SC - For Puck's Big Yaller Dawg

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

And it came to pass on 25 Nov 99,, that Stefan li Rous wrote:

[many snippages]
> >From my exotic-meats-msg file:
> 
> > Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 05:16:40 -0500 (CDT)
> > From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming)
> > Subject: SC - My Translation - Roast Cat Recipe
> > 
> > Greetings from Alys Katharine.  Here is something I did a number of
> > years ago...
> > 
> > Two Recipes from Ruperto Nola's _Libro de Guisados_
> > 
> > Translated by Alys Katharine (Elise Fleming)
> > Roast Cat as One Likes to Eat It (p. 124)
> > 
> > You will take the cat that is fat.  You have to slit its throat.  After
> > it has died, cut off the head and throw it away because it isn't edible.
> >  They say that by eating its brains one can lose one's own brains, sense
> > of judgment and reason.  After skinning it very cleanly, open it up and
> > clean it out well.  Then wrap it in a clean linen cloth and bury it in
> > the ground where it has to lie for a day and a night.  Then remove it
> > from there and put it to roast in a roaster and roast it on the fire. 
> > When beginning to roast, rub it with good garlic and oil. 
> >  When you have finished greasing it beat it well with a switch (bundle 
> > of twigs?) (2)  This you have to do until it is well roasted, oiling it
> > and beating it.  And when it is roasted, cut it up as if it were a
> > rabbit or kid and put it on a large platter.  Take garlic and oil
> > (?liquified?) with a good broth so that it is (?quite thin?) and cast it
> > over the cat.  You can eat it because it is good table fare.

A much smoother, readable translation than the one I did.  Thank you 
for posting it, Stefan.  A few comments on specific terms:

"Asador", which Mistress Alys has translated literally and accurately as 
"roaster", can also be rendered as "spit".  

The verb used for the mixing of the broth with garlic and oil is "desatar", 
which can be translated as "to liquify" or "to dissolve".  I prefer the 
latter.  It is, incidently, the same verb that is used throughout de Nola to 
describe the making of almond milk; one "dissolves" the ground 
almonds with the liquid.

"Quite thin" is a correct translation; "ralo" is used in many recipes in 
that sense, just as a modern recipe might direct you to "add milk to the 
batter until it is thin enough".


Brighid, guiltily slinking off to scratch her four darlings behind the ears...
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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