SC - kitchen in a krak

Mon Jun 19 14:57:51 PDT 2000

Hi!
Here's another chunk of Manual de Mujeres, complete with a
minor mystery or two.

Also, I'd like to ask some advice.  I just received a
beautiful paellera for my birthday, with the caution "it's
carbon steel, you'll need to oil it after you wash it."  So
I thought, "I bet someone on the cooks list can advise me
on the care and feeding of carbon steel pans" (well, first
I thought "Huh? Carbon steel? I bet that's not
dishwasher-safe")  I suspect I ought to season it as well,
but it didn't come with an instruction booklet so I'm not
sure what all I need to do or the best way to do it. 
Mostly I cook with cheap non-stick pans that die of abuse
after a few years, but I'd really like to keep this one
around.  So, any pointers would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Dana/Ximena

62 Receta para hacer buñuelos

     A doce onzas de masa, una libra de almendras
blanqueadas. Las seis onzas majadas y juntas con la masa, y
las otras hechas leche. Cuando majardes las almendras para
echar con la masa, majaréis con ellas media libra de
azúcar; y junto esto, juntad la masa con la leche en un
lebrillo, y haced la masa como se suele hacer para esotros
buñuelos. Y hecha la masa, freiréis los buñuelos con buen
aceite. Y fritos, los enmelaréis. Ponedles después su
azúcar y canela por encima, y si quisiéredes poner piñones
blanqueados por encima será mejor.

Recipe for making doughnuts
     To twelve ounces of dough, a pound of
whitened/blanched almonds.  Six ounces crushed/ground and
mixed with the dough, and the others made into milk.  When
you crush/grind the almonds to put into the dough,
crush/grind with them half a pound of sugar; and this mixed
[in], mix the dough with the milk in an earthenware bowl,
and make the dough as is done for other(?) doughnuts.  And
the dough made, fry the doughnuts with good oil.  And
fried, spread them with honey.  Afterwards put sugar and
cinnamon on top, and if you should want to put
whitened/blanched pine nuts on top it will be better.

73 Jabón almizclado

     Tomad media onza de estoraque calamita, y una onza de
menjuí, y un cuarto de onza de estoraque líquido y un
cuarto de onza de sándalos cetrinos. Todo esto polvorizado
y muy remojado en agua almizclada, juntadlo con media libra
de jabón blanco y con una onza de tuétanos de ciervo. Y
picadlo todo muy bien rociándolo con agua almizclada, y lo
picaréis hasta que haya bebido una onza de agua almizclada.
Y luego juntaréis con esto peso de un dinero de ámbar, y un
grano de almizcle destemplado con un poco de la dicha agua.
Y lo mezclaréis todo muy bien en un mortero de piedra con
la mano de fusta.

Musk soap
     Take half an ounce of Bufo calamita balsam, and an
ounce of benzoin, and a quarter ounce of liquid balsam and
a quarter ounce of sallow/melancholic sandalwood.  All of
this ground and soaked well in musk water, mix it with half
a pound of white soap and with an ounce of deer marrow. 
And chop it all sprinkling it very well with musk water,
and chop it until it has soaked up an ounce of musk water. 
And then mix with this the weight of a dinero (copper coin)
of amber, and a grain of musk altered/disrupted with a
little of the said water.  And mix it all very well in a
stone mortar with a handful of sticks?(1)

1: lit. the hand of riding whip or the hand of
prunings/sticks.  I cannot find a translation or definition
of the phrase, but my out-of-the-blue guess would be
something along the lines of a whisk or eggbeater.

74 Receta para hacer bálsamo

     Tomad una onza de olio común, y una libra de
trementina, y dos onzas de cáscaras de granadas, y otras
dos de mundice, y dos onzas de almáciga, y un poco de
azafrán, y otro poco de simiente de carpobálsamo. Y juntas
estas cosas, ponedlas en un alambique; y ponedle fuego
templado al principio avivándoselo siempre. Y desta manera
saldrá el bálsamo destilado.

Recipe for making balsam
     Take an ounce of common [grade] oil, and a pound of
turpentine, and two ounces of pomegranate peels, and
another two of [mundice (1)], and two ounces of mastic, and
a little saffron, and a little balsam seed.  And these
things mixed, put them in a still; and put it [on a] low
fire (2) at the beginning, heating it up (3).  And in this
manner the balsam will end up distilled.

1: Another term I haven't found in any of the dictionaries
I have available to me.  Mundice is a word in Portuguese,
but the only definition I could find (something about
cleanliness, or groups of pigs, sheep, or goats) didn't
seem to fit.  Any ideas?

2: lit. put lukewarm fire to it.

3: lit. always stoking it up.

75 Receta para violeta de damasco

     Tomad la raíz de lirio cárdeno cogida en el mes de
Mayo, y secadla a la sombra. Y hecha polvos, tomaréis media
libra y una onza de sándalos cetrinos, y media onza de agua
rosada y un poco de estoraque calamita. Y haced todas estas
cosas masa con zumo de lirio cárdeno. Y mundificada, la
tornaréis a polvorizar, y amasarla. Y seca, tornadla a
polvorizar. Y así habréis hecho vuestra violeta muy fina.

Recipe for damask/Damascus violet
     Take the root of purple iris collected in the month of
May, and dry it in the sun.  And [the root] made into
powder, take half a pound and an ounce of
sallow/melancholic sandalwood, and half an ounce of rose
water and a little Bufo calamita balsam.  And make all of
these things [into] dough with the juice of purple irises. 
And purified/clean, again powder and make it into a dough. 
And dried, powder it again.  And thus you will have made
your very fine violet.

76 Receta para hacer perfumes alejandrinos

     Dos onzas de albohol negro, y seis onzas de albohol
blanco, una de menjuí, cuatro onzas de láudano, una de
estoraque líquido, y dos de sándalos cetrinos, y una onza
de estoraque calamita; de cinamomo y lináloe, de cada cosa
dos onzas; de ámbar y de almizcle, una onza de cada cosa;
carbón de sauce, preparado en vinagre blanco, una onza.
Amasadas todas estas cosas con goma de gante. Remojada en
agua rosada, dejarán la goma estar en remojo un día. Y
hecha la masa, hacer sean pebetes, o pasticas o lo que
quisieren, y secar al sol.

Recipe for making Alexandrine perfumes
     Two ounces of black Frankenia pulverulenta, and six
ounces of white Frankenia pulverulenta, one of benzoin,
four ounces of laudanum, one of liquid balsam, and two of
sallow/melacholic sandalwood, and an ounce of Bufo calamita
balsam; of cinnamon and aloe, of each two ounces; of amber
and of musk, an ounce of each; willow charcoal, prepared in
white [wine] vinegar, an ounce.  All of these things made
into dough with gum tragacanth(1).  Soaked in rose water,
let the gum soak a day.  And the dough made, make them be
sticks or losenges or what you will, and dry [them] in the
sun.

1: "goma de gante" translates literally as "gum of linen
made in Gante", but is similar to the term "goma
adragante".  "Adraganto" is a synonym of "tragacanto".  It
looks to me like gum tragacanth got misheard in Spanish as
well as in English, but I admit that this translation
relies rather heavily on guesswork.

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