[Sca-cooks] Questions about de Nola

[Sue Clemenger]

Dang.  Looks like I was mis-reading a couple of the recipes that have
sauce instructions included in the text of the recipe.  It's not always
clear, when the text says something along the lines of "strain it all
through a cloth" that it's actually referring to the sauce ingredients,
and not the whole dish! (I'm so embarrassed!)
Re: use of wool and linen (and I hope I'm remembering *this* right!). 
ISTR reading that linen is stronger when wet, but that wool is less
likely to be damaged by acidic stuff. Perhaps (without going back and
looking at the recipes) the woolen cloths are specified for some reason
like that, instead of just using "a good cloth."
Hmmm....I think I'll just *have* to go back and look!
--maire

Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
> 

> > 2.  A number of the sauces and pottages are strained through a woolen
> > cloth.  Would this more likely have been a coarse cloth, allowing small
> > particles of the almonds or chicken or whatever to pass through, or a
> > finer quality, designed to make everything puree-ish?
> 
> I'm going to give you one of my long-winded answers.  :-)
> 
> The Spanish word is estameña.  The English term is tamis-cloth or tammy-cloth.
> The RAE dictionary describes it as being woven from fine, twisted strands of wool.
> Modern definitions of tamis say that it is made of worsted wool.  (Worsted: Firm-
> textured, compactly twisted woolen yarn made from long-staple fibers.)
> 
> One of the recipes that mentions the woolen cloth is #68 (pottage of fat made with
> milk).  It says (regarding almond milk) "cast half of the milk into it and strain it with
> your woolen cloth, or with a horsehair sieve, or with a clean linen cloth".
> 
> >From these various bits of information, I'd guess that the woolen cloth should be
> about the equivalent of a fine wire sieve (which is what I use for straining almond
> milk).  I don't recall any recipes in de Nola containing chicken or anything really solid
> being strained through wool.  There are some sauces containing ground liver blended
> with broth -- those I would assume to be a rather liquid puree, and the cloth would
> catch any bits of liver that were not properly pureed.