History of Panettone

guido · Site Admin Joined: Oct 18, 2004 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

There are many legends around this traditional product but the most accredited one is the following:

A Christmas day, in the 15th century, illustrious guests gathered in Milan, invited by Ludovico il Moro, Lord of the town, to take part to one of the most sumptuous banquet ever seen in years.

As the guest were enjoying the party, down in the kitchen the head chef was having a nightmare, because the beautiful cake he was baking for the guest, for some unknown reason was collapsed on the silver tray. How to fix it?

Toni, the little scullery boy approached the head chef and said: "With the leftovers of what you used for the big dessert, I can make a simple dessert".
He added a few eggs, and sugar to some bread dough, a bit of raisins and candied citron, and put the dough in the oven.
The chef looked at it with great suspicion, but from that dough was coming out a wonderful aroma. Not having any other choice, and already terrified by the future punishment, he decided anyway to serve the dessert.
He decorated little scullery boy's dessert, put it on a large golden tray and had it sent to the party hall. A big applause saluted the entrance of the unusual cake. The guests were amused about the unusal cake, and the duke himself wanted to pay his compliments to the chef, who was the only one who couldn't figure out the reason of all this great success.
The duke asked for the name of the cake, and the chef said " This is el pan de toni" (toni's bread) that nowadays is called panettone
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paulamathers · Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:25 pm Post subject:

do you have a recipe for Pannettone?
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guido · Site Admin Joined: Oct 18, 2004 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

Kate posted a recipe for panettone, but i'm not sure it's the real deal.
I will try to find one, but making panettone it's really hard and long work.
Industrial panettone here in italy is usually very very good and rather cheap, so it really doesn't worth to make it home.
I tried once an artigianal panettone that was rather expensive, and all of us agreed there were almost no difference with a cheaper one.
Bauli, Maina, Le Tre Marie, Perugina, are good brands.
Anyway I'll look for a recipe and translate it.
Ciao
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paulamathers · Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:43 pm Post subject:

thanks. i saw them in the supermarket last week, and they're really expensive here. christmas puds are quite cheap here Very Happy

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guido · Site Admin Joined: Oct 18, 2004 Posts: 365 Location: Italy

How strange!
I saw in some online american shops and you can find a 1 Kg (2.2 Lbs) panettone for 12 dollars. that's about 9 euros.. Not so bad, if you consider shipping overseas.
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paulamathers · Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:06 pm Post subject:

think thats about £5.00. they're about £12 in the shops that import. or about £8 in the supermarket
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