[Sca-cooks] Petits Propos Culinaires #71

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Wed, 22 Jan 2003, Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

> Also sprach Elise Fleming:
>
> >There
> >is also an interesting article on "The Turk's Head" by Anna
> >Martellotti which follows this historical dish from a late
> >13th-century recipe on up.  Original texts are given with no English
> >translations (drat).  Seems to me some folk were discussing this a
> >few years ago.  I haven't had time to sit down and really read the
> >articles but wanted to let folk know about the new issue.
>
> There's an English translation of the 13th-century Anglo-Norman
> version of the Turk's Head in that Speculum article in which Hieatt
> and Butler discuss those manuscripts. From about 1986, IIRC? As I
> recall it involved a thick blancmanger of fish (i.e. fish and rice
> cooked in almond milk) used as a tart filling, covered with a face
> made from ground nuts, cooked blood to make a black paint, etc.
>
> Adamantius

There are *three* Turk's Head recipes in the Anglo-Norman stuff. IIRC, the
one you mention is specifically for Lent. If I were carrying it around
with me I could look it up, but at the moment it is at home and I am not.

I briefly toyed with the idea of doing Teste de Turk for 12th Night, but
then I realized it was probably too complicated for the facilities. Sigh.
It will probably happen at some point anyway, but it will have to be a
site that lets us use their ovens.

Margaret