SC -Mus, Brei and confusion

[allilyn at juno.com]

>> It occurs to me that unless you have a recipe or a specific
reference to mortrews in connection with molds, a feast description, or
some such (which you may actually have, for all I know), it would be
hard to make that strong a case for it. <<

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 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.

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.

Regards,
Allison,     allilyn at juno.com


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