This is a sweet-and-sour fish dish, Egurdouce of fisshe, in Forme of Cury.

“Take Loches oþer Tenches oþer Solys smyte hem on pecys. fry hem in oyle. take half wyne half vynegur and sugur & make a siryp. do þerto oynouns icorue raisouns coraunce. and grete raysouns. do þerto hole spices. gode powdours and salt. messe þe fyssh & lay þe sewe aboue and serue forth.”

My transcription is:

“Take loaches or tenches or soles, chop them in pieces, fry them in oil. Take half wine, half vinegar and sugar and make a syrup. Add chopped onions, raisins, currants and great raisins [maybe the lesser raisins are our sultanas?], add whole spices, good powders and salt. Serve the fish and lay the sauce over it, and serve forth.”

Loach and tench are lowgrade freshwater fish, which would benefit from a spicy sauce. Soles are saltwater fish without a strong flavour.

In recreating the recipe, I used basa fillets, which are catfish of fresh and brackish water. They are readily available, and frankly a better fish than loach and tench.

I was tempted to egg and flour the fish before frying, and sneak some tumeric into the spiced flour, but as this is one of the few recipes in Forme of Cury not to mention saffron I restrained myself. I used regular vegetable oil; I guess they must have used olive oil, which I wouldn’t have thought was readily available in England. King Richard imported continental chefs so I expect they were used to it.

The wine and vinegar is easy: I used red wine, as the colour helps. I made the syrup light on sugar, as it was expensive in the day. Fair chance they substituted some honey which was more readily available in England at that time. Whole spices to me suggests peppercorns, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cardamoms.

You simmer the spices for at least half an hour to get the flavour out. Boiling it reduces the sauce a bit; thicken it with bread, ground almonds or rice flour, if it comes out too thin.

This is a good feast dish because you can do the frying on a stovetop, not competing for oven space. You can make up the sauce the day before, and reheat quickly. For 40 people, we used 2 kg of basa, 1 litre each of shiraz wine and red-wine vinegar, 200g sugar, 3 onions, half a box of raisins and the spices I had to hand.

Alys did a version of this at the Polit Spring Hunt feast, cooked over the fire. It was a hit, possibly because the smell of fish frying wafted into court and got everybody’s taste buds going. She did flour the fish before frying.