[Sca-cooks] ISO information on pickled fish

Christiane christianetrue at earthlink.net
Tue Jun 14 16:26:28 PDT 2011


This got me wondering; I don't remember seeing an earlier English  pickling recipe involving fish (although salting, brining, and powdering are all mentioned in England and Scotland) than the one above (although I have not looked extensively yet). Anyone have any pointers for me, places/works to check?

Thanks much!

toodles, margaret


The food writer Charles Perry had told me that the samak  musakbaj in the Baghdad Cookery Book and scapece alla Vastese, a preserved fish dish from Abruzzo, were virtually identical. If you look up modern recipes for scapece alla Vastese, you'd essentially have the Baghdad Cookery recipe.

Also try looking up "askipeciam et gelatinum." The food writer Anna Martellotti in "I ricettari di Federico II" says Frederic II requested fish from a certain lake for his cook Berardo to prepare this fish dish. Keep in mind that Frederic spent his childhood in Palermo, with Muslim cooks and servants, spoke Arabic, etc. I am sure he was not unfamiliar with Arabic pickled fish dishes. 

YIS,
Adelisa Salernitana





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