However, sometimes a fried conger-eel occupied on the _sigma_ an obscure
place, in the midst of a seasoning flavoured highly with pepper,
alisander, cummin, wild marjoram, dried onion, and hard yolks of eggs;
with which a skilful hand carefully mixed to the whole, vinegar, sweet
wine, garum, and cooked wine.[XXI-119]
EEL.
In some parts of Egypt the eel was not eaten, because it was thought
indigestible.[XXI-120] In other places it received religious
worship.[XXI-121] They were ornamented, whether they liked it or not,
with silver, gold, and precious stones, and priests daily offered them
the entrails of animals and cheese.[XXI-122]
The Greeks thought highly of eels. “Behold the Helen of feasts!” cried
Eidicastes, at the moment when one was served; “I will be her
Paris!”[XXI-123] and the glutton seized and devoured it immediately.
Bœotia--where this fish was immolated to the gods[XXI-124]--the
straits of Sicily,[XXI-125] and the Copian lake, furnished eels
remarkable for their delicacy and size;[XXI-126] these were served fried
and enveloped in beet leaves.[XXI-127] They enjoyed a high reputation
among the Sybarites, a choice nation, who would have invented cookery if
the art had not already existed, and among whom a repast was so serious
a matter, that a whole year was not thought too long in order to
meditate upon it and get it ready.[XXI-128]
But Hippocrates did not like the eel, and he forbade it to his patients,
and to persons attacked with a pulmonary affection.[XXI-129] So that
this Queen of Luxury, as Archestrates calls it,[XXI-130] met with as
many enemies as partisans. Egypt adored it, Greece was enamoured of it,
Rome despised it, and the plebeian alone reserved it to the humiliation
in his brutal orgies.[XXI-131]
Apicius, however, has condescended to notice this fish. Mix, says he,
pepper, alisander, parsley seed, dill, and dates; add to this honey,
vinegar, garum, oil, mustard, and cooked wine;[XXI-132] serve this sauce
with the eel.
Nations have their ages of splendour--viands have their epochs of
celebrity and glory. This one seems to us fast falling into decay, in
spite of some isolated efforts in order to make it reflourish.
When Rockingham was named member of parliament, he ordered thirteen
barrels of eels to be brought to London, for the banquet he gave on that
occasion.[XXI-133] No one to our knowledge has since prepared so
gigantic a _matelote_.
Travellers formerly saw in the Ganges beautiful eels 300 feet
long[XXI-134]--a magnificent species never seen in Europe.
“The eel, so much despised by the Romans, is rather in favour in several
countries; certain species are much esteemed, that named _Guiseau_,
among others, deserves the preference it always obtains at
Rouen.”--BOSC.
PIKE.
The pike was very little esteemed by ancient gastronomists, who viewed
it only as an ignoble inhabitant of muddy water, and the implacable
enemy of frogs.[XXI-135] It was a received opinion that this despotic
ruler of ponds lived for several centuries, and it may be correct.
Among the examples of longevity of this fish, the most remarkable is
that of the pike of _kaisers’-lantern_, which was nineteen feet long,
weighed 350 lbs., and had lived at least 235 years. It is reported that
the Emperor Barbarossa himself threw it, on the 5th of October, 1262,
into the pond where it was caught in 1497; and that this enormous pike
wore a golden ring, which was made so that it would expand, and on which
was engraved the date when the fish was spawned. Its skeleton was for a
long time preserved at Mannheim.[XXI-136]
The multiplication of pikes would be immense if the spawn and pickrel,
in the first year of their existence, were not the prey of several other
fishes; for it has been calculated that in a female pike of middling
size 184,000 eggs were found.
“In the north, and particularly in Siberia, the pike is preserved salted
and smoked; the largest only are used, those weighing about two pounds.
When they have been drawn, cleaned, and washed, they are cut in pieces,
stratified with salt, in barrels. A brine is formed in which they are
left for three days, then they are dried or smoked for one month. After
this time they are put in another barrel, with fresh salt, wetted with
vinegar.”--BOSC.
CARP.
The carp occupied a very honourable rank with the Greeks and Latins, but
only as a fish of the second order.[XXI-137] At Athens, they picked out
the bones and stuffed it with silphium, cheese, salt, and
marjoram.[XXI-138] The Romans boiled it and mixed it with sows’ paps,
fowls’ flesh, fig-peckers, or thrushes; and when the whole was made into
a kind of pulp, they added raw eggs and oil; then they sprinkled it over
with pepper and alisander; after which they poured wine, garum, and
cooked wine over it; and when the culinary combination was completed in
the stewpan, by the assistance of a slow fire, it was then thickened
with flour.[XXI-139]
In several countries it is known at what period the carp was
naturalized. Peter Marshall brought it to England in 1514; Peter Oxe to
Denmark in 1560. A few years after, it was introduced into Holland and
Sweden. The fecundity of this fish is surprising; no less than 621,600
eggs were found in a carp weighing nine pounds; and it is very
long-lived. Several have been seen in the moats of the castle of
Ponchartrain, which were proved to be 150 years old. Carp are capable of
acquiring considerable dimensions. The most gigantic on record was that
caught at Bisshofs-hause, near Frankfort on the Oder; it weighed 70
lbs.[XXI-140]
EEL-POUT.
The liver of the eel-pout (also known by the names, _lota_, _lote_, and
_lotus_) is particularly large, and so delicate that a certain Countess
of Beuchlingen squandered a large portion of her income to gratify her
taste for them.[XXI-141] That lady, worthy, by her refined and antique
taste, of the proudest period of Roman extravagance, was, perhaps, not
aware that the most fastidious epicureans of Italy, enthusiastic
admirers of the liver of this fish,[XXI-142] had it served with a sauce
composed of vinegar, grated cheese, and garlic; to which they added
leeks and onions, chopped fine.[XXI-143]
TROUT.
Elian speaks of a fish found in the river Astræus, in
Macedonia,[XXI-144] which Gesner believed to be identical with the
trout. It does not appear, however, that the Greeks knew the real value
and merit of this fish; but on the other hand, the Romans assigned to it
the foremost rank, next to the sturgeon, red mullets, and the sea-eel,
especially when they had been fattened in the thick waters of the Tiber,
on the very spot where the labridans acquired their plumpness and
value.[XXI-145]
The trout was dressed like the preceding fish.
GOLD FISH.
This fish, dear to the Greeks,[XXI-146] had the honour of giving its
name to the celebrated icythyophagist, Sergius, who was passionately
fond of it, and who took the name Orata (from _Aurata_--gold fish), to
preserve in his family the remembrance of his gluttony or of his
affection.[XXI-147] His compatriots, the Romans, highly valued the gold
fish,[XXI-148] and sought with eagerness those which had fed on the
shell fish of the lake of Lucrin[XXI-149]--that precious reservoir
between Baiæ and Cumæ, which never deceived the hopes of the
gastronomist, nor the greedy expectations of the fishermen.[XXI-150]
The gold fish was served with a gravy composed of pepper, alisander,
carrots, wild marjoram, rue, mint, myrtle leaves, and yolk of eggs;
mixed with honey, vinegar, oil, wine, and garum.[XXI-151] The slow
cooking of these various ingredients gave them the required
homogeneousness.
WHITING.
The flesh of this _gadus_ is so light that, according to an old French
proverb, the “_Merlans mangée ne pèsant non plus dans l’estomac que
pendus à la ceinture_.”[XXI-152] “Whitings weigh no more when eaten than
when hung to the girdle.” Nevertheless, the Greeks did not think much of
it, and they said that the whiting was only good for those who could not
obtain more delicate fish.[XXI-153]
The Romans, less severe or not quite so particular, cooked their
whitings with a sauce composed as follows:--put with the fish, in a
stewpan, some garum, chopped leeks, cummin, savory, and a sufficient
quantity of cooked wine, and some wine slightly diluted; cook it on a
slow fire.[XXI-154]
COD FISH.
The cod fish supplied the ancients with the most exquisite dish next to
the sturgeon.[XXI-155] The only fault found with it was, that it cost
less than others. The Greek cooks sprinkled it with grated cheese,
moistened with vinegar; then they threw over it a pinch of salt and a
few drops of oil.[XXI-156] Persons with delicate stomachs did not
scruple to partake of this aliment, which Galen warranted as being
excellent.[XXI-157]
The average size of this fish is about three feet in length; but some
are found of ten feet. The common weight is fifteen pounds, and some
have been seen weighing 60lbs. Leuwenhoek has said that 9,344,000 eggs
had been found in one fish. It is probable he made a mistake, as a cod
fish of our days, weighing 50lbs., produced only 3,686,000 eggs--a
number sufficiently prodigious, and which shows pretty well its great
fecundity.[XXI-158]
It is supposed that the discovery of the great and small banks of cod
fish is due to the Basque fishermen, who arrived there in pursuit of
whales, one hundred years before Columbus’ voyage. Others give that
honour to James Cartier, a native of Falkland Islands.
