[Sca-cooks] Online Pennsic Pity Party

[Cindy M. Renfrow]

>A whole roasted suckling pig.
> Von Guter Spiese with Translation by Alia Atlas
>
>8. Ein gebraten gefültes ferhelin (A roasted filled young pig)<snip>

Funny you should mention this recipe.  Thomas Gloning recently sent me this
critique;  it includes this recipe as an example of the mistakes found in
the Atlas translation.  You will note there is a significant difference in
the two translations:

"<< Ein Buch von guter spise >>
Here is the passage [without the notes] about the internet-version; it
is taken from the new Melitta Weiss Adamson edition and English
translation:

"An edition, Italian translation and study of the Würzburg-recipes was
published in 1991; and in 1993 the first English translation appeared as
Volume II of Cariadoc's Cookbook Collection, a desktop publication distributed
by the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). The translation was done by a
certain Alia Atlas, then a student at MIT, who in her translation Notes
describes it as a literal translation based on Maurer-Constant's
1844-edition and the manuscript- facsimile in Hayer. Atlas subsequently
made her source-text, and her English translation available on the
Internet. Although she was aware of Hajek's 1958- edition and included it
in her list of sources, she provided no
explanation why she went with the older and much inferior 1844-edition.
Judging from the translation, Atlas' command of modern German seems
rudimentary at best, and her knowledge of Middle High German practically
non-existent, throughout the text she makes innumerable grammatical and
lexical errors. She confuses singular and plural forms of nouns and
pronouns, present tense forms and past participles of verbs, omits entire
passages, does not recognize the Middle High German negation iht as such,
and hence translates the sentences or phrases in the positive, mistakes the
short forms of German verbs such as geleit (for geleget), and git (for
gibet) for different verbs, and consistently translates the introductory
phrase Wilt du machen (if you want to make) as How you want to make.  Her
strong tendency to look for the English words closest in spelling to
the Middle High German ones further obscures the meaning of many recipes:
also (thus) appears as "also" in the translation, weich (soft) as "white,"
smal (narrow) as "small," so (then) as "so," singe (sing) as "singe,"
schelen (peel) as "shell," ale (eel) as "all," minzen (mint) as "mince,"
and saltz zu massen (salt to taste) as "salt to mass." The two frequently
used verbs malen (to grind), and rueren (to stir) pose particular problems
for the translator, and together with the faulty German edition used as the
base-text, lead to some highly unusual cooking instructions: a simple
phrase like ruerez mit ey[n]er schinen (stir it with a stick) in Atlas'
translation appears as "give it impetus with eggwhites" (recipe 49), or mal
kumel (grind caraway) as "flavor caraway" (recipe 48). When it is the main
ingredients which are mistranslated, the character of a dish can change
dramatically: a recipe for morchen (morels) then becomes a recipe for
carrots (recipe 32, 79), and swemme (mushrooms) can be transformed into
swans (recipe 32). Naturally, recipes which are difficult to decode even
for experts in Middle High German, are rendered completely incomprehensible
by this translator. The recipe for suckling pig (recipe 8) shall serve as
an example:

Translation by Alia Atlas:
Make also a roasted filled young pig. Take a young pig, which is three
weeks old
and soak it cool and boil the hair off in that, which one stirs up with
whatever
(some utensil). So one should remove the skin, starting around the belly
and loose both flesh and bones down and all that it has in the body and the
claws, which it very frequently has on the hooves. (Basically, skin the pig
starting
from a cut in the belly.) And take the meat that is pulled thereout (out of
the belly) as well as two eggs and boil it a while until ready, and take
then that and fat and hack it. Add raw eggs thereto and a slice of bread
and parsley (and) herb and salt to mass (appropriately) and fill the young
pig with that, not too full, and before the mouth and lay the pig gently in
a kettle. Let it simmer, that it does not breaks[!] the meat. So take it
then and lay it on a wooden grate and roast it gently. When it is then well
roasted, so take a board and lay it there on a dish. Make on that board 4
sticks (possibly as handles) and dress that board with a leaf of eggs and
set that young pig there on. Dress it also with a leaf and allow it to go
in the ears and the mouth and carry it out.


Translation by Melitta Weiss Adamson:
A stuffed roasted suckling pig you prepare the following way: Take a
suckling pig, which is three weeks old, and scald it. Let it cool, and
remove all the
bristles without tearing it. You should leave the outer skin around the belly.
Remove both meat and bones and everything that it has in its body, down to the
hooves which it has at the end of its legs. Take the meat which has been
removed as well as two eggs, and cook this until almost done. Then chop it
together with bacon, add raw eggs, one slice of bread, parsley, and salt to
taste. Stuff the suckling pig with that, not too much, though, and stuff
the mouth. Put it gently into a kettle, let it boil without damaging the
skin. Then take it, put it on a wooden grill, and grill it on low heat.
When it is well roasted, take a board and put it on top of a platter. Fix
four sticks on the board, and cover the board with a thin layer of
egg-crepe. Put the suckling pig on it, cover it with dough as well, let the
ears show and the mouth, and serve."

Regards,

Cindy