This dish is a type of civet , which is a form of stew, usually made with meat of game. In old dishes the cook is usually told to ‘drawe’ a fish, animal or bird, so this recipe interprets ‘yopened’ to mean that the fish or meat should be cut open and boned. It could then easily be cut in pieces and eaten with a spoon. Oil could be used by strict (and wealthy) dieters for frying food in Lent, but poor people would probably use butter, and omit the costly saffron, as we’ve done here as it’s still costly!
I wonder if there’s an old timey version of the Hanseatic Seafood Platter. Hanseatic monk with a big wooden board, hunk of bread, fuckload of pickled and smoked fishes.
‘Cabbage should be sliced with the sharpest possible iron blade, then washed, drained, and chopped with plenty of coriander and rue. Then sprinkle with honey vinegar and add just a little bit of silphium. Incidentally, you can eat this as a meze.’ – Mnesitheus, quoted in Oribasius, Medical Collections 4, 4, 1
Silphium is an unidentified plant that was used in classical antiquity as a seasoning, perfume, aphrodisiac, and medicine. It also was used as a contraceptive by ancient Greeks and Romans
This thread has reminded me that I own a cookbook with the blurb describing it as “reimagining 18th-century English gastronomy for a 21st-century palate”. Recipes include white soup, potted pig’s cheek with dripping toast, and parkin tea cake.