[Sca-cooks] Re: Lettuce (Welserin)

[Decker, Terry D.]

Devil's advocate time.  Is the translation correct?  If so, what is meant by
"head lettuce?"

The title line of the recipe is, "Jtem wiltú hener jn ain kepffleten sallat
machen."  "Kepffletten" is being translated as "head lettuce."  "Kepff" (or
"kepf" as it later appears) for "kopf."  A reasonable translation if there
is no other possible meaning for "kepff."

So does "head lettuce" mean what we think it means?

If you check Leonard Fuchs's Herbal under Latuca (the Latin and genus name
for lettuce):

http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/fuchs/170-1.gif

The illustration on pg 171 is labeled Latuca capitata.  And not a bowling
ball shaped head of lettuce in sight (although, if you look below the
branchs, there is a close cluster of leaves which probably represents a
"loose" rosette).  The German subtitle is "great or white lettuce."  This
suggests, in the absence of better information, that "kepfletten" is a
lettuce with a well defined but loosely wrapped rosette, possibly similar to
a modern butterhead.

Bear

> As long as we are still fixated on lettuce here is one I have
> found from Sabina Welserin:
>
> 90 If you would like to make chicken on head lettuce
> Then take a pot and lay a handful of lettuce in it and a
> chicken on top, again a handful of lettuce and a chicken and so
> forth. Take after that good broth, which should be rich, and
> put a good piece of butter into it and salt it and boil it,
> until you think that it has cooked enough. Put a little mace
> into it. One must, however, use head lettuce and it should
> be washed clean beforehand, then it is ready.
>
> I think it is interesting that she specifies Head Lettuce and
> not Loose Leaf. Seems pretty straightforward to me.
>
> Glad Tidings,
> Serena da Riva