Let me explain the situation that has brought this question up. I'm cooking a dinner for a group of 10, the setting is one of the big tournaments of the year, I'm trying to pull my sources from the hundred years war time frame, work with seasonal ingredients, and dessert has been requested. So while casting around for fuit that is in season it occurred that it's strawberry time in NC. I'm thinking to serve strawberries with a sweet yeast bread and my brain really wants to put whipped cream with this... but I'm having trouble justifying it. Would I be better off going with a sweet version of creme fraiche, mixing cream cheese with fresh cream?

Below is the only firm reference I have found in a medieval recipe to the use of fresh cream. Most of the recipes I have found using cream are modern 'medievalish' concoctions, but I also freely admit that I am not very well researched in this area. And would love to have more sources to look at.

quote:

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Daryoles. Take wine & Fresh broth, Cloves, Maces & Marrow, & poweder of Ginger & Saffron & let all boil together & put thereto cream (& if it is clotted, draw it through a strainer) & yolks of Eggs, & mix them together, & pour the liquor that the Marrows was seethed in thereto; then make fair coffins of fair paste, & put the Marrow therein, & mince dates & strawberries in time of year, & put the coffins in the oven, & let them harden a little; then take them out & put the liquor thereto, & let them bake, & serve forth.
Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books. Harleian MS. 279. iiij http://www.godecookery.com/friends/frec41.htm

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It's early, so let me understand what exactly you're looking for:

*A justification for cream in a recipe

OR
*A good, historically correct dessert type item

OR
*A good, historically correct dessert type item containing strawberries

OR
*All of the above

"Forme of Cury" is full of recipes using milk, cream, and curds, more than I remember being in other cookbooks. It's used in milk based sauces, custards, daryoles and puddings.

I have a recipe for a strwberry pie and a rose pudding that I usually make with strawberries because I'm not terribly fond of the taste of roses. I also found cheesecake sort of deals and sweet cherry recipes. Do any of those sound good to you?

How about rice pudding with fresh strawberries on top? I have a recipe that makes a creamy rice pudding and calls for it to be laced with stewed apples-- it is delicious that way, but I can imagine that apples would be less appealing when one has been eating them all winter and fresh strawberries are available!

there are several references to "snow" (ie whipped cream) in the italian and german corpus, albeit late.

Specifically, there's a picture in Scappi of a guy making it, and then there's a couple real recipes in the 16th century and later stuff. I dont remember seeing anything in the 15th century or earlier stuff, though.

you're supposed to serve it in a big pile on a plate with a sprig of fresh rosemary (the "tree" on the mountain of "snow") on the top.

I can provide more specific references if you like...

good luck!
--Anne-Marie

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"Syllabub" is fabulous too..but it's an 18th C. recipe....