SC - [Fwd: [outlands] Say what?]

[Elaine Koogler]

I've run across other recipes that refer to "flour/flower of pepper", so I suspect that
is probably what is meant here...I would also add that these didn't have any reason to
use wheat flour.

Kiri

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> "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
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