[Sca-cooks] Roast piggy was Doing my best

[Terry Decker]

I've just been rereading Atlas's translation and transcription and been 
working around some of the vocabulary choices.

I don't think they are talking about an egg glaze (which should be put on 
during cooking) and I think they may be leaving out some "understood" 
points.  The instructions for the dish on the serving board makes sense in 
the context of a sauce and the term used can be construed in modern German 
to mean a gravy boat.  The four "sticks" can also be read as "pins" to hold 
the piglet in position (I have a modern serving board with metal pins to 
keep the meat from shifting).  The leaf of eggs on the board is very 
possibly an egg crepe to provide a visual bed under the piglet.  And I think 
the instruction to dress it with a leaf and place it in the ears and the 
mouth may mean to dress the ears and mouth with gold leaf.

Ritzy dish.

Bear

>I happen to have both books (Atlas is comb bound after I downloaded it) on
> my shelves.  Take a look at the translations for whole roast pig.  I don't
> think either of them got it even close to right.  Pinning little pancakes
> all over piggy?  From the roast baby pig we had in Segovia, Spain, I think
> the book is trying to tell the cook to drizzle a thin flour/egg/water
> mixture over piggy just before finishing up to give the skin a nice glaze
> and crackle.
>
> Considering the other book Adamson edited I'm not so sure of her practical
> culinary skills.  In fact, when I contacted the publisher of the Gutter
> Spise in the Austrian university I got back a reply that the local history
> teacher and some of his class were having a ball trying to cook from it! 
> I
> tried to guide him to this list, but he didn't feel his schedule would let
> him take on an English Language list with as much volume as this one does.
>
>
> Regina