SC - Re: Asparagus
ChannonM at aol.com
ChannonM at aol.com
Sun Feb 20 06:16:00 PST 2000
In a message dated 2/19/00 10:36:40 PM Eastern Standard Time,
owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org writes:
<< No, storage usually isn't a problem; they're rarely in the house for
more than a couple of hours. I've heard of people cooking them upright
in a tall pot, like a coffee pot, though.
>>
In Apicius, this method is outlined as
Asparagos siccabis, rursum in calidam summittes: callosieres reddes
from Flowers & Rosenbaum
"Dry the asparagus. Plunge again into hot water: this will prevent them from
getting too soft"
rursum suggests that the boiling of asparagus is interupted, ie first they
are blanched then dried and put again into boiling water
>From Vehling
"Asparagus (Tor. IN order to have it most agreeable to the palate)must be
(peeled, washed and) dried 1 and immersed in boiling water backwards 2
1Vehling believes the asparagus must be dried because the cold water clinging
to the stalks is likely to chill the boiling water too much.
2Vehling translates rursum in calidum as rursum being a contraction of
revorsum or revursum (reverse in English)-
I have to say that although Vehling is off on a lot, sometimes he has some
insight that Flowers & Rosenbaum lack.
On a search in a Latin dictionary
rursus, rursum, and arch. rûsum or russum (rursum and rusum are the most
usual forms in the ante-class., and rursus in the class. per.), adv. [contr.
from revorsus or revorsum, from reverto; cf. prorsus and sursum], turned back
or backwards, back, backwards (opp. prorsus): rursus retro, Non.
Maybe we should all hold on to those Vehling editions of Apicius?
Hauviette
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list