[Sca-cooks] Silly Siense Season...
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius1 at verizon.net
Tue Jul 29 08:04:13 PDT 2008
On Jul 29, 2008, at 10:23 AM, Susan Fox wrote:
> Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
>>
>> "and all kinds of fish, for best results, should be fried without
>> grease in the manner here described; take an egg yolk or two and
>> rub the (hot) pan until it appears to sweat; the pan should be
>> quite black and wiped thoroughly with a cloth, and it should be
>> carefully watched lest it become too hot or too cold; sprinkle a
>> little salt or sugar on (the surface of) the pan; [fry the fishes]
>> as you would serve them on a plate, putting in one after the other
>> without letting them each other"
>>
>> In Hieatt's notes on this recipe, she says, among other things,
>> that "It is not the egg yolk which gives the appearance of
>> 'sweating,' but the cholesterol left behind when the coating of
>> yolk is wiped from the pan with a cloth."
>>
>> I just thought that was really cool. Doesn't it look a lot like
>> instructions for seasoning an iron pan and pan-broiling a steak
>> without any fat?
>>
>> Adamantius (as previously noted, easily amused)
>
> That is really interesting. I did not know you could do that with
> eggs. Raw egg yolks? I'll have to try this.
>
> I cleaned out my storage unit yesterday and found All My Cast Iron
> Cookware. Amongst other stuff. Lord help us. I'll figure out where
> to put it all Very Soon Now. But it may be time for a session of
> Calafia Dutch Oven Cookery Gang at a remote location, viz. Altavia
> [call it, three baronies away in SCA terms].
If I had to speculate (and of course, Laurels never do that ;-) ),
I'd say to warm the pan without actually cooking the yolks to any
great extent, which should enable them to actually be removed with a
cloth and not too much elbow grease. I'd also think about (with no
particular conclusion in mind, of course) whether something like free-
range eggs might make a difference in re fat content in the yolks.
I also wonder whether this is some interpretation of fish-day or
Lenten dietary rules; I've always had a tenuous grasp on those since
they rarely seem to me to have any consistency. But I believe the same
recipe calls for onions fried in grease, so perhaps this is a fried
(or pan-broiled) red herring...
Adamantius
"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's
bellies."
-- Rabbi Israel Salanter
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