caul-fat-msg - 3/22/17

Medieval use of caul fat. What it is.

NOTE: See also the files: larding-msg, butter-msg, larded-milk-msg, bacon-msg, p-pigs-msg, Cooking-Fats-art, cooking-oils-msg.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 10:52:53 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Caul-not pleasant

Uduido at aol.com wrote:
> << What is "caul fat"? >>
> 
> It is actually not fat but a membrane described by the American College
> Dictionary as follows:
> 
> caul, n. a part of the amnion sometimes covering the head of a childd at
> birth, superstitiously supposed to bring good luck and to be an infallible
> preservative against drowning.
> 
> :-). I use the term to describe the fatty membranes that hold the internal
> organs together.If there is another term for such a mambrane or the caul
> spoken of in the reciept is actual caul as described above, please let me
> know. If it were real caul used in the Apicius reciept that could account for
> the Christian myths of 'pagans eating their young'. :-0
> 
> Lord Ras

Caul fat can be any of several abdominal membranes, almost always those
of pigs. They are a thin, elastic sheet of transparent membrane, similar
to sausage casing, covered with veins of white fat which makes the whole
thing vaguely reminiscent of lace, which is why some people call it lace
fat. It is frequently known as mesentery, too. French recipes generally
use the term "crepin".

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 21:03:30 -0400
From: "Philippa Alderton" <phlip at bright.net>
Subject: Re: SC - German Anyone?

Valoise asks:
The word 'netz' in the Klobwurst probably refers to a caul or omentum,
according to my modern German dictionary. Okay, you butcher types, just
what exactly is that? I thought it was a membrane wrapped around a fetus,
is that right? What could be substituted?

A caul is a translucent membrane such as that wrapped around a fetus, but
the word can also be used to refer to the abdominal caul, or omentum, which
is one of the layers protecting the intestines. In the case of the
abdominal caul, it is frequently spotted with pockets of fat. The omentum
is the membrane I had thrown away while butchering the pregnant rabbit for
Ras, which he was thinking was part of the uterus. It's easy enough to
separate out if you have a sure hand with a knife while gutting and
skinning your animal. I really couldn't think WHAT you'd use as a
substitute. Its function in a recipe would most likely be to encapsulate
food, and help keep it moist, much as we use aluminum foil for today, but
also for adding fat.

Phlip
Caer Frig
Barony of the Middle Marches
Middle Kingdom


Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:28:49 -0500
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mattioli's Mushrooms

On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 1:18 PM,  <wheezul at canby.com> wrote:
<<< Does anyone know what a cooked calf's caul looks like?  Image searching
has failed me... >>>

I searched Google for 'veal caul' and found this:
http://www.starchefs.com/events/studio/techniques/vuong_loc/html/index.shtml

The last image appears to be what you want.

Brighid ni Chiarain

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	caul-fat-msg	2