[Sca-cooks] Italian fish in oil spreads

[Volker Bach]

Stefan li Rous schrieb:
>
> Giano said:
> > > while the anchovies might be a fresh
> > > 'catch of the day' from the Mediterranean.
> >
> > Possibly, though Italian spreads traditionally
> > included fish in oil rather than fresh when served
> > with bread (I have evidence for this,
> > unfortunately, only for the 2nd and 18th century
> > CE, not for the sixteenth, but personal experience
> > strongly suggests it's better that way).
>
> Welcome to the SCA-Cooks list and the SCA, Giano.
>
> You might find some of the files in the NEWCOMERS section of my
> Florilegium to be helpful to you.
>
> Does anyone have some period recipes for these Italian, fish in oil,
> spreads? Are these just mushed up fish in oil spread on bread? This
> sounds like it could be a wonderful alternative to the honey-butter
> and bread stuff.

Actually I meant 'spread' in the sense of
'selection of dishes to be served together' rather
than 'breadspread'. However, I do have a recipe
from Apicius (I can't vouch for it tastiness),
that comes out as a viable breadspread/dip (Roman
table manners called for broken bread with dip
rather than sliced bread and spread - does anyone
recall offhand when the habit of breadspreads came
up? I suspect a connection with the tranche).
Basically it's grilled anchovies pulped with
boiled egg, olive oil, salt and rue (the modern
author suggests adding pepper and lemon juice). If
you use raw egg, this is also useful as pastry
filling or can be made into rissoles. I haven't
tried either yet, though a similar concoction
using sardines and tuna is quite tasty, if
undocumented.

More to my point, fish in oil has been a staple of
mediterranean diet long before the northern
European nations figured out herring on a large
scale. It was eaten for lunch in Roman and Late
Antique times with bread and vegetables, which
looks a lot like the meals described here. I can
say from my own experience as a penniless exchange
student at Trinity College that wheat bread,
sardines in oil and mild green peppers make a
satisfactory, cheap and nourishing meal without
being quite as heavy as the ubiquitous (and quite
unmedieval) 'spuds'. The oil is not just a
preservativem it is an integral part of the meal,
as it still is with many antipasti. Hence my
guess. (Also, I don't know where Michelangelo was
at the time, but Florence is too far from the sea
for comfort when considering fresh fish in August)

And now I'd better shut up. I have a Shire feast
to prepare in two weeks and not a piece of work
done yet.

Giano