[Sca-cooks] Re: Coffyns

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> 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

Dunno how much can be read into an instruction in terms of implying other
coffins were frequently rectangular. It seems to me that if they could and
were often any shape, the choice might as easily be between round and oval,
as opposed to circular and rectlinear. In otherwords, using a coffin
frequently to make, say, a roasted chicken, it might make sense to normally
have an oval shape, but if one were doing something else, where you wanted
to assure the ingredients were cooked evenly- an eggy sort of thing,
perhaps- you might specify round, so that all areas of the item were evenly
cooked. The rectilinear types tend to have the corners more cooked than the
centers, which is fine for many things, but might not be fine for an
amalgamation that is a bit more sensitive to temperature and cooking time
variants. In many cases, medieval folks didn't necessarily know WHY
something worked best a particular way, they just knew that it DID work best
a particular way. Very practical, if not theoreticly sound, people.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.1.0 - Release Date: 2/18/05