SC - desserts

[Jenne Heise]

> > Do you have any information on what type of tool this is?  Is it some kind of 
> > a masher? 
> Yes, it's a big mortar with a large, long pestle that can be operated
> from a standing position, I believe.

Actually, I think it's a sort of mallet used for bashing things... for
instance, laundry. A mortar & pestle arrangement might be a special case

According ot the OED:

"1. An implement consisting of a heavy weight or ‘head,’ usually of wood,
with a handle or stock, used for driving wedges or pegs, ramming down
paving stones, or for crushing, bruising, beating, flattening, or
smoothing, in various industrial and domestic operations, and having
various shapes according to the purpose for which it is used; a mall.
three-man beetle: one that requires three men to lift it, used in ramming
paving-stones, etc."

Some of the quotes: c897 K. ÆLFRED Gregory's Past. xxxvi. 253 Nán monn ne
ehíerde ne axe hlem ne bíetles [Cotton bítles] swe. a1000 Judith IV. 21
Séo wífman eslóh mid ánum býtle. a1225 Ancr. R. 188 er e schulen iseon
bunsen ham mit tes deofles bettles. a1400 WRIGHT Lat. Stories 29 (Mätz.)
Wyht suylc a betel be he smyten. c1400 in Wright Voc. 180 Mallus, bytylle.
1413 LYDG. Pylgr. Sowle III. x. (1483) 56 Somme were brayned with betels
and somme beten with staues. c1440 Promp. Parv. 34 Betylle, malleus,
malleolus. c1450 HOLLAND Houlat, He could wark wundaris Mak..A lang spere
of a bittill. 1530 PALSGR. 198/1 Betyll to bete clothes with, battoyr.
1577 B. GOOGE Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 39 Then the bundels [of flax]..are
beaten with betelles. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 7 Make your tongue the
wedge, and your head the beetle. 1597 SHAKES. 2 Hen. IV, I. ii. 255 If I
do, fillop me with a three-man-Beetle. a1626 FLETCHER Wom. Prize II. vi,
Have I lived thus long to be knockt o' th' head With half a washing
beetle? 1639 FULLER Holy War III. xxiv. (1840) 162 To cleaue a tree with a
beetle without a wedge. 1791 HAMILTON Berthollet's Dyeing I. I. II. i. 132
In the fulling mill..it is beaten with large beetles in a trough of water.
1822 SCOTT Pirate I. 128 (Jam.), Out of an honest house, or shame fa' me,
but I'll take the bittle to you! 1845 DE QUINCEY Wks. XII. 73 note, A
beetle is that heavy sort of pestle with which paviours drive home the
paving-stones..sometimes..fitted up by three handles..for the use of three
men.

- -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"I do my job. I refuse to be responsible for other people's managerial 
hallucinations." -- Lady Jemina Starker