SC - Re: "Interpretation" vs "redaction?"

[ana l. valdes]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> To which Adamantius replied:
> <snip>
> > I recall an early recipe for a haggis (presumably a faux haggis or some
> > kinda warner) made from poached eggs. Another close approximation would
> > be a fronchemoyle, again, a variant on the white pudding theme, boiled
> > in a stomach sack.
> >
> > There are several English haggis recipes that are nearly
> > indistinguishable from a white pudding recipe, generally involving
> > breadcrumbs instead of oats (although even now some white puds do call
> > for oats), with suet, cream, spices, and in some cases, I believe, fruit
> > such as dried Raisins of Corance.
> 
> Ok, what is a fronchemoyle or even a white pudding?

A white pudding is, for practical purposes, a sausage made from either a
light-colored meat, fat, a starch element like rice, breadcrumbs or
oats, with or without cream and/or eggs, and in some cases the starch
and fat, with spices and salt, but without meat. They're cheap and
filling, and probably derive from the need for dietary fat in the days
before central heating. There are really elegant French versions today
involving capon breast, rabbit meat, cream, etc., while at the other end
of the scale you have some UK versions which have been known to resemble
well-seasoned modelling clay, based primarily on cracker crumbs and pork
fat (And even those aren't any worse than, say, scrapple. Yes, Elysant,
there are some good British ones too! Just trying to define a range from
my perceived best to worst.)

Probably the simplest and best explanation would be to say they're black
puddings without the blood.

As for Fronchemoyle, I believe Cindy Renfrow posted a recipe from a
15th-century Harleian MS, there's also one in MS Douce 257, c. ~1381
C.E. The name supposedly derives from the name of the second stomach of
cows, sheep, and other ruminants. It's a pudding boiled in a stomach,
like haggis, made from breadcrumbs, diced fat (in this case sheep's suet
or tallow), eggs, pepper, saffron, and probably salt, boiled and served
in slices. Probably quite a lot like the stuffed derma you can get in
Kosher delis in New York.    

> > I don't know that I accept the idea, though, that haggis became a food
> > of the lower classes; I guess that depends on what one considers lower
> > classes. In Scotland, the farmers who butchered mutton and ate the
> > innards that wouldn't keep well, and the nobles who hunted for various
> > types of deer and made haggis from their innards, aren't what I'd call
> > especially lower classes.
> 
> Ok. Do we have any haggis recipes from before 1600? Are these English
> haggis recipes that you mention from before 1600?

Cindy posted at least one recipe from before 1600 that does indeed call
for organ meats (intestines and the attached fat, or Ropis and their
Tallow, or some such) boiled and chopped. As you've spotted, though, no
fruit. Pat Fee mentioned fruit in her family cookbook. I wonder if
perhaps this is a lowland Scots version of haggis, and when it's from?
The English versions of haggis that call for breadcrumbs and cream are
pretty late as a general thing. There's one, I think, in Gervase
Markham's _The English Hus-Wife_ , published in 1615 but the recipes
appear to be older than that. There may be one in Kenelm Digby's book,
and I think there's one in Giulielma Penn's recipe collection (late 17th
century) and in Martha Washington's Boke of Cookery. The latter, I
believe, calls for fruit, but I'm not sure, and I'll have to go digging
through books another time.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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