[Sca-cooks] Preserved (Pickled) Lemons

[James Prescott]

>>has anyone else done any cooking with preserved lemons. I think they are
>>morrocan. My suppermarket sells them loose along with olives and pickles
>>and stuff. Are there any good period recipies that use them?

There are many in Lancelot de Casteau. Ouverture de Cuisine. Liège:
Leonard Streel, 1604. Note that Casteau's active working life, when
he used these recipes, was prior to 1600.

The translation is nearly finished. Here are the recipes that
use preserved lemons (here called salted sour lemons). There may
be a few changes before the translation is finalised, but these
should be close to their final form. Translation copyright 2003
James Prescott and Jeremy Fletcher.

1. [A boiled capon.]

Boiled capon[:] when it is almost cooked, add 
rosemary, marjoram, mace, a salted sour lemon cut 
into slices, a rummer of white wine, or verjuice, 
and some butter, some beef marrow bones, and let 
them stew well together, some toasts of white 
bread underneath.

13. Other sort of disguised veal.

Take the [leftover] flesh once you have made the 
leg all prepared thus [see recipe 9], and making 
some round balls or long like small sausages, and 
stew them in good stocks, and [add] a salted sour 
lemon in slices, mint, marjoram, a bit of 
verjuice or wine, and stew it well, and serve 
thus.

20. Carp in soup.

Take a carp well scaled and cleaned, and cut it 
into four pieces, and take some onions fried in 
butter, a salted sour lemon cut into slices, a 
nutmeg, a bit of ginger, marjoram and mint 
chopped very fine, then add some wine or verjuice 
and butter, and stew it well thus with a bit of 
barley beer.

22. Pike of another sort.

Take a pike well cleaned and put it to boil with 
salted water and vinegar, then break it into 
pieces, in order to remove the bones, then chop 
the pike very fine, and put it into a small pot 
or a flat bottom dish, and take a fresh lemon or 
sour lemon chopped very fine, mace, a bit of 
pepper and new butter, and white wine, a bit of 
orange, and stew it well together.

82. To make poupelin pasties.

Take some dough as above, a roll a bit thicker 
and longer than the other pastry, and arrange it 
always rising, so that you can put a partridge 
inside, and put the partridge the feet upwards, 
then add salted sour lemon cut into slices, 
nutmeg and ginger, chopped marjoram, and new 
butter, then close the pastry at the top so that 
the feet of the partridge come out, then put it 
in the oven.

86. To make pasties of disguised veal.

Take a pound of raw veal and half a pound of beef 
fat, and chop well all together, and add three 
raw eggs, two nutmegs, a bit of pepper, a salted 
sour lemon, well chopped all together, and make 
some flesh like a small leg of mutton, and plant 
in some pine nuts, and make the pasty according 
to the size of your flesh: being half an hour in 
the oven pour in some white wine or verjuice, and 
let it cook well.

88. To make pasty of fresh cuttlefish.

Take the cuttlefish well cleaned, and put it to 
boil until it is cooked, then take two or three 
onions chopped and fricasseed in butter, a salted 
sour lemon in pieces, nutmeg, and pepper, a bit 
of chopped mint, and put all together in the 
pasty, and enough butter.

Note that is is necessary to cut the cuttlefish 
into pieces[:] the pasty being half cooked add a 
bit of Spanish wine.

101. Roasted sturgeons.

Take a piece of sturgeon and boil it strongly to 
remove the scales, then put some whole cloves on 
top with some small sprigs of rosemary inside, 
and put it thus to roast, always basting well 
with butter: being well cooked make a sauce on 
top with wine, sugar and cinnamon, nutmeg, a 
salted sour lemon cut into slices, a bit of 
butter in [it], and boil well all together, and 
pour it on the sturgeons, and serve thus.

104. To make mortadella [sausage] of sturgeon.

Take three pounds of sturgeon, as above, half an 
ounce of cinnamon, two nutmegs, a bit of salt, 
two ounces of grated Parmesan [cheese], and mix 
all together, three egg yolks, two ounces of 
fresh butter, and when all is well incorporated 
together, make the sausages, and put them to stew 
with a bit of water and some wine, marjoram, leaf 
of nutmeg, a salted sour lemon in slices, and 
some butter, and boil well together, some toasts 
of white bread underneath in the flat bottom 
dish: serve the sausages on top.

105. Sturgeon in daube.

Take a piece of sturgeon well cleaned, roasted 
and fricasseed in butter or olive oil, then you 
will take vinegar, and wine as much of the one as 
of the other, and put it to boil, a salted sour 
lemon in slices, some saffron, some pepper, bay 
laurel leaves, rosemary, marjoram, ground radish 
root, a small handful of coriander: being boiled 
pour all hot on the sturgeon, and keep it thus 
well covered.

