salmon-msg - 3/5/17

Use of Salmon in period. Recipes.

NOTE: See also the files: fish-msg, seafood-msg, stockfish-msg, Complet-Anglr-msg, fish-pies-msg, fishing-msg, fish-cleaning-art, med-fishing-lnks.

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                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 18:33:37 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Salmon at feasts

marilyn traber wrote, re salmon:
> fresh, prepared en papillot on a bed of leeks, carrots and celery sauted
> in butter with thyme and rosemary, topped with lemon slices and dabs of
> butter-a la bretonne, in other words....sigh!	

Some  more period approaches to salmon would to roast it whole, and eat
it with cameline sauce, green sauce, or perhaps a mustard sauce, and I
found a spiffy version of salmon quenelles or dumplings, called "Saumon
Gentil" somewhere in Curye on Inglysche. This dish involved mincing
skinless and boneless fillets (note: do NOT remove the belly fat!) and
extruding them through a hollow horn with the tip cut off, into boiling
liquid. When the blobs are cooked, they can be cut into serving
portions, and sprinkled with ground cumin. We made these at an event
recently, and added some eggs to the mix, for a little insurance against
breakage, and made individual dumplings with a pastry bag. We poached
them in salmon stock, made from the remains of the salmon (being SURE to
remove the gills, and any fat on the carcasses), and served them
floating on top of a green sauce of salmon stock, malt vinegar, parsley,
sorrel, and a few fresh bread crumbs.

While not exactly a direct comment on the fish, somebody saw fit to rise
and regale the folks in the hall with an impromptu recitation of the
tale of Finn Mac Coul and the Salmon of Knowledge. I thought that was
pretty cool... .

Adamantius   


Date: 8 Oct 1997 15:58:33 -0700
From: "Marisa Herzog" <marisa_herzog at macmail.ucsc.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Salmon at feasts

two of the best ways I have had salmon (other than just poached with
appropriate sauce) were:

marinated in sliced onions, dried cranberries, wine, soysauce, and a bit of
sugar and then grilled.
and
a russian salmon loaf- a pie-dough sorta thing stuffed with flaked salmon,
rice, hardboiled egg- can't remember the spices exactly but dill comes to
mind- served hot with a dollup of sour cream.

- -brid


Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 20:57:59 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Salmon at feasts

Marisa Herzog wrote:
> a russian salmon loaf- a pie-dough sorta thing stuffed with flaked salmon,
> rice, hardboiled egg- can't remember the spices exactly but dill comes to
> mind- served hot with a dollup of sour cream.
> 
> -brid

That would be coulibiac, which was originally made from sturgeon.
Traditional coulibiac, even now, is supposed to contain vesiga, which is
a gelatinous stuff taken from the spine of the sturgeon, in addition to
the other fish flesh.

Adamantius


Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 02:08:39 EST
From: korrin.daardain at juno.com (Korrin S DaArdain)
Subject: SC - Recipes x3

M'Lords and M'Ladys,
        I thought people might enjoy these.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Salmon with Spices and Prunes, Whole Baked
        From "The Tudor Kitchen's Cookery Book" Hampton Court Palace;
Printed in The Oregonian Newspaper Food Day Mar 10, 1998.
        Salmon was popular in Tudor England. However, if you want to be
more authentic, order a carp from your fishmonger.
        1 whole fresh salmon or carp, 2 to 3 lbs, gutted and cleaned (2
lbs without head)
        6 tb butter softened
        2 ts ground mace
        12 whole cloves
        Salt to taste
        Pepper to taste
        Garnish:
        Whole cooked prunes
        A few currants
        fresh lemon wedges
        Salad leaves
        Green onions
        Radishes
        Fresh dill
        Lay the fish on a large, greased sheet of foil set on a baking
sheet. Mix the butter with the mace and salt and spread on the inside
cavity and over the skin. Sprinke with cloves, then wrap the foil up
loosely but sealing well. Bake at 350 deg for about 30 to 45 minutes
depending on the size, until the fish is tender but still feels quite
firm when pressed near the backbone. If the flesh is pale pink, then it
is cooked. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before dishing into larger
platter with the fish juices poured over, garnish with some whole cooked
prunes, a few currants scattered over, lemon wedges, salad leaves, green
onions and dill.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Korrin S. DaArdain
Dodging trees in the Kingdom of An Tir.
Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com


Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 17:44:35 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - First Feast Update

>  others are bringing: salmon steak (not period, but it's a start)

Of course it is!  Here is a recipe from Harleian 4016, c. 1450 (From "Take
1000 Eggs or More, v.2, p. 350).  I haven't tried it, but it sounds
delicious!

Harleian MS. 4016
154 Samon roste in Sauce.  Take a Salmond, and cut him rounde, chyne and
all, and roste the peces on a gredire; And take wyne, and pouder of Canell,
and drawe it [th]orgh a streynour; And take smale myced oynons, and caste
[th]ere-to, and lete hem boyle; And [th]en take vynegre, or vergeous, and
pouder ginger, and cast there-to; And [th]en ley the samon in a dissh, and
cast [th]e sirip [th]eron al hote, & serue it forth.

154 Salmon roasted in Sauce.  Take a Salmon, and cut him round, backbone
and all, and roast the pieces on a gridiron; And take wine, and powder of
Cinnamon, and draw it through a strainer; And take small minced onions, and
cast thereto, and let them boil; And then take vinegar, or verjuice, and
powdered ginger, and cast thereto; And then lay the salmon in a dish, and
cast the syrup thereon all hot, & serve it forth.

Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"


Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 16:07:55 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - First Feast Update

At 1:19 PM -0700 7/13/98, Vickie Strassburg wrote:>  others are bringing: salmon steak (not period, but it's a start)Actually, it is period.  You could either make the sauce for this over thefire on site, as it is fairly easy, or make in advance and keep cold.

Salmon roste in Sauce
Two Fifteenth Century p. 102

Take a Salmond, and cut him rounde, chyne and all, and rost the peces on agredire; And take wyne, and pouder of Canell, and drawe it thorgh astreynour; And take smale myced oynons, and caste there-to, and lete hemboyle; And then take vynegre, or vergeous, and pouder ginger, and castthere-to; and then ley the samon in a dissh, and cast the sirip theron alhote, & serue it forth. [end of original; 
thorns replaced by th]

1 3/4 lb salmon 
3/4 t cinnamon
 1/4 c red wine vinegar
3/4 c white wine        
1 medium onion, 6 oz
    1/4 t ginger

Chop onion; put onion, wine, and cinnamon in small pot, cook on mediumabout 20 minutes. Add ginger and vinegar. Simmer. Meanwhile, take salmonsteaks, cut into serving sized pieces, place on ungreased baking pan orcookie sheet. Broil for 10 minutes until lightly browned. Turn salmon, making certain pieces are separated, cook another 4 minutes or until done. 
Serve immediately with sauce over it.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 22:12:08 EDT
From: Mordonna22 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Grilled Salmon - my redaction

Tonight I served grilled salmon and a spinach tart.
Every drop and crumb was eaten by we three ladies, and I got rave reviews!

Harleian MS. 4016
154 Samon roste in Sauce.  Take a Salmond, and cut him rounde, chyne and all,
and roste the peces on a gredire; And take wyne, and pouder of Canell and
drawe it [th]orgh a streynour; And take smale myced oynons, and caste [th]ere-to, and lete hem boyle; And [th]en take vynegre, or vergeous, and pouder ginger, and cast there-to; And [th]en ley the samon in a dissh, and
cast [th]e sirip [th]eron al hote, & serue it forth

154 Salmon roasted in Sauce.  Take a Salmon, and cut him round, backbone and
all, and roast the pieces on a gridiron; And take wine, and powder of
Cinnamon, and draw it through a strainer; And take small minced onions, and
cast thereto, and let them boil; And then take vinegar, or verjuice, and
powdered ginger, and cast thereto; And then lay the salmon in a dish, and cast the syrup thereon all hot, & serve it forth

My redaction:

Three salmon steaks
2 TBS butter
salt
pepper

Sauce
1 cup red wine (Mogen David Concord {why not})
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup minced onion
2 TBS red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp ginger

Cook Salmon in a large sauce pan in the butter, adding salt and pepper to
taste.  Cook five minutes on each side.

While the Salmon is cooking, make the sauce.  Place wine, cinnamon, and onions
in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Boil for 1 min, add vinegar and
ginger, stir well and return to a boil.

Place Salmon in a serving dish, and pour sauce over it and serve.

(yummy, yummy, yummy)
Mordonna


Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 00:53:56 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Grilled Salmon - my redaction

Mordonna tried a period salmon recipe; we did the same recipe a while ago.

>Harleian MS. 4016
>154 Samon roste in Sauce.  Take a Salmond, and cut him rounde, chyne and all,
>and roste the peces on a gredire; And take wyne, and pouder of Canell and
>drawe it [th]orgh a streynour; And take smale myced oynons, and caste [th]ere-
>to, and lete hem boyle; And [th]en take vynegre, or vergeous, and pouder
>ginger, and cast there-to; And [th]en ley the samon in a dissh, and
>cast [th]e sirip [th]eron al hote, & serue it forth
>
Mordonna's version:
>Three salmon steaks
>2 TBS butter
>salt
>pepper
>
>Sauce
>1 cup red wine (Mogen David Concord {why not})
>1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
>1 cup minced onion
>2 TBS red wine vinegar
>1/2 tsp ginger
>
>Cook Salmon in a large sauce pan in the butter, adding salt and pepper to
>taste.  Cook five minutes on each side.
>
>While the Salmon is cooking, make the sauce.  Place wine, cinnamon, and onions
>in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Boil for 1 min, add vinegar and
>ginger, stir well and return to a boil.
>
>Place Salmon in a serving dish, and pour sauce over it and serve.

Our version:
1 3/4 lb salmon
3/4 c white wine
3/4 t cinnamon
1 medium onion, 6 oz
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1/4 t ginger

Chop onion; put onion, wine, and cinnamon in small pot, cook on medium
about 20 minutes. Add ginger and vinegar. Simmer. Meanwhile, take salmon
steaks, cut into serving sized pieces, place on ungreased baking pan or
cookie sheet. Broil for 10 minutes until lightly browned. Turn salmon,
making certain pieces are separated, cook another 4 minutes or until done.
Serve immediately with sauce over it.

>(yummy, yummy, yummy)
>Mordonna

So was ours, in spite of the fact we did the sauce with noticably different
proportions and ours was cooked much longer.  This is one I want to include
when I (one of these years) do a proper Lenten feast.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 21:45:19 -0400
From: Phil & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: SC - More On Baconn'd Herring Breakfasts (Long!)

Cindy Renfrow wrote:
> Back in February we were discussing 'Baconn'd Herring' without resolution
> as to what it meant.  I just ran across this in Le Menagier (The notes are
> M. Pichon's):
>
> "SAUMON frais soit baconné,(1) et gardez l'eschine pour rostir; puis
> despeciez par dales cuites en eaue, et
> du vin et du sel au cuire; mengié au poivre jaunet ou à la cameline et en
> pasté, qui veult, pouldré (2)
> d'espices; et se le saumon est salé, soit mengié au vin et à la ciboule par
> rouelles.(3)
>
> (1)Fumé. Voy. Du Cange au mot Baco.
>
> (2)Peut-être faut-il lire pouldre en sous-entendant avec.
>
> (3)G. C. , 69."
>
> Translation please?

