SC - More Pig Questions

[Jessica Tiffin]

Greetings, the list.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook wrote:
>Here is a recipe for marinade/basting sauce for wild boar from Menagier de
>Paris (late 14th c.) I've only tried it on a smallish tame pork roast (I am
>not a pig roasting expert), but it was very good that way.
>
>Bourbelier of Wild Pig
>Menagier p. M-23
>
>First you must put it in boiling water, and take it out quickly and stick
>it with cloves; put it on to roast, and baste with a sauce made of spices,
>that is ginger, cinnamon, clove, grain, long pepper and nutmegs, mixed with
>verjuice, wine, and vinegar, and without boiling use it to baste; and when
>it is roasted, it should be boiled up together. And this sauce is called
>boar's tail, and you will find it later (and there it is thickened with
>bread: and here, not).
(ingredients snipped) 

>Preheat oven to 450°. Stud roast with whole cloves, baste with a mixture of
>the remaining ingredients, then put into oven. Immediately after putting it

I made this at our last Cook's Guild meeting, also with a small pork roast.
I was interested that both the Miscellany redaction and the redaction in
Pleyn Delit omitted the step which says "First you must put it in boiling
water, and take it out quickly" - what would be the point of "blanching" a
roast like this?  Why would two highly competent redactions have left it out
- - Is it a function of the fact that you're using domestic pork instead of
wild pig?

Tthe flavour given by the baste is _wonderful_.  Just watch your clove
quantities - I had a bit of a problem with the leftover gravy being too
bitter, and I studded the thing fairly sparingly.

in service,
Melisant

Melisant de Huguenin  *  Jessica Tiffin * melisant at iafrica.com
Seneschal, Shire of Adamastor, Drachenwald (Cape Town, South Africa)
Sable, three owls, wings elevated, argent, each maintaining a willow slip vert.

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