dia culcakkit

Ingredients

cukmaid, colleraige, satlingis, sowrokis, sege, crud of my culome, Lawrean, linget seid, luffage, hair of the hurcheoun, snowt of ane selch, pepper, pik, count of ane sow kis

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The recipe, termed 'dia culcakkit' (p. 277), is an alliterative parodic remedy for the 'collik' or 'diarrhoea' (p. 277). It requires mixing ingredients in a pan with pepper and pitch (pik). The ingredients list includes: 'cukmaid' (fresh dung), 'colleraige' (pepper), 'satlingis' (dregs), 'sowrokis' (sorrel), the 'sop' (juice) of 'sege' (sage), 'the crud of my culome' (narrator's faeces), 'Lawrean' (laurel), 'linget seid' (flax seed), 'luffage' (lovage), 'the hair of the hurcheoun' (hedgehog hair), 'the snowt of ane selch' (snout of a seal), and 'the count of ane sow kis' (p. 277-278).

Evidence

"Put all thir in ane pan with pepper and pik."

Remarks

This is an explicitly parodic prescription from the Scottish poet Robert Henryson (d. c. 1490). The text suggests that while it utilizes legitimate medical herbs like sage and laurel, it incorporates grotesque and impossible ingredients (impossibilia) to satirize the 'clowtit and clampit' (patched together) knowledge of quack physicians (p. 277). The use of pitch (pik) and dung reflects a corporeal, bathetic inversion of serious remedies where such binders or colorants might appear in more rational contexts (p. 278-279).