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Solomon Gundy

Fish

(or Salmy-Gundy)

Shredded fish, or other light meat, with flavourings and vegetables (eg. onion and lemon). Traditionally served cold, formed into a shape (such as of a fish) often decorated with such items as capers.

Now almost unknown in England, S.G has a continuing popularity in the Caribbean. It is not clear how, if at all, the name is connected to the dish 'Salmagundi'.


Jamaican Solomon Gundy
www.walkerswood.com



Original Receipt in 'English Housewifry' by Elizabeth Moxon, 1764 (Moxon 1764)

223. To make SOLOMON GUNDY to eat in Lent
Take five or six white herrings, lay them in water all night, boil them as soft as you would do for eating, and shift them in the boiling to take out the saltness; when they are boiled take the fish from the bone, and mind you don't break the bone in pieces, leaving on the head and tail; take the white part of the herrings, a quarter of a pound of anchovies, a large apple, a little onion shred fine, or shalot, and a little lemon-peel, shred them all together, and lie them over the bones on both sides, in the shape of a herring; then take off the peel of a lemon very very thin, and cut it in long bits, just as it will reach over the herrings; you must lie this peel over every herring pretty thick. Garnish your dish with a few pickled oysters, capers, and mushrooms, if you have any; so serve them up.

224. SOLOMAN GUNDY another Way.
Take the white part of a turkey, or other fowl, if you have neither, take a little white veal and mince it pretty small; take a little hang beef or tongues, scrape them very fine, a few shred capers, and the yolks of four or five eggs shred small; take a delf dish and lie a delf plate in the dish with the wrong side up, so lie on your meat and other ingredients, all single in quarters, one to answer another; set in the middle a large lemon or mango, so lie round your dish anchovies in lumps, picked oysters or cockles, and a few pickled mushrooms, slices of lemon and capers; so serve it up.
This is proper for a side-dish either at noon or night.



It is not clear how, if at all, the name is connected with 'salmagundi' (qv), or with the 18th Century puzzle rhyme:

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
That was the end of
Solomon Grundy.
...how long did Solomon Grundy live for?


See: Mock Crab or Lobster





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