SC - Compleat Angler #2 pike

[Christina van Tets]

Ready for the next bit?

Compleat Angler, Book 1, Chapter 8, the fourth day

... this direction how to roast him [ie. a pike] when he is caught is 
choicely good, for I have tried it, and it is somewhat the better for 
not being common;  but with my direction you must take this caution, 
that your pike must not be a small one, that is, it must be more than 
half a yard, and should be bigger.  
    First, open your pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also a 
little slit towards the belly;  out of these take his guts and keep 
his liver, which you are to shred very small with thyme, sweet 
marjoram, and a little winter-savory;  to these put some pickled 
oysters, and some anchovies, two or three, both these last whole;  
for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not:  to these 
you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you are to mix with 
the herbs that are shred, and let them all be well salted:  if the 
pike be more than a yard long, then you may put into these herbs more 
than a pound, or if he be less, then less butter will suffice:  these 
being thus mixed with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the 
pike's belly, and then his belly so sewed up as to keep all the 
butter in his belly, if it be possible:  if not, then as much of it 
as you possibly can;  but take not off the scales:  then you are to 
thrust the spit through his mouth out at his tail;  and then take 
four, five or six split sticks or very thin laths, and a convenient 
quantity of tape or filleting:  these laths are to be tied round 
about the pike's body from his head to his tail, and the tape tied 
somewhat thick to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit:  
let him be roasted very leisurely, and often basted with claret wine 
and anchovies and butter mixed together, and also with what moisture 
falls from him into the pan:  when you have roasted him sufficiently, 
you are to hold under him, when you unwind or cut the tape that ties 
him, such a dish as you purpose to eat him out of;  and let him fall 
into it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly;  and by this 
means the pike will be kept unbroken and complete:  then, to the 
sauce which was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you are to 
add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of 
three or four oranges:  lastly, you may either put into the pike with 
the oysters two cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when the 
pike is cut off the spit;  or to give the sauce a _haut-gout_ let the 
dish into which you let the pike fall be rubbed with it:  the using 
or not using of this garlick is left to your discretion. - M.B.
    This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest 
men;  and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted 
you with this secret.

Stay tuned!
Cairistiona
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================