SC - Culinary uses for horns

[Philip & Susan Troy]

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:
> 
> > Are there any number or gender clues in the original?
<snip>
> 
> What the original is in is Middle English- a sort of halfway point
> between the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and teh 'Shakspearean' Early
> Modern English. There are quantifiers (numbers) in the pronouns, as we
> do now (I/we, he/they, etc.) but nouns are no longer gendered, as they
> were in the A/S. They were gradually losing their declensions and
> heading towards position within the sentence to determine the part of
> speech.

So much for theory, albeit perfectly correct. Here's why... besides, the
original recipe was requested. It is written in a sort of Middle English shorthand:

"50. Of saumon gentil. Do out (th)e bones, so(th)(th)en in an mortar
kast and make hit wel meddelen. Flour & pepper & gilofre; cast in kanel.
Saffron vor to colouren (th)urh an horn (th)ou make passen,
seo(th)(th)en in water (th)ou make hit boillen, & to gobouns veire
hewen. Comin (th)ou kast in, & to (th)e lord vor(th) bringen."

BL Ms. Add. 46919 (He), published in 1985, for the Early English Text
Society, by Oxford University Press, London, Toronto, New York, ed.
Constance A. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, "Curye On Inglysch".

Looking at it more closely, I see one could argue that the pronoun
denoting whatever it is in the mortar is singular.

A quick shift to modern-ish English might read,

"Of salmon gentile. Take out the bones, and then put it into a mortar
and mix it well together. Flour* of pepper and of cloves; put in
cinnamon. Saffron for color, push it through a horn, and then boil it in
water, and cut it into neat, good-sized chunks. Throw on some cumin, and
bring it out to the lord."

*I can't decide if the flour reference is to powdered "flour" of pepper,
cloves, and cinnamon, or if you're supposed to add some wheat flour in
addition to the spices. A small amount would probably help the texture
and the moisture level, turning it from something like fish burgers to
fish gnocchi, except for the fact that fairly few contemporary English
recipes seem to refer to ground grain as flour rather than meal, and of
those that do, _very_ few seem to use flour in this way, seeming to
rely, in general, more heavily on breadcrumbs. So, I'm inclined to lean
in the direction of fine powder of pepper, cloves, and cinnamon, rather
than wheat or other grain flour.    

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com