After a little more consideration, I've discarded a lot of my earlier attempt
at a translation. (Computer programs just aren't made for this kind of thing,
not that I paid much attention to what Power Translator said, anyway !) I
still haven't run across anything like it in the cookery sections of my Eileen Power translation of le Menagier, but I did manage to run across the
following, almost identical passage elsewhere. From the Vatican's copy of Le
Viandier de Taillevent, translated by Terence Scully:

"124. Saumon frez. Baconné, et gardez l'eschine pour rostir; puis le depecies
par dalles et soit cuit en eaue, du vin et du sel au cuire; et soit mengié au
poivre jaunet ou a la cameline; et le mectent aucuns ressuyer sur le grail au
mengiér; et en pasté, qui veult, pouldré d'espices, et soit mengié a la
cameline; et s'il est sallé, soit cuit en eaue sans sel et mengiés au vin et a
la ciboule miciee.

"124. Fresh Salmon. It should be larded, and keep the spine in it for roasting
(var.: frying in a pan); then pick it apart by layers, and cook it in water
and wine, with salt; it should be eaten with yellow Pepper Sauce or with
Cameline Sauce. Some people set it to dry on the grill for eating.
Alternatively, in a pasty, sprinkled with spice powder, and eaten with
Cameline Sauce. If it is salted, it should be cooked in water without salt and eaten with wine and chopped shallots."

Okay, I admit calling the ciboules onions may have been a bit hasty. What are
we left with? Interestingly enough, we are back to the point of wondering
whether baconned herring is herring with bacon or other lard added, or herring cured or otherwise treated like bacon. Scully seems to go for the former theory in the case of the salmon recipe quoted, while Pichon seems to espouse the latter idea. Scully does point out several instances of "baconner" used as a verb, as opposed to the use of "lard" as a verb, but also sez he believes baconner to be a corruption of another verb. The bottom line is that Scully says he feels the fish is to be larded, and cites a couple of other uses of a similar verb, but then he says he's not sure, it may be that the fish is to be studded, as with cloves or some such (boutonner). Pichon pretty clearly thinks the reference is to salmon being smoked, unless I'm vastly mistaken.

In any case, I'm still not sure I buy the Scully interpretation of the bit
about the chine. He seems to feel a dual cooking process is involved, first
roasting, then removing it from the bones and breaking it up, and simmering in water with wine and salt. Scully, of course, seems to attribute all acts of unknown motivation to medical theory: he says the second cooking process is a boiling, thus "exposing it to the warming and drying effects of wine and
salt." I'm not sure I buy this, since even if salmon is unusually cold and
moist, you'd think a roasting would be the way to counteract this. And, if
wine and salt were really necessary, why spoil it with a cooling, moist
cooking method like boiling? Yes, I know boiling is in fact really hot, just
take it up with Galen, please, okay?

I'm still inclined to think there is at least some possibility that the
roasting is for the upper, back portion of the fish, and the boiling for the
fatty rib and ventral area meat.

Regarding the footnotes, the first refers to an author named Du Cange,
suggesting Du Cange uses the word "baco'. I have no access to anything written by Du Cange, but his name is mentioned in a footnote by Eileen Power in her translation of Le Menagier. It is, unfortunately, in connection with an entirely different passage so doesn't help us here, much. As for the third
footnote, I haven't the foggiest idea who or what G.C. is.

Well, I'm done for now. Now is the time for anyone wishing to translate this
into poetry, or include lamb's lettuce in the recipe, to speak now or forever
hold his/her piece (and you know who you are!!!) ;  )

In wild hopes this has helped, instead of just making everything more confusing,

Adamantius


Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 23:29:31 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - More On Baconn'd Herring Breakfasts (Long!)

>Interestingly enough, we are back to the point of wondering
>whether baconned herring is herring with bacon or other lard added, or herring
>cured or otherwise treated like bacon. Scully seems to go for the former
>theory in the case of the salmon recipe quoted, while Pichon seems to espouse
>the latter idea. Scully does point out several instances of "baconner" used as
>a verb, as opposed to the use of "lard" as a verb, but also sez he believes
>baconner to be a corruption of another verb. The bottom line is that Scully
>says he feels the fish is to be larded, and cites a couple of other uses of a
>similar verb, but then he says he's not sure, it may be that the fish is to be
>studded, as with cloves or some such (boutonner). Pichon pretty clearly thinks
>the reference is to salmon being smoked, unless I'm vastly mistaken.

"Larded" seems unlikely, to me anyway, because the salmon is fish & the
lard is meat, & they seem to be mutually exclusive in most period recipes.
(At least the ones I can remember at the moment...) Also, a salmon is
described as being a  fat fish, rather than a lean one.  Do you typically
add fat to salmon when you cook it?

>I'm still inclined to think there is at least some possibility that the
>roasting is for the upper, back portion of the fish, and the boiling for the
>fatty rib and ventral area meat.

I'm inclined to agree with your first assessment:
>fresh SALMON [belly?] is smoked, (1) and keep the chine for roasting;

In other words, the salmon is divided & one part is smoked & the other part
roasted. A salmon is a big fish, after all.  The direction to
partially-roast & then simmer in wine, or other liquid, is found in other
recipes. In fact Aoife's   recipe for stwed beef does the same thing.  The
partial roasting (or broiling) brings out the flavor, & the simmering
tenderizes the flesh & adds other flavors.

>Regarding the footnotes, the first refers to an author named Du Cange,
>suggesting Du Cange uses the word "baco'. I have no access to anything written
>by Du Cange, but his name is mentioned in a footnote by Eileen Power in her
>translation of Le Menagier. It is, unfortunately, in connection with an
>entirely different passage so doesn't help us here, much. As for the third
>footnote, I haven't the foggiest idea who or what G.C. is.

G. C. is a work called "le Grand cuisinier de toutes cuisines".  I don't
any info on Du Cange -- does anyone have access to Attar or Bitting, etc.

>Adamantius

Cindy
renfrow at skylands.net


Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 01:07:46 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - More On Baconn'd Herring Breakfasts (Long!)

Here is the Hinson translation of what seems to be the passage in question.

FRESH SALMON should be smoked, and leave the backbone in for roasting; then
cut it into slices boiled in water, with wine and salt during cooking; eat
with yellow pepper or with cameline sauce and in pastry, whatever you like,
sprinkled with spices; and if the salmon is salted, let it be eaten with
wine and sliced scallions.

I believe the Powers translation is very fragmentary, so far as the cooking
section is concerned, with chunks omitted without notice. The Hinson
translation, incidentally, is on my web page.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/



Subject: Re: SC - Salmon recipe with beer

> From Gervase Markham's The English Huswife:
>
> To seeth fresh Salmon.
>
> Take a little water, and as much Beere and Salt,
> and put thereto Parsley, Time, and Rosemarie, and
> let all thes boyle together; then put in your
> Salmon, and make your broth sharpe with some
> Vinigar.
>
> My redaction:

<snipped>

It's a lovely period recipe but I do wonder about your
redaction. Basically the period recipe is calling for
making a rich broth of beer, herbs, salt and vinegar
then poaching the fish.

There's no oil or pepper mentioned and I do wonder about
the use of even a high sided jelly roll pan to poach
fish in.

Please believe that I'm not flaming or attacking you
but this is one of the simpler period recipes and do
wonder how you came about with this redaction. Did you
try it following Markham's recipe and find it lacking?

> Huette

Gunthar


Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 10:25:18 -0800 (PST)
From: Huette von <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Salmon recipe with beer

- ---"Michael F. Gunter" <michael.gunter at fnc.fujitsu.com> wrote:
> > From Gervase Markham's The English Huswife:
> >
> > To seeth fresh Salmon.
> >
> > Take a little water, and as much Beere and Salt,
> > and put thereto Parsley, Time, and Rosemarie, and
> > let all thes boyle together; then put in your
> > Salmon, and make your broth sharpe with some
> > Vinigar.
> >
> > My redaction:
>
> <snipped>
>
> It's a lovely period recipe but I do wonder about your
> redaction. Basically the period recipe is calling for
> making a rich broth of beer, herbs, salt and vinegar
> then poaching the fish.
>
> There's no oil or pepper mentioned and I do wonder about
> the use of even a high sided jelly roll pan to poach
> fish in.
>
> Please believe that I'm not flaming or attacking you
> but this is one of the simpler period recipes and do
> wonder how you came about with this redaction. Did you
> try it following Markham's recipe and find it lacking?
>
> Gunthar

Yes, Gunthar, I did find some problems in redacting
this.  I probably should have explained this earlier.

The oil was added to keep the salmon from sticking
to the pan.  I picked olive oil because Markham used
it in other recipes.

Pepper is not in the original recipe.  It is just a
personal choice that I made.  You can make this recipe
without it.  I personally like it better with pepper,
but that was my choice.  I should have left it out
of the recipe I posted.

As for my addendum about making this recipe for
banquets in jelly-roll pans.  To make this in a skillet
for 300 banqueters would be timeconsuming and it would be difficult to
keep the salmon uniformly hot before serving it.  Poaching in an oven
instead of over an open flame is much more practical and timesaving.
The flavor and texture of the salmon is no different either way. I
managed to get 100 pounds of salmon in two
professional sized ovens all at once and served all at
once, while still hot.

Huette


Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 21:33:36 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Salmon Casserole (Recipe)

Here's what I had for dinner tonight.

CAZUELA DE SALMON -- Salmon Casserole
from _Libro de Guisados_ by Ruperto de Nola (Spanish, 1529)
translation and redaction mine

You must take the clean and well-washed salmon; and put it in a
casserole with your spices which are: galingale, and a little pepper and
ginger and saffron; and all of this well ground, and cast upon the fish
with salt, and a little verjuice or orange juice, and let it go to the fire
of embers; and then take blanched almonds and raisins and pine nuts and
all herbs.  That is, moraduj, which is called marjoram, and parsley, and
mint; and when the casserole is nearly half-cooked cast all this inside.

Ingredients:
1 pound salmon fillet
1/4 teaspoon ground galingale
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon peppercorns and a pinch of saffron, ground together
salt to taste
juice of 1 Valencia orange (approx. 1/2 cup)
1 Tablespoon pine nuts
1 Tablespoon blanched slivered almonds
2 Tablespoons raisins
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh mint, chopped

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Place the salmon in a deep casserole dish.
Sprinkle with the ground spices and the salt.  Add orange juice to the
casserole.

Baked, uncovered, for 10 minutes.  Add the chopped herbs, nuts and
raisins, and baste with the orange juice.  Bake 10 more minutes, or until
the salmon flakes easily at its thickest part.  Serve with rice.

Notes:

In the "embers" thread, I discussed my concerns over cooking method.  I
felt that I could not be sure of thorough, even cooking on my electric
stove.  Since baking in the oven is a period method of making the same
dish with other fish, I felt it was an acceptable alteration.

A Florida Valencia orange was the sourest that I could find locally.  Its
juice was noticeably tarter than store-bought juice.  Truly tart orange
juice or verjuice would give the recipe more of a sweet-and-sour taste,
especially with the raisins for contrast.

The juice cooked down and blended with the seasonings and the salmon
drippings to make a very pleasant sauce.  I spooned some of it over the
rice.  I would be tempted next time to use more juice and thereby have
more sauce, although the recipe does specify using just a little liquid.

I used rice as an accompaniment.  The recipe gives no advice about side
dishes, but another casserole recipe in the same chapter, for skate ( Raja
bastis, a kind of ray), says that it is very good with rice.

Proportions of seasonings were guesses.  The only taste that really
stood out was the galingale.  I am undecided as to whether next time I
should leave things as they are, cut back on the galingale, or increase
some of the other herbs and spices to get a stronger but balanced flavor.

My lord and I both enjoyed it and would gladly have it again.  There are
similar recipes for other fish and shellfish, so I may well experiment with
some of those, too.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 15:02:19 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - early Irish -- doc.

