SC - Risotto?

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

And it came to pass on 24 Feb 98, that L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt 
wrote:

> Hello, all. I am wondering if anyone has come across a period recipe
> for Risotto or a Risotto-like dish.
[snip]
> Does anyone have a Southern European source with something like this
> in it? I suppose the ingredients would be part of the clue: Rice,
> olive oil or butter, stock, herbs or spices, a little cheese added
> at the end. Or perhaps this is another no  brainer that wouldn't
> have been written down?
> 
> Aoife---Curiosity almost killing her----and snowed in with a foot of
> fluffy white stuff, to boot! No work today, and all my sources are
> at work for display (it's a library!)

The two Spanish recipes I have do not really resemble your 
description of risotto, but I will post them anyway, as they may be 
of interest.

Source: Libro de Guisados, 1529

57. ARROZ CON CALDO DE CARNE -- Rice with Meat Broth

 You must take rice and wash it with cold water or tepid water three
 or four times, and when it is well washed set it to dry on a wooden
 chopping block in the sun, and if there is none, near the fire, and
 when it is dry clean it well of the stones and filth; then put a very
 clean pot on the fire with meat broth, which is fatty and well
 salted, and put it on the fire, and when the broth begins to boil,
 cast the rice in the pot and when the rice is more than half cooked,
 cast in goat or sheep milk, and for lack of these cast in almond
 milk, and cook it all in the pot, stirring it from time to time with
 a ladle so that it does not stick to the pot or burn, and when it is
 cooked remove it from the fire and put the well-covered pot inside a
 basket [espuerta] or basket [cesta] of [salvados?] and leave it there
 to rest for a while, which should be for the space of an hour or at
 least half; then take egg yolks and beat them well when you wish to
 prepare dishes, and cast them in the pot, mixing them with the rice,
 and giving them a few turns with the ladle, after preparing dishes,
 and cast upon each one sugar and cinnamon.  But note one thing, as I
 said in the chapter on semolina: that in none of these pottages, such
 as rice, semolina, barley and fideos, when cooked with meat broth, is
 it necessary to put in any kind of milk; but everything is in [accord
 with] the appetites of the men who eat it, and with this pottage
 there is no need to cast sugar upon the dishes; however sugar never
 harms the food, and the excellence is in this; that each one does
 according to his taste.



58. ARROZ EN CAZUELA AL HORNO -- Casserole Rice in the Oven

 Clean the rice well of stones and filth, and wash it with two or
 three [changes of] cold water and then with hot water, and after it
 is well washed set it to dry on a wooden chopping block in the sun or
 by the heat of the fire, and when it is dry, clean it again in such a
 manner that it is very clean, then take a very clean cazuela and cast
 in good meat broth which is fatty and set it to boil on the fire, and
 when it begins to boil put in two or three threads of saffron so that
 the broth becomes nicely yellow, and when the broth is nicely yellow,
 cast in the rice bit by bit, stirring it with a stick or with a
 ladle, and when the rice is in the cazuela cast in whatever quantity
 of broth that seems necessary to you to so that it cooks no more, and
 taste it to see that it is well salted and fatty, and put it to cook
 in the oven, and a little before it finishes cooking remove it from
 the oven and cast some whole fresh egg yolks over the rice, and then
 return the cazuela to the oven to finish cooking, and it is cooked
 when you see that the rice has made a good crust on top, and then
 prepare dishes, and in each one put one or two of the egg yolks which
 were upon the rice; and if by chance the oven was not prepared, put
 the cazuela on a coal fire and put an iron lid full of embers on it,
 and in this manner it will come out of there as if it had been cooked
 in the oven and perhaps better because it remains nearer for
 sampling: and this is good rice.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
mka Robin Carroll-Mann *** harper @ idt.net
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