[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Cherry Pottage

[Stefan li Rous]

Forwarded with permission.

Stefan

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Raymond Wickham <insidious565 at hotmail.com>
> Date: March 31, 2010 7:28:33 AM CDT
> To: <stefanlirous at austin.rr.com>
> Subject: Cherry Pottage
>
> This was posted and I believe its in reference to the redaction by  
> Gideanus Adamantius from Ostgardr in the East Kingdom you may want  
> to inform them as thats a nice change to the recipe
>
> 33.  To make a syrosye.  Tak cheryes & do out the stones & grynde  
> hem wel & draw hem thorw a streynoure & do it in a pot. & do thereto  
> whit gres or swete botere & myed wastel bred, & cast thereto good  
> wyn & sugre, & salte it & stere it wel togedere, & dresse it in  
> disches; & set thereyn clowe gilofre, & strew sugre aboue.
>
> 33.  To make a syrose (cherry pottage).  Take cherries and stone  
> them and grind them well and draw them through a strainer and place  
> it in a pot and add white grease or sweet butter and good white  
> bread and add good wine and sugrar and salt, and stir it well  
> together, and put it into a dish and garnish (?) with cloves and  
> "strew sugar about". (III.  Utilis Coquinario from Curye on Ingysch)
>
> WHAT IS THE MISTAKE YOU ASK?
>
> The mistake is in the translation of  "clowe gilofre" to read  
> "cloves".  In Britain (and Australia) we have a little plant we grow  
> in cottage gardens: it's common name is 'Pink", it is otherwise  
> known as clove gillyflower or mini-carnation.  The online dictionary  
> says "Clove gillyflower (bot.) any fragrant self-coloured carnation.  
> The clove pink."  Maybe the French (Odile Redon et al) and the  
> Americans (Constance Heiatt et al) don't call them clove  
> gillyflowers...because the same error appears every time I see this  
> recipe translated by SCAdians
>
> Try re-reading the recipe translating 'clove gillyflower' as  
> 'miniature carnations', makes much more sense...yes?
>
>  Cloves are  traditionally used to flavour apples.  Not  
> traditionally used to flavour cherries.  In this recipe the 'clowe  
> gilofre" is strewn upon the dish after cooking and before serving.   
> You need to cook cloves to infuse the dish with flavour.  So to  
> strew little pink flowers upon your crimson soup would look ever so  
> pretty and to my thinking is much more likely to be the desired  
> effect.  It would also mean you don't have to "warn your guests that  
> the cloves are there for decoration only" (Redon, et al, 1993)

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****