The inhabitants of the coast ate various kinds of shell-fish, including oysters, crab, cockles and mussels. Freshwater crayfish were not much esteemed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, excepting for their eggs, which were prepared with spice. A great quantity of the small sea crayfish were brought into market. The turbot, John-dory, skate and sole, which were very dear, were reserved for the rich.
A peasant food, it was a common meal throughout Europe in medieval times. Other sea fish included flat-fish, gurnets, skate, fresh and salted whiting and codfish.Ĭonger eels were eaten but at a later period the conger was not eaten from its being supposed to produce the plague. Fact Checked What is Pottage Debra Durkee Last Modified Date: Pottage is a name for a type of stew. Besides salt and fresh herrings, an enormous amount of salted mackerel were eaten. Herrings became a necessary food during Lent.Īll sea-fish were comprised under three names, the fresh, the salted, and the smoked. The trade in salted sea-fish only began in the twelfth century. The whale, which was sent from the northern seas in enormous slices, was only eaten by the lower orders, for, according to a writer of the sixteenth century, "were it cooked even for twenty-four hours it would still be very hard and indigestible." The porpoise, and even the whale, which was salted, was believed to have furnished all the markets of Europe. The most ancient documents bear witness that the natives of the sea-coasts of Europe, and particularly of the Mediterranean, fed on the same fish as at present: there were, however, a few other sea-fish, which were also used for food, but which have since been abandoned.
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