SC - Malaches (FoC 159)

[UlfR]

On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> > taken as. Is it the original body tissue from which we would extract the
> > lard today, or is it what we would refer to as lard today?
> 
> There's the thing. Modern lard is the rendered tissue, the fat itself,
> while in Middle English, it seems to be the fatty tissue from which it
> is derived. In other languages which don't refer to rendered pork kidney
> fat modernly as lard, the distinction is a little more clear, and in
> period recipes it is clearer still.

Ahh, my knowledge has been increased and I am once more endebted to you.
Then dicing it makes greater sense as well.

> > So you would take "trappe" to be a pie crust? Since the original
> > specifies the wyte gres in the trappe, I suppose I can agree with you
> > there. But then you can't have it in the malache as well, can you?
> 
> Whoops! Caffeine shortage... No, upon reflection, putting the mixture in
> a trap with white grease would be, I think, to bake it in a greased pan,
> like a casserole. I had missed the fact that there was a reference to a
> trap with no reference to a crust.

At least I got one right :-/

> Again, my error. I'd suggest baking it with a diced hard fat, such as
> unrendered leaf lard, pork belly fat, etc., in a pan _greased_ with
> rendered lard. You might avoid some of the sticking and burning by using
> a suitably seasoned pan, but maybe longer cooking at a lower temperature
> would be the best way to go. 

Damn. My well seasoned cast iron skillet is of the new-fangled slant
side type. I used a stainless steel pan, since it was the one that would
allow most violence if things burned. I'll think on the choice of pan
for the next trial. And use the diced fat. 

> > Where is fronchemoyle to be found?
> 
> courtesy of Curye On Inglysche, Book II, Diuersa Servicia:
> 
> "For to make a fronchemoyle. Nym eyryn wy(th) al (th)e wyte & myse bred
> & schepys talwe as gret as dysys. Gryng peper and safroun and kast
> (th)erto, & do hit in (th)e schepis wombe. Se(th) it wel & dresse it
> for(th)e of brode leches (th)ynne."

Sheeps womb. They might not have it in stock in the market closest to
where I work (I work a short stones throw from one of Stockholms better
markets), but I am sure they can get it. Must try, haggis is good, so
this might be as well.

> I could be wrong, but I vaguely recall something about slicing and
> frying this for service. Can't find a reference to it, though. The
> fifteenth-century versions are more or less identical, but I still have
> to check Liber Cure Cocorum, which apparently has a recipe.

Please do.

> It seems to call for just flour; probably any reasonably fine, sieved
> whole-grain flour (at least from some Northern-European grain) would be
> just fine for flavor, thickening/stabilizing, and accuracy. 

Then what is the mele? The note in the end of Curye on Inglyish says
"meal", and my dictionary says course ground grain: "the usually
coarsely ground and unbolted seeds of a cereal grass or pulse" to quote
the online Websters.

> Well, then you may need to draw a distinction between using leftovers in
> a second meal, or simply in a second cooking process in the first meal.

> Since you've elected to fry leftovers (rather than serve the original
> dish as fried slices, which I can't guarantee is a stated option within
> the recipe corpus), 

That was mundane influence, and I at least *intended* to make that
distinction clear; these days you buy the blood pudding, slice it and
fry in butter. Conventient way to reheat the leftovers, and 800 ml of
blood produced far more malaches than I could eat in one sitting. This
not being the Middle Ages, there was no poor waiting outside my door to
recieve the leftovers.

/UlfR

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                      parlei at algonet.se
I'm missing "Rock climbing for Dummies". I see an evolutionary need...