Crock of Sh*t

A crock of shit is literally another name for a chamber pot — that large jug one used during the night in one’s bedchamber when one did not have an indoor lavatory.

The “crock” part is from language as old as we can fathom form all over Europe meaning pottery — hence crockery for plates and bowls, or anything made from clay. A potter potters about making pottery; but he used to be called a crocwyrhta, or crock-wright.

To call something a “crock” means it is no good, useless — probably associated with the bedchamber use.

A crock-pot is merely a pot made of pottery in which something is cooked. Today, that usually means slow-cooked or prepared. This recipe for a Crock of Herring requires a whole day for them to slowly pickle.  

Introduction to Scandinavian Cooking, The McCall Publishing Company, 1960

Also from this book: Ubiquity, Sardine Rabbit

Cheesy Fish

The next time you have some herrings and cheese laying about, you might want to try this recipe for mostly cooked cheesy fish.

Or you might not; your call.

Someone, somewhere, once decided a nice bit of fish could only be improved with the addition of cheese. This person was a clown with too much time on his or her hands, and certainly too much cheese. Perhaps this individual had just broken up with someone and had lost all respect for life and just didn’t give a fuck anymore. You know how that is: one minute you’re happy, the next you’re a lonely loser obsessively listening to songs that remind you of better days with no appetite and yet the inexplicable need to continue eating. The meals you concoct are designed to give a giant culinary middle finger to the universe and the ex, and ought to simply be left to anonymous regret.

But no: this fool, in his or her despair, decided it would be good to share.

If you think you might want to eat fish in the future — buy it fresh, in the future, and cook it then. Your freezer will thank you.

Margeurite Patten’s All-Colour Book of Freezing, 1975

Also from this book: Darwinian