Gerekr at aol.com wrote:
> And yes, Gerek and I have finally remembered that British Isles "salmon"
> is not even the same family (I think) as Pacific NorthWet salmon, but oh
> well!  (too late for this year, I'm pretty sure)  What they call salmon
> in Scotland and Ireland is more like what we'd call fresh-water trout?
> Yes, no, sideways, somebody??  If so maybe we can get a step closer next
> year, 8-).

There are seven species of salmon, of which one is native to the
Atlantic and six Pacific. In Ireland and Scotland (not to mention
Brittany, Wales, Cornwall and the Isle of Man ;  )...) the Atlantic
Salmon is what we're talking about. They're fairly closely related to
Pacific salmon, though, all being in the same family or order (I forget
which), along with char, which are really trout, and trout proper.

On the other hand, if we're trying to bounce particular types of salmon
from the appelation, might I suggest that Pacific salmon are really some
kinda char? I think the Atlantic species has at least seniority in the
use of the word "salmon", as, by the way, does striped bass, walleye
(yellow pike) and shad ;  ).

Seriously, though, very very very very very few people can distinguish
Atlantic salmon from the Pacific species when smoked, especially since
now some of the smoked salmon imported from Scotland and Ireland is
actually Pacific. In my opinion simply knowing the difference and making
the distinction in your head is sufficient without getting hold of
Atlantic salmon for your use at three times the price.

Adamantius


Date: Mon, 06 Sep 1999 03:21:50 GMT
From: kerric at pobox.alaska.net (Kerri Canepa)
Subject: SC - The first fish recipe

I was looking through _To the King's Taste_ when I ran across a most intriguing
recipe. It's Tart de Brymlent which is mostly fruit with salmon in it. Hm....
Looked it up in Forme of Curye to make sure I had the right one.

Tart de Brymlent
Take fyges and raysons and waisshe hem in wyne, and grinde hem smale with apples and peres clene ypiked. Take hem up and cast hem in a pot with wyne and sugar. Take salwar salmon ysode other codlyng other haddok and bray hem smale and do thereto white powdors and hool spices and salt and seeth it, and whanneit is sode ynowz, take it up, and do it in a vessel, and lat it kele. Make a coffyn an,ynche depe and do the fars therein. Plant it bove with prunes and damysyns, take the stones out, and with dates quarte rede, and pike clene, and cover the coffyn and bake it wel and serve it forth.

Take figs and raisins and wash them in wine and grind them small with apples and pears that have been cored. Take it up and cast it in a pot with wine and sugar. Take (young?) salmon that has been poached* or cod or haddock and cut them small and add white powder and whole spices and salt and simmer it, and when it is simmered* enough, take it up and put it in a vessel and let it cool. Make a pastry an inch deep and put the mixture in it. Put prunes and damsons (take the pits out) on top with quartered dates without pits and cover the pastry and bake it well and serve it forth.

*ysode or sode seems to mean "sodden" which I've interpreted to mean poached
when referring to the salmon and simmered when referring to the mixture.
Literally it probably means "wet."

For the first attempt, my apprentice and I used the following:

For the filling:
2 Bosc pears
2 Pacific Rose apples
10 dried Mission figs (about 2/3 cup)
2/3 cup raisins
2/3 cup red wine (merlot)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp white powder (recipe from _Take a Thousand Eggs_)
1/2 tsp grains of paradise
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups finely flaked poached Coho salmon

The topping:
5 small plums cut into slices
6 dates cut into slices
6 prunes cut into slices

The coffin:
1 cup all purpose flour
water

Mixed first six ingredients together and put over medium heat. While it was
cooking, poached the salmon (we started with 1 3/4 lbs of fish) in 2 cups of
water and some salt. Let it cool and flaked it. When the fruit mixture had
completely gone soft, added the flaked salmon, the white powder, grains of
paradise, and salt. Had to add about a cup of water because the mixture was too dry to boil. Raised the temperature so that the mixture bubbled and stirred frequently to prevent sticking. When fish had broken up into fine bits and fruit was mushy, took it off heat and let it cool until no longer steaming. Made the coffin dough with flour and enough water to hold together in a ball. Kneaded dough for about three minutes and removed a third for the cover. Rolled dough out and placed in a 10" greased quiche pan with some dough overlapping the edges. Spread fruit/fish mixture into pan and placed cut fruits on top. Covered with rolled out dough, rolled edges together to seal, put four slashes in top, and put in 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

Notes: For a dish with a combination of foods I wasn't sure about, it was quite good. We figured we'd cook the fruit mixture less before we added the fish and make sure the fish was finely flaked before adding.

We, of course, made several guesses. We could have used more wine; we couldn't tell there had been any put into it at all. We could have used cod (since it was available fresh) but went with salmon although it's Pacific not Atlantic salmon. Is there much of a taste difference? The "whole spices" could be anything and we thought about adding cloves and cubebs but cloves can be rather overpowering if not used carefully and we had no cubebs. We did have grains of paradise so we used that. They gave a spicy, peppery almost taste to the mixture. We think we'd add another 1/2 tsp of both the white powder and grains of paradise. Neither of us had tried making a coffin and since we knew it wasn't supposed to be eaten necessarily, we just made a flour/water dough. Kneading the dough gave us a strong durable container that neither cracked nor leaked and we hadn't prebaked it either. It would definitely stand on its own on a platter. Cutting the top off could certainly be turned into a one server show since the diners would have no idea what was inside and with the fruit laid out decoratively on top, it was quite pretty. We had way too much sliced fruit and used all the plums but half of the prunes and figs. We'll probably just slice the plums in half next time.

It tastes very much like modern "minced meat" filling but with just enough
salmon flavor to note the contrast. It's very good hot and okay but not exciting at room temperature. The recipe above would probably make two 6" pans worth. Lorna Sass translates "Brymlent" as "mid lent" and I suppose that could be right. If so, given that medieval cooks often would substitute fish into their meat dishes, if this was a lenten dish, I wonder what meat would have been used for meat days? A ground pork would be delectable but beef marrow would probably work just as well.

As an aside, this dish could actually be considered healthy by today's
standards. There's no additional fats but that in the salmon, not much sugar or salt, and there's lots of fruit of different types in it. A diabetic coworker tried a taste and pronounced it good (she looked surprised too). We're only planning to serve a 6" pan to about 8 people so portions would be pretty small but probably worth at least one daily serving of fruit.

Kerri
Cedrin Etainnighean, OL


Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 01:03:41 -0500
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: SC - Spanish salmon recipe (was: Spanish noodles)

I had offered:
>> We also tried the salmon recipe you posted here; I'll post our version of
>> that if people like.

and Brighid replied:
>Please do!  I'm still very new at redacting, and would love to see what an
>experienced cook does with that one.

I'm actually not that experienced with fish, but this is what I came up with.

CAZUELA DE SALMON -- Salmon Casserole
from _Libro de Guisados_ by Ruperto de Nola (Spanish, 1529)
translation Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba, Settmour Swamp (Robin
Carroll-Mann)

You must take the clean and well-washed salmon; and put it in a casserole
with your spices which are: galingale, and a little pepper and ginger and
saffron; and all of this well ground, and cast upon the fish with salt, and
a little verjuice or orange juice, and let it go to the fire of embers; and
then take blanched almonds and raisins and pine nuts and all herbs.  That
is, moraduj, which is called marjoram, and parsley, and mint; and when the
casserole is nearly half-cooked cast all this inside.

1.9 lb salmon
1/2 t galingale
1/8 t pepper
1/4 t ginger
15 threads saffron
1/4 t salt
3 T verjuice (or sour orange juice)
1/4 c blanched almonds
3 T raisins
1 T pine nuts
1 t fresh marjoram
1 T fresh parsley
1 t fresh mint

Put salmon fillets in heavy pot and sprinkle on spices and verjuice. Cover
and put on stove. I put it on as low a heat as the stove allows, then
chopped the herbs and got the nuts and raisins ready. After 20 minutes the
verjuice in the pot was hot but not yet boiling and I turned it up slightly
until it was at a simmer (another 5 minutes) and then turned it almost all
the way down. 15 minutes later I added the remaining ingredients, 10
minutes after that, it was done.

Comments: good; next time, turn the heat up a bit more at the beginning
(medium low or so) and turn down after it is at a simmer; maybe more
verjuice; chop herbs very fine.

It came out looking very Nouvelle Cuisine--the contrasting colors of the
salmon, herbs, white nuts, and raisins, and the use of such ingredients as
pine nuts, saffron, and verjuice. We don't have sour oranges yet--Cariadoc
planted a tree, but it was less than a year ago.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 05:56:21 EDT
From: Mordonna22 at aol.com
Subject: SC - For submission to the Chronus Draconum

FROM MORDONNA’S KITCHEN

CAZUELA DE SALMON

From Libro de Guisados by Ruperto de Nola (Spanish, 1529)
Translation by Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba, Settmour Swamp (Robin Carrol-Mann) as found on the SCA Cooks e-mail list on Sunday October 3, 1999.

You must take the clean and well-washed salmon, and put it in a casserole with your spices which are galingale, and a little pepper and ginger and saffron, and all of this well ground, and cast upon the fish with salt, and a little verjuice or orange juice, and let it go to the fire of embers, and then take blanched almonds and raisins and pine nuts and all herbs.  That is moraduj, which is called marjoram, and parsley, and mint, and when the casserole is nearly half-cooked, cast all this inside.

2 lb. Salmon Steaks
1 teaspoon galingale
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 pinch saffron
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup slivered, blanched almonds
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tsp. each fresh marjoram, parsley, mint finely diced

Place fish steaks in a large, heavy covered cast iron pan.  Mix spices and vinegar and water together and sprinkle over fish.  Bring to a simmer, covered, over medium heat and allow to simmer 15 minutes.  Turn steaks, add nuts, raisins,  and herbs and re-cover and allow to simmer another 15 minutes.  Add more water if necessary to keep pan from drying out.

Notes:  As I had no verjuice, or sour orange juice, I used diluted cider vinegar.  Next time I will try the juice of Seville oranges.  Verjuice is the juice of sour fruit, such as green (as in not-ripe) grapes or pomegranate and was a common ingredient in medieval cooking.  Sweet oranges did not reach the Spanish peninsula until very late period, so Seville orange juice would be more suited to the recipe than sweet juices such as Valencia. I cooked this for my parents and grandson.  I served it with a green salad with vinegar and oil dressing, and spring peas in butter and garlic.  My father swore he doesn’t like salmon any other way than in fried croquets, but when we convinced him to try it, he liked it a lot.  He expressed  regret that I had not made more.  My fourteen month old grandson demolished his with gusto, but then again, we have not found a food he does not demolish with gusto.  My mother took a couple of spoonfuls of the juices and herbs from the dish and used it instead of dressing on her salad and declared it delicious. 

Note on the SCA-Cooks e-mail list:  This list is for anyone interested in medieval cooking: recipes, techniques, and ingredients.  To subscribe, send e-mail to Majordomo at Ansteorra.Org with the words Subscribe SCA-Cooks as the body of the message.

Mordonna the Cook is head cook for House Warrior Haven.  She is from late sixteenth century Ireland and can read and write.  She has studied all the great chefs of history.  She is a widow.  

She is the alter ego of Anne Francoise DuBosc, an early 14th century French noblewoman who can neither read nor write, and who has never learned to cook.  Both are loyal subjects of the Barony of SunDragon, Kingdom of Atenveldt. 

