Cod_ A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World - Mark Kurlansky [10]
To the glee of the British press, a letter has recently been discovered. The letter had been sent to Christopher Columbus, a decade after the Croft affair in Bristol, while Columbus was taking bows for his discovery of America. The letter, from Bristol merchants, alleged that he knew perfectly well that they had been to America already. It is not known if Columbus ever replied. He didn’t need to. Fishermen were keeping their secrets, while explorers were telling the world. Columbus had claimed the entire new world for Spain.
Then, in 1497, five years after Columbus first stumbled across the Caribbean while searching for a westward route to the spice-producing lands of Asia, Giovanni Caboto sailed from Bristol, not in search of the Bristol secret but in the hopes of finding the route to Asia that Columbus had missed. Caboto was a Genovese who is remembered by the English name John Cabot, because he undertook this voyage for Henry VII of England. The English, being in the North, were far from the spice route and so paid exceptionally high prices for spices. Cabot reasoned correctly that the British Crown and the Bristol merchants would be willing to finance a search for a northern spice route. In June, after only thirty-five days at sea, Cabot found land, though it wasn’t Asia. It was a vast, rocky coastline that was ideal for salting and drying fish, by a sea that was teeming with cod. Cabot reported on the cod as evidence of the wealth of this new land,
New Found Land, which he claimed for England. Thirty-seven years later, Jacques Cartier arrived, was credited with “discovering” the mouth of the St. Lawrence, planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula, and claimed it all for France. He also noted the presence of 1,000 Basque fishing vessels. But the Basques, wanting to keep a good secret, had never claimed it for anyone.
THE CODFISH LAYS A THOUSAND EGGS THE HOMELY HEN LAYS ONE. THE CODFISH NEVER CACKLES TO TELL YOU WHAT SHE’S DONE. AND SO WE SCORN THE CODFISH WHILE THE HUMBLE HEN WE PRIZE WHICH ONLY GOES TO SHOW YOU THAT IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE.
—anonymous American rhyme
THE MEDIEVAL COD CRAZE
SALT COD IS EATEN WITH MUSTARD SAUCE OR WITH MELTED FRESH BUTTER OVER IT.
—Guillaume Tirel, a.k.a. Taillevent,
Le Viandier, 1375
Taillevent, master cook to Charles V of France, left this work in a rolled manuscript. Like almost every cook who came after him, he believed that salt cod was a harsh food that needed to be enriched with fat, whereas fresh cod was a bland food that needed to be enlivened with seasoning. He offered a recipe for fresh cod, as well as several for “Jance,” a sauce that reflects the spice fashions of the day.
IN FRANCE: FRESH COD
Prepared and cooked like a red mullet, with wine when cooking; eaten with Jance. Some people put garlic with it, and others do not.
JANCE RECIPES
Cow’s milk Jance: Grind ginger and egg yolks, infuse them in cow’s milk, and boil.
Garlic Jance: Grind pepper, garlic and almonds, infuse them in good verjuice, then boil it. Put white wine in it (if you wish).
Ginger Jance: Grind ginger and almonds, but no garlic. Infuse this in verjuice, then boil it. Some people put white wine in it. [Verjuice was originally made from the acidic juice of sorrel and later the juice of unripened plums.]
IN ENGLAND: COKKES OF KELLYNG
(COCKLES OF CODLING)
In this recipe, written in Middle English, a codling is cut into cockle-size pieces.
Take cokkes of kellyng; cut hem smalle. Do hit yn a brothe of fresch fysch or of fresh salmon; boyle hem well. Put to mylke and draw a lyour of bredde to hem with saundres, safferyn & sugure and poudyr of pepyr. Serve hit forth, & othyr fysch amonge: turbut, pyke, saumon, chopped & hewn. Sesyn hem with venyger & salt.
—from an anonymous manuscript