[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. S. That is to say, the interpretation was much more careful than
the new transcription, but they still cheated a bit by substituting
butter for grease for frying, and by putting in the vinegar before the
final seasoning. They also substituted oven-roasting for
spit-roasting, and by their own admission intentionally skipped the
part where you strain the soaked bread.

-- 
Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark