[DogByte6RER]

Recipe: 15th-Century 'Lamprays Bake' (sea lampreys)

'Lamprays Bake'

This is a translation into modern measurements from an old English recipe from the 15th Century called “Lamprays Bake” from “A New Boke of Olde Cokery,” a collection of medieval recipes by Rudd Rayfield.

Pastry dough for nine-inch pie crust

1 pound eel, catfish, or other fish filets

1/2 C brown bread crumbs (1/3 C if blood is used)

1/4 C wine vinegar (2T if blood is used)

1/4 C fresh eel or fish blood (optional)

1/4 C dry wine

1/4 tsp. each cinnamon and black pepper

Salt to taste

SYRUP AND SOPS:

1 C sweet wine

1/4 tsp. powdered ginger

3 slices firm white bread

1 T brown sugar, or to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Line a pie pan with the crust, and put it in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes to harden it. Remove it, and reduce oven temperature to 350°.

3. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, vinegar, dry wine, cinnamon, salt and pepper (and blood if it is used).

4. Place the eels or fish in the pie crust, and pour the sauce over them. Cover the pie with heavy aluminum foil, with a few holes poked in it. Put the pie in the oven, and bake it for half an hour to forty-five minutes, or until the eels or fish are done. Remove it, and allow it to cool.

5. Remove the foil from the pie, and carefully remove the eels or fish from the pie, and arrange them on a serving dish.

6. In a saucepan, over low heat, combine half of the sweet wine with the ginger and brown sugar. Carefully pour the sauce remaining in the bottom of the pie crust into the saucepan. Bring the ingredients to a boil, and simmer, stirring frequently, for about five minutes.

7. Line the bottom of the pie crust with the slices of white bread, and pour over them the remaining sweet wine. Then pour the hot syrup over the bread and wine, and serve the sops in the crust, and the eels or fish separately.

Serves six to eight.

NOTES ON THE RECIPE: This pie is simply the container in which the eel (or fish) is baked; it is removed from the crust for serving, but then a sop of bread and spiced wine is put in the empty crust, and that is served separately. The sauce for this dish is similar to the blood sauce for fish, Sauce Pour Lamprey, but I have adapted it so that the blood is optional. Feel free to add it if you have access to fish blood. I also cover the pie with aluminum foil to bake, rather than a second crust, since the cover needs to be removed to get the eels (or fish) out anyway. I add sugar to the wine sops, which helps a great deal.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“they’re a protected species in England.”

Are they insane? These damn things are a curse!

[the invisib1e hand]

ick.

[cripplecreek]

Nasty critters not to mention the $20 million or so dollars it costs every year to keep them at managable levels.

[the invisib1e hand]

Go stick yer cigar in one of those, Bill Clinton.

[hinckley buzzard]

Wretched creatures wiped out the indigenous white bass population in Lake Erie before they came under control. The lake is doing well these days but the lamprey sure earned its bad reputation as a useless but aggressive predator.

[cripplecreek]

Feel free to add it if you have access to fish blood.

I just happened to buy a quart the other day. LOL

[JRandomFreeper]

I prefer 'lamprey a la bordelaise', but I'm a sucker for anything with leeks in it.

The brits don't know how to cook.

/johnny

[EDINVA]

I always add a bit more cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg to my Lampray Bake.

[DogByte6RER]

Strange British meatpie recipe ...

ping

[DManA]

A slimy parasite for royal. Perfect.

[NonValueAdded]

Egads, does she not know what happened to Henry I?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yuck. Like I REALLY wanted to see a pic of Moochelle’s vajayjay.

[BerryDingle]

snapper bump

[goodwithagun]

One of my fave shows is called The Supersizers Go . . . (sorry I don't know how to italicize) on the Cooking Channel. A food critic and a comedian live for five days in different periods of British history. The Reformation show was quit interesting! The shows can be viewed, in six parts each, on You Tube. It is a very interesting show for foodies or for history buffs!

[TigersEye]

Her Majesty can have them. Probably better than dog though.

[Gay State Conservative]

I'll take a raincheck,thanks.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Let’s capture all we can and Obama can offer them as his next gift to the Monarch.

[Poison Pill]

Lots more where that came from Liz. Take all you want!

[Ciexyz]

I thought it was four and twenty blackbirds that they cooked in a pie for the king or queen.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Thanks DogByte!
Ping to a fellow foodie.