From The Futurist Cookbook: Salami in Cologne

From The Futurist Cookbook: Salami in Cologne

I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of The Futurist Cookbook by the Italian artist Filippo Marinetti. I didn't have a lot of time this evening, so I picked an easy recipe for my first foray into Futurist cuisine. The dish is called "The Excited Pig" (it's described as a "formula by the Futurist Aeropainter Fillia"). Basically, it's a salami served upright on a dish containing very hot coffee mixed with a good deal of eau de Cologne.

The hot coffee serves to activate the cologne, propelling the aroma into the nostrils, creating an almost hallucinogenic mist of sweetish, yet bitter ether, flowery, inebriating and vile...and yet, the sausage must be eaten.

As I ate, I had a vision of a summer lunch sometime in the late-50s with my Italian Uncle, off work and glistening with sweat -- that plus a kaleidoscopic montage of roaring machines, pistons pumping, wheels turning, sirens blaring, and the foot of a robot, stepping on a human face forever.

Next up:perhaps chicken stuffed with ball bearings.

Hammond

David:

Funny you should mention that... I was just reading the self-same book (Italian edition, of course )... very... well, futurist!

The term 'moto', you may know, featured prominently in futurist thought... there's a nice little piece by Boccioni, the best of the futurist painters, that discusses the concept...

More on this later... now off to hockey...

A

Yes but how did the cologne taste? Does it work as a mouthwash, or perhaps a breath freshener to help offset the garlic in the salami? And what does coffee activated cologne do?

stevez wrote:Yes but how did the cologne taste? Does it work as a mouthwash, or perhaps a breath freshener to help offset the garlic in the salami? And what does coffee activated cologne do?

SteveZ,

Well, I've always heard that you shouldn't cook with any cologne you wouldn't want to wear, so I used a Murray & Lanman Florida Water.

You need to use a use a goodly length of sausage, and the bottom-most portion should probably not be eaten (it's set upright in the plate...thus the "excited" pig).

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:

stevez wrote:Yes but how did the cologne taste? Does it work as a mouthwash, or perhaps a breath freshener to help offset the garlic in the salami? And what does coffee activated cologne do?

SteveZ,

Well, I've always heard that you shouldn't cook with any cologne you wouldn't want to wear, so I used a Murray & Lanman Florida Water.

You need to use a use a goodly length of sausage, and the bottom-most portion should probably not be eaten (it's set upright in the plate...thus the "excited" pig).

Hammond

So then, is the dish served with a miniture machete or scythe for the purpose of hacking off bites of salami without creating ripples in the cologne pool?

As I ate, I had a vision of a summer lunch sometime in the late-50s with my Italian Uncle, off work and glistening with sweat that, plus a kaleidoscopic montage of roaring machines, pistons pumping, wheels turning, sirens blaring, and the foot of a robot, stepping on a human face forever.

Next up perhaps chicken stuffed with ball bearings.

Save the roach!

John

David Hammond wrote:As I ate, I had a vision of a summer lunch sometime in the late-50s with my Italian Uncle, off work and glistening with sweat that, plus a kaleidoscopic montage of roaring machines, pistons pumping, wheels turning, sirens blaring, and the foot of a robot, stepping on a human face forever.

WOW !!!

John beat me to it...