Receipt is this</h3>

To every 100. <i>Cacaos</i>, you must put two cods of the [sidenote:
Chiles] long red Pepper, of which I have spoken before, and are called
in the <i>Indian</i> Tongue, <i>Chilparlagua</i>; and in stead of those
of the <i>Indies</i>, you may take those of <i>Spaine</i> which are
broadest, & least hot. One handfull of Annisseed <i>Orejuelas</i>,
which are otherwise called <i>Vinacaxlidos</i>: and two of the
flowers, called <i>Mechasuchil</i>, if the Belly be bound. But in
stead of this, in <i>Spaine</i>, we put in six Roses of  
<i>Alexandria</i>
beat to Powder: One Cod of <i>Campeche</i>, or Logwood: Two Drams of
Cinamon; Almons, and [Masle?]-Nuts, of each one Dozen: Of white Sugar,
halfe a pound: Of <i>Achiote</i> enough to give it the colour. And if
you cannot have those things, which come from the <i>Indies</i>, you
may make it with the rest.

<h3>The way of Compounding</h3>

The <i>Cacao<i>, and the other Ingredients must be beaten in a Morter
of Stone, or ground upon a broad stone, which the <i>Indians</i> call
<i>Metate</i>, and is onely made for that use: But the first thing that
is to be done, is to dry the Ingredients, all except the <i>Achiote</i>,
with care that they may be beaten to powder, keeping them still in
stirring, that they be not burnt, or become black; and if they be
over-dried, they will be bitter, and lose their vertue. The Cinamon,
and the long red Pepper are to be first beaten, with the Annisseed; and
then beate the Cacao, which you must beate by a little and little, till
it be all powdred; and sometimes turne it round in the beating, that
it may mixe the better: And every one of these Ingredients, must be
beaten by it selfe, and then put all the Ingredients into the Vessell,
where the Cacao is; which you must stirre together with a spoone; and
then take out that Paste, and put it into the Morter, under which you
must lay a little fire, after the <i>Confection</i> is made. But you
must be very carefull, not to put more fire, than will warme it, that
the unctuous part doe not dry away. And you must also take care, to put
in the Achiote in the beating; that it may the better take the colour.
You must Searse all the Ingredients, but onely the <i>Cacao</i>; and if
you take the shell from the <i>Cacao</i>, it is the better; and when you
shall find it to be well beaten, & incorporated (which you shall know
by the shortness of it) then with a spoone take up some of the Paste,
which will be almost liquid; and so either make it into Tablets; or put
it into Boxes; and when it is cold it will be hard. To make the Tablets,
you must put a spoonfull of the Paste upon a piece of paper, the
<i>Indians</i> put it upon the leaf of a </i>Plantentree</i>, where
being put into the shade, it growes hard; and then bowing the paper,
the Tablet falls off, by reason of the fatnesse of the paste. But if
you put it into any thing of earth, or wood, it sticks fast, and will
not come off, but with scraping, or breaking. In the <i>Indies</i> they
take it two severall waies: The one, being the common way, is to take
it hot, with <i>Atolle</i>, which was the Drinke of Ancient <i>Indians</i>
(the <i>Indians</i> call <i>Atolle</i> pappe, made of the flower of
<i>Maiz</i>, and so they mingle it with the <i>Chocolate</i>, and that
the <i>Atolle</i> may be more wholsome, they take off the Husks of the
<i>Maiz</i>, which is windy, and melancholy; and so there remaines
onely the best and most substantiall part.) Now, to returne to the matter,
I say, that the other Moderne drinke, which the Spaniards use so much,
is of two sortes. The one is, that the <i>Chocolate</i>, being
dissolved with cold water, & the scumme taken off, and put into another
Vessell, the remainder is put upon the fire, with Sugar; and when it is
warme, then powre it upon the Scumme you tooke off before, and so drinke
it. The other is to warme the water; and then, when you have put it into
a pot, or dish, as much <i>Chocolate</i> as you thinke fit, put in a
little of the warme water, and then grinde it well with the molinet;
and when it is well ground, put the rest of the warme water to it; and
so drinke it with Sugar.

Besides these former wayes, there is one other way; which is, put the
<i>Chocolate</i> into a pipkin, with a little water; and let it boyle
well, till it be dissolved; and then put in sufficient water and Sugar,
according to the quantity of the <i>Chocolate</i>; and then boyle it
againe, untill there comes an oyly scumme upon it; and then drinke it.
But if you put too much fire, it will runne over, and spoyle. But, in
my opinion, this last way is not so wholsome, thought it pleaseth the
pallate better; because, when the Oily is divided from the earthy
part, which remaines at the bottome, it causeth Melancholy; and the
oily part loosens the stomacke, and takes away the appetite: There is
another way to drink <i>Chocolate</i>, which is cold; and it takes its
name from the principall Ingredient, and is called <i>Cacao</i>; which
they use at feasts, to refresh themselves; and it is made after this
manner. The <i>Chocolate</i> being dissolved in water with the
<i>Molinet</i>, take off the scumme or crassy part, which riseth in
greater quantity, when the <i>Cacao</i> is older, and more
putrified. The scumme is laid aside by it selfe in a little dish;
and then put sugar into the part, from whence you tooke the scumme;
and powre it from on high into the scumme; and so drink it cold. And
this drink is so cold, that it agreeth not with all mens stomacks; for
by experience we find the hurt it doth, by causing paines in the
stomacke, and especially to Women. I could deliver the reason of it;
but I avoid it, because I will not be tedious, some use it, &c.

There is another way to drinke it cold, which is called <i>Cacao
Penoli</i>; and it is done, by adding to the same <i>Chocolate</i>
(having made the <i>Confection</i>, as is before set downe) so much
<i>Maiz</i>, dryed, and well ground, and taken from the Huske, and
then well mingled in the Morter, with the <i>Chocolate</i>, it falls
all into flowre, or dust: & so these things being mingled, as is
said before, there riseth the Scum; and so you take and drink it,
as before.

There is another way, which is a shorter and quicker way of making
it, for men of businesse, who cannot stay long about it; and it is
more wholsome; and it is that, which I use. That is, first to set
some water to warm; and while it warms, you throw a Tablet, or some
<i>Chocolate</i>, scraped, and mingled with sugar, into a little
Cup; and when the water is hot, you powre the water to the
<i>Chocolate</i>, and then dissolve it with the Molinet; and
then, without taking off the scum, drink it as is before directed.

[The Fourth Point follows, entirely on the subject of medicine.
This concludes the main body of the treatise, but it is followed
by two more sections. I suspect that these were added by the
translator, but am not certain.]

<h2>How to make use of the <i>Chocolate</i>, to be taken as a
drinke, exceeding cordiall for the comfort of the healthfull, and
also for those in weaknesse and Consumptions, to be dissolved in
Milke or Water.</h2>

[Note that the ensuing is primarily in italics; for ease of reading,
I am rendering it more conventionally]

If you please to take it in milke, to a quart, three ounces of
<i>Chocolate</i> will be sufficient: Scrape your <i>Chocolate</i>
very fine, put it into your milke when it boiles, work it very
well with the <i>Spanish</i> Instrument called <i>Molenillo</i>
between your hands: which Instrument must be of wood, with a round
knob made very round, and cut ragged, that as you turne it in your
hands, the milke may froth and dissolve the <i>Chocolate</i> the
better: then set the milke on the fire againe, untill it be ready
to boyle: having the yelke of two eggs well beaten with some of
the hot milke; then put your eggs into the milke, and <i>Chocolate</i>
and <i>Sugar</i>, as much as you like for your taste, and worke all
together with the <i>Molenillo</i>, and thus drinke a good draught:
or if you please you may slice a little Manchet into a dish, and so
eate it for a breakfast: you may if you please make your
<i>Chocolate</i> with Water and Sugar, working it after the same
order with your <i>Molenillo</i>, which for some weake stomacks
may chance to be better liked. And many there be that beat Almonds,
and strayne them into the water it is boyled, and wrought with the
<i>Chocolate</i> and Sugar: others like to put the yelkes of eggs
as before in the milke, and ever sweeten it with Sugar to your taste:
If you drinke a good draught of this in a morning, you may travell
all the day without any other thing, this is so Substantiall and
Cordiall.

<h2>The manner of making <i>Chocolate</i></h2>

Set a Pot of Conduit Water over the fire untill it boiles, then to
every person that is to drink, put an ounce of <i>Chocolate</i>,
with as much Sugar into another Pot; wherein you must poure a
pint of the said boiling Water, and therein mingle the <i>Chocolate</i>
and the Sugar, with the instrument called <i>El Molinillo</o>, untill
it be thoroughly incorporated: which done, poure in as many halfe
pints of the said Water as there be ounces of <i>Chocolate</i>, and
if you please, you may put in one or two yelks of fresh Eggs, which
must be beaten untill they froth very much; the hotter it is drunke,
the better it is, being cold it may doe harme. You may likewise put
in a slice of white bred or Bisquet, and eate that with the
<i>Chocolate</i>. The newer and fresher made it is, the more benefit
you shall finds by it; that which comes from forreigne parts, and
is stale, is not so good as that which is made here.

Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 07:05:50 -0400
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Chocolate
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Greetings!  Urtatim asked about the Italian chocolate references that I had
noted in the mid-90s.   There are some chocolate recipes in the Carte Bardi
II material which was written about in a modern book which used "medieval"
and "renaissance" in the title.  In the 1980s, an Australian SCAdian (Vian
Lawson?) found the book while doing research in Italy, copied the chocolate
recipes, and that's where the "rumor" of period chocolate recipes started,
I believe.  From some lucky clues, I was able to contact the SCAdian and
get the material.  Duke Cariadoc then questioned whether the material was
truly "period" and questioned when the Carte Bardi II was written.  The
book, while dating much of the other material, didn't provide the dates for
the Carte Bardi.  A year or two ago, Mistress Helewyse (Midrealm) mentioned
about going to Italy and I asked if she could check on the information. 
She wrote to the Florence Archives where the Carte Bardi material is stored
and reported back on the response she received.  Helewyse wrote: "While the
Bardi archives do indeed start in the 15th century the section she took
those recipes from appears to be some time in the 18th century.  At the
earliest the recipes may have been used in the 17th .  So no chocolate in
Italy in the 16th."

So, unless someone else can point to more definite recipes in _period_
material, I would agree with Helewyse.  That doesn't mean that chocolate
wasn't drunk in Italy or possibly Spain.  There is the report that the
Church decreed that drinking chocolate wasn't eating food, so priests could
drink chocolate before celebrating Mass and not violate the strictures. 
Drinking chocolate would seem to be in period if one used the period
spicings.

Alys Katharine

Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/

Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 05:38:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Following up from the response from Alys K. The book with the chocolate 
recipes is: Clotilde Vesco, Cucina fiorentina fra Medioeveo e 
Rinascimento.  It is an Itaian book purporting to be recipes from the 
medieval and renaisance era.  It has an interesting introduction, 
dealing with trade and food in Florence and then has a recipe section 
with recipes taken from several sources. Mostly the author was 
promotingher view that Florence was the seat of all Italian cooking, 
this book is not without it's flaws. Of relevance to this discussion 
are those including chocolate which are Biscottini reali (royal 
biscotti) and Biscottini alla romana di marzapane.

Biscottni reali: Per fare biscottini reali, si piglia once sei di 
zucchero fino passato e tre rossi d'ovo con una chiara et si mette il 
tutto insieme dentro il mortaro di marmo.  Si pesta tutto insieme per 
il tempo di un quarto d'ora. E poi si mettono dentro lla carta come si 
fa con le rotelle grosse. E si mette poca roba perche non venghino fora 
e cosi si fanno di cioccolata et altra cose.

Royal biscotti: To make royal biscottini, one takes six ounces of fine 
sugar sieved and three egg yolks with one eggwhite and one puts 
everything together inside a marble mortar. One grinds (beats) all this 
together for the space of a quarter of an hour. And then one puts it 
into the card (on paper) like one makes large "rotelle". And one puts 
little other things i there because otherwise it won't raise, and thus 
one makes of chocolate and other things.  (The last instruction is 
presumably for flavorings of which one adds just a little, because 
otherwise the sponge won't rise properly and one of things you can ue 
is chocolate.)

Biscottini alla romana di marzapane: Si piglia la pasta del marzapane, 
mettendovi dentro candito pesto, muschio, cannella grattata e 
cioccolata grattugiata fina, che venga nera la sudetta pasta. 
Maneggiando tutto insieme fino che venhi tosta da potersi tagliare 
co'l cultello facendone biscottini della grandezza che piace.  
Mettendoli in forna a rasciugare, anzi si mettono a cuocere sopra la 
carta avvertendo che nella pasta si pole mettere un poca di chiara 
d'ova accio che venghin piu di rigoglio. Si puole la cannella e 
cioccolata farla bollire in un po di zuccchero per miglio grazia della 
dose.

Marzipan biscotti in the roman style: one takes marzipan and adds into 
it candied citron ground, musk, grated cinnamon and grated fin 
chocolate, this makes the paste become black.  Mix everything together 
until it becomes firm and one can cut it with a knife and make 
biscottini of whatever size you wish.  Put them in the oven to dry, 
also one puts them to cook on a card, be aware tat on this paste one 
can put a little white of egg in order that it becomes more risen (or 
pleasant). One puts the cinnamon and chocolate to boil in a little bit 
of sugar for better grace of these things.

Both these recipes are sourced from Carte Bard II A.116.  No where in 
this book is a date given for these particular archives.  The only 
thing that the author says is that the Bardi archives start in the 15th 
century.  When I contacted the archives directly they said the following:

In riferimentoalla sua lettera il documento dell’Archivio Bardi, 
seconda serie, a 116 , attualmente ha la segnatura: Archivio Bardi, 
seconda serie, 129 ed è intitolato “Raccolta di ricette varie per fare 
vivande, dolci e profumi”. Dall’inventario il manoscritto risuta 
essere del XVIII secolo.

In reference to your letter the documents of the Bardi archives, second 
series A116, actually has the designation: Bardi Archives, second 
series, 129 and is titled "Collection of recipes for varies foods, 
sweets and perfums" From the inventory of the manuscript it is from 
the 18th century.

So it  rules out this source for documentation of chocolate being used 
in period in Italy.

Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:28:21 -0800
From: elisabetta at klotz.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate: the costuming passion
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

>>> Found in a wonderful book with pre-columbian recipes some modern
>>> variations, a
>>> drink made with dark chocolate (Porcelana beans or Varlhona 100
>>> procent cacao)
>>> and chilipeppar.
>>> It was fantastic, a strong, warm and powerful stimulant (could not
>>> sleep for many
>>> hours, had a lot of energy to spend). I added some dark Moscovado
>>> sugar, it was a
>>> bit cheating, but it was too bitter and dark to be enjoyed  
>>> without sugar.
>>> Ana

When I do my period chocolat class I use Luker (www.casaluker.com) bars. It is
the purest form of chocolate in a bar that I have been able to find.  Giradeli
just come out with a 100% chocolate bar, but I believe they still conched it (I
need to check). All the other are either conched (soy added in) and most of the
cocoa's have alkaline.

The Luker can be found in any supermarket with a Spanish or South American
population. It's the yellow bar, and costs around $1.50. Luker is 100% pure
uncut Columbian chocolate.

Each package has 2 bars (the whole package is 8.75 oz). I have found that 1
package is good for 2 quarts. Add water, heat, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili, cloves,
vanilla bean (never never add vanilla extract), etc. When chocolate is melted,
whisk until frothy (like a latte). I suggest adding homey not sugar.  Honey
doesn't sweeten it, but takes out the bitter taste and makes the other flavors
come forward.

A 1 oz cup will keep you hyper and happy for at least a day, and 3 oz or more
and you probably won't need to eat for the rest of the day either.

Based on the research I have done, this is pretty close to what the Spanish
colonists and explorers drank. The spices will make the difference between the
early Spanish and Aztec versions, and you can use wine as a base instead of
water. And you can cheat and use a molino to forth it (that's just out of
period, estimated dates circa 1690--1720) created by Spanish colonists).

I've also been working with the nibs to make the bars which
were used as well. This is very very time consuming. Luker's version is
smoother and much easier and cheaper.

Elisabetta

Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:35:41 -0800 (PST)
From: Terri Spencer <taracook at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] chocolate as passion
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> agora at algonet.se wrote:
>> Found in a wonderful book with pre-columbian recipes some modern variations, a
>> drink made with dark chocolate (Porcelana beans or Varlhona 100
> procent cacao) and chilipeppar.  It was fantastic...

Kiri responded:
> And the recipe is.......???????
> Chocoholic minds want to know!

And my question - what about the book?  Recipes I've got.
(Not to be a spoon tease, here they are):

Aztec Cacahuatl Recipes

My version:
1/4 cup roasted cacao nibs	
1 3/4 water		
1/4 tsp ground red chile pepper	
1/8 cup honey 						
1/4 tsp ground achiote		
1 inch vanilla bean
Optional: up to 1/2 cup masa (2 parts maize flour to 1 part water)

Boil water, Scrape seeds from vanilla, Grind other dry ingredients in
molcajete, mix masa, mix all, pour back and forth between pitchers from
a height to create froth (based on technique pictured on aztec vase).
Note - this recipe is adjusted for a class full of wimps like me, those
who like it spicy should increase chile or other pepper to their taste.

The seller of fine chocolate is one who grinds,
who provides people with drink, with repasts.
She grinds cacao; she crushes, breaks, pulverizes them.
She chooses, selects, separates them.
She drenches, soaks, steeps them.
She adds water sparingly, conservatively;
aerates it, filters it, strains it, pours it back and forth, aerates it;
She makes it form a head, makes it foam;
She removes the head, makes it thicken;
makes it dry, pours water in, stirs water into it.
She sells good, superior, potable [chocolate];
the privilege; the drink of nobles, or rulers
finely ground, soft, foamy, reddish, bitter;
[with] chile water, with flowers,
with uei uacaztli (Cymbopetalum penduliflorum),
with mecaxochitl (Piper amalago),
with wild bee honey, with powdered aeromatic flowers.
[Inferior chocolate has] maize flour and water; lime water;
[it is] pale; the [froth] bubbles burst.
[It is chocolate] with water added –
Chontal water
[fit for] water flies.
Barnardino de Sahagún, c.1500-1590, Franciscan missionary

He also describes a  banquet version spiced with xochinacaztli, or uei
penduliflorum, or teunacaztli, ear-shaped flowers of Cymbopetalum
penduliflorum, Popenoe says tastes like ‘black pepper with the addition
of a resinous bitterness’.

