[Sca-cooks] Preserved (Pickled) Lemons
James Prescott
prescotj at telusplanet.net
Tue Dec 16 10:55:44 PST 2003
>>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
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