Fish Cookery, Kuchnia Cooking and Food

Fish Cookery

Indeks Finanse, Finanse(1), Filozofos, Fesenjan, Fenix,

Odnośniki

Fish Cookery, Kuchnia Cooking and Food

Fish for feasts – recipes from Scappi Pennsic 2009

Why isn’t more fish served at feasts?

In the medieval and renaissance era up to 1/3 of all days were fasting days where no meat was served. This reliance on fish cookery is reflected in Scappi where almost as many recipes are given for fish dishes as for meat dishes. However, fish turns up but rarely in SCA feasts. So what are the barriers to fish service at feasts?

COST – a meal out at a cheap restaurant will cost $15 plus tax and tip, but most SCA feasters expect to sit down, get served 3 courses of at least 3 dishes each for $10-12. This puts a lot of stress on the head cook to economize. I can buy pork loin for $1.75/lb, beef sirloin for $2.60 but the cheapest fish I can find is >$4/lb.

FUSSY EATERS – There are many people who just don’t eat fish, there are others that are allergic to seafood. Out of 30 people in my camp this year, 2 people are allergic to seafood and three more will not eat fish.

HANDLING – pork holds well, beef holds well, most vegetables hold well. Seafood can rapidly become dry, unappetizing and frankly nasty.

Overcoming the Barriers

COST – allow for a small portion per person, maybe an ounce or two as opposed to four or more ounces. Keep an eye open for local sales, be prepared to freeze. Be aware of local availability, i.e. in the midwest (far from any coast) our cheap fish are limited: farmed salmon, tilapia, lake perch and catfish.

FUSSY EATERS – you can’t please all the people all the time, but a LOT more people are eating fish than used to, you can even buy sushi in a lot of local groceries, something unthinkable 10 years ago. Have a variety of other foods (and meats) available and they will forgive you for serving fish.

HANDLING – this is where YOUR culinary expertise comes in. Judge your cooking skills, your kitchen equipment and your staff carefully. Try and pick a recipe and fish that is tolerant to delays, holding and service. Think ahead, test your recipes and work accordingly.

Fish in Scappi

MEDITERANEAN vs. ATLANTIC/PACIFIC – The problem with using Scappi as a source for fish recipes is that the types of fish caught and eaten in the Mediterranean are, for the most part, totally different species than those caught of the US coast (1). The most closely related fish are those found in the Gulf Stream and Caribbean waters. Some need no translation such as: Sea Bream, Anchovy, Sardine, Barracuda, Sea Bass, Eel, Grey Mullet, swordfish, tuna, skate, sharks, sturgeon, crabs, oysters, scallops, clams, mussels and sea urchins. But the situation is more complicated with other fish such as:

N. American Mediterranean

Kingfish meagre, corb

Goatfish Red Mullet

Silver/pacific hake whiting

Gulf/other hake forkberd

Porgy sea bream

Sea robins gurnard

Shrimp prawns

No salmon and no cod, although recipes for both can be found in Scappi, although they are recipes for salted and/or dried product NOT fresh.

Preparation methods

The fish cookery in Scappi and be excerpted to a few different methods of preparation and I will give an example of each, but feel free to substitute fish within the recipe to find something that works.

GRILLED –

To cook pieces of sturgeon on the grill. Recipe 11, third book
Take ten pounds of sturgeon cut in the way said in the above chapter (cut across in pieces, i.e. steaks), or cut how you want, they can also be skinned, but if you leave the skin on they will stay intact. Stack the pieces one on top of another, first sprinkling with ground fennel, pepper and salt, and put them in a vessel where there is oil, and leave them in this oil for 30 minutes so that they become well marinated with the oil. Have ready sprigs of rosemary or mytrle ready bathed in the same oil, put these on the grill and the fish on top, without touching each other, this is so that it won’t stick to the grill. Give them a slow fire, and turn them several times and brush them with a sage sprig with the same oil in which they soaked mixed with vinegar, mosto or sugar, do this until they are done. And have care to give them too hot a fire. This fish is better when it is cooked in the smoke from the grill as it gives more savor to the sauce with which you bathe the fish and serve it thus how with the same sauce and raisins cooked in wine and sugar above, or with sour orange and sugar.

