SC - Sharpening tools (Was water bugs)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

allilyn at juno.com wrote:
> 
> OK.  Came up with that last summer--will have to check those sources to
> see if I did have one or if I made a (maybe *not* logical) jump from
> thick paste food to subtlety.  It would be so easy to mold or sculpt,
> seems made for it.

I remember that, but also remember, rightly or wrongly, that it seemed a
bit strained as a logical sequence, with a conclusion saying,
essentially, that they'd have done it if they'd thought of it. As I say,
I could be mistaken.
> 
> I haven't made an exhaustive study of subtleties to see what did and did
> not serve as proper food to use.
> 
> Now, from Rheinfränkisches Kochbuch, I've got this recipe that puts
> mushed fish into the baking form, so that it becomes a partridge.  There
> are other references to baking forms, too. Last summer, though, I was
> working a lot with 14th-15th C. English, with many mortrews recipes, so
> that's where I'll look next.

Oh, of course. Not to mention other forms such as sacks, poultry skins,
ceramic jars, pots, etc. I didn't realize you were talking about baking
in the mold; I thought the basic idea was to use the starchy component
to set the food in the mold as it [semi] cools, and turn it out. On the
other hand, if it's an additional cooking process required to accomplish
this, doesn't that make it seem a bit less likely that that's what is
intended as a basic mortrews service? I wouldn't be at all surprised to
see such dishes as the fish-day partridge, I'm just not sure that this
has anything to do with mortrews.
> 
> When you want to eat partridge in Lent, then take the two halves of a
> baking form, shaped like a partridge.  Take fish, skin it and remove the
> bones [fillet it].  Mince it very fine and season it strongly.  Place
> this mixture in the mold and steam it a little, then it will take the
> form of a partridge.  Then you should bake it and stick it with
> Hechstücken [something that looks like scales? Feathers?].  In this
> manner you get a cooked partridge.  This is an unusual dish.  This
> mixture you can also make in other molds, prepared as you please, and you
> can also apply this stuffing to fish, tripe, bladders, and stomachs.
> 
>  Drücke diese Masse in die Holzform ...
>  You put the mass, or mixture, in the mold. ( It would have been nice if
> they'd used the m or b words) and you steam it a little, to set it, then
> bake or roast it.
> 
> Neither Thomas nor I have found 'Hechstücken'.  Literally, it translates
> to 'pike sticks'.  We can tell what is wanted, and why, but don't know
> the precise translation, or ingredient used to produce the effect.

"Pike" as in fish, or "pike" as in infantryman's weapon? Scales would
seem unlikely since we're going for a partridge look, not a fish. I
wonder if either wooden skewers are intended to simulate leg bones, or
perhaps suitably decorated could represent a tail.

Alternately, my dim memories of studying modern German vaguely bring to
mind the possibility that while Stück can mean "stick", it can also mean
"slice" or "piece". I wonder if slices of fish are added at some point
to improve the appearance. It's worth noting, though, that it isn't
clear that these things are then cooked, so perhaps not.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com