Simple Fish and Seafood

“First I took some shrimps; I fried them all to a turn. A huge dogfish is put in my hands; I baked the middle slices, but the rest of the stuff I boiled, after making mulberry sauce. Here I fetch two very large pieces of gray fish cut near the head, in a big casserole; in it I have added sparingly some herbs, caraway seed, salt, water, and oil. After that I bought a very fine sea bass. It shall be served boiled in an oily pickle with herbs, after I have served the meats roasted on spits. Some fine red mullets I purchased, and some lovely wrasses. These I immediately tossed upon the coals, and to an oily pickle I added some marjoram. Besides these I bought some cuttlefish and squids. A boiled squid stuffed with chopped meat is nice, and so are the tentacles of cuttlefish when roasted tender. To these I fitted a fresh sauce of many vegetables, and after them came some boiled dishes, for which I made a mayonnaise to give them flavor. To top this I bought a very fat conger eel. I smothered it in a fresher pickle. Some gobies, and some rockfish of course; I snipped off their heads and smeared their bodies in a batter of flour, just a little, and sent them on the same journey as the shrimps. Then a widowed bonito a very fine creature, I soaked just enough with oil, wrapped it in swaddling-bands of fig leaves, sprinkled it with marjoram [or oregano], and hid it like a fire brand in a heap of hot ashes....”