[Sca-cooks] Sweating meat

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

I wonder if this is similar to what Anthimus  means when he talks about 
cooking meat far from the fire so that it is "as if  steamed":

"But as I have said [cook mutton] far away and for a long time,  so that it 
becomes as if steamed"

"Suckling pigs are fit enough and  suitable boiled, or in gravy, or roasted 
in the oven without too much heat, and  do not use the full measure [of 
heat] but rather so that they become as if  steamed."

The Romans in fact did steam meat (which the French would not  again for 
centuries) but he is the only one I know of who refers to creating a  similar 
effect without actually doing that.

Jim  Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

A History of Coffee and Other Refreshments  in Early Modern France 
by Pierre Le Grand d'Aussy 

In a message dated  4/10/2013 5:59:35 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, 
susanne.mayer5 at chello.at  writes:
> The first question is what it means to "sweat" the meat until  all 
> moisture evaporates. One of the dishes that got done in the  workshop had 
> a similar instruction. The cooks interpreted it as a very  long slow 
> cooking until no more liquid appeared, and the result was dry  and rather 
> over cooked.
> 
> I instead cooked the meat  (with onion and spices) for about ten minutes 
> in a covered saucepan  until it gave up a good deal of liquid, which is 
> more like sweating,  then removed the cover and spent the next fourteen 
> minutes cooking the  liquid away.