[Sca-cooks] Lent is coming!

[Terry Decker]

I am familiar with ciambelline which are small wreath-shaped loaves that run 
the gamut from small bread wreaths similar to bagels to something on the 
order of a sugar cookie.  To me, bagels would be a form of ciambelline.  I 
would assume that Ciambella would be a large wreath shaped loaf.

That Bracciatello is referred to as "a round simnel" suggests that this is a 
sweet, enriched dough stuffed with fruit and/or marzipan.  This is possibly 
a variant of Ciambelline all'Uva, which Carol Field describes as a 
raisin-dotted sugar cookie.  Or, traditional modern (post 1600) English 
simnels are an enriched, stuffed loaf of bread filling a pastry shell which 
is then boiled and baked, so this might describe a fruit stuffed bagel. 
Earlier simnels may have been  extremely fine loaves with a marzipan 
filling.

Berlingozzo I find interesting.  I wonder if this may not be a variant of 
Berlingaccio, which modernly is Fat Tuesday.  If so, it suggests to me that 
what is being described is an Italian version of King Cake.

My opinion of the evidence presented is that while it would include bagels, 
it does not limit the usage to bagels.  Thank you for all of the information 
and the references.

Bear


>
> "Precedella" sounds as though it might be Italian.Mine are from an Italian
> cookbook and calledBrazzatelle. My daughter assures me that she has
> linguistic evidence that they are bagels, but I'm not sure how conclusive
> it is. And to my ear, "Precedella" and "Brazzatelle" sound as though they
> could be related.
>
> As per your request, O My Father...

The singular is Brazzatella, I think. In Florio's Italian-English
dictionary (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/), the word Brazzatella is
not given. However, Brazzetto is given as “as Braccietto,” suggesting that
“zz” went to “cci” which given what I've seen of dialects is not uncommon. (
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/search/082r.html) This does occur fairly
frequently in the dictionary.

Checking for Bracciatella, I found that that did not exist but that
Bracciatello did, and furthermore that it was given as “a kind of roule or
bisket bread, we call them round simnels.” (Again, I've run into a lot more
masculine -o to feminine -a changes than I would ever have expected before
I started working with early sources; for example, Braccietto, which had
gotten me there, is listed as “as Brachetta”) All this is at
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/search/082l.html

There is an early Italian dictionary, Lessicografia della Crusca in rete, (
http://193.205.158.203/index.jsp) which has webbed editions of the
dictionary starting from 1612. The 1612 edition has Bracciatello listed as
“a type of large ciambella” (
http://www.lessicografia.it/Controller?c1=350;-7;3;-21159276;212722725;&c2=129;-39;3;40;69;1;130;32;5;40;66;1;129;-39;65;40;69;4;130;1025;5;40;75;13;130;27;3;652660136;1238720506;&qi=&qr=null&num=20&o=105;-44382125;-308820822;&q1=bracciatello&EdCrusca1=1)
and the second (1623) edition has Ciambella listed as a variant on
Berlingozzo “the same dough made in the form of a ring, we call Ciambella.”
(
http://www.lessicografia.it/Controller?c1=350;-7;3;-21159276;212722725;&c2=129;-39;3;40;69;1;130;32;5;40;66;1;129;-39;65;40;69;4;130;1025;5;40;75;13;130;27;3;652660136;1238720506;&qi=&qr=null&num=20&o=105;-44382125;-308820822;&q1=ciambella&EdCrusca2=1
)

Since I didn't need to know the dough, just the shape, I refrained from
looking up Berlingozzo. But that's my evidence for thinking that
Brazzatelle are made "in the form of a ring", so are closer to bagels than
pretzels.

Rebecca bint Cariadoc, who is now vanishing back to lurking.