Part 22

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.

There are two prevalent methods of preserving herrings, and fishmongers sell them under the denominations of salted herrings and red herrings.

The process employed for the first-named is as follows:--