Pat Griffin is a customer service tech for Conair Corporation, an avid cook, and has been in the Society for over three years and four Estrellas. All three can be reached at Mordonna22 at AOL.COM


Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 18:19:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: SC - toys for tot feast

- --- AlviraMacD at aol.com wrote:
> the fish is my only big ticket item and I'm thinking that it will go to being 
> a pasty and I'll serve the wondeours chicken loaf in the same remove.  
> Some day I'll have the budget to do my Flesh, Fish and Fowl feast!  : )  
> Alvira

Late August and most of September are when the Salmon
swim upstream to spawn.  It is usually the time when
it is cheapest to buy salmon.  Several years ago, I
was the Head Cook for Caid's 12th Night, which is in
mid-January.  I found an ad for whole salmon for $1
per lb that Sept. prior.  Since I was feeding 300, I
bought 100 lb and froze it, until just before I needed
it.  It froze very well, and the salmon was a big hit,
even amongst the non-fish eaters.  If you have access
to a goodly amount of freezer space and don't want to
bust your budget, start looking thru the ads in
August.  It is the best way to get a good deal.

Huette


Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 07:29:57 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Saumon Gentil (was: SC - Re: SC-  Turkish Food)

UlfR wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Jan 2001, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> > discovering that after the servers brought out my rendition of the
> > 14th-century English Saumon Gentil,
> 
> Did you _really_ think you could get away with this? I'm planning on
> making this at some feast, and I'm not quite happy with my results. My
> main questions are:
> 
> 1. How do you handle the saffron (it's obviously not a scribal
> error...). Grind it with the spices, or dissolve it in small amount
> water and add that?

I seem to recall infusing the saffron in a small amount of water, maybe
1/4 cup, then grinding the moist threads with the fish.
 
> 2. What effect did you go for with the spicing? Spicy, or just adding a
> hint to the fish?

Somewhere in between modern delicate and spicy. Warming... I would say
most of what came through was the cumin garnish. 
 
> 3. Did you have slav^Wassistants with mortars, or did you grind it some
> other way? I'm thinking about using a regular meat grinder (limited
> slave labour, and app. 50-60 guests).

I used a food processor... :  (. I normally will try a dish doing it as
close to the instructions specify as possible, then adapt it for larger
quantities, industrial equipment, etc. Originally, when working with
just one fillet, I minced the fish with a knife and then used a mortar.

Observations:

1. This is one of the more glaring culinary errors perpetrated by Hieatt
and Butler in an otherwise good edition (CoI). I believe this is pretty
straightforward, and that nobody ever intended the bones to be ground,
or any such nonsense. Fillet the fish, grind the _meat_, season it,
extrude it, poach, drain, plate, garnish, serve. It's a salmon dish, and
you take out the bones before grinding it, fer Heaven's sake... with all
respect to two great scholars, I have to borrow an expression from my
kid: "Du-uh!!!"

2. Don't be too scrupulous about trimming away the salmon's fat. It'll
taste a tiny bit fishier, but then it _is_ fish (it should taste like
chicken???) and it'll be moister.

3. Undercooked salmon is infinitely better than overcooked, unless it
isn't fresh, in which case you shouldn't be eating or serving it anyway.
The fish will continue to cook after you remove the pan from the flame
or oven (depending on how you do it), and after you remove the fish from
the water. I suspect the best thing would be to stop the actual cooking
of the fish before it is actually done, so that by the time you're ready
to serve, it'll be cooked through. 

4. You might think about using a sausage stuffing tube instead of a
horn, if it comes as an attachment to your grinder. I think we used 
disposable pastry bags with large tubes.

Adamantius (hey, lookit, we're talking about medieval food!)


Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:15:47 +0100 (MET)
From: UlfR <parlei-sc at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: Saumon Gentil (was: SC - Re: SC-  Turkish Food)

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> I seem to recall infusing the saffron in a small amount of water, maybe
> 1/4 cup, then grinding the moist threads with the fish.

What I have done as well. Any other method I have tried gives it some
sort of "spotty jaudice" look.

> > 2. What effect did you go for with the spicing? Spicy, or just adding a
> > hint to the fish?
> 
> Somewhere in between modern delicate and spicy. Warming... I would say
> most of what came through was the cumin garnish. 

My experience as well, unless I overspiced it.

> I used a food processor... :  (. I normally will try a dish doing it as
> close to the instructions specify as possible, then adapt it for larger
> quantities, industrial equipment, etc. Originally, when working with
> just one fillet, I minced the fish with a knife and then used a mortar.

First time I did it was in a camp, using two knives (only a small
mortar, and 6 hungry people). A mortar came out slightly more
homogenous, but not much. 

> straightforward, and that nobody ever intended the bones to be ground,
> or any such nonsense. Fillet the fish, grind the _meat_, season it,
> extrude it, poach, drain, plate, garnish, serve. It's a salmon dish, and

Naturally. IIRC I left some of the finest bones, but that was
expidiency, not design. 

> 4. You might think about using a sausage stuffing tube instead of a
> horn, if it comes as an attachment to your grinder. I think we used 
> disposable pastry bags with large tubes.

Every time I have made it I used either a pastry bag or a simple plastic
bag with one of the corners cut off. I would think that if I use the
sausage tube of the grinder that I would have to drop the pieces on a
plate, and then into the pot. Do you think that would work? Have you
tried using the actual horn? For anything?

> Adamantius 

/UlfR
- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                      parlei at algonet.se


Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 09:15:34 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Saumon Gentil (was: SC - Re: SC-  Turkish Food)

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote:
> Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> > 1. This is one of the more glaring culinary errors perpetrated by Hieatt
> > and Butler in an otherwise good edition (CoI). I believe this is pretty
> > straightforward, and that nobody ever intended the bones to be ground,
> > or any such nonsense. Fillet the fish, grind the _meat_, season it,
> > extrude it, poach, drain, plate, garnish, serve.

<snip>

> It occurs to me that they might have assumed that many folks might try
> this using canned salmon (---shudder---). After canning, the bones are
> really soft and could be ground, adding calcium to the mix. I don't like
> them, but my mom used to pick out the vertebrae and eat them. And to the
> fat, the canned stuff has bits of skin and fat that you have to pick
> out- they are slimy and beyons gross. I used to give them to our cat.
> 
> If you are using fresh salmon I think what you've said applies.

I agree that a quick read-through might give that impression, but
there's a big problem. You're relying on the uncooked fish proteins to
hold the dish together; lacking any other binder, Lutheran or otherwise,
if you drop mushed-up cooked fish into boiling water, you're going to
get more or less unpleasant results. It's the original recipe, that
Hieatt and Butler are commenting on, which instructs us to do away the
bones, and then grind hem in an mortar, or some such. The textual
problem is that you have to assume they're talking about salmon, since
it's in the title but IIRC doesn't mention it by name in the body of the
recipe, and _then_ it says to take out the bones, and cast in a mortar.
A modern grammarian would probably conclude that we have a run-on
sentence, one of which lacks a specified predicate or complement noun.
Medieval recipes often tend to be run-on sentences by modern standards.
Are we throwing the bones (the last noun mentioned) or the salmon (the
main subject of the recipe) into the mortar?  Hieatt and Butler seem to
be working on the assumption that you remove the bones and grind them,
and that's to some extent supportable, but I think it's far more likely
you take a salmon, remove the bones, and grind it. Similarly, if I have
a loin of veal and want to make meatballs, I take out the chine, rib,
and any pelvic bone structures before grinding the meat. Think about it.
Suppose your recipe said, "A Veal Dish: remove bones, grind, season with
X, roll into balls, cook, serve." Doesn't it make a fair amount of sense
to figure that it is the muscle tissue being ground, rather than the bones?

I hope it's clear to people that I'm using 'Lainie as a sounding-board,
and not foaming at the mouth and yelling at her... not that I haven't
done both of those things at various times in the past. ;  )     

Actually, I don't mind canned salmon -- it has its uses, but like most
other foods, it can't pretend to be what it is not, and the first thing
it is not is fresh salmon.  

Adamantius


Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 20:48:38 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Saumon Gentil (was: SC - Re: SC-  Turkish Food)

"Laura C. Minnick" wrote: 
> > Are there any number or gender clues in the original?
<snip>
> What the original is in is Middle English- a sort of halfway point
> between the Anglo-Saxon (Old English) and teh 'Shakspearean' Early
> Modern English. There are quantifiers (numbers) in the pronouns, as we
> do now (I/we, he/they, etc.) but nouns are no longer gendered, as they
> were in the A/S. They were gradually losing their declensions and
> heading towards position within the sentence to determine the part of
> speech.

So much for theory, albeit perfectly correct. Here's why... besides, the
original recipe was requested. It is written in a sort of Middle English shorthand:

"50. Of saumon gentil. Do out (th)e bones, so(th)(th)en in an mortar
kast and make hit wel meddelen. Flour & pepper & gilofre; cast in kanel.
Saffron vor to colouren (th)urh an horn (th)ou make passen,
seo(th)(th)en in water (th)ou make hit boillen, & to gobouns veire
hewen. Comin (th)ou kast in, & to (th)e lord vor(th) bringen."

BL Ms. Add. 46919 (He), published in 1985, for the Early English Text
Society, by Oxford University Press, London, Toronto, New York, ed.
Constance A. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, "Curye On Inglysch".

Looking at it more closely, I see one could argue that the pronoun
denoting whatever it is in the mortar is singular.

A quick shift to modern-ish English might read,

"Of salmon gentile. Take out the bones, and then put it into a mortar
and mix it well together. Flour* of pepper and of cloves; put in
cinnamon. Saffron for color, push it through a horn, and then boil it in
water, and cut it into neat, good-sized chunks. Throw on some cumin, and
bring it out to the lord."

*I can't decide if the flour reference is to powdered "flour" of pepper,
cloves, and cinnamon, or if you're supposed to add some wheat flour in
addition to the spices. A small amount would probably help the texture
and the moisture level, turning it from something like fish burgers to
fish gnocchi, except for the fact that fairly few contemporary English
recipes seem to refer to ground grain as flour rather than meal, and of
those that do, _very_ few seem to use flour in this way, seeming to
rely, in general, more heavily on breadcrumbs. So, I'm inclined to lean
in the direction of fine powder of pepper, cloves, and cinnamon, rather
than wheat or other grain flour.    

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 07:56:08 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Saumon Gentil (was: SC - Re: SC-  Turkish Food)

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Ok, would one of you two (or someone else), please post the original
> recipe for this and perhaps Hieatt and Butler's redaction? And
> Adamantius, how about posting yours?

I posted the original last night, H&B don't provide a readaction (in
this case, Gott sei dank!), and I don't have a redaction to speak of, I
just went ahead and made it from the original recipe.

I filleted and skinned two or three (for that crowd, probably three)
Atlantic salmon, each weighing roughly fifteen pounds, then removed the
little transverse pin bones with, IIRC, needle-nose pliers (a standard
professional tool for this job), then ground the flesh and as much of
the back and belly fat as I could include, in a Cuisinart set on pulse,
so we would get a slightly rough texture rather than simply a puree.

Seasoned with salt, saffron infused in a little fish stock (yes, I
cheated and made a stock from the skin and bones, then used it to poach
my fish) then adding it to the fish before grinding, and ground cloves.

Extruded through a pastry bag instead of a horn (and I can attest my
pastry bag has never been involved in any way in the death of Edward II)
and poached in the simmering fish stock until the pieces floated.
Drained and served under a sprinkle of coarsely crushed, freshly toasted
cumin seed. I think I may have made a green sauce to go on the side,
with a little of the fish stock, but that was an afterthought.

Exceedingly tasty when freshly and properly cooked, horrible overcooked
(we kept a couple pieces hot, to see what would happen -- lacking even
the variegated texture that overcooked fish can have, it kind of felt
like sawdust in the mouth). I suspect it might not be at all bad if left
in the cooking liquid to cool completely, then served cold.

