SC - Scented waters

[Margritte]

Uduido at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 97-04-25 01:05:04 EDT, you write:
> 
> << Someone mentioned a period crawfish recipe. That might be interesting,
>  too.
>  I saw a bag of frozen crawfish tails in the grocery the other day.
>   >>
> 
> As far as I know the period recipes that I am aware of call for saltwater
> crayfish. If anyone has a reference intimating that freshwater crayfish were
> used would they be so kind as to e-mail me this information so I can fill
> another hole in my research? Thanks in advance.
> 
> Lord Ras

Hiya!

Taillevent mentions ecrevisses and ecrevisses de mer, which would
presumably be sea crayfish, a.k.a. squillfish, essentially a variant on
the slipper or the spiny lobster. I can't think of any reason why the
unqualified word "ecrevisses" would refer to anything else than what it
does today, which is your garden-variety mudbug. 

Re lobster, while we're on this: Homardus Americanus would have been
unknown in medieval Europe. The lopisters referred to would have been
spiny lobsters or langoustes, native to the Mediterranean and the oceans
of the Southern Hemisphere (hence frozen South African lobster tails).

Adamantius