neotoma: Neotoma albigula, the white-throated woodrat! [default icon] (recipes)
neotoma ([personal profile] neotoma) wrote2006-03-18 11:43 am
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Plums and Plums?

What is the possible difference between "purple plums" and "plums"? I have a recipe that calls for both, and for the life of me I can't imagine what the difference is.

[identity profile] neotoma.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
It's an Elizabethan recipe, but updated and tested for modern cooks. The original mentions 'damisons' and 'corrans', which I think are the plums, but I'm not sure.

[identity profile] clara-swift.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Damsons are small purple plums... I know that much as I have a damson tree just outside my back door :o)

[identity profile] neotoma.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
So, small purple plums and regular purple plums?

I hate it when cooks don't add notes for weird ingridients...

[identity profile] clara-swift.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh... look at this:

http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/1594-ghh.htm

It could be small purple and normal yellow or it could be damsons and normal sized purple plums. Google is not proving very useful!

[identity profile] neotoma.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
You want a *really* frustrating cookbook, look up Apicus and Dining in Imperial Rome.

I mean, who cooks a *crane* in the first place?

[identity profile] clara-swift.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Mmmmm, roast crane ;oP

[identity profile] murasaki99.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
A crane? Um... I would think that might taste *very* fishy. I'll bet it was cooked purely as an asthetic table ornament. Ugh. That's like the pies with live birds in the shell the would fly out when the Lord or Lady cut the shell - the divertissement, wasn't it?

[identity profile] clara-swift.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Try this:

http://www.uga.edu/fruit/plum.htm

[identity profile] murasaki99.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Try medieval bread-baking. The modern folks who want to try are left with guessing on techniques because the baker's guilds taught orally and left almost NO notes. I did find a good article by a gentleman who has scoped out enough details through research and experimentation to make some very nice "fine white loaves".
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)

[personal profile] twistedchick 2006-03-18 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I think those are two varieties of plums -- damson and corran -- but I couldn't tell you which is what. I think both were supposed to be common in hedgerows.

[identity profile] neotoma.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 05:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Ha! I'll bring the cookbook tomorrow, and you can explain the weird stuff ;)

[identity profile] monsterbrain.livejournal.com 2006-03-18 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now.