[Sca-cooks] Doreures et leschefrites

[James Prescott]

> The doreures are translated by Hinson as "browned [vegetables]", 
> but literally the word indicates either gilding or browning (or both).

Making golden, for most people by glazing with egg yolk, or by 
lightly browning, or by sprinkling with saffron, or painting with 
'gold' paint, or some equivalent.  For the very well off, using 
actual gold foil.

So a doreure is anything 'gilded' in the literal or non-literal 
sense.  By extension, it can include anything glazed including 
dishes glazed red, green, brown, white or some other colour.


> pommeaulx

A meatball.


> pe`s d'Espaigne

Spanish puffs, literally Spanish farts; later called pet-de-nonne, 
literally nun's fart.  See Rey et al.

It might instead be a mis-spelling for an entirely different
recipe, 'pots d'Espaigne', which is somewhat glazed (meat mixture
in the shape of a small vase, with meatballs on sticks to resemble
flowers).  Compare Viandier.

I would personally favour the mis-spelling hypothesis, especially 
as at least one of the Viandier manuscripts makes the same 
mis-spelling.


> chastellier

Small (i.e. model) castle.  Compare the contemporary English recipe 
for Chastletes.


> leschefrites

The word means (even today) a dripping pan.  See Rey et al, who do 
NOT support a derivation of this word from 'fried slices'.  It has 
this meaning as early as 1193, and also in at least two recipes in 
Menagier.


When it means an edible dish, with exactly the same spelling, or
with a variant spelling, the meaning is not clear.  It might be 
related to the dripping pan, or it might indeed be derived from 
'fried slices'.  There's a third possibility, that it might be 
derived from 'leche' meaning 'gourmand / greediness / delicacy'.

What might it be?  Unfortunately, Menagier doesn't appear to 
give a recipe, and I don't know of a smoking gun equivalent from
elsewhere.

I'm continually tempted by thoughts of various fried slices, but
without conclusive evidence.

Bread slices fried in drippings?  Possible, and perhaps the first
meaning of the word, but hardly appetising for the average diner
(my father loves these, I don't).

French toast?  Compare the recipe in Viandier for 'Golden toast', 
similar to modern French toast, served with sugar sprinkled on 
top, and perhaps fried in a dripping pan.  In Menagier we have 
'leschefrites' on their own, and also 'leschefrites sucrées', so 
it's a possibility.

Larded milk?  We have larded milk, which is a curdled milk-egg 
mixture, pressed then sliced then fried (in an iron pan) then 
sugared.  There are larded milk recipes in both Menagier and 
Viandier.

Some kind of 'leche frys' as you mention, perhaps sliced and 
fried?  There are two 'leche frys' recipes in Curye on Inglish, 
which are rather similar to the 'Lenten slices' recipe in Viandier 
except that the latter is not put into a coffin.  As the coffin 
might not have been very edible, the 'leche frys' could in theory
have been served without the coffin, and perhaps even sliced.


Thorvald