Clavigero mentions adding vanilla, honey, mecaxochitl, the flowers of
Piper amalago, a small vine related to Piper nigrum, flower of Tagetes
lucida, marigold called Mexican saffron, flower of fyolloxochitl, or
heart flower (Magnolia mexicana), seeds of piztle (Cahocarpum
mammosum).

Hernández gives four recipes for drinks with cacao:
Chocolatl – equal parts sweet seeds of pochotl (Ceiba spp.) and cacao,
ground, mixed, beaten, reserve foam, add softened maize, replace foam,
drink tepid

Atextli – 100 grains of raw cacao toasted and ground, then softened
(nixtamalized?), 2 handfuls maize, spiced with Piper amalago, Vanilla
planifolia, & Cymbopetalum penduliflorum

Tzone – equal parts toasted and ground maize and cacao, with softened
maize to thicken

Aphrodisiac chocolate - hueinacaztli (Cymhopetalum penduliflorum
flower), tlilxochitl  (black flower – vanilla), mecaxochitl (string
flower, Piper sanctum, related to black pepper), cool, refreshing
chocolate

Spanish Colonial Chocolate Recipes

My Version:
1/4 cup roasted cacao nibs		
2 cups water	
1/4 cup sugar			
1/2 inch vanilla bean, scraped seeds		
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon	
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
6 ground almonds
Optional: aniseed, red pepper, cloves, sesame seeds, hazelnuts,
orange-flower water

Boil water.  Grind/scrape dry ingredients.  Stir together in chocolate
pot.  Froth with molinillo.

> From "Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke." London 1652 by Capt. John
Wadsworth, translation of a book by Melchor de Lara, Physitian General
for the Kingdome of Spaine, 1631, The Receipt of him who wrote at
Marchena, is this:  	
of Cacaos, 700
of white sugar, 1 pound and a halfe
Cinnamon, 2 ounces
of long red pepper, 14
of cloves, halfe an ounce:
Three Cods of Logwood or Campeche tree; or in steade of that, the
weight of 2 Reals, or a shilling of Anniseeds; as much of Agiote, as
Hasellnut. Some put in Almonds, kernells of nuts, and
Orenge-flower-water.

Mexican Chocolate Drink from 1644, Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma:
100 cacao beans 2 chillis (black pepper may be substituted), A handful
of anise, "ear flower", 2 mecasuchiles (mecaxochitl) (lacking the above
2 spices powdered roses of Alexandria may be used), 1 vanilla [bean], 2
oz cinnamon, 12 almonds and as many hazelnuts, 1/2 lb sugar , Achiote
to taste

Thomas Gage, 1648 ‘The English-American: His Travail by Sea’, on
medicinal chocolate:
With black pepper for ‘cold livers’
With cinnamon promotes urine flow , good for kidney disorders and ‘cold
diseases’
With achiote to provide an ‘attenuating quality’, for shortness of
breath and reduced urine
Those who drink it grow fat and corrupt

Henry Stubbe, 1662, ‘The Indian Nectar, or a Discourse Concerning
Chocolata'
Medicinal chocolate – To every hundred nuts of cacao
put two codes of
chile called long red pepper, one handful of anise seeds, and orichelas
(orejaelas), and two of the flowers called mecasuchill, one vanilla, or
instead thereof fix Alexandrian roses beaten to powder, two drams of
cinnamon, twelve almonds, and as many hazel nuts, half a pound of
sugar, and as much achiote as would color it.

Sylvester Dufour, 1685, ‘The Manner of Making of Coffee, Tea and
Chocolate’, derived from 1618 recipe of Spanish doctor Barthelemy
Marradon from Marchena (same as 1652 version above):
Take 700 cacao nuts and a pound and a half of white sugar, two ounces
of cinnamon, Fourteen grains of Mexican pepper called chili (or
pimento), One-half ounce of cloves, three little straws of vanilla de
campeche (or two ounces anise-seed), anchiote a small quantity as big
as a filbert, which may be sufficient only to give it a color; some add
thereto almonds, filberts, a grain of musk or ambergris or powder of
Scolopendre (a centipede), the pod of the Tlixochitla tree and the
water of orange flowers.

These are from my class 'Renaissance Kahve & Chocolatl or The Caffeine
Addict’s Workshop', where we make the two versions along with Turkish
coffee.  I welcome any further information y'all might have on the more
exotic New World ingredients.

Tara

Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:30:44 +0200
From: " Ana Vald?s " <agora158 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] help on 17th c. French Chocolate Drinking
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

In the 16th Century the drinking of chocolate was so spread in Peru than
the Spanish ladies of teh colonial aristocracy wrote to the Bishop of  
Lima to ask for a dispense to drink chocolate in Lent.

Ana

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:00:37 +0200
From: " Ana Vald?s " <agora158 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] help on 17th c. French Chocolate Drinking
	(Ysabeau)
To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net,	"Cooks within the SCA"
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

The books I read said the chocolate was introduced in France at the  
wedding of Ana de Austria and Louis XIII, in the year 1615.

Ana

On 3/28/07, Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote:
> *grin* And so we come round again to the original question-- because the
> original questioner, so far as I can determine, is working on
> researching this duchess (I think), which is why she's looking up
> information on 17th century chocolate drinking. :)
>
>> When I was in Germany a couple of years ago I saw a quote from a French
>> Duchess  (Liselotte) that was from the 17th Century about drinking chocolate.
>> She was the wife of the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, and the
>> daughter of  Karl-Ludwig who ruled Heidelberg & it was from her letters home
>> from France. The letters were supposed to have been in some form of
>> published book.  I don't have the quote or a source for it, but at  
>> least it's a lead.
>> 
>> Olaf
>> Jim Revells

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:18:55 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] English books on 17th c. French Chocolate
	Drinking
To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net,	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

There are a number of 17th century books on chocolate that were printed in
England. These include translations of earlier works in other languages:

Chamberlayne, John, 1666-1723.
/The Natural history of coffee, thee, chocolate, tobacco in four several
sections : with a tract of elder and juniper-berries, shewing how useful
they may be in our coffee-houses : and also the way of making mum, with
some remarks upon that liquor / collected from the writings of the best
physicians, and modern travellers./, London : Printed for Christopher
Wilkinson ..., 1682.
Date: 1682

Colmenero de Ledesma, Antonio.
/Chocolate, or, An Indian drinke by the wise and moderate use whereof,
health is preserved, sicknesse diverted and cured, especially the plague
of the guts, vulgarly called the new disease ... / written originally in
Spanish, by Antonio Colminero of Ledesma ... ; and faithfully rendred in
the English by Capt. James Wadsworth./, London : Printed by J.G. for
Iohn Dakins ..., 1652.

Colmenero de Ledesma, Antonio.
/A curious treatise of the nature and quality of chocolate. VVritten in
Spanish by Antonio Colmenero, doctor in physicke and chirurgery. And put
into English by Don Diego de Vades-forte/, Imprinted at London : By I.
Okes, dwelling in Little St. Bartholomewes, 1640. Also in full text on
EEBO-TCP

and last but not least Dufour--
Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre, 1622-1687.
/The manner of making of coffee, tea, and chocolate as it is used in
most parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with their vertues /
newly done out of French and Spanish./, London : Printed for William
Crook ..., 1685.

This shows up in a full text version on EEBO-TCP so it can even be
keyword searched.

Johnnae

Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 08:01:24 -0700
From: aeduin <aeduin at adelphia.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Article on chocolate, 1631
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Project Gutenberg has just released an article on chocolate written
in Spain in 1631 and translated to English in 1651.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21271/21271-h/21271-h.htm  for the
uncompressed HTML page

or

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21271 for the main page of the text

Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke
By the wise and Moderate use whereof, Health is preserved,
Sicknesse Diverted, and Cured, especially the Plague of
the Guts; vulgarly called
The New Disease
; Fluxes,
Consumptions, & Coughs of the Lungs, with sundry other
desperate Diseases. By it also, Conception is Caused, the
Birth Hastened and facilitated, Beauty Gain'd and continued.

Author: Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma

Translator: James Wadsworth

aeduin

Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:13:02 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sweet chocolate, Modican chocolate (OOP --
	maybe)
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

As stated "the basic recipe" came from the Aztec and according to the entry
for Cacao in The Cambridge World History of Food, the Aztec did mix cacao
with honey (as well as with hot water, cold water, maize, ground chili
peppers, vanilla, annato, etc., etc. etc.).  The sugar could be a
replacement for honey.

And before someone complains that honeybees are of European origin, let me
point out that subspecies Melipona and Trigona are of New World origin and
produced honey for the Maya, Olmec, Aztec and others long before the
Europeans arrived on the scene.

