Today we prepare a seafood recipe from the Liber de Coquina, one of the most important medieval Italian cookbooks. Written by an anonymous author between the 13th and the 14th century, it influenced the following cookbooks during all the late medieval period.
We chose this recipe, a dish with sea bream and orange, because despite its simplicity, the cooking technique is amazing, with an outcome outstanding and delicious.
Below, you will find the original recipe and the translation into English.
Enjoy your meal!
Ingredients
1 sea bream
½ liter dry white wine
half a cinnamon stick
1 orange
Method
Gut and scale well the sea bream, then parboil it in salted water. When it starts boiling, remove the fish from the pan and discard the water. Now, put the sea bream again on the fire adding the wine and half a cinnamon stick. Add the orange juice and let the liquids boil for 15 minutes or more, depending on the size of the sea bream.
When the fish is ready, plate it and serve with a squeeze of orange and the same wine you used for the cooking.
Original recipe
De aurata: recipe auratam, facias perbulliri. Postea, accipe bonum uinum, melangolos exscorticatos et mondatos et cinamomum. Pone ad bulliendum in aqua. Et quam cito bullierit, tolle ab igne et extrahe de aqua predictos pisces. Iterum, pone ad bulliendum in predicto uino decoctionis.
Translation
To prepare sea bream. Take the sea bream and parboil it. Then take a good wine, peeled and clean oranges, and cinnamon. Boil [the fish] in water. When it boils, take the sea bream away from the fire and remove it from the water. Again, boil it into the aforementioned wine decoction.
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