The workmen employed in these operations make a third kind of caviar with the refuse. This sort, used only by the poorest classes, deserves no notice.
For some years past, they have introduced the method of salting the roes as they are taken from the fish, and packing them into barrels, where they remain seven or eight months; after which they are again salted, and then dried in the sun.
Caviar occupies a very distinguished place in Russian, Turkish, German, and Italian gastronomy. The Greeks, in particular, live upon it almost exclusively during the long Lent fasts prescribed by their Church.[XXI_43]
RED MULLET.
Philoxenes, of Cythera, supped one night with Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily. It happened that the prince was served with a magnificent mullet, whereas a very small one was presented to his guest. The philosopher took his fish in his hand, and, with a very serious air, held it to his ear. Dionysius asked him what he was doing. “I am busy with my Galathea,” replied Philoxenes, “and I am questioning him on the subject of Nerea; but I can obtain no answer from him, because he was taken at too early an age. I am certain, however, that the other, evidently much older, which lies before you, is perfectly well acquainted with what I wish to know.” The tyrant, who happened that evening to be in a good humour, laughed at the joke, and offered the larger mullet to the witty gastronomist.[XXI_44]
The unbridled and cruel luxury of ancient Rome required that this fish should be cooked by a slow fire, on the table and under a glass, that the guests might gloat on its sufferings before they satiated their appetites with its flesh.[XXI_45] It is true this barbarous gratification was very expensive, and it was necessary to be very rich to indulge in it—consequently it was decidedly very fashionable, quite natural, and in the very best taste.
Ordinary mullets weighed about 2 lbs.;[XXI_46] these hardly deserved that their dying agonies should for an instant amuse the guests; they were worth only about £15 or £20 each. But sometimes fortune threw in their way much larger ones; and the opulent amateur esteemed himself only too fortunate when he could obtain a fish of three[XXI_47] or four pounds[XXI_48] for a much higher sum than he had paid for the slave, tutor of his children.
Crispinus was fond of mullets. He obtained one weighing four or six pounds, for which the fishmonger asked only £60.[XXI_49] This was giving it away; and certainly the man did not understand his trade. Crispinus, on becoming the possessor of this wonderful treasure, was astonished at his good fortune, and the whole of Rome long refused to believe it.