[Sca-cooks] Butter? Lard? Tallow?

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

I *thought* I sent this response out several days ago, but apparently stuck it in my drafts folder.  Sorry.

-----Original Message-----
Our local cooking list is having a discussion of the meaning in 16th 
c. Spanish of "manteca de vaca". It was given in a recipe as 
"butter", which is how i've seen it translated. But some listees 
think it means "cow lard" and thus means "tallow".

It appears that in Modern Spanish "manteca" means butter, "tallow" is 
"sebo", and "lard" is "manteca de cerdo", but i don't assume that 
what is true today is the same as it was 400 plus years ago.

As i am not a specialist in Renaissance Spanish, could some listees 
who have dealt with Renaissance Spanish please comment?

Thanks,
Anahita
_______________________________________________

I consulted two of the oldest Spanish dictionaries: Covarrubias' 1611 "Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana o Española" and the 1734 edition of the RAE dictionary.  They both agree that the primary meaning of "manteca" is animal fat, especially the fat of suckling pigs.  The word "manteca" by itself, with no qualifier, is assumed to be pork lard.  The term "sebo" (tallow) also appears in Covarrubias.

The secondary meaning of "manteca" is butter.  Covarrubias says that "manteca de ganado" is the fat of the milk from cattle.  "Ganado" is a term that can encompass sheep and goats as well as cows.  The RAE says that by extension, the term also refers to the "butter" of almond mik and of cocoa.

HTH.



Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom