[Sca-cooks] "aceite de bazo" (oil from the spleen)

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Fri Dec 8 17:09:50 PST 2006


On Dec 8, 2006, at 7:56 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Brighid ni Chiarain
> <<< If you ever want to know what a particular word or phrase is in  
> the
> original, feel free to ask.  I would caution you that the 1929
> transcription edited by Dionisio Perez is flawed.  Through "scribal
> error", some text was left out, and in the modernization of the
> spelling, some words were altered.  Oldtimers on this list may  
> remember
> my puzzlement (and subsequent rant) about this very recipe.  The
> transcription called for "aceite de bazo" (oil from the spleen).  The
> facsimile read "aceite debaxo" (oil underneath). >>>
>
> Oh my. I can easily see that transcription error being made.
> Especially if the transcriber wasn't a cook or wasn't thinking
> through the recipe while transcribing it.
>
> However, the correction is not much clearer than the original
> mistake. :-( What is "oil from the spleen"? What would you ask for in
> the grocery store to get this? Or what would be a good substitute?
> Any idea why this specific item was called out, instead of just "oil"
> or whatever?

I actually suspect Mistress Brighid may have mistyped, and that the  
earlier _transcription_ read "aceito de bazo" (which translates as  
oil from the spleen, I guess) when it should have read, as per the  
original, untranscribed, text, "aceite de baxo", which would  
translate (again, I assume) oil underneath.

Or, as Willie Wonka might say, "Scratch that. Reverse it." Actually,  
rereading the above, Brighid is clearly stating that she was confused  
by the 1929 transcription because it would translate as oil from the  
spleen, and discovered that the original phrase is different, and  
should translate as oil underneath -- so this is not only a  
correction, but a restoration, to some extent, of the original text.

So it doesn't matter where you'd get oil from the spleen, because  
it's not what the recipe calls for...

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04





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