[Sca-cooks] Egg nog was New here Hello All!!

Johnna Holloway johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu
Mon Nov 19 04:46:38 PST 2007


Thanks so much for posting the recipe and notes as you have them.

I can see where the misconceptions come in.

To start, I managed to locate the source on the web.
The webpage that lists this recipe and the notes can be found at:

http://www.nicomarin.com/ricette/ric390_e.htm 

This is a commercial site, not a historical cookery or food site.

The notes say that "This very antique recipe, which appears in Martino 
Rossi's manuscript preserved at Riva del Garda (but not contained in the 
Washington manuscript ), was often recommended for people who had to do 
strenuous work or who were debilitated. For example, in his book on 
obstetrics published in 1569, Girolamo Mercurio...."

Martino was not around in 1569. The Mercurio text is another totally 
different book.

Martino de Rossi or Martino of Como was active in the 1460's.
Please don't make the mistake of dating eggnog though back to the 
1460's, because
this is not an eggnog recipe. This is a recipe for the Italian dish 
Zabaglione
which Gillian Riley in The Oxford Companion to Italian Food describes as
"a pale delicate froth of egg yolks beaten up with sugar in a bowl over 
a pan of hot but not boiling water
to thicken it slightly."

When one looks at this recipe and it's modern version in Italian
on the website under  http://www.nicomarin.com/ricette/ric390.htm
 one finds that the version reads: "Per fare una porzione di buon 
zabaglione...."
What has happened is that zabaglione has been translated into eggnog and 
not left as
simply as zabaglione.

The fact that the notes then continue as "In any event, Nico Marin was 
the master of modern eggnog"
or "Maestro del moderno zabaglione è stato tuttavia Nico Marin" 
continues the substitution of zabaglione
for eggnog.

Zabglione is not a drink--- it's a dessert. I think most culinary 
historians would agree that sadly it's not a true eggnog.
If you would like to examine the recipe in translation,
the Rive del Garda recipes appear in Jeremy Parzen's edition of Martino
that appeared as The Art of Cooking. The First Modern Cookery Book, 
2005. It appears there on page 118
as "How to make a good zabaglione." He doesn't make the mistake of 
saying it's an eggnog.

Johnnae llyn Lewis






AllRober3 at aol.com wrote:
> Johnna,
>
>        I am so sorry about the lengthy reply, but here is the recipe I found 
> from 1569.. I could not find the same website again, but I have it saved on my 
> computer. Thanks and again I appoligise=o)
> ~Stephen
>
>
> MARTINO ROSSI
>
>
>
> How to make good eggnog
>
>
> Per fare bono zambaglione per farne una taza, piglia quatro ova zoè lo 
> rossame, e [...] zucharo e canella a sufficienzia et de bono vino amabille, e sel 
> fusse troppo fumoso mettili uno poco d'aqua o de brodo magro poi fale cocere amò 
> se coce lo brodeto et sempre menace con lo cugiaro et quando se imbratta 
> [ponilo in taza].    egg yolks
> sugar
> cinnamon
> sweetish wine
>     To make a portion of good eggnog, get four eggs (just the yolks) and 
> [...] a generous amount of sugar and cinnamon, and add some sweetish wine. If the 
> mixture begins to smell like smoke, add a little water or lean broth. Cook in 
> the same way as broth, stirring constantly with a spoon, and when it soils 
> [the spoon, serve it in a cup].     
> HISTORIC NOTES
>
>
> This very antique recipe, which appears in Martino Rossi's manuscript 
> preserved at Riva del Garda (but not contained in the Washington manuscript ), was 
> often recommended for people who had to do strenuous work or who were 
> debilitated. For example, in his book on obstetrics published in 1569, Girolamo 
> Mercurio, a Roman physician, recommended eggnog for women in childbirth. Mercurio, who 
> also included a recipe for eggnog in his book, defines it as a Milanese 
> speciality and specifies the same ingredients as Martino. It is interesting to note 
> the many attempts that have been made to indicate the precise moment when 
> this brew is ready to serve: Marino says it is done when it "soils" (that is, 
> when the mixture is so dense that it adheres to the wooden spoon and "soils" it), 
> while Mercurio maintains that eggnog is ready when it assumes "the thickness 
> of the top of milk" (that is, the consistency of cream). In any event, Nico 
> Marin was the master of modern eggnog. Many restaurant owners, cooks, customers 
> and friends in Italy and abroad remember him after the evening meal when, 
> brandishing his inseparable copper sauce pot, he would delve into the art of 
> creating the extraordinary, soft, smooth and light eggnogs which he happily served 
> to anyone who happened to be dining at the time. 
>
>                                        
>
>
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