whale-meat-msg - 6/26/05 Use of whale meat in period. Recipes. Substitutions. NOTE: See also the files: whales-msg, fish-msg, salmon-msg, horse-recipes-msg, pickled-meats-msg, fish-pies-msg, exotic-meats-msg, eels-msg, frogs-msg, blood-dishes-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 11:38:47 -0600 From: "ysabeau" <ysabeau at mail.ev1.net> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks]Whale/Porpoise meat To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> I work for a Japanese company so I just turned around and asked a couple of co-workers. They said whale meat is really tough and stringy. They likened it to brisket as far as texture and toughness. I'm not sure how that correlates to the description below. They said it is usually served in thin strips because it is so tough. One of them said it has more of a "sweetish/sour" taste than beef. They both said they didn't like it and that it needs to be cooked for a long time in a sauce. Ysabeau Barony of Bryn Gwlad Ansteorra ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Jeff Elder <scholari at verizon.net> Reply-To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 11:32:29 -0600 > Another Article about whale meat: > http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,9950,547250,00.html > > and an excerpt on flavor from same article: > Syotaro Akiyama, a photographer from south Japan, is a vocal advocate of eating whales since he first tried it in the 1960s in a sushi restaurant. He wrote: 'I placed it in my mouth, chewed it three times and it just melted and spread through my whole mouth flavouring the rice. As I swallowed it, the taste was better than the richest cut of blue fin tuna. I still remember thinking how could anything taste this delicious? Heated through, it tastes like meat; uncooked it is like fish.' But the powerful flavour is not to everyone's taste. 'I hated it at school - we always used to have it with lots of ginger to hide the taste and make it palatable. I wouldn't go near it now,' said my Japanese guide. > > Simon Hondy Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 14:01:19 -0500 From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> > Anyone have any idea of what to replace Porpoise with? I have no personal > desire to cook that particular animal. Redoing one of the Henry`s wedding > feast in April and its on the menu. Venison. Someone from period writes that you use porpoise on fast days to replace venison... so the reverse would also be true, I expect. -- -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 13:58:14 -0700 From: James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> At 14:01 -0500 2004-12-06, Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote: >> Anyone have any idea of what to replace Porpoise with? I have no >> personal desire to cook that particular animal. Redoing one of the Henry`s >> wedding feast in April and its on the menu. > > Venison. Someone from period writes that you use porpoise on fast days > to replace venison... so the reverse would also be true, I expect. Viandier has an indirect reference to this. In recipe 144 Porpoise we have "Split it along the back, cook it in water, and slice it into strips like venison." This does not prove that venison was a suitable alternative, but does suggest that the possibility was in the mind of the author. On the other hand, the venison recipes in Viandier are not particularly similar to the porpoise recipe. In Chiquart Scully says in a footnote "The Venison of Dolphin is a dish made simply by preparing this fish according to the standard recipe for large game meat"; and there is a recipe for Fresh Dolphin and a recipe for Salted Dolphin. In the latter recipe we have the explicit "It is served, in place of venison, with rice." Thorvald Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 20:49:37 -0600 From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.at.net> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> > Anyone have any idea ofwhat to replace Porpoise with? I have no personal > desire to cook that particular animal. Redoing one of the Henry`s wedding > feast in April and its on the menu. > Da Does the menu specifically call for porpoise or dolphin? Corypheana hippurus is found worldwide and has been referred to as dolphin for a long time (along with porpoises and other critters). You may know it better by its Hawaiian name, mahi-mahi. Bear Date: Tue, 07 De 2004 09:08:47 -0500 From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Porpoise recipes To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> The 15th century Beinecke recipe collection at Yale which was published as An Ordinance of Pottage by Hieatt contains porpoise recipes. Number 26 is Numbelys of purpas or of other fish; number 27 is Purpays yn galenteyn and number 28is Purpays or venyson in broth. So even in the actual English texts you have in recipe 26 subsituting "venison," "codlying, congir, and of other gode fyssh also." Number 28 says: "make venyson in broth in the same manner." Thorvald already noted that this was the practice in some of the French manuscripts, so substitution was apparently commonly done. Hieatt again suggests that they ate porpoise in Lent and venison or beef in the recipe otherwise. Johnnae llyn Lewis <the end> Edited by Mark S. Harris whale-meat-msg 2 of 3