SC - Jelly Bean and other flavours

[BalthazarBlack@aol.com]

> Okay, I seem to see a pattern developing here. The thing is, I can't
> imagine what it is, assuming the lampreys were reasonably fresh and not
> eaten either alive or raw, that would cause death, unless it was a
> physical rupture of some kind. Parasites in fish tend to be eminently
> visible if you know what to look for, and they are easily identifiable
> even in cooked fish, and while unpleasant to even consider eating, if
> the fish is fully cooked they're not especially dangerous.
> 
> Are lampreys cartilaginous? I forget... Most cartilaginous fish are hard
> to eat if not fresh (skates a  possible exception) because they tend to
> produce ammonia. Pretty hard not to notice bad shark, skate, or swordfish.
> 
> Or, alternately, and perhaps more likely, is there some precedent for
> lampreys being considered medically unsound, regardless of the actual
> cause of death? It seems significant that a fairish percentage of the
> Plantaganet line should go that way.
>   

They are by all accounts extraordinarially rich food.
An ordinance of Pottage has a very long section on how to prepare them.
You drown a live one in wine, scald him just at the point of death, 
scrape off the slime, skin ( reserving the skin ), slit it and pull out the long 
artery and guts, and reserve the blood.  Bone and cut into chunks, and 
braise in the reserved blood. Mix the pan sauces with crumbled crusts 
( to make a galentine sauce ) and cook the lamprey with more wine. 
Take the pan drippings, and make a galantine sauce, with ginger, 
"galantine powder", cinnamon, lumbard powder, saunders,  sugar, saffron,
salt, and lots of vinegar. Make a large coffin of pastry, with a good lid,
and put the lamprey in it, and pour on the sauce, to just cover.
wet the edges of the coffin, and lay on the lid, putting the shaft of a goose 
feather over one edge, and blow through thefeather to make the lid rise.
carefully remove the goose quill and seal so as not to let the air escape.
carefully place in the oven, and bake it for a long time, on low heat.

Not that _I_ would ever make this.
Anything that says scrape off the slime, and cook it in it's own blood
is not my cup of tisane.



Brandu