vincent on 7 May 2003  •  Link

"Trouts by Speare" "... dined at a ferme... (Salisbury Plaine) ..Mostly sweetly water'd, abounding in Trowts and all things else requisite, provisions exceeding cheape: They catch Trouts by Speare in the night, whilst wondering at a light set in the sterne: There were Pigeons,Conys,and foule in aboundance, & so we had an excellent dinner at an houres warning:..." 22 July 1654 John Evelyn

vicenzo on 14 Feb 2005  •  Link

Cod: It be one of the main fish that came to England from the New found land great banks. Cod is one of a series of Gadiforms that consist of Atlantic Cod [that word again,that no known reason a fish should be called by this word. Cod meaning a sac except it might be because that the female cod has a very plentiful stock of roe]. Haddock that some loved smoked. Then there be Pollock liked in Castille but known in Andelusia as Saltfish. Then there be Whiting. Then a popular fish enjoyed fresh in Iberia not salted, it be hake. Maybe why Hake be called poor john is because of its connection to the Inquisition, and that it is popular in Espania and therefore, would be impossible to be any good??
Cod was salted and also cold wind dried and rarely eaten fresh, whereas Hake was eaten fresh, the Fish was found off the Iberian coast inside and outside the Gib. straits.
some names for Cod, Morue to give us Gadus Morhua, Bacalao [1000 ways they say it can be prepared]Bacalhau, Kabljaun, stockfish,[Stok-Dutch for pole because the tails of two fish tied were together and slung out over on rope between two poles, to be frezee dried] all gleened from book called Cod by Mark Kurlansky, who learnt the hard way about cod by getting wet trying to fish them.

San Diego Sarah on 6 Jan 2022  •  Link

Today's History Quiz says the original ketchup was nothing like the sweet tomatoey concoction we know today.

Ketchup (AKA “catsup”) is an Asian invention (the name derives from the Chinese word ke-tsiap, meaning fish sauce) and began as a pickled fish sauce used to season dishes hundreds of years ago (it tasted more like Worcester[shire] sauce).

In the 17th century, British sailors adapted the sauce and began to make it out of mushrooms.

Tomatoes were added by North Americans around 1801.