[Sca-cooks] Dumplings & Puff Paste - questions...

Daniel Myers dmyers at medievalcookery.com
Fri Oct 7 08:58:00 PDT 2011


Good transcription! Paleography is always a challenge.

There are many special abbreviations, one of which occurs at the start
of the recipe "To make past for dumpling".  The word you transcribe as
"pepp" has a curl on the descender of the last p that crosses the
descender.  This is a common abbreviation for "per", which means the
word should be properly transcribed as "pepper".

Similarly, the word "ye" is followed by a superscript "r", and should be
"yer".

The ascender that curves back to the left after "ov" is an abbreviation
for "er", which would make it "over" - no question mark, and the dot is
part of the abbreviation (note that many of the other abbreviations with
superscripts have a similar dot).

You left out a final e in the "do" in "& soe doe" near the end.

As for the "qte", I wondered if there was a mark in there indicating an
abbreviation of some sort, but here the manuscript is pretty clear. 
It's easy to assume that it means "quart" (an eighth of a peck in dry
measure), but I keep wondering if it could mean quarter of a peck, a
quarter of a bushel, or a quarter of something else entirely.

- Doc



> -------- Original Message --------
> From: wheezul at canby.com
> Date: Thu, October 06, 2011 9:34 pm
> 
> I was intrigued by 16r of the 1580 portion of Ms Codex 1601 at the
> recently shared University of Pensylvania site.
> 
> http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren/pageturn.html?id=MEDREN_5017377&fq=collection_facet%3A%22Medieval+%26+Renaissance+Manuscripts%22+AND+century_facet%3A%2216th+century%22+AND+facsimile_facet%3A%22Yes%22+AND+language_facet%3A%22English%22&fullview=true&currentpage=37&doubleside=0&rotation=0&size=4
> 
> I was wondering if anyone might be really familiar with 16th century
> English handwriting to take a look at my transcription?  I'm especially
> interested in the third word of the pufpast recipe where there is what I
> presume to be a specification for the amount of flour.  I've transcribed
> it as qte, of whicb I am not sure of.  And if that is correct, what does
> that signify - a quantity?  A quart?
> 
> Here's what I came up with:
> 
> To make a past for dumpling
> Season ye flowre with pepp, salt & yeast
> Lett ye water bee maid then warme, then
> make them vpp like a manchette, but  lett them
> bee sumwhat light, then putt them into ye
> water, when it boileth, & lett them boile
> an howor & then butter them.
> 
> To make pufpast
> Take a qte of flowre, & a pound & a halfe
> of butter, worke them & also pound of butter
> dry into the flowre, then putt 3 or 4
> eggs to that, & as much cold water, as will
> make itt lieth past, then worke itt in a
> peece of a foote longe, then strew a litle
> flowre on the table, & take itt by the
> end & beate itt vntill itt stretch longe,
> then putt the 2 ends togeather & beate
> itt againe & soe doe 5 or 6 tymes then
> worke itt vpp round & rowle itt vpp broade
> then beate ye pound of butter wth a(?)
> rowlinge pin that itt may bee lieth, then
> take litle-bitte of ye butter & strike itt all
> over? The past, then fould vpp ye past close &
> crush itt downe with ye rowlinge pin, &
> rowle itt out againe & soe do 5 or 6 tymes
> then vse itt as yow will.
> 
> Thank you to any willing eyes,
> 
> Katherine B.
> 
> 
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