SC - Fried Whiting

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Terry Nutter wrote:

> Hmmmm.  I know when Pynson was -- he was a printer, not a cook -- and the
> language of the recipe is suspiciously modern.  I suspect it's been updated.
> That said: Pynson set _Noble Boke off Cookry_ in print; the only surviving
> copy of the Pynson printing is, you guessed it, in the Longleat collection.
> I suspect this may be it.  There is no recipe in the manuscript version (or I
> should say, in the appalling Napier edition thereof) with "whitings" in
> the title.  But the title may have  been modernized with the recipe.  Perhaps
> someone who knows fish better than I can suggest a medieval equivalent?  If
> so, I can look up quickly and find out whether this is indeed an NBoC recipe,
> and if so, provide the NBoC-via-Napier version, which may tell us something.

Yes, it does sound a bit idiomatic of modern speech, doesn't it?

The recipe for mortrews of fish in Utilis Coquinario calls for, among
others, merlyng. This is probably a cognate of merlin, which is still a
French term for whiting. Also, whiting being a rather bland, soft fish,
it is perfect for mortrews (or as perfect as any fish can be for
mortrews).

Taillevent uses the term "merluz" for a similar, though slightly larger
fish.

The whiting known in England is the Northern Whiting, a cousin of the
various hakes, which are in turn related to cod.  They are distinguished
by relatively large pectoral fins like wings, small scales, and a weird
cartilage rib-cage, like a box, in an otherwise ordinary bony-fish
skeleton. They get up to about two or three pounds these days, which
indicates nothing about what they may have weighed in period.

Adamantius
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -- Katerine/Terry