Saturday, 12/02/06

At the holiday, mom recommended the pumpkin pie recipe from the 1965 Pepperidge Farm Cookbook that came into my possession a while back. It's an odd title, sprinkled with "antique" recipes of historical interest, the eldest from "the world's first printed cookbook, De Honesta Voluptate by Bartholomaeus de Platina, written in medieval Latin and printed in Venice in 1475." The first recorded pumpkin pie recipe follows.

Shred well-cleaned pumpkins and, as with cheese, let them cook a little either in heavy juice or in milk. When partially cooked, pass it through a sieve into a pan, as, I said first, for cheese.

Mix together a half-pound of sow's belly or rich fat boiled and beaten with a knife, or in place of these, if you wish, the same amount of butter or liquamen; a half-pound of sugar, some cinnamon, six eggs and two cups of milk with a little saffron.

This dessert will be rich with a good crust only if cooked above or below a slow fire.

There are those who add pieces of leaves in place of the upper crust and call the dish lagana. When cooked and put in a dish, sprinkle on it sugar and rosewater.

Cassius, who was bothered by colic and stones, did not eat this. It is difficult to digest and nourishes badly.

I don't know what Bartholomaeus means by the last part; it's all I've had to eat so far today. 12:20PM «

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