“As early as the 14th century, the English and the inhabitants of
Amsterdam busied themselves with cod fishing; and later, the Irish,
Norwegians, French, and Spaniards competed with them more or less
successfully. In 1533, Francis I. having sent J. Verrazzano, and
afterwards, Jacques Cartier, to explore the neighbourhood of
Newfoundland, the French fishermen followed them, and brought back also
this fish from those distant countries in the beginning of the 16th
century.
“Man annually seizes upon a prodigious quantity of cods, and were it not
for the immense extent of the means of reproduction allowed to it by
nature, the species for a long time past would have been annihilated. It
is even hardly conceived how it has been possible to preserve it; for it
is well known, that as early as 1368, the inhabitants of Amsterdam had
brought up fishermen on the coast of Sweden; and, in the first quarter
of 1792, according to a report presented to the minister, Roland, at the
National Convention, that, from the ports of France only, 210 vessels,
forming together 191,158 tons, went out for the cod fisheries; and that
every year more than 10,000 vessels of all nations employed at this
trade, throw in the commercial world more than 40,000,000 of salted and
dried cod. If we add to this enumeration the havoc made among the
legions of these fishes by the great _squales_, sharks, and others,
besides the destruction of a multitude of young ones by the other
inhabitants of the seas and sea birds, together with the myriads of eggs
destroyed by accident, it really is extraordinary to see this fish in so
great a quantity now; but who can wonder, since each female can every
year give birth to more than 9,000,000 of young ones.”--DR. CLOQUET.
PERCH.
The Greeks were acquainted with the perch.[XXI-159] Diocles used to give
the flesh to the sick;[XXI-160] Xenocrates extolled those from the
Rhine;[XXI-161] and Ausonius, the poet, has sung the praises of those
fed in the Moselle.[XXI-162]
With the Romans, this fish obtained a renown almost equal to that
bestowed on the trout; and all eyes bespoke its welcome at supper, when
it appeared on the table, covered with a seasoning in which pepper,
alisander, cummin, and onions were artistically combined with stoned
Damascus plums--thanks to the clever use of wine, vinegar, sweet wine,
oil, and cooked wine. This ingenious amalgamation acquired over a slow
fire the requisite consistence and cohesion.[XXI-163]
SCATE.
The ancients liked or disliked scate, according to the places where they
eat it. So, now, this fish is rejected in Sardinia, and thought
excellent in London and Paris.[XXI-164]
The Greek gastronomists of fashion sometimes partook of the back of the
scate;[XXI-165] the remainder seemed unworthy of their attention, and a
certain poet maintains that a piece of stuff, boiled, offers to the
palate a flavour quite as agreeable.[XXI-166]
Italian gluttony always gave a cold reception to this dish, which they
owed to the Greek cooks, and which their magiric writers have not
sufficiently studied.
Aristotle knew of two species of scate;[XXI-167] Pliny speaks of
them;[XXI-168] Lacépède enumerates thirty-nine species.[XXI-169]
That celebrated naturalist, Buffon’s pupil and competitor, assures us
that several eastern nations consider the smoke arising from the eggs of
scates, thrown on burning coals, and inhaled by the mouth and nostrils,
as an excellent remedy against intermittent fever.[XXI-170] It would
cost but little to make the experiment.
SALMON.
It is reported that the salmon was thus named on account of its frequent
leaping.[XXI-171] It has been sung by Ausonius.[XXI-172] Its absence
left a chasm in the delights of Greece, and it was late before it became
known in Rome. Pliny is the first of Latin authors who name it.[XXI-173]
Ichthyophagy will cherish the memory of this laborious author. He speaks
with praise of the salmon taken in the Garonne and Dordogne. He extols
those of the Rhine, but he seems to give a decided preference to those
magnificent fishes covered with a silvery mail, which disport in the
limpid waters of that picturesque and beautiful Aquitaine.[XXI-174][L]
Two centuries ago, there was such a great quantity of salmon taken in
the rivers of Scotland, that, instead of being considered a delicate
dish, it served commonly as food for servants, who it is said,
stipulated sometimes, that they should not be obliged to eat that
common, tasteless aliment more than five times per week.[XXI-175]
SEPIA, OR, CUTTLE-FISH.
Pliny has extolled the constancy of conjugal affection in the
cuttle-fish, and the courage with which the male defends his companion
in the moment of danger.[XXI-176] The poet Persius describes its flight,
protected by the thick, black liquid with which it blinds its enemies.
