Sunday, 15 January 2017

Silent Culinary Witnesses






  1. I love following your posts. You mention under one picture, "This eccentric pastry centrepiece of three ornamented 'dorten' also features candleholders.", what is a dorten?

  2. I am sorry. I should have explained. Dorten, is an old Austrian word meaning cakes, gateaux, tarts, torts or even pies. It is related to the modern German torten, usually meaning cakes or pies. Cheers Ivan

  3. That makes sense now! Thanks so much for clearing that up and thanks for your posts, they are fascinating.

  4. Dear Ivan, thank you for sharing pictures of your old kitchen utensils, it is such a joy to see and I treasure the pictures I took at your home when attending your weekend course. I too collect these old and beautiful objects and although my collection is very small yet, it is so very dear to me. Being a fan of pastry jiggers I would be particularly pleased with those ones pictured in Scappi too... what a work of art they are!

  5. This is perhaps a dreadfully naive question, but what do you mean when you say "There are surviving kitchen knives from the medieval and early modern periods, but none are useable"? Do you mean the blades are beyond sharpening, or the handles are not secure, or something else I haven't thought of? Thanks.

    1. Yes. Many that have survived are archeological or metal detector finds and are often incomplete, corroded and rusted.They are beyond any practical use, though of course they are valuable objects that tell us much about the evolution of the knife. Early ones have iron blades, or iron forged with a steel edge. Many more knives used for eating and carving have survived because high status examples continued to be valued because of the beauty of the workmanship and precious materials. The much more utilitarian kitchen knife was probably thrown away when it wore out. There are examples of nineteenth century kitchen knives which have survived that could still be used - I have a few - but earlier ones are rare and not feasible as working tools. Cheers Ivan

    2. Thanks very much for this additional information, which gives me a much clearer idea! I'd always rather ask than guess, even at the risk of asking something which is, to an expert, probably quite apparent :)

  6. Oh Ivan, culinary heaven. It is so unbelievable the age of the pieces and books. Very rare here in the US. In antique stores, silverware is about as old as it gets. Some dish ware, but nothing like what you have shown.

  7. Love your articles. The intricate details of the molds are truly a work of art.

  8. Hello Ivan,
    I know it's a ver bold question, but i have to ask.
    Ever since i followed some of your courses i have been trying to acquire the right historic materials to recreate Victorian dishes, such as the raised pie you taught. In the Netherlands it's relatively easy to buy wooden moulds for cookies etc because of the speculaas traditions, however i lack the knowledge to identify those moulds. And most of the moulds i find are just 13 in a dozen speculaas cr**. Or are just not affordable for my thin "i have a family and no job" wallet.
    I found out about and they make replica moulds (and cutters for those moulds) for baking. Couldn't you and Connie from House on the hill pair up and make some of your moulds availlable for the masses?


  9. Amazing, what else can I say? A world removed from the arsenic hour as I get dinner ready for my family!

  10. Great pleasure attending your lecture as well as the demonstration in Detroit. Delightful. Learned much. Thank you.

  11. Your kitchen knives are wonderful. Who made them?