SC - Looking for period crabmeat recipes - Non-member account

[Philip & Susan Troy]

>Several weeks ago I bought about half-a-dozen cans of
>crabmeat when I saw them on sale. I specifically had
>in mind using them in a period recipe when I bought them.
>
>However, last night when I decided I wanted to try a
>period crabmeat recipe for dinner, I couldn't find a
>recipe. I've looked in the seafood-msg file in my
>Florilegium (and some of you thought I had everything in
>there. :-) ) and all my period cookbooks including ones
>like "Take a Thousand Eggs", "Pleyn Delit", "Curye on Inglysch",
>"the Medieval Cookbook" and a few others I can't remember
>right now.  I didn't bother with "Fabulous Feasts" or
>"Take a Buttock of Beef".
>

Hi Stephan.

There are 2 crab recipes in TTEM, plus a number of mentions in the menus at
the back.  It is included in the indices of both editions, in Vol. 2.  Here
are the recipes:

Harleian MS. 4016
156 Crabbe or Lopster boiled.  Take a crabbe or a lopster, and stop him in
[th]e vente with on of hire clees, and seth him in water, and no salt; or
elles stoppe him in [th]e same maner, and cast him in an oven, and bake
him, and serue him forth colde.  And his sauce is vinegre.


156 Crab or Lobster boiled.  Take a crab or a lobster, and stop him in the
vent with one of her claws, and seethe him in water, and no salt; or else
stop him in the same manner, and cast him in an oven, and bake him, and
serve him forth cold.  And his sauce is vinegar.

Harleian MS. 279 - Potage Dyvers
Cxix.  Vyaunde de cyprys in lente.  Take gode [th]ikke mylke of Almaundys,
do it on a potte; & nyme [th]e F[le]ysshe  of gode Crabbys, & gode Samoun,
& bray it smal, & tempere yt vppe with [th]e forsayd mylke; boyle it, an
lye it with floure of Rys or Amyndoun, an make it chargeaunt; when it ys
y-boylid, do [th]er-to whyte Sugre, a gode quantyte of whyte Vernage
Pime[3] with [th]e wyne, Pome-garnade.  Whan it is y-dressyd, straw a-boue
[th]e grayne of Pome-garnade.


119.  Meat of Cyprus in Lent.  Take good thick milk of Almonds, put it in a
pot; & take the F[le]sh of good Crabs, & good Salmon, & bray it small, &
mix it up with the aforesaid milk; boil it, and mix it with flour of Rice
or Wheat, and make it thick; when it is boiled, put thereto white Sugar, a
good quantity of white Vernaccia Pime[3] with the wine, Pomegranate.  When
it is dressed, strew above the grain of Pomegranate.

Vernaccia Pime[3] is a fortified Italian white wine, similar to sherry.
Unfortunately, the only bottle of vernaccia I've found to date was spoiled.
:-(

Regards,

Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
Author and Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" and "A Sip Through Time"
http://www.thousandeggs.com
cindy at thousandeggs.com