[Sca-cooks] Re: Llibre de Coch

[rcmann4 at earthlink.net]

On 30 May 01,, Vincent Cuenca wrote:

> >I was looking through it and the Dish for Angels caught my attention.  I am
> >going to give this one a try.  I would like some input from folks as to
> >what
> >"take one azumbre of milk in the season of curds" might mean.  Would this
> >be
> >like riccotta or cottage cheese or would it be more like yogurt?
>
> I translated this a bit differently.  The original text is "tomar un azumbre
> de leche en tiempo de los requesones"; my translation is "take an azumbre of
> milk that has just formed curds".  My take is that he's talking about a sort
> of cottage cheese.

Now that I look at it more closely, I think we're both right -- and
both wrong.  The 1737 RAE dictionary says that "requeson" means
the second curd which is made by cooking the whey of the milk
after the cheese is made, ie., ricotta.  (Re-queson = re-cheese).
The recipe goes on to say "cast them [the curds] into the milk".
So you take the newly made ricotta and throw it into two liters of
milk.  I would therefore translate that phrase as "at the time of
[making] the curds."

> Milk can curdle at any time, IIRC, and "tiempo" can
> refer to time as well as season.

> Then there
> >is "a quarter pound of aged cheese" which I am pretty sure would be just as
> >I please but (I assume) a white cheese.  If anyone has any opinions please
> >post them as I will be trying a couple of versions this weekend.
>
> Usually, I tend to use Parmesan cheese when muddling around with de Nola's
> recipes.  An aged white cheese might be good too.  After all, de Nola does
> say over and over that these recipes are just guidelines for the inventive
> cook.  :)

Parmesan is what I use.

> Vicente


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
now at a new address: rcmann4 at earthlink.net