🤢 Frankly Gross 1912

Porpoise

“This fish is often caught at sea by the crews of vessels, and its flesh makes a pleasant change.”

From: Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery
Published: 1912
Also printed in: 1 other book
Yikes Scale: Big yikes

Exactly as printed, 1912

This fish is often caught at sea by the crews of vessels, and its flesh makes a pleasant change from ordinary sea fare. It can be made into many appetising dishes if care is taken in the cooking. Soak the pieces of fish you are going to use in vinegar and water for an hour; they may then be fried as steaks or cutlets, or made into mincemeat, or curried. The liver, which tastes very much like pig's liver, may be fried with bacon. The meat from the back near the head is the most suitable for steaks and cutlets.

Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, 1912. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

The porpoise is a cetacean — warm-blooded, air-breathing, closely related to dolphins and whales. The book's confidence that it is a fish is the period showing, not a joke at its expense.

As a long-lived predator near the top of the marine food chain, it accumulates methylmercury, PCBs and organochlorines. The liver in particular is a heavy-metal reservoir.

Notes from the 21st century

Protected now, comprehensively. Cetaceans are protected under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act and equivalents elsewhere. There is no lawful source.
It was genuine sailors' food. Caught opportunistically on long voyages, where it was a real change from salt pork and biscuit.
The soaking is the giveaway. The recipe soaks the pieces before cooking, as you would for strong meat. Porpoise is dark, oily and nothing like fish.

Also in this book

Peacock — Kill it with a quill through the brain, roast it, sew it back into its feathers, and set its beak alight.
Russian Mode of Preserving Fruit — Fresh fruit packed in quicklime slaked with creosote water, in a wooden box.
Syllabubs Under the Cow — A punch bowl of sherry, brandy and lemon, carried out to the dairymaid to be filled from the cow.

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