[Sca-cooks] A Piece of the One True Cod

[Stefan li Rous]

Renata asked:
  <<< ...is what I happened to find at the market yesterday. That's  
what they
called it, as opposed, I guess,  to Pacifc Cod which they were also
selling. I've wanted to try it since I read Mark Kurlansky's book.

First, what do I do with it other than deep-frying (which I am not
equipt to do) in batter? >>>

If you still have a copy of Mark Kurlansky's book, there are a number  
of example recipes given in there. Although he often doesn't give  
explicit sources, I seem to remember many of them being period or  
likely to be period.

Is this cod that you've gotten fresh? Or salted?

For salted, see the recipes in the stockfish-msg file in the  
Florilegium. Here is one:

-----
From: mjbr at tdk.dk (Michael Bradford)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Period Vegetarian Cooking - help
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1997 07:37:15 GMT
Organization: Tele Denmark

DDFr at Best.com (David Friedman) wrote:
 > mjbr at tdk.dk (Michael Bradford) wrote:
 >> We discovered a medieval recipe for salt cod whilst doing a revel
 >> based on the medieval rules of Lent (details available on request)
 >> which went down very well with those who attended.

 >Source? Sounds like an interesting recipe. I've been wanting to  
find a good
 >stockfish recipe to add to my collection of "Pennsic without a cooler"
 >recipes.

First the recipe (translated into modern english as I haven´t got the
source, which I borrowed from a friend) and then the source.

Sauce for stokfysshe in an-other maner

Take walnuts and cloves of garlic and pepper, bread and salt and grind
in a mortar. Temper it with broth and serve it.

The source document is Ashmole MS 1439, which can be found in "Two
Fifteenth Century Cookery Books" edited by Thomas Austin. It is
published by Oxford University Press for the Early English Text
Society. It came out in the early 60's (1964?).

Note: the publishers also printed "Curye on Inglysh" edited by
Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Bulter (1981?) which contains five
cookbooks from the 14th century.

Michael Bradford
Viking Group Wunjo
Denmark
----

If this is air-dried cod, you could try your hand at making lutefisk.
<<< Lutefisk is air-dried cod that is, as part of the reconstituting
process, soaked in a powerful alkalai solution like potash or lye, which
changes the texture of the fish.

When properly prepared, it is rich, a little bland (copious melted
butter, salt and pepper come in REALLY handy) and so tender it is almost
quivery. You either love it or you hate it.

Adamantius >>>

 > After soaking, the cod is rinsed for several days in running cold
 > water before cooking is completed by either steaming or poaching. The
 > result is a translucent golden color fillet with a stiff-jelly
 > consistency. Lovers of lutefisk say that, if cooked to perfection,
 > each layer of fish meat should stand apart from the next.
 >
 > "Lutefisk is unique, the taste is very weak but the consistency is
 > very important," Riddervold said. "It is an art to be a lutefisk
 > cook, it mustn't be too jelly."
 >
 > Lutefisk tastes surprisingly bland and is usually enhanced by sauces,
 > which differ depending on region. In the east, where pigs were
 > traditionally farmed, molten pork fat with crispy bacon shavings is
 > poured lavishly over the fish.
 >
 > In the western part of Norway white sauce with mustard seeds is more
 > common, and in the north Norway's famous brown goat's cheese with
 > syrup is the accompaniment.

---
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 1999 10:32:37 +0200
From: "ana l. valdes" <agora at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: SC - "cabelho" fish recipe?

And the dish have different names in different cultures. In
Spanish its called bacalao, in Portuguise cabelho. But all its about the
same fish, dried cod. When you buy it, its very similar to jerky, long
and wide irregular chunks, hanging often from the roof.
I can try to find some pictures if you want.
By the way, i found a wonderful recipe from Nero Wolfes cookbook, the
recipe is called "portugese salt cod":

            NERO WOLFE'S BACALHAU (PORTUGESE SALT COD)
            Dato - Date: 18-02-1997
            av - by : Lasse Jenssen (lasse.jenssen at graficonn.no)

Oppskrift - Recipe

Ingredienser - Ingredients:

      1 1/2 to 2 lbs soaked dried cod
      2 lg Onions, sliced
      6 tb Butter
      1 cl Garlic, minced
      3 lg Potatoes
      2 tb Bread crumbs
      10 Pitted green olives
      10 Black olives
      4 Hard-cooked eggs
      1/2 c Chopped fresh parsley
      Wine vinegar
      Olive oil
      Fresh ground black pepper

Framgangsmåte - Description

NOTE: To prepare dried cod, soak in cold water for about 24 hours, or
until it is completely moistened. Change the water two or three times.
Drain thoroughly.

