SC - Recipe: Spanish lobster

[harper at idt.net]

Here they are.  I snipped a section at the beginning where Granado 
is describing the critters.  Just keep in mind that he regards 
lobsters as a kind of crab, and refers to them accordingly.

Source: Diego Granado, _Libro del arte de Cozina_ (Spanish, 1599)
Translation: Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)

De los Cangrejos, y Langostas
Of crabs and lobsters

[description of sea crabs and lobsters omitted]

The season for lobsters is the same as that for the Lion Crab.  Cook it in 
this manner: take the crabs, and for each one cover the hole in its tail.  
Put it in a vessel in which there is water and salt, or wine, pepper, 
vinegar, and salt.  And if the lobster has eggs, it is necessary that it 
should be well washed, because often they are full of sand, and being 
cooked, remove the shell of the tail, and the legs, and remove from them 
the nerve which they have in the tail, and serve them with pepper, 
vinegar, sweet oil, and salt on top.


Para cozer los sobredichos cangrejos de otra manera
To cook the abovementioned crabs in another manner

Take the flesh from the tail of the abovementioned crabs or lobsters, after 
cooking them in one of the abovementioned ways, cut it into little pieces, 
and make it into a pottage with oil, and herbs, spices, and broth of 
another fish which is not very salty, and some unripe grapes.  You can 
make it in another manner: after cutting the flesh into pieces, fry them in 
oil with chopped onions, adding water, wine, verjuice, and salt, and a 
good amount of spices, and finish cooking them.  At the end, before 
serving them, put some finely cut herbs on them, and serve them hot 
with sweet spices on top.


Para hazer escudilla de los cangrejos, y langostas
To make a dish of the crabs and lobsters

The lobster is always better than the other two kinds of crabs.  Take its 
flesh cooked in wine, or in water, and chop it finely with the knife, then 
fry it in oil, or with cow’s butter, and a little broth from another fish, and a 
little verjuice, and raisins, and having boiled it for a quarter of an hour, 
thicken it with egg yolks, as is done with dishes of chopped meat.  In 
place of the eggs, you can put ground almonds, or grated bread, and in 
this manner you can give substance to all the abovementioned pottages.


Para hazer albondiguillas de los sobredichos cangrejos, y langostas
To make meatballs of the abovementioned crabs and lobsters

Take the flesh from the tail and the legs of the said fish, and chop it very 
finely while still raw, and for each pound of flesh, three ounces of the 
flesh of salted eels, without spines, adding common spices, raisins, a 
little sugar, oil or cow’s butter, chopped mint, marjoram, and from this 
mixture make meatballs, and cook them, as we said of those made from 
pike.

[excerpt from the recipe for meatballs made from pike: make round little 
balls with your hand, and coat them with the finest flour, and put them in 
a pan in which there is oil or fat*, and cook them with fire below and 
above, turning them, and being dewy**, serve them hot with orange 
juice and sugar on top.]

*the word used is “manteca”, which can be either lard or butter.  Granado 
often says “manteca de puerco” 
or “manteca de vacas”, but here he does not specify.

** the word “rociadas” means wet with dew, or by extension, sprinkled 
with moisture.  I am not sure how it applies here.


Para hazer la langosta rellena
To make stuffed lobster

Take the lobster, which is better and more tender than the “Astrizo” 
[variety of crab], and cook it with water, and salt, and remove the flesh 
from the tail, and clean the body leaving the shell whole.  Chop the flesh 
finely, and make a mixture, like that of the meatballs, or if not, with the 
said chopped flesh, grated cheese, eggs, and herbs, and fill the shell with 
this mixture, and if there are two lobsters, put the stuffed shell in the 
empty one, and tie it, and fry it in oil, or cow’s butter, and when it is 
cooked, serve it hot on plates with some sauce.  You can also roast it on 
the grill, but having only one lobster, save the belly which you removed 
from the shell, and when the shell is stuffed, with ingenuity put the belly 
in its place, putting a slice of bread on the part in front, and tie it with a 
thread of hemp, in such a way that the mixture cannot come out, and 
roast it on the grill, and serve it, as I have said, having untied the thread.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net