[Sca-cooks] OP: shrimps

[Stefan li Rous]

Serena commented:
> Now, if we are ever on the coast together I will teach you how to throw
> a cast net and pop their little heads off just before you put them into
> the boil.
Oh! I was wondering how the medieval folks fished for shrimp because I 
thought that shrimp lived in the ocean depths and I wasn't sure the 
technology existed then. But from Serena's comments I assume that this 
cast net is a net that can be thrown out by one person.

I've bought shrimp fresh off of the shrimp boats on the Texas gulf 
coast, but these were not small boats. The size must be for being able 
to handle larger nets or to go out further because of depleted supplies 
near shore.

Anybody have any details on period shrimping or the boats used? I doubt 
they were growing shrimp in ponds on the land. :-) I've seen a variety 
of different shrimp in the stores today. Are there substantial 
differances between the shrimp that the medieval folk would have been 
getting in Europe and the ones for sale today, other than perhaps 
color? Is there any indication in the recipes how big the medieval 
shrimps served were?

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****