[Sca-cooks] Recipes: beef tongue pastries

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Long ago, in what feels like another universe, I promised to translate
some recipes for beef tongue.  Here they are.

Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del Arte de Cozina_ (1599)
Translation: Lady Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

Para hazer pasteles de lengua de vaca en oxaldre

Tomese la lengua de la vaca fresca y hagase heruir en agua y sal, hasta
que este bien cozida, saquese de alli despues de cozida, y quitesele aquel
pellejo que tiene encima, dexese resfriar, y poluorizese con pimienta,
clauos, canela, gengibre, nuez moscada, y sal, y especias la cantidad que
quisieres.  Y tomese harina de candeal, cernida con vn cedazo claro, de
manera que no quede en el cedazo fino el saluado, y amassese con agua
fria sin sal, porque si se amassasse con agua caliente y con sal se haze
leuadura, y facilmente se quebraja, y no es tan buena, principalmente en
el verano, aunque en el inuierno quando haze grandes frios basta que el
agua aya perdido el frio, porque tan dan~oso le es el mucho frio, como el
demasiado calor.  Estando hecha la masa vayase sobando, y meneando
sobre vna mesa por espacio de media hora, hasta que tenga correa,
juntamente con estar solida.  Hagase de la dicha pasta vn suelo redondo,
alto de medio dedo, y ponganse en el tajadillas de tocino gordo, largas
de vn palmo, poluorizese el tocino y la pasta con las especias
sobredichas, y pongase encima de las tajadas la lengua con ontro tanto
de tocino por encima poluorizado con las especias, y con agua, o
verdaderamente claras de huevos batidas, se mojara la masa, harase el
ojaldre y se atapara, haziendole de forma ouada, pongase el pastel en el
horno que este caliente.  Si quisieres antes de meterle en el horno le
puedes dar el color con agua ten~ida con azafran, y porque si se da con
los hueuos toma el pan antes de tiempo color.  En estando cozido sacase
del horno, y no auiendole dado primero el color con azafran, on con los
hueuos, vntese el pastel en el punto que saliere del horno con vna
corteza de tocino que le dara el color, y esta manera de pastel hecho de
harina gruessa resiste mas al ayre que si fuesse ojaldrado con la flor de la
harina, porque el que se haze de la flor de la harina, agua tibia, sal y
gordura, estando al ayre quebraja la corteza, y no es tan vistoso, aunque
es mejor de comer el pan.  El dicho pastel se conserua frio tres dias en el
verano, y en el inuierno ocho dias.

Si quisieres poner la carne cruda en el pastel, quitesele el pellejo de
encima con agua caliente, y hagase estar ocho horas en vn adobo, hecho
de vinagre, sal, vino blanco, oregano, y mosto cozido, y dientes de ajos,
y pimienta molida, saquese de alli, y dexase escurrir, y atrauiessese con
tocino gordo a la larga, el qual tocino aya estado poluorizado con las
mesmas especias que diximos arriba, y pongase de la manera sobredicha
en el suelo del pastel con el tocino, y especias, aduiertiendo que a la
lengua cruda se le ha de dar mas anchura en el pastel que a la cozida,
porque la lengua sintiendo el calor hincha y leuanta la massa, y no
hallando harta massa, facilmente rompe la corteza, y assi como el pastel
comienza a leuantarse se le haga vn agujero en medio con el punzon y se
haga acabar de cozer.


To Make Pies of Cow's Tongue in Leaf-pastry

Take the fresh cow's tongue and boil it in water and salt, until it is well
cooked, take it out of there after it is cooked, and remove the skin which
it has on top, let it cool, and sprinkle it with pepper, cloves, cinnamon,
ginger, nutmeg, and salt, and spices in the quantity that you wish.  And
take flour from summer wheat, sifted with a light sieve, in such a manner
that nothing remains in the sieve but the bran, and mix it with cold water
without salt, because if it is mixed with hot water and salt it will become
leavened, and will easily break, and is not as good, especially in the
summer, but in the winter when the weather is very cold, it suffices that
the water should lose its chill, because too much cold is as dangerous to
it as too much heat.  When the dough is made, keep kneading it and
turning it upon a table for half an hour, until it has strands, and at the
same time has become solid.  Make from this paste a round bottom-crust,
half a finger high, and put on it little slices of fatty bacon, as long as a
palm, sprinkling the bacon and the paste with the aforementioned spices,
and put on top of the slices of tongue and equal amount of bacon,
sprinkled on top with the spices, and with water, or truly with beaten egg
whites, moisten the dough, make the leaf-pastry and seal it, making it in
an oval shape, put the pie in the hot oven.  If you wish, before putting it
in the oven you can color it with water tinted with saffron, because if it is
made with the eggs, the bread will take on color ahead of time.  It being
cooked, take it out of the oven, and if you haven't first colored it with
saffron, or with the eggs, grease the pie with a bacon rind at the moment
that it comes out of the oven, which will give it color, and this kind of pie
made with coarse flour will better resist the air than if it were made with
leaf-pastry from fine flour, because that which is made from fine flour,
tepid water, salt, and fat, will break its crust when it is in the air, and it is
not as handsome, although the bread is better to eat.  This pie can be
stored cold three days in summer, and eight days in winter.

If you wish to put the raw meat in the pie, remove the skin on top with
hot water, and keep it for eight hours in a marinade made of vinegar, salt,
white wine, oregano, and boiled must, and cloves of garlic, and ground
pepper; take it out of there, and let it dry, cross it  lengthwise with fatty
bacon, the said bacon having been sprinkled with the same spices as we
said above, and put it in the abovementioned way on the bottom of the
pie with the bacon, and spices, taking care that the raw tongue must be
given more room in the pie than the cooked, because the tongue, when it
feels the heat, will swell and raise the dough, and if does not encounter
enough dough it will break the crust, and so as the pie begins to rise,
make a vent-hole in the middle with a pick, and let it finish cooking.


Para hazer lengua de vaca en empanada

Tomese la lengua fresca y medio cuezase con agua y sal, y quitesele el
pellejo y cortese a tajadas redondas, las quales se vayan atrauesando
con tocino gordo, poluorizense con pimienta, canela, clauos, gengibre, y
con sal juntamente, tengase aparejada la caxa, o suelo de la empanada
hecha de harina passada por cedazo, y amassada con agua fria, y
hueuos, y sal, y vna poca de manteca de puerco, y no ha de ser muy sutil
y delgado, y sea mas ancha de abaxo que encima, poganse en lo hondo
algunas tajadas de tocino gordo con las de la lengua encima, y agraz con
vn poco de azucar, y de las mesmas especias del capitulo passado, y
cubrase con vna tapa de la grandeza del suelo, porque si fuesse de la
grandeza de la boca no saldria sequido, y podria facilmente abrir.
Estando cubierto se le de el color con hueuos batidos, o con agua
ten~ida con azafran, y pongase a cozer en el horno, y estando cozido
siruase caliente.

Mas quieriendo poner la lengua cruda en el pastel, hagase la tapa del
pastel de harina bien passasa por cedazo, como de dize en el capitulo
passado, y se dexe reposar por medio quarto de hora.  Tengase la lengua
cortada a tajadas redondas limpia de su pellejo, y que aya estado en
adobo como en el capitulo passado se dixo, o salpresado con sal, y
especias, y ponganse las dichas tajadas en el pastel con otras tajadillas
de ventresca de puerco salada debaxo, y poluorizense con las mesmas
especias, y cubrase el pastel con vn pezoncillo enmedio, y cuezase en el
horno, haziendole vn agujero, y en estando casi cozido an~adasele por el
agujero vna cucharada del dicho adobo, y hagase acabar de cozer: pero a
la que se aura salpresado, en lugar de adobo se le ponga azucar, vinagre,
y zumo de naranja.


To Make Cow's Tongue in Empanada

Take the fresh tongue and half-cook it with water and salt, and remove
the skin and cut it in round slices, which are then crossed with fatty
bacon, sprinkle them with pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt
together, have ready the box or bottom of the empanada, made of flour
strained through a sieve, and mixed with cold water, and eggs, and salt,
and a little pig's lard, and it does not have to very delicate and thin, and it
should be wider below than on top; put some slices of fatty bacon on the
bottom with the [slices of] tongue on top, and verjuice with a little sugar,
and the same spices from the previous chapter, and cover it with a lid the
size of the bottom (because if it were the same size as the opening it
would not come straight off), and you will be able to easily open it.
When it is covered, color it with beaten eggs, or with water tinted with
saffron, and set it to cook in the oven, and when it is cooked serve it hot.

But if you wish to put the raw tongue in the pie, make the lid of the pie
from flour well-sifted though a sieve, as was said in the previous chapter,
and let it rest for an eighth of an hour.  Have the tongue cut into round
slices cleaned of its skin, and it having been in marinade as was said in
the previous chapter, or salted with salt and spices, and put the said
slices in the pie with other little slices of salted pork belly underneath,
and sprinkled with the same spices, and cover the pie with a little stem in
the middle, and cook it in the oven, making a vent-hole, and when it is
almost cooked, add a spoonful of the said marinade through the vent-
hole, and let it finish cooking: but in the one that had been salted, put
sugar, vinegar, and orange juice instead of the marinade.


Translation notes:

I preserved the original spelling, except that I replaced cedillas with the
letter 'Z'.

"Leaf-pastry" (hojaldre) is an early form of puff pastry.

"Dedo" (finger) and "palmo" (palm) are archaic Spanish measurements.
A palm is roughly the width of a man's outstretched hand, or about 8.23
inches (21centimetres).  A finger is 1/12 of a palm, or .69 inch (1.75 cm.)



Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net