[Sca-cooks] Venison, not necessarily deer meat?

lilinah at earthlink.net lilinah at earthlink.net
Thu May 19 16:34:57 PDT 2011


While tracking down those suggestions by Thorvald 
for potential Cameline-type recipes in Lancelot 
de Casteau, i came upon this recipe (note i am 
reading the French and translating myself)

Original
Pour heuspot de venaison, soit de sanglier ou de 
cerf, prennez pain bruslè, & faictes poiure 
passer l'estamine, & mettez dedans noix muscade, 
poiure, claussons & pouldre, succre, canelle, vin 
rouge, deux ou trois oignons haschez menus, 
fricassez en beurre, & faictes les bien bouillir 
ensemble tant qu'il soit luysant.

My Poor Translation
"For hochepot of venison, either of boar or of 
red deer, take toasted bread, & pass pepper 
through a sieve [although i wonder if one isn't 
supposed to sieve the toasted bread into crumbs], 
& put in nutmeg, pepper, "claussons" [i am not 
finding this... clausson is a small pastry, 
unlikely; or clous = cloves] & powder [probably 
poudre fine], sugar, cinnamon, red wine, 2 or 3 
onions finely chopped, fry in butter, & boil them 
well together so that it is glistening."


It seemed odd to me that venison was either boar 
or red deer, since i think of venison as meat of 
a not specified species of deer.

So i checked a French dictionary, which said that 
"venaison" was (my translation) "flesh of large 
"gibier", such as red deer, fallow deer, roe 
deer, boar." Looking up "gibier" it said (my 
translation) "edible wild animals that one takes 
in the hunt", and "the meat coming from such 
animals".

This made me curious...

Granted Casteau wrote his cookbook around 1585, 
although it was not published until 1604, so it 
is rather late. But i began to wonder: does 
"venison" or spelling variations of it in 
SCA-period English cookbooks merely mean some 
sort of more or less generic "deer" meat, as i 
think most Americans assume, or does it really 
signify what the French does - meat from any of 
several large game animals?

-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita



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