SC - fried fish and other foods

[Philip W. Troy]

On 20 Apr 1997 "Stefan li Rous, mka Mark Harris"
<mark_harris at quickmail.sps.mot.com> wrote:

>I'm assuming you are talking about coating the fish in flour or batter
>and frying it in grease or oil. (like British fish and chips?)
>
>So, my question for anyone is, Is such fried food period? I'm wondering
>about other meats too, not just fish. I thought fried chicken was from
>the American South but I'm not sure.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to this, I finally finished
wading through the backlog of messages. *WHEW* This is an active list,
but I'm still lovin' it! But I digress...

Fried foods are definitely period, at least in Italy in the 15th
Century. Platina lists more than a few "Fricatellae" recipes that are
all fried dishes. (Almond Fricatellae, especially if seasoned more
than the original recipe and dipped in a sauce, such as a Cameline or
Paltina's "Garlic Sauce with Almonds or Walnuts", are especially good.
And since they are pretty much a period version of Chicken McNuggets,
most people have no problems eating them!) The Apple Fricatellae in
particular is a coated and then fried food. I cannot, however, be
certain about any of the other Fricatellae dishes, as I don't have the
book in front of me and I can't remember off the top of my head if any
meats were coated and fried.

>If so, what was the cooking medium in period? Olive oil? lard? fish oil?
>Did they use breading or just cook it in the oil?

Olive Oil or Lard were the most common oils in Platina used for
frying. Most lard you buy in the store is pretty tasteless, however,
and as such I tend to avoid using it. Unfiltered olive oil, however,
is fantastic. It is a bit cloudier than the filtered stuff you are
used to, but I find it to have a wonderfully fruity flavor that the
filtered oils don't quite seem to match. My conjecture is that this
would be much closer to the traditional olive oils anyways, as I don't
think they would have been filtered in period.

Honos Servio,
Lionardo Acquistapace, Barony of Bjornsborg, Ansteorra
(mka Lenny Zimmermann, San Antonio, TX)
zarlor at acm.org