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

[Carole Smith]

How would one go about getting a copy of the bible on Italian weights and measures?
Cordelia Toser

--- On Fri, 1/16/09, Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Translation issues (was Happy about Scappi)
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Date: Friday, January 16, 2009, 5:51 AM

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


      
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