Bear

> I have a quibble here--- How could the Aztecs have been crushing
> cacao beans with sugar prior to the Europeans bringing sugarcane
> to the New World?
>
> Johnnae
>
> Christiane wrote:
>> While I was in Sicily last year, I had bought Modican chocolate, which
>> the natives of Modica claim has been made in that city at least from the
>> 1600s. Modica was founded in the late 1500s by the Aragonese royalty, and
>> was a rich city. Modicans claim the basic recipe came from the Aztec. The
>> chocolate is made by crushing the cacao beans on a heated volcanic stone,
>> and the paste is mixed with sugar, poured into slabs, and then cooled.
>> What results is a very gritty-textured chocolate, with the sugar lending
>> a crystalline quality.snipped
>>
>> Gianotta

Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:23:01 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sweet chocolate, Modican chocolate (OOP --
	maybe)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Honey is what Coe mentions. Sugar came later of course.

Johnnae

Terry Decker wrote:
> As stated "the basic recipe" came from the Aztec and according to the entry
> for Cacao in The Cambridge World History of Food, the Aztec did mix cacao
> with honey (as well as with hot water, cold water, maize, ground chili
> peppers, vanilla, annato, etc., etc. etc.).  The sugar could be a
> replacement for honey.snipped
>
> Bear
>
>> I have a quibble here--- How could the Aztecs have been crushing
>> cacao beans with sugar prior to the Europeans bringing sugarcane
>> to the New World?
>>
>> Johnnae

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:38:15 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sweet chocolate, Modican chocolate (OOP --
	maybe)
To: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>,	Cooks within the
	SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> I have a quibble here--- How could the Aztecs have been crushing
> cacao beans with sugar prior to the Europeans bringing sugarcane
> to the New World?
>
> Johnnae

I should not say the basic recipe, but the basic technique. The  
Spanish got the technique for crushing the beans into paste with  
heated lava stones from the Aztecs; the addition of the sugar,  
cinnamon, vanilla, and other flavorings, of course, could only come  
when those ingredients were introduced by the Spanish. The Spanish  
had already known that the Aztecs often mixed the bitter chocolate  
paste with crushed dried chiles; this has lingered on with Modican  
chocolate, where you can obtain bars of "peperoncino" flavor, and  
Sicilians were pretty quick to adopt chiles in their own farms and  
gardens.

In Sicily, by 1600 the chocolate makers of Modica had access to  
everything they needed to make Spanish-style chocolate: the lava  
stones from Mount Etna needed to grind the cocoa beans, the cane  
sugar grown on the island since the days of Arab rule, and the  
imported spices. And most of all, the money and the noble and Church  
clientele and the taste for supersweet desserts.

Like Mexico, Modica has its own recipe for rabbit in chocolate sauce;  
but there are also strange pastries of lamb with chocolate. This was  
all due to the Spanish influence.

Gianotta

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:45:43 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Vanilla [was: Sweet chocolate,	Modican chocolate
	(OOP -- maybe)]
To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net,	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

-----Original Message-----
>> I should not say the basic recipe, but the basic technique. The
>> Spanish got the technique for crushing the beans into paste with heated
>> lava stones from the Aztecs; the addition of the sugar, cinnamon,
>> vanilla, and other flavorings, of course, could only come when those
>> ingredients were introduced by the Spanish.
>
> Vanilla is a new world food from that part of the Americas; it  
> could not have been introduced by the Spanish as they did not have it.

Thanks for correcting that. My mind had been on Madagascar being the  
major vanilla producer today. So the Spanish would have been familiar  
with Aztec chocolate drinks flavored with vanilla, or honey, or hot  
pepper, or maybe even all three. And the presence of vanilla in  
sweets is thanks to the Spanish as well ... Do you know, or does  
anyone know, how quickly did vanilla show up in recipes?

Gianotta

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:27:11 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Vanilla [was: Sweet chocolate, Modican
	chocolate (OOP -- maybe)]
To: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>,	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

You may want to read The True History of Chocolate
by Sophie D. Coe (Author), Michael D. Coe (Author)

A second edition is being published.
List Price:$21.95 Thames & Hudson; October 29, 2007)
No mention if this has new material or not.

Johnnae

Christiane wrote:
> So the Spanish would have been familiar with Aztec chocolate drinks  
> flavored with vanilla, or honey, or hot pepper, or maybe even all  
> three. And the presence of vanilla in sweets is thanks to the  
> Spanish as well ... Do you know, or does anyone know, how quickly  
> did vanilla show up in recipes?
>
> Gianotta

Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:46:36 -0400
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fwd: Chocolate Recipe
To: SCA-Cooks at Ansteorra.org

Kiri,

Below is the documentation and recipe you requested, courtesy of my
lord husband.

Sindara
> --
> Here is a link for the project Gutenberg transcription of Chocolate: or,
> An Indian Drinke, by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesmam in 1631, translated
> from Spanish by Capt. James Wadsworth in 1652:
> http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21271/21271-h/21271-h.htm
>
> http://www.robwildridge.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/RECEIPES.HTM  Has the  
> above recipe and one with ambergris!
>
> Here is the recipe redaction that I found
> (http://www.toger.us/pipermail/reeds/2007-February/006042.html).   
> It was
> done by Rauthulfr Gothi <Cacao-Laurel at comcast.net>:
> To give an idea of Spanish Chocolate this is my Redaction of the 1631
> Spanish Recipe
>
> *	Husked Cacaos, 100 = 1.5 cups
> *	Cinnamon (Cinnamonum Verum)= 2 tsp.
> *	long red Chile Pepper (New Mexico Red), two cods = 2 tbl.
> *	Almonds, 12
> *	Anise seed, 1 tbl.
> *	Hazelnuts, 12
> *	Roses of Alexandria,  (Rosa Galica or Rosa Mundi)1 tbl.
> *	Sugar (I used Mexican), = ?  cup
> *	Vanilla, One very fresh bean
> *       Achiote, ? tsp.  (used to color cheese, butter.  Keeps this
> Chocolate from looking a strange un appetizing grey.)
>
> Notes:
> * I used Cacao nibs, already roasted, I'm not skilled in the ways of
> roasting Cacao.
> * I used some rose water instead of roses because it was easier to find. *
> I put it in a percolator and perked it.
> * I toasted everything in a 225 degree oven before grinding.  15  
> minutes for the nuts, and then add the rest and do another 15 minutes.
> * If you are using a coffee grinder, chop the nuts before grinding,  
> they are otherwise just soft enough to gum up the grinder.
> * It's good cold too, it was more potent, but I'm not sure if this  
> was the temp or the time.  When cold, there are bits of cocoa butter  
> floating at the top.
> * I did not try to froth this, which is traditional.
> * Achiote is also called Annatto, which is how my spice lady labeled it.
> --
> Matthew G. Saroff
> Owings Mills, MD
> msaroff at pobox.com

Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:43:07 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of
	Cacao
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>,
	SCA_Subtleties at yahoogroups.com

Here's another new 2007 book that may interest some people.

Johnna

   Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao.
Edited by Cameron L. McNeil. 544 pages
   $75.00   *ISBN 13: *978-0-8130-2953-5   *ISBN 10: *0-8130-2953-8
Overview

"A monumental contribution to the study of a plant food of basic
importance from pre-Columbian times to the present in the Americas and
now the world. . . . It will be the baseline for studies of chocolate in
the Americas and the world for the foreseeable future."--Rene Millon,
professor emeritus, University of Rochester

"McNeil brings together scholars in the
fields of archaeology, history, art history, linguistics, epigraphy,
botany, chemistry, and cultural anthropology to explore the
domestication, preparation, representation, and significance of cacao in
ancient and modern communities of the Americas, with a concentration on
its use in Mesoamerica.

Cacao was used by many cultures in the pre-Columbian Americas as an
important part of rituals associated with birth, coming of age,
marriage, and death, and was strongly linked with concepts of power and
rulership. While Europeans have for hundreds of years claimed that they
introduced "chocolate" as a sauce for foods, evidence from ancient royal
tombs indicates cacao was used in a range of foods as well as beverages
in ancient times. In addition, the volume's authors present information
that supports a greater importance for cacao in pre-Columbian South
America, where ancient vessels depicting cacao pods have recently been
identified.

Cameron McNeil earned her doctorate in anthropology from the Graduate
Center, City University of New York, and currently conducts research in
Copan, Honduras.

http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=MCNEIS06

Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:47:05 -0700
From: Dragon <dragon at crimson-dragon.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cacao nibs
To: ladypeyton at yahoo.com, Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Beth Ann Bretter did speak thusly:

I'm also not aware of any further processing that the nibs need to 
go through other than grinding and mixing in order to make 
chocolate.  In fact, I just saw a program about a Hawaiian chocolate 
maker on the Food Network yesterday and all the intense processing 
(fermentation, roasting, breaking up of the seed pod into nibs) 
takes place before the nibs are formed, not after.
---------------- End original message. ---------------------

The main further processing that most chocolate goes through are the 
following steps:

Grinding
Pressing the chocolate liquor to separate the cocoa butter and solids 
(done on almost all types of chocolate to allow setting the proper 
cocoa butter content when it is blended)
Blending with the other ingredients including the addition of more 
cocoa butter than is usually found in the nibs naturally (in most 
varieties, except for the very high solids types)
Conching (a long, slow mixing process where some flavor continues to 
develop, especially any acidic notes)
Tempering (the process of making chocolate silky smooth by 
controlling the temperature and crystallization of the product)

Dragon

Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:57:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Beth Ann Bretter <ladypeyton at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cacao nibs
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Conching (a long, slow mixing process where some flavor
continues to develop, especially any acidic notes)

Huh.  I wasn't aware that conching actually changed the flavor of chocolate since it's only a complicated and intricate grinding system to smooth out grittiness.

