Sardines and Sardinia

Sardines, Sardinia, Sardonic, Sardonyx

While much has been said about the lobster and its movement from a humble food to a luxury food (see Consider the Lobster by BEE).  Sardines and anchovies seem to have stayed in the humble category. They are abundant, affordable, sustainable, and good for you.

The name Sardine may come from the island of Sardinia, where the fish were once abundant. The name of the island may come from the city of Sardis (in Turkey) where its origin can be traced, or from Shardana, an ethnic group amongst the Sea Peoples of the first millennium BCE. An inscription found in on the island and dated to the 9th century identifies the island as Shardan.

The Phoenician word “Sard,” refers to a red stone we call carnelian. The name carnelian refers to “carne,” or flesh. The Medieval Latin variation corneolus comes from cornum, or the cornel cherry, for its translucent red color. This in turn comes from carnis, flesh in Latin, thus the more direct variant “carnelian”.

Sard and carnelian (also called sardonyx or sardion) are semi-precious stones similar to onyx, formed from silica and colored by iron oxide. (BTW: Onyx comes from the Greek word “fingernail,” a further reference to fleshiness.)

Sardinia certainly had minerals like onyx and red onyx, but there is no evidence that the island was known for its red minerals. (It also produced (and still produces) saffron, or “red gold” thanks to the Phoenicians.)

In any case, the flesh of raw sardines is ruby red.

The etymology is further complicated not by “sardonyx,” or red onyx, but by the word “sardonic.”

As Homer describes it, Sardonic is a “bitter or scornful laughter” that can be traced to Sardinia. The Byzantine Suda cites a similar word “sairo” to mean “grinning in the face of danger.”

Eugen Fehrle writes that the ancient Sardi had the custom of killing their elderly, and while doing so, they would laugh loudly. This might be cathartic, perhaps there was some actual joy that a community could better survive without the old,--mostly sardonic.

And this brings us to the Sardinian plant Sardonios, or Ranunnculus sardos.

Ingesting this poisonous plant would cause convulsions similar to laughter, and eventually death. This theory does not exclude the preceding one. Old people were perhaps drugged and the “laughter” was part of a ritual.

The sardonic smile has been described as the grin you make just before you die from poison.

For the Greeks sardonic laughter was ironic or mocking.

Risus Sardonicus is the “grin” made by those suffering from tetanus or strychnine poisoning. It comes from the Latin (scornful (sardonic) laughter). Tetanus may also cause Risus Caninus, from the Latin “dog-like laughter.”

The University of Eastern Piedmont researchers claim that Oenanthe crocata, (in the crocus family, like saffron) or Hemlock Water Dropwort, is the plant responsible for the sardonic grin.

This last part has perhaps little to do with sardines, but it has a bearing on language, and on understanding where the ideas of sardine comes from.

The origin of a food, in my search for Sardines, is the origin of a language, of a place, of a color, of a culture. Geography is as much a color as a food, and vice versa. Sardinia and Sardines are related the way he towns of coastal Tuscany speak of the iron resources (Porto Ferraio, etc), and the way Cape Cod is named after its first resource.

Sardines are local, sustainable, and good for you. Mostly, they are cheap.

They are part of the history of survival foods, from Venetian sailors to American hobos, somewhere between poverty and pleasure.

…

Sarde al Soar.

This recipe dates back to the 1300’s. Venetian sea merchants and navy relied on preserved foods to withstand their long journeys without refrigeration. The Venetians imported baccala’, or salt cod, from the Northern seas, and added their own version of cured fish.

Sarde al Saor is similar to “scapece”, fried fish preserved in vinegar. Like much of Venetian cuisine, the onion is protagonist. As well as a mild preservative, its vitamins helped prevent scurvy.

Fish are cleaned and rinsed, covered in flour, and fried in oil.

Sliced onions are cooked separately in oil or butter, with raisins and pine nuts, sugar and vinegar. The fish and onion mixture are layered, the last layer being onions. They can be stored for weeks.

Sarde al Beccafico.

This is one of my favorite recipes. The cheap sardines require some time and some fancy ingrediants. It includes the many spices available to Venetians through trade: sugar, raisins, pine nuts and almonds, lemons, together with local capers, bay leaf, and olives. But this is a Sicilian recipe that also reflects a North African influence.

Sardines are cleaned, fileted, and rinsed.

A stuffing is made of minced meats above, with the addition of an anchovy, lemon juice, and bread crumbs.

The stuffing is folded into each sardine, which are arranged on a baking dish, each separated a bay leaf. Add some olive oil, salt, and bread crumbs and bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

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