[Sca-cooks] Doreures et leschefrites
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Sat Feb 21 13:05:46 PST 2004
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
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