109. To make pike sausage.

Take pike flesh, and carp flesh, and fresh salmon 
as much of the one as of the other, and chop well 
all together: add nutmeg, salt, pepper, chopped 
marjoram, and mix all with three egg yolks, and 
roll the flesh with the hand like small sausage, 
take the stomach and the bladder of the pike, and 
fill it with your flesh, and put it to cook with 
wine, water, butter, a salted sour lemon in 
slices, rosemary, marjoram in [it]: being well 
cooked serve thus.

135. To make veal hotchpotch home style.

Take a veal thigh being half cooked, add mace, a 
salted sour lemon in slices, marjoram and mint, 
some verjuice or white wine and some butter, and 
let stew well together.

138. To make a stuffed veal liver in soup.

Cut the liver at the thickest, the length of a 
small finger, then with a very sharp knife you 
will cut the liver inside, and you will pull out 
what you can, without turning underneath or on 
top: then boil the liver a bit when it is pulled 
out, and chop it very fine with a bit of beef 
fat, and chop a small handful of good herbs with 
[it], and a chopped onion: you will add a bit of 
nutmeg and ginger, a bit of salt, three egg 
yolks, well mixed together: then refill the 
liver, and take an intestinal caul of veal, or of 
pork, and squeeze the liver inside, let it be 
well tied, then you will put it to cook in a pot 
with good stock, mace, a bit of verjuice or wine, 
and a salted sour lemon in slices, and you will 
leave all to stew well, and serve.

143. A leg of mutton disguised and boiled.

Peel the skin away from the flesh, and take all 
the flesh away from the bones, and chop it very 
fine with a bit of beef fat, and a salted sour 
lemon cut into pieces, well washed, and you will 
take a bit of mint also chopped with [it], then 
add nutmeg and pepper, a bit of salt, half a 
rummer of white wine, and three raw eggs, and 
chop well all together, and mix it well, and 
after you will replace the flesh between the 
bones, and make it in the shape of a leg as it 
was: then take a pig's intestinal caul: [ensure] 
that you have some beaten egg yolks: then you 
will rub the same caul with the egg yolks, and 
after you will wrap the caul around the leg, so 
that it is well covered, then tie it well 
lengthwise and crosswise, so that nothing comes 
out, and put it to boil until it is cooked: then 
[take] half of a white bread [loaf], and soak it 
with the stock, and strain it with four ounces of 
blanched almonds ground and strained through 
cheesecloth: then put with the leg court bouillon 
and a bit of mace, and some white wine, and let 
it stew well.

145. Disguised veal in soup.

Take a thigh of veal, and chop it very fine with 
some beef fat, half as much of fat as of flesh: 
then prepare it with the same sort of spices 
[with which] you have made the leg: then you will 
take some flesh as large as two eggs, and shaped 
by hand like a small leg, and put it thus to stew 
with a bit of wine, nutmeg, salted sour lemon in 
pieces, and a bit of capers, and stew it well: 
then serve four or five on a plate.

153. To make a veal loin stuffed and roasted.

Take some good stuffing herbs, and chop them very 
fine, fricassee them in butter: add 4 egg yolks, 
nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, a bit of sugar, some 
salt, and cook it a bit, not too much: then chop 
a salted sour lemon mixed with the stuffing: then 
take a veal loin which is a bit parboiled: then 
put the stuffing under the veal kidney, and cover 
it with a double veal intestinal caul, and attach 
it with some skewers so that nothing falls out, 
then being cooked take the kidney out, and chop 
it: add two egg yolks, a bit of sugar and 
cinnamon, a bit of salt, and put the said kidney 
on some bread toasts, and put it into a pie dish 
with some butter, and put the covers on top with 
some fire, so that the toasts are very little 
heated, and put around the plate where the veal 
loin is, and pour all the fat on the loin with 
some vinegar, and [put] some oranges cut into 
pieces on top.

156. Otherwise. [Veal rolls]

Take a thigh of veal, and cut it into slices the 
length of a hand, and three fingers wide, and 
beat it with a knife without breaking it: then 
take some good herbs chopped very fine, and add 
some egg yolks, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, a bit 
of salt, beef fat chopped and mixed together: 
then spread the slices of veal on a table, and 
take some of these greased herbs, and spread them 
on the slices of veal, then roll them, and insert 
some skewers of wood or of iron, and put it to 
boil, and stew with salted sour lemon, mace, 
verjuice or white wine, and some butter, and let 
it stew well, and serve: if you wish the same you 
can put it to roast and serve it with oranges, 
and melted butter.

-- 

James Prescott / Thorvald Grimsson
Coordinator, Ouverture translation project