[Sca-cooks] Assistance interpreting a recipe (long)

Sat Jan 24 05:20:46 PST 2004

Sheesh! You just wake up and find this! Where to 
insert text? How to trim? The answers to this and 
[some] other questions [maybe] are tucked in 
wherever...

Also sprach Louise Smithson:
>The best I can understand it there are several
>different sausage style stuffings that are made, which
>are then variously wrapped and cooked somehow.  But
>stuff keeps getting lost in the recipe. 
>For instance: mixture one consists of 2 lamb
>shoulders, cheese, herbs, spices and eggs.  The next
>time we hear of this it is being used to stuff a lamb
>spleen.  What on earth is done with the rest of it.
>The original ingredient list calls for four lamb cauls
>which are never mentioned again.
>The second mixture (pork loin, cheese, spices, eggs
>and saffron) is never referred to again.
>The third mixture (pork liver, cheese, eggs, onion,
>cumin) is made into ravioli (how big?) wrapped in
>liver caul fried and powdered with sugar.  Then never
>mentioned again.
>Then the spleens turn up and get stuffed with cheese
>and eggs etc (colored variously green, white and
>yellow).
>The spleens are boiled.
>Then life gets really confusing, two are chopped in
>half, two are chopped small (how big can these spleens
>be?) and I assume the whole lot of them are fried.
>Then more spices appear and some dried fruit possibly
>just thrown on top and the recipe is done.
>My problem is I just canít envision how this dish is
>made or served.  The recipe is just way too garbled.
>So any discussion/light/inspiration you could throw my
>way would be gratefully received.

Awright, I'm going to throw in random thoughts 
any old way. How could they possibly make less 
sense than the recipe?

1. I think it's significant that you have the 
same number of lamb cauls and spleens. From what 
I've seen of pork milts (my only experience with 
spleens other than the one I own), I have to 
assume lamb spleens are pretty small, and for 
eating purposes tend to be butterflied -- IOW, 
split along one edge top the center and opened up 
like a book. As far as I can tell, this is how 
you buy pork spleens, and from the incredibly 
small amount of info on the web that is not in 
fact about heavy metal music and satanism, I have 
to guess a lamb spleen is a smallish, 
kidney-or-testicle-shaped thingy, slightly 
elongated. I think you're slitting open the 
spleens, stuffing them, then wrapping them in the 
caul for cooking.

2. Why there's such an enormous amount of 
stuffing (and why the dish is named for only one 
of the four) is beyond the powers of Karnak the 
Magnificent, but I wonder if the enormous amounts 
of stuffing are given in proportion, and it is 
assumed your spleens and cauls will be in an 
appropriate _multiple_ of four?

3. If I didn't know better (and at this point I 
don't know poop -- my apologies for the 
complicated  technical jargon, but there are 
times when one must call a spade a poop), I'd say 
that the pork loin stuffing, the lamb shoulder 
stuffing, and somehow in some way that doesn't 
fit together, the pork liver raviolis, might be 
alternatives (with the possibility that the 
raviolis, fried, are a garnish intended to match 
the small pieces of at least two of the spleens 
which are fried... if that makes any sense).

Let me try that again. Let's do it backwards this 
time. You have four spleens, four stuffings 
(yeah, you have at least six that I can count, 
but bear with me): you have the white cheese/egg 
stuffing, the green herb cheese/egg stuffing, you 
have the yellow saffronated (saffronified? 
saffronized?) cheese/egg stuffing, and the meat 
(shoulder) stuffing.

4. It's unclear to me that everything is fried, 
but that's between you and the grammar gods to 
distinguish whether, when a recipe says something 
like, "boil them, cut two in half and two in 
hand-span pieces, then fry them," or some such, 
that means you're frying everything or just the 
latter two. I have no opinion, but as I write 
this it seems to me you may be right, and 
everything gets fried. The fact that some things 
are fried, and then it all seems to be garnished 
like a dish of fritters, suggests that that is 
what it is: a dish of fried stuff.

If someone put a gun to my head and ordered me to 
cook this dish right now, from this recipe (and 
bear in mind that this is not any kind of 
assertion that I'm right, _or that the recipe is 
BOTH accurately copied at all times since its 
first recording AND accurately translated_), I'd 
get as many multiples of four spleens and cauls 
as I felt appropriate (probably thinking much 
more clearly without the gun held to my temple), 
stuff split-open spleens with the four stuffings, 
the white, the green, the yellow, and the pork 
loin _or_ lamb shoulder (to me, this is the only 
way it comes close to working) stuffing, then 
wrap the stuffed spleens in the caul, boil, then 
fry. In the mean time, you make the pork-liver 
ravioli and fry them.

