The Decadent Cookbook Read Online Free PDF

HIRD C OURSE

WITH ALMOND PASTRY STATUES
    P ARIS HOLDING A GOLDEN APPLE,
    P ALLAS A THENE NUDE,
    J UNO NUDE,
    V ENUS NUDE,
    G OLDEN-HAIRED H ELEN OF T ROY CLOTHED,
    E UROPA ON A BULL WITH HER HANDS ON THE HORNS.

    8 cups of each of the following preserved fruit:

    Citrons, small lemons, small bitter oranges, water-melons, melons, pumpkins, pears, peaches, apricots; pickled nutmegs and walnuts.

    8 plates of each of the following:

    Wild cherries in syrup, quince jelly in boxes, quince marmalade in boxes, Sienese nougat in boxes, quince cakes, boxes of sugared aniseed, boxes of large sweets, sugared melon seeds, sugared coriander seeds, sugared almonds, pistachios, fennel and pine-seeds.

    40 bunches of flowers, their stems wrapped in silk and gold.
    40 toothpicks scented with rose-water.

    All this is fine for Sunday breakfast, of course, but what about more everyday fare - the midweek supper, the working lunch? Here are a few more dishes from the Grand Inquisitor’s table.
F ROGS
T HEIR S IZE AND S EASON

    Frogs are small tail-less animals, green and yellow in colour, with white bellies. They live in fresh water and swamps, and have a variety of cries. They are very plentiful in Italy, especially in Lombardy and around Bologna, where you can see them carried along in sackloads on carts.
    This little animal has a large liver from which pies can be made. Its season runs from May until the end of October. This is also the time of verjuice (green grapes), so while grapes are green frogs are in season.

T O FRY AND SERVE FROGS IN VERJUICE
( JUICE OF SOUR GRAPES )

    Cut off the frog’s head, which has a large mouth, and the ends of its legs up to the first joint. Soak in fresh water for 8 hours, changing the water from time to time. This purges and deflates them and blanches the meat. Take them out of the water. To fry, fold the legs under, or cut off the thighs and remove the thighbones, then dip them in flour and fry them in oil. Serve hot with a little pounded salt on top.
    Once they are fried they must never be covered or kept for very long as they become tough and lose their goodness. They can also be fried with cloves of boiled garlic and parsley. Serve with garlic, parsley, pepper, and pounded salt, which is how Pope Pius IV of happy memory used to eat them in 1564, served by me.
    After frying simply in flour they can also be conserved in fresh verjuice and egg yolks, and served hot or cold as you like. Or they can be fried and served with fennel leaves, basil, garlic cloves, breadcrumbs soaked in verjuice, salt and pepper. Or cover with garlic sauce and hazelnuts in the Milanese style.
B ONELESS FROG SOUP

    Soak the frogs as above, then put them in plain water; bring to the boil, remove from the hot water, put them in cold water, remove the meat from the thighs and put it in a pan with butter or oil and fry gently with a little crushed onion, adding some of the white water they were cooked in, & gooseberries or sour grapes, sweet spices, a touch of saffron, and at the end a few crushed fresh herbs; serve hot. If you don’t want to use onions, add crushed almonds or breadcrumbs to thicken the broth.
    You can also cook this soup in the same way leaving the bones in.
B EAR
COOKED IN VARIOUS WAYS

    Bear has to be caught young and in the right season, which is winter. In July the bear is fatter as a result of feeding, but its meat gives off a bad smell.
    First skin the bear. Take the best parts - its thighs - and leave them to hang for a few days. To roast them on the spit, first grill them for a while unlarded, then sprinkle with salt, fennel, pepper, cinnamon, and cloves, and cook as you would a goat, i.e. on a slow fire, collecting the fat that drips off. Serve hot with a sauce made of rosé vinegar, sugar, salt, fennel, pepper, cinnamon, and cloves, and the reserved fat from the cooking.
    You can make the same dishes from bear that you make from stag. The heads of bears are not good to eat, and are usually avoided. The