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 11:16:09 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Saumon Gentil (was: SC - Re: SC-  Turkish Food)

Jenne Heise wrote: 
> Uh-- guys, where did the Gillyflowers go? And where the did the cloves
> come from?
> 
> > > "50. Of saumon gentil. Do out (th)e bones, so(th)(th)en in an mortar
> > > kast and make hit wel meddelen. Flour & pepper & gilofre; cast in kanel.
> > > Saffron vor to colouren (th)urh an horn (th)ou make passen,
> > > seo(th)(th)en in water (th)ou make hit boillen, & to gobouns veire
> > > hewen. Comin (th)ou kast in, & to (th)e lord vor(th) bringen."
> Your Translation:
> > > "Of salmon gentile. Take out the bones, and then put it into a mortar
> > > and mix it well together. Flour* of pepper and of cloves; put in
> > > cinnamon. Saffron for color, push it through a horn, and then boil it in
> > > water, and cut it into neat, good-sized chunks. Throw on some cumin, and
> > > bring it out to the lord."

Gilofre is a standard abbreviation for "cloues de gilofre", a.k.a.
cloves gilofre, cloves gillyflower (sometimes the actual clove pink
flower is intended, but not in this case, AFAIK).
 
Adamantius


Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 20:16:27 +0200From: "Cindy M. Renfrow" <cindy at thousandeggs.com>Subject: Re: SC - cawdel of samoun>I've just been playing with cawdel of samoun (Forme of curye 114). The>recipie does not, unlesss I'm missing something tell you to pass it>though a sive or work it with a mortar, but in Pleyn Delit they run it>though a blender. Which one of us is missing the point?>>Recipie? http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/>>/UlfR>-->UlfR                                                 parlei-sc at algonet.se Cawdel of Samon #CXI in Forme of Cury, loosely translated says:Take the guts of Salmon and make them clean. Parboil them a little. Takethem up and dice them. Slit the white of Leeks and carve them small.  Coolthe broth and put the leeks therein with oil and let it boil togethertogether [sic]. Put the cut Salmon therein, make a mixture of Almond milkand of bread and cast thereto spices, saffron and salt, seethe it well. Andlook that it be not standing/thick.My copy of Pleyn Delit (1987 ed., #50) does not run it through a sieve orblender. Cindy

Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 04:41:19 +0200 (MET DST)From: UlfR <parlei-sc at algonet.se>Subject: Re: SC - cawdel of samounOn Sun, 8 Apr 2001, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:> > My copy of Pleyn Delit (1979 revision) does not mention a blender.> > > > Is your copy the 1976 original?  If so, perhaps this is one of> > the revisions (corrections) they made in 1979.No, mine is the "Second edition 1996"> Actually, my copy is an unrevised first edition, and it doesn't mention> a blender either, now that I've had a chance to dig it out. UlfR, did> somebody dictate this to you and perhaps "seethe" turned into "sieve"?"Pour the cooking broth into a blender with breadcrumbs and seasoningsand blend until smooth...". In neither the original text they list, the matching one in Curye on Inglyish, or onhttp://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/FoC095small.html did I find anymentioning of sieving or otherwise pulping the poor innocent salmon.BTW, would you say that "spices, safron and salt" would match powdourfort, with some extra ginger? Since I cheated and used some fish stockextra salt was not an option.- -- UlfR


Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2001 23:05:24 -0400From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>Subject: Re: SC - cawdel of samounUlfR wrote:> On Sun, 8 Apr 2001, Cindy M. Renfrow wrote:> > Cawdel of Samon #CXI in Forme of Cury, loosely translated says:> >> > Take the guts of Salmon and make them clean. Parboil them a little. Take> > them up and dice them. Slit the white of Leeks and carve them small.  Cool> > the broth and put the leeks therein with oil and let it boil together> > together [sic]. Put the cut Salmon therein, make a mixture of Almond milk> > and of bread and cast thereto spices, saffron and salt, seethe it well. And> > look that it be not standing/thick.> > Nice to see that your translation matches mine; maybe I'm not as shabby> at it as I tend to assume. A scandinavian language does help, I suppose.> > > My copy of Pleyn Delit (1987 ed., #50) does not run it through a sieve or> > blender.> > Mine (1996, they've got it as #62) does. And since they are suppose dto> kniow WTF they are doing I was worrying about missing something that was> implied in the name, or if ycorve did not mean what I thought it did.> > Anyone know of a good middle english dictionary?Awright, I think I see what's happening here... no, ycorve probably doesmean what you think it does (note, though, that we've gone from soundsand stomachs, etc., to nice chunky muscle meat). I suspect the blenderthing is based on the recipe's instruction to make a lyour (what moderncooks would call a liaison, a thickener), essentially a smooth paste, ofbreadcrumbs and almond milk. The first edition of PD has the modern cookuse a whisk. and what they've got you doing is making your almond milkfrom some of the fish broth at the same time as you make your liaison.For practical purposes, Hieatt et al are implying that Almonds + Fishbroth + Breadcrumbs = Almond milk + Breadrumbs = Lyour. From astructural standpoint, this may be fairly accurate, but whether itconstitutes responsible teaching about medieval cookery is a matter fordebate. I'd say. Adamantius

From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] sauce help
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 12:26:38 -0400

> > CAZUELA DE SALMON
> [snip]
> > You must take the clean and well-washed salmon, and put it in a casserole
> > with your spices which are galingale, and a little pepper and ginger and
> > saffron, and all of this well ground, and cast upon the fish with salt, and
> > a little verjuice or orange juice, and let it go to the fire of embers, and
> > then take blanched almonds and raisins and pine nuts and all herbs.  That is
> > moraduj, which is called marjoram, and parsley, and mint, and when the
> > casserole is nearly half-cooked, cast all this inside.
> I'm glad you like the recipe -- it's one of my favorites as well.  (It's on
> the menu for my next feast).  I'm curious, though... why do you grind the
> nuts?  And do you grind the currants also?  My interpretation is that sauce is
> a thin liquid, speckled with the chopped herbs and the nuts and raisins. I do
> use slivered almonds rather than whole.
>
> Brighid ni Chiarain

Greetings,
And my interpretation is even more different:
1/2 t - Galingale (fresh)
1/4 t- Pepper
1/2 t - Ginger (fresh)
12 - 15 - Threads Saffron
1/2 t - Salt
3/4 C - Bitter Orange Juice (got it in a Farmers Market in the Hispanic
section 100% Seville oj)
1 T - Fresh Mint
2 T - Fresh Marjoram
2 T - Fresh Parsley
1/4 C - Pine Nuts
1/4 C - Ground Almond
1/2 C - Chopped Rasins
1 Side - Salmon

Combine first 5 spices. Put salmon in an oven safe pan that has a lid. Pour
orange juice over salmon and then sprinkle spice mixture over fish and pat
in gently. Cook covered at 300 degrees F for 13 minutes. Wash and chop mint,
marjoram and parsley to a medium size and mix well with almonds, pine nuts
and raisins. After 13 minutes remove fish from oven and spread herb/nut
mixture evenly over the fish. Return to the oven for an additional 7 to 10
minutes or until done.

I served this at a feast and it went over explosively. Even the kitchen help
was fighting over the chunk that I held back for the kitchen. I was out
doing the rounds of the tables & someone stopped me to ask if there was any
more salmon. I popped my head into the kitchen and asked the crew huddled
around the end of the serving area and they all said - with their hands
behind their backs - NO!

Serena da Riva


From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-Cooks] Milk and Nut Allergy Questions...
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 15:19:10 -0400

> For the Mists Bardic, I was told to cook for between 60 and 80... If
> 80 show up, there won't be much salmon, but there should be plenty of
> chicken and vegetables - and i try to have plenty of bread in the
> kitchen in case we need it for filler.
> Anahita

Do you have places such as Sam's Club where you live. I bought the salmon
for my feast at Sam's and it was very good salmon. It cost $3.99/lb which
was really cheap.

Serena da Riva


Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 11:00:28 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Favorite period Spanish recipes?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>>>>>
Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
>> I'm rather fond of the Cazuela de Salmon.  And Peach Pits.

and Olwen asked:
> Got a recipe for the salmon?

>>>
Our version of that one is in the Miscellany; in addition to being 
good, it';s really pretty--lots of color contrast.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook
<<<

Thank you Elizabeth, but I could not find an entry for Cazuela de 
Salmon or Salmon.  Do you call the dish some other name?
Olwen
<<<<<

Here it is:

Cazuela de Salmon- Salmon Casserole
Ruperto de Nola, Libro de Guisados, 1529
Tr. Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba (Robin Carroll-Mann)

You must take the clean and well-washed salmon; and put it in a 
casserole with your spices which are: galingale, and a little pepper 
and ginger and saffron; and all of this well ground, and cast upon 
the fish with salt, and a little verjuice or orange juice, and let it 
go to the fire of embers; and then take blanched almonds and raisins 
and pine nuts and all herbs.  That is, moraduj, which is called 
marjoram, and parsley, and mint; and when the casserole is nearly 
half-cooked cast all this inside. [end of original]

1.9 lb salmon
1/2 t galingale
1/8 t pepper
1/4 t ginger
15 threads saffron
1/4 t salt
3 T verjuice (or sour orange juice)
1/4 c blanched almonds
3 T raisins
1 T pine nuts
1 t fresh marjoram
1 T fresh parsley
1 t fresh mint

Put salmon fillets in heavy pot and sprinkle on spices and verjuice. 
Cover and put on stove on medium low; as soon as it is at a simmer, 
turn down to very low heat. Chop the herbs very fine and get the nuts 
and raisins ready. After 15 minutes, add the remaining ingredients, 
and cook another 10 minutes. Serve.

Were you looking in the current edition of the Miscellany, webbed on 
Cariadoc's site in pdf?

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/miscellany_pdf/Misc9recipes.pdf

There is also an older version, webbed for us by Master Gregory 
Blount some years back; I haven't checked to see if that one has this 
recipe.

Elizabeth/Betty CookFrom johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu Wed Aug 27 13:14:12 2003


Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 11:48:03 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Favorite period Spanish recipes?
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Olwen asked:
>>I'm rather fond of the Cazuela de Salmon. 
>>
>>Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
>
>Got a recipe for the salmon?

Well, it's in Brighid's translation in the Florilegium.

And i have my "redaction" on my website (which includes Brighid's 
translation). I cooked it for the Mists Bardic Mediterranean Tour 
feast i did last year...

http://witch.drak.net/lilinah/MistsBardic02_2-Catalan.html

It's for about 80 people, but you could probably figure it out for fewer :-)

Anahita


Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 16:24:10 -0500
From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fish in Feast (was alot of things)
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> When I bought for this last 12th night, I got pork butt for $.99/lb,  
> but the cheapest fish I could get was salmon at $4.99/lb.
>
> Margaret> Anybody who's actually served fish at a feast care to  
> comment?

Greetings,

I have served salmon at 2 feasts, the same recipie both times. It is the
Salmon Casserole recipie from de Nola. I know it has been posted numerous
times to this list. The first time I served it was at a 3 day event where
there were 2 feasts. The main (Sat) night was cooked by Maestro Niccolo and
he also served a fish dish. I believe it was a trout in pastry. There were
several comments afterward about fish being served successfully two nights
in a row.

I managed the salmon by serving it as a small portion in the third course
along with another meat. I believe Niccolo found a really great price on
frozen trout. I think expense is a major concern, but I also think alot of
people are afraid of the additional sanitary concerns that accompany  
fish.

The perception is that fish, more so than the other meats, is sensitive to
temperature and if a person does not know what they are doing then  
people could get really sick. This, I believe, can be gotten around by  
establishing yourself as a good cook and getting people to trust that you will not put a food in front of them that is going to get them sick. Of course, all of this good-will can be set back by the next cook who sends out chicken that is bloody at the bone. Because if you cannot even cook chicken right then there is no way that I am gonna eat your fish (speaking as the hypothetical feast goer).

