[Sca-cooks] Anchovies - what to do?
Daniel & Elizabeth Phelps
dephelps at embarqmail.com
Sat Jan 30 08:59:22 PST 2010
les anchoyes au percy, oygnions et vin aigre, et la poudre par dessus
Du fait de cuisine, f. 56v
The above simple list/recipe translates loosely into English as:
anchovies with parsley, onions, vinegar and powdered over with what is
probably "fine powder". "Fine powder" per the Menagier de Paris is:
"prenez gingembre 1.3, canelle triece 3, giroffle et graaine de chascum demy
quart d'once, et de sucre en pierre 3, et faictes pouldre"
It should be noted that in various versions of Menagier the proportions of
these spices vary. That being said this, translated into the modern, works
out, per Scully and Scully, as:
3 tbs. ground ginger
1.5 tbs. cinnamon
1 tsp. grain of paradise
1 tsp. ground cloves
2 tbs. sugar
The recipe as worked out makes some assumptions. The onions and anchovies
need to be cooked for one thing, presumably sauted in olive oil, and the
mixture combined with vinegar, the parsley and the spice powder.
Having reviewed Scully and Scully's recipe the following is my redaction:
Take three parts chopped onion to one part olive oil and saute the onions in
the oil. Take 3 parts red wine vinegar add it to the onions. Lacking
fresh anchovies add 3 to 4 parts anchovies canned in oil and a equal amount
of parsley, both of which you have chopped fine, to the mixture. Add the
spice powder to taste. Serve the result as a spread on toast points.
References:
Scully, D.E. & Scully, T., 1995, Early French Cookery, University of
Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Caridoc, Duke & Diana Alena, Duchesa, 1987, A Collection of Medieval and
Renaissance Cookbooks, Privately Printed
There is also the example of Mike's lunch menus, which featured anchovies,
that was sent to me some time back. Here is the passage of interest sent to
me by Christianna some time back. Hope it is of use and she doesn't mind.
I've thought to do a reproduction of the lunch as an A/S entry but not
gotten around to it.
"The one real find for me was when I turned a corner tosee a small piece of
paper in a frame on the wall, with pictures of fooditems on it. When I got a
closer look, I was amazed! It was an envelopethat Michalangelo received in
1518, that he had then outlined menus on forilliterate servants. Here is the
text from the blurb on the wall next toit:"Always frugal and often dealing
with illiterate assistants, Michalangelosketched these three menus (for two,
four, and six people) on the back of aletter he received in 1518. His
annotations read "Two rolls, a pitcher ofwine, a herring, tortelli; four
rolls, a pitcher of wine, a small quarter ofa rough wine, a plate of
spinach, four anchovies, tortelli; six rolls, twofennel soups, a herring, a
pitcher of wine."Each item has a picture of it drawn next to it. I sketched
the whole thing,and I wish I could post it, but don't have the technology
right now to doit. (Yes, I stood there a really long time, came to within 6
inches of it©but no closer, my lord got close enough for the guard to inhale
sharply © ;)The rolls are just circles, 2,4, and 6 of them. The pitcher of
wine has ahandle, the quarter of a rough wine ('en quartucco di bruscio') is
a smallpitcher approximately a quarter of the size of the big one. There are
acouple of fish outlined (herring = 'una aringa'), and a couple of bowls
ofwhat must be salad, also a flatter plate that might be the spinach or
thetortelli. The soup ('duo minestro di finochio') is shown in a large
tureen(footed), with something coming out of the bowl and hanging over the
sides(3 of them), I'm guessing it is fennel stalks used for decoration,
andpossibly to be served with the soup. The last reference to wine reads
'ubochal di tondo', which the book states was probably a reference to
winefrom the Calle Tondo, a local regional wine. It is supposed that this
lastone was added by one of Michalangelo's sculptural collaborators,
PietroUnella (? I'm not sure of his last name), because his writing is all
overother daily expense account records, and Michalangelo himself was so
frugalthat the finer wine might not have been his idea.As usual, he is
presumably talking to cooks, so he gives no preparationinstructions. I am
guessing that the spinach would be a plate of rawleaves, perhaps dressed
with olive oil and salt. Maybe cooked lightly? Mylord conjectures that as
herring is a cold water fish, it might be apreserved item, bought in
barrels, while the anchovies might be a fresh'catch of the day' from the
Mediterranean. The bread ('pain dua', 'quatroparni', and 'sie parni'), look
like simple round rolls.ChristiannaA photo of the 1517 letter is reproduced
in Gillian Riley's _Painters andFood: Rennaissance Recipes_, p. 36.Ms. Riley
selected 3 recipes from period sources (eg Platina) for StewedFennel,
marinated anchovies and aromatic spinach (cooked). Unfortunately,Ms Riley
does not provide the original recipe texts, nor the periodcookery
sources."Daniel
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