[Sca-cooks] fish consumption

[Ides Boone]

Hello,

I am working as an archaeozoologist in Belgium. I had to study sieved
samples with faunal material from Medieval and Post-Medieval sites from
Namur (Belgium). This material consists mainly of freshwater fish and a
low proportion of marine fish. Some of the fresh water fish that I
identified aren't very popular nowadays.

The species present in the material are: strurgeon, eel, trout,
grayling, pike, carp, perch, catfish = still eaten now in Belgium.
But also a lot of Cyprinids such as: bream, barbel, nose, gudgeon, chub,
ide, dace, minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), bitterling (Rhodeus sericaeus),
roach, rudd.
Also, I found  (almost in equal qunantity as the Cyprinids)a lot bones
of the stone loach (Noemaceilus barbatulus), Stickelbacks and Miller's
thumb (Cottus gobio).

In general most of the fish are small-sized, usually 10-15 sm for the
cyprinids.
I am very much interested how these species were eaten: fried, in a
soup,... Is there anyone who has some information about it or knows some
old medieval fishrecipees?

Thanks a lot,
Ides (Belgium)