[Sca-cooks] Redacting another Jewish dish (fwd)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

My first reply seems to have vanished into the aether, so here's another try...

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Clark <alexbclark at pennswoods.net>

At 11:22 PM 9/23/2003 -0400, Brighid ni Chiarain quoted and wrote:
> > "Los viernes fasta . . su ama acelgas sancohadas en agua e despues
> > ahogadas en aseyte e con cebollas, e alli, en el azeyte, reheruir; e
> > despues echana alli su agua e pan rallado e especias y yemas de hueuos; e
> > cozia fasta que se para muy espeso." (Accent notes: the c's in acelgas,
> > cebollas and especias have the down-hook on the bottom; the i's in alli,
> > fasia, and cozia, and the second e's in despues are all accented.)
[snip]
> > "... Swiss chard, parboiling it in water and then frying it with onions in
> > oil, and then boiling it again in the oil. And then she threw in water and
> > grated bread crumbs and spices and egg yolks; and she cooked it until it
> > got very thick."
>
>A more literal translation would be, "On Fridays, her mistress made chard
>parboiled in water and then drowned in oil and with onions, and there, in the
>oil, boiled again; and then casting there her water and grated bread and
>spices and yolks of eggs, and cooked it until it became very thick."

So by this new improved translation, not only do ahogadas and 
reheruir/rehervir add up (as I suggested) to a single cooking, but (as I 
hadn't realized) there's no indication of time between them. Does this now 
leave a possibility that the drowning and boiling could have commenced at 
the same moment, in hot olive oil? In other words, could they describe two 
aspects of the same step, rather than sequential steps?

Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark  
----------------------------------------------------------------

In short, yes.  Period recipes can often be fuzzy about the sequence of actions.  Furthermore, this isn't from a cookbook, but legal testimony from a servant whose mistress was suspected of secretly practicing Judaism.

This morning, I checked the RAE dictionaries, and found that "ahogar" can also mean to suffocate, to choke, or to overwhelm.  It is used of plants killed by too much rain.  It is used as an exaggeration in several idiomatic expressions.  "Ahogar de calor" is said of someone who is suffering from hot weather.  "I'm stifling in this heat!" would be an English equivalent.

If I were to retranslate that recipe, I would say "smothered in oil", since this is fairly literal, but also has a culinary meaning in English.

Brighid ni Chiarain