Le Viandier de Taillevent - Translation - Round Saltwater Fish

ROUND SALTWATER FISH

114. Porpoise.

Split it along the back, cook it in water, and slice it into strips like venison. Take some wine and water from your fish, grind ginger, cassia, cloves, grains of paradise, long pepper and a bit of saffron, [boil], and make a good clearish broth. It should not be too yellow. Serve it like a subtlety, with a White Dish.

115. [Red] gurnard, red mullet, [grey] gurnard.

Clean it through the belly, wash it very well, put it in the pan with some salt on top and then some water, and cook it. Eat it with Cameline [Sauce]. If you wish to eat it roasted, split the shoulders along the back, wash it, and roast it. Plunge it repeatedly in verjuice, sprinkle Spice Powder on top, and eat it with verjuice. If you wish it in a pie, eat it with Cameline [Sauce].

116. Conger.

Scalded like eel, cooked in water, and then salted like red mullet; eaten with [Green] Sauce. Some (when it is cooked) roast it on the grill. Put it in the oven if you wish.

117. Stockfish.

Soak it for three days in water, wash it very well, and fry it in oil without flour. Eat it with Garlic Cameline [Sauce] like ray. Some eat it with its own juices, as one eats venison, or with Mustard [Sauce].

118. Dogfish.

Cleaned like red mullet, cooked in water, and then peeled like ray; eaten with Garlic Cameline [Sauce].

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119. Fresh salmon.

Smoked (keep the chine for roasting), cut into steaks, and then cooked in water; [add] some wine and salt while cooking; eaten with Yellow Pepper [Sauce] or Cameline [Sauce]. Some dry it again (for eating) on the grill. In a pie (if you wish) powdered with spices; eaten with Cameline [Sauce].

If it is salted: cooked in water without salt; eaten with wine and chopped scallion.

120. Fresh mackerel.

Cleaned through the gill and roasted on the grill; eaten with Cameline [Sauce]. In a pie, powdered with spices; eaten with Cameline [Sauce].

If it is salted: cooked in water; eaten with wine and scallion or shallot, or with Mustard [Sauce].

121. Grey mullet.

Like mackerel.

122. Fresh cod.

Cleaned and cooked like red mullet; [add] some wine while cooking; eaten with Jance [Sauce]. Add some garlic if you wish, but some do not.

Salted: eaten with Mustard [Sauce] or fresh melted butter.

123. Codling and haddock.

Like cod. Haddock should be cleaned.

124. Grampus.

Cut into strips raw, cooked in water, and served with peas (like pork fat). Some dry it a bit on the fire. Those who add the water from the peas value it better.

125. Garfish.

Cleaned through the gill and roasted; eaten with Cameline [Sauce].

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126. Small dogfish.

Cooked like ray.

127. Hake.

Like cod.

128. Salmon trout.

Sectioned, and cooked in water and wine; eaten with Cameline [Sauce].

129. Saltwater shad.

As described above for [freshwater] fish.

130. Fry.

Like bleaks.

131. Sea bleaks.

Roasted in filets; eaten with Mustard [Sauce] or with Wine Sauce.

132. Smelt.

Cook them in a pie, remove them from the pie, flour them, fry them in oil, and eat them with Jance [Sauce] or Green Garlic [Sauce]. Fry them and eat them with Mustard [Sauce].

133. Sturgeon.

Scald it, slit it along the belly, split the head in two, slit all the other sections which can be slit, cook it in wine and water (mostly wine), withdraw it, and allow it to cool. Afterwards put it in vinegar and parsley.

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134. Cuttlefish.

Peel it, cut it into bits, put it in in iron pan with some salt, put it on the fire, stir it, and turn it over often until it is well cleaned. Put it in a cloth and squeeze it until it is dry enough. Fry it in oil (with onions added later so that they will not be too brown). Some flour it. When setting it out, add Spice Powder on top. Eat it with White Garlic [Sauce] steeped in vinegar. You can eat it in stew or pottage if you wish.

135. Oysters.

Cook them in water, fry them in oil with onions, and eat them in Oyster Ragout, or with [Spice] Powder or [Green] Garlic [Sauce].

136. Mussels.

Cook them in water with some vinegar and (if you wish) some mint. When setting them out, add some Spice Powder. Some wish butter with them. Eat them with vinegar, Green Verjuice [Sauce], or Green Garlic [Sauce]. You can make some ragout from them if you wish.

137. Scallops.

Pick them over well, scald and wash them, brown them in oil with chopped onions and Spice Powder, and eat them with good White Garlic [Sauce].

138. Saltwater crayfish [lobster].

Cooked in wine and water, or in the oven; eaten in vinegar.

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