Lost in Translation
The last few weeks have been working through my research paper. It has grown significantly from the documentation of a single breed of chicken and is now a survey of domesticated chickens since the earliest records of domestication through to the latter part of the 17th century (I am using Digby, which was published in 1669). This is, as you may imagine, a gigantic project that is taking up a great deal of time to write. There are times that I feel like I have my arms around it and then more information comes in and I find out that I was only seeing one part of the thing. It’s like deciding that you’ve caught an elephant by grabbing its toe.
This means less time to update here and update at Facebook, and I feel terribly neglectful of that and wish that there were just more hours in the day. Updates will be sporadic for a while longer while I beat the piece into shape and have it edited and ready to go to the judges for their review.
What I want to share with you today, and why the title is what it is, is that I am also working on a translation for the cooking portion of the competition. The recipe is one from Carolus Battus’ work “Eenen seer schonen ende excellenten cocbok”
Original Recipe:
1. Om eyeren te vollen
Neemt herde eyeren, peltsse, ende clooftse in den midden ende neemt de doyeren uut. Meemt dan groen cruyt, te weten: roosmarijn, margeleyn, ende diergelijcke. Neemt dan eenen pot waters, ende letet op de seude commen, doet er dan u cruyt in, ende latet een walleken ofte twee opsieden. Neemt dan het cruyt weder uut het water, ende doetet in eenen mortier, ende doet er de herde eyeren by, stampet tesamen wel cleyn ende doet er dan by: suycker, cannell, foeylie, gyneber, gepoedert, ende roeret wel ondereen. Alsdan so vollet hol van den witte der eyeren met desen cruyde, elck half ey besonder. Alsdan soo neempt een panne met boter, laetse bruyn werdern, endelegt de halve gevolde eyeren daerin, met het cruyt tegen de panne, ende laetse so roosten. Ghy moechtse oock wel om keeran, ende als u dunckt datse genoech zijn, so dientse ter tafelen, ende strooyt er suycher op.
Translation (in progress) by Jennifer Strobel
1. To make eggs
Take hard egg, peel and cut in the middle and take the yolk out. Take then green herbs to soak: rosemary, marjoram, and such. Take then a pot [or quart] of water and leave in the steam bowl. Put there then you herbs in and let a small boiler or two [opsieden] take then the herbs again out the water and put in a morter and put there the hard egg [by] stamp [tesamen] much smaller and put there then [by] sugar, cinnamon, mace, ginger [melted?] and stir much together also. Thus fill hollow of the white of the egg with the same herbs each half [ey] separately also as take a pan with butter let brown become and lay the half filled egg therein with the herbs toward the pan and leave as roast you might also much how turn and also you think that enough be. Thus serve for the table and strew there sugar on.
Discussion
This sounds like it’s hard boiled eggs that have had the yolks removed, mixed with herbs and then put in a mortar where it’s mashed with additional cinnamon, mace, and ginger. Then the egg is re-stuffed and fried in butter. The final product is then garnished with sugar.
There are a number of words that I need to find, which is a matter of doing some poking around to locate them. The one that is especially interesting to me is the word “tesamen” as it’s seemingly superfluous in the flow of the sentence. We shall see.
The big decision is going to be what herbs to use. I will be making this dish in the spring and that limits the available fresh herbs…well, because I’m not entirely okay with explaining away using out-of-season ingredients because I live in the modern world. I could grow rosemary and marjoram inside of the house and chervil should be available locally. Chervil is seasonal for spring and it is documentable to the Roman era (the Romans purportedly spread chervil throughout the empire), so I should be able to find evidence that it was in the Netherlands during the 16th century.
It’s very much a first step on a much longer road, but this translation is not nearly as difficult as some others I’ve done and the missing words aren’t impossible to find. Once I finish the research paper, I can share with you the details about the breed of chicken that I am raising and whose eggs will be used for the recipe that I will be using in the competition.