[Sca-cooks] Anchovies - what to do?

[Johnna Holloway]

A quick search using the handy search feature through Doc's website  
medievalcookery.com

reveals:

This is an excerpt from Libre del Coch
(Spain, 1520 - Robin Carroll-Mann, trans.)
The original source can be found at Mark S. Harris' Florilegium

219. ANCHOVY in casserole. The anchovy is commonly bitter, and because  
of this you must remove the head together with the intestines and wash  
it, and clean it well, and then take all common spices, and also put  
in raisins, and almonds, and pine_nuts; and the almonds must be  
scalded and blanched; and then mix them with the raisins, and almonds,  
and pine_nuts, and with all the good herbs, and with the fish. And let  
everything be mixed in the casserole with a little oil. These  
casseroles are better to cook in the house than in the oven; and for  
the most part, they should be eaten in the month of April.

  You could treat them like sardines-

This is an excerpt from Le Menagier de Paris
(France, 1393 - Janet Hinson, trans.)
The original source can be found at David Friedman's website

Sardines, gutted, cooked in water, and eaten with mustard sauce.

I suppose the search would broaden out if done under fish and then you  
looked for small

fish.

Hope this helps

Johnna



On Jan 30, 2010, at 3:24 AM, Volker Bach wrote:



> Salvete all   It's great to have Turkish communities in your city! I  
> just got a kilo of deep-frozen Black Sea anchovies very cheap. Not  
> salted, not filleted, not even gutted. My question is - whatdo I do  
> with them? I know that I can just fry them up whole and crunch them  
> like sardines, but is there anything else?
>
> Garum, maybe? My neighbours would probably lynch me.  Any advice  
> appreciated.
>
> Giano