비벼 떼어 얇게 소가 비치게 파고

[moondeer]

Hello, I have a question about the meaning of a phrase within the sentence below (which I will underline). This comes from a book published in 1809, and this sentence concerns the making of 송편.
"가루를 곱게 하여 횐떡보다 눅게 하여 쩌서 꽤 쳐 굵은 수단처럼 가루를 묻히지 말고 비벼 떼어 얇게 소가 비치게 파고 소를 넣어 빛는다."

“Make a fine [rice] flour, finer than that used for huin tteok, steam it and pound it a considerable amount, then rather than coat it in powder like thick sudan tteok, rub it and tear off individual pieces, then thinly scrape the dough so the filling will show through it, and fill.”

In English it would make more sense to say "tear off individual pieces and rub them/roll them...." I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding that part. The next part of that also confuses me: 얇게 소가 비치게 파고.

Thanks for any help! Greatly appreciated. I have more questions to come soon.

 

[pcy0308]

Hello moondeer,

Your interpretation of "소가 비치게 파다" is perfect: "소가 비치게" itself translates to "so as to make the filling more or less visible/so that the filling will show through the dough when made into a 송편", and "파다" here could be interpreted as to make a space on the dough so that you could place the filling. All in all, your translation is on spot.

As for "비벼 떼다", "비벼" in itself translates to "to rub", so I guess when you are tearing off a pieace from the entire dough to make one 송편 piece, the instruction suggests that you just give it a twist/rub then just tear one piece off from the dough (without applying any flour to add dryness). Personally, your translation seems flawless. Hope this helps.

 

[moondeer]

Hello moondeer,

Your interpretation of "소가 비치게 파다" is perfect: "소가 비치게" itself translates to "so as to make the filling more or less visible/so that the filling will show through the dough when made into a 송편", and "파다" here could be interpreted as to make a space on the dough so that you could place the filling. All in all, your translation is on spot.

As for "비벼 떼다", "비벼" in itself translates to "to rub", so I guess when you are tearing off a pieace from the entire dough to make one 송편 piece, the instruction suggests that you just give it a twist/rub then just tear one piece off from the dough (without applying any flour to add dryness). Personally, your translation seems flawless. Hope this helps.

Thank you so much!