  There is a fish dish out of Geuter Spise that I really want to try:

19. This is a good salmon dish.
Take a salmon, scale it, split and cut the two halves in pieces. Chop
parsley, sage, take ground ginger, pepper, anise, and salt to taste.  
Make a coarse dough according to the size of the pieces, sprinkle the pieces  
With the spices, and cover them completely with the dough. If you can fit  
Them into a mould, then do so. In this way you can prepare pike, trout,  
bream, and bake each one in its own dough. If it is a meat-day, however, you  
can prepare chickens, partridges, pigeons, and pheasants, provided that you  
have the noulds, and fry them in lard or cook them in their moulds. Take  
chicken breast or other good meat, THis will improve your art of cooking even  
more, and don't oversalt.

Serena da Riva


Date: 9 Apr 2004 09:06:11 -0000
From: "Volker Bach" <bachv at paganet.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mistakes to Avoid when cooking salmon
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Thu, 08 Apr 2004 15:23:05 -0700, Lorenz Wieland
<lorenz_wieland at earthlink.net> wrote :
> Which Rumpolt recipe is this?

Vom Salm 12

> It sounds like you're talking about a fairly traditional poached salmon
> dish.  In that case, you want to cook it in water just under a true
> simmer (~160-170F), and you definitely want to use either a fish poacher
> or wrap the fish in cheesecloth so it doesn't fall apart when removing
> it from the water.  8 to 10 minutes should be about right for a whole
> cojo, sockeye, or steelheadrew.  A large King salmon might take a bit
> longer.  If cooking the fish whole, you should take it out before it
> starts to flake and immediately drop it in cold water or the cool pease
> broth.  Salmon is a fairly forgiving fish, but does turn very dry very
> quickly when overcooked.

Thanks. That's what I thought, but I was also told you can't get carp
wrong, and I sure managed.

The cheesecloth is a good idea. I won't have a fish-sized pot, so I'll 
have to roll up the beasty.

> If you're playing around with it, you might try adding some lemon
> slices, onions, black pepper, and/or wine to the poaching liquid.
> That's a traditional preparation that may not go all the way back to
> Rumpolt, but probably isn't too far off.

There is a recipe involving lemons, but that requires the whole fish. 
Mine are minus the head. Pepper certainly goes on.

Giano


Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2004 11:10:34 -0700
From: Lorenz Wieland <lorenz_wieland at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mistakes to Avoid when cooking salmon
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Volker Bach wrote:
> The bones are to come out after the cooking. Would it be better to do that
> before? Accordinmg to the recipe, the fish is boiled (well, cooked in
> liquid. I doubt Rumpoldt means really boiling), then flaked off the bone
> and drizzled with butter and pease broth, reheated and served with 
> sauce.

I  agree with Rumpoldt here -- bone the fish after cooking.  Most of the
bones will just lift right out of the cooked meat, and you can use a
pair of sterile needle-nose pliers to remove the remaining pin bones.
If your diners are regular fish eaters, you can even serve the beast
whole and let them scoop individual portions directly off the bone.

-Lorenz


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Coins and their Commonality?
From: skrossa-unn at nonsense.MedievalScotland.org (Sharon L. Krossa "No Nonsense")
Organization: MedievalScotland.org
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 00:19:49 GMT

jk <klessig at cox.net> wrote:
> skrossa-unn at nonsense.MedievalScotland.org (Sharon L. Krossa "No
> Nonsense") wrote:
> >Yes, medieval and early modern people did. They lent plate, they lent
> >spoons, they lent belt buckles, they lent rings, etc. I think in
> >Aberdeen they may even have lent barrels of salmon...
> 
> So they could have barrels of salmon during Lent?

No, as a valuable commodity that was in effect as good as currency, not
to eat.

Someone asked me in private email for more information, and I'll repeat
here what I replied to him:

I based the comment not on any specific recollection of a case of salmon
being lent but rather on the general observation by myself and, or more
relevance, other historians such as

Gemmill, Elizabeth, and Nicholas Mayhew. _Changing Values in Medieval
Scotland: A Study of Prices, Money, and Weights and Measures_.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521473853/medievalscotland
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521473853/medievalscotla02

that salmon appears to have sometimes been used almost like an alternate
form of currency. Or, rather, they were a thing of significant value
used like other things of value, such as items made of precious metal,
jewelry, etc. That is, they were given in wed (pledge/security for
future payment), they were used to pay off debts, etc. And so, like
other things of value used in these ways, they may even have been lent.

(Thus my "I think ... may even ..." really did mean "I think" and "may"
;-)

In fact, reading through Gemmill & Mayhew, they actually write (and
footnote with town record entries from Aberdeen and elsewhere):

-----begin quote p. 306-----
From the 1420s salmon assumes an importance in the record of the
commercial life of Aberdeen which it would be difficult to overestimate.
Unfailing demand for this fish in thte markets of northern Europe made
salmon as acceptable as ready money in trading and financial circles in
the north-east.
-----end quote----

and

-----begin quote p. 308-----
In just the same way, demand for salmon was such that ready sales on
profitable terms could confidently be predicted. So long as this was so,
salmon became so creditworthy as to be as good as money itself. Our
price series contains plentiful records of money owing for salmon, and
salmon owing for money, while in settlement of debts it seems to be
almost a matter of indifference whether final payment be made in coin or
fish or both.
-----end quote-----

and (even more clearly)

-----begin quote p. 309-----
Whether cash or salmon were originally advanced lenders might often
secure their loans demanding pledges of land, rents, or fishing tackle
as a guarantee of repayment.
-----end quote-----

So looks like I can amend my statement to: In Aberdeen they even lent
salmon :-) 

Affrick
-- 
Sharon L. Krossa "No Nonsense" skrossa-unn at nonsense.MedievalScotland.org
Medieval Scotland:  http://www.MedievalScotland.org/
The most complete index of reliable web articles about pre-1600 names is
   The Medieval Names Archive - http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/


Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 13:15:35 -0400
From: Barbara Benson <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Re: [Sca-cooks] Need Spanish suggestions
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> However, salmon does come on sale here fairly
> regularly, so would you be willing to share that
> recipe also?

I have found Salmon at Sam's Warehouse club for as low as $3.99 / lb.
which is the only reason I was ever able to serve it. I am uncertain
how you would manage it in the cooking environment that you described,
but I will always share recipes. :)

Casserole of Salmon
> From Libro de Guisados by Rupert de Nola. Translated by Lady Brighid
ni Chiarain.

182. CAZUELA DE SALMON You must take the clean and well-washed salmon,
and put it in a casserole with your spices which are galingale, and a
little pepper, and ginger, and saffron, and all of this well-ground,
and cast upon the fish with salt, and a little verjuice or orange
juice. And let it go to the fire of coals, and then take blanched
almonds, and raisins, and pine nuts, and all herbs. That is, moraduj,
which is called marjoram, and parsley, and mint. And when the
casserole is nearly half-cooked, cast all this inside.
		
1/2 t Galingale
1/4 t Pepper
1/2 t Ginger
12 - 15 Threads Saffron
1/2 t Salt
3/4 C Bitter Orange Juice
1 T Fresh Mint
2 T Fresh Marjoram
2 T Fresh Parsley
1/4 C Pine Nuts
1/4 C Ground Almond
1/2 C Chopped Raisins
1 side Salmon
Combine first 5 spices. Put salmon in an oven safe pan that has a lid.
Pour orange juice over Salmon and then sprinkle spice mixture over
fish and pat in gently. Cook covered at 300 degrees F for 13 minutes.
Wash and chop mint, marjoram and parsley to a medium size and mix well
with almonds, pine nuts and raisins. After 13 minutes remove fish from
oven and spread herb/nut mixture evenly over the fish. Return to the
oven for an additional 7 to 10 minutes or until done.

I hope all works out well!

Glad Tidings,
Serena


Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 11:56:52 -0400
From: Barbara Benson <voxeight at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] canned salmon
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I think that the secret is draining it well and rinsing it. And then
mushing it up with lots of other stuff. I am fairly confident that
canned salmon only lightly treated would not go over well.

But when mixed with herbs, spices and oatmeal and then griddled in
butter - I guess the flavor is somewhat disguised. I am willing to bet
that your tart has a good bit other than the salmon in it! Hows about
a recipe?

Glad Tidings,
Serena

> cailte> i noticed serena mentioned the good reception to the
> salmon cakes made of canned salmon at the recent feast.  i
> made salmon tarts from canned salmon last winter, and
> people seemed to enjoy them a lot.


Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 02:09:31 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
	<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] canned salmon
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Oct 20, 2005, at 1:43 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>> Pulse oatmeal in food processor, not too much.
> He may be using a food processor, but he has that medieval style of
> recipe writing down. :-)
>
> For us less expert cooks, what does "not too much" mean? Leave some
> large lumps? Leave only a few, smaller lumps?

The type of oatmeal isn't specified (and perhaps doesn't matter much
if it's being re-ground in a food processor), but I'd guess the
object is to produce something like "pinhead" oats, which is a
somewhat finer grind than Americans normally associate with steel-cut
Irish or Scottish porridge oats, but not totally ground down to
flour. I further guess this is a job where reground rolled oats would
do fine in, and they're soft enough to be ground reasonably well in a
food processor. Since the purpose appears to be to absorb excess
moisture without making them crumbly, you probably want a sort of
sandy consistency.

Adamantius


Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:52:50 -0400
From: "Lonnie D. Harvel" <ldh at ece.gatech.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] canned salmon
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Lonnie said:
>> Pulse oatmeal in food processor, not too much.
>
> He may be using a food processor, but he has that medieval style of
> recipe writing down. :-)
>
> For us less expert cooks, what does "not too much" mean? Leave some
> large lumps? Leave only a few, smaller lumps?

See what Serena had to deal with! ;)

Adamantius was correct in his response. The purpose of the oats, besides
imparting their unique flavor, was to absorb moisture (they are also
good in meatballs and meatloaf). I was using rolled oats (Quaker).
Leaving them large and flaky created a cake that was too crumbly and a
texture that was not as pleasing. However, if you aren't careful, you
can process the oats down to powder, resulting in a Salmon-Sawdust
patty. For those that do not wish to use a processor, I also got good
results in rubbing a handful between my hands to break the rolled oats
up into smaller pieces. Other choices are fresh bread crumbs, crushed
crackers, crumbled day-old biscuits, etc.

Basic idea is: fish-like substance (salmon, tuna, crab, conch, etc. ),
egg (binder), oil (fat), moisture absorber (oats, crumbs, etc.),
flavorings (onions, herbs, salt, etc.).

A note on the salmon. My first attempt was with fresh salmon. The cakes
fell apart. I only used half the salmon, so I put remainder in the
fridge overnight. Working from cold salmon, cakes came out fine, but I
also added a bit more oil. I also tried the "fresh pack" salmon. Cakes
came out very nice, price was too high (higher than working with fresh).
Tried it with canned salmon and the cakes were ok. I had to use a bit
more crushed oats to get a good patty. Pan fried in butter, they were
pretty good. Rinsing the canned salmon (and picking out the bits of
bone) is necessary if you don't want it to taste like old salt-water
stored in a tin can. (My favorite was based on the cold fresh salmon.
For the last few I added some freshly grated lime peel and made a quick
cilantro-lime cream to serve it with. Nope, not period.)