Apicius, struck more by its succulent qualities, opens this fish,
empties it, and stuffs it with cooked brains, to which he adds raw eggs
and pepper; he then boils it in a seasoning of pepper, alisander,
parsley seed, and cooked wine, mixed with honey, wine, and
garum.[XXI-177] Thus prepared, the cuttle-fish passed at Rome as an
estimable dish, and which might be offered at an unpretending repast.
SWORDFISH.
The Greeks were fond of the swordfish, and often partook of it,[XXI-178]
with a sauce of which oil was the basis, and with which were mixed yolks
of eggs, leeks, garlic, and cheese.[XXI-179] The Romans thought very
little of this fish, and prayed Neptune to send it far from their nets.
SHAD.
The shad was caught during the summer, and sold to the people,[XXI-180]
who boiled it and dished it up with strong herbs and oil. This plebeian
fish was excluded from all respectable banquets.[Y]
“Modern taste has allowed this estimable fish to re-appear on the
table, where it is always seen with pleasure. This fish is caught in
most of the great rivers of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa.”--BOSC.
RHOMBO, OR, RHOMBUS.
The rhombo claimed the attention of the discriminating ichthyophagists
of Rome by the delicacy of its flesh, and few fish would have been
preferred to it had it not been feared that it rendered digestion
difficult.[XXI-181] Some intrepid stomachs, however, greeted this dish
without much repugnance when presented to them fried and sprinkled with
pepper, in the midst of a seasoning in which pepper, cummin, coriander,
benzoin, wild marjoram, and rue, heightened by a little vinegar, were
mixed with dates, honey, cooked wine, and oil. This boiling sauce was
poured over the rhombo, but not before it had been enriched with
garum,[XXI-182] which we had almost forgotten--that inevitable brine
which the ancient magiric genius placed everywhere, and whose prodigious
renown ought to have preserved it from oblivion.
MUGIL.
This fish, singular instrument of a punishment invented by
Rome,[XXI-183] entered into the bill of fare of a fashionable supper,
but one without that magnificence which a feast of parade exacts. It was
prepared with pepper, alisander, cummin, onion, mint, rue, sage, and
dates, mixed with honey, vinegar, mustard, and oil.[XXI-184]
The Greeks also esteemed mugils, and gave a preference to those sold by
the fishermen of Scyathus.[XXI-185]
MACKEREL.
Commentators do not agree on the origin of this word. Scaliger, who
perceived Greek in everything, says it is derived from _makarios_,
“happy.” But, then, in what does the felicity of this fish consist? The
old writer Belon, more wise in his conjecture, thinks this word comes
from the Latin, _macularelli_, “little spots,” because it is marked on
the back with black stripes.[XXI-186]
Let the etymology be what it may, the epicurean cares very little about
it. Mackerel was much liked in Greece, where it was believed to be a
native of the Hellespont;[XXI-187] and throughout Italy, where it was
supposed to come originally from Spain.[XXI-188]
It is very probable that from mackerel was obtained one of the varieties
of garum, known by the name of _garum sociorum_. Further on, we intend
to devote a special chapter to the subject of this celebrated condiment.
“Neither the size nor the weapons of mackerel make them formidable; they
have, however, a violent appetite, and on account, perhaps, of the
confidence they feel in the number of each shoal, they are bold and
voracious, frequently attack fishes larger and stronger than themselves,
and even dart with blind audacity upon the fishermen who bathe where
they happen to be. Thus Pontoppidan relates that a sailor, bathing in
the port of Carcule, in Norway, missing one of his companions, saw him a
few minutes afterwards dead, the body mangled and covered with a
multitude of mackerel, tearing his remains to pieces.”--DR. CLOQUET.
HADDOCK.
The haddock, like the sturgeon, was surrounded with the ridiculous
honours of an almost divine pomp.[XXI-189] It was served interwoven with
garlands, and trumpeters accompanied the slaves who, with uncovered
heads and foreheads crowned with flowers, brought to the guests this
dish, the merit of which was, perhaps, exaggerated by capricious
fancies.[XXI-190]
TENCH.
Ausonius, who lived in the 4th century of the Christian era, is the
first who has spoken of the tench, in his poem of the
“_Mostella_.”[XXI-191] It was abandoned to the common people, who alone
feasted on it.[XXI-192] This fish, long the victim of an unjust disdain,
ultimately conquered from the great that esteem which they at first
refused to it.
DRAGON WEAVER.
The dragon weaver traversed unseen the long and brilliant gastronomic
period of the Romans. Greece rendered it more justice;[XXI-193] but its
too modest qualities were not able to preserve it from forgetfulness and
indifference.