Again, considering that a lot of what I have is 
sort of guesswork, and that someone is still 
holding a gun to my head (theoretically), I'd put 
this on a large platter: first the four halves 
[of the two that are halved, that is] spleens, 
boiled and possibly fried. Top with, or surround 
by, the smaller, hands-breadth, pieces of the 
other two spleens, also, and more clearly stated 
to be, fried. Top with, or surround by, the even 
smaller fried liver ravioli (ravioli means 
"little turnips", so figure any size from a small 
egg down to a hazelnut, but if using caul, 
probably not much smaller than an inch -- hard to 
wrap). Sprinkle over all the dates and currants, 
the sugar, and the spices (possibly just some of 
the mixture in the proportions given).

While the guy with the gun is eating, run, or hit 
him over the head with a lamb shoulder, or 
something.

My only really serious reservation, under the 
circumstances, and given the ingredient 
quantities, is if "spleens" are the correct 
organs.

Adamantius

>
>Helewyse de Birkestad
>
>
>Transcription of the original Italian, recipe
>LXXVII.is available on Thomas Glonings website at:
>http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/%7Egloning/frati.htm
>It is not included here for reasons of length. 
>
>My translation:
>
>LXXVII  Shoulder of ëcastroní filled.
>If you want to make stuffing of shoulders of ëcastroní
>two or four, take the shoulder of ëcastroní lifted
>with all the joints (intact) and one needs two
>shoulders for twenty people and three for forty
>people.  If one wants to make it (this dish) for more
>people or for less take these things (ingredients) in
>the same ratio.  Take four cauls of ëcastroní, four
>spleens (milt) of ëcastron, six pounds of pork loin,
>one large pig liver and itís caul, twenty fresh
>cheeses the best that you might have, one (pound) of
>dates, a pound of dried currants, half a pound of
>sugar, half an ounce of cinnamon, half (an ounce) of
>whole ginger, and half a quarter (of an ounce) of
>cloves.  Make half a pound of fine (quality) sweet
>spices that are warming (rich with cinnamon) and make
>half a pound of strong spices. 
>Take the shoulders and put them whole to boil and let
>them cook well, but not so much that the bones
>separate themselves.  Pull them out (of the cooking
>water) and take away all the meat, as much as you can.
>  Chop/beat it well and add much parsley, sage, mint
>and marjoram if you have them.  To this mixture/batter
>add salt, and beat, and spices, one cheese, well
>chopped fresh or salted lard and as many eggs as is
>enough (to bind the mixture).  This will be one of the
>mixtures/batters for this (dish). 
>Take the pork loin well chopped/beaten and mix with
>this six fat (rich and creamy) fresh cheeses, and add
>sweet and strong spices and enough well ground saffron
>and as many eggs as are enough (to bind the batter).
>This is another mixture/batter for this (dish). 
>Take the pork liver boiled, well chopped and put it
>into a mortar and grind it.  To this add one large
>onion, a quantity of cumin, eggs and cheese and give
>it enough spices.  This mixture/batter should be firm
>and make ravioli. Take the pork (liver) caul and they
>should be fried in fresh lard and powdered with sugar.
>  This is another mixture/batter for this (dish).
>Take the spleens, well washed and well
>scraped/scrubbed.  One of these fill with eggs, cheese
>and good green herbs.  The next fill with cheese,
>eggs, milk and all the good things you might have that
>are white.  The third stuff with cheese, eggs and
>saffron rich spices so that it is yellow.  The fourth
>fill with the mixture/batter of ëcastroní that you
>have.  When they are full put them to boil so that
>they are cooked.
>When they are cooked cut two of them into two large
>pieces each, and the other two cut into small pieces
>of one hand span each.  These should be fried.  Take
>the dates, a pound of dried currants, half a pound of
>sugar, half (an ounce) of whole ginger, half a quarter
>(of an ounce) of cloves, half a pound of sweet spices
>and half a pound of strong.  Thus they are powdered
>the best and make in this way if you want.
>
>Notes: anything in parentheses is an addition to the
>recipe by me in order to make it more understandable.
>All punctuation is added in keeping with the rules of
>modern English grammar and does not correspond to that
>of the original. 
>ëcastroní is specifically a castrated male lamb raised
>for food.  Scappi (16th C Italian) indicates that the
>season for Castron begins at the end of June and lasts
>through all of February.  Which if the lambs are born
>in February ñ March (spring) would indicate that they
>are between 4 months and a year old, corresponding to
>everything from modern spring lamb through something I
>count as mutton.
>
>
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