[Sca-cooks] 12th Night 2007 Stories
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius1 at verizon.net
Sun Jan 7 08:38:52 PST 2007
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
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