Peyton

Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:06:57 -0700
From: Dragon <dragon at crimson-dragon.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] cacao nibs
To: ladypeyton at yahoo.com, Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Beth Ann Bretter did speak thusly:
<<< Conching (a long, slow mixing process where some flavor continues to
develop, especially any acidic notes) >>>

Huh.  I wasn't aware that conching actually changed the flavor of 
chocolate since it's only a complicated and intricate grinding 
system to smooth out grittiness.
---------------- End original message. ---------------------

It is a wet mixing process that goes on for many hours (or even 
days), it does continue to develop some flavor. Like I said, this is 
especially so of some acidic notes in the chocolate.

Also, many chocolates are blends of beans with differing qualities. 
With few "varietal" exceptions now on the market, chocolate makers 
select several types of beans to give the finished chocolate a 
particular flavor profile.

And just to clarify, when I say they are gritty, I am not suggesting 
it is like chewing on sand but more like chewing on roasted coffee 
beans. Also, when I say it is bitter, I am comparing it to the 
general profile of most chocolates one would see on the market until 
very recently. The very high solids (85% or more) chocolates on the 
market today are also bitter in such a comparison. I was not 
suggesting that they are unpleasantly so (which I did in fact say 
they are not) just that to the person expecting cacao nibs to be 
chocolate, they will find the experience to be quite different.

Dragon

Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:58:50 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Tobacco and Chocolate in new book
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

New volume due out in October on Chocolate and Tobacco!

Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and
Chocolate in the Atlantic World (Hardcover) by Marcy Norton.
        Hardcover: 334 pages; Publisher: Cornell University Press 
(October 2008)ISBN-10:0801444934 ISBN-13: 978-0801444937

"Before Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492, no European had ever seen,
much less tasted, tobacco or chocolate. Initially dismissed as dry
leaves and an odd Indian drink, these two commodities came to conquer
Europe on a scale unsurpassed by any other American resource or product.
A fascinating story of contact, exploration, and exchange in the
Atlantic world, Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures traces the ways in which
these two goods of the Americas both changed and were changed by Europe.

Focusing on the Spanish Empire, Marcy Norton investigates how tobacco
and chocolate became material and symbolic links to the pre-Hispanic
past for colonized Indians and colonizing Europeans alike." The author
is the Associate Editor of Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia.

http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4893

Johnnae

Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:58:06 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Forthcoming titles Fall 2008 LONG
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

As promised sometime back here's a list of some forthcoming
fall 08- winter 09
titles that might be of interest to readers of this list.
They cover a full range of topics.
I've included details, descriptions or links where I have them.
A number of the lists I used didn't record prices possibly because
they were not yet set.

Johnnae

-----------------
*Chocolate: Pathway to the Gods with DVD *by Meredith L. Dreiss and
  Sharon Edgar Greenhill
? 208 pages. University of Arizona Press (15 Oct 2008)
3,000 years of the history of chocolate.
http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid1971.htm

Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 21:46:24 -0800
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Research on Period Chocolate
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Master  Raymond von dem Lowengrab recently posted to a West Kingdom 
list, describing some work he was doing on a period description of 
making a chocolate drink. I asked if he would like me to post it 
here, and he said he would. For anyone who wants to correspond with 
him directly, his email address is:

  Raymond Tripp <lowengrab at gmail.com>

Here's the relevant part of his original post:

Would any of you Chocolate lovers in the group be interested in my 
attempts to translate what is seeming to be a period discription of 
ingredients and, from what I can tell [so far], at least a rough 
description of the process for making the "Chocolate Drink" ?
The source is from "Narraciones historicas"- Seminario de Cultura 
Mexicana. Mexico, 1994. by Luis Castillo Ledon.

One of the chapters in this work is specificly on "Chocolate", and 
according to my co-workers/ translators/cultural advisors who 
provided me with this rather obscure reference, this chapter goes 
rather in depth about the history of Chocolate and it's place in 
Mexican history.

For those who are interested in such small things as "Period 
Sources", the section I'm working on is taken from Juan de Cardenas 
"Problemas y secretos maravillosos de las Indias" written in 1591.
At this point I am only focusing on the actual passages pulled from 
Cardenas instead of the whole chapter- this is for the sake of time 
and my sanity as it's been almost 20 years since I took Spanish and I 
barely squeeked by a passing grade. I am relying on the gracious 
assistance of my co-workers [who are brothers], mentioned above, who 
share a love of history and native foods from their region. Oh yea, 
one of them has been a Chocolateer and candy maker before he joined 
my current employment, and some of his insights have been 
enlightening.

So, please bear in mind that the translation is essentially done "By 
Committee" though any mistakes made will be my own. [If anyone is 
interested in a copy of the whole chapter, let me know and I'll do my 
best to get a copy to you- I'd love to see a translation, or even a 
review, that didn't require my brain to occasionally short out....]

And here is what he sent me for this list:

  To get the ball rolling, here is, to the best of my understanding, 
the excerpts from the source used by the author. Please note that I 
have yet to figure out how to put accent marks over letters, so they 
will be ommitted.

  Pero mas que formula, lo anterior solo es una manera de preparar el 
chocolate ya para servirse. No ha sido dable al cronista tener en sus 
manos el libro del doctor Barrios, a que se refiere el padre Ximenez, 
pero hojeando los Problemas y secretos maravillosos de las Indias, 
obra escrita por el doctor Juan de Cardenas en 1591, encuentra dos 
largos capitulos sobre el mexicanisimo brebaje, en los que el autor 
nos ofrece con complaciente prolijidad gastronomica, una excuisita 
receta para preparar chocolate, y una disertacion sobre las diversas 
maneras en que se estilaba tomarlo.

[Prelude over, here's where we started working]
  "En esta preciosa y medicinal bebida- anota el docto Cardenas- 
entran, sin el cacao, especias que llaman de Castilla;  y otras que 
aca llamamos de la tierra; las especias castellanas son, canela, 
pimienta, anis, ajonjoli"; las indianas gueynacaztle [que los 
espanoles llaman orejuela], sustancia "que se echa en el chocolate 
muy sabia y acordadamente", por su buen olor, "pues con el da gracia 
flagrancia y suavidad a esta bebida", y como toda medicina aromatica, 
es cordial, "refuerza y conforta la virtud vital, ayudando a 
engendrar espiritus de vida", y "da asi mesmo un muy gracioso sabor", 
flor de mecasuchil, que tambien perfuma, y que calienta y consume las 
"humidades flematicas", y conforta el higado, por lo que es la mejor 
especia que entra en la composicion; tlixchil, "en nuestro romance 
vainillas", cuyo buen olor compite "con el almizcle y ambar" es 
cordial y amigo del corazon, y tiene "virtud de dar calor al 
estomago, cocer los humores gruesos, que en el estan de ordinario", 
por lo que "no se debe excusar"; finalmente, achiote, comparable al 
cardamomo, el cual se echa en esta bebida, asi para darle un rojo y 
gracioso color, como para dar sustento y engordar al que le bebe".
  "Se debe alabar-agrega- las especias olorosas de esta India 
occidental, que siendo calientes, confotativas y aromatacas, no nos 
dan aquel excesivo calor que las que nos traen de la India oriental". 
dichas espeias "jamas hacen dano a nadie, echandose mayormente poco 
de cada cosa. suelen algunas personas, por sentirse frias de estomago 
o de vientre, echar al chocolate unos chiles tostados y unos granos 
mayores de culantro seco, llamados pimienta de la tierra"
  recomienda Cardenas que todas las sustancias sean nuevas, excepto el 
cacao que "Mientras mas anejo, mas aceitoso y mantecoso sera", y a 
continuacion explica que las cantdades de ellas que deben usarse son, 
para cada cien cacaos, media onza de cada especia, asi indigenas como 
espanolas, los cuales se tostaran separadas del cacao, por necesitar 
este mayor fuego, y que tales dosis pueden aumentarse o disminuirse a 
voluntad, segun el gusto.

  Needless to say, this man is the master of the run-on sentance.
  I have held the translation to this point as the next paragraph 
begins to describe the work/ observations of Antonio Colomenero de 
Ledesma's Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate 
published in Madrid in 1631- outside of our cut off point if 1600 is 
to be accepted.

  The clue, for me, that I might be on to something with this lay in 
the first sentance: En esta.. "In this beautiful medicinal 
Drink-wrote the Doctor Carenas- go without the cocao, the species 
they call castillians; in others they call from the land.
  Juan and Efram, my translators, made the folowing notes; "Go without 
the cocao"- he's describing the preparation by separating the batches 
of ingrediants from castillian and "others they call from the land" 
being native spices.

  According to Juan, the former chocolateer, this translation does 
eventually describe, at least roughly, how to make the drink. But, 
the problem he's having is that the source tends to describe and 
expound upon the nature of various ingrediants '...consumes flematic 
humours..." is one of my favorites so far, and with the archaic 
prose, he sometimes pulls his hair.

  like I've said before, as far as Spanish goes, I'm rather un-fluent, 
so I'll trust these guys to give me their best then throw it to the 
wolves to chew on.

