[Sca-cooks] fennel sauce

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius replied to my question with:
> Stefan sez:
> >John le Burguillun said:
> >>  There is a simple sauce recipe in the "Cuoco Napoletano" that uses fennel as
> >>  an ingredient.  I did a redaction for a University class I taught on Sauces.
> >>  People liked it well enough that it was one of the three sauces I sent to
> >>  feed the 600 folks at Atlantian 20 Year.
> >>
> >>  119. Verjuice With Garlic
> >>
> >>  Get a little garlic, fresh fennel and basil, grind this with a little pepper
> >>  and distemper it with good verjuice.
> >
> >Does the original actually say "distemper"? Or does it say "temper"?
>
> The original is, of course, in Italian, or some dialect thereof; this
> would probably be Terence Scully's translation. "Distemper" is one of
> those peculiar, almost meaningless catch-phrases he uses (kind of
> like sub-fry, for which there is a proper English culinary term: to
> sweat -- to fry over low heat until soft, without browning or
> crisping). Sort of an evasive place-holder for terms for which he can
> come up with no really good one-word translation/equivalent. Probably
> the best English word would be "macerate": to moisten and infuse.
> Some might guess there's a physical crushing process to "distemper",
> as in "stamp", but I'm not sure about that. I may be thinking more in
> French than in Italian.

Okay, then what is wrong with "temper"? As I understand the term
"temper" it seems to fit here. I thought temper meant to make less
sharp. Here, to ease the sharpness of the pepper by mixing in
a little verjuice. To mellow it.

I thought there were other period recipes that do say to "temper it
with" such and such. So I figured the recipe might simply have been
mistyped from the book.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
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