SC - Cossacks, Mongols, and Huns..Oh My!

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hello from West Virginia:
        I understand your point, your Grace.  There are one or two specific
references to baking stuff in an oven in this manuscript.  My mental picture
is of a metal or ceramic pot with a lid on top.  Some of  the recipes which
use this formula do specifically mention putting a lid on top before
applying the hot coals (literally "fire") on top.  Then hot coals are put on
top to distribute heat all around the pot.  When I was in the Peace Corps in
Africa, I used a similar system as a way to do small baking projects.  The
overall effect of cooking something in a metal pot with a lid on top, either
buried in the coals of a fire, or with a smallish fire & a good bed of coals
underneath is about the same as a modern oven.  In a modern kitchen, I felt
that baking in an oven would be easier to manage than the trick with the
coals on top of the lid.  I think that something in a ceramic casserole dish
would tend to cook more evenly with heat radiating in from all sides, rather
than just from the bottom up.  Other interpretations are most welcome.
                Happy holidays,
                                        Antoine


>
>I wonder whether baking is the correct interpretation. Doesn't it look more
>as though you are cooking it over the fire, and at the end browning the
>top? I don't know the original source--does it specify an oven elsewhere
>for  baked dishes?
>
>David/Cariadoc
>http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
>
Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA 

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