Lamb (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Everyone's gone!!!)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 3 Feb 2002, at 16:56, Betty Cook wrote:

> About a month ago, Brighid ni Chiarain wrote:
>
> >... I brought a lamb dish from Nola (#144 Potaje que se dice hijada.)
> >
> >Here's the recipe, and my redaction:
> >
> >Pottage which is called flank
> >
> >"You must take a flank of mutton and cook it, and after cooking, chop
> >it well. And cast honey in a kettle, and cast in up to three dozen
> >blanched almonds, and let them be in the honey for a bit; and then
> >cast in the ground meat, and cast in the fattest broth of the pot and
> >cook with it; and then cast in saffron, cloves, and cinnamon, and
> >your taste of vinegar, and cook with it; then cast in grated bread
> >until it is quite thick, and then remove it to the fireside."
>
> A few questions:
>
> The recipe first says to chop the meat well, then later refers to
> ground meat. Is this a translation issue--i.e., a word in the original
> that could mean either chopped or ground?

The word I have translated as chop is "picar", which means to mince or to
chop finely.  The phrase I translated as "ground meat" is "carne majada".
The verb "majar" means to pound or to grind in a mortar.  It's not entirely
clear to me

> I assumed at a first reading of this that you heated the almonds in
> the honey--that was why you were doing it in a kettle. But it actually
> just says, "let them be in the honey for a bit". Maybe it is just in
> the kettle because you are heating the whole thing after you have
> added more ingredients?

That was my guess.

> You boiled the meat initially. Does Nola ever give more precise
> instructions for "take a flank of mutton and cook it" in any related
> recipes?

Yes.  The verb "cocer" has the general meaning of "to cook".  But it is also
has the more specific meaning of cooking foods in liquids.  If the mutton
was to be roasted, either fully or partially, the verb would have been "asar"
(to roast).

For a similar usage, see recipe #22, which starts, "Take a forequarter of kid
and cook it in a pot.."  Also recipe #68, "and take a half pound of
boneless mutton leg, and cook it with water and salt until it is very well-
cooked..."

> Elizabeth/Betty Cook (well behind on the list)


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