  For the anthropology minded, Juan and Efram come from a small 
town/village in central mexico that has pre-colonial roots, with 
cooking traditions that have been passed down, mainly through the 
women, for genrations. Juan remembers seeing his grandfather make, by 
hand grinding, the cakes of corn, spices, and chocolate, over the 
heated grindstone, back in the 50's. When my interest in the 
historical aspects of chocolate became known to him, he has begun 
talking with some of the "elders" in his family about their knoweldge 
on preparing chocolate in it's various forms, and when he read 
Mistress Juanna's recipe for chocolate, noted to me "I realized that 
I've been drinknig this all my life !", abliet, without the orange 
flowers.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:19:27 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Research on Period Chocolate
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Mar 10, 2009, at 1:46 AM, David Friedman wrote:
<<< According to Juan, the former chocolateer, this translation does  
eventually describe, at least roughly, how to make the drink. But,  
the problem he's having is that the source tends to describe and  
expound upon the nature of various ingrediants '...consumes  
flematic humours..." is one of my favorites so far, and with the  
archaic prose, he sometimes pulls his hair. >>>

You might mention, for what it's worth, that we might be able to help  
explain the references to phlegmatic humors, for example, in layman's  
terms.

For example, the most obvious ingredient that would consume phlegmatic  
humors that you'd be likely to find in an early Mexican chocolate  
recipe would be chiles: hot and dry offsets the cold and moisture  
associated with phlegmatic humors.

Pretty good as an expectorant, too...

Adamantius

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:40:54 -0400
From: Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Research on Period Chocolate
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I found the most wonderful chocolate the other day- or I should say,
R&M found it for me at the local co op. It's called Chocolate
Mexicano, by Taza Chocolate (out of Massachusetts, btw) and it's
organic Dominican cacao beans, organic cane sugar, and dried guajillo
chiles. The cacao is stone ground- I'm wondering if this might be akin
to the drink mentioned here. This chocolate can be eaten as candy, but
is also supposed to be dropped into hot water and served as a
beverage. Perhaps with a bit of corn meal, it might be equivalent to
the chocolate beverage referenced?

I love the stuff- if I never had access to any other chocolate, I'd be
content.  Unfortunately, at $5 per 2.7 oz (77 g ) package, Hershey's
will still get my business ;-)

Website is www.tazachocolate.com if anyone wants to check it out.

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:55:33 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Research on Period Chocolate
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>,
	lowengrab at gmail.com

Antonio Colomenero de Ledesma's Curioso.... was translated and published 
in English in 1640.

Colmenero de Ledesma, Antonio.
A curious treatise of the nature and quality of chocolate. VVritten in 
Spanish by Antonio Colmenero, doctor in physicke and chirurgery. And put 
into English by Don Diego de Vades-forte.
Publication Info: Imprinted at London : By I. Okes, dwelling in Little 
St. Bartholomewes, 1640.

It's part of EEBO and EEBO-TCP. There are also two later editions in EEBO.

Johnnae

David Friedman wrote:
<<< Master  Raymond von dem Lowengrab recently posted to a West Kingdom 
list, describing some work he was doing on a period description of 
making a chocolate drink. I asked if he would like me to post it here, 
and he said he would. For anyone who wants to correspond with him 
directly, his email address is:
snipped
 I have held the translation to this point as the next paragraph 
begins to describe the work/ observations of Antonio Colomenero de 
Ledesma's Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate 
published in Madrid in 1631- outside of our cut off point if 1600 is 
to be accepted. >>>

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:51:05 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Research on Period Chocolate
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma  is even  found on Amazon these days.
Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke (Dodo Press) (Paperback)
by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma (Author), James Wadsworth  
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_2?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=James%20Wadsworth> 
(Translator)

This would be the 1652 edition that was published in London. It was 
originally part of a longer work on drinks.

You can even have it Auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle.

Johnnae

Johnna  wrote this am:
<<< Antonio Colomenero de Ledesma's Curioso.... was translated and 
published in English in 1640.

Colmenero de Ledesma, Antonio.
A curious treatise of the nature and quality of chocolate. VVritten in 
Spanish by Antonio Colmenero, doctor in physicke and chirurgery. And 
put into English by Don Diego de Vades-forte.
Publication Info: Imprinted at London : By I. Okes, dwelling in Little 
St. Bartholomewes, 1640.

It's part of EEBO and EEBO-TCP. There are also two later editions in 
EEBO.

Johnnae >>>

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:49:48 +0000 (GMT)
From: emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Research on Period Chocolate
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

<<< Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma  is even  found on Amazon these days. >>>

And even at gutenberg as an audio book:

Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke
Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26212/26212-index.html

Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:26:10 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History
	of	Cacao
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Since we are talking about chocolate--
The following book that I reported on in 2007 will be out in paperback 
on April 19th, 2009
Amazon has it for a pre-sale price of  $23.58. The hardback is still 75 
and $60 on sale from Amazon.

Johnnae

--------------
Here's another new 2007 book that may interest some people.

Johnna

  Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao.
Edited by Cameron L. McNeil. 544 pages
  $75.00   *ISBN 13: *978-0-8130-2953-5   *ISBN 10: *0-8130-2953-8
Overview

"A monumental contribution to the study of a plant food of basic
importance from pre-Columbian times to the present in the Americas and
now the world. . . . It will be the baseline for studies of chocolate in
the Americas and the world for the foreseeable future."--Rene Millon,
professor emeritus, University of Rochester

"McNeil brings together scholars in the
fields of archaeology, history, art history, linguistics, epigraphy,
botany, chemistry, and cultural anthropology to explore the
domestication, preparation, representation, and significance of cacao in
ancient and modern communities of the Americas, with a concentration on
its use in Mesoamerica.

Cacao was used by many cultures in the pre-Columbian Americas as an
important part of rituals associated with birth, coming of age,
marriage, and death, and was strongly linked with concepts of power and
rulership. While Europeans have for hundreds of years claimed that they
introduced "chocolate" as a sauce for foods, evidence from ancient royal
tombs indicates cacao was used in a range of foods as well as beverages
in ancient times. In addition, the volume's authors present information
that supports a greater importance for cacao in pre-Columbian South
America, where ancient vessels depicting cacao pods have recently been
identified.

Cameron McNeil earned her doctorate in anthropology from the Graduate
Center, City University of New York, and currently conducts research in
Copan, Honduras.

http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=MCNEIS06

Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:28:54 +0000 (GMT)
From: emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] On-line 1599 English-Spanish Dictionary
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Thanks a lot for pointing to the dictionary.

On the same site there is a description of a food project.
http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/proj/food/pro-food.html

And there are electronic texts, one of them is the second letter of Cortes (1520), where cacao is mentioned:

http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/etext/e015.html

"Y puso en ello tanta deligencia que dende en dos meses que yo se lo
dije estaban sembradas sesenta hanegas de ma?z y diez de frisoles y dos
mill pies de cacap, que es una fruta como almendras que ellos venden
molida y ti?nenla en tanto que se trata por moneda ...". 

cacap = cacao, see:

http://books.google.de/books?id=oc6umVJFQpYC&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=%22dos+mill+pies+de+cacap%22&source=bl&ots=qs5oJcwm8Q&sig=tnNJUaEo9T2QYGwfZv2xxWWyk4w&hl=de&ei=Hnu5Sf3MOIOB_gbYx4iIBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA29,M1

BTW: the Norton article, someone mentioned several posts ago in the chocolate thread, says that chocolate was used in the Iberia in the 1590ies.

E.

Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:23:21 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Weights and measures re Chocolate Drinks
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

A couple of weeks ago there was a post regarding Chocolate
and the research being done by Master Raymond von dem Lowengrab OL.
Master Raymond and I have been corresponding back and forth about various aspects of chocolate research and early sources. He sent me this post today 
regarding some of the weights/measures that appear in the Florilegium file on 
Chocolate Drinks.

The background as constructed from posts in the florilegium:

Back in 1996 there was a post by Eric S. Haverberg that gave a recipe.
It reads in part--  Date: 26 Oct 1996 06:36:48 -0400
EHAV at oro.net (Eric S. Haverberg) wrote:I here is the recipe I have 
from 1631 published by Antonio Colmenero who had taken it from a 
Marchena physician;

            700 cocoa beans
           1 1/2 lbs. white sugar
           2 ozs of cinnamon
           14 long red peppers
           1/2 oz of clove
           3 cods of logwood or Campeche tree - similar to fennell
                or instead use
           the weight of 2 reals (or a shilling) of anniseeds
           as much Achiote to give it the color of hazelnut

I don't know what some of these measurements are so I will leave that 
up to some one more knowledgable then I. 

Ottokar von dem Schwartwald, AoA  Shire of Blackhawk Middle Kingdom
--------------

Later in 2000 our own Anahita (now known as Urtatim) posed the questions 
of weights.
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 10:03:01 -0700 From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: SC - Chocolate Drink - 1615

RE: From "Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke." London, 1652, by Capt. John 
Wadsworth.

