SC - manual de mujeres #62,73-76 and a question about pans

[Elaine Koogler]

Carbon steel is what most good woks are made of, and you season them essentially
the same way you season a good cast-iron skillet:  you put some oil in it, swish
it around a bit to make sure it covers the entire interior, then let it "season"
in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes or so.  Once it's seasoned, wash it
always with very hot water.  If something sticks to it, a solution of salt and
oil can be used to scrub it off.  NEVER EVER EVER EVER use soap on it.  If you
do, you must season it again.  I have threatened the members of my barony, whom
I occasionally allow to use my wok at Pennsic, with loss of life and limb if a
particle of soap even gets close to my wok or my cast-iron skillet.

Kiri (who authorized long ago in coolie hat and fan! ;-)  )

Dana Huffman wrote:

> 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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