Emulsified sauces (was Re: SC - Adamantius in Error)

[harper at idt.net]

And it came to pass on 30 Sep 00, , that david friedman wrote:

> At 11:54 AM -0400 9/17/00, Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
> 
> >As it happens, I was looking at _Sent Sovi_ last night.  (The _Libre de
> >Sent Sovi_ is a 15th century Catalan cookbook, which is a precursor of
> >the Spanish text I've been working with.)  I was working on footnoting
> >"almodrote", which is a garlic-cheese sauce.  Here's the relevant part
> >(it's the sauce part of a more complex recipe):
> >
> >and then grate good cheese of Aragon that is fine, and take two whole heads
> >of garlic roasted between the coals and then peel them very well and cleanly
> >and grind them in a mortar, and then put the cheese in the mortar, and resume
> >grinding it all together, and while you are grinding them cast a good spoonful
> >of butter into the mortar, with some egg yolks, and grind it all together, and
> >when it is all well ground, dissolve it with good mutton broth that is half
> >cooled, because if it were very hot it would consume the cheese....
> >
> >It have cooked this, and it is very thick and garlicy and tasty.
> 
> With what kind of food is this sauce used?
> 
> Elizabeth/Betty Cook

This particular recipe for Almodrote is part of a more complex 
recipe for Capirotada: a dish with alternating layers of sops and 
roast partridges.  The Almodrote is poured as a sauce over the 
Capirotada.  Similar recipes for Almedroc in the _Libre de Sent 
Sovi_ specify that it is a sauce for roasted partridges, chicken or 
pork.  (Almodrote and Capirotada are not always served together.  I 
have seen other recipes for Capirotada which do not have 
Almodrote sauce on them.  AFAIK, in Sent Sovi, the Almedroc is 
served as a sauce for plain roasted meat/fowl.)

Incidently, if you are behind on the list, you may not have seen the 
subsequent message in which Vincent caught an error in the above 
recipe excerpt.  "Manteca", which I translated here as "butter", 
should be "lard", instead.  (It can sometimes mean butter, or other 
kinds of animal fat, but almost certainly means lard in this 
particular recipe.)


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net