Well, not a real alligator, of course. It’s just that when I came across this photograph in Philip Harben’s Cookery Encyclopedia (1955) I was quite startled for a moment.
But this is, in fact, a gurnet, which is a kind of fish.
It really does look menacing on that plate, though. And the shadow/plate design just under the head looks like a big jaw with long teeth.
Philip Harben was a British cooking authority of the 1940s and 1950s. He wrote a cooking column for Women’s Own magazine, and wrote many cookbooks. He also had the first TV cooking show ever, in 1946, on the BBC. It was called Cookery. (And that is about as many times as I want to use words beginning with c-o-o-k in one paragraph!)
And gurnet or gurnard is a rather cheap, inexpensive and bony fish. Apparently Mrs. Beeton had a recipe for it, see here. It does look bony, doesn’t it? And like it’s ready for a good meal itself, as opposed to vice versa.
I give it an F for presentation and i don’t care to grade anything else about it.
Thanks for all the great info on Philip Harben. I do have a few of his cookbooks in my collection. Although, I have never seen this presentation before. To each their own I suppose:)
Oh my. Looks like the sort of thing I would serve if I wanted to give the kids nightmares.
I think it’s partly because the picture is black-and-white that it looks so utterly prehistoric. (And looks like it’s got ten webbed feet or something. Eeeesh.)
That dish would set me to thinking about vegetarianism. That is one fierce looking plate.
Good GOD, I about jumped out of my seat when I saw that picture!
Oh, ick! More like icthyosaurus. I would definitely not eat that, unless it was going to eat me first.
Bekaboo – I agree entirely! I am over at Blogger now, link is below – sure hope you will visit me there, I update every day pretty much. At the moment am into retro comic-book ads
Lidian
I wonder how many Ration Coupons it took to purchase it?