SC - dayboard (Ruzzige cake; Buch von guter Speise #52)

[Decker, Terry D.]

I would would say "ein blat von eyern" is an egg and flour dough rolled very
thin.  A crepe would not need the butter under it.  Putting butter under the
dough suggests that it might be there to soften the crust and keep the crust
from sticking.

Sauting the herbs to soften them and mixing them with eggs cheese and bread
sounds suspiciously like a quiche filling.

If Thomas is correct (and his linguistic skills are certainly far better
than mine) and "flur" is actually "feuer," then this could mean that this
dish is baked in a kettle with coals on top.  It might also mean using a
"salamander" to brown the top of the dish before baking.  The browning might
also make the top crisp.

Again, this is a recipe to play with.  I wonder if they would have put salt
in the "blat?"

Bear


> have you MADE this?  It sounds interesting enough to give it 
> a try.  I can 
> imagine several ways the final product would look (having no 
> measures) and 
> the type of cheese used would do a lot of flavor and texture 
> changing as 
> well as the bread used (leven/unleven/fresh/dry).  As for me, 
> I imagine the 
> "leaf of egg" is something akin to crepe.
> 
> Perhaps this weekend I may give this a couple of tries using 
> different 
> ingredients.  If I end up with anything good, I'll post to the list.
> Olwen
> 
> 
> ><< Ruzzige Cake (translation and redaction by Alia Atlas)
> >Der ein gut k=F6cherye machen wil. der hacke petersylien und salbey.
> >glich vil. und brate sie in butern und t=FCftele eyer weich. 
> und menge
> >daz zu sammene. und ribe kese und brot dor in. und mache ein blat von
> >eyern. und giuz butern dor under. und sch=FCte diz dor uf. 
> gib im flur
> >oben uf. und laz backen. diz sint ruzzige k=FCechin.
> >
> >He who wants to make a good dish chops parsley and sage, exactly as
> >much. And fry them in butter and beats eggs soft. And mix 
> that together.
> >And grate cheese and bread therein. And make a leaf from 
> eggs. And pour
> >butter thereunder. And pour this thereon. Give it flowers on top. And
> >let bake. This is ruzzige cake. >>
> >
> >The recipe is from the "Buch von guter Speise" (German, ca. 
> 1350), #52.
> >
> >Please, let me make only four comments (I am somewhat in a hurry):
> >
> >1. _a leaf from eggs_; the German _blat_ has a technical 
> meaning in the
> >old language: 'thin (piece of) dough'. Sure, German _Blatt_ in the
> >modern language means 'leaf'; but as far as I can tell from my
> >dictionaries, engl./am. _leaf_ alone is not used to refer to thin
> >(pieces of) dough (please, correct me if I am wrong); thus, 
> it seems to
> >me, that one should translate the passage _ein blat von eyern_ with
> >something like 'a thin (piece of) dough made of eggs'.
> >
> >2. _gib im flur oben uf_, 'Give it flowers on top'. The 
> manuscript has
> >the form _fiu:er_ (_fiür_), which is an old form of todays _Feuer_
> >'fire'. Thus, there are no flowers around, but one must heat 
> everything
> >from the top (with coals). Speaking of cooking equipment, 
> there is good
> >evidence for heating something from the top, e.g. by putting 
> hot coals
> >on top of a cooking vessel.
> >
> >3. _ruzzige_: It is a good idea to leave the hard words 
> untranslated and
> >uncommented. At present nobody really knows, what this passage really
> >means, it seems. If I am not mistaken, there are at least three
> >proposals:
> >-- _ruzzig_ means 'russian' (Stopp; Martellotti/Durante); not very
> >convincing, given the fact, that we (I) know of no russian 
> influences in
> >culinary matters in the 14th century so far.
> >-- _ruzzig_ means 'sooty' (from the coals, put above); hm??
> >-- _ruzzig_ could mean something like 'crisp' (indicated by 
> the _reusch_
> >of the parallel recipe in the Mondseer Kochbuch, about a 
> century later).
> >(Must think about this passage. Perhaps, there are other solutions.)
> >
> >4. _und tüftele eyer weich_; 'and beats [!] eggs soft'. To beat soft?
> >According to the Deutsches Wörterbuch, the word _tüfteln_ is only
> >attested from the 18th century onwards and its main usage is 
> in respect
> >to intellectual problems (_etwas austüfteln_). The italian 
> translation
> >has 'sbatti' ('e sbatti le uova...' and beat the eaggs ...), 
> too. But I
> >do not know, why. Aichholzer, commenting on the parallel 
> recipe in the
> >Mondseer Kochbuch says that the passage belongs to "_tüften_ 
> 'dünsten,
> >hier: kochen'" (p. 426). ...
> >
> >I am sure, all these puzzles will be solved by someone preparing a
> >critical edition of the Buch von guter Speise in the hopefully near
> >future. So far, we have several editions, transcriptions, facsimiles,
> >and two translations of the Buch von guter Speise, but a lot 
> of textual
> >problems are unsolved.
> >
> >Textual problems are of great concern not only for the 
> philologist, but
> >for the reenacting cook, too. If textual problems are unsolved, the
> >philologist does not understand the text and the cook does not really
> >know what to do.
> >
> >I am sorry to say this, but this seems to be the state of the art. At
> >least in respect to some recipes of the Buch von guter 
> Speise (10/2000).
> >
> >Thomas