[Sca-cooks] 12th Night 2007 Stories

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 7, 2007, at 11:05 AM, Terry Decker wrote:

> "Littiu" is the Early Irish form of "lit" and essentially means  
> porridge.
> It is related to the Welsh, "llith" which means mash.  It is perfectly
> reasonable that an Early Irish persona would use the term for whatever
> recipe of porridge they chose to make.
>
> While there are a number of literary references, the one I remember  
> most
> commonly mentioned is from the Tain Bo Chulainn to the effect that  
> it is the
> porridge of the little boy that has made such a great warrior of  
> the man.

That, and getting a job as some guy's hunting dog ;-). I've read the  
Tain Bo Cualgne, but don't recall that passage. I mostly remember the  
very surreal scene where the king and queen are arguing over who is  
the more wealthy (as I recall they shower each other with gifts,  
which little bit of potlatch the king eventually wins, finally giving  
a gift that could _only_ be equalled or surpassed by a corresponding  
gift of this particular cow, which of course the queen does not own,  
but which the king very chivalrously volunteers to help her steal,  
all, no doubt, for the greater glory of the kingdom, the sake of  
their marriage, and so somebody can write a cool epic poem about it  
all). Also the subsequent imagery of Cuchullainn dancing on tiptoe on  
the spear points of the enemy, swiping off heads, which I always  
thought would make a smashing kung-fu movie.

>  The Irish lived on their cattle and the common grains in Ireland  
> were oats
> and barley, so oat and milk porridge would likely be common in Ancient
> Ireland.  As oats are the highest in protein of any of the cereals, a
> porridge of oats and milk would be a very nutritional dish suitable  
> for the
> sons of kings.
>
> I would suspect that the recipe is a derivation from various  
> sources and
> that the accuracy depends on the quality of the research.

I assume so. It sounds eminently reasonable, but sometimes things  
that are reasonable still may or may not be arrived at with good  
reason, if you know what I mean, so I was curious about the process  
for reasoning and/or speculating, and documenting, the dish. It's  
kind of like having to show your work on a math test, I guess ;-).

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