[Sca-cooks] Which wine for mallard recipe

[Alexander Clark]

On 3/6/12, I <alexbclark at pennswoods.net> wrote:
> 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.

P. P. S. I find it interesting that they specified that the pepper
should be "powder". Maybe this is supposed to be another of the
recipes where the cloves and maces are put in whole.

-- 
Henry/Alex