Cabbage and Carrot Salad

ORIGINAL RECIPE

De' cavoli capuci in insalata (Castelvetro "Degli erbaggi del verno")

RECIPE TRANSLATION

by

Cabbage Salad (Castelvetro "Winter")

... One of the ladies, sitting in the window-seat of the dining-room, which overlooked an orchard, said to me, "Let's go into the garden and ick a salad!" to which I replied, "Yes, indeed!" When we got there, we found nothing but cabbages, so the young lady picked one of these saying, "Well, if there's nothing else, I'll make you all a nice salad out of this." Having never seen or eaten anything like this before, I kept silent and waited for the outcome. First she removed the green outer leaves until she came to the white part, which she proceeded to slice very finely with a razor-sharp knife. She then salted and dressed it in the usual way, and brought it to the table, where it was pronounced excellent, and her ingenuity was much admired by the entire company.

ORIGINAL RECIPE

Mixed (Composite) salads

Dell’altre insalate di Mescolanza Cap LXII (2)

Usasi di mangiare (non però da tutti) altre sorti di mescolanza, delle qualle una riceve per materia qualch;herba, e l’altra, essendo più semplice, potria trà l’insalate de’frutti annoverarsi. Somministrano materia alla prima i midolli stretti delle lattuche, divisi per lungo in più parti, con le quali s’accompagnano le olive, i limoni spartiti in piccole parti, e sottili, equalmente tagliati nella polpa, e nell’agro; piccole sarde salate, Zibibi, tarantello, petrosello, & altre simili materie. Et a questa si possono aggiungere altr’herbe di quelle, che sono state da noi scritte, & insieme i fiori; non altrimenti, che i fiori, i frutti, & i germogli de cappari. Ma questa sorte d’insalata è poco in uso, anzi è a molti rincrescevole; & a mio giuditio, per molti, e diversi generi di materie, non poco dannosa, o se non tale, almeno atta più tosto a nutrire, che ad’irritar la fame. Riceve ella ordinario condimento d’olio, di aceto, e di poca quantità di sale, per rispetto delle materie salse, che le danno corpo; & ammette anche gratamente il mosto cotto.

Fassi la seconda insalata di mele crude, monde dalla scorza, e tolcone via il midollo, e di cipolla, amendue divisi in non minute parti: e se le mele son’agre, haveranno maggior possanza di destar la fame; s’elleno on dolci, faranno gratiosa compagnia all’agro della cipolla. Quest’insalata si condisce anch’ella dell’ordinario condimento, ma con l’aggiunta del pepe, che la rende di sapore più grata. E suol questa in salata farsi nel tempo, che l’asprezza, & orrore del Verno o hà in tutto inaridite l’herbe de gli horti, o le neve in tutto le ricuoprono.

E’costume ancora di magiarsi l’insalata in simile stagione, oltre alle dette, fatta di cavolo capuccio strettissimo nel midollo, a giusa di taglionlini sottilissimamente tagliato; e perche è il cavolo alquanto agretto, vi si mescolano in abbondanza le uve dolci, e condiscesi come le altre insalate; e se vi si aggiunge un poco di pepe non è ingrata.

RECIPE TRANSLATION

by Mistress Helewyse de Birkestad in "Salads served in 16th century Italy, it's not just lettuce"

http://www.medievalcookery.com/helewyse/salads.html

Of other mixed salads

Some eat (but not all) another sort of mixed salad, which has for ingredients several herbs and other things. To be simply put amongst the salad various fruits. Among the first thing is the middle section of lettuce, divided along the length in many pieces, and one accompanies it with olives, lemons cut into small thin pieces, equally cutting the peel and the flesh, small salted sardines, dried currants, oil cured tuna belly, parsley and similar materials. And to this it is possible to add other herbs than these which have been written by us before, and together with flowers not forgetting flowers, fruits and the buds of capers. But this type of salad is little used, also it is very tedious (filling?), and to my judgment for many it is the diverse mixture of ingredients, not a little harmful, or if not such, at least more apt, to nourish than to provoke hunger. It gets the ordinary dressing of oil, vinegar and just a little salt, because of the salted items that give it body, and it is improved by the addition of mosto cotto.

One makes a second salad of raw apples, peeled, and cut through the middle, and of onions, also cut into not too small pieces. If the apple is sour it has the major possibility of rousing hunger, if they are sweet they will make better company with the sour of the onion. This salad one dresses also with the ordinary dressing, but with the addition of pepper, that makes the sauce more graceful. And this salad is accustomed to being made in the time that is more sour and the winter, or his around it dried herbs or snow covering it.

It is custom also to eat the salad, in the same season, other than said, made of white (hooded) cabbage, split down the middle and carefully cut into the thinnest slices and because the cabbage is fairly bitter one mixes with it a lot of sweet grapes (dried?), and dresses it as the other salads, and if one adds to it a little pepper it isn’t without grace.

RECIPE REDACTION

by Maestra Suzanne de la Ferté

Sources:

Castelvetro, G. , Brieve racconto di tutte le radici, di tutte l'erbe e di tutti i frutti che crudi o cotti in Italia si mangiano. 1614, In Londra, M.DC.XIV.

http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/c/castelvetro/index.htm

The fruit, herbs & vegetables of Italy: an offering to Lucy Countess of Bedford. Giacomo Castelvetro, Gillian Riley. 1989 Viking, New York, NY.

Scappi, B., Opera : (dell' arte del cucinare). Reprint. First published: Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi. Venice, 1570. 1981, Bologna: Arnaldo Forni. [20], 436 leaves [ca. 888 p.], [28] p. of plates.

http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=X533351951&idioma=0

Massonio, Salvatore, Archidipno overo dell'insalata e dell'vso di essa . In Venetia : appresso Marc'Antonio Brogiollo , 1627.

http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=B20397215&idioma=0