[Sca-cooks] Re: Coffyns

[Johnna Holloway]

Karen Hess in her commentary to Martha Washington's
Booke of Cookery writes that
"A coffin is a mold made of pastry. the word comes from
Old French cofin and finally from Greek cophinos, meaning basket
(OED). While they could be any shape, they seem to have been rectangular
as often as not, judging by the occasional specification for a round coffin,
as in this recipe. They were closed unless directed otherwise."
Page 83.

Johnnae


>>> . While I understand that a coffyn is rectangular in
>>>  shape, hence the transference of the word to the box we bury people 
>>> in. 
>>
> Stefan

>
> Stefan, can you tell us more about your reasoning in reaching this 
> conclusion? I'm not sure I buy the rectangular pie coffin idea: there 
> are illustrations of what appear to be pies in various manuscripts, 
> and they seem to me to mostly round or elliptical.
>
> I think (and I could be wrong here) that we bury people in long, 
> rectangular boxes because, well, a human body is oblong (spherical 
> peers notwithstanding). A coffin, though, is simply a case, usually 
> roughly in the shape of whatever it's supposed to contain, so it can 
> be any shape and still be a coffin, as far as I know: the name does 
> not directly imply oblong-ness.
> Adamantius