[Sca-cooks] Dutch oven question

[tgl at mailer.uni-marburg.de]

The word "testo" is used in the early Italian cookbooks for some heating
device, kind of hot stone(s), it seems, possibly kind of an oven; see,
e.g., the Anonimo Toscano and the Anonimo Veneziano (the latter one is
online). See also the 'Dizionario etimologico de la lingua italiana' by
Cortelazzo & Zolli, Vol. 5, p. 1336.

As to this description:

<< ... a three legged iron pot with a thick lid. You can pile coals
around and on top of it so that it functions like a small oven. >>

there seems to be an image of such an oven in Scappi's Opera, 1570. But
the text line does not include the word "testo" (but rather: "Forno di
rame có li trepiedi").

Th.