Fruit with Honey

Introduction:

As with the artichokes, there was no real recipe for this final dish of the feast. Scappi specifies that the final course should include “diverse apples and pears” – I was fortunate to find a farm stand with a number of varieties of each, although I didn’t track which varieties were which. These were cut into 6ths and dipped in salt water to avoid browning (it’s been found to be a little more effective than lemon juice). 

Garnishes for the tray (both the pie and the fruit went out on a single tray, with the pie placed to one side and the apples/pears fanned around it) included both honey (Scappi references clarifying honey to use as a garnish in Book VI, recipe 205) and candied cherries. 

I did not make the cherries, I purchased a high quality variety of Italian preserved cherries (Luxardo marischino cherries) and used both the cherries and their syrup as a garnish that was both tasty and decorative.

Scappi, Bartolomeo, and Terence Scully. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L’Arte Et Prudenza D’Un Maestro Cuoco. University of Toronto Press, 2008.

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