Cameline Sauce and Salmon

Cameline Sauce


I read in a few medieval/renaissance cookbooks that salmon and cameline sauce go well together. So what is cameline sauce?

For the salmon and for the trout, the cameline: to give understanding to the sauce-maker who will make it, take his white bread according to the quantity of it which he is making and let him put it to roast on the grill, and let him have good claret wine of the best which he can have in which he should put his bread to soak and vinegar in good measure; and let him take his spices, that is cinnamon, ginger, grains of paradise, cloves, a little pepper, mace, nutmeg and a little sugar, and this is mixed with is bread and a little salt; and then dress it as you will. Du fait de cuisine
(France, 1420 - Elizabeth Cook, trans)

I had everything on hand. Bread crumbs, red wine, vinegar, and even the grains of paradise. Thank you, Auntie Arwen's at Pennsic!


I took maybe a little less than a half a cup of bread crumbs - it wasn't a lot. I added a full 60ml (1/4 cup) of Fig vinegar. I added the same amount of the red wine I had in the fridge. I let the bread crumbs soak while I used the mortar and pestle to grind up a few grains of paradise. That stuff smells heavenly. Seriously. Anyway, once the bread crumbs were pretty well soaked, I added the spices based on what I like. A little salt, a little pepper, a good tablespoon at least of sugar, the same amount in cinnamon, ect. I only used a pinch of the grains of paradise.

It actually tastes, on it's own, pretty decent. I probably could have cut the amount of mace in half (again. I always put too much in) but it's a decent garnish.


It compliments the salmon quite well. I cooked the salmon with just some olive oil for about 20 min at 390f. It might be slightly over cooked but it didn't look done at 15 min so... It tastes fine however and the two flavors together are quite delicious.

The sauce, using the 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, makes enough for about four fillets of salmon.