Need help translating recipe in OLD cookbook, probably Appalachian...?

Question

I am going to type the recipe EXACTLY as it appears in the book, and then how I have translated it thus far, any help would be appreciated.

RESIPEE FOR CUKIN KON-FEELPEES

Gether your pees 'bout sundown, the folrun day, bout leven o'clock, gowge out your pees, with your thum nale, like gowgin out a man's eyeball at a kote-house.

Rense your pees, parbile them, then fry em with som several slices uv streekt. Middlin, incouragin uv the gravy to seep out and intermarry with your pees. When modritly brown, but not scorcht, emplty intdo a dish.

Mash em gently with a spune.
Mix with raw tomarters, sprinkled with a little brown sugar. And the immortal dish ar quite ready. Eat a hepe, eat mo and mo. It is good for your general helth uv mind and body. It fattens you up, makes you sassy, goes throd and throd your very soul. But why don't you eat? Eat on. By jings. Eat. Stop! Never while thar is a pee in the dish.

Mozis Addums

RECIPE FOR COOKING ?? (COUNTRY PEAS?)

Gather your peas about sundown. The following day, about eleven o’clock, gouge out your peas with your thumb nail, like gouging out a man’s eyeball at a kote-house. (No idea what a kote-house is. Brothel? Speakeasy? Gambling den? Afraid it might be a nasty racial slur…If so I’m SORRY!)

Rinse your peas, parboil them, then fry them with some several slices of streekt (steak, or archaic word for bacon?) . Middling, encouraging of the gravy to seep out and intermarry with your peas. When moderately brown, but not scorched, empty into a dish.

Mash them gently with a spoon.
Mix with raw tomatoes, sprinkled with a little brown sugar. And the immortal dish is quite ready. Eat a heap, eat mo and mo. It is good for your general health of mind and body. It fattens you up, makes you sassy, goes through and through your very soul. But why don't you eat? Eat on. By jings. Eat. Stop! Never while there is a pea in the dish.

Mozis Addums, probably Moses Adams

I have not tried making the recipe yet. I'm trying to preserve the book as much as possible. It has totally fallen appart, so I'm putting the pages in plastic sleaves, with the translations of the recipes on the following page on acid free paper.

I've even been looking through books written by Mark Twain, for some of the odd words I'm running across.

This is not a parody. This is an 1800's cookbook I own.

I'm wondering if Kon-FeelPees could be Comfort Peas, instead of Country peas?

This is not a parody. This is an 1800's cookbook I own.

I'm wondering if Kon-FeelPees could be Comfort Peas, instead of Country peas?

Answer 1

I would translate "RESIPEE FOR CUKIN KON-FEELPEES" to "Recipe for Cooking with Field Peas". "Kon" reminds me of the Romance Language "con" meaning "with". "Feelpees" is likely "field peas". Field peas are a small seeded pea that is used for human food when young and tender and for forage/fodder when mature. They were quite common in rural areas east of the Mississippi River even into the 1950s. The plant is hardy and requires little care. They're similar in flavor to chickpeas but their texture is like black-eyed peas.

"slices uv streekt" probably means "slices of streak-o-lean". "Streak-o-lean" is salt pork that has a streak of lean running through it. In other words, fresh pork belly that has been salt cured rather than smoked to become bacon.

"Middlin, incouragin uv the gravy to seep out" probably means to press on the streak-o-lean to get more of the melted fat out of the meat.

"kote-house" is a bit more problematic. Often in rural areas Courthouse is pronounced coathouse. Then too a cote is a small house for pigeons, goats, etc. A Kot is a small house or bungalow in India. Another possibility is cot (bed). In early America, in small, isolated communities, prostitutes had little one room shacks with little more than a cot for furniture. And a last explanation is it translates to "cathouse" where I can imagine that unruly "clients" were dealt with by gouging their eyes.

Answer 2

Sounds like you have it translated about as well as it can be, I'd guess bacon for the streekt. Hillbilly food uses bacon a lot, I doubt they'd have much steak. Of course, it could be an animal...squirrel or something? My guess would be bacon or probably "fatback" is closer.
Cute, you must have a very old recipe, there.

Answer 3

Absolutely correct. Streekt is bacon (side bacon, not back bacon, which didn't have fatty streaks in it).
With the bacon, tomatoes, brown sugar and mashed peas, it sounds a little like a salsa - not sure I'd want to eat it all by itself but it certainly would be seething with vitamins and minerals!
Thanks for sharing.

PS: Have you tried making it up yet? What did it taste like?

PPS: The 'kote house' might be a cat house - which is indeed a house of ill repute.

Answer 4

This guy thinks this recipe was written as a parody, but I found it on another site and someone had actually made it and liked it.

I couldn't find the meaning of "kote-house" but now I'm very curious!

Answer 5

I believe that "streekt" here is "streaked". I think it refers to bacon or some other fatty cut of pork. ("Streaked" with fat.)

"Confeel" is "cornfield", I think.

"Moziz Addums" is certainly fictitious. Nobody actually writes like that, or ever did. In the late 19th century (when this recipe was written) this sort of humor, based on literal transcription of nonstandard dialect, was considered very funny. (Look up Josh Billings or Petroleum V. Nasby for more examples.)

I discussed this a little bit on my blog at http://blog.plover.com/lang/addums.html .

Answer 6

Actually , you have done an amazing job .
But if you are going to republish ,
I suggest printing both versions .
Your translation makes it understandable and
The original has a flavor that gets lost in translation .

Congrats on the good job !

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