SC - Cuskynoles(Got Your Attention, Adamantius?)

[david friedman]

At 8:14 AM -0500 10/23/97, L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt wrote:
>Hi! Adamantius, I'm finally ready to dissect your bete noir: Cuskynoles.
>Anyone care to join me?
>WARNING! WARNING! THIS IS A PUZZLER. NOT FOR THE FAINT AT HEART. BRAIN DRAIN
>AHEAD!
>
>>From Curye on Inglsche, Diversa Cibaria, rct # 45
>NOTA:
>*(th) substituted for the thorn character, looking like an askew lower case
>"p" pron. th or v.
>*(b) substituted for another figure from middle english, looking like a
>cursive lower case "z", pron. approx. b or y.
>
>A mete (th)at is icleped cuskynoles. Make a past tempred wi(th) ayren, &
>so(th)en nim (th)eoron & applen, figes & reysins, alemaundes & dates; bet am
>togedere & do gode poudre of gode speces wi(th)innen. & in leynten make
>(th)i past wi(th) milke of alemaundes. & rolle (th)i past on a bord, &
>so(th)en hew hit on moni perties, & vche an pertie beo of (th)e leyn(th)e of
>a paume & a half & of (th)reo vyngres of brede. & smeor (thi) paste al of
>one dole, & so(th)en do (th)i fassure wi(th)innen.| Vchen kake is portiooum.
>& so(th)en veld togedere o(th)e (b)eolue manere ase (th)eos fugurre is imad:
> ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
>| . | . | . | . | . |
>|___|___|___|___|___|
>| . | . | . | . | . |
>|___|___|___|___|___|
>| . | . | . | . | . |
>|___|___|___|___|___|
>
>& so(th)en rost on an greudil; & so(th)en adresse.
>
>*Nota: original drawing in ms is longer, less square.

You have left out "and sothen boil in veir water" immediately after the figure!

>
>The way I read it:
>
>A meat that is called cuskynoles. Make a paste tempered with egg, and so
>then cut up

"Nim" means "take"--corresponding to modern German.

upon it

"peoren" means "pears." You are misreading "p" as "th" to convert "pears"
to "thereon." Check "per" in the glossary of _Curye_.

>apples, figgs, raisons, almonds, and dates. Beat them
>together and add good spices within. And, in lenten, make the paste with
>milk of almonds (rather than the eggs). And, roll the paste on a board, and
>then cut it into many pieces, which each party (piece) shall be the length
>of a plam and a half, and three fingers of breadth wide. Smear the paste all
>of one(in one piece) (with butter?),

Smear the paste--i.e. your pasta dough--with the mushed up up apples etc.

>with the and then make your fissures

"fassure" is the filling--see the glossary of _Curye on Inglysche_.

>(cuts--knife pricks, holes) within.

No--that's from your misreading of fassure.

As I read it, you are rolling out a paste--a flour/water dough enriched
with egg or almond milk--then smearing it with a mush of apples etc. . You
then inclose the filling, either by putting a second piece of the paste on
top or by folding your piece. You now have  a "sandwich" of
dough/filling/dough.

In my view, what the picture is showing is something similar in structure
to a bunch of ravioli joined at the edges. You have your
dough/filling/dough sandwhich, about 9"x3" (a palm and a half long and
three fingers side) and you then press it down along the lines of the
figures ("veld" is literally fold, but that doesn't seem much of an
extension), using the back of a knife or something similar.

>When the cake is portioned, form it
>(veld????weld, meld?) together in the (below?yellow??) manner as in the
>figure. And so then roast on a griddle,

You have left out the boiling step, here and in your transcription above.

>and so then address (serve it).
>
>The way I see it, we're making square enriched welsh cookies here with way
>more fruit and some almonds thrown in, in one huge cake which before baking
>has been portioned, pricked and smeared with butter rather in the manner of
>Moravian Sugar Cake (a yeast dough which is oblong, finger-poked for holes
>and portioned before baking, but done in the same manner as above. It has
>butter in each little hole, and then a lump of brown sugar. It is baked
>unproved, and does not get very brown on the top).

>Does this make sense?

No.

It is an interesting example of how widely readings of a recipe can vary.
But the omitted step of boiling makes it pretty clear that this reading is
wrong. And in order to make it work you had to add butter, which is nowhere
in the original recipe.

The first key mistake was combining the paste with the filling into a
dough. You got that by not noticing that "peoren" starts with "p" not with
thorn. Since you had already combined everything, there was nothing to
smear with, so you added butter--and couldn't make much sense of the
structure, which takes it for granted that you have rolled out the dough
and are then doing things with it and the filling (fassure).

For our reading of it (Betty's and mine) in more detail, see the _Miscellany_.



David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================