These instances are cited not only as a commentary upon the taste of the Southern people and their habits which have endured to this day but also to illustrate the singular genius of Platina. Also the following notes to [STYRIO] tend to show how far advanced was Platina in the matter of food as compared with the masters of the 18th century in France
STYRIO, STIRIO, STURIO, ℞ [145], sturgeon; probably the same fish as known to the ancients as ACIPENSER or STURIO. (A. SIVE S. OBLONGO TEREDEQUE—Stephanus à Schonevelde, in Ichthyologia, Hamburg, 1624). There can be no doubt that the sturgeon or sterlet is meant by this term, for Platina calls the eggs of the fish “caviare.” “OVA STIRIONIS CONDITUM QUOD CAUARE UOCANT.” Eloquently he describes his struggle with the changing language. The efforts of this conscientious man, Platina, to get at the bottom of things no matter how trivial they may appear, are highly praiseworthy
He writes “DE STIRIONE. TRAHI PER TENEBRAS NŪC MIHI VIDEOR, QUANDO HORŪ, DE QUIBUS, DEINCEPS DICTURUS SUM, PISCIŪ, NULLUS CERTUS UEL NOMINIS, UEL NATURAE EXISTAT AUTOR. NEGLIGENTIAE MAIORUM & INSCITIAE ID MAGIS, QUÀM MIHI ASCRIBENDUM EST. VTAR EGO NOUIS NOMINIBUS NE DELICATORUM GULAE PER ME DICANT STETISSE, QUO MINUS INTEGRA UTERENTUR UOLUPTATE.”
As for the rest, Platina cooks the sturgeon precisely in our own modern way: namely in water, white wine and vinegar. And: “SALEM INDERE MEMENTO!—don’t forget the salt!”
Compare him with France 350 years later. As for caviare, A. Beauvilliers, in his L’Art du cuisinier, Paris, 1814, treats this “ragoût” as something entirely new; yet Beauvilliers was the leading restaurateur of his time and a very capable cook, save Carême, the best. Beauvilliers has no use for caviare which he calls “Kavia.” Says he: “LES RUSSES EN FONT UN GRAND CAS ET L’ACHETENT FORT CHER [The Russians make a big thing of this and buy it very dearly] CE RAGOUT, SELON MOI, NE CONVIENT QU’ AUX RUSSES—this stew, according to my notion, suits only the Russians or those who have traveled thereabouts.”
Shakespeare, in speaking about “Caviare to the General” apparently was more up-to-date in culinary matters than this Parisian authority. A search of the eight volumes (Vol. I, 1803) of the famous Almanach des Gourmands by Grimod de la Reynière, Paris, 1803, seq., fails to reveal a trace of caviare
A German cook, a hundred years after Platina, Marx Rumpolt in “Ein new Kochbuch, Franckfort am Mayn, bey Johan Feyrabendt, 1587” on verso of folio XCVII, No. 9, gives an exact description of caviare and its mode of preparation. He calls it ROGEN VOM HAUSEN. The HAUSEN is the real large sturgeon, the Russian Beluga from which the best caviare is obtained. Rumpolt, whose book is the finest and most thorough of its kind in the middle ages, and a great work in every respect, remarks that caviare is good eating, especially for Hungarian gentlemen
“... SO ISSET MAN JN ROH / IST EIN GUT ESSEN / SONDERLICH FÜR EINEN VNGERISCHEN HERRN.”
SUCCIDIA a side of bacon or salt pork