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

[Stefan li Rous]

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?

Hmmm. I did something I probably should have done earlier and plugged  
"Torta a la Genovesa" into the search engine in the Florilegium, and  
I find hits on this in these files. But not Brighid's translation.  
Maybe the spelling is different there.

3-Span-Sweets-art (13K)  4/26/01    Three Spanish sweet dishes from  
de Nola by
                                        Vicente.
   (in the FOOD-Sweets section)
tarts-msg        (102K)  5/21/04    Period small, open-topped,  
shallow pies.
   (In the FOOD section)

Anyway, perhaps lookin at the previous commentary on this recipe  
might be of use.

   Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****