[Sca-cooks] Dutch oven question

[a5foil]

> Does anyone have information about or pictures of a device called a
"testo"?
>   According to the descriptions I've read, it's 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.

I saw one in a display of 15th century cooking gear. IIRC, it was at the
Museum of the History of the City of Barcelona. Your description is
accurate. It looked like...a rounded dutch oven with longer legs. A little
less refined. I didn't see any period iron pots with straight sides like a
modern dutch oven, though; the ones I saw were rounded through the sides and
bottom, more like we think of kettles.

Apparently, far more common was the tripod (trespies in Castilian, trespeus
in Catalan, trespiedi in Italian). Picture a flat ring of iron, about an
inch wide, about a foot in diameter, with three feet attached. On this, any
fire-safe pot or grill could be set over coals. The diameter of the ring
ranged from a few inches to over a foot across. The height of the legs also
varied from a few inches to about a foot. I'm sure there are probably
examples of both taller and shorter, bigger and smaller. I saw several
examples of those. The legs had a graceful sweep, but ended in simple
flattened feet, nothing fancy like claw-legs, etc. I couldn't get close
enough to see how the feet were attached to the ring.

A couple of years ago, I sent Duchess Melisande de Belvoir some examples of
recipes calling for a dutch oven-like cooking method, with coals under the
pot and coals piled on the lid. If I can find that old e-mail, I'll post the
citations.

Recently, Sams Club and Costco have been offering a set of cast iron cooking
gear from Wenzel, for under $40, and you get this nifty wooden chest, to
boot. You get a double-sided grill/griddle, two or three skillets, and a
dutch oven. I got the set last year, and it offered three smaller skillets
and a deep dutch oven with legs and a deep lid for coals. This year, the
same set offers two larger skillets and a shallower dutch oven without legs,
but it includes a lid lifter and a modern version of the
trespies/trespeus/trespiedi.

While a dutch oven may not be exactly period, it is almost identical in form
and function.

Thomas Longshanks