A chopine is not a female Chopin.

[madbaker]

Last week's Resolution Recipe, which I am finally getting around to posting: To make dough for doughnut or fritter. Original redaction by vittoriosa.

Take a chopine of cream, and boil it in a frying pan with a bit of butter, then take white flour, and make the dough in the frying pan on the fire[:] let it be well mixed with a wooden ladle, then break four eggs in [it], and beat it well with the ladle, that the eggs are well mixed in the dough, then take four more eggs and beat them once more until the dough is soft like a thick batter, add as many eggs as necessary so that the dough is soft enough, then take butter well boiled that the salt is out, then put the butter on the fire which should be a bit hot, then take some dough with a silver spoon as big as a nut, and throw it in the butter, eighteen or twenty at a time, and turn them over often with a skimmer, and let them cook until the dough begins to split, and pull it out, and if you see that the dough withdraws, they are not [done] enough, replace them again until it is enough.

de Casteau, Lancelot; James Prescott et al, trans. Ouverture de Cuisine. Self-published, 2003.

1 pint cream
1/2 cup butter
3 cups flour
7-8 large eggses
rapeseed oil
cinnamon
sugar

Bring the cream and butter to a low boil in a saucepan, stirring to prevent scorching. Stir in the flour (until it is a thick dough that pulls away from the sides of the pot) and continue to cook for a few minutes. Remove from the heat and beat in four eggses thoroughly. When they are completely worked in, beat in the remaining 3-4 eggses; the dough should be soft but still firm enough to scoop.

Heat a deep pot full of oil over medium-high heat (275 degrees). Drop in spoonfuls and cook for 1-2 minutes per side. Remove each as they brown, drain, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Serve warm.

A chopine is approximately half a pint, in Liege 0.319925 litres. The Paris chopine was significantly larger, 0.4657 litres. Other fritter and pastry recipes in this collection call for cinnamon and sugar to be applied afterwards, so it seemed appropriate.

I used rapeseed oil (marketed as Canola) rather than butter for its higher burn point, and for cost reasons. Rapeseed oil is a common medieval and Renaissance frying oil, although it is not as tasty as frying in butter would be.

What worked: They were reasonably yummy.

What didn't: not as airy in the iron skillet as they were at the war. Try in the fryer for full suspension in oil, so they become rounder. Also beat the eggses more, perhaps?
Also, a chopine is half a pint so there's too much cream in there as redacted.

Will I make it again? Definitely, once I get it set - it will get put into the tourney breakfast rotation.

What I'm reading: Jack Vance, This is me, Jack Vance!

Comments

[kareina.livejournal.com]

oh, that sounds good, particularly if actually cooked in butter rather than oil, and it so wouldn't need the sugar and Cinnamon.

But then I've got a weakness for starch with dairy-fat, no sweeteners needed.

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

That's why I had to add more flour at the end to get it thick enough -- but I needed to use up that whole pint of cream before the end of the war. :-)

[aastg.livejournal.com]

"Oh, never mind all that nonsense about ravens and writing desks," exclaimed Alice pettishly, "what I want to know is, why is a chopine like a measuring cup?"