[Sca-cooks] Translation issues (was Happy about Scappi)

[Louise Smithson]

You rang? 
I have both copies of Scappi in my possession, both the Italian and the translation and I am going through the book recipe by recipe as is Master Basilius. 
We are noticing several issues with translation.  Some are a matter of interpretation, some are fairly serious if you are planning to try and recreate the recipes.  Here are some examples: 
The interpretation issues - lardo/strutto - lardo is a salted back fat product which can (for some recipes) be rendered liquid it is not lard, strutto is unsalted pork fat (NOT pork kidney fat as he translates) that is melted and clarified with water this is lard. It is the difference between using bacon grease and lard (as we know them).  The translation gives lardo (in it's melted form) as lard and strutto as melted pork fat.  Sigh. 
Limoncello - little lemons, there are two kinds of lemons, big ones (sweet) and little ones (sour), Scully translates these as Limes, a fruit NEVER associated with Italian cooking.  Think about it!
The big issues - weights and measures, both me and basilius have the Italian weights and measures book, it is a bible, it gives accurate modern equivalents to the miriad of Italian weights and measures before they were standardized in the 18th century. 
A libro is 12oz not 16 as stated by scully.
A bichhiere (beaker) is 0.17L -0.22L not 0.5L 
There are more but I'm only about 1/2 way through the second book, putting lots of slips of paper into the translated copy.  
I'm planning on putting together an article for SCA use (probably send it to TI to publish but keep copyright so that it can be posted around places. If you can give me the recipe/book number for the salted mushroom recipes I'll look it up and let you know what I think. 
Helewyse


On Jan 15, 2009, at 10:42 PM, Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
> My copy has arrived.  I am pleased, and not just because it's a
> translation of a significant period cookbook in a language I don't
> read.  Now I can see which recipes in Granado were (or were not)
> plagiarized from Scappi.
So far I'm a little thrown by the recipes that call for a single  
salted mushroom to be soaked to desalinate. I'm wondering about  
translation issues...
Adamantius

Paging Mistress Helewyse...
Brighid ni Chiarain