SC - cooking without fire, among others

[Ian van Tets]

Hi everyone, I've finally finished wading through the backlog and a 
free at last (huzzah!).  

    1.  Is _that_ what golden raisins are?  I'd been wondering.  Anne-
Marie, did you say that a US stick of butter is about 1/4 lb?  Also, 
what is half and half?  I've heard of an alcoholic one (no idea what 
the 1:1 ingredients are though) but don't think that fits for the 
Digby recipe.

    2.  Caroline, Furnivall (Early English Meals and Manners) gives a 
recipe for Payn Puff (sorry, I've lent it out) in his footnotes to 
John Russell's Book of Nurture.

    3.  Aoife, one of the very accessible fire tools here (apart from 
the 3-legged pots, which can be HUGE) is the spider.  It's a triangle 
with legs, and you rest your pots on it.  I'm fairly certain I've 
seen them in Scappi.  They come in varying heights, and last year 
ranged from R13-R19 (US $2-4).  Maybe we can come to some 
arrangement?

    4.  Dragonfyr, your saffron cake has to rest a day before 
cutting?  Mine (Elizabeth David, Engl. Bread and Yeast) is stale in 
about 3 hours!  Can I have your recipe?  Just send it privately - I 
have a nasty feeling you did post it, but I deleted that message 
before its meaning sank in.  Oops.

    5.  Master - Gaius? (are we supposed to attach a title to a 
cognomen, which is after all a nickname?) - I asked ages ago about 
haybox cookery and you responded with a late period source which used 
hot water and a blanket for heating the mash when brewing, for which 
I remain extremely grateful.  I have just found this:

Cooking without fire.  Instructions for cooking meat without fire.  
Take a small earthenware pot, with an earthenware lid which must be 
as wide as the pot;  then take another pot of the same earthenware, 
with a lid like that of the first;  this pot is to be deeper than the 
first by five fingers, and wider in circumference by three;  then 
take pork and hens and cut into fair-sized pieces, and take fine 
spices and add them, and salt;  take the small pot with the meat in 
it and place it upright in the large pot;  cover it with the lid and 
stop it with moist, clayey earth, so that nothing may escape;  then 
take unslaked lime, and fill the large pot with water, ensuring that 
no water enters the smaller pot;  let it stand for the time it takes 
to walk between five and seven leagues, and then open your pots, and 
you will find your food indeed cooked.
(Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections - this one BL Add 32085 - 
Hieatt and Jones, Speculum 61/4, 1986)

I think this is pretty amazing.  It's not actually relying on 
conserving already created heat, as I read it, but on the heat 
produced by the addition of the lime to the water.  And then, of 
course, you have lots of limey water to play with afterwards.  The 
MS, according to Hieatt and Jones, contains nothing later than 
documents from early in the reign of Edward 1 (1272-1307).

    6.  I have been reading through the Buoch von Guoter Spise, and 
I really don't think it's reliable as a translation.  There are 
several inaccuracies in the definitions of common words.  The exanple 
I will use is 'encourage' for 'ruehren', which usually means 'stir' 
or 'beat'.  I wasn't sure of my own knowledge (I completed an 
honours degree in Middle High German at university but that was back 
in 1992) so I checked with the expert at the University of Cape Town 
and he checked the available literature.  There is apparently no 
precedent for the translation of this word as encourage, but it has 
meant stir or beat since before AD 600.  In MHG, it was used 
idiomatically, but always as moving something forcefully (physical, 
transitive).  As far as I can tell, though, the gist of the recipes 
has not been affected.  However, please please please don't get me 
wrong.  As a cook I have no quibbles with Mistress Caterina, and 
honour her for the huge amount of work that she has done.  If anyone 
can put me in touch with her so that I can discuss this matter, I'd be 
grateful.

    7.  Ragnar, dear heart, we _enjoyed_ the cricket.  Will drop in 
and see you at the Dan - you did say you worked there?  couldn't you 
work at Molly's? - when I'm home for my brother's wedding in 
September.

Bonne Chance,

Cairistiona
IVANTETS at BOTZOO.UCT.AC.ZA
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