[Sca-cooks] Pretzels

[Terry Decker]

I thought the diminutive was being used and it's nice to know I was correct. 
The warning about the change in meaning is useful.

As your Father has pointed out a brazzatella is four ounces so it is 
essentially the weight of a medium size roll or bun.  The shape is more 
difficult to pin down.  I'm certain it is a ring bread.  The question in my 
mind is it a fat or a skinny ring.  A speculative case can be made for a 
thin ring can be made if brazzatella translates to bracer which is defined 
at this time as a cincture, a cord wrapped around the wrist.

You have made an error in reading Florio's definition of bracciatello.  The 
word you read as "funnel" is "simnel."  It is a type of (enriched) bread 
made from extremely fine flour.  The weight of a farthing loaf was set as 
2s. less than the weight of a farthing wastel in the Assize of Bread and 
Beer.

While I haven't encountered any descriptions of a ciambella, the size and 
shape of a ciambella is likely to be a roll of about four ounces, but a 
number of shapes are possible.  Modernly, ciambella is a doughnut.  At the 
time, it translated to cracknel or simnel.  Simnels began as butter and egg 
enriched bread, usually shaped as rolls or loaves and by the late 16th 
Century were probably being filled with marzipan.  They went from that to an 
enriched fruit bread with two layers of marzipan sitting in a pastry shell 
about 8 inches in diameter (although the size of the later simnels was more 
a function of the baker and the enforcement of the Assize than any ideal 
form).  Simnels are boiled then baked.  The ones with the pastry shell are 
boiled in a pudding cloth.

Cracknels are a hard, brittle cake or biscuit.  The word appears to come 
into English from the Middle Dutch, "crakelinc."  Modernly, as far as I can 
determine, "krakeling" refers to crisp pretzels, figure eights and ring 
breads.  The modern recipes I've seen don't boil before baking.  I'm 
wondering if there might not be a  early 17th Century recipe in Koge Bog.

Just as a fun aside, ciambellette (a double diminutive?) is defined as 
wafers or thin cakes.

Thank you for your consideration of the linguistic issues.  Every little bit 
helps.

Bear


Yes, now that you mention it. "-ello/a/i/e" is a diminutive. In case you're
curious, Bracciata is given as an armful or an embracing, which is only so
useful. The italian/italian dictionary gives it as armful as well. Brazzata
doesn't seem to exist.

(If you mean in the text as a whole, I'd have to recheck it, I don't have
the Italian right here, but if you do the standard ones are -ino, -ello,
and -etto. Normal warning for diminutives, they tend to change the meaning
- a libretto is literally a little book, but the word has developed a
specific meaning of its own. Do Not Try This At Home, etc. etc.)

I don't know if there are any descriptions of ciambella, but if there were
you might be able to estimate the size of the brazzatelle from that?

Rebecca

On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 6:27 AM, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:

> I have no problem with your translation, merely irritation at having an
> incomplete translation in my possession, which I hadn't compared to the
> original text.  This is Early Modern Italian prior to standardization, so
> spelling shifts and other oddities are to be expected.  A question you may
> be able to answer, are we looking at diminutives in this text?
>
> From a couple other quotes about how brazzatella were served, I would say
> they are a simple ring bread, while the "wreathed bread" they were served
> with is likely a ring braid.  What the descriptions don't provide is an
> idea of actual size and dimensions.
>
> Bear
>
>
>
> "And make them rise with great -" diligence or care, I would make that. 
> And
> more precisely, I think they are rings, not pretzels - bagels precisely I
> can't speak to, but if you're curious about the linguistic argument...
>
> ... "bracciatello" is in Florio's 1611 dictionary as "A kind of roule or
> bisket bread, we call them round funnels". (Poking around on my other 
> early
> dictionary, I get "bracciatello" described as a "kind of large ciambella"
> and a "ciambella" as "the same dough [as berlingozzo] made in the form of 
> a
> ring" which seems pretty clear. Also, the dough is described as "flour
> mixed with eggs".) Mind, brazzatella --> bracciatello is still a shift.
> -zz- to -cci- is a change that happens very often, maybe even on a
> within-the-same-manuscript basis, but while -a to -o sometimes happens it
> is not nearly that common. So I don't guarantee they're the same, but
> they're very close, bracciatello is definitely an egg bread made in the
> shape of a ring, and I could not find the word brazzatella at all in the
> dictionary. So for whatever it's worth, there's my linguistic grounds!
>
> Becca