SC - Pig Maws

[snowfire@mail.snet.net]

A small addition to Ian Gourdon's list of melon references - Piero Aretino
(the famous Venetian poet and infamous gossip) in a letter of 3rd June 1537
thanking Mssr Francesco Marcolini for gifts of salads and fruits says;
"I can risk a wager against anyone wanting to claim that I was not the first
to see this year's figs, grown in your delightful garden. And I shall also
be the first to taste the pears, the apricots, the melons, the plums, the
grapes and the peaches."

Aretino obviously loved his food and dots wonderful little descriptions
throughout his letters. They're worth browsing for that alone almost
(they're also very witty). My favorite however must be his description of
eating a gift of thrushes;
"They were such that our Mssr Titian <yes, the painter> when he saw them on
the spit and sniffed them with his nose, glanced at the snow which was
falling relentlessly outside while the table was being set, and decided
there and then to disappoint a party of gentlemen who had asked him to
dinner. And altogether we heaped praises upon the long-beaked birds which,
boiled with a little dried meat, a couple of bay leaves and a good
sprinkling of pepper, we ate for the love of you, but also because they
delighted us..."

Mmm, doesn't that make you hungry? Fortunately I am sitting here eating for
lunch last night's leftovers of Haricot of Lamb, which turned out very
nicely indeed, even IISSM. I didn't have any beef stock or bouillon, so I
used the water I boiled the onions and parboiled the (New Zealand of course!
;-) lamb in. I think I actually prefer it done that way, as it is slightly
lighter and the lamb taste seems to come through better, though I guess that
makes it a 'periodised' HofL result.

Ciao
Lucretzia
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