[Sca-cooks] Gourd Recipe in the Transylvanian Cookbook

[Terry]

On 5/18/2019 2:46 PM, Julia Szent-Gyorgyi wrote:
>
>> A case can be made for using New World squash with the recipe.
> I think it's almost certain that the recipe was meant for or at least
> used for squash originating in the New World. Transylvania was the
> perfect place for the new, fleshier vegetables (which are actually
> botanically fruits, but nevermind) to take over the old category
> without so much as a blip of protest:

That should probably be phrased  "a case can be made for the pre-1600 
use of New World squash in the recipe" .  The Ottomans very likely got 
the New World plants from Spain by way of Venice. The tastier, meatier 
New World squashes were quickly adopted wherever they reached.


>
>> I would
>> suggest using a bench knife rather than a shingle (wood or slate?
> Wood. The word used is not applied to slate (and I don't recall ever
> seeing a slate roof anywhere in Hungary).

Is there any particular wood favored for shingles in Hungary? I'm 
curious about how sharp an edge one can get on a shingle.


>
>> What is a bridge?
> It's explained in the glossary to the 17c cookbooks: "according to a
> verse by Oroszhegyi Mihály (1656), at serving-time, cooks ‘put a
> little pine bridge on
> top of the bowl’; the roast capon, meat, etc. is placed on this
> plank." It's a serving method: the sauce or vegetable goes in a bowl,
> the accompanying meat or other protein goes on a plank or platter
> straddling the bowl.

Which tells me the dish should be served with the eggs over the squash 
rather than under it, rather than the squash on the eggs as I suggested.


>
> Julia
> /\ /\
>
Many thanks for the additional information.  It suggests I might even be 
correct in my speculations.


Bear