POACHED

To make a pottage of Ombrina (similar to Sea Bass). Recipe 31 third book
Take ten pounds of Ombrina cut across into two pieces, scale and wash well, and put them in a tinned copper or earthenware pot with eight ounces of oil, 5 ounces of malmsey or white wine, two pounds of water, half a pound of verjuice, three ounces of sugar, an ounce of venetian spices, four ounces of raisins and let everything cook together on low heat, so that the fish doesn’t fall apart, because (as I said above) it needs little cooking. Serve hot with slices of bread underneath and the broth on top.

FRIED, soused and marinaded

To fry, souse and marinate sardines. Recipe 73 third book
Take fresh sardines, scale and wash them and let them sit on the table mixed with a little white salt, flour them and then fry them in olive oil, because it is always better than lard and butter, and when they are fried serve them with sour orange juice or cut lemons or fried parsley ontop. And after they are fried conserve them in laurel or myrtle leaves, and if you want them marinated after they are fried put them in vinegar in which there is sugar or mosto with saffron and conserve them thus marinated until you want to serve them. In the summer in the place of vinegar one can use clear verjuice thickened with an egg yolk or breadcrumbs, also after they are fried you can cover them with green sauce.

CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

Several ways to cook lobster. Recipe 170 third book
Take the said lobster and in each put a hole in the tail and put them in a pan with wather and salt or wine, and pepper vinegar and salt, and make sure that they are well cleaned because often they are full of filth. And when they are cooked peel the tail and the claws, taking out the meat, and serve with pepper, vinegar, sweet oil and salt above.

To fry oysters. Recipe 189 third book
Take the shucked oysters, flour them and fry in olive oil, and serve them with sour orange juice and pepper above or with a sauce made from sour orange and sugar, and after they are fried you can cover them with green sauce or other sauce, and these can be made into pastry dishes as one says in the dish on pastries.

BAKED IN A PASTRY CRUST

To make a pastry of sturgeon cooked in a coarse crust for conserving and serving hot. Recipe 153 Fifth book
Take the scaled sturgeon and cut into pieces of six pounds each, and let them rest covered for two hours in a mixture made of pepper, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, verjuice, or sour orange juice and enough salt. Then have a sheet made of sifted whole wheat flour, made in the way described in the first chapter of this book, but if you want the sheet of pasta to be eaten then paste flour, in the way said in the second chapter, but in the place of eggs, add greek wine, in the place of lard oil with pepper and salt. The sheet of pastry should be as thick as a finger mor or less, according to the size of the fish. On top of the pastry sprinkle more of the same spices then put on the piece of sturgeon, then spirnkle with more of the same spices. Close the pastry and put it in the oven, and if you want to give it color with water tinted with saffron that is your choice. When it is cooked serve it cold or hot at your pleasure. But in this same way one makes for conserving it one can spear the fish with pieces of salted pork belly or add to it mortatelle or sausage, and make the pastry in the same way one makes that of beef tongue in the first chapter.

IN A TART

To make a tart of sturgeon flesh. Recipe 201 fifth book
Take the belly of sturgeon scaled, that is the best part, and boil with water and salt, and when it is cooked take it out and let it cool, and beat it with knives and with this mint marjoram, and a little thyme, mix with this ground biscotti, figs that have been cut in small pieces, raisins, fresh pine nuts soaked in water, pepper, cinnamon, ground cloves, sugar and enough salt, raw egg yolks and a little grated parmesan, and have ready a tart pan greased with butter an with a sheet of pastry that is large enough, and with swirls around the edge, and put inside this mixture with a little sour orange juice, or verjuice so it will have a good flavor and several pieces of butter inside so that it stays moist, and cover with another sheet of pastry and cook in the same way as that above, and serve hot sprinkled with rose water and sugar, and if you want it in a lenten day in the place of egg and cheese use marzipan and eggs of other fish, and in the place of butter use oil. In the same way one can make a tart of the flesh of any sea fish, or fresh water fish that is free of bones and skin.

References

1) Mediterranean Seafood – A comprehensive guide with recipes. Alan Davidson. 1972, 1981, 2002 Ten Speed Press.

2) Scappi, B., Opera : (dell' arte del cucinare). Reprint. First published: Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi. Venice, 1570. 1981, Bologna: Arnaldo Forni. [20], 436 leaves [ca. 888 p.], [28] p. of plates.

3) Scappi, B. and T. Scully, The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) : l'arte et prudenza d'un maestro cuoco. 2008, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

4) The Italian version of Scappi is available for free online at:
http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=X533351951&idioma=0

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