Help translating recipe

[johndefiore]

I recently found one of my grandmother's recipes for Scripelle Frite (dated 1972!), which is different from the more common scripelle in brodo. I'd like to give it a try but I can't translate some of the words. Maybe someone here could help? Here's the recipe:

3 Piate di farina (Three cups of flour)
(I seem to remember she used potato flour, does anyone know if that's correct?)
2 cuchiare pieole di polvere
(2 teaspoons (tablespoons?) of something powdered, maybe baking powder?)
2 ove (2 eggs)
2 cuchiare di curisco (Crisco?)
2 patane grande che de laqua rosamarina (I remember she made rosemary water, but I don't understand the measure here. The handwriting is a little difficult to understand)
e uno pache di sole (or is that sale, a pinch of salt?)

e questo sono per fare la scripelle frite (that part I get)

The dough was shaped into long twists and deep fried in oil, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Absolutely great when fresh.

My grandmother was from Montazzoli, Chieti, Abruzzo and spoke the local dialect, so some of the words are not necessarily standard Italian.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

Regards,

John

[arturo.c]

Hello there,

I found your post while looking for genealogy queries, and was intrigued by it because although my grandmother was Abruzzese too, I never heard about the "scripelle" (or scrippelle), but I could somehow figure the meaning of the words, so I did some research on the internet and found an Italian website on scrippelle that helped me to figure out ingredients and amounts.

So here we go:
- Three handfuls of flour (I guess "piate" comes from "pigliare" = to grab);
- Two teaspoons ("cucchiare piccole" = small spoons) powdered (yeast?);
- Two eggs;
- Two tablespoons bran (crusca);
- Two big potatoes (boiled in) water with rosemary;
And a pinch of salt (sale).

Hope this helps. Merry Christmas!
Arturo.

[AngelaGrace56]

I'm thinking that the ingredient used in the first recipe here was probably more likely to have been baking powder for this recipe (but I might be wrong). I think that if a yeast was used that it would more likely have been a compressed yeast not a powder?

Slightly related trivia: The word we used for cup at home was “taza” (phonetically) whereas the word we used for plate was “piat” (phonetically) which is similiar to “piate”. Cucciara (phonetically) was tablespoon and Cucciarina (phonetically) was teaspoon.
Angela

[arturo.c]

I'm thinking that the ingredient used in the first recipe here was probably more likely to have been baking powder for this recipe (but I might be wrong). I think that if a yeast was used that it would more likely have been a compressed yeast not a powder?

Slightly related trivia: The word we used for cup at home was “taza” (phonetically) whereas the word we used for plate was “piat” (phonetically) which is similiar to “piate”. Cucciara (phonetically) was tablespoon and Cucciarina (phonetically) was teaspoon.
Angela

I thought that too. "Baking powder" is rendered in Italian as "Lievito in polvere" or "Lievito per dolci" in order to distinguish it from the one used for bread and savoury pies.

As for "piate" meaning "piatti" (plates), it could make sense. Although it would probably be more practical to use cups to measure amounts of flour, it couldn't be dismissed outright.

[AngelaGrace56]

As for "piate" meaning "piatti" (plates), it could make sense. Although it would probably be more practical to use cups to measure amounts of flour, it couldn't be dismissed outright.

Like you, I agree it would be more practical to use cups to measure. Maybe it was a special little soup plate? My mum, who was an amazing cook (unlike myself), use to just take handfuls out of this huge flour bin we kept in the kitchen. If she was making large quantities then she would use a cup or even a small bowl.

Re: Crisco: I've been baking an Italian Almond Cake today and some other annual goodies and thinking about this recipe here for Scripelle and wondering to myself why the bran in this recipe and what might be missing. Bran doesn't seem to fit and then I wondered whether it might be an essence/flavouring of some sort. I've googled Crisco and it is actually a liquor, but it is also a shortening (fat) – a butter/oil substitute. In this recipe I would suggest that it refers to 2 tablespoons of Crisco shortening.

Have a lovely Christmas.
Angela

[johndefiore]

Thanks everyone for the help, I'm actually trying this today. If I remember right my grandmother did use yeast for this recipe but indeed it was cube yeast not powder. I don't remember bran being used but I do vaguely remember Crisco shortening.

Merry Christmas to all !

John

[AngelaGrace56]

You are very welcome. It has been a great team effort Let us know how they turn out.

With the potatoes, I would peel them, then cut into quarters, boil them for approximately 20 minutes until they are softish but not mushy and then mash them to an even texture and leave to cool.

Good luck and if you have any more of your grandmother's recipes to share, then I for one would be interested and I'm sure others would be also. Merry Christmas.
Angela