Put the cod into a saucepan and add enough cold water to cover.
Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until
the fish is tender. Drain; remove skin and bones.
Flake the meat with a fork into large pieces.
Saute the onions in 3 tablespoons of butter until they are tender and
golden in color. Add the garlic. Boil the unpeeled potatoes in salted  
water.
When they are tender (about 20 minutes), remove from the heat, put under
cold running water, and remove the skins.
Drain and slice into 1/4-inch pieces.
Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F. Grease a 1 1/2-quart casserole with the
remaining 3 tablespoons of butter.
Arrange a layer of half the potatoes, then half the cod, then half the
onions. Sprinkle with a little pepper and repeat the layering.
Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top layer.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until heated through and lightly browned.
Before serving, garnish the top with olives and eggs; sprinkle with  
parsley.
Serve with the wine vinegar and oil in cruets and black pepper in a
small dish.

In this url you can find more recipes around the same topic:
http://graficonn.no/webhotell/oppskrifter/Bacalao.html
I forgot the Norwegians and the Newfoundlanders are also big consumers
of bacalao.
Greetings from
Ana L. Valdés
----

There are more recipes and info on salted cod in this file.

For fresh cod, then these are from the fish-msg file:

---
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 1997 18:28:18 EST
From: melc2newton at juno.com (Michael P Newton)
Subject: SC - a question on a redaction

Relooking thro' my cookbooks, I found _Early American Cooking: Recipes
from America's Historic Sites. In which I found the following recipe:

To Seeth a Cod or Bass

First take a Cod and boile it in water and salt, then take of the broth
and put in a little pot, then put thereto as much Wine as there is  
broth,
with Rosemark, Parselie, Time and margerum bounde together, and put them
in the pot, put thereto a good manic of sliced Onyons, small raisons,
whole maces, a dish of butter and a little suger, so that it be not too
sharp not too sweet, and let all these seth together: if the wine be not
sharpe enough then put thereto a little Vineger, and so serve it upon
soppes with broth.
 >From _The Second Part of the Good Huswifes Iewell, T. Dawson, 1597

Ok, so I'm cutting it close on the date, and it's from an American
Recipes cookbook, but since it has originals recipes, I'd thought I'd
practice. By the by, has anyone heard of/seen/ has _The Second Part of
the Good Huswifes_?

What I'm reading from this recipe is that:
after cooking your cod/bass in some water, enough to cover it, you take
the fish out and set it aside. To the water, you add an equal amount of
wine (white, perhaps?) and simmer the liquids with a tied bundle of a
rosemary sprig, a sprig of parsley, some thyme and margerum. to the
simmering liquid you add one sliced onion (how much is a manic of onion
anyways?)say a 1/2 C of raisins, a couple of blades of mace, a 1/2 C of
butter (a dish normally equals 1 stick around our house) and a Tbsp. of
sugar. Simmer the sauce together until the flavors meld together, taste,
if it's too sweet, add a teaspoon or two of cider vinegar. Lay the
Cod/Bass on bread slices and pour the sauce over both.

I haven't tried my redaction yet,(still looking for that sale on fish,
sigh) but I'd thought I'd go ahead and ask all of your opinions of it.

Lady Beatrix
---

Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 10:57:20 EDT
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: [Rinaslist] TART DE BRYMLENT (A MEDIEVAL LENTEN TART)

<<
        Title: TART DE BRYMLENT (A MEDIEVAL LENTEN TART)
   Categories: Tarts, Seafood, British, Holiday
        Yield: 6 servings

             Dough; for 9 inch pie crust
    1 1/2 lb Salmon; cod, haddock or a mixture
        2 tb Lemon juice
        2 tb Butter
        2 ea Pears;peeled, cored & thinly sliced
        2 ea Apples;peeled,cored & thinly sliced
        1 c  White wine
        2 tb Lemon juice
        2 tb Brown sugar
        5 ea Cubebs:* , thinly crushed
      1/8 ts Cloves, ground
      1/8 ts Nutmeg
      1/4 ts Cinnamon
      1/2 c  Raisins
       10 ea Prunes; pitted & minced
        6 ea Dates; minced
        6 ea Figs, dried; minced
        3 tb Red currant jelly; or Damson

    *"The cubeb, an aromatic pepper commonly used in medieval times, can
    still be bought in many spice shops."
      Preheat the oven to 425F and bake the pie crust for 10 minutes.  
Let
    cool. Cut the fish into 1 1/2" chunks, salt lightly ands sprinkle  
with 2
    tbsp lemon juice. Set aside. Melt the butter in a large, heavy  
skillet
    and toss the pear and apple slices in it until they are lightly  
coated.
    Combine the wine, lemon juice, brown sugar, spices and dried  
fruits, and
    add to the mixture in the skillet. Cover and simmer about 15  
minutes or
    until the fruit is soft but still firm. Check the flavoring, and  
drain
    off excess liquid. Paint jelly on the pie crust. Combine fish chunks
    with fruit and place the mixture in the crust. Bake at 375F for  
15-25
    minutes, or until the fish flakes easily.

  SOAR - the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes
  (http://soar.Berkeley.EDU/recipes/)
---

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 ****