[Sca-cooks] fish consumption

[Cindy M. Renfrow]

Hello. There are many fish recipes in Two 15th-Century Cookery Books
(http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=HTML&rgn=TEI.2&byte=3356093 ) &
other sources. Here's a brief selection.

4016 and 279 are Harleian MSS 279 & 4016, English c. 1450. Walton is Izaak
Walton's Compleat Angler (this is available online at
http://www.farreaches.org/fishing/izintro.html see also
http://www.farreaches.org/fishing/treatyse_index.html ).

bream (were bred in ponds) (4016/#161) grill-roasted, served with spiced
wine sauce;

barbel (4016/#169) boil in salted water, ale & parsley, serve with garlic
sauce or sauce vert);

minnow (4016/#167) boiled in ale & parsley & saffron, served with sauce
vert; (Walton - fried with eggyolks, cowslips, primroses & tansy)

roach (4016/#160 - also for bream) boiled in water, ale, & salt, served
with verjuice or ginger sauce;

loach (279/#100) floured & fried in oil, served with sauce of thickened
almond milk with sugar, saffron & red roses & spices;

perch
(4016/#157) boiled in salted water, served with parsley & vinegar/verjuice.
(279/#98) Perch with pottage of rice & almond milk, sugar & ginger.

eel
(4016/108) preserved in salt. Used here broiled & served with leek porray.
(4016/#102) Sliced, boiled with water, parsley, onions, spices, wine,
stockfish, barm (*this may be an error), saffron & vinegar.
(Walton) elvers made into eel-cake & eaten like bread.
(279/#89) Boiled in salted water, thicken with bread & ale, add pepper,
ginger & saffron, boiled onions & parsley.
(4016/#101)Chopped, boiled with broth, onions, parsley, pepper, thickened
with bread, sharpened with vinegar.
(279/#107) Boiled in wine & water, parsley & onions & spices.

sturgeon (a royal dish)
(4016/#172) chopped & boiled in water & deboned, served with spiced broth.
(4016/#173) Chop, bake, place in dough with spices & make turnovers, bake.
(Douce 55/#11) Chopped & boiled in salted water, served cold with sauce
vert & vinegar-dipped parsely.
(4016/#171) Chopped & boiled with parsley, served with vinegar & parsley.

trout (4016/#155) boiled in salted water & parsley, serve with sauce vert;
or add the minced stomach & ginger to the cooking liquid, serve with
vinegar-dipped parsley;
(279/#80 - also roach, perch or carp) grill-roasted, then boiled, chopped &
fried in oil, served with sauce of broth, mace, clove, cubeb, gillyflowers.

carp (Walton) tongues eaten as a delicacy & eggs eaten as caviar substitute
; "Take a Carp (alive if possible), scour him, and rub him clean with water
and salt, but scale him not, then open him, and put him with his bloud and
his liver (which you must save when you open him) into a small pot or
kettle; then take sweet Margerome, Time and Parsley, of each half a
handful, a sprig of Rosemary, and another of Savoury, bind them into two or
three small bundles, and put them to your Carp, with four or five whole
Onyons, twenty pickled Oysters, and three Anchovies.  Then pour upon your
Carp as much claret wine as will onely cover him; and season your claret
well with salt, Cloves and Mace, and the rinds of Oranges and Lemmons,
cover your pot and set it on a quick fire, till it be sufficiently boiled;
then take out the Carp and lay it with the broth into the dish, and pour
upon it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter melted and beaten, with half a
dozen spoonfuls of the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some of
the herbs shred, garnish your dish with Lemmons and so serve it up."



HTH,

Cindy