SC - RE:SC Verjus

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

<< 'Platina
 6.16  Chicken in Verjuice (...)'
The title of this recipe seems to be a misnomer. ... >>

The English title seems to be somewhat misleading, yes.

<< Or Chicken with Green Grapes. >>

Yes. Go ahead!

Anyway: I do not think the original titles are misnomers. Platina has
Latin "Pullus in acresta", Martino's parallel recipe has Italian "Per
fare pollastri allessi con agresto". Within the recipe Martino says
"togli agresto sano, et taglialo per mezo...". That indicates that the
Italian word "agresto" was not only used for the fluid made from unripe
grapes, but for the unripe grapes too.

The two uses of Italian "agresto" or "agresta" for the unripe grapes and
for verjuice are also observed in an article of Jaqueline Brunet and
Odile Redon on "Vins, jus et verjus" [Wines, juices and verjuice in
Italian cookbooks of the 14th and 15th centuries]. They say:

"... il [=le mot _agresto_, ou _agresta_] désigne à la fois un raisin
qui n'est pas arrivé à une maturation complète et le jus que l'on
extrait de ce raisin" (p.112).
Roughly: 'The word _agresto_/_agresta_ refers both to grapes that have
not yet reached complete maturity and to the verjuice that is made from
these grapes'.

On the Latin use of _acresta_ see Platina himself (Milham 2.26). It
seems that he was not happy about the fact that _acresta_ refers both to
the grapes and the verjuice...

Thus, it seems, that there was no problem to call a recipe like 6.16
"Pullus in acresta" or "pollastri allessi con agresto".

Semantics again <sigh>, but I feared that someone might see Platina and
Martino as benighted persons who did not know their own language... ;-)

Best,
Thomas
- -- Jaqueline Brunet/Odile Redon: Vins, jus et verjus. Du bon usage
culinaire des jus de raisins en Italie à la fin du Moyen Age". In: Le
vin des historiens. Actes du 1er Symposium Vin et Histoire 1989, sous la
Direction Scientifique de Gilbert Garrier. Suze-la-Rousse, Université du
Vin, 1990, 109-117.