SC - Salad questions

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Jessica Tiffin wrote:
> 
> It seems logical to assume that this one and the long series of "Anothers"
> are all from one source:
> Sallet for FIsh Daies
> First a sallet of green fine hearbs, putting Perriwincles among them with
> oyle and vineger.
> 
> Another
> Olives and Capers in one dish, with vinegar and oyle.
> 
> Another
> Carret rootes being minced, and then made in the dish, after the proportion
> of a Flowerdeluce, then picke shrimps and lay upon it with oyle and viniger.
> 
> Another
> Onions in flakes laid round about the dishe, with minced carrets laid inthe
> middle of the dish, with boyled Hippes in five partes like an Oken leafe,
> made and garnished with tawney long cut with oile and vinegar.
> (Any ideas what on earth "tawney long cut" is??  And I assume "Hippes" are
> rose hips?)

I don't know what tawney is offhand, I wonder if it might be tansy, either cut
in some long form, or perhaps long is a reference to tongue, as in langue du
beouf, which is another edible green herb suitable for salads.

I'm inserting this here, BTW, because your series omits, at this point, a
salad recipe for Alexander buds, again cut long waies, with a garnish of
whelks, and another recipe for a salad of skirret roots, again, cut long ways,
with, again, tawney long cutte, plus vinegar and oil.

> 
> Another
> Salmon cut long waies, with slices of onions laid upon it, and upon that to
> cast violets, oyle and vineger.
> 
> Another
> Take pickelde Herrings and cut them long waies, and so lay them in a dish,
> and serve them with oyle and vineger.

The entire series beginning with the sallet for fish daies, up to and
including the one for pickled herrings, seems to come from The Second Part of
the Good Hus-wives Jewell, by Thomas Dawson, 1597, with omissions as noted
above. I do have a copy of the Ruth Anne Beebe text some place, but not easily
accessible, so I checked in Dawson (it sounded familiar).
> 
> To compound an excellent Sallet, and which indeed is usall at great Feasts,
> and upon Princes Tables
> Take a good quantity of blaunch't Almonds, and with your Shredding knife cut
> them grosly; then take as manie Raisyns of the sunne cleane washt, andthe
> stones pick't out, as many Figges shred like the Almonds, as many Capers,
> twise so many Olives, and as many Currants as of all the rest cleane washt:
> a good handfull of the small tender leaves of red Sage and Spinage; mixe all
> these well together with a good store of Sugar and lay them in thebottome of
> a great dish, then put unto them Vinegar an dOyle, and scrape more Sugar
> over all; then take Orenges and Lemmons, and paring away the outward pills,
> cut them into thinne slices, then with those slices cover the sallet all
> over; which done, take the thin leafe of the red Coleflowre,a nd with them
> cover the Orenges and Lemmons all over, then over those red leaves lay
> another course of old Olives, and the slices of wel pickld Coucumbers,
> together with the very inward hart of your Cabbage lettice cut up into
> slices, then adorne the sides of the dish and the top of the Sallet with
> more slices of Lemons and Orenges and so serve it up.

The last recipe you quote, unless I'm mistaken, is from Gervase Markham's "The
English Housewife", recipe #13 in the section on cookery.
> 
> The Roman problem is that my only access to Apicius is  "The Roman Cookery
> of Apicius," which is translated and adapted by John Edwards.  Would anyone
> know if this is a trustworthy translation?  The comments in Stefan's
> Florilegium file were fairly disparaging about Edwards's redactions (an
> opinon I had independently formed from reading it!) but I'm wondering if the
> actual translation has the same kind of errors as the Vehling one?  He
> doesn't give the originals, not that I could tell a correct Latin
> translation if it was served up to me with oyle and vinegar, but hey.

Edwards' problems are more with redaction than with translation. He routinely
substitutes ingredients easily available to a modern British reader for ones
which actual Roman cooks would have used, so you find fairly frequent
instructions, for example, to fry things in butter rather than in olive oil. I
don't own a Vehling edition, but based on what I've seen it's hard to tell
when he is simply translating and when he is trying to "improve" upon the
method of the original cook, whoever that may have been, since I don't think
he includes any of the Latin text.

Far and away the best edition of Apicius I've seen is the 1958 Flower and
Rosenbaum translation, for all that it supplies maybe three of their recipes
adapted for the modern cook and kitchen. It's a great way to get yourself
familar, of necessity, with doing your own modern adaptations.
> 
> Sorry to bombard everyone with such a long post, but any help will be
> gratefully received, including other sources in which I could dig for salad
> recipes - are there, for example, any Andalusian ones??

Have you seen the various German ones, which seem to be closely related to
both Roman originals and the compost or mixed pickle recipe found in le
Menagier de Paris? In the German recipes, a sauce very like the pickling souse
in Le Menagier is used to dress cooked beets, and if I remember correctly,
sliced cucumbers.

Hope this is some help...

Adamantius
Østgardr, East 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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