[Sca-cooks] Libro Novo/Rice Question

[Heather Musinski]

Serena
   This is serendipity, because I was thinking about this recipe last night. I am re-reading bits of Italian Cuisine:A Cultural History by Capatti and Montanari, and this tidbit about rice caught my attention.
  "Rice took hold in the north of Italy in the fifteenth century. In 1474 Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Lord of Milan, wrote two letters agreeing to export some bags of rice for cultivation to the countryside of Ferrara. This suggests that it had already been cultivated in Lombardy for some time." 
   However, the mid-15th century seems to be the point when rice was embraced as a food product across most Italian regions. Prior to that time, the Arabs intorduced rice to Sicily & Spain. In other regions rice was sold by spice vendors as an exotic. Capatti & Montanari also indicate that rice flour was used during the Middle Ages as a medicinal agent, or as a thickener, rather than the grain/carb filler that it became after the 15th c.
   
The recipe Wright mentions must be the one below:

77 C

 

TO MAKE RICE OR SPELT WITH YOLKS OF EGGS AND CHEESE FOR TEN PLATTERS

 

            Take a pound of spelt or rice that is very clean and washed and is very white, then put it to boil in rich broth.  And when it is nearly cooked, take two pounds of grated hard cheese and ten egg yolks, and mix above eggs with the cheese and place in above rice with a quarter (ounce) of pepper, a small amount of saffron, always mixing everything well together in the pan, until it is finished cooking.

            And whenever it is ready for the banquet you shall put six ounces of sugar over it.  And if you shall put a half-ounce of cinnamon, it is nothing to take back, and you can also make without.

 
Messisbugo does mention several dishes in the Sicillian Style, though this one is not explicitly titled as Sicillian. Basilius reddacted this one for a feast a few years back, and made the decision to cut back on the cheese. The 2 lb of cheese to 1 lb of rice made a memorable mass. Much more cheese with a little rice, than rice with cheese. It was a beautiful golden color, if I remember correctly. The dish was also very well received by the cheeseheads in the room.
 
Let me know how it turns out for you, if you decide to use it.
Rachaol
 


Serena, may I post this to the Italian cooking list?  
People there are more
familliar with the Libro Novo than most.

Mairi Ceilidh




> Greetings,
>
> I am having a bit of difficulty digging something up 
and was hoping
> that some good gentle might be able to assist me. I 
am working on
> finding a rice dish for my Norman/Sicilian feast and 
getting
> frustrated.
>
> In Clifford Wright's book Mediterranean Feast he 
makes the following
statement:
> "I believe that the dish was once a kind of saffron 
pilaf known among
> the Jeas and Arabs of medieval Sicily who traveled 
north. As early as
> the sixteenth century, the Renaissance chef 
Cristoforo da Messisburgo
> had claimed that he thought rissoto con lo zaffrano 
was born in
> Sicily." His website is just a repeat of what is in 
the book.
>
> If my brain is not completely betraying me isn't 
Cristoforo the guy
> responsible for Libro Novo? I do not have a copy of 
that and if anyone
> does I was wondering if they could take a look see 
and share the rice
> recipe being referred to (if it exists).
>
> Anything to confirm or deny this line of research 
would be completely
> welcome. I have poked about the Flori-thingie with 
very little
> success, and searching for any of the above keywords 
mostly brings me
> to websites in Italian - which is not particularly 
helpful.
>
> Glad Tidings,
>
> --Serena da Riva
> Barony of the South Downs, Meridies



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