[Sca-cooks] Substitutions... how do we know?

[Gretchen Beck]

--On Wednesday, May 28, 2008 11:18 AM -0400 Nick Sasso 
<grizly at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Fry the chicken with lard and with onions.
> Chop unpeeled almonds and temper them with sour and sweet pomegranate
> juice and strain them well.
> Mix a little water with sugar and spices.
> Put this to boil for a little with the said chicken, and mix well
> with a wooden spoon, and put mixed spices above.
> If you don't have almonds [substitute]
> If you don't have pomegranate [substitute]
>
>
>
> PUT THIS TO POIL FOR A LITTLE WITH THE SAID CHICKEN,
>
> You simmer the chicken in the sauce.

I think Nchola's point was that that instruction is ambiguous.

1. Fry chicken with lard and onions
2. Chop almonds and temper with juice
3. Mix water, sugar and spices
4. Put this (which if you follow strict grammar refers to the water sugar 
and spice mixture) to boil with the chicken.

Now, most cooks (and I believe reasonable people) will take this to mean to 
mix the almonds and pomeganate, water sugar and spice together with the 
chicken, but strictly speaking, that's not what the recipe says to do.

toodles, margaret