[Sca-cooks] Looking for medieval joke recipe

[Johnna Holloway]

Found it here-- It's part of the those activities that fall under  
table magic.

Porta, Giambattista della, 1535?-1615.

Natural magick by John Baptista Porta, a Neapolitane ; in twenty  
books ... wherein are set forth all the riches and delights of the  
natural sciences. , London : Printed for Thomas Young and Samuel  
Speed ..., 1658.

  (which is the English edition of a work titled Magia Naturalis)

"THE FOURTEENTH BOOK OF Natural Magick: I shall shew some choice  
things in the Art of Cookery.

That flesh may look bloody and full of worms, and so be rejected

by smell-feasts. Boil Hares blood, and dry it, and powder it; and cast  
the powder upon the meats that are boil'd, which will melt by the heat  
and moysture of the meat, that they will seem all bloody, and he will  
loath and refuse them. Any man may eat them without any rising of his  
stomack. If you cut Harp-strings small, and strew them on hot flesh,  
the heat will twist them, and they will move like worms." Page 327
  Hope this helps

Johnnae

On Aug 25, 2010, at 9:35 AM, Daniel Myers wrote:

> Howdy,
>
> Does anyone here remember the source for the recipe (I think it was
> English or French) that directed the cook to sprinkle dried rabbit  
> blood
> on a cooked steak to make it look raw?  It was in a section of a
> cookbook that also had a recipe that used pieces of gut string to  
> make a
> steak look wormy.
>
> - Doc