Tips, Tricks and Recipes of the Trade!

So, our master chef, Bartolomeo Scappi has been introduced. I will present briefly write about each book in Scappi included and as to why he might have included certain aspects. As well as the images of the kitchen tools he added to his cookbook as well... Let's begin!

BOOK ONE
Ragionamento che fa l'autore M. Bartolomeo Scappi con Giovanni suo discepolo. 

Left: Various Knives Right: Kitchen Apparatus, 2
Photo: bibliodyssey.blogspot.ca

Well, the first book is not presenting us with any forms of recipes. The main focus on this book is the conversation Scappi has with his apprentice Giovanni. Scappi has about 44 sections about what a master chef should embody in all aspects of his life. Scappi speaks in detail about where the kitchen should be set and how it should be designed. He speaks that the location should avoid distractions from the public eye, it should be airy so that it does not become stifling. The advice he presents for the kitchen is one of an ideal kitchen. If one has the space and the means to do so, then he should strive to make his kitchen so. I say this because he starts off most paragraphs, with "I think." 

Left: Various Utensils, 1 Right: Various Utensils, 2
Photo: bibliodyssey.blogspot.ca

He then begins a lengthy discussion on how to tell how good particular food items are. For example, "20. To tell how good honey is. To be good, honey should be fine-grained, firm, heavy, of a good smell, and with a golden colour. Above all it should be clean. It is stored in wooden or earthenware vessels" (113). Scappi also wants to drive home the idea of experience and how through actually learning and attempting these things on his own, through various kitchens, he has gained the knowledge to make a cookbook like this with such detailed instructions. Preservation is also a large focus of Scappi (and it should!) because, as we know, fridges were not used to keep their meat! They had to find methods to make their meat last for as long as they could without it going bad.

Left: Kitchen Apparatus, 3 Right: Kitchen Equipment
for Travelling (Photo: bibliodyssey.blogspot.ca)

         From point 43 and onwards his attention is now focused on the types of instruments one should have in his kitchen at all times. He has a list for the proper iron equipment, which seems to go detail of the little things, like "Pastry knives. Skinning knives. Knives of carious sorts with their sheath of boiled leather. Hooks of carious sorts for removing meat from a cauldron. Balance scales, like a spicer's, with weights, to weigh out spices"(124-125). And so much more, including a list for copper equipment, and even a section for the the stamps and moulds for both the Master Chef and Pastry Chef.


BOOK TWO
Diverse vivande di carne, si di quadrupedi, come di volatili 
In this book, the focus is on preparing various types of meat dishes. I enjoyed recipe 7, to make Venetian bresaola of grilled beef ribs: Get a rack of ribs of a fat ox or cow, of mature age, slicing it apart rib by rib. With the flat of a large knife press each of them, spreading them out a little, and beat them with the spine of a knife on one side and the other: that is done so that the meat will be softer and more tender. Then they are splashed with rose vinegar, and sprinkled with pepper, cinnamon, salt, fennel flour or coriander. Pile them up on one another under pressure for six hours, more or less, depending on the time you have. Cook them slowly on a grill, turning them over occasionally, with a slice of pork fat on each so they do not dry out. When they are done, they need to be served with a garnish of vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg on top. You can do the same with a rack of ribs from a wether, a weaned calf and a suckling or free-ranging calf.
The detail that Scappi places in his recipes, and the careful instruction, gives a sense of him wishing whoever that reads his work understands each and every process there is to preparing a meal like this. All his recipes call for the same level of attention to detail. And not only does he present one singular way to prepare a certain cut of beef but he begins a number of his recipes with "Several ways to cook" or "Various ways."
He then goes into detail about the different fowls and methods to prepare those and ways to prepare different dishes composed of grains, nuts, pasta, and legumes. Which seem to end in recipes of soup!
Book two ends off with various recipes of jellies and sauces. I can present a short sauce here:
259. to prepare a sauce of fresh visciola cherries or of other fruit.
     Get four pounds of fresh Roman cherries that are not too ripe, and cook them in a pot with two-thirds of a litre of verjuice, two ounces of fine mostaccioli, four ounces of breadcrumb, a little salt, a pound of sugar and an ounce of pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg together. When it is done, put all of it through a strainer and let it cool. Serve it. You can do gooseberries and mulberries the same way.

BOOK THREE
Vivande che appartengono alli giorni di magro et quadragesimali
This book has a focus on "lean dishes," which includes sea, freshwater and preserved fish, frogs, turtles, crustaceans, molluses,  and different types of vegetables (eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.). Scappi also takes time to speak about the season and look of specific ingredients
191. The appearance and season of razor clams
Razor clams are of two sorts: white and black. In some places they are called spoletti. They are covered with a smooth rippled shell half a palm's width, more or less, in length, depending on their size. They look like a small reed and in that reed is the clam which is long rather like a ligament. A large number of them are caught in the port of Civita Vecchia, and near Chiozza, too; few are brought to Rome, though. They are caught with an iron fork, but those caught in a net are better because they are not so full of sand. They are tougher than a cockle. Their season begins in October and goes to the end of April.
Then he teaches you how to prepare these clams!
192. Several ways to cook razor clams.
Get razor clams that are alive, because otherwise they are worthless, and let them steep for two hours in saltwater or salted freshwater that is slightly warm: you do that to get the sand out of them. Take them out of the water, coat them in oil and cook them on a grill. When they have opened fully, bathe them in oil mixed with orange juice and pepper. Serve them hot.
   If you want them in a pottage, bring them to a boil; alternatively, when they are half cooked on the grill remove them from their shell and make a pottage of them. Braise them the way oysters are done in recipe 186.
  They can also be fried after they are taken out of their shell. Those are served garnished with sautéed parsley and orange juice, or else dressed with a variety of garnishes. And you can make a variety of pastry dishes with them, as is said in the book on pastries.
Another neat aspect of his cookbook is how he relates numerous recipes back to one another. I just can't seem to be grateful for the amount of detail he puts into his cookbook. As with the specification of the season, colour, and location for the razor clam, it feels as if, for whoever reads this, truly gets a large amount of information out of it.

This post is also becoming a tad tooo long, so I'll finish off books four-six in the following post!






All photos from: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.ca/2009/03/renaissance-kitchen.html
All recipes and main source: Scappi, Bartolomeo. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L'arte et prudenza d'un maestro Cuoco. Trans. Terence Scully. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1570. Print.