Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (68 page)

If the kidney weighs between 600 and 700 grams (between about 1-1/3 and 1-1/2 pounds), take one large or two small anchovies, bone them, chop them finely and, using the blade of a knife, reduce them into a paste adding another 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter. Form a ball with this paste and set it aside. Cook the kidney on the grill, but do not overcook it, because you want it to stay tender; place on a platter, smear it while still steaming hot with the ball of butter and anchovy, and send to the table.

Do not be alarmed if this dessert seems to you to be a strange concoction, or if it looks like some ugly creature such as a giant leech or a shapeless snake after you cook it; you will like the way it tastes.

500 grams (about 1 pound) of reinette apples, or tender, good quality apples

250 grams (about 8-4/5 ounces) of flour

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) butter

85 grams (about 3 ounces) of dried currants

85 grams (about 3 ounces) of powdered sugar

grated rind of one lemon

2 or 3 pinches of ground cinnamon

Make a fairly firm dough with the flour, warm milk, a piece of butter about the size of a walnut, an egg, and a pinch of salt. Allow the dough to rest a little before using it, then roll it out in a sheet as thin as the one for taglierini noodles. Cover the sheet of dough with a layer of apples (peeled, cored and thinly sliced), leaving the edges free. Scatter the currants, lemon peel, cinnamon, sugar, and finally the 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of melted butter over the layer of apple slices. Reserve a little of the butter to use later. This done, roll the sheet of dough up so that if forms a nice cylinder of dough and filling, which you will fit into a round copper pan greased with butter. Pour the leftover melted butter all over the outside of the roll, and place it in the oven. Remember that dried currants or sultanas are different from raisins, which are small and dark. Currants
and sultanas are twice as large, light brown in color, and seedless. Scrape the lemon peel with a piece of glass.

Here is another German sweet, and how good it is! I saw one that had been made by the leading confectioner in Trieste, tasted it, and liked it very much. I asked for the recipe and tested it, and it came out perfectly. So, as I describe it to you, I also take the opportunity to express my gratitude to the person who favored me with this recipe.

160 grams (about 5-2/3 ounces) of sultanas

130 grams (about 4-1/2 ounces) of sugar

130 grams (about 4-1/2 ounces) of shelled walnuts

110 grams (about 3-4/5 ounces) of stale cake

60 grams (about 2 ounces) of shelled sweet almonds

60 grams (about 2 ounces) of pine nuts

35 grams (about 1-1/4 ounces) of candied citron

35 grams (about 1-1/4 ounces) of candied orange

5 grams (about 1/5 of an ounce) of spices, including cinnamon, cloves, and mace

2 grams (about 1/14 of an ounce) of salt

1 deciliter (about 2/5 of a cup) of Cyprus wine
⁸⁹

1 deciliter (about 2/5 of a cup) of rum

After cleaning the sultanas, soak them in the Cyprus wine and rum mixed together. Let stand for several hours and remove from the liquid when they begin to swell. Cut the pine nuts into three pieces each, dice the candied fruit into tiny cubes, and with a mezzaluna chop the walnuts and the almonds into pieces about the size of a grain of rice. Grate or crumble the stale cake, which can be something like a brioche or a Milanese “panettone.” Leave the sultanas whole. Blend all of these ingredients, including the rum and the wine.

That is the filling; now it must be enclosed in a puff pastry, for which you can use recipe 155, with 160 grams (about 5-2/3 ounces) of flour and 80 grams (about 2-2/3 ounces) of butter. Roll out into a long, narrow sheet a little thicker than a coin.

Spread the filling over the pastry dough and roll it up into the shape of a log or a large sausage, pulling the pastry over the edges to keep it together. Make the roll about 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) in diameter; then flatten it a little or leave it round, and place it in a copper baking pan greased with butter, coiled around itself like a snake, but not too tightly. Finally, brush it with a mixture of melted butter and egg yolk.

Instead of one
Presnitz
you can make two if you like, using the same amounts of ingredients. Half of this recipe should serve, I believe, seven to eight people.

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of Hungarian flour or other very fine flour

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of butter

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of sugar

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of sultanas

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of brewer’s yeast

1 whole egg

2 egg yolks

a pinch of salt

a dash of lemon zest

milk as needed

Mix the yeast with lukewarm milk and a handful of the flour to form a small, rather firm loaf; make a cross-shaped cut on the loaf and place it in a small saucepan, the bottom of which you have coated with a little milk. Cover the saucepan and place it close to the fire, but take care that it does not get too hot.