I'm trying to work out the following slightly out of period recipe
for a Chocolate beverage for personal use. As it is rather late,
being a bit OOP, it has quantities of ingredients, but even so, i
have questions...snipped
She asked:  (c.) How much does a shilling or 2 reals weight?
---------
Bear then answered on Wed, 27 Sep 2000 14:06:04 -0500

Subject: RE: SC - Chocolate Drink - 1615 (should be 1651 BTW if from 
Wadsworth's translation)
A cod in this case is a seed pod.
A shilling is 1/20th of a pound sterling equaling 12 penneyweights Troy
approximately equaling 18.6 grams or slightly over 1/2 ounce U.S. 
Customary Measure.

----------

What Master Raymond in consultation with Master Ian this am sent me this am is
an explanation that seems to indicate that this shilling measure is not 
quite right.

"18.6 grams is 1/20 of a Troy pound.   By the reign of Elizabeth I, the 
sterling nominal pound (i.e. 240 pence of sterling alloy independently 
of weight) had inflated to one third of a Troy pound, making a shilling 
6.2 grams." 

The post also addresses the question:

  "1) What is the "standard" accepted weight for 2 Reals ? "
The answer: "6.77 grams."

Master Raymond then asked: "[I have no idea if the reference is for a 
single 2 Real coin, or 2X 1 Real coins.]"

The answer is: "It shouldn't matter.  The standard for the one real 
was 3.38 grams."

The message this am also pointed out that since the recipe was published 
in England in the 1650's that
"OTOH, the coins of James I, which would have still been circulating in 
1631, were commonly heavily clipped, while the Spanish coins, even of 
the homeland (i.e. rather than just the colonies) were of the 'cob' or 
'macuquina' fabric, so the weight of particular coin of either type 
that the cook happened to have to throw on the scale probably varied 
more from the theoretical standard than they varied from each other."

So, according to Master Ian the proper weight for anniseeds in the 
recipe would be between 6.2 to 6.77 grams instead of the 18.6 grams 
listed by the gentleman who responded in the past post now listed on the 
Floriligium.

 I hope that you, and the SCA-Cooks list, might find this tidbit helpful 
in getting an accurate accounting for measurements involving coinage 
should they pop up again. Please feel free to post this where you think 
it might be helpful or interesting.

 I wish you and yours health and Happiness.
Master Raymond von dem Lowengrab OL

-----
So here it is then. Anniseed is called for in a lesser quantity apparently.

Johnnae llyn Lewis

Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 11:19:25 -0500
From: Craig Daniel <teucer at pobox.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] 16th Century recipes for Chocolate

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 3:28 AM, Stefan li Rous
<StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
<< Craig Daniel (Sorry, I don't remember your persona name, and you didn't sign
your message) said: >>

No worries.

(Though, for the curious, my SCA name - albeit not yet registered - is
Jaume de Mon??. I'm 16th-century Catalan.)

<<< That said, I love me some Chocolate or an Indian Drinke, which is the
first recipe I know of for something that is documentably late period
but missing actual pre-1600 recipes. >>>

<< We do have some recipes for chocolate drinks from before 1600 CE. We have
more from the 17th century, but we do have some from the 16th. >>

Really? Excellent! Wadsworth's "Indian Drinke" version is the closest
I'd ever even heard mentioned, and I'd heard it was the earliest, but
maybe that's just because it's the best known old one.

I know what I'm drinking as the winter grows colder...

<< The seller of fine chocolate is one who grinds,
who provides people with drink, with repasts.
She grinds cacao; she crushes, breaks, pulverizes them.
She chooses, selects, separates them.
She drenches, soaks, steeps them.
She adds water sparingly, conservatively;
aerates it, filters it, strains it, pours it back and forth, aerates it;
She makes it form a head, makes it foam;
She removes the head, makes it thicken;
makes it dry, pours water in, stirs water into it. >>

Question: is she making unsweetened baking chocolate here, or coming
reasonably close thereto? Because this sure sounds like she's
thoroughly drying the pods, extracting the nibs, then liquifying them
(using as little water as necessary to do so), stirring the result
smooth, and drying it. But there's a lot of water going in at several
stages along the way, and that confuses me somewhat.

<< She sells good, superior, potable [chocolate];
the privilege; the drink of nobles, or rulers
finely ground, soft, foamy, reddish, bitter; >>

Random side note: The "reddish" color is quite strong in Wadsworth's
recipe - he adds annatto.

<< [with] chile water, with flowers, >>

The only chile water I'm familiar with is a Hawaiian condiment, which
I'm guessing is not intended here. Maybe if I just steep the chiles in
water I'll get something workable.

<< with uei uacaztli (Cymbopetalum penduliflorum), >>

Hm. I've never even herd of this ingredient.

<< with mecaxochitl (Piper amalago), >>

Wikipedia (not a great source, but an easily accessible one while I'm
first collecting my thoughts about a recipe) informs me that
mecaxochitl is hoja santa, an herb available in many Mexican
groceries, as it's used in authentic Oaxacan cuisine - and WP tells me
one of its uses modernly is to make chocolate. Unfortunately WP also
tells me it's supposed to be Piper auritum.

<< with wild bee honey, with powdered aeromatic flowers. >>

More unspecified flowers. Hm.

<< [Inferior chocolate has] maize flour and water; lime water; >>

So, don't add tortilla meal to my chocolate. Heh.

<< [it is] pale; the [froth] bubbles burst.
[It is chocolate] with water added ?
Chontal water
[fit for] water flies.

Barnardino de Sahag?n, c.1500-1590, Franciscan missionary >>

Unlike the 1652 version, this doesn't give quantities. But I could
totally consult that for insight unless I find an older version that
does.

Once I get good results, I'll post a redaction.

- Jaume

Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 11:28:22 -0500
From: Guenievre de Monmarche <guenievre at erminespot.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] 16th Century recipes for Chocolate

There's a fairly interesting page on Spanish chocolate drinking here,
focusing mostly on a Spanish recipe from about 1631 - not QUITE pre-1600, but still interesting:

http://spanishseamstress.org/wordpress/?page_id=96

Guenievre

Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 11:52:58 -0500
From: Craig Daniel <teucer at pobox.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] 16th Century recipes for Chocolate

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Guenievre de Monmarche
<guenievre at erminespot.com> wrote:
<<< There's a fairly interesting page on Spanish chocolate drinking here,
focusing mostly on a Spanish recipe from about 1631 - not QUITE pre-1600, but still interesting: >>>

Yeah, that's the same recipe as the Wadsworth one I've worked from -
it's just giving the date of the Spanish original (which I have yet to
find a copy of, though I admit I've looked with imperfect
thoroughness); John Wadsworth's 1652 translation is the citation I'm
used to, and is the origin of the version on that site.

Although its mention of chocolate appearing in Fernandez de Oviedo's
ethnography is definitely intriguing; while I'm familiar with the food
content of Naufragios (by the way, if you ever want period
documentation for cactus pears...), I've never read Fernandez. I
wonder if he gives enough detail to be useful.

Clarification: sorry, they appear to have a slightly earlier
translation. Still, I'm more intrigued at the moment by trying to find
even earlier recipes as much as possible.

 - Jaume

From: Miriam Staples <miriam.staples at gmail.com>
Date: February 21, 2010 1:54:15 AM CST
To: StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Subject: My period chocolate recipe

I read from the Shambles that you would like my redaction for the Florilegium. I will include the one I have made for Stormscroll.

3 cups boiling water
150g dark chocolate, minimum of 60%.(1)
1-2 star anise
5 cloves
1 vanilla bean, scraped out the beans and pod or 1teaspoon vanilla paste
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice
1/4 teaspoon dried chilli (or to taste)
3-4 tablespoons raw sugar (or unprocessed cane sugar)(2)
1/2 teaspoon annatto (3)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Boil the water. place spices and sugar in boiling water. Then break chocolate into water. Seethe until dissolved. Strain into cups. Enough for four cups.

1) Do not use cocoa powder. I have found 99.9% pure chocolate in specialty cooking shops. In the supermarket there is 85% pure available.
2) White sugar is a modern invention. History of sugar cane use is that Colombus planted it in the New World on his second trip. It took off, replacing sugar beet & honey use. It involved pots of sugar cane juice being boiled and slowly thickened & poured off into smaller pots until a thick molasses was eventually crystallized.
3) Used as the red dye in the drink. Also used in face paint by the natives. Has a mild pepper flavour. Not readily available in supermarkets.

This is loosely based on Sahagun's ingredients mentioned in the Florentine Codex (1540-1585). While flower petals were also used, it was from the cocoa tree itself (cocoa flowers) and nuts were also mentioned. In my opinion, this was introduced by the Spanish (and later the Italians), as I can't find a reference to the particular nut. I know that the Italians liked ground nuts in their chocolate, which also meant that there was no need for milk added (ground almonds would have turned into almond milk within the drink itself). Milk was put into chocolate by the personal physician of Queen Anne, who later sold the idea to Cadbury.

I used chocolate bars for the cocoa butter, and the mouth feel (very modern!). It may have more cocoa butter than would be in period, but I feel that baking powder would not do. The fat was thought to have great medicinal properties.

Please let me know if you would like more information!

