[Sca-cooks] making vinegar

[David Friedman]

>>I don't suppose  you know of a period cookbook with an actual recipe for
>>vinegar? I'm still having trouble documenting it.
>>
>>Elewyiss
>
>Stere Htt Well ("A book of medieval refinements, recipes and 
>remedies from a manuscript in Samuel Pepys's library" - Pepys 
>Library ms 1047) has a recipe.  Though the Pepys is OOP, the ms. is 
>perhaps 15th century.  This is a facing-page translation, with no 
>redactions.  The Introduction by Delia Smith, on the other hand, is 
>one of those hideous "disguise the smell and  flavour of decaying 
>flesh" sorts of things (thank goodness for libraries).


The modern English translations are also unreliable. It's the source 
for our "that no egg may escape" translation anecdote--the translator 
knew about the 15th c. word for egg, and as a result mistranslated 
"air" as "egg." The recipe has no eggs in it.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com