In the winter, melt the butter in
bain-marie
and then blend it for a while with the whole egg. Then pour in the sugar and then the flour, the egg yolks, the salt, and the lemon zest, blending thoroughly. Now add the leaven dough, which will have risen in the meantime, and then lukewarm milk a spoonful at a time, stirring the mixture in the bowl with a wooden spatula until it has an almost liquid consistency, but not quite. This operation might take more than half an hour. Finally, add the sultanas and place the dough in a smooth mold greased with butter and dusted with confectioners’ sugar mixed
with flour. The mixture should not fill more than half the mold, which you will place, well covered, in a warming oven or other warm place until it rises; this should take two or three hours.

When it has risen to the top of the mold, place it in a moderately warm oven. Remove the cake from the mold after it has cooled, and sprinkle it with confectioners’ sugar, or if you like, moisten it with rum (this is optional).

The
Krapfen
made with this recipe are more delicate than the ones in recipe 182, especially if they are to be used as a dessert. They should look like smooth balls.

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of fine Hungarian flour

50 grams (about 1 -2/3 ounces) of butter

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of brewer’s yeast

less than 1 deciliter (about 2/5 of a cup) of milk or heavy cream, so that the mixture comes out firm

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon of sugar

a generous pinch of salt

Place the yeast in a cup with a spoonful of the flour, moisten it with a little of the lukewarm milk, and set it aside to rise in a warm place. Then put the butter in a bowl (in winter, melt the butter in
bain-marie
) and soften it with a wooden spoon, then adding the egg yolks one at a time. Add the rest of the flour and the yeast mixture after it has doubled in size; then pour in the remaining milk a little at a time, and finally add the salt and sugar. Work this mixture with one hand until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Then sift a thin layer of ordinary flour over the mixture and set it aside to rise in a warm place. When it has risen, pour it onto a floured pastry board and roll it out gently with a rolling pin until it is about half a finger thick. Then, using the pastry cutter in recipe 7, cut it into 24 disks, on half of which you will place a walnut size amount of some fruit preserves or confectioners’ custard. Moisten the disks all around with a finger dipped in milk, then cover with the other 12 disks of
dough and press them together. When they have risen, fry them in a generous amount of oil or lard; sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar when they have cooled a little, and serve. If you need to make double the amount, 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of yeast should suffice.

Perhaps such a name was given to this cake in honor of Brillat-Savarin.
⁹⁴
Let us therefore content ourselves with calling it by its French name, and with recommending it, for its flavor and elegant shape. To obtain the typical shape of a
Savarin
you need a round mold that holds twice the amount of the mixture you shall put into it.

180 grams (about 6-1/3 ounces) of Hungarian or other very fine flour

60 grams (about 2 ounces) of butter

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of sugar

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of sweet almonds

2 deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of milk

2 egg yolks

1 egg white

a pinch of salt

brewer’s yeast, a ball the size of a small egg

Grease the mold with cold butter, dust with ordinary flour mixed with confectioners’ sugar, and sprinkle the peeled, slivered almonds in the bottom of the mold. The almonds taste and look better if you toast them.

Moisten the yeast with a drop of the warm milk and a generous pinch of the Hungarian flour to make a small loaf that you will set aside to rise as in the recipe for baba, 565. Place the rest of the flour and all the other ingredients, except the milk, in a bowl. The milk should be added little by little. Begin to blend with a wooden spoon, then add the yeast loaf. Work the dough until it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl, and then pour it into the circular mold on top of the slivered almonds. Now let it rise in a lukewarm place that is well protected from drafts; I warn you that it will take four or five hours for the dough to rise again. Bake in an ordinary oven or a Dutch oven and in the meantime prepare the following mixture. Boil 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of sugar in two fingers of water. When it has become a dense syrup, remove it from the fire, and when it has cooled completely add a teaspoon of vanilla sugar
⁹⁵
and two tablespoons of rum or kirsch. Then remove the savarin from the mold, and while it is still hot brush it all over with this syrup, until all of the syrup has been used up. Serve hot or cold, as you prefer.

Although this recipe uses small amounts, it serves five to six people. If you see that the dough is becoming too liquid, use less milk. You can also make savarin without the almonds.

Let’s give this cake a pompous French name, which is not wholly undeserved.

125 grams (about 4-1/2 ounces) of rice flour

170 grams (about 6 ounces) of sugar

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of butter

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of sweet almonds

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of shelled hazelnuts

4 eggs

a dash of vanilla

Blanch the shelled hazelnuts (or filberts) and almonds in hot water to remove the skins, and dry both well in the sun or over the fire. Then, after grinding them to a very fine powder, mix with the rice flour and two tablespoons of the sugar. Blend the eggs well with the rest of the sugar, and then stir in the nut mixture, whisking vigorously. Finally, add the melted butter and blend once again. Pour into a smooth, round mold rather narrow in diameter so that the mixture is four or five fingers deep, and bake in a moderate oven. Serve cold.

This recipe serves six to seven people.