Miriam bat Shimeon

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:41:45 +1000
From: Raymond Wickham <insidious565 at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Lochac] good basic explanation of cacao
To: <lochac at lochac.sca.org>

http://www.erowid.org/plants/cacao/cacao_article1.shtml

Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:00:10 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Chocolate of Modica, chocolate of Alicante

Having done some research into the history of Modica, Sicily, there are some indications that this extremely wealthy area - held by the counts of Henriquez-Cabrera, described as a "kingdom within a kingdom" ? had a very early knowledge/production of chocolate, in the manner of Alicante, Spain. The author Anthony DiRenzo writes in his book "Bitter Greens" that the Spanish planted cocoa trees in Sicily, to maximize profits, but admitted to me that he does not know when the first trees were planted. 

When it comes to the chocolate of Alicante, I think this book was mentioned on the list before, but I am wondering if anyone has read it and whether it is factually credible:

Rafael Montal Montesa, "El chocolate: Las semillas de oro." Came out in 1999, published by the government of Aragon.

The Wikipedia entry on chocolate cites this book when talking about a delegation from Japan in 1585, "visiting the Emperor Philip II in Alicante, was impressed by the offer of chocolate made by the nearby convent of the Poor Clares of Veronica."

Has anyone read this book?

Adelisa

Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:18:59 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>,	Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Chocolate of Modica, chocolate of Alicante

It's a rather rare volume. Worldcat only lists it as being at the Library of Congress and Biblioteca Nacional de Espana. Interlibrary loan is probably not an option.

There are two copies on abebooks for $60.00 plus with shipping from Spain.

Johnnae

On Jan 14, 2013, at 4:00 PM, Christiane wrote:snipped  <<< I think this book was mentioned on the list before, but I am wondering if anyone has read it and whether it is factually credible:

Rafael Montal Montesa, "El chocolate: Las semillas de oro." Came out in 1999, published by the government of Aragon. >>>

From the FB "Medieval & Renaissance Cooking and Recipes" group.
12/6/13
Ea Fleming 
<<< I saw a modern recipe for "spicy Mexican hot chocolate" today. It also mentioned that the Aztecs drank cocoa beverages. Not medieval, but it got me thinking that I might search around/ask around to find the oldest known reference to spicy hot cocoa in South/Central American cultures. Thoughts? >>>

Here is an English translation of F. Hernández's "Historia de las Plantas de la Nueva España" which was translated by Marianne Perdomo Machin... The first genre of drink that is normally prepared with the said seed is called atextli, that is 'watery paste'; it is made simply, with about a hundred grains of cacáhoatl, raw or toasted but finely ground, and mixed with the quantity of indian grain [maize??] - softened in the manner that on another occasion we described - that fills the space of the joined hands [I feel really clumsy here, he means not a handful, but two-hands-full, if you know what I mean]. 
But if a composite drink is desired, then the fruits of mecaxóchitl, xochinacaztli and tlilxóchitl (plants described when opportune) are added, also ground, shaking the mix for a convenient period of time. 
Before it is drunk, it must be poured from one glass to another from a certain height, until it frothes and the greasy parts -similar to oil in nature- come up to the surface, so that only the lightest and most agreeable parts will be drunk, or one and the other can be enjoyed separately with greater pleasure. The property of the composite drink is to excite the venereal apetite [i.e. lust]; the simple one refreshes and nourishes greatly. 

Another type of drink is made with twenty-five grains of cacahoapatlachtli, of which we talk in its place, the same amount of grains of cacáhoatl, and a handful of indian grain; it is not usual to add any of the aforementioned things, which are hot, for with this drink one only seeks refreshment [as in cooling drinks] and nourishment. 

The third manner of drink, called chocóllatl, is prepared with grains of póchotl and cacáhoatl in equal amounts, and it is said that it makes one fat if drunk frequently; when one and the other types of grain have been ground, they are put in a vessel and they are shaken with a wooden beater until the greasy part and that of an aereal nature, separate and come apart, mixing with the rest a handful of the said softened indian grain; when the drink is ready to be had, they mix again the fatty part that they had separated and finally they drink it lukewarm; they administer it to great advantage to tubercular, consumptive and extenuated people.

Ea Fleming 
Here's another source, but OOP: http://jducoeur.org/justin/chocolate.txt

Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2014 06:04:28 -0500
From: Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
To: SCA Subtleties E-List <SCA_Subtleties at yahoogroups.com>, 	sca-cooks
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] OOP: Hampton Court Chocolate Kitchen

Greetings! A new three-minute video is available from Hampton Court 
which details the opening of the recently-discovered "chocolate kitchen".

http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/stories/palacehighlights/chocolate-kitchen

The video gives glimpses of the small kitchen, plus a table filled with 
all things necessary to make a royal cup of chocolate. Nice view of 
sugar loaves on the table.

Alys K.

Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2014 08:39:32 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: "SCA_Subtleties at yahoogroups.com" <SCA_Subtleties at yahoogroups.com>,
	Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] OOP: Hampton Court Chocolate Kitchen

< A new three-minute video is available from Hampton Court 
which details the opening of the recently-discovered "chocolate kitchen". >

It's making quite a splash. There are some descriptions and still photos here also.

http://worldchocolateguide.com/blog/chocolate-kitchens-hampton-court-palace/

(This website talks about the types of chocolate being served in the HCP cafe and also has modern London chocolate shop mentions for anyone traveling.)

Johnnae

From the FB "Medieval & Renaissance Cooking and Recipes" group:

Ea Fleming
August 2 at 9:25am · Olmsted Falls, OH

Greetings! I asked librarian Johnnae llyn Lewis//Johnna Holloway to see if she could find a paper on chocolate in 17th-century England which discussed in the FutureLearn course on Royal Feasts. The information about this article came as a response to my query about Charles II's use of chocolate.
The author is Kate Loveman.

Quickly there's this:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/26885

Her CV is here:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/people/kateloveman

And the article in whole appears here:
http://jsh.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/1/27.full.pdf

I figured some among you might find it of great interest. Feel free to pass this along to anyone who is interested in chocolate’s arrival in the Old World, and especially in England.

Alys Katharine

Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2016 18:09:55 -0500
From: Elise Fleming <alyskatharine at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Define "To Mill"?

Greetings! I'm reading a recipe from 1718 and the author uses "mill" 
several times. It seems as if it would involve whipping up or beating 
the product, especially in the latter two uses. Can anyone clarify just 
what is meant?

Chocolate cream, 1718, "Mrs Mary Eale's Receipts", confectioner to her 
late Majesty Queen Anne. "Take a Quarter of a Pound of Chocolate, 
breaking it into a Quarter of a Pint of boiling Water; mill it and boil 
it, 'till all the Chocolate is dissolv'd; then put to it a Pint of Cream 
and two Eggs well-beaten; let it boil, milling it all the while; when it 
is cold, mill it again, that it may go up with a Froth."

Alys K.

Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2016 18:43:43 -0500
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Define "To Mill"?

I presume this refers to the moulinet ("little mill") a kind of whisk which 
was inserted in a hole in the middle of the top (a chocolatiere was a very 
specific vessel).

I've long suspected that the froth (mousse), when chilled, was the origin  
of French mousse, but can't actually prove it at this point.

Jim  Chevallier

Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2016 18:47:44 -0500
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Define "To Mill"?

One of the many definitions of "mill" as a verb in the OED is:
To beat or whip (chocolate, etc.) to a froth.

My library has the book, not the online version, so I can't easily copy
over all the sample quotes.Most of them refer to milling chocolate (the
beverage), cream, and an egg possett.

Brighid ni Chiarain

Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:21:01 -0500
From: Elise Fleming <alyskatharine at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Define "To Mill"?

From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
<<< Actually I'm mistaken in referring to it as a "whisk" - it is a kind 
of ridged wooden stick, still used in some parts of the world. There's 
a good write-up on it here:

http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/batidor-batirol-molinillo-chocolatera-atbp >>>

I actually knew about molinillos (as a Spanish teacher) and, while any 
here in Cleveland would probably involved driving downtown (shudder!), I 
found one sold by Walmart and ordered it yesterday. It won't get here 
before I will try the recipe, but that can only serve to encourage me to 
make it again. I'm also thinking of buying one of those single 
(beaters?) that you stick in a cup and it will whir to mix up the 
liquid. I don't think there are any non-electric, hand-held ones now, 
but my parents had one that you pumped up and down and it did the same 
back and forth rapid motion that a molinillo would do.

(snip)
<<< I presume you're melting chocolate into the milk (or even water), not 
using  powder? Its use assumes a pretty thick chocolate. >>>

The recipe calls for the chocolate to be "milled" into a small amount of 
boiling water first. Since it's a short recipe, here it is:

MRS. MARY EALE?S RECEIPTS, 1718, Edition of 1733, page 91

To make Chocolate-Cream.

Take a Quarter of a Pound of Chocolate, breaking it into a Quarter of a 
Pint of boiling water; mill it and boil it, ?till all the Chocolate is 
dissolv?d; then put to it a Pint of Cream and two Eggs well-beaten; let 
it boil, milling it all the while; when it is cold, mill it again, that 
it may go up with a Froth.

Alys K.

Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2016 15:25:37 -0500
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Define "To Mill"?

Here is Blegny's note on making chocolate tablets from 1687:

_https://books.google.com/books?id=-iqbWeHH-_kC&dq=intitle%3Achocolat&pg=PA2
57#v=onepage&q&f=false_ 

Jim  Chevallier

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	chocolate-msg	Page  of