Quattro quarti, all' Italiana ('four quarters, Italian-style') is a recipe using the basic ingredients in equal amounts. It was featured in Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (1891) by Pellegrino Artusi, alongside quattro quarti all' Inglese ('four quarters, English-style').
Even though cookbooks had become more detailed, 19th century authors still left the readers with something to calculate by themselves (usually the flour) and Pellegrino Artusi was no exception. He gave vague hints about even sugar, milk & other basic ingredients and little or no infomation about baking times. Othertimes, he would measure one ingredient in proportion to another. For example, in quattro quarti he used 'as much flour and sugar as the weight of the eggs, including the shells'. How much was that? Alas, we don't know the size of eggs produced by 19th century hens -but it's easy to guess. In the English version, the amount of butter and raisins is fixed at 200g each, which means the other two quarters weighed 400g. The number of eggs was five. Given that flour and sugar must weigh as much as the eggs, one egg in Pellegrino Artusi's household (including the shell) probably weighed 80g.
The rule of equal measures, however, did not apply 100% to quattro quarti, all' Italiana, in which he used 100g almonds instead of the 200g raisins. Perhaps Artusi was giving a more economical version here, to suit his less affluent readers. Or perhaps he didn't care so much for the rules.
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| Italian Landscapes at Sunset, Fishermen (Markó Károly, 1851) |
Both recipes for quattro quarti included Artusi's personal notes. In the English version, he grabbed the opportunity to advertise the local varieties of grapes; in the Italian version, he praised the skill of his cook Marietta, who had devised a new way for making the cake fluffy. Until electric mixers were invented, cake batter did not turn out well unless it was stirred, beaten or whisked for a very long time, usually 30 minutes. Artusi's cook would also immerse the mixing bowl in a larger one that she filled with hot water. Imagine having to supply hot water every now and then until the 30-minute session of beating was complete! It must have been quite a job, ideally done by two people. Regardless of method, each version of the cake, which Artusi said was delicious only if made correctly, had its own different texture.
Quattro quarti all' Inglese was filled with raisins & candied fruit, reminding of English cakes for special occasions, like weddings. (The oddity here: most of the fruits used for this version were naturally grown in Italy.) 'Four quarters, Italian style' was much more delicate because of the almonds. These were not simply mixed into the cake batter; they were peeled, towel-dried, and crushed together with sugar, resulting in almond flour of excellent quality. Processed like this, small quantities of almonds were used in most of Artusi's sweet recipes: they were enough to improve both the flavor and texture of any cake, biscuit, or tart.
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