SC - free feasts/theme feasts(was swan sources)

[Aldyth@aol.com]

Ilkka Heikki Salokannel wrote:

> Re chewets being derived from the French word for cabbage:
> Was this a joke and I just didn=92t get it? - Don=92t you think
> it more likely that it derives from the same word as "chew"
> meaning masticated? Chewets were made of finely chopped foods
> that perhaps looked already chewed - maybe the word was
> slang, someone=92s nickname, etc - names of recipes don=92t
> always have a meaning we can decipher now.

No, no joke. Hieatt and Butler, to name two of several, feel that the
name may well be derived from a term meaning "little cabbages", i.e.
"chou-ettes". Scully refers to a smaller version of Pastez Nourrois, an
almost identical dish, as "lettuces", being a translation of
Taillevent's term "Laictues".  I think the mastication argument is
rather shaky only because if one were to use the term "chewets" in
reference to foods that have a hashed component, one might have to apply
the term to perhaps 40% of the Anglo-Norman culinary repertoire.
Possibly an exaggeration, but not by much.
> =

> Re confits being Savoyard: A "confit" or "comfit" can be
> either a hard sugar coated spice or seed, or a fruit or root
> preserved in sugar syrup. The use of honey for the
> preservation of fruit was known in ancient times and the
> switch to a sugar syrup came about as it became more readily
> available. I don=92t think Savoy had much to do with this
> unless you mean something very specific and not the general
> meaning of the word at all. Was this the case?

Yes, I meant something very specific. I was referring to the French
confits d'oie, du canard, du porc, rillons, rillettes, etc., since the
subject of foods preserved in fat was what was being discussed. All I
said was that it is believed by some that these dishes originated in
Savoy. Whether they did or not, I don't know, but it seems possible
since the style in which most of the above dishes is, and has been,
prepared involves most of the elements that are common to the food of
Savoy, those being plenty of salt, garlic, and what seems to most
non-Savoyards like huge amounts of rendered animal fat.  =


G. Tacitus Adamantius