Candy Flowers Old Elizabethan Food

CANDY FLOWERS OLD ELIZABETHAN RECIPE

Steps:

• 1. To Candy Flowers the best way Takes Roses, Violets, Cowslips, or Gilly-Flours, and pick them from the white bottoms, then have boiled to a Candy height Sugar, and put in so many Flours as the Sugar will receive, and continually stir them with the back of a Spoon, and when you see the Sugar harden on the sides of the Skillet, and on the Spoon, take them off the Fire, and keep them with stirring in the warm Skillet, till you see them part, and the Sugar as it were sifted upon them, then put them upon a paper while they are warm and rub them gently with your hands; till all the Lumps be broken, then put them into a Cullender, and sift them as clean as may be, then pour them upon a clean Cloth, and shake them up and down till there be hardly any Sugar hanging about them; then if you would have them look as though they were new gathered, have some help, and open them with your fingers before they be quite cold, and if any Sugar hang about them, you may wipe it off with a fine Cloth; to candy Rosemary Flours, or Archangel, you must pull out the string that stands up in the middle of the Blossom, and take them which are not at all faded, and they will look as though they were new gathered, without opening

CANDIED FLOWERS

Steps:

• Beat egg whites until frothy. Add a couple of drops of vodka to help the flowers dry quicker.
• Using fresh picked flowers, paint each flower individually with beaten egg white using the artist's paintbrush.
• When thoroughly coated, sprinkle with fine sugar and place on the wire rack to dry. Flowers are completely dry when stiff and brittle to the touch.
• They should be free of moisture. This could take 12 to 36 hours, depending on humidity. To hasten drying, you may place the candied flowers in an oven with a pilot light overnight, or in an oven set at 150 degrees to 200 degrees F with the door ajar for a few hours.
• Store the dried, candied flowers in airtight containers until ready to use. They will keep for as long as a year.

ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH HERB AND FLOWER SALAD WITH HONEY DRESSING

Steps:

• Toss together the watercress, lamb's lettuce, spring onions, sorrel, sage, mint and rosemary leaves.
• Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice and honey - season with salt and pepper. Toss the salad with the dressing.
• Place the salad in an attractive serving dish. Scatter the edible flowers over the top of the salad.