[Sca-cooks] Doreures et leschefrites

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Alex Clark:
>Having just taken another look at the menus in _le Menagier de 
>Paris_, I have a few questions about the identity of foods listed 
>there.
>
>The doreures are translated by Hinson as "browned [vegetables]", but 
>literally the word indicates either gilding or browning (or both). 
>In dinner menu X, they are specified as "doreures de pommeaulx et de 
>pe`s d'Espaigne et de chastellier," which I guess might translate 
>word for word something like: "gilders of meatballs and of land of 
>Spain and of /chastellier/" (I haven't yet found corroboration of 
>Hinson's translation of chastellier, nor any other translation). The 
>first type could be the same thing as pommedorry; a recipe for 
>pommeaulx (meatballs turned green with moistened parsley and flour) 
>is on p. 222. Hinson's translation in menu X is "browned apples and 
>Spanish peas and young lampreys," which doesn't seem to make sense 
>-- how and why does one either brown or gild peas? So, does anyone 
>happen to know what doreures are?

FWIW, Scully has "doreurs" in his glossary for his edition of 
Taillevent, and he translates it as "glazings". I agree that this 
could easily be a yolky-saffron-ey mixture designed to go  on 
pommedorry. Now, note that he _also_ translates pets d'Espaigne as 
Spanish Pots or Spanish Farts (as in farce or stuffing): think of 
those English recipes where you make your pommedorry mixture into 
shapes with molds such as sacks or flowerpots, then remove, roast and 
glaze them. I believe there are also English recipes that use the 
same stuffing for castle-shaped subtleties (although I think there's 
also pastry involved in that one). That might serve as _some_ 
evidence, at least, to interpret the expression to mean something 
like, "a gilt-glazed course of 'little apples', 'Spanish flowerpots', 
and 'castles'".

Unless instead of castles it has something to do with chestnuts, but 
I'd doubt it.

>The other food that I have a question about is leschefrites, which 
>Hinson translated as "fried bread slices". Assuming that lesche 
>means the same as Middle English leche, this is consistent with the 
>modern English phrase "fried slice" but not with the Middle English 
>phrase leche frys. Leche frys means a tart made with cheese or thick 
>almond milk. Since the Menagier's leschefrites often appear together 
>with darioles, I am inclined to assume that they are like the Middle 
>English leche frys. But does anyone know of any more conclusive 
>evidence?

Again, Scully, in the same source, translates lechefricte (his 
spelling, or probably from the Vatican MS of Taillevent) as a 
dripping-pan, such as you'd use to catch meat juices for basting.

I suppose this _could_ be an example of a dish named for a utensil, 
in this case, a wide, flat pan. Modernly, we have casseroles, 
terrines, etc., as examples of dishes named for their 
containers/dishes... I don't know how much this last one helps, but 
here it is, anyway.

Adamantius