[Sca-cooks] Compost??

[Philip Troy]

On Friday 26 October 2001 04:30, Olwen the Odd wrote:
> Really?? You put Balthazar in this compost?  I thought he dropped off the
> earth.  I guess he just dropped into your compost. 8-]
> Olwen
>
> >LOL! No   we mean *compost*
> >Phillipa
> >
> >***COMPOST***
> >
> >Compost is a mixed pickle, usually, but not always, made from mixed
> > fruits, vegetables, and sometimes immature nuts,
> >
> >usually in a sauce made from honey, white wine, vinegar, mustard and other
> >spices. Including, Balthazar, saffron, much of the time.
> >
> >Think of Italian mustard-fruits.
> >
> >Recipes for this, or something similar to it, occur in Apicius and several
> >14th-century English, French, and German sources, among others.
> >
> > > You *do* mean "compote", yes?

Now this is the point where Dave Foley says to Kevin MacDonald, "Oh, I see
what your problem is! You're confused by the names of the baseball players
because they all sound like questions! Isn't that funny? 'Hu's on first,
Watt's on second, and Iduno's on third!' You're not used to Samuel Hu's name
because his grandfather was Chinese, and Watt's name isn't so strange because
James Watt invented the steam engine... and Phil Iduno's name sounds like,
'Gee, I dunno,' if you say it fast, but that's his name. _Phil_ Iduno..."

Okay, all kidding aside, I think what's happened here is that the passage
Phillipa has included looks like it may be a quote from me, written around
the time of one of the great discussions with Lord Balthazar of Blackmoor on
the subject of saffron and why it may not be a scribal error. I must have
been razzing Balthazar on the inclusion of saffron in compost recipes.

And yes, I do mean compost, which is proper 14th-century English usage to
describe what is _now_ known as compote, but the two words are essentially
the same, both designating a mixture of assorted schtuff.

Adamantius