LOLIGO.
At Rome the loligo, a species of cuttle-fish, was sometimes served with
pepper and rue, mixed with garum, honey, sweet wine boiled, and a few
drops of oil.[XXI-194]
SOLE.
This fish, which the Greeks caught on the coast,[XXI-195] was much
sought after on account of the delicacy of its nourishing and light
flesh.[XXI-196] The flounder, the brill, the diamond and Dutch plaice,
which, together with the sole, were known under the general name of
_passeres_, enjoyed an equal esteem, and had attributed to them the same
qualities.
ANGEL-FISH.
In Holland there are angel fish of enormous size;[XXI-197] and
Aldrovandus relates that some have been seen which weighed as much as
160 lbs.[XXI-198] In the time of this naturalist the common people did
not eat them very willingly.
FILE-FISH.
The flesh of this species of the _bulistes_ is only good when fried,
according to Marcgrave. Columella thinks much of it,[XXI-199] and Pliny
ranks it among the _saxatiles_, the most esteemed by
connoisseurs.[XXI-200]
PILCHARD.
Among the Greeks this fish was considered only as fit for the people.
Those from the environs of Phaleres were much esteemed, when left only
an instant in boiling oil.[XXI-201] The Romans, who gave them the first
rank among salt fish,[XXI-202] stuffed them, in order to render them
better, in the following manner:--[XXI-203]
They bruised pennyroyal, cummin, pepper, mint, and pine nuts; these they
mixed with honey, and with this paste they filled the anchovy, after
having carefully boned them. They then wrapped them in paper,[M] and
cooked them in a _bain-marie_, or saucepan, immersed in boiling water.
They were served with oil, dregs of fish-brine, and cooked
wine.[XXI-204]
LOACH.
The Greeks liked loaches,[XXI-205] but many abstained from eating them,
lest the Syrian goddess, the protectress of these fishes, should gnaw
their legs, cover their bodies with ulcers, and devour their
liver.[XXI-206]
The inhabitants of Italy, free from this singular superstition, cleaned
the loaches, left them some time in oil, then placed them in a saucepan
with some more oil, garum, wine, and several bunches of rue and wild
marjoram. Then these bunches were thrown away, and the fish was
sprinkled with pepper at the moment of serving.[XXI-207]
GUDGEON.
The gudgeon--thought excellent by every one, but which no one
mentions--appeared with honour in the most magnificent repasts at
Athens.[XXI-208] At Rome, it was served fried, at the beginning of
supper;[XXI-209] and it disposed the guests to attack boldly the
culinary _corps de réserve_, which took up the position as soon as the
skirmish with the gudgeon was over.
“This fish is in abundance, principally in France and Germany; it is
very good, and easily digested. They are served either fried or stewed;
when done as last-mentioned, they must be drawn and wiped dry, put in a
flat stewpan with butter, salt, pepper, good red wine, spring onions,
mushrooms, shalots, thyme, bay leaves and basil--these last plants
chopped very fine; stew the whole a quarter of an hour, and
serve.”--BOSC.
HERRING.
Herrings were unknown in Greece and Rome. Bosc says it is a manna that
nature doubtless reserved for the northern nations, which they, however,
have only turned to account in modern times.
The first herring fishery known in Europe was on the coast of Scotland;
but that nation knew not how to profit by the treasure that the sea
offered them. All the Scotch historians mention this fishery, the
produce of which was bought by the Dutch. This transaction took place
under the reign of King Alfred, about the year 836.
After some time the Scotch quarrelled with the Dutch, who undertook the
herring fishery themselves. As they caught a great many more than they
could consume, they salted them, and sold them in foreign countries.
Such was the origin of that immense commerce, which had its rise,
according to Eidous, about the year 1320, a short time after the Teutons
had established themselves in the Baltic.
It is said that we owe the art of salting and barreling herrings to a
Dutch fisherman, named William Beuckels, who died in 1449. The Dutch
nation raised a mausoleum to his memory; and it is asserted that Charles
V., who visited it in 1536, eat a herring upon it to render homage to
the author of a precious discovery.
In the year 1610, Sir Walter Raleigh gave a statistical account of the
commerce carried on by the Dutch in Russia, Germany, Flanders, and
France, with the herrings caught on the coasts of England, Scotland,
and Ireland. The sale of this fish amounted, in one year, to the sum of
£2,650,000.
It has been erroneously thought that the herring was the _halec_, or,
_alec_, of the Romans. This name was given by them to a kind of
brine;[XXI-210] it was not the name of any particular fish.