recipe May/June 2004
Broiled fish with three sauces.
A Dutch recipe from + 1500 AD. Dutch version
of this recipe
Fish played a prominent role in the
daily diet throughout the Catholic Middle Ages, because during set periods and
days the eating of meat was forbidden. Lent is
the most extended and strict period of dietary restrictions, because not only
meat, but all animal produce (butter, cheese, eggs) were prohibited foodstuff.
On the weekly fast days the consumption of this derivated foodstuff was allowed.
The recipe on this page was meant for just such ordinary fastdays, hence the use
of butter. This one recipe describes three different sauces to accompany broiled
fish (in particular pike and bream): a butter sauce, a caper sauce, and a
gooseberry sauce.
Pike and bream are freshwater fish. Like all fish they have a spawn season,
during which it is better not to eat them. The fish are spending all their
energy to procreation, which is rather detrimental to their taste, and also: if
you want to eat fish next year, you better give the fish the chance to multiply!
The spawn season of pike is from March till May, of bream from April to June.
So, actually, this time of the year is not the best to publish a fish recipe.
Why then, in spite of what is
mentioned above, have I chosen this recipe? Because I love gooseberries, the
gooseberry sauce is really tasty, and we are almost at
the start of the gooseberry season.
Gooseberries were not cultivated before the
thirteenth century, but they are indigenous to Europe.
In the North of France gooseberry sauce was a classic accompaniment to mackerel
(the French call the gooseberry groseille
maquereau or "mackerel berry"). Mackerel is a seafish with fat meat, very suitable to be broiled on the
barbecue. It is one of my favorite fish to eat.
That is why is I cooked mackerel when I made this recipe. But you can cook
any fish you want with these sauces. By the way: the spawning season of mackerel is
from May till July.
I have made the gooseberry sauce often to accompany the fishpasties
from ms UB Gent 1035.
Yet another reason for choosing this recipe is that it gave me an excuse to haul
the barbecue out of the garage for the first time this season! Fish broiled
under the ovengrill is tasty, but fish broiled over charcoal gives it just that
medieval tweak.
In the nineteenth century it was believed that the Dutch name kruisbes
was derived from the Finding of the True Cross on May 3rd. But the medieval
names stekelbesij and kroeselbesij (the modern word kruisbes
is derived from this) indicate that it is the hairy skin that gave the berry its
Dutch name. (likewise in German: Stachelbeere)
The recipe has been taken from the
third part of the convolute KA Gent 15 (edition).
[Op visch]
buijten den vasten (3.246)
Item neemt boter in een eerde panne, ende asijn, ende suijcker, ende
geijnber, ende latet sieden, ende cloppet tot dick is, ende doet dat oeck
op ghebraden vijssen, ijst brasem oft anders.
Mer eest eenen snoeck alsoe legten in die scotel, ende doeter capparts
over met olij, ende asijn, ende geijnberpoijer, dats sijn saus, ende
dienet ter tafelen.
Oft alst inden tijt is van stekelbesijen, soe smoert die besijen in boter,
ende doeter wijn in, ende eeck, suijcker, geijnber, ende caneel, ende
sofferaen, ende alst dick opgesoden is, soe gietet op die gebraden brasem,
ende overstroijtse wel, ende dienet ter tafelen.
On fish outside
of Lent.
Add butter to an earthenware pan, and vinegar, sugar, and ginger. Bring to
the boil and whisk until it has thickened. And put this (also) on broiled
fish, bream or another [fish].
But when it is a pike, lay this on a dish, and put capers over it with
oil, vinegar and powdered ginger, that is his sauce, and serve it forth.
Or, when gooseberries are in season, braise them in butter, and add wine,
and vinegar, sugar, cinnamon and saffron. And when it has reduced, pour it
over the broiled bream, and sprinkle this amply [with spices] and serve it
forth.
The modern recipe: Broiled fish with
three sauces.
Preparation:
Make a vinaigrette with oil and vinegar, add rinsed capers and ginger.
With broiled pike.
Gooseberry
sauce:
100 à 150 gram (2/3 to 1 cup) gooseberries
30 gram (2 Tbsp.) butter
2 Tbsp. white wine
1 Tbsp. cane sugar
1/2 tsp. each of powdered ginger and cinnamon
optional: 1/2 tsp. ground saffron
Preparation:
Melt the butter and braise the gooseberries for 5 minutes. Add the other
ingredients. Reduce to a thick sauce. Remove the skins of the
gooseberries.
With broiled bream.
The fish: 150
gram (1/3 pound) fish meat of a big fish or one whole small fish per person (mackerel,
bream, pike, trout)
Preparation:
Prepare the fish if this has not yet been done (scale, gill and gut the
fish). When broiling a whole fish, you can put a sprig of thyme, rosemary,
dill, parsley, or a fresh laurel leaf in the cavity of the fish. To
turn the fish easily on the fire you could put them in a special fish
grill rack or grip (I am sure these things on the picture above have a
name. In Dutch they are called "visklem". Please mail
me if you know the correct term).
Broil the fish on the barbecue or in the oven until it is done.
Picture of gooseberry
sauce yet to come!
To serve:
You can serve the broiled fish whole, you can also debone it and remove the
skin, and serve the fillets.
Serve the sauce seperately. I wouldn't serve all three sauces at the same time,
they do not blend well.
Mackerel.
When you buy fish it is almost cleaned. Mackerel and sardines however still have
their entrails (at least in the Netherlands). The fismonger will draw the fish
for you, or you have to do this yourself in your kitchen. When you do, make sure
you do this immediately. The entrails of a mackerel deteriorate rather fast. If
you have bought your fish in the morning and wait with disemboweling it until
just before you want to prepare it at night, chances are you unpack an exploded
mackerel, or a fish with a repulsively soft belly. Capers. These
are the pickled unripe flowerbuds of the Capparis spinosa L. The shrub is
indigenous to the regions around the Mediterranean, and its flowerbuds were
already eaten in Antiquity Barbecue.
I am not going to describe all the ins and outs of broiling on barbecues. Just
one thing. If you choose your barbecue, choose a real one, and not yet another
electrical device, or even one on gas. Dare to play with fire!
W.L. Braekman, Een
nieuw zuidnederlands kookboek uit de vijftiende eeuw
(A new southern Dutch cookbook from the fifteenth century).
Scripta 17, Brussel, 1986. (ms KA Gent 15 parts 2 and 3). This manuscript is
being published by me on this site. At this moment the edition
of the first part of the convolute is nearly completed.
