Get the latest tech news
A Little History of the Anchovy
The anchovy’s ancient and varied story is ultimately about how food powerfully underpins our sense of identity, security and comfort.
On the other hand, it was with exertions of a particular kind in mind that Giacomo Casanova insisted on the addition of anchovy salad to a gourmet meal planned for the seduction of a beautiful nun in Venice, as he gleefully recounted in his memoirs. Elevating humble dishes may be a 21 st-century culinary cliché, but it is far from a new phenomenon: Beckman identifies the concept in late-medieval cookbooks, such Le Viandier de Taillevant by Guillaume Tirel, another royal chef, which has a piquant recipe for roasted anchovies in mustard sauce, reproduced here. The call of one of these itinerant traders ran: ‘Anchovies of Malaga, of Setabal, buy them, eat them, and they will keep you warm all winter!’ In the 19th century, Basque and Cantabrian women hauled stocks of preserved fish inland from the coastal towns and villages, covering up to 25 miles a day to trade the catch with wine, oil, wheat and vinegar.
Or read this on Hacker News