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Mickiewicz only used the pike in saffron sauce in a similesimilë, without paying any more attention to it, but in Old Polish times it was one of the nobility's favourite fish-based specialities. And saffron, in general, was one of their fave seasonings; Czerniecki even described Polish cookery as "saffrony and peppery".<ref>S. Czerniecki, ''op. cit.'', [https://polona.pl/item/compendium-fercvlorvm-albo-zebranie-potraw,MzQ5MDIzMw/20 s. 9]</ref> But since we've already used the pike in the previous dish, let's now have salmon instead, which – again, according to Czerniecki – "is in our Poland of the most subtle flavour." Salmon in "royal saffron sauce" is the opening recipe of the ''Compendium'''s second chapter.
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