Damons? Plums?
On Sun, 17 Aug 2008, Nick Maclaren wrote:
David Rance writes:
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| They do distinguish between groseille rouge, groseille blanche and
| groseille Ă* maquereau (gooseberry).
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| Interesting that it's defined by the mackerel it accompanies in classic
| dishes!
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| Hmm, I'll have to try that. I love mackerel and have just bought a
| gooseberry bush.
They need to be unripe. Sorrel also goes very well, as do barberries.
Now it's funny you should say that. My wife I (who is still in England
and we correspond several times a day via email) had never heard of
gooseberry sauce, either with mackerel or (as I suggested) with goose.
So I looked it up and found the following from the writings of Dorothy
Wordsworth, sister of the poet:
"Gooseberry sauce was a common accompaniment to fish such as mackerel,
but it was also used with goose, as in the following recipe from 'The
queen’s royal cookery: or, expert and ready ways for the dressing of
all sorts of flesh, fowl, fish: …' by T.Hall, free cook of London
(1709).
"Sauce for Green-Geese.
"Take Sorrel, pick it and wash it, and swing it in a coarse Cloth and
stamp it, and strain the Juice; then have some Gooseberries tender
scalded, but not broke; then melt some Butter very thick with the Juice
of Sorrel; then sweeten it well with Sugar, and put in the Gooseberries,
put it into the Dish, and lay the Geese upon it; and garnish the Dish
with scalded Gooseberries and a little scrap’d Sugar; this Sauce will
serve for a boiled Leg of Lamb."
So there you are. Sorrel *and* gooseberry in the same recipe for young
goose!
David
--
David Rance
writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France
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