[Sca-cooks] goats milk cheese recipe

[Louise Smithson]

Katherine wrote:I wonder why the author would not take Scappi at his word on the 
cotton? 


It was common in Italy by then (and indeed had been for centuries).  I've
been on a 'cotton binge' reading the latest academic works.  "Le commerce
du coton en M?diterran?ee ? la fin du Moyen Age" part of Bill's The
Medieval Mediterranean (2007) by Jong-Kuk Nam leaves no doubt.  I am still
chuckling over the German scam of putting the Venetian trademark on their
fustian because it was of a higher quality than theirs and the resulting
Venetian bruhaha.

Well because I'm the author in question (my translation). As to why not take 
scappi at his word, well his word was bombagino.  Now the 20th century 
dictionary translates that as cotton stuff, but it in no way indicates that it 
was necessarily made of cotton in 16th century Italy. Looking now at florio's 
dictionary (1610) even there it appears to be cotton. Bombagia - all manner of 
cotton wool.  So it may indeed be a cotton sleeve or sock for straining. I'll 
correct the footnote. 


Helewyse