Saumon

Salmon

This recipe is from Le Ménagier de Paris, a 14th century French manuscript. 

Original Recipe:

Saumon frais soit baconné, et gardez l'eschine pour rostir; puis despeciez par dales cuites en eaue, et du vin et du sel au cuire; mengié au poivre jaunet ou à la cameline et en pasté, qui veult, pouldré d'espices; et se le saumon est salé, soit mengié au vin et à la ciboule par rouelles.

Translation: (by Janet Hinson)

Fresh Salmon should be smoked, and leave the backbone in for roasting; then cut it into slices boiled in water, with wine and salt during cooking; eat with yellow pepper or with cameline sauce and in pastry, whatever you like, sprinkled with spices; and if the salmon is salted, let it be eaten with wine and sliced scallions. 

My Translation

Salmon whether Fresh or salt cured, and keep the backbone for roasting; then cut it into slices cook in water and wine and salt; eat with yellow pepper or cameline sauce and in pastry, that which you desire, sprinkled with powder of spices; and the salmon is salted, be eaten with wine and scallion rings.

The Recipes

This recipe lends itself to multiple interpretations with the mentioning of .

My First Interpretation (Appetizer of Smoked Salmon):

8 oz. Smoked Salmon  ¼ cup dry white wine
1 scallion, thinly sliced

Place smoke salmon in a seal-able plastic bag with wine and scallions. Place in refrigerator over night. Arrange salmon pieces on platter. 

  • I like serving this on a piece of thinly sliced french baguette
My Second Interpretation (Main Course)

1 pound Fresh Salmon filets ¼ cup dry white wine
1 tsp. fine powder mix (see Powder Douce)
 ¼ cup Cameline Sauce (see Sawse Camelyne) or Yellow Pepper Sauce

Make sure salmon filet is free from skin or bones. Combine wine and spice mixture in medium sized bowl to form a marinade. Place salmon filets in marinade ensuring each piece is coated with the marinade. Then cover bowl with salmon filets and marinade with plastic wrap, then place in refrigerator for an hour. Remove Salmon filets from bowl and then place in baking dish and bake in a preheated oven at 375°F 35- 45 minutes. Serve with Cameline Sauce
  • For feasts I like to get whole salmon that has been cleaned and roasted whole simply seasoned with salt and pepper. The whole salmon is then presented to High Table on a serving platter and then served out to the tables with the Cameline sauce on the side.

Works Referenced: 

"Le Menagier De Paris." David D. Friedman's Home Page. Trans. Janet Hinson. Ed. Jerome Pichon, David D. Friedman, and Elizabeth Cook. David D. Friedman. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagier.html. English translation of Le Menagier de Pris, a French household management manuscript dating from the late 14th century.

"POISSON DE MER RONT." Le Ménagier De Paris. Ed. Jérome Pichon. Greg Lindahl. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. <http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/menagier/>. An unabridged transcription of the food and cookery chapter of Le Ménagier de Paris (a medieval manuscript dated to circa 1393)

Cotgrave, Randle. Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. London: Adam Islip, 1611. Cotgrave's 1611 French/English Dictionary. Web. 11 Dec. 2012. <http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cotgrave/>.