Exciter votre zéle, et prendre vos avis
Sur les destines de Rome, et des peuples conquis;
Agiter avec vous ou la paix ou la guerre,
Vains projets sur lesquels vous n’avez qu’à vous taire;
Il s’agit d’un turbot: daignez déliberer
Sur la sauce qu’on doit lui faire preparer....
Le sénat mit aux voix cette affaire importante,
Et le turbot fut mis à la sauce piquante.”[12]
The turbot is found in all seas. They are very large in the ocean and the Mediterranean. Rondelet says he has seen turbot five fathoms long, four in breadth, and a foot thick. Such turbots have never been seen in England. A turbot weighing from ten to twelve pounds is generally coarse and woolly. The best flavoured are the moderate sized, called chicken turbot, weighing from three to six pounds. In the middle ages, the turbot was called the phasianus aquaticus, or water-pheasant. The turbot is very voracious, and is especially fond of cray-fish. Turbot is thus described in one of the volumes of the “Almanach des Gourmands”:—
“Turbot is the pheasant of the sea, because of its beauty: it is the king of Lent, because of its majestic size. It is ordinarily served au court bouillon. The turbot has the simplicity and majesty of a hero, and every species of ornament offends him much more than it honours him. On the day after he makes his first appearance, it is quite another affair; he may be then disguised. The best manner of effecting this is to dress him in Béchamel, a preparation thus called after the Marquis de Béchamel, maître d’hôtel of Louis XIV., who has for ever immortalised himself by this one ragoût.”