SC - Re: egg straining

[Mbatmantis@aol.com]

Angie Malone wrote:

> For me, I have a very basic knowledge of any sort of history, especially
> medieval history, and as far as being able to tell old English writing from
> middle english writing(is that the right term?) I am even more clueless.

Just for an FYI then-

Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) will be barely recognizable to the layman.
The opening lines of _Beowulf_ "Hwaet! We gar-dena, in geardagum/ theod
cyninga, thrym gefrunnom/hu tha aethelingas, ellen fremedon..." (minus
the 'funny' letters of course) bear little resemblance to what we see in
the Times on our doorstep. This is what was spoken/written a millenium
ago. And honestly, I know of no (Zero, zippo, nada, zilch) cookbooks
extant in Anglo-Saxon English.

In the late 12th century was a shift (assisted by the Norman migrations,
no doubt) toward what we call Middle English (frequently abbreviated
ME). The form of ME that we are most familiar with is that used by
Master Geoffery Chaucer. Many would agree that his _Canterbury Tales_
)"Whan Aprille with its shoures sweete/ the floures hath pierced to the
roote") is much more accessible, if a bit unweildy, and an undergrad can
usually plod their way through ME with the assistance of a patient
professor and a good glossary/lexicon. Many of our primary texts are in
ME- the _Cury on Inglysch_, _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_, the
misc. pages in the Harleian, etc. The recipes included in Pleyn Delit
are from the ME corpus of texts.

In the late fifteenth/early sixteenth century is another shift, assisted
by the Great Vowel Shift (ha!) and we then call it Early Modern English
(or to the layman- Tudor or Elizabethan English). Shakespearean, if you
will. And most of us can get through those texts readily, if given some
flexibility for archaic spelling.

Basic clues?

Old English/Anglo-Saxon- looks like German or Norse. Weird letters. Only
a few familiar-looking words.

Middle English- a few weird letters, a handfull of German-looking words,
quite a few French-based words. An extra 'e' on the end of words. You
can read portions of it at sight.

Early Modern English- fairly easily read, especially if you read OUT
LOUD and think 'Shakespeare'. Few funky spellings, but pretty
strightforward.

Good translations of cookbooks are pretty easy to find (_Pleyn Delit_ is
one collection with translated recipes), so don't sweat it. The really
good ones will have the original, with the translation and the
redaction.

Happy cookbook hunting!

'Lainie