[Sca-cooks] Brussels sprouts was Re: Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 29, Issue 12
Cindy Renfrow
cindy at thousandeggs.com
Fri Oct 7 15:14:04 PDT 2005
On Oct 7, 2005, at 1:15 PM, <kingstaste at mindspring.com> wrote:
> So, if you are to use olive oil in Lent, what sort of oil are they
> calling
> for the rest of the time? Could it be interpreted as an animal-based
> oil
> such as bacon grease or butter?
No. No oil at all. Use only "greasy pot-water of beef and mutton… but
in no wise that of pork, which is only good for leeks."
Le Menagier tends to write in a very stream of consciousness style, so
his directions are rather confused. He speaks of preparing all sorts of
cabbages higgledy-piggledy in the same paragraph. Basically, tough
cabbage leaves and hearts are to be cooked for a very very long time
with meat broth and/or water until they're nothing but mush. Then the
whole mess is served with greasy pot-water and thickened with bread
crumbs. Sprouts, however, are not cooked to mush; but I imagine he
means for us to serve them with thickened broth too.
Other options include cooking cabbage in water on fish days & serving
them with oil and salt. Or some thicken the mixture with oatmeal
instead of bread, or use butter instead of oil.
Another option: "On a meat day you may put therewith pigeons, sausages
and hare, coots and plenty of bacon."
The Pichon is here: http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/menagier6.html
HTH,
Cindy
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