Aoghann

-------------------------------------------------------------

For those interested, here is my Great Aunt's recipe for Salmon Patties:
My archive of family recipes is here:
http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~ldh/Recipes/

Salmon Patties

<>1 can salmon (15 – 16 oz)
1 egg
1/3 cup minced onion
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup Crisco

Drain salmon, set aside 2 tbs of juice. In medium mixing bowl, mix
salmon, egg, and onion until sticky. Stir in flour. Add baking powder to
salmon juice, stir into salmon mixture. Form into small patties and fry
until brown (about 5 minutes) in Crisco.


Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:06:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A pleasant Italian Fish recipe
To: TomRVincent at yahoo.com, Cooks within the SCA
	<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Here is a period recipe that I have made at a banquet for 300.  Even  
people who professed to hate salmon and fish said they liked this:

From Gervase Markham's The English Huswife:

To seeth fresh Salmon.

Take a little water, and as much Beere and Salt,
and put thereto Parsley, Time, and Rosemarie, and
let all thes boyle together; then put in your
Salmon, and make your broth sharpe with some
Vinigar.

I also make this for my family, although I simplify it down  
considerably.

For them, I pour a can of beer into a deep frying pan and add the spices.
When boiling, I put in the salmon, either steaks or fillets and then
sprinkle with balsamic vinegar.  It usually takes about 10 to 12 minutes
to poach the salmon.

Huette


Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:18:15 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fish recipes (was Test)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Susan Fox wrote:
> Renata and I have been talking again about doing a Lenten Fish
> Spectacular.  Maybe next year.  Any favorite fish recipes to recommend?
>
> Selene

At the risk of seeming immodest, I like the salmon casserole from de Nola.
http://breadbaker.tripod.com/fish.html
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom


Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 18:12:57 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Wecker -- To Roast Salmon
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I've been playing with the fish section of Wecker's cookbook as transcribed
on Thomas Gloning's web site. I've got a number of projects that take
precedence, so these translations will be scattered out over an extended
period. Since I am definitely not a linguist, I'll be adding translation
notes and thoughts to help everyone follow my logic and find my errors.

Wecker seems to be given to colloquial German (or perhaps that is my fault
in not being remotely knowledgeable in other than modern standard German)
and to imperative sentences. For clarity, I've added understood words in
parentheses.

Bear

Salmen zu braten.

SO du auffs best einen Salmenrucken zum braten zubereiten wilt/ so wasch jhn
mit Essig der guten starcken Wein/ eines so vil als des andern/ la? jhn ein
halbe stunde ligen/ alsdann nimb Pfeffer/ ein wenig Na:egelein vnd
Muscatblu:eh alles klein gestossen/ vermisch auch mit Saltz nicht zu vil/
bestrew den Rucken vberal wol/ bereit jhn auff den Rost/ la? jhn allgemach
trucknen/ dann bereit im selben eine bru:eh/ also mach ein schmaltz hei?/
thu wol vorgemelte Wu:ertz darein/ ein wenig hartes brot/ halb Wein vnnd
Essig/ wol geschnitten Salvey vnd Peterlein/ la? wol an einander sieden/ es
sol seyn wie ein du:ennes Pfefferbru:elein/ damit begeu? vnd bestreich den
Rucken mit einem Salvensta:eudlein/ bi? er genug gebraten/ sie sind fast
bald genug gebraten/ wiltu jhn warm geben so geu? die bru:eh warm daru:eber/
wiltu jhn kalt geben/ begeu? jn aber/ da? die Bru:eh fein ein Ha:eutlein
hat/ vnnd wol schwartz/ so bleibt er scho:en feucht/ Alsdann magstu (6) mit
Zimet/ Jngwer/ Zucker vnnd Weinbeer ein Bru:ehlein machen/ vnd daru:eber
giessen.

Anna Wecker: Ein K?stlich new Kochbuch (Amberg 1598).
-- Teil 4: Von allerhand Fisch/ Su:eltzen vnd So:essen.
-- Textgrundlage: Faksimile M?nchen 1977.
-- Digitale Version: Norbert Bollen, Thomas Gloning, 3/2004


To Roast Salmon

Thusly, you will best prepare to roast a saddle of salmon (1)/ wash it with
vinegar or good strong wine/ as one chooses/ let it lay for a half hour/
after that take pepper/ a few cloves and mace (2) lightly crushed together/
not mixed with salt/ spread well over the saddle/ make it ready on the
grate/ let it dry (3) gently/ then at the same time prepare a broth/ also
heat some fat/ you will blend (4) spices therein/ a little hard bread/ half
wine and vinegar/ finely chopped sage and parsley/ let it simmer together/
(that) it might be like a tipsy pepper sauce/ therewith baste and cover the
saddle with bits of sage/ take a bite to see if it has roasted sufficiently/
(if) it is nearly close to done/ to serve it hot pour the warm broth
thereover/ to serve it cold/ pour in but/ (wait) until the broth has a fine
skin (5)/ and true black/ so it stays fairly moist/ and then if you wish
with cinnamon/ ginger/ sugar and grapes make a little sauce/ and sprinkle it
over.

   1.. Rucken = saddle. In the case of a salmon, this will likely be either
the area behind the head and before the body tapers or it will be the area
of the fish (minus head and tail) containing the body cavity.  As you can
tell, I don't have a precise definition for Salmenrucken, just a best  
guess.
   2.. Muskatblu:eh. As written the word doesn't make sense. I'm translating
it as Muskatblute or mace. The same word could conceivably be translated as
muscat flower or young muskat grape. I think mace is more likely.
   3.. Trucknen. I am reading this a trocken, meaning to dry, parch, etc. I
believe this is probably a colloquial usage.
   4.. Vorgemelte. I could find no literal translation of this word. I am
translating it as "blend" because I think it may be related to the modern
"schmelzen," "to melt." Schmelzen seems to imply high heat and industrial
melting, so it is not a precise match. A Middle German replacement would be
appreciated.
   5.. Ha:eutlein.  Literally "little skin."
   6.. Magstu.  At first, I thought this might be "machts du," but after
consideration of the other machen in the sentence, I think that the verb is
actually "mo:gen," "to want, wish, or desire."


Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:31:00 -0600
From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salmon tartlet recipe
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Jennifer Carlson <talana1 at hotmail.com> wrote:
   > i make little salmon tartlets (piggy-pie shaped) 
>> Might we have the recipe, please?

i must confess it is a bastardized version of a recipe for 
salmon pasty from Hauviette d' Anjou's feast at carrick 
fergus.  and i heartily thank her for the inspiration.

best part is that you can use canned salmon!

Cailte's Salmon Tartlets

1 can salmon (or equiv of poached fresh if you really want 
to put forth that effort)
1 generous handful of mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 tbsp mustard seed
2 tbsp minced onion
2tbsp minced celery
1 scant tbsp. cracked pepper (yes, lots of pepper)
salt to taste
1 recipe pie crust

Drain and pick salmon.  Put in bowl.  Add shredded cheese 
and toss.   Add mustard seed, celery and onions and toss. 
  Add egg (beaten) and fold until mixture combines well. 
 Taste and adjust for salt if needed.

Roll out pastry and cut into 3" diameter circles.   put 
mounded tbsp. of filling on half of circle.  brush 
circumference of circle with water or egg white, fold in 
half, and seal by crimping w/ fork.  brush tops w/ egg 
wash.

bake at 350 or 375 until crust is nice and brown.

i couldn't tell you how many it makes, because i usually 
keep going until i have as many as i need. 8)

when i serve these, i do a large fish shaped tart for the 
head table (complete w/ carved scales and molded eyes and 
smile) that is cut and served.   lots of fun.

i often hear that people didn't like canned salmon until 
they ate this.

the original recipe can be found out 
http://home.comcast.net/~iasmin/mkcc/MKCCfiles/AFeastAtCarrickFergus.html

lots of cool early period style recipes. great stuff. 
  thank you Hauviette, where ever you are!

cailte


Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:25:45 -0600
From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salmon recipes
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Cailte, what do you mean by "piggy-pie shaped"?

word from my childhood back in baltimore.  no idea how it 
came about, but my family called any half-circle pastry 
with sweet filling a piggy-pie.  usually a turnover of pie 
crust with jelly filling, with some white frosting/glaze.

empanadas come to mind, in my new home, as the best 
description of the shape/look.

guess my basic language took over when i was speed-typing. 
8)

cailte


Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:27:56 -0600
From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cailte's salmon tartlets
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:10:56 -0400
  Devra <devra at aol.com> wrote:
<<< How big a can of salmon? 6 ounces? 12 ounces? >>>

the tall can.  i forgot they are doing tuna-sized salmon 
cans now. 8)

cailte


Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 03:56:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Salmon mousse recipes
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Snooping around the internet, I found these recipes.  I have tried none of them.

Huette


Vyaunde Cypre of Samoun (Curye IV) 

Take almaundes and bray hem vnblaunched. Take calwar samoun and see? it in water; draw vp ?yn almaundes with the broth. Pyke out the bones out of the fyssh clene & grynd it small, & cast ?y mylk & Yat togyder, & alye it with flour of rys. Do ?erto powdour fort, sugur & salt; & colour it with alkenet, and make hyt stondyng, and messe it forth.

Take almonds and grind them unblanched. Take fresh salmon and boil it in water; draw up thine almonds with the broth. Pick out the bones out of the fish clean and grind it small, and cast thy milk and that together, and ally it with flour of rice. Do thereto powder fort, sugar and salt; and color it with alkanet, and make it thick, and serve it forth.

2 cups water
1/2 pound salmon
1/2 cup unblanched almonds
3 tablespoons rice flour
3/4 teaspoon powder fort (cinnamon, ginger, pepper, mace, cubebs, cloves)
1 teaspoon turbinado sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon saunders

Bring water to a boil and add salmon. Simmer over medium heat until salmon is cooked through (7 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness). Drain, reserving fluid. Remove any bones and grind the salmon until smooth, adding 1/3 to 1/2 cup additional salmon water as needed.

Make almond milk with the almonds and remaining salmon water. Combine the almond milk and the salmon; mix in rice flour and spices. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring, until the mixture thickens.

and this:

Salmon Mousse

Original sources

Vyaunde de Cyprys in Lente 

Take gode thikke mylke of Almaundys, & do it on a potte: & nyme the Flesshye of gode Crabbys & gode Samoun, & bray it smal, & tempere yt vppe with the forsayd milke; boyle it, an lye it with floure of Rys or Amyndoun, an make it chargeaunt; when it ys y-boylid, do ther-to whyte Sugre, a gode quantyte of whyte Vernage Pime, with the wyn, Pome-garnade, When it is y-dressyd, straw a-boue the grayne of Pome-garnade. 

Recipe

After much experimentation with ingredients of varying expense: 

1 lb canned salmon, or cooked "real" salmon. Adding crab meat makes no difference to the flavour but quite a lot to the price. 
2 oz ground almonds 
Rice flour (Several spoonfuls: amount will vary) 
2 tbs sugar 
2 tbs white wine (if you poach the salmon in wine to cook it, this will intensify the wine flavour) 
Seeds from 1-2 pomegranates 
A suitable mould 
Make up almond milk. 
Flake fish finely (use a blender if you want it really fine), mix with almond milk. 
Add sugar and wine, bring to the boil, gradually stir in enough rice flour to thicken it as far as you can. (Adding the wine afterwards, as in the original, un-thickens it). 
Stir in pomegranate seeds. Spoon into a mould and chill. 
When ready to serve, turn out and dress with more pomegranate seeds. 

and this:

Crab And Salmon Mould - England 15th Century Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 lb Fresh crabmeat, cooked 
1/2 lb Salmon, cooked 
1 c Almond milk 
2 tb Rice flour 
2 tb White wine 
2 tb Sugar 
 Seeds from 1-2 pomegranates 
 Black pepper to taste 

Instructions:

"Vyaunde de Cyprys in Lente" or Food of Cyprus in Lent [?] From "Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks" 

Flake the crabmeat and salmon, put them in the blender with the almond milk and puree'.
Spoon into a saucepan, heat gently and sprinkle in the flour.
Stir until thickened and then add the wine and sugar.
Stir in the pomegranate seeds and season to taste with a little pepper and salt.
Chill in a wetted mold.
Turn out to serve.
"This dish is such an attractive colour- pale pink studded with the scarlet seeds of the pomegranate that it seems a nice idea to redden it even further by surrounding the mould with a salad of sliced beetroot, radishes and young beetroot tops, with a vinaigrette dressing.
"From "Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks" Reprinted in _Seven Centuries of English Cooking_ Maxime de la Falaise Grove Press, 1992 Typos by Jeff Pruett 


Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:41:56 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salmon recipe
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Oct 4, 2008, at 12:03 AM, "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org> wrote:
<<< So I've begun poking around texts- parts I don't normally read  
because I really don't care much for fish. But I'd like to find a  
period recipe for something akin to salmon mousse. Any ideas out  
there?

