Pig’s trotters. Photo: Shutterstock

Pigeon pie, kawlata with pig trotters and some of the finest wines were on the menu for corsairs quarantined on Manoel Island after returning with a haul of Ottoman ships 200 years ago.

And the very same fare will be served up at the Maritime Museum on Friday in dishes created from a shopping bill dated 1794 discovered at the Notarial Archives in Valletta.

The kawlata will go well with Kashkaval cheese, dried sausage and a dish called qażquża fuq ix-xini – similar to suckling pig.

In recent years Maritime curator Liam Gauci has carried out research on 18th century Maltese corsairs. Photos: Jason Borg

“We had to be a bit more creative when it came to the dessert. The ingredients are listed clearly – raisins, almonds, sugar and cinnamon... but there is no reference to the type of the dessert, Maritime Museum curator Liam Gauci said, reading through the list.

“So we turned to an 18th century recipe book by Michele Mercieca which is at the National Library, and will be serving pastini.”

Friday’s dinner, which has been sold out to the public and to which bishops and ministers have also been invited, is the result of years of research at the Notarial Archives.

Through Heritage Malta, Mr Gauci has been researching maritime history, leafing through thousands of pages in 200 documents focusing on the years between 1750 and 1798, the last years of the knights’ rule.

The documents are mainly logbooks that the ship’s secretary had to update when on a mission to capture Ottoman ships, licensed by the Grandmaster, and sponsored by an investor.

The Mediterranean legal system granted these corsairs the right to raid an enemy’s ship, capture any treasure, including the ship itself, and bring back the crew as slaves. It was a mission contro i nemici della nostra Santa Fede (against the enemy of our Faith).

When they returned they would be quarantined for 40 days on Manoel Island

Unlike pirates, who were hung if caught, corsairs were highly respected and filed a percentage of their gains as a form of tax return with the Grand Master. They also had to pay tax to the cloister nuns of Saint Ursula who would pray for the crew to return back home safely.

“Every detail of the trip would be listed in the logbook, including an incident when 40 Maltese corsairs, under the orders of Giulermo Lorenzi, boarded a ship with 99 women,” Mr Gauci said as he leafed through a 1791 logbook of Michele Picasso’s ship dedicated to Mary mother of Grace and St Vincent. “The document said it was difficult to control the crew who had been out at sea for three months.”

The logbook of the ship, which carried 130 people, includes a list of weapons such as cannons, swivel guns and musket pistols.

Another list shows the food taken aboard before leaving Malta, with 130 quintals of galletti topping the list.

The food included lentils, oil, grapa, 150 wine barrels, rum, coffee and soppressata – an Italian word still used by some to refer to dry salami.

“Corsairs ate well and had a choice of wine, rum and coffee. When they returned to Malta they would be quarantined for 40 days on Manoel Island as they would have been exposed to contagious diseases.

“There, they would have a fresh supply of food from Birkirkara, Qormi and the whereabouts,” Mr Gauci said.

The cook who prepared their meals would have to list down all the ingredients, including the wood to cook the food, so as to be paid off by the investor.

This is how Heritage Malta and the Notarial Archives have managed to draw up a menu for Friday’s dinner, which has already been sold out but which the organisers plan to hold again.

When the 100 guests arrive at the museum, they will be greeted with a glass of lemonade – a drink the cook would hand to the boatman who delivers the supplies.

According to the 1794 list for the crew of three ships headed by Michele Picasso, Giovanni Gera and Michele Cardona, boatman Nikola was given a drink made of lemon, white rum, water and sugar.

Coincidentally, Picasso and Cardona were with Mikiel Anton Vassalli when he was exiled to Corsica in 1807.

“These documents hold stories of Maltese people who were forgotten.

“The story of bishops and Grandmasters are important, but so are the stories of our forefathers, of whom we still carry the surnames,” Mr Gauci said.