To make alloes of freshe Salmon to boyle or to bake
Take your Salmon and cut him small in peeces of three fingers breadth, and when you have cut so many slices as you will haue, let them be of the length of a womans hand, then take more of the salmon, as much as you thinke good, & mince it rawe with sixe yolkes of hard Egges very fine, and then two or three dishes of Butter with small raisons, and so worke them together with cloves, Mace, Pepper, and Salt, then lay your minced meat in your sliced Aloes, every one being rolled and pricked with a feather, fall closed, and then put your aloes, into an earthern pot, and put to it a pint of water, and another pint of Claret wine, and so let them boile til they be enough, & afterwarde take the yolkes of three rawe egges with a litle vergious, being strained together, and so put into the pot, then let your aloes seeth no more afterwarde, but serve them upon Soppes of bread.
From: The Good Hus-Wives Jewell, late 16th century
(these are to boil or bake... I was inclined to bake salmon but decided to boil them just because it's something I would not normally do)
To make alloes of freshe Salmon to boyle or to bake:
This is what I used to make 3 rolls worth:
- clean you salmon (and skin and fillet it) and then cut strips 3 fingers wide (because this varies I won't give a measurement... just put down your hand and cut it that wide) and make your slices as long as your hand (it says a woman's hand). Do not discard the left over salmon bits.
- take 1 hard boiled egg yolk (minced), approx. 1/4 cup butter (chopped or softened), 1/4 cup raisins (I chopped these but it doesn't say to do so), cloved, mace, pepper and salt (I used a knife tip to measure out dashes of each along with a couple grinds of pepper... in retrospect I think I could have used at least 1/2tsps for this amount, if not more!)
- mix all the above together with about an equal portion to the mixture of minced raw salmon (this is where the leftover bits from carving comes in)
- Spread out the mixture on the salmon strips and roll them up (I found that I did not need to skewer them together, or tie them, as they fit in the pot perfectly which held them together quite nicely)
- Boil these in half water/half claret wine (or reasonable approximation) (or they can be baked)
- When done, add a yolk or two (raw) and a little verjuice to the pot and serve on sops of bread.
Sadly I was plum out of bread for the deed (had already used if for the spinach... need to make more) so had without, which was a rather sad waste of the broth... always check all your provisions first, a rule I live by and still mess up now and then :S
Bright side is that is is plenty good without sops, as well as filling... though fruit with fish is an unusual thing to get used to for many as well as myself.
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