'Lainie >>>

I guess you could use salmon as the basis for mortews of fish and  
serve that cold; I find mortews generally less terrifying if made with  
coarse crumbs of a high-gluten bread, which gives it a fluffier and  
less leaden texture.

The only other minced/ground/pulverized salmon dish I can think of  
offhand is in one of the books in Curye On Inglysch; a recipe for,  
IIRC, saumon gentil, which I seem to recall involves filleted salmon  
pounded (raw) in a mortar, salted and spiced, then extruded through a  
cow's horn funnel into simmering water, with the resulting dumplings  
cut into serving portions and served with spice powder...

Adamantius


Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2008 11:04:39 +0200
From: " Ana Vald?s " <agora158 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salmon recipe
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Here in  Sweden they did something called Salmon terrine, it was at that
time that salmon was so usual here the workers demanded a written contract
where they were given salmon as food only three times a week!

The terrine was made as a kind of pate, cook the salmon, mash it and blend
it with mashed turnips, salt, peppar, senap and some brandy. Sometime they
used same gelatin too. Very straight forward...

Ana


Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:40:58 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] salmon recipe
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< So I've begun poking around texts- parts I don't normally read because 
I really don't care much for fish. But I'd like to find a period 
recipe for something akin to salmon mousse. Any ideas out there? 'Lainie >>>

This has puzzled me all day so I looked up the term "mousse".
Davidson in the The Oxford Companion to Food notes that
the term was in common use by the 18th century in France and that Menon
by the middle of the 18th century had numerous recipes for them, including
frozen ones. I am wondering if it's slightly too early to expect a mousse
before 1600 but maybe we can find one in the later 17th century in a 
French source.

OED lists only later 19th century quotations for the word mousse in 
English cookery; they don't make a connection with dishes like applemose.

One of the recipes that I keep coming across that sounds good to me are 
these recipes for a smoked salmon mousse.

Johnnae


Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:25:44 -0400
From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salmon mousse recipes
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

This recipe was posted awhile ago, and I am going to try it today.  Reading over the directions, I wondered if the salmon really should be cooked first, or if one should "bray" the raw fish and let it cook as it thickens.   A bit of searching found Cariadoc's version, which uses it raw.  His version uses pomegranate juice in the fish with the seeds over the top.

Ranvaig

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/seafood.html#6

Vyaunde de Cyprys in Lent
Two Fifteenth Century p. 28/57
Take good thick milk of almonds, and do it on a pot; nym the flesh of good crabs, and good salmon, and bray it small, and temper it up with the foresaid milk; boil it, and lye it with flour of rice or amyndoun, and make it chargeaunt; when it is yboiled, do thereto white sugar, a gode quantitie of white vernage pimes (apparently a wine like muscadine) with the wine, pomegranate. When it is ydressed, strew above the grains of pomegranate.
almond milk: 2 oz blanched almonds, 1 c water
7 oz crabmeat
7 oz salmon
2 T rice flour
3 T sugar
4 t Rhine wine
2 T pomegranate juice
pomegranate seeds

Almond milk: Grind almonds in food processor, mix in 1/2 c water and grind more, squeeze liquid out through thin cloth, add residue to 1/4 c water and grind in processor again, squeeze again, repeat with another 1/4 c water.
Remove skin and bones from salmon, cut salmon and crab into cubes and shred with French chef's knife. Mix fish and almond milk and cook over medium heat; add sugar, wine, and pomegranate juice after 5 minutes; add rice flour after 11 minutes, cook, stirring, another minute, remove from heat and keep stirring another half minute. Garnish with pomegranate seeds.

<<< Vyaunde de Cyprys in Lente

Take gode thikke mylke of Almaundys, & do it on a potte: & nyme the Flesshye of gode Crabbys & gode Samoun, & bray it smal, & tempere yt vppe with the forsayd milke; boyle it, an lye it with floure of Rys or Amyndoun, an make it chargeaunt; when it ys y-boylid, do ther-to whyte Sugre, a gode quantyte of whyte Vernage Pime, with the wyn, Pome-garnade, When it is y-dressyd, straw a-boue the grayne of Pome-garnade.

Recipe

After much experimentation with ingredients of varying expense:

1 lb canned salmon, or cooked "real" salmon. Adding crab meat makes no difference to the flavour but quite a lot to the price.
2 oz ground almonds
Rice flour (Several spoonfuls: amount will vary)
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs white wine (if you poach the salmon in wine to cook it, this will intensify the wine flavour)
Seeds from 1-2 pomegranates
A suitable mould
Make up almond milk.
Flake fish finely (use a blender if you want it really fine), mix with almond milk.
Add sugar and wine, bring to the boil, gradually stir in enough rice flour to thicken it as far as you can. (Adding the wine afterwards, as in the original, un-thickens it).
Stir in pomegranate seeds. Spoon into a mould and chill.
When ready to serve, turn out and dress with more pomegranate seeds. >>>


Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:18:33 -0500
From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Gravlax
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< I just bought a side of salmon to make gravlax- would love a period reference/ recipe. >>>

I don't have a period recipe, but I do have a suggestion.  Many modern  recipes tell you to wrap the fish in plastic, but I like wrapping it in a clean cloth better.  Hmm... maybe I should make some for thanksgiving.

Ranvaig


Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:43:11 -0500
From: Gretchen Beck <grm at andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fish at feasts
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

--On Friday, November 21, 2008 2:05 AM -0600 Stefan li Rous
<StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
<<< Another big success was a filet (essentiall a 1/2 of the fish slab,
deskinned and deboned -- as you buy it at the warehouse club) of salmon
roasted on a grill then poached in wine served with a long pepper sauce. >>>

Ohhh. This sounds wonderful.  Did you use red or white wine?  Recipe for
the long pepper sauce, please?

I used white wine. It's an interpretation of the Fresh Salmon in yellow
pepper sauce recipe from the Vaindier. I don't have the recipe written down
(the computer with the kitchen recipes went up without backup some time ago
:-()

But -- here's Scully's translation
Saumon frais: It should be larded, and keep the spine in it for roasting;
then pick it apart by layers, and cook it in water and wine, with salt. It
should be eaten with yellow Pepper Sauce or with Cameline Sauce.

Poivre jaune (Yellow pepper sauce): Grind ginger, long pepper, saffron --
and some people add in cloves with verjuice and toast; infuse this in
vinegar (var: verjuice) and boil it when you are about to serve your meat.

I didn't lard, but did baste with olive oil. Grilled the salmon briefly
over coals, (which pretty much guaranteed the "separate into layers" part,
as I recall), and poached them stovetop in white wine and water..

No verjuice for the sauce (hadn't discovered the source for that yet), so
it was vinegar based. Just did as instructed (and in this case, just
measured out enough vinegar to serve all the tables, brought it to a boil,
and dumped stuff into it until it smelled right -- bad, I know, but it
worked in this case.)  It's been a few years, so my memory of the recipe is
not the best.

toodles, margaret


Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:40:26 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fish at feasts
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I've had a good response to de Nola's Cazuela de Salmon -- salmon
cooked with sour orange juice, herbs, spices, raisins, and nuts.
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:47:23 -0500
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fish at feasts
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

YUMMMMMM....that dish is SO good.  I fixed it last year for the Relay for
Life dinner that I did at Pennsic, and everyone loved it.  Also, I got hold
of some wild salmon (sockeye) last week and made it then.  My husband isn't
overly fond of most seafood, but really loves this.

Kiri

On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 4:40 PM, Robin Carroll-Mann
<rcarrollmann at gmail.com>wrote:
I've had a good response to de Nola's Cazuela de Salmon -- salmon
cooked with sour orange juice, herbs, spices, raisins, and nuts.
--
Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:26:03 -0500
From: Solveig Throndardottir <nostrand at acm.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Deboning Fish
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Greetings from Solveig! Salmon is particularly easy to debone, but  
you should consider deboning your fish prior to cooking it.
Regardless, deboning is properly a two step process.

1. Remove the spine and the major bones.
2. Use large tweezers (available at Asian markets) to individually  
pull out the remaining bones.

The result is a fillet with absolutely no bones in it. This is what  
is done in the process of preparing sashimi.

Solveig Throndardottir


Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 18:44:25 -0500
From: "Helen Schultz" <meistern@netusa1.net>
To: <sca-arts@raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: Salmon recipe

OK, folks, here is the recipe I have.  It is from a book called "English Food" by Jane Grigson, published in 1974 by Penguin Books.  Her bibliography is extensive, and includes many period manuscripts as well as some more modern
translations.

Of this recipe, "Salmon in Pastry, with a Herb Sauce," she says -- 'This is slightly adapted from an excellent recipe from the Hole-in-the-Wall restaurant in Bath.  The sauce is French, rather than English, but the whole dish is very
much to our taste.  It was originally inspired by a medieval recipe, which accounts for the unusual combination of sweetness with fish.'  I will type in all her original comments from the descriptions on how to make the dish.  When I made it, I left the eggs out, as the person sharing the meal with me is allergic... it was still an absolutely faboulous meal!!

SALMON IN PASTRY, WITH A HERB SAUCE

2-1/2 pound tailpiece of salmon
4 oz butter
4 knobs preserved ginger, chopped (I used candied)
1 heaped Tbsp raisins
1 rounded Tbsp chopped, blanced almonds (I left them in slices)
1 pound shortcrust pastry (I used Pillsbury pre-made ones)
Beaten egg glaze

SAUCE

2 shallots, chopped (I used green onions)
1 heaped tsp chopped parsley (I used dried)
1 tsp mixed chervil and tarragon (I used dried)
2 oz butter
1 tsp flour
1/2 pt cream (I used heavy whipping cream)
salt & pepper to taste
1 tsp Dijon mustard (I used honey dijon)
2 egg yolks mixed with 2 Tbsp of the cream
Lemon juice

"Ask the fishmonger to skin and bone the salmon into two roughly triangular fillets.  Mix the butter, ginger, raisins, and almonds together; use half to sandwich the two pieces of salmon together and put the rest on top.  Season the salmon well, and enclose it [totally] in the pastry.  Cut away any surplus and use it to make a restrained decoration for the top.  Slash the pastry two or three times to allow the steam to escape.  Brush over with the egg glaze and bake for 30-35 minutes at mark 7 (425 degrees F)."

"Meanwhile, make the sauce.  Sweat shallots and herbs in butter until soft.
Stir in flour, then cream and seasonings.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Finally beat in the egg yolk mixture and set over a low heat to thicken without boiling -- keep stirring.  Sharpen to taste with lemon juice."

"Place the salmon in its pastry in a hot dish; serve with the sauce in a separate sauce boat."

Enjoy!!  <grin>

KHvS

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	Salmon-msg	45 of 46