[Sca-cooks] Cooking fats in period England

[Daniel Myers]

On Jul 17, 2005, at 3:42 PM, Carole Smith wrote:

> There are other groups that use clarified butter today, and  
> probably in period as well.  The Arabic word is samneh (pronounced  
> Sam nah with slight emphasis on the first syllable).  And of course  
> clarified butter is used in French cooking as well.

Interestingly enough, there is an ingredient with a similar name and  
purpose ("saim") being used in period France.  Check lines 15 and 35  
below.

 From "Enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manieres de  
viandes" (ca. 1300)
http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/%7Egloning/1300ens.htm
http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/lessons.shtm (my translation)

|13| Char de porc: la loingne en rost, en yver e en estei, as aus  
vers. E qui en
|14| veut en chivei si la depieche par morseaus; (c)e puis cuisiez  
oingnons en
|15| saim, e broez de poivre e d'autres espices e pain ars, e  
desfaites en un
|16| mortier; puis destrempez de l'eve ou le porc sera cuit; puis metez
|17| boillir e metez sus les morseaus qui avront estei arochié e du  
sel, e tout
|18| cen metez en escueles e du chivé de sus.

(Pork: roasted loin, in winter and in summer, with green garlic. And  
which if wanted in gravy then cut it into pieces; And then cook  
onions in grease, and ground pepper and other spices and toasted  
bread, and grind in a mortar; Then temper with the water that the  
pork cooked in; Then put it to boil and put over the pieces which  
have been pulled and of salt, and all this put in a bowl with the  
gravy thereon.)

[...]

|32| por char de veel -- Char de veel en rost, la loingne parboullie  
en eve, e puis lardee e rostie
|33| e mengie as aus vers ou au poivre. E se vous en volez a la  
charpie, parboulliez
|34| la en eve e puis si la depechiez par morseaus en une pelle, et puis
|35| frissiez les morseaus en une paiele en saim ou (la) lart, e puis  
metez des
|36| oués batuz dessus, e puis poudrés [pondrez_(o')_Ms.] de sus de  
poivre, si sera charpie. E se
|37| aucuns en veut en pasté, parboulliez la en eve e puis lardez,  
detrenchiez
|38| par morseaus e les metez en pasté.

(For veal -- Roasted veal, the loin parboiled in water, and then lard  
and and eat with green garlic or pepper. And if you would like it  
minced, parboil it in water and then cut into pieces in a pan, and  
then fry the pieces in a pan in grease or bacon fat, and then put  
beaten eggs therein, and then sprinkle with pepper, then that is  
minced. And if otherwise wanted in a pie, parboil it in water and  
then lard it, slice into pieces and put it in a pie.)


In both cases I translated this as "grease".

Scully has "sain" and "saing" in the glossary of _Viandier_ and  
defines it as, "drippings from a roast, grease (esp. of pork)."

Greg Lindahl's site seems to be down, so I can't check Cottgrave's  
dictionary. (I hope it's just temporary)

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  Cum Grano Salis
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