[Sca-cooks] Bourbelier of Wild Pig

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> As far as the plunge into the hot water initially, I'm wondering two
> things- first, if it's intended as a mild reduction of its hot and dry
> nature, if indeed wild pig was perceived to have those characteristics
> (can anybody tell me how pigs rate on the humoral scale?) 

Pigs are generally pretty neutral, being the closest to human beings. 

Secondly,
> I'm wondering if the hot water plunge might be intended to solidify
> the surface of the roast, to make it easier to work with, insofar as
> poking it full of cloves- a technique rather akin to freezing meat, as
> we moderns do, so that we might slice it thinner.

At another point in the manuscript, Hinson's translation reads:

"The 'bourbelier' is the numble. (Inasmuch as in this area, one says 
numbles on the one hand, and bourbelier on the other.)"


Now, checking the OED, we see 2 joined definitions for numble:
The entrails of an animal, esp. a deer, as used for food. Formerly also: 
part of the back and loins of a hart. Also fig.


The previous sentence in the Hinson translation says:

"In September they begin to hunt the black beasts until Saint Martin's 
day in winter. - Item, all four limbs are called hams, as with a pig. 
Item, of a wild boar the head, the flanks, the backbone, the numbles, 
the four hams; that is all. Item, of the innards none are retained 
except the liver, which seems to be suitable for making a Subtle English 
Broth."


-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"History doesn't always repeat itself. Sometimes it screams
'Why don't you ever listen to me?' and lets fly with a club."