[Sca-cooks] Which wine for mallard recipe

[Alexander Clark]

On Tue, 6 Mar 2012 06:52:47 -0500, Sharon Palmer
<ranvaig at columbus.rr.com> wrote:
> To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>>I'm looking at serving wild mallard at a feast at the end of this
>>month. Here's a link to the recipe I'm currently planning on using:
>>
>>http://www.godecookery.com/nboke/nboke80.html
>>
>>The recipe calls for dry wine and for wine vinegar. I'm not sure
>>whether I should use red or white wine, or whether it would really
>>matter. Any suggestions?
>
> Take Conyng, Hen, or Mallard, and roste him al-moste ynowe; or elles
> choppe hem, and fry hem in fressh grece; and fry oynons myced, and
> cast al togidre into a potte, and caste there-to Canell; then stepe
> faire brede with the same broth, and drawe hit thorgh a streynour
> with vinegre. And when hit hath wel boiled, caste the licour thereto,
> and pouder ginger, and vinegre, and ceson hit vppe, and then thou
> shall serue hit forth.
>
> I don't see why the redaction has wine.  It's not mentioned in the
> original. (Neither are cloves and mace, except as "season it up").
> Unless they were looking at other versions of the recipe too.

That recipe that doesn't mention wine, et al., is not really the
original. It's just someone's transcription of Austin's published
transcription. And it's missing a few words:

". . . caste there-to fressh broth and half wyne; . . . Cloues, Maces,
powder of Peper, . . ."

So apparently the author of the modern interpretation was working
directly and carefully from Austin, while some large errors got into
the new transcription.

-- 
Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark