SC - A death in the family

[Philip & Susan Troy]

And it came to pass on 17 Sep 00,, that Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

[snipped lengthy discussion of the composition of Miracle Whip]
> Regarding thick oil-based, emulsified sauces, it's possible they were
> known in the Hellenic world. It's also possible that some of the Apician
> sauces, that call for various ingredients to be pounded together, with oil
> added, are intended to be emulsified sauces. Examples of thickish sauces
> and purees that have oil beaten in via a mortar and pestle include pesto,
> brandade, skordalia, aioli, rouille, and many others, and while not all of
> these are very old, some of them could be, in one form or another. My
> guess is that Smith has found a reference to a sauce of pounded
> ingredients which contains oil, and has interpreted it as an emulsified
> sauce, rightly or wrongly. I remember seeing a reference to what appears
> to be an emulsified garlic sauce in, IIRC, either Libro del Coch, or the
> Libro Sent Sovi. This would appear to be something similar to aioli and
> skordalia, whch in turn have some similarity to mayonnaise. And, if they
> have almost no egg yolks, to MW as well. ;  )   

> Adamantius


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.

There are a couple of recipes in _Sent Sovi_ for almedroc, the Catalan 
equivalent.  Some versions have oil and/or eggs.  In the Florilegium, 
there are a few messages from Stephen Bloch, who translated a couple 
of the recipes and discussed them.
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/sauces-msg.html

Brighid (going to check if